“There’s nothing here,” she said after a moment, sounding bitterly disappointed. “Nothing I can take with me.”
“Shut it down then; we’re done.”
“Yes,” she said, agreeing with him for once, though the victory felt hollow because she was quiet, too quiet, which meant he had to rein in his own urge to go postal. If she was going to be coolheaded and calm, then fuck it, he’d be coolheaded and calm, too. Being taped while in the shower? No sweat. He wasn’t even going to blink.
Hardest thing he’d ever done.
“You look all calm,” she said. “But I know you’ve got to be just as pissed off as I am.”
That she knew him, that she’d admit it completely disarmed him for a moment. Disarmed and charmed. “Yes.” He let out a breath. “Very.”
“I’m not sure what to do now.”
This admission was even bigger, and he reached for her hand. “We can’t leave until dawn.”
“No.”
“Then I think you know exactly what you want to do next.”
“Yeah. I know you think it’s stupid to search, but…”
He hated buts. Unless it was her butt. Her bare butt-
“But I have to get some proof of Rick’s activities. If I don’t and he follows through with his threats, it won’t be Leena going to jail.” She let out a breath. “It’ll be me.”
“For what?” he asked in disbelief.
“If I tell you, this conversation is going to deteriorate pretty quickly.” She turned away. “In fact, your feelings for me are going to deteriorate pretty quickly.”
“Not possible,” he said flatly, turning her back to him. If she thought she’d be going to jail for killing Rick, then no way because he was going to be the one to do it. “Tell me.”
She let out another long breath. “Leena didn’t kill Manny. I did.” And with that, she headed to the door.
Maddie got as far as reaching for the door handle before Brody managed to grab her hand and halt her progress.
She couldn’t blame him-she’d just dropped quite a bomb. She’d hoped to never have to tell him about killing Manny. She’d hoped to never have to tell anyone.
Brody just stared at her, the air weighted with his disbelief and shock. “What did you say?”
“I killed Manny.”
“Come on.” He didn’t want to believe her. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously.” He probably hadn’t slept with very many murderers. She understood that, too. He wanted answers; of course, he wanted answers. He might have grown up rough, but he had morals and values, and right about now, he had to be wondering at hers.
She’d wondered herself, many times. She had killed Manny. Nothing could change that, not more time and certainly not discussing it, so she went to move away again, but he caught her arm.
“Wait.” Backing her to the door, he cupped her face, tilting it up to look into his.
She put her hands on his wrists to tug clear of him but somehow ended up holding on because he felt like the only steady thing in a world gone a little crazy. “Searching,” she said. “We’re supposed to be-”
“In a minute. Tell me about Manny. Leena was dating him?”
“She liked him. As in she was sixteen and she had a sixteen-year-old silly crush on a twenty-two-year-old thug.”
“Let me guess. And he took advantage.”
Clearly, he’d been here on Stone Cay long enough today to know what kind of men they were dealing with. “On our sixteenth birthday, he brought her wildflowers, and she liked that so she kissed him. On the cheek. Thinking that was a come-on, he kissed her back. She liked that, too, and that night, she left her bedroom door unlocked so he could come up. She just wanted more kisses, not thinking about the fact that he’d expect more than that.”
Brody let out a breath. “I’m not going to like the rest of this story, am I?”
“When Leena said no more, Manny didn’t want to stop.”
“Yeah, I was right,” he said tightly. “I’m not going to like this story at all.”
“He got a little rough, so she ran out of her bedroom to the top of the stairs, looking for me. She was crying, and her nightgown was ripped, and I-” Maddie shook her head, remembering it so clearly she could still taste the tropical rain that had been on the air that night, still smell the scent of blood.
Manny’s blood.
“He was going to rape her.” She remembered the feel of the kitchen knife in her hand, how easily she’d gripped it, how it had felt watching Manny turn to her when she’d called his name. “I’m not sorry. In fact, I’d do it again if I had to; I’d kill him all over again-”
“Shh,” Brody said and yanked her close, hugging her tight. “Don’t say it. Not here.”
In his voice was fear, for her, and she nearly broke right then. “I have to get proof, Brody.”
“Yeah, we do. Would Leena have kept a laptop in her workshop?”
“Maybe. I didn’t think to look before.”
“Let’s look now.”
Let’s.
That was a word she hadn’t used often, or accepted, but the sound of it right now was like a balm to her bruised soul. “You should wait here. You don’t have to-” She broke off at the look on his face, fierce yet solid.
No, he didn’t have to do anything, but he was coming with her regardless.
“We’ll need a cover in case we’re caught,” she said.
“We’re on our honeymoon. Honeymooners like to do it in every room.” He accompanied this with an extremely husband-to-wife look that made her knees wobble.
Pretend. They were pretending to be on their honeymoon.
They didn’t run into anyone, for which she was grateful, but they did find the workroom locked.
Maddie pulled a set of keys from her pocket.
Brody just stared at her. “How did-”
“Stole them from Rick’s office. I know. I’m going straight to hell.”
“Are you kidding?” He pressed his mouth to her temple. “You’re an angel.”
Well, that was a new one. She’d been called many things, but an angel? Never, and it seemed that every minute that they were together was only making it all the harder to remember that they had a good-bye coming, a big one.
The far wall of the workshop housed a floor-to-ceiling shelving unit filled with things that had given Leena inspiration over the years: books, boxes of cosmetic jewelry, stacks of pictures…
“Your sister’s a pack rat.” Brody came up behind her, his hands settling on her waist. “You doing okay?”
She nodded even though she wasn’t, not by a long shot.
He rubbed his jaw to hers. “You’re not breathing again.”
No. Not breathing. There wasn’t time for breathing. Knowing it, she dropped her forehead to a shelf and absorbed the feeling of him pressing up against her from behind.
That was nice, very nice, but she still wasn’t going to breathe easy until she got them both out of here-
A sound came from the other side of the door, and she jerked upright. “Did you hear that?”
Behind her, Brody went still as stone. “Shh,” he breathed softly.
It came again.
Oh, God.
There was no lock on their side of that door, so they hadn’t been able to generate privacy for this little B &E mission, but Maddie had her own wits for protection, not to mention the knife in her boot and the gun she’d taken from her purse and stuck in her waistband.
They were a second away from being discovered, which was a hell of a time to realize that Brody’s brilliant idea of saying that they’d taken the honeymoon mobile didn’t seem too brilliant.
Not when they were both still fully dressed. “Your shirt,” she hissed. “Give me your shirt!”
While he tugged it over his head, she yanked on the sleeve of her own shirt, revealing a bare shoulder and nearly a breast in her haste to make it look like they were in the throes of passion.
That was as far as she got before the door handle slowly turned.
Chapter 23