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“I thought your machine exploded?”
“Just one,” she reasoned. “I have spares not stored in the shed. And I can easily repair this one, too, so please send your device in.”
Silence.
“Very well.” He glanced at his watch. “Maddox?”
“I will take care of things here.”
“Please make sure to investigate and report back to me. You know, to make sure the Suttons are safe and there won’t be another explosion later when they clean up.”
Translation: to make sure she was telling the truth.
“I will take care of things here,” Maddox repeated.
The two men continued conversing in low tones, so she turned around and started picking up a broken wooden panel and setting it to the side. Not even a minute later, hands plucked more wooden panels off her hands and picked up some more. Maddox didn’t speak, getting into a rhythm as he set aside more materials until that particular space was clear. She basked in the silence for a while, but the heaviness in her body refused to abate, and eventually took its toll on her.
“So, I guess you came here because he asked you to.”
The accusing tone wasn’t it, but there was nothing she could do about it.
“I was already on my way here.”
“Right. Because it’s what he would have—”
“Because I was worried about you. Because for a second out there, I thought something bad truly happened to you, and I wouldn’t have been able to save you in time.”
The steel in his tone cut off whatever argument she was raging to have as she peered at his agitated stature. She examined him warily, then sniffed.
“I don’t need saving.”
“All right.”
The easy agreement had her blinking. “Right. All right.”
“You have been avoiding me.”
And there it was—the real source of his agitation.
“I already told you it was because of—”
“James Magoo monitoring my presence in Broom’s Isle,” he finished.
“Yes. Right.”
“And you don’t want him monitoring you in turn, because…?”
She shrugged, refusing to mention her brother again. “Because we are the Suttons. Up to no good from their point of view.”
“Are you? Up to no good?”
Yes.
“No.”
“Then why not prove it to them and hang out with me?”
“I can’t.”
