The Renegade (The Moorehouse Legacy #3)(48)

“Your leg trumps chivalry, Captain.”

He rolled over onto his side and looked at Mad’s face. She was staring up at him, waiting for him to let her say the things she’d come to say. Over dinner in town and through several great racks of pool, they’d talked about the old times, the good times, and she’d caught him up on the crew’s latest and greatest.

But that was all preamble. And they both knew it.

“So let’s get it over with,” he said.

“We want you back.”

Alex almost smiled. The stories they’d shared over the Silver Diner’s blue-plate special and then across all that green felt had gotten him thinking. Missing. Wishing.

The words just came out. “I want to come back.”

“Thank God,” Mad breathed.

“But I don’t know when.” He wasn’t about to tell her that the state of his mind made his leg look like a real winner, so he focused on the physical stuff. “I’ve got a lot of rehab I need to do before I’m up and rolling. You’ll see tomorrow, if you work out with us.”

“Us?”

“Yeah. Me and Spike. You’ll like him.”

“I already like his name.”

Alex chuckled. They were silent awhile, and then Mad murmured, “Captain?”

“Huh?”

“There’s one more thing.”

“Let it fly, Mad.”

“The boys and me…we liked Reese. We were grateful for what he did for us. You know, all that money and support and he was a nice guy, too. His death, it shook us up. But we want you to know, if it had been you who hadn’t come back, we, uh, we would have been ruined. We would have bailed on the sport. We wouldn’t have been able to go on without you.”

“Thanks, but you’d have gotten over it. Trust me.” He thought of the deaths of his father and mother. He’d gone on. Gone on and left his sisters to clean up the mess, sure, but he’d moved ahead. God, he hated himself sometimes. He really did. “Now, enough of the sentimental stuff, okay?”

She laughed softly. “Aye, Captain.”

They were silent for a time.

“Hey, Mad? I want you to be aware of something.”

“What?”

“Reese’s wife is working on White Caps. She’s our architect and general contractor. I just wanted you to know in case you ran into her.”

“The redhead? That was her?”

He tried to remember if Cassandra had come to any of the races and realized she hadn’t. The only times he’d seen her were when he and Reese were going out on, or coming home from, private trips.

“You haven’t met her, have you?” he said.

Mad shook her head. “You know how Reese was all into keeping his lives separate. I did see her from a distance at the funeral, but she looked so different then. I didn’t recognize her today.”

“She’s been through a lot. Be…careful with her, okay?”

“Yeah, of course.” Mad rolled over onto her back. “Funny, though.”

“What?”

“When I asked if she was a friend of yours, she said she wasn’t.”

Alex cleared his throat. “Well, I suppose she isn’t.”

No, they were not friends and they never would be. They were not really lovers, either.

Cass’s voice shot through his head, her words spoken during one of the arguments they’d had.

…after I leave this job, I’m never going to see you again…

Alex frowned as it dawned on him that the renovations on White Caps would be done in a month or two. Then she would go back to New York. And he would go back to the sea.

There would be no reason for their paths to cross again. Ever.

“You okay, Captain?” Mad said abruptly.

“What?”

“I heard a groan.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, Mad. Go to sleep. Spike’s showing up first thing for some serious ironmania.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Alex turned onto his back.

Death wasn’t the only black hole someone could fall into, he thought. Divergent lives could do a damn good erase job, too.

A person could be perfectly healthy and above ground, and you could still lose them forever.





Chapter Fifteen




The next morning Alex stared out the picture window at White Caps and tried to imagine where Cassandra might be in the house.

X-ray powers would be really handy right about now, he thought.

Behind him, in the bathroom, Mad Dog was getting dressed to exercise and she was humming. Off-key. A truly horrible rendition of the theme from Stars Wars.

There was a pounding on the shop’s door.

“Rock and roll,” Alex said over his shoulder.

“You ready to work?” Spike called out as he walked in.

Alex nodded and took off his sweatshirt. “Yeah.”

“Hey, that Viper is sweet. Whose is it?”

The bathroom door opened and Mad stepped out in a black sports bra and a pair of black panties.

“It’s mine. Hi, I’m Madeline. You can call me Mad.”

Alex had to swallow to keep from laughing. Spike looked like someone who’d been hit in the back of the head with a mast. The expression of awe and disbelief sank even deeper into his face as Mad sauntered right up to him, stuck her hand out and smiled.