Strong And Sexy

She fisted her hand in the front of his shirt, dragging his face to hers. “Don’t get hurt. Not one hair on your head. Swear it.”

“I won’t get hurt.” He covered her hand with his until she loosened her grip on him, then kissed her once, his eyes on hers as he slammed the door in her face.

Chapter 27

Dani kneeled on the floor of the maintenance closet and checked Maddie’s wound.

“Shayne,” Maddie whispered.

“He’ll be right back.”

“Oh, God, he went after her? Stupid man. Why are all men so stupid?” She struggled to get up. “So stupid.”

“Maddie, stay down. Please, stay down. You’re bleeding.”

“Shayne-”

“He said she wouldn’t hurt him.”

Maddie, eyes closed, shook her head. “She’s got a past date of Shayne’s dead in her suitcase.” Her eyes, feverish and glossed over, met Dani’s. “She’s taken a right turn out of Saneville, Dani.”

Dani stared at her. “So she’s going to hurt him.”

“Oh yeah. She’s going to hurt him. And Brody too.” Wincing in pain, she clamped a hand over her shoulder and gritted her teeth. “God.”

The sound of another gunshot split the air. Steel on steel.

“She’s going to hit her own damn precious plane,” Maddie gasped. “The idiot.”

“One of those planes is hers?”

“The Beechcraft is in the northeast corner. She treats that thing like her baby.”

Dani leapt to her feet. “I have a plan.”

“Do you have a gun?”

“No.”

“A knife?”

“No.”

“Honey, then you don’t have a plan.”

“Something needs to happen to her plane to distract her.”

Maddie nodded. “I knew I liked you.”

“Good, huh?”

“Brilliant. Shit.” Maddie tried to reach up into her own skirt but gasped in pain and fell back, face pasty white. “I have a knife. Take the knife.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding?”

Dani reached up Maddie’s skirt, found her garter and a-“You really have a knife up your skirt.”

“If Michelle gets a hold of Shayne, she might-she could make him fly her to Mexico. Where she could get away.”

Dani looked down at the knife in her hands. “So I need to stop her.”

“And do not, and I repeat, do not get yourself hurt. Shayne will kill me if you do, and-” She broke off to grimace in pain.

“Maddie-”

“And…” She let out a breath. “I really like my job.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Dani slipped the knife into her pocket, then peeked under Shayne’s shirt at Maddie’s wound.

“I’m not dead yet.”

“Go.”

Right. Go. Dani cracked the door and peeked out.

Utter silence.

But then, from the far side of the hangar, came a scraping noise, and another. Good. Wherever they were, whatever they were doing, they were doing it far away. Heart in her throat, she slipped out of the closet and backed up against the wall, next to a stack of boxes, where she hoped like hell she was completely out of sight.

She could see the tail of Michelle’s plane now, and when she moved around the boxes and hid behind a set of portable stairs, she could also see the landing gear. The tires of the landing gear.

Slipping her hand into her pocket, she fingered the knife. If she popped the tires, the plane wouldn’t be able to take off. Felt like a good plan. She ran across the floor toward the phone-

“Ah, there you are.”

Uh-oh. Dani slowly tipped her head up. High in the rafters above her knelt Michelle, still looking as if she should be on the cover of a Victoria’s Secret catalog, not holding a gun.

But she was.

Aimed at Dani. But then the gun shifted, and re-aimed-at a spot in the rafters across the way, at the figure of a man steadily making his way toward her.

At Shayne, who wore only his jeans, no shirt, no shoes.

No weapon.

“No,” Dani gasped. “Don’t shoot him. Please don’t shoot him.”

“Oh, I’m not going to shoot him. He’s going to fly me out of here.” Michelle sent a smile toward Shayne. “Soon as I set up the tragic scene here, of course. Shayne? Be a good boy now, and go get my baby ready to fly.” Holding the gun on a very still Shayne, she turned her attention back to Dani. “Look at that. He doesn’t want to leave you.”

“Michelle,” Shayne said very quietly.

“Do you love him?” Michelle asked Dani. “Do you love my pilot?”

Shayne pulled himself a little closer to Michelle, who suddenly whipped her head in his direction. “Don’t.”

He went still, but not Dani, who took the last step to Michelle’s “baby” and slipped her hand into her pocket for the knife.

“Goddamnit, answer me!” Michelle screamed, suddenly not looking so much Victoria’s Secret as ready for a straitjacket.

Dani stared up at Shayne. She couldn’t see his expression clearly, but she could sense his disbelief that she’d left the safety of the closet, his frustration at being held at gunpoint, helpless, his anger that there was nothing he could do to protect her.

“Do you love him?” Michelle yelled to Dani.

Anguish too. There was just enough anguish in his eyes that Dani nearly staggered back. “I do,” she whispered. She cleared her throat, her gaze never leaving Shayne’s. “I love him.” Her eyes burned, her throat tightened at the look of shock and awe on his face. “I love him very much.”

“Well.” Michelle stared down at Dani, who’d have sworn the crazy model’s eyes actually filled with tears. “Then you’re definitely going to have to be taken care of.” Her voice was thick and hoarse. “Aren’t you?”

“No-” Shayne started forward, but Michelle’s head whipped toward him, gun at his chest.

“Do not defend her. Ever. We’re going down. We’re going down and I’m going to do what I have to, and so are you. You’re going to fly me out of here.”

In the split second that Michelle’s attention was on Shayne, Dani scooted behind the landing gear tires, which she sincerely hoped would absorb any flying bullets. God, she really hoped that as she stabbed the first tire.

“You cannot make me fly you anywhere,” Shayne was saying.

Dani could hear his voice clearly far above her as she crawled on her hands and knees toward the next tire.

“Yes, Shayne, I can,” Michelle assured her. “And you know why? Because I have the gun.” But then her scream