“Brody wasn’t snatched,” Maddie told her. “He bullied his way along.”
“I came along,” Brody said. “Because you were going to be stupid about it.”
“Oh, so he calls the woman with the knife stupid,” Maddie said to the room.
“I didn’t call you stupid. Your plan is stupid. And don’t even bother yelling at me. You can yell at me all you want when we get off this island.”
“Count on it,” she promised. “Okay, a new plan. I’ve got a knife and a gun, so-”
“Wait a minute.” Brody reached out for her. Finally got her. Fisting his fingers in her shirt, he yanked her close.
When she tried to knee him, he did as she’d done to him the other day-he pinched her ass.
“Hey!”
Oops. Wrong sister. “Sorry.”
“You pinched my ass!”
“What?” Ben asked. “He did what?”
Brody felt around for the right sister. The one who drove him crazy. Snagging her, he held tight. “I’ll take one of those weapons.”
“Leena has tools in here. We can all arm ourselves, right, Leena?”
This was tricky in the dark, but Brody somehow ended up with a hammer, though he’d managed to hold on to Maddie as well. “You have a gun and a knife, and I’m stuck with a hammer?”
“I realize that goes against your Boy Code of Ridiculous Ego and Controller, but I’ll protect you.”
“Give me one or the other.”
“Fine.” She slapped the knife into his hand. “No stupid heroics, do you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, and back attcha.” He tightened his grip on her. “Did you really say you love me?”
“Actually, what I said was, I lied when I said I didn’t.”
“Jesus. Was that in English?”
She fisted her hands in his shirt. “You said no good-byes, not like this.”
“Maddie-”
“Listen to me. I want to know you’re going to fly another day, okay? I want to picture you standing in the lobby of Sky High with your iPod making you deaf before your time, buying candy bars by the dozen out of the vending machine, dating any of those fancy schmancy bimbos you favor-”
“Dating?”
“Real world, remember? You’re going back to it.”
“That’s right,” Leena said. “That includes you too, Ben. Now this is my fight, so all of you, stand back.”
“No way in hell,” Ben said tightly.
“Ditto,” Brody said just as tightly.
But the decision was taken out of all of their hands when the door opened and light flooded into the room.
“Clearly,” Rick said from the doorway, “we have a little problem.”
No one answered. No point when they all knew they were the little problem.
“My men wanted to deal with you,” Rick said, “since you’ve made fools of a couple of them.”
“Not that difficult to do,” Maddie muttered.
Rick’s eyes narrowed. “I plan to give them their wish. But I wanted a private moment first. You two…” He divided a look between Leena and Maddie, clearly unable to tell them apart. “You banded together to trick me.”
“We wouldn’t have if you’d just let us go,” Leena said.
Rick eyed her standing on the other side of the shelving unit from Maddie and then shifted to Maddie. “Dammit. Who’s who?”
Neither answered.
“Fine.” Rick lifted a gun. “I’ll hire another designer.”
Brody’s heart all but stopped.
Maddie’s eyes flashed. “You’re not going to shoot your own flesh and blood.”
“Try me.”
No one tried him. No one moved.
“Now,” Rick said with far less patience, “will the real Maddie step forward, please.”
Brody didn’t dare look at Maddie and give her away, but he did send her a mental DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.
Again, no one moved. For Brody’s part, he didn’t even breathe.
Rick stepped farther into the room.
Ben was beside Leena. Brody was where Maddie had left him, between the door and the work area, which meant he was closest to Rick.
With a hammer in one hand and a knife in the other.
Giving him a wide berth, Rick passed by, heading toward the sisters. “Come on, Maddie. Be brave. There’s going to be a tragic accident.”
“You’re going to die?” Leena asked hopefully.
“Oh, no.” He smiled, and the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. “It won’t be me. Maddie’s going to drown.”
At that, Brody fingered the knife. Throwing it across the room was a maneuver effective only in the movies, so he needed to get closer.
“Terribly tragic, of course,” Rick lamented. “Leena’ll be so distraught.” He waited for one of the twins to give herself away. “You’ll stay here and work for me, of course. You girls have been so busy fucking with me, I never did get to tell you. I’m expanding our design and spec business.”
“You mean swindling business.” This from Maddie.
Rick acknowledged her words with a little bow of his head. “So you can see why it’s best if our designer is here full time.”
Brody just gripped the handle of the knife and did his best to bide his time. And breathe.
“Maddie will step forward now,” Rick commanded softly, no longer smiling. “Or would you rather I call in Tiny Tim, who’ll figure it out for me.”
There was only one way Brody could think of for Tiny Tim to do that, and that was by stripping down the twins and checking for that birthmark on the back of Maddie’s thigh. Yeah, this was going to get ugly quick, and clearly, Maddie knew it because she stepped forward.
Brody immediately moved to stand next to her, but Rick stepped in his path, blocking him, lifting the gun and pointing it right at his chest. “You, my friend, are expendable. Do not forget that. Now drop that knife.”
Brody turned his head and looked at Maddie, intending to tell her not to do anything stupid after he was gone because it was pretty damn clear that this wasn’t going to end well for him.
“Drop it.” To emphasize the request, Rick cocked the gun in his hand.
Hating this, Brody dropped the knife.
The look on Maddie’s face said she knew she was now faced with a choice-save herself or save him. A few months ago, he’d have bet money on what she’d do. After all, he drove her crazy, and the feeling was mutual.
She’d have killed him herself.
Now she looked at him, the horror and regret heavy in her eyes. Her heart there, too, for the first time, visible to him, all of it.
He knew how she moved, how she thought. He’d been with her naked and not so naked, and he knew in his gut that there was nothing, nothing at all, that she could reveal about herself that would change his mind.
He was in this, heart and soul.
Knowing it, he stepped forward, closer to the barrel of Rick’s gun. “You’re not taking Maddie.”
Ben stepped forward, too, adding his voice to Brody’s. “You’re not taking anyone.”
Rick’s gaze narrowed, wavering on each of the four of them in turn. His gun, however, did not waver, not one bit. “Are you kidding me?”
Maddie put her hand in front of Brody and shoved him back a step.
Then Leena elbowed both Maddie and Brody back. “I told you! My fight.”
Brody was getting damn tired of getting shoved while trying to save his woman, but then Leena grabbed the barrel of the gun herself and put it against her chest. “It’s me you want. Tiny Tim,” she yelled toward the door. “This doesn’t involve you. Just stay back.”
Uncle Rick craned his neck to glance at the door, but there was no one in the doorway. In that split second, Leena grabbed a wickedly sharp chisel from her shelf and swung it at Rick.
Rick, no slouch in the quick mover department, sensed her motion and whipped back, aiming at Brody-except that Maddie threw herself in front of him as a shield, screaming “Nooooo.”
Brody might have yelled, too. He couldn’t tell over the roar of adrenaline in his body as he wrapped Maddie in his arms and tried to pivot to protect her, but the woman was strong and determined, and still screaming in his ear as she shoved with all her might.