by Jill Shalvis
He looked at her for an interminably long beat. “So I guess my next question is, why shouldn’t I nail your gorgeous ass for swindling?”
All the other times she’d seen or talked to him, there’d been a natural warmth about him, a light welcoming warmth that radiated such easy, sexy charm that she’d helplessly responded to him.
Not now.
Now he was holding back, no sign of that warmth anywhere.
She’d never seen him like this, so absolutely void of any expression on his face. She’d done that. She’d hurt him. But just as she opened her mouth to try to make him understand, two men stepped inside the gallery. They were big and beefy and dressed all in black, and with a sinking feeling, she instantly recognized them as two of Rick’s men, Ed and Saul.
Ed looked straight at her as he shut the door behind him. “Hello, Maddie. Been following you.”
Maddie?
“Good thing you finally used your credit card. Thank you for that.”
Right. She’d used Maddie’s card to fly here . . . but that didn’t explain why they were following Maddie.
Saul glanced at Ben, then spoke directly to Leena alone. “You’re coming with us back to Stone Cay.”
“What? Why?”
“Insurance.”
Oh, no. Oh, God. Suddenly, she got it. There was only one reason to need insurance. To need Maddie. Rick needed her to make Leena behave.
Which meant . . . he thought he had Leena on the island, but that meant he had Maddie.
And how had that happened? The whole thing was enough to make her head spin, and a sick sense of panic swirled low in her belly. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Not letting go of her hand, Ben shifted a little closer to her, and she felt the heat and strength in his body as it brushed hers.
Saul shook his head at him. “We just need Maddie.”
But Ben didn’t back off. “She said she’s not going anywhere.”
“Look, man. We don’t have a beef with you, so don’t give us one. She’s coming with us.”
“No, she’s not.” Ben’s Irish accent came out thicker now. The rough brogue sounded icy and dangerous.
Saul sighed and pulled out a gun.
“No,” Leena gasped, jumping in front of Ben. “Stop! I’ll come with you.”
“No,” Ben said again, yanking her to his side.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Saul looked less than thrilled. “Seriously, dude. Let go of her.”
Ben didn’t, and Saul aimed.
“No!” Leena cried. “Don’t shoot him. I don’t even know him—”
“Shut up.” Saul studied Ben.
Not cowed, Ben studied him back, not nearly as terrified as he should be. “You’re not taking her,” he repeated.
Oh, God. “What part of shut up didn’t you understand?” she hissed to him out the side of her mouth.
“You know, I think he’s right.” Saul’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “We’ll take ’em both.”
Ed shrugged.
“No—” Leena started, but Saul pointed at her chest.
Ben squeezed her hand tight, silently telling her to take her own advice and shut up.
Why was this happening? When she’d left Maddie at the cabin yesterday, everything had been fine. What had made Maddie go to the island as Leena—
Oh, God. There was only one reason Maddie would have gone to Stone Cay. She believed Leena had gone back, and she’d gone to save her.
Well, now Leena would save Maddie. Somehow.
Brody watched as Maddie turned away from her childhood bedroom. She moved to Leena’s bed, rifling through her bag without saying a word, then hands full, walked right by him and into the bathroom.
“What are you—”
The bathroom door shut.
Okaaaay.
“Getting ready,” she said through the door. “And you should, too. The sooner I do this, the sooner we’re gone.”
Again, he looked down at himself. He hadn’t worked on any planes today, he hadn’t done anything but shower, argue with her, come here, and then argue some more, so in his opinion, he was ready enough to go anywhere. “I’m fine. I’m ready.” For what, he had no clue, but he sure as hell was ready.
Maddie opened the bathroom door, stuck out her head, eyed him from head to toe, and then shook her head and shut the door.
He looked down at himself but saw nothing wrong. “What the hell was that?”
“Nothing.”
Yeah, right. He put his hands on his hips and scowled at the damn door. He really hated having conversations with doors. “If there’s a problem with the way I look—”
Once again, she peeked out. “Not the way you look. Never the way you look.”
His gaze locked on hers, and for a moment, he got a little lost in that statement, not to mention the blue of her eyes.
“I like the way you look.” Her voice sounded just a little husky and a whole lot sexy.
Or that might have been wishful thinking on his part.
“Which,” she said, “I’m pretty sure I proved last night when I jumped your bones.”
Maybe not so much wishful thinking, which felt pretty damn good.
“It’s your face,” she said.
He put a hand to it. Yep, still there. “What’s wrong with my face?”
“You scowled when we set foot inside this place. You’ve been scowling ever since.”
“Yes, that’s what happens when some asshole put his hands all over you instead of using the metal detector.”
“It was fine.”
“Are you kidding me? He just did it as an excuse to feel you up, and you expected me to just stand there and let it happen.”
“Yes, I did.”
This, like so many other things, boggled his mind. “Why? Why would you want them to do that to you?”
“Why would I want—” Eyes flashing, she broke off and yanked him into the bathroom. Slamming the door, she flipped on the shower and the sink and flushed the toilet. Then in the noise of all the running water, she came right up to him and pushed him back against the door so that their bodies bumped. His mind immediately went from frustrated to lust in zero-point-four seconds, and then she went up on tiptoes and put her mouth to his ear.
Oh, yeah—
“It had to happen.”
When the words sank in, he blinked.
“I didn’t want him to use the metal detector on me,” she whispered, then stepped back while he just stared at her.
And that’s when the truth sank in. Of course. She’d smuggled in a weapon, possibly two. When he could speak, he hauled her back up against him and put his mouth to her ear because while he might be slow, he was not a complete idiot. “You think the room’s bugged?”
“No, but just in case,” she whispered. Hunkering down, she unlaced her boot, during which time his brain hiccupped and went to another place. He couldn’t help it, so help him God, he couldn’t, but kneeling at his feet the way she was, it felt . . . erotic. Unintentionally so, yes, but he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about sex, as inappropriate as that was. If she so much as lifted her head, her mouth would be just about even with his—
“See?”
He stared down at the boot she’d removed and the knife that lay inside.
At the quick rap at the bedroom door, they both jumped. Maddie slipped back into her boot just as the door swung open to reveal a small, dark-haired, olive-skinned woman in her late forties wearing black trousers, a white blouse, and an apron.
“Hola, Leena.” The woman’s voice was cool, but oddly enough, her eyes were warm. “You’ve come home and brought a man. This I had to see for myself.” She looked over at Brody, taking him in with a careful sweeping gaze. “I’m Rosaline.”
“Brody West.”
“You married my Leena.”
He looked at her “Leena.” “Yes.”
Maddie hadn’t said a word. In fact, she’d gone still as stone, just staring at Rosaline, which was suc
h an oddity all in itself, Brody took another look at his “wife.”
She was surprised.
And pleased, very pleased. It was in her shiny eyes and the flush in her cheeks.
“Of course I’ve come home.” Maddie’s voice sounded thick with . . . emotion? “I always do.”
Not seeming to notice Maddie’s barely suppressed joy, Rosaline sniffed derisively. “I suppose you have laundry.”
Maddie swallowed hard, and if Brody didn’t know better, he’d say she looked overcome. “Don’t I always?”
“Yes, you—” Rosaline suddenly went as still as Maddie, staring at her for a long beat before slowly lifting her hand to her mouth. “Oh,” she breathed softly. “Oh, you’re not Leen—”
Maddie crossed the room in quick strides and gripped the woman’s arms, shaking her head.
Rosaline appeared to be blinking back her own tears as she cupped Maddie’s face. “Oh, look at you. Look at you.”
Speechless, Maddie nodded, and Rosaline pulled her in for a hard hug. They stood there like that for another moment, then Rosaline pulled free and surreptitiously swiped at her eyes. “I have work.”
But neither shifted away, both clearly moved. Finally Rosaline made another quick dab at her eyes with her apron before quietly leaving, shutting the door behind her.
Maddie let out a low breath, closed her eyes for a moment, then turned back to Brody. Once again, the knife was in her hands. “Rosaline’s been the housekeeper here for many years, and I—I missed her.”
He nodded, then looked at the gleaming, sharp as hell–looking knife in her hands. That she’d had the guts to smuggle it in, that she’d even thought they might need it told him volumes, mostly all the stuff she’d left out about this little family reunion.
Then came another knock.
Maddie’s gaze met his. “That’s not Rosaline this time.” She slipped the knife back into her boot, calmly and quietly flipping off the water before straightening and facing him. “Show time,” she said. “Husband.”
Chapter 20
Leena’s workshop was at the cellar level. Maddie had never spent much time in the huge, expansive space built beneath the house, but Leena had. It was where she designed and created, and to this day, Maddie didn’t know how she’d spent so many years down here with no windows and no hint of whether it was night or day outside in the real world.
Tiny Tim had brought her down here, along with Brody, who had flatly refused to wait upstairs in the bedroom.
Rather than argue with him, Maddie had forced a sweet laugh and had hugged him tight. “Oh, honey,” she’d said gaily for Tiny Tim’s benefit, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. “You should stay in the room and regain your strength for later.”
“Ah, man,” Tiny Tim had groaned. “Come on. Don’t talk like that around me.”
“Can’t help it.” Maddie rubbed up against Brody like a cat in heat. “Why don’t you leave us alone for a little while?”
“Good idea,” Brody said, hands going to her hips. “Go away, Tiny Tim.”
Rick’s man pulled Maddie free from Brody’s grasp. “She has a job to do. She’ll do it.”
Brody pulled her back to his side.
“Dude,” Tiny Tim said warningly.
“Dude. Back off.”
Instead, the muscle-bound MIB stepped closer and once again reached for Maddie, who actually slipped a hand into her purse for her gun, because this was it—she was going to have to protect Brody right here, right now—but then Tiny Tim backed off and took them to the cellar, and things were okay.
At least as okay as they could get for the moment.
Now Maddie stood in the middle of the workshop, surrounded by the stone walls, commercial lighting, and all the top-of-the-line tools and equipment filling the place, feeling what was beginning to be the norm for her today—panic.
She stared down at the huge metal table spread with several different drawings, all of the same design, a timeless, classical 18k gold, pearl, and gem pendant, the gem—a large sapphire—being the whole reason for this operation.
Beyond the worktable was another with parts laid out for her—18k yellow gold sheet, 18k yellow gold round wire, gold bezel, and the gems themselves—not the original sapphire but a most excellent replacement.
At her disposal were all the tools required, and Maddie took her first pause.
She was really going to have to do this.
She took in the goggles and face shield, the pin vises, hammers, ring clamps, the saws and files and pliers, the rest of the layout tools, and so much more, and did her best not to take a big, obvious gulp.
“If you need anything,” Tiny Tim said, jerking his head to a white telephone on the wall. “You know the drill. Just pick that up.”
“I’ll need food,” Maddie said, doing her best Leena impersonation. “Good food. All fresh.”
“I’d think being married would take the spoiled out of you.”
“Think again. That is, if you can think.”
Tiny Tim sighed.
“Don’t forget, fresh.”
“I told the boss to get Maddie for this one,” Tiny Tim muttered. “I told him, sure, Maddie would just as soon rip your throat out as be nice to you, but at least she wasn’t a princess. No one listens to me.”
Maddie turned away from the tools to look at him with narrowed eyes. “Maddie hasn’t been here in years.”
“Damn shame, too. She was a lot less work than you. No offense,” he said to Brody.
Maddie shook her head. She didn’t remember this guy, not at all. But he clearly remembered her. She glanced at Brody, then at Tiny Tim again. “So you remember Maddie?”
“You know I do.”
Careful. “How would I know?”
“Oh, like you don’t remember how she’d crank her music late at night. It drove you crazy. You’d yell and scream, and she’d just stand on her balcony and stare at the sky for hours, that music blasting loud enough to rattle the windows.” Tiny Tim smiled in fond memory. “With her light on behind her, we could see right through her pjs.”
Maddie had to speak through clenched teeth. “And you know that because . . .”
“Because me and the guys would fight for space below on the pool deck.”
Her stomach executed a triple gainer, and it took her a minute to speak. “Perverts.”
He grinned broadly. “Ah, come on. Maddie knew. She had to know.”
“She didn’t.”
“She wanted us to watch.”