Chapter 6

Lucas had just satdown on one of the Hart private jets when his phone rang.

He looked at it immediately, half hoping that it was an unknown number, maybe Maddie calling him.

It was his brother Dylan. He ran a private detective agency, and he was the one who had found Maddie.

Lucas tried to reach Jacob earlier, but his brother hadn"t answered the phone.

He wasn"t going to give the report on Maddie to anyone until he"d spoken to Jacob, but he never silenced a call from his family. "What"s up?"

"How"s Madison? Did you see her?"

Maddie. She was beautiful, courageous, funny, and had cultivated an incredible group of friends. She was also carrying the weight of her past in a way Lucas was all too familiar with. He"d wanted to talk to her, to offer advice, to do whatever he could to help, but he"d felt her walls and knew she wasn"t interested in his help.

And he fucking loved that. His life was built around people who wanted things from him and his family. It was refreshing to be around four women who wanted nothing from him except to get out of their way.

He respected the hell out of that…and it made him want to go right back into that office and demand they let him help. "I want to give the report to Jacob first," he said to Dylan.

Dylan paused. "I need to talk to you before I talk to Jacob about something."

Lucas leaned forward, gripping the phone. "We never hold secrets from each other." It was part of the Hart family bond, started by Dylan, the oldest. They weren"t allowed to keep secrets from each other, stemming back to the days when they were all living under the bridge together. Secrets meant isolation, and the only way they"d survived was by sticking together.

The rule against no secrets had continued to this day. So, what the hell?

"I found out that Ivan had a partner. His name is Les Shipman. He supplied drugs to Ivan. He disappeared when Ivan got arrested back then, and stays off the radar."

Lucas bit his lip. "And?" What did this have to do with Maddie?

"He"s Ivan"s half-brother. They were close, but he was the mastermind. Ivan was the labor, Les was the strategy. Les spent twenty years in prison for shit you don"t want to know about."

Lucas"s leg bounced restlessly as the plane began to taxi for takeoff. "He"s alive?"

"When I was looking for Maddie, I found trails he left behind. I"ve been following those trails, and that"s how I found him. He"s been looking for her, too."

Fuck. The plane began to speed up, rolling down the runway. "You think she"s in danger?"

"Until I find him, we need to keep an eye on her."

Lucas swore as the plane"s wheels caught air. "I just took off. I"ll have to circle back."

"Do it." Dylan paused. "I don"t know whether to tell Jacob."

Jacob had had a brutal childhood, and they all tried to protect him when they could. "You have to. If Les is after Maddie, he might also be looking for Jacob. He"s got Annie and Phoebe to protect now. He needs to know so he can take precautions."

Dylan swore. "I"ll go over to his house. Talk to him in person."

"Do it. I"ll cover Maddie out here. Let"s stay in touch." Lucas hung up the phone, told the flight attendant to redirect the pilot, then leaned back in his seat, thinking.

Maddie didn"t want him involved in her life.

He got that.

He thought about Les.

He thought about Violet.

He thought about the way Maddie"s eyes flashed with humor, courage, and fear.

How was he going to get in there to protect her without fucking up what she"d done to keep herself sane, safe, and happy?