Page 71 of Chased

Switch had been up to something, but Sanchez wasn’t sure what. What the hell had he needed so bad he had to fly here and get it, instead of texting one of them to pick it up? He could take Breanna flying anytime.

Oh, well. Not his problem unless somebody made it his problem, and he could deal with it then.

It wasn’t until they were in the parking lot that the hairs on the back of his neck started to stand up. A second later, Cisco and Matéo both raised their heads, sniffing the air.

Someone was watching them.

The three of them looked at each other and then scanned the area, not seeing anyone suspicious.

“What?” Mikey said. “Should I get my weapon?”

Sanchez listened with his inner sense, and then shook his head. The feeling was dissipating. “But let us check the trucks first.”

They checked all the trucks, underneath and under the hoods and in the wheel wells. Trackers, explosives, cut brake lines, slow tire leaks. Nothing.

“What’s going on?” Madison asked.

Sanchez pulled his head out from under Mikey’s hood, and slammed it shut. “Just a precaution.”

She folded her arms. “So you do this every time you park somewhere?”

“Only when I get a feeling. Or I’m on a mission. Or I see a stranger standing near the truck. Or—”

“Never mind.”

He put his hand on her shoulder. “Stand back.”

He moved them all back, and then they remote-started the trucks one by one. Nothing blew up. Everything seemed fine.

As they started back for the Ridge, Madison was silent. He said to her, “I guess that last part of the day wasn’t quite so romantic.”

She turned to look at him. “I wouldn’t say that. You were looking out for me. For all of us.”

He shrugged. “I’m paranoid.”

Madison quoted the well-known line: “It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.”

He snorted. “It still ain’t no helicopter ride in the moonlight.”

Sanchez knew Switch never had to worry about Sanchez beating him in the romance department. Nobody did. At least Madison liked the clothes—he’d done good there.

“You’re not competing with Switch,” she said. “You’re not competing with anybody. I think you’re amazing.”

She was a nice person, trying to make him feel better. “Tracking is the only thing I’m amazing at.”

Madison turned to face him, and he could feel her getting fierce inside. He just didn’t know why.

She said, “I call bullshit. You raised Cisco and Matéo and you’ve watched over them all these years, making sure they’re okay. So you’re an amazing cousin. Amazing brother, really, because that’s how they think of you. I can tell.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he said, embarrassed. “What was I supposed to do, leave them to starve?”

She didn’t stop, though. She just kept going. “You’re an amazing man. And so far, you’ve saved me from lavender and dismemberment, you’re making sure the Renards don’t come and get me, and you treated me to a day of spoiling the likes of which I’ve never experienced or even seen before. So you’re doing pretty well as a boyfriend, too.”

He was? Huh. Then he remembered the Renards, and how low her standards were. It didn’t take much to do better than that. “Girls like clothes,” he said. “Everybody knows that.”

She pressed her lips together. “Okay, I have something to say about that and I’m probably going to say it wrong and wreck everything, but it’s important to me so I’m doing it.”

Fuck, Sanchez thought. Here we go.