Strong and Sexy (Sky High Air #2)(74)

“Shut up!”

“In fact, they’re together right now, they’re probably f—”

The gun went off. Maddie slammed back into the wall, white-hot agony shooting through her body.

Michelle frowned at the smoking gun. “Now look what you made me do.”



Shayne awoke with a start. He and Dani were still on the Lear, in the master bedroom.

On the bed.

Entwined.

They’d fallen asleep. Must have been all the late nights and extremely gratifying sex.

Or maybe it was the fact that suddenly he had more on his mind.

Like Dani.

All the time…

And then he realized what had woken him. They weren’t alone. Someone was standing over them in the dimmed room. “Hello?”

The shadow twisted, then vanished.

As he heard the sound of the plane door closing, he leapt up and flipped on a light.

But he and Dani weren’t alone now either. There was a body with them, crumpled on the floor, and he’d recognize those kick-ass heels anywhere.

Maddie. With blood pooling beneath her. “Christ.”

In the bed, Dani sat straight up, confused and baffled. “What?”

Heart in his throat, Shayne tossed her his cell phone and dropped to the floor. “Call 9-1-1,” he commanded hoarsely and put his fingers to Maddie’s throat, where he found a pulse, slow and beady, but there. Thank God. “It’s Maddie.” And it was bad, very very bad, but even that wasn’t the worst of it.

Because whoever had shot Maddie was just outside the plane, waiting for them.





Chapter 26




D ani’s fingers shook as she tossed Shayne his pants. Pulling on her clothes, she dropped to the floor next to Shayne. “Police are on their way. Ambulance too. Ohmigod, is she—”

“Alive. She’s alive.”

Dani gulped for air. Alive was good, very very good.

Maddie’s eyes fluttered open. “Shayne?”

He leaned over her, grabbing her hands. “Right here, I’m right here.”

Maddie gasped. “She’s completely lost it.” Her face was a tight mask of pain. “Goddammit, getting shot hurts.”

Shayne was peeling her shirt away so he could see the wound. “Maddie, you’re bleeding like a sieve.”

Dani leaned over Shayne and saw that Maddie had a bullet hole in the region of her collarbone. One that was pumping out a shocking amount of blood.

Maddie coughed. “Shayne—”

“Don’t talk,” Shayne begged her, pulling his shirt from the foot of the bed and pressing it against Maddie’s wound.

“Listen,” Maddie said, grabbing his hand. “She’s not Dani’s stalker. She’s yours.”

Shayne gently pushed her hair from her face and cupped her jaw. “I love you, Maddie, you know I do. But when you talk, you’re pumping blood out like a hose. So shut the hell up, okay? Just shut up and hold on.”

“No. Please.” She licked her dry lips. “Get Dani out of here, okay? Or Michelle’ll shoot her too.”

Michelle? Dani looked at Shayne, who appeared just as shocked as she.

“She’s been scaring off all your dates since she became a client and fell all in psycho love with you,” Maddie managed. “But Dani didn’t scare off—Oh, God.” She closed her eyes, her face pasty white and damp with perspiration.

“Maddie,” Shayne said hoarsely. “We’ve got help coming, so you just hang on. You hear me? Hang on.” He pulled back to look down into her face. “Christ.” Setting her back on the floor, he checked her pulse.

“Is she—”

“Alive.” His mouth was grim. “The bullet went all the way through. Maddie?”

No response.

“Shock is going to set in.” Dani covered her with a blanket from the bed. “We have to keep her warm.”

A funny ping sounded, and Dani would have sworn something whizzed right by her ear as the window cracked above her.

And then the wall splintered.

“Down.” Shayne accompanied this demand by fisting his hand in Dani’s shirt and tugging hard. He hunched over both her and Maddie, craning his neck, eyeing something behind her. “We’re sitting ducks in here. We have to get out, and that’s our only chance.”

“What is?”

“Back door. Come on.” Hoisting Maddie up into a fireman’s hold over one shoulder, he grabbed Dani’s hand and yanked her to the exit on the opposite side of the plane. “Stay low.” He cracked the door.

They were facing the steel wall of the hangar. Five feet to the right was a door to a long hallway that led to the maintenance and mechanic’s offices. “There.” But just as he reached for the door, another ping ricocheted off the steel doorway above his head.

Before Dani could draw a breath to scream, Shayne shoved her ahead of him, around the back of the plane. In front of them was one of the golf carts they used to transport clients and their luggage back and forth from their planes to the lobby. Shayne carefully set Maddie in the back. Dani hopped into the passenger seat while Shayne took the driver’s side and turned the key.

The engine was loud, and as Shayne hit the gas and held the wheel with his left hand, he shoved Dani’s head down with his right, keeping his hand there as if he could protect her from getting shot. He took a hard right, and Dani let out a breath, thinking they were going to make it, but then came the staccato beat of bullets against the steel wall of the hangar, close enough to make her ears ring.