Superb and Sexy Read online

  “Are you kidding me?” She felt disgusted. Disgusting. Her fingers clenched on the hammer in front of her as a hot hatred filled her for this place and the people in it. “She was sixteen. A kid. Practically a baby—”

  “Maddie was never a baby. She was always thinking, always trying to get a step ahead of the boss.”

  “Her uncle. Who should have been protecting her. Us,” she added when his eyes narrowed in surprise. She was breaking her cover, and in that moment, she didn’t care. She wanted to kill him.

  Brody came close, slipped an arm around her. “Honey? You getting low blood sugar again?”

  Honey. That broke her concentration, having Brody call her honey. “Yeah.” God, she needed air. Or something. “Food.”

  Tiny Tim gave the martyr sigh again. “Same old demands.”

  Leena. You’re Leena . . . Maddie needed to believe it. She also needed a grip, a big one, especially with Brody all ears, soaking up bunches of information that she hadn’t wanted him to have.

  Tiny Tim shrugged, apparently unconcerned about the hammer in her hand or the urge she had to smash it over his head. “Pretty damn ungrateful. Rick fed and clothed you both for years, kept a roof over your heads when he could have sent you away.”

  “There was no one to send us to.”

  “Exactly. He kept you out of the goodness of his heart. And that wasn’t easy. You two were a handful, especially your sister. She was wild and out of control.”

  “She was not out of control.”

  “She required a strict hand.”

  There was a difference between a heavy hand and abuse, but she wasn’t going there. Not with Brody suddenly looking ready to do some violence of his own. “I have work to do.”

  “Yeah.” Carefully, Tiny Tim took the hammer out of her hand and set it down. “Maddie was most definitely different. She’d have had the balls to come at me with that thing. She had a set of cajones, that girl. Not to mention more curves on her bones than you.” He looked her up and down. “Though that’s changing a little bit now. Guess marriage is agreeing with you.” He reached out to touch, and two things happened simultaneously: Brody straightened to attention, and Maddie smacked Tiny Tim’s hand away herself.

  “Don’t touch,” she said through her teeth.

  “Married,” Brody said through his.

  With a last careless shrug, Tiny Tim left.

  The tension didn’t. In fact, the silence was oppressive. Pretending she didn’t feel it, she pulled the stool out from beneath the worktable.

  “Well, wasn’t that a nice little walk down memory lane for you.”

  Not fooled for one instant by the calm cool in his voice, she sat at the stool and resisted setting her head down on the table and giving in to a moment of self-pity.

  She didn’t do self-pity.

  Ever.

  Spreading out the designs, she didn’t look at him. She didn’t need to in order to sense his escalating tension and anger. It was in his careful control of his every movement.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  Lifting her head, she met his gaze.

  He’d asked the question softly, but she could tell he was doing his best not to tear something apart.

  “Yes.” She had no choice but to be okay. The two of them were locked in down here; she knew that without checking the door.

  They’d remain here until Rick decided she’d done enough work for the time being, or maybe he wouldn’t send anyone for them until she was completely finished.

  Or maybe he’d figure out she wasn’t Leena and he wouldn’t come at all. Yeah, she was okay . . .

  Except she wasn’t. She was the opposite of okay, really, because she couldn’t breathe and the walls were closing in on her.

  Brody took a step toward her, but she held up a hand to ward him off.

  Because she was fine.

  Suffocating but fine.

  “Fuck this,” she heard as if from a great distance, and then two strong, warm arms slipped around her.

  She closed her eyes. A silly defense, she knew. Silly, and pathetic, but she still couldn’t breathe. “Brody?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Promise you won’t say I told you so.”

  “Why would I say that?”

  “Because I’m going to say something.” She set her head on his chest. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  Cupping her jaw, he tilted it up to his, and then those pewter eyes were holding hers, his fierce and determined. “I won’t throw that back in your face until this is over.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “You’re not breathing.”

  “Trying.”

  “Try harder.”

  She did, and he waited patiently, nodding when she managed. “Okay, then. Let’s get this over with.”

  It was exactly what she needed. If he’d given any more sympathy or worse yet, pity, she’d have probably fallen apart.

  And he knew it.

  Knew her.

  God, she could really fall for him.

  Damn it.

  Slapping his hands away, she stepped back and faced the table. She had work to do.

  And a plan to get back to.

  If she ever found Leena, that is . . .

  “You can do this.”

  Yeah. He stood just behind her, so strong and sure.

  So capable.

  Fitting so effortlessly into her life the past two days. Walking away from him was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever done. But she’d face that when she got there. With new resolve, she reached for the bezel and gold sheet and got to work.

  Chapter 21

  Wearing goggles and a thick apron, Maddie hunched over that worktable for four hours, and for most of that time, Brody watched her, stunned by the amount of work involved in creating a piece of jewelry.

  About an hour in, Tiny Tim brought a tray of fancy finger sandwiches that were nothing but a bite each.

  He’d have rather had McDonald’s.

  “Trust me,” Maddie told him at one point, the goggles magnifying her baby blues to huge proportions. “This really shouldn’t be taking this long.”

  Meaning Leena could have done it faster. But certainly not better, for Maddie paid excruciating attention to detail, and he supposed she had to. It had to look professional. Better than professional.

  It had to look designer.

  Brody didn’t envy her the job, but he sure as hell wished he could help because he was not used to standing around with nothing to do but worry.

  “Nearly there,” Maddie told him. “I just have to solder the bezel and ornamental border onto the gold sheet.” When she’d done that, she reached for a small handheld saw. “And cut around the border so the edges aren’t visible from the front.” She tapered the backing sheet so that it flowed smoothly into the round wire border. “The stone is translucent,” she murmured, head bent over her work, goggles in place, tongue caught between her teeth in concentration, “so the light can enter the stone from behind.” She stopped and shook her head at herself as if surprised to find she’d remembered more than she’d thought.

  “You ever think about cutting some corners?” And speeding this process up? he continued to himself.

  She tipped her goggles up to her forehead and slanted him a look. Her shiny auburn hair was standing straight up above the oversized, thick goggles, and there was just something about the way she sat there looking like a tech geek that revved his engines.

  Unbelievable, but even here in the middle of deep shit trouble, she did him in.

  “You can’t cut corners,” she said.

  He arched a brow, implying that yeah, she could, and maybe she should. After all, maybe if she did some shoddy work, Rick’s little game would be exposed. And how in the hell that would be a bad thing was beyond him. Leena would be incriminated, but surely, she could come up with some sort of a plea that the law would buy.

  And yet he could tell by the look on Maddie’s face that it wasn’t a ga