by Jill Shalvis
“How, Brody?”
He sighed. “You called Sky High from the landline once.”
“Two days ago, when my cell phone battery had died.”
“Yeah. We got Shayne’s brother to track you.”
“Wow.” She shook her head. “What an unbelievable invasion of privacy.”
“I’d say sorry—”
“But you’re not.” It was all over his face how not sorry he was. “Look, Brody, now’s not good, okay? Maybe another time . . .”
Like, unfortunately, never.
He shoved his sunglasses to the top of his head, and his steely gaze narrowed in on her, full of frustration and heat.
She didn’t know what to make of the heat, other than the answering flicker of flame that occurred in all her good parts. The hell of it was even though she’d been fantasizing about him for way too long, she actually didn’t have time to go with that right now.
What with The Plan and all.
“You were afraid before,” he said, revealing a new emotion from him, a deep concern, which did something funny to a spot low in her belly.
“No,” she denied. “Not afraid.” Look at that, another lie. Man, she was getting good.
“Yes, you were at the front door. You were terrified. And now . . .” Cocking his head, he looked her over slowly, so damn slowly she felt those helpless reactions begin again at the base of her spine, working outward.
“It’s not just the clothes,” he said, frowning. “You look different.”
Okay, he was way too close to the truth, and with a sound of distress she told herself he couldn’t hear, she began to pull the shades shut, blocking him out.
“Maddie, goddamnit.” He put his hand on the glass. “Don’t.”
“Sorry.”
And she actually was sorry. So damned sorry that she felt her throat tighten and her eyes burn. And actually, if she wasn’t careful, she was going to lose it right here, just completely lose it in a way she hadn’t in years. Because she didn’t want to go. Didn’t want to never see him again . . .
“Maddie.”
She closed her eyes, needing that little shield, no matter how telling.
“Hey, how about this,” he said. “I’ll give you a raise if you let me in. A big, fat, pretty raise. Come on, you know how you want one.”
Oh, God. He already overpaid her, but that was only because Shayne and Noah made him. If he had his way, they’d all be working for free, squirreling away every penny for a rainy day.
It wasn’t because he was cheap.
Okay, it was because he was cheap. He was so cheap he squeaked when he walked, but he’d grown up poor, had had to literally beg, borrow, and steal his way through childhood. Now, for the first time in his entire life, he had money, thanks to his own hard work and brains, and she knew he wasn’t quite used to it yet. “You said the word raise without getting hives,” she murmured, telling herself it shouldn’t be endearing because he was trying to manipulate her.
“Let me in, and I’ll say it again.”
She meant something to him. She meant a lot. Even more shocking, he meant something to her, too. He meant so damn much it hurt to look at him. At the knowledge, she swallowed hard. Not going to cry . . .
“Maddie.” He touched the glass as if he wanted, needed, to touch her. “Don’t do this.”
She closed her eyes again.
“I’ll double your salary.”
“Stop,” she whispered.
“Let me in, and I’ll stop. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Oh, God, now there was a promise. Close to doing just that, a noise from the other room stopped her cold.
Her sister’s shocked gasp.
What now?
Maddie locked eyes with Brody. All these past weeks, seeing him had been a secret wish, an unconscious desire like breathing air. Having him come after her, having him want to be with her . . .
Except now, right this minute, when her sister’s life was on the line and therefore, hers as well. If Brody stayed, then he, too, would be in danger. But she knew him, knew that he wasn’t going anywhere unless she managed to distract him. “Okay, you’re right. Something’s wrong.”
“Finally.”
“I’m waiting on my physical therapist to come out for a session, but we had five inches of rain a few days ago and the road in here is still a little tricky. He’s got a little Honda and won’t come. Maybe you could go get him.” She grabbed a notepad from a small desk near the door and scribbled down an address, then opened the door and slapped it to his chest. “Thanks.”
Praying to God he left to track down the PT who didn’t exist at the address that also didn’t exist, giving her enough time to speed up The Plan, she locked the door again and yanked the shades over the window.
“Maddie!”
Tuning him out, she ran for her sister.
Chapter 5
Maddie raced into the kitchen to find Leena holding her cell phone to her ear, shaking from head to toe. “Leena? What are you—”
Leena shut her phone and stared at it like it was a poisonous spider. “He left a message.”
No need to ask who the he was. Only one person could put that look on Leena’s face.
Or Maddie’s, for that matter.
Good old Uncle Rick.
“He already knew I’m not on that cruise like I told him. He thinks I might be on the run.”
Maddie stared at her, absorbing all that Leena wasn’t saying. Uncle Rick and his merry men weren’t stupid. They knew Leena wouldn’t run on her own.
Nope, of course she’d have gone straight to Maddie.
Damn.
Chances were, they’d never not known where Maddie was, but up until now, they hadn’t needed her. Not when they had Leena.
“He’s playing it cool,” Leena said. “Pretending I’m not gone. He said if I just come back and do a job for him, I can get back to my vacation.”
“You don’t have to do what he says. You’ve left Stone Cay behind.”
“Maybe no one ever really leaves.”
“I did. You know I did.”
“Yeah, you left. You had to sneak out in the middle of the night without a forwarding address, and you couldn’t look back. You had to run hard and fast, thousands of miles away. You were young and all on your own, and you were nothing but a child.”
“But I did it.”
“But you had to hide. You had to start a new life.” Leena said this in wonder. “No money, no friends or family or anything. Back then, I couldn’t imagine the courage it took, and now . . . now that I’m here, I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do the same.”
“Well, I know. Besides, you’re older than I was, and you’re not alone. You have me. You can do this. You can, Leena. I promise.”
They stared at each other, Leena’s fear and Maddie’s strength battling it out. Unfortunately, fear was a formidable opponent, and contagious, as well. Hers and Leena’s differences had always been very obvious, but suddenly, the gap seemed to shrink to nothing, until they were both young and scared stupid all over again.
“I want to do this,” Leena whispered.
“And you will.”
“But it’s asking so much of you.”
“Look, you’re out of there. That’s all that matters. The rest will be fine.” Maddie only hoped that was true, but God, she didn’t really want to vanish again. She loved the life she’d made for herself.
Loved.
It.
But she loved Leena more, even if it meant saying good-bye to everyone else. All they’d needed was a few more days, and she’d have had The Plan in motion. They’d have been gone. But now, Rick already knew Leena wasn’t where she’d said she was, and the man Maddie didn’t want to have to say good-bye to had shown up.
God.
“If Rick finds us—”
“If he tries to push us around, we’ll push back,” Maddie said firmly. “We’ll get the authorities involved.”
Le
ena was already shaking her head before Maddie finished. “Manny,” she said, and the name stopped Maddie cold.
Manny had been one of Rick’s grunt men, young and built, and Leena had gone out with him once. After their date, he’d come on to her strong, wanting sex. Leena hadn’t been ready. She’d refused him anything but a quick kiss, but Manny hadn’t been happy with that and tried for more. Leena’d shoved free of him, and he’d fallen down the stairs.
And died.
That was Leena’s story.
Unfortunately, Rick had another one because Manny had been found with a knife wound in his gut. Back then, Rick had cleaned up that mess, but it wouldn’t stay clean.
“If I stay gone,” Leena said, “Rick’s going to bring me up on murder charges.”
Which would affect them both. “Okay, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
“Ohmigod.” Leena shook her head. “I’m really doing this.”
“Yes.” Maddie thought of Brody, hopefully on his wild-goose chase after her PT. “But we need to move up the timetable to, like, now.”
“We can’t. I have someone I want to say good-bye to first. In New Orleans.”
“Now?” Leena shook her head. “New Orleans? Who’s in New Orleans—”
“Ben.”
Now it was Maddie’s turn to shake her head. “Leena, no. We can’t do good-byes. We have to leave. Now.”
“No.” Leena’s chin was set. Never a good thing. “I’m sorry, Mad, but I’m not like you, all tough and impenetrable, letting nothing get to me. I have to say good-bye.”
Is that how Leena saw her? Really? Tough? Impenetrable? Cold? Is that how Brody would see her when she was gone? “I let plenty get to me. I just don’t let any of it rule me. You have to be strong.”
“No one’s as strong as you.”
“You are, and I’ll prove it to you. Wait right here.” With a calm she didn’t feel, Maddie raced up the stairs. In the master bedroom, she went to the dresser that she’d commandeered as her own for her stay. Specifically, the underwear drawer. Beneath all the silk and lace that was her own vanity-vice, past the gun she kept there, sat a small jewelry box.
The only thing she had of their mother’s.
It was wooden, intricately carved, and Russian, and she carried it with her because it gave her comfort. Supposedly, her mother’s mother’s mother had brought it over when she’d first come to the States. Inside was a string of pearls and a three-by-five picture of twin four-year-olds—Maddie and Leena, dressed for Halloween, wearing Batman and Robin costumes.
Superheroes.
They were grinning for the camera, arms slung around each other, their world as wide open in front of them as the gap in their mouths where their front teeth had been.
Maddie ran her thumb over the photo, her wistful smile fading. It’d been shortly after this picture had been taken that their mother had left them, just walked away to go after her dream of riches and fame in Hollywood rather than see her own children grow up. Rumor had it she’d made it only as far as one of the strip clubs in Miami.
Maddie and Leena had been raised on Stone Cay, a private Bahama island, in a huge, luxurious compound that made up their father’s family heritage. Family being a loose term, of course. Their father had been with them until Maddie’s and Leena’s eighth birthday, when he’d died of a heart attack after a fight with his brother over how to run a portion of their import-export gem business, the illegal portion.
Maddie and Leena had grown up in the lap of decadence and luxury, but they’d also grown up quickly. Classic poor little rich girls, one twin with an aptitude for survival skills and one gifted with a genius for jewelry design.
Leena.
After that little talent had been discovered by Uncle Rick, they’d pulled Leena into the business almost nonchalantly—oh, here, Leena, an important client wants to buy this million dollar gem from us, please design a piece for it. Then Uncle Rick would swap the gem out for a replica, sell the designed piece to their customer and the gem to someone else, and pocket the cash from both deals with their customer never the wiser.
When Maddie had learned of it, she’d freaked, knowing that when Rick got caught, Leena would go down in flames right alongside him. Maddie also knew that the only way to save Leena was to get her off the island, but every time she planned an escape, Leena would back out. Maddie might have stayed on Stone Cay all these years just to keep watching after Leena if it hadn’t been for that one last fateful night, which had forced her to run hard and fast and never look back.
Staring down at the picture now, Maddie felt the regret nearly choke her. She’d walked away from Leena, left her alone and defenseless.
Seemed she wasn’t so unlike her mother after all.
But the mistakes of her past were just that. She didn’t have to repeat them. She wouldn’t repeat them. Leena had come to her. She was ready. They could do this.
Together.
Slipping the picture in her pocket, she left the room to prove it to her sister.
Physical therapist, Brody’s ass. PTs didn’t make house calls, not even to gorgeous liars.
And Maddie was desperate. There’d been many, many times when he’d daydreamed about her being desperate . . . desperate for his body was his favorite.
But that’s not what she was desperate for now. Nope, she was killing herself trying to get rid of him, and that wasn’t going to happen.
It took him about four minutes to jimmy the lock on the sliding glass door. It would have taken less, but halfway through, Shayne buzzed him on his cell to ask if he’d handled things yet.
“Working on it.”
“What’s taking you so long? You losing your touch with women?”
Brody snarled, and with a laugh, Shayne disconnected.
Anger was a good motivator, but angst was a better one, and Brody slid the door open. Helping himself, he stepped inside. Someone had gone a little overboard with the wild, wild West theme in the place, but even without the cowboy paraphernalia, the interior screamed expensive taste, much like the woman who lived here.
There was no one in the living room, but he followed a low murmur of voices into a hallway, where there was a line of skis and snowshoes that he absolutely could not see Maddie using. She liked cars and planes, things with engines, nothing that required her own steam.
Why was she here, so out of her element?
Then he heard a cell phone ring, and Maddie’s voice answer, low and unhappy. He moved into the kitchen, where he found her talking to her cell phone, opened on the counter.
“I’ve been out of range,” she said.
“That’s a problem.” The man spoke in a harsh warning tone. “You need to get back in range.”
“You don’t understand.” Maddie wrung her hands. “I just want to live my life. I want to . . . travel. I won’t tell anyone what we’ve done, I promise. Just let me go.”