I cleared my throat. My shoulder throbbed. I could feel my hip area was sore, but fuck, my shoulder hurt. It had felt like my arm when I was shot, but now I could feel it in my shoulder.
“Have you ever felt like a zoo animal?”
Max grinned and then immediately stopped, shaking his head.
“You scared us.” Layla smiled. “It’s nice to see your eyes clear.”
I lowered my eyes. “I’m sorry, guys. I didn’t mean to.”
“You aren’t responsible for how anyone here feels about what happened to you. In no way are you responsible for their feelings. That belongs to them. The only thing you’re responsible for right now is getting better.” Max crossed his arms over his chest.
Everyone turned to stare at him and then looked back at me. It was Bridget who finally broke the silence that followed his statement. “Are you in pain? Let’s call the doctor.” She leaned over and pushed a button. There were dark circles under her eyes.
“Max’s speech aside, I really don’t like to worry people, and I am sorry that I got shot. That you’re all here in… Are we in Germany?”
Zeke nodded. “Germany.”
“Why was it Germany?” I couldn’t remember if I knew that.
It was Michael who supplied the answer. “We contract with this private clinic to take care of us if things go askew on a mission. They’re always at ready for us. Fully equipped, and it was closer than trying to get home.”
Zeke bounced the baby, but he shot daggers at Michael. “She should never have been allowed to do this to begin with.”
“We’ve talked about this.” Michael didn’t regard him, keeping his gaze either on Bridget’s back or on me. “She’s a grown woman. She was doing it with or without me. End of story. I chose with me.”
Zeke pointed at him. “This very scenario is what I pay you to avoid. You are supposed to be keeping the family safe.”
Bridget jumped to her feet. “In what world can anyone really keep anyone else safe? I mean, really? We make choices every day. If I fall down the fucking stairs, it’s not Michael and his men’s fault that it happened. Hope decided to do a dumb fucking thing because she’s big hearted. Michael tried to help her not die. She’s not dead. Looks like it succeeded.”
“Hey.” Max stepped forward. “You don’t get to lay judgment on what she did or did not do as you sit on some throne of superiority. She wanted to save that child because she believed it to be her job when no one else in the universe was going to help him. It was brave. She’s constantly brave. Maybe you don’t know that because you ran away to Hong Kong to live your life where no one has to see or remark on what you do.”
I held up my hand as Bridget’s face fell. “Whoa. Everyone stop. Please.”
The doctor chose that moment to enter. Saved by the man in the white coat. He spoke to me for a while and told me several times how lucky I had been. I was half convinced that what he really wanted to say to me was that I’d done a really stupid thing and most people would be dead if they’d done the same. Since I already knew this, I mostly nodded.
Michael’s phone pinged, and he left the room to go deal with whatever it was. Zeke watched him go with no amount of overt hostility chasing him from the room. The doctor finished up, letting me know I would be there a week, possibly more, and that he’d see me later.
I rubbed at my face. “Zeke, you know that I insisted on this.”
He stared at me. “I know. I’m not firing Michael, but I don’t have to like it. Do you know what it would do to the people who love you if you got yourself killed?”
“Do you know what emotional manipulation looks and sounds like?” Max shot that question right to Zeke, who pointed at him.
“What the fuck are you even doing here?”
Layla touched her husband’s arm. “Obviously, they care about each other.”
“Care about each other so much that he just went along with this plan?”
Max shook his head. “It isn’t my job to tell Hope what she can and can’t do. She’s a grown woman. I went along to help, and I am here because I want to be.”
The two men might punch each other any second. I tried to sit up more, and that was when I really felt my hip pain. Yes, this really, really fucking sucked.
Michael stormed back in. “We have another problem.”
Zeke tugged his son tighter against him. “What now?”
Michael held up his phone. A video played, and it took me half a second to realize it was Tim’s grandmother.
“She saved my grandson.” Her smile was huge. “The woman’s name is Hope Radford, and I own her everything. A real hero.”
That was sweet but not the reason I’d done it. Why was this a problem? Max gripped the end of the bed, and Zeke cursed and then kissed his son’s head.
“I think I’m missing something,” I told the room, not caring who explained it to me.
Layla nodded. “Me too. Is there some issue with the State Department?”
“I suppose that could be.” Max shook his head. “But I don’t think that’s the current problem, right, Michael?”
Michael sank into a chair. “Putting your name out there like that. It seems to have stirred up the Russians. They had really put you on a backburner, but now your name is all over the dark web. Plans are being made. It’s a flood of Hope everywhere. This is bad. We’re going to have to lock you away even further. Probably take you out of here early and then lock you up in a place where you can be hidden.”
Max rubbed his eyes. “She needs physical therapy. You heard the doctor. They need to get range of motions back. She can’t be locked up where that can’t happen.”
My brother-in-law handed Noah to Layla. “She can come to Washington. I’ll move a physical therapist in to stay full time until the threat passes, and she can work with her on site.”
“Well, this is a fine mess.” Bridget patted my knee. “And Hope is here. She can participate in this conversation.”
I could, but actually, a headache had formed right behind my eyes. I closed them for a second. “How long do you think I’ll have to be locked away?”
My business was over. That was for sure. By the time I got back, I’d be so much a nothing, no one would hire me ever again. I sighed and forced myself to watch as my life was battered back and forth.
“Or she can come home with me,” Max supplied. “My sister is a PT. She works with vets and all kinds of injured people. Won an award last year. She can help Hope, and she’ll be nice and out of sight.”
Michael shook his head. “Nowhere in New York is she out of sight.”
“Not in New York. In Maine. My hometown. No one will see her there. Not for months and months. And if you’re any good at your job, you’ll have handled this by then, right?”
A muscle ticked in Michael’s jaw. “You cannot believe the layers of complicated this mess has been. Their father and brother are in on this. Yes, I would like to be done with this too.”
Bridget winced. I was pretty sure I was the only one to notice. Some other time, I was going to have to force her to tell me things about her and Michael. We were so good at leaving each other alone when we didn’t want to talk that too many things went askew.
That was another thing that occurred to me. I’d told Max my secret. I swallowed. I’d broken the dam on that plane, and I was pretty sure that Michael knew everything now too. Probably the whole plane heard me, for that matter.
“Max.” I interrupted the discussion. “You can’t take me to Maine. You have to work. The restaurant. In fact, you should be there now.”
“Leave that to me to worry about. That isn’t for you to concern yourself with.” He shook his head. “There is nothing here you have to fix.”
Michael stared at Max. “Clayton said that you might have a contact that could make this go away. Something about a high member of the underground there owing you a favor.”
Max Broadley. Chef extraordinaire. Former special forces. Underground operative?
Who was this man I wasn’t dating?
“I would if I could, but he vanished years ago. I’d gladly make this stop. But I don’t know how I’d even find him.”
“Guys.” It was time for me to stop this endless talking. “I need to tell my sisters some things. And then, Max, can you come see me so we can talk about whether this is going to work. I’d love to come with you to Maine, although of course I appreciate Zeke’s offer and his constant willingness to help.”
I just wasn’t sure it could be. But before I could even consider it, I needed to tell the two people closest to me in the world what I’d never said.
Chapter 16
It had been easier to tell Max. Maybe it had been the drugs on the airplane, or maybe he was just a person to whom I could more easily share secrets. In any case, Layla cried, Bridget kept grabbing my knee, and by the time I was done telling them what had happened with Shawn and me, I was a blubbering mess.
It wasn’t a great time for me to feel that way. I needed to go back to sleep for an extended period of time and maybe an increase in my pain medicine.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Bridget finally spoke. “I’m not trying to make this about me, but all these years, you’ve hidden your pain from us. I…I wouldn’t have said what I did to you about not putting out if I’d known. I would have been there for you. I wouldn’t have run off to Hong Kong and left you alone.”
I swallowed. “That’s why. I didn’t want to be treated like I wasn’t able to take care of myself. Funny, right after the treatment was actually when I felt the top of my game. I was on like this rush of a high. I’d pulled it off. No one knew. Over time, it really hit me, and I had some help. But probably not enough help. And truth be known, I could really use some medication too. I lock my doors. Over and over and over.”
Bridget grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “We love you. We would have been here for you. But we will be now. Do you want to live with me? Do you want me to move back to New York and live with you?”
Layla dabbed her eyes. “You asked me to come live with you, and I turned you down. I’m sorry. You needed me, and I didn’t know.”
I pulled myself into a sitting up position that was easier said than done. “My loves, we all have to live our own lives. It was my choice to be silent. Well, Dad encouraged it. But it’s on me. I’m trying to do better, I’m trying to find some kind of…I don’t know…redemption for things that I do.”
“Like what? What terrible thing could you have done?” Bridget’s voice rose. “You’re terribly nice. Almost too nice.”
“Well.” I didn’t really want to get into the whole story of Max right then. “Layla, I left you in France. Broke. Alone.”
Bridget shook her head. “We both thought that A, it would be worse if we didn’t leave with Dad, and B, that we could reason with him and make it better on the plane. We didn’t know that our dingbat brother was going to do that to you, and the second you found out, Hope, you texted Zeke and sent him to her.”
“And,” Layla kissed my cheek, “it turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me. On that note, you have to go home with Max. Don’t get me wrong, I want you with me, but he is something. I think you need to spend more time with that man.”
I closed my eyes. “It’s complicated.”
“Of course it is. Hope, look at me.” Layla demanded so I did as she wanted. “There is good complicated and bad complicated. I think this is good complicated. I mean…he followed you across the world to a place we’re not supposed to visit and has, for the last week, been there every waking moment for you. Good complicated.”
That was probably true. But given the history between us, I wasn’t sure if even good complicated wasn’t just too complicated.
“Are you sure about this?” I realized it was the fifth time I was asking him, but the plane was going to take off and if he really couldn’t do this, I’d rather know it before we were in the air.
Max shot me a look. “I’m sure. I wouldn’t offer if I couldn’t do it.”
I chewed on my lip. “But Hyperion?”
“Anna is doing a great job with it, and Eric feels so good, he keeps trying to leave the house. It will survive a few weeks without me. I’ll even work on some new recipes while I’m there. It’ll be productive. No one will get to you where we will be. If they somehow do find you, they won’t get through me.”
I stared at his hard profile as the airplane took off, and I tried to ignore how much I hated takeoffs. He winked at me. “You hate this part.”
“That obvious?”
He yawned. “Yes, very. Come here. Put your head on my shoulder if it’s comfortable. Close your eyes. Get some sleep.”
I’d taken a pain pill not too long ago, which meant I was going to pass out any minute anyway. I stretched out my legs, but there was no good way for me to sit comfortably. I’d be glad to be unconscious soon.
I winced. “I don’t think I can. It’s awkward. I pretty much have to stay like this.”
He nodded. “Been there, unfortunately.”
That was right. One of the things I’d learned in the last days was that Max had been shot twice. Both times had been superficial because he was, his words, “a lucky bastard.” But he knew how much healing sucked.
We were alone on the airplane set up by Zeke to bring us to Max’s home in Maine. I wasn’t sure where we were landing. It didn’t really matter to my tired brain. Where, who cared? Just so long as we landed.
“Can I ask you something?” He pressed his nose into my hair.
“I think at this point, you’ve earned the right to ask me anything.” Yep. My hip area had officially replaced my shoulder for the most painful injury.
He breathed out and then kissed my head before pulling back. “Was your first time in the back of that car?”
I blinked as it took me a second to realize what he was asking me. “Since the bar and the incident? Yes, it was.”
He closed his eyes like they pained him. “Fuck.”
I squeezed his knee. “Why is it upsetting you? That was great.”
Max slowly lifted his lids. “Because if I had known, I would’ve never suggested the back of the car for your first time. I might have…I don’t know…found a more appropriate place.”
I tilted my head. “I didn’t want you to know, and I wouldn’t change a thing about the car. Please don’t redo that in your mind so that you would. It would…I don’t know…steal something from the moment.”
He took my hand, bringing it to his mouth. “Fair enough. It was…really incredible.”
I closed my eyes, the medicine sucking me under. When I woke up, it was hours later. The seat divider between Max and me was gone. I was stretched out on him like his lap was my pillow as the rest of my body lay straight across the seats. How and when had this happened?
His eyes were closed, one hand in my hair, one on my good shoulder. It really didn’t matter. These drugs were going to get old quickly. Yes, I needed them to heal, but losing time was really pretty awful. I didn’t just fall asleep, but I did things when I was asleep I wouldn’t normally do. Sure, I was an insomniac, and it was great to be sleeping all the time. However, I would take being tired over the time gaps.
I had to pee. Hating to wake him, I really had no choice but to jostle him slightly when I got up because I was on his lap and he was touching me.
His eyes opened slowly. “You okay?”
“Got to pee.” My voice was rough. I must have been sleeping for hours.
He nodded and placed a hand on my lower back, helping me to sit up a little bit easier. He unbuckled himself, which was when it occurred to me that I hadn’t had mine on. That was pretty bad. What if we hit unexpected turbulence?
I forced my stiff, beaten up body to move and shuffled rather ungracefully to the bathroom, where we, of course, hit unexpected turbulence, which forced me to cling to the wall on my walk back. Max rose and came quickly over to me, grabbing my waist and helping me get back to our seats.
He didn’t even seem bothered by the shakes. Was he somehow so superhuman, he wasn’t even bothered by the laws of gravity that took down every other being on the planet? I laughed at my own joke, and he shot me a look but didn’t comment.
After he’d buckled us both in, he put his arm around me. “We’ll be landing soon.”
“In Maine?” I just wanted to confirm I hadn’t been delirious through a change of plans that was now landing us someplace else.
He nodded. “In Portland. Then I’ll drive us to my place. Your security will meet us there. They’ll hang around the perimeter. And we’ll wait for Michael to get this handled.” A muscle ticked in Max’s jaw. I wasn’t sure why. “There is a doctor in Portland who understands the situation and will treat you with my sister, who is lined up on the other end ready to help with the PT. That is the plan.” He side-eyed me. “Do you not remember it? Or are you just checking?”
“Just checking. I am…losing time.”
Max winced. “Yeah, that sucks. We’ll see what the doctor says in a few days about when we can cut back your pain pills. I hated them too.”
“You and I are quite a pair. We’d both take pain and not sleeping over being out of control.”
He nodded. “We are quite a pair.”
And we were landing in Portland, so I could go into hiding for who knew how long. Truth was I was almost too drugged to really care, but even in my state, I knew I still would. This one was going to chafe.
I couldn’t really remember landing, but then we were in the car. It was waiting for us on the tarmac—thank you, Zeke—and we’d driven off toward his hometown. I shivered until it heated up inside. In New York, it had started to get cold, but here it already really was. I was in long sleeves, but I wished I had a jacket.
In fact, I didn’t have any clothes at all, just the sweatpants and shirt I was in. The clinic in Germany had given them to me.
Redheaded Redemption (Redheads Book 2) Page 18