by Barbara Gee
They finally landed safely in Minnesota, and once again she was loaded into a helicopter to be transported to the hospital. Being transferred to that stretcher was the worst. Madison refused to complain, but the pain was excruciating and it was impossible to stop the tears.
Tucker’s face was grim as she was loaded into the helicopter. “We’ll meet you at the hospital, Madison,” he assured her.
Once there, Maddy was quickly settled into her room and finally given a healthy dose of pain medication. It worked blessedly quick, and within a few minutes Madison’s one open eye slid shut and she was out.
Tuck let out a long breath and pulled his sister into his arms for a tight hug.
“God, Lib,” he breathed. “That girl—I can’t even imagine the amount of pain she was in during the past eight hours, and she never made a sound.”
“She’s so strong,” Libby agreed. “She prays a lot, you know. She’s like you that way.”
“Oh yeah?” Tuck said, remembering that it had looked like she was praying during one of the videos. “I’m happy to hear that. Come on, sis. She’s down for the count. Let’s go find some food, a shower, and beds.”
Chapter 17
Two weeks later, heavier by over a pound of metal and sporting two casts and two braces, Madison was wheeled out of the hospital. And as far as she was concerned, it was none too soon. Although the doctors there had done wonderful things for her and she would be forever grateful, she had never in her life been so happy to leave a place.
Libby had been by her side the entire time, and Maddy was so thankful for her friend’s steadfast support. Tuck had been there with them for the first three days, and he would have stayed longer but Madison had insisted that he go back to North Carolina until she was discharged. She had known he was frustrated by not being able to concentrate on tracking down Jimmy, and Madison had also admitted to herself that she was getting way too used to having him around. She looked forward to his arrival each morning, and she enjoyed his company more than she should during the day. It got to the point where simply being able to look at his beautiful face made her happy. Too happy.
In order to wean herself away from him before she became more attached, she had urged him to go home. She reminded him that she was in a top notch hospital, she had Libby to keep her company, and the chance of Jimmy finding them was basically nil. Tuck had hesitated, but when he got a call from Tim saying they’d picked up some chatter about Jimmy being in Kentucky, he had finally agreed to leave. He was wheels up two hours later.
He had, however, insisted that he would be back to accompany the girls to the ranch, and Madison hadn’t argued. Yes, she needed a break from his addicting presence, but she wasn’t ready to totally give up her fix.
And now she was being loaded into the helicopter that would take Libby and herself to the airport, where they would meet up with Tucker and the small private jet he had chartered to bring him to Minnesota. From there they would all fly to the ranch.
Libby had been as excited about leaving the hospital as Madison, and she had insisted that they celebrate with a pamper session first, to prepare them to face the outside world again. Libby had begged the girls in the rehab department to find a deep sink and a reclining chair so that she could give Madison a proper shampoo, rather than just using the dry stuff the nurses had provided. Feeling water running over her head had been pure bliss, and having her hair clean and shiny again felt amazing. Her casts meant a shower or bath were out of the question, but Libby had encouraged the nurse to get wet and wild with her sponge bath, so much so that Madison felt almost as good as if she had soaked in a tub.
Libby had also done some shopping, returning with a little navy blue tee shirt and a soft, stretchy, dove grey maxi skirt that slipped easily over Maddy’s cast and braces and couldn’t have been more perfect. The sexy black undies and bra were totally unnecessary, but they made Madison feel feminine for the first time in a month, just as her friend had intended.
Next Libby had applied some light make-up, effectively hiding the very last of Madison’s fading bruises. The swelling was gone except for a little bit over her right cheekbone, only noticeable if one was looking for it. A swipe of eye shadow and some mascara enhanced her dark blue eyes, and a barely there pink gloss on her lips completed her transformation from invalid to woman.
In a stealth attack, Libby sprayed her with a yummy, peachy smelling body spray. The scent was divine, but Maddy wasn’t happy about it, as she felt it screamed, “I’m here, Tucker, in case you haven’t noticed!” Of course she didn’t dare voice that concern to Libby, so she just glared and said, “Enough!”
As the helicopter approached the airport and began to descend, Madison knew the pounding of her heart had nothing to do with any of her injuries. It had been almost two weeks since she had seen Tucker, and knowing she was about to lay eyes on him again had her all worked up. Trying to hide it from the all-knowing Libby was hard, but Maddy was giving it her best shot.
As they landed at the small private airport and the rotors stopped spinning, Madison came close to hyperventilating. She had to concentrate on taking slow, deep breaths, and she squeezed the arm of her wheelchair with her left hand to hide the fact that it was shaking.
Libby grinned over at her. “Welcome to the outside world!” she said happily.
An airport attendant ran over and opened the door, motioning for them to approach him.
“Wheel the chair over here, we’ll lift her down,” he said.
Libby unfastened the belts that had been holding Maddy’s chair in place, then pushed the wheelchair to the door. Before letting go of the handles, she leaned over and put her lips close to Maddy’s ear.
“Tuck has always loved the smell of peaches,” she said with a giggle as she hopped out of the helicopter.
“Oh my gosh,” Maddy whispered disbelievingly. Evidently she hadn’t hidden her attraction to her friend’s big brother quite as well as she’d thought.
Two men easily lifted her chair out of the helicopter and lowered her gently to the pavement. They turned her toward the sleek jet waiting nearby—and there was Tucker.
Maddy felt like her heart completely stopped for a couple of beats, then it seemed to do a slow 360 degree roll before it started again, thudding almost painfully. The man looked so much hotter than any man had a right to look, standing there with his hands on his slim hips, wearing dark blue jeans, heavy black lace up boots, and a long sleeved white henley shirt.
His eyes swept over her, then zeroed in on her face, seeing her looking “normal” for the first time. Her face had still been swollen and discolored when he’d left, and her hair had always been kept in a tight braid to keep from getting too matted when she tossed and turned in the bed. Now her face was healed, and her hair hung loose in soft waves down past her shoulder blades.
Libby stood beside Tuck, glancing back and forth between them as they stared at each other. When they didn’t speak, she threw up her hands.
“Okay, um, Tucker Simon, this is Madison Harper. Maddy, meet my brother, Tuck. I could have sworn you two had met before.”
Tuck gave a slow smile. “I thought we had, too. Not so sure this is the same girl, though.”
He walked up to Maddy’s chair and reached out, taking her head gently between his hands, tilting her face up into the sun. “Incredible,” he said softly. “Just a tiny bit of swelling left right here.” He rubbed his thumb lightly across the top of her right cheek bone. “God, Madison, you’re beautiful. I mean I knew you were, I just didn’t realize—” he broke off and shook his head. “It’s good to see you. How’re you feeling?”
“One hundred percent better now that I can feel the sun on my face and breathe air that doesn’t smell like sickness,” she replied, smiling and trying not to feel shy and awkward under his intense blue gaze.
“Libby’s been giving me daily updates. She said all the doctors are thrilled with your progress.”
“So far so good. They said I’m
healing right on schedule. I won’t be able to do any physical therapy until I get rid of the casts, though.”
Maddy felt regret when he finally took his hands away from her face.
“You’ll have to be patient, I guess. You ready to head out?”
“More than ready.”
“Well come on then,” Libby crowed. “The Full Heart Ranch awaits!”
Tuck moved behind Maddy to wheel her toward the jet.
“This could get interesting,” Libby announced, eyeing the rolling set of steps pushed up against the doorway to the jet.
“I’ll carry her up,” Tuck said. “You go up first and decide which seat is best for her.”
He stopped at the bottom of the steps and leaned down to lock the wheels on her chair. Libby hurried up into the jet while Tuck looked down at Maddy and raised a brow.
“Trust me?” he asked with a crooked smile.
“I do,” Maddy said. “It’s going to be awkward though, with all these contraptions.”
“What have we got?” He put a hand on her left knee and moved it up over the heavy brace that went from mid shin to the top of her thigh.
“They put a rod up through the middle of the femur, to hold the broken pieces together, so I don’t need a cast, just this big brace. I can kinda bend my knee, though.”
“Okay, and this one?” He moved his hands to her other leg.
“Cast from just below the knee to the middle of my foot. And a hinged brace thingie on my knee. It actually goes down over the cast a little ways, then up to here.” She put her thumb on the edge of the brace, in the middle of her thigh. “I can bend this knee a little bit too, but it doesn’t feel very good when I do,” she admitted.
“And your arm? Did they have to put pins in?”
She held up the unwieldy cast. “Yeah, four of them. The break is really close to the elbow, so this full arm cast was necessary to make sure there’s no movement at all, and it weighs a ton. But my pinkies are basically back to normal already. I don’t even need splints on them.”
“I’m glad, that’ll make things a lot easier for you. Now go ahead and put your good arm around my neck and see if you can lift up enough for me to get my arm under.”
Taking a shaky breath, Maddy did as he asked, and felt herself being effortlessly lifted from the confines of the wheelchair.
“Geez, Madison, you barely weigh anything, even with all the casts. Are you still living on broth and jello?”
“No, and I actually gained four pounds in the past couple weeks. It’s just that I lost quite a bit prior to that.”
He chuckled. “Kay will take care of that. She’s a great cook.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Maddy tightened her arm on his neck as he approached the steps, which suddenly looked awfully steep.
“I’ve got you,” he said softly.
Maddy fought the urge to snuggle into him. She wanted so badly to press her face against his hard warm chest and just inhale him.
“Here we go,” he said as he started up the stairs. “You smell really good, Madison.”
Maddy knew he was just trying to distract her as they climbed the rather rickety stairs, but the compliment still gave her a thrill.
“So do you,” she murmured, making him smile.
They reached the door of the plane, where Libby was waiting.
“This plane is awesome, Tuck. Whoever outfitted this thing likes to fly in luxury. The seats are huge and there’s tons of leg room. And they all recline. That’s good, because we can use the footrest to keep Maddy’s legs elevated.” She stepped back and pointed to a chair in the front. “I’d put her here in the front row.”
Tuck lowered her into the seat Libby had indicated. The chair was luxuriously padded and the soft leather sucked her in. She sighed happily, declaring it much better than the chairs at the hospital. Tuck and Libby raised the footrest, making sure she was comfortable.
“You can sit up here if you want, Tuck,” Libby said, pointing to the seat beside Maddy. “I’m going to curl up in the back and try to get some sleep. I called Aunt Kay when I got back to my hotel room last night, and after that I was so excited it took me forever to settle down. I’m afraid I’m feeling it now.”
“I’ll wake you when we land,” Tuck promised, smiling at his sister. “I’ll be right back.”
He went back down the steps and returned with Maddy’s wheelchair, which he’d folded to make it easier to carry. He stowed it in a corner of the plane’s cabin, then went to the cockpit and told their pilot they were ready to go. Finally he settled into the seat beside Maddy.
He looked over at her, one dark brow raised slightly, which always made Maddy’s heart beat a little faster. “You comfortable?”
She nodded. “I’m good.”
“Would you tell me if you weren’t?” he wondered.
Maddy frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You’re not much for complaining, Madison, or for asking for help. I just want to make sure you don’t put up with something if you don’t have to. Like if one of your legs is out of position but it hurts to move it yourself, tell me so I can do it. Okay?”
“Okay. But I really am good right now,” Maddy assured him.
They were silent as the jet taxied into position on the runway, then accelerated and smoothly lifted off.
Maddy looked over at Tucker and smiled. “This flight is a lot better than the last one.”
He winced. “Tell me about it. By the end of that flight I was definitely second guessing my decision to take you so far away.”
“It was the right thing to do,” Maddy assured him, “and not just because of Jimmy. The doctors at the new hospital were great. I felt like they truly cared, and I trusted them completely. And the nurses were incredible.”
“When do you need to go back for a checkup?”
“They said I can wait up to three weeks.”
“I’ll make sure you get there.”
Maddy nodded. “So do you have any news on Jimmy?”
Tuck’s blue eyes locked with hers and his brows drew together slightly, as if he was deciding how much he should tell her, how much she could handle.
Finally he nodded. “Unfortunately it’s not good,” he said wearily. “Remember I told you we were hoping Zeke would try contacting us?”
She nodded again, her mouth suddenly dry.
“Well, he did. He called our office three days ago. Dan was there and took the call. Zeke identified himself and gave an address in Kentucky. He was obviously rushed and he didn’t give Dan a chance to ask any questions. He just gave the address and hung up.”
“And it was him for sure?” Maddy asked.
“Yeah, we used voice recognition software to match it to his voice on the video from when they had you. It was definitely him. We went in really carefully, because we knew it could be a trap, but given that Zeke’s information had been reliable in the past, we were pretty hopeful.” Tuck ran a hand through his short hair, a gesture Maddy knew meant he was frustrated.
“But no one was there?” Maddy asked.
“Not Jimmy.” Tuck’s voice was gruff with regret. “But Zeke was there. He’d been shot a couple hours before we got there, and had a note that said ‘traitor’ stuffed in his mouth.”
Maddy closed her eyes against the sudden sting of tears. Zeke had been the only one to show any kindness to her while she’d been in Jimmy’s possession, and it was because of him that Tucker had been able to find her before it was too late. Apparently now he had ended up giving his life for the cause, and Maddy wished she knew more about him. Wished she’d had a chance to thank him.
“I guess now we’ll never know why he tried to help,” she said, her throat aching with grief.
“Probably not,” Tuck said. “But once again the information he gave us was good. The place he led us to was a typical choice for Jimmy, an old abandoned barn deep in the woods. We tracked down a few people living in the vicinity and they reported seeing unfamiliar ve
hicles going in and out of the property for the last week, usually during the night. There was a spring fairly near the barn, and we found evidence that they’d been working to set up pipes to get a good water flow to the barn. That’s essential for manufacturing meth. I’m sure he was none to happy to have to abandon such a good location so soon.”
“So we’re back where we started, only without Zeke.”
“Not quite. We have a few new pieces of information as a result of Zeke’s call. We know Jimmy has for sure decided to move into Kentucky, where he thinks the heat will be off him so he can be a hands on manager again. We also know his business is probably suffering. He worked awfully fast to get a cooker set up in a whole new area, which isn’t typical of Jimmy. He’s always been way more cautious. The fact that he was in a hurry tells me that losing seven of his men and trying to move out of North Carolina has set him back further than he wants to admit. He’s hurting for product, and that’s never a good thing. If he can’t meet the expectations of his meth buyers, they’ll move on to other dealers, and his reputation will suffer. That’s good for us, because if he’s rushing things, he’ll make more mistakes.”
Tuck reached across and took Maddy’s hand in his, lacing his fingers through hers. “I’m sorry about Zeke, Madison, but we’re getting closer.”
“You probably should have stayed back home to work on the case instead of taking the time to come out here,” Maddy said. “I would feel really bad if something came up and you were needed there.”
“Don’t worry about it. Dan and Tim are just as up on the case as I am now, and they can handle it. And I can be there within half a day if necessary.” Tuck laid his head back against the seat. “To tell you the truth, Tim pretty much ordered me to come. I tend to get a little bit obsessive when it comes to Jimmy Callahan, and I’ve been going at it pretty hard the last couple weeks. Tim convinced me that a break would do me good. I need to gain a little perspective and crawl out of the dark hole that Jimmy’s world lures me into.”