Superb and Sexy (Sky High Air #3)(41)

“I took a bullet.”

“Yes.” His hands tightened reflexively into fists. He still couldn’t even think about it without rage exploding through his body. “But you’re recovering more than you let on.”

“You wanted me to be weak.”

“I wanted you to be honest.”

“Honesty is not always the best policy. Especially in this case.”

He stared at her, then shook his head. “We’re going to have to agree to disagree there, babe. Now back to the important stuff.”

“I’m done discussing my vibrator.”

“The other important stuff. What exactly does Rick want Leena for so badly that he’s willing to threaten you to get it?”

“You’re like a bulldog. Anyone ever tell you that?”

“All the time. So…?”

“Rick’s my father’s brother.”

“And your father is…”

“Dead. Rick runs the fancy import-export gem company, bringing mostly unrefined jewels into the States. He needs Leena. Leena designs jewelry for those gems. Now if you could go to your room, I could get some sleep.”

“What? No cuddling?”

She crossed her arms and shot him a get-real look, so he decided not to admit that holding her for the rest of the night wouldn’t have been a hardship. “What else does Rick do?”

“Depends on who’s asking. If you’re Uncle Sam or the IRS, then that’s it. If you’re a company who buys unrefined gems to turn into jewelry designed and created on spec, then sometimes there’s other things.”

Ah. Now they were getting somewhere. “Such as?”

“Such as the occasional imitation gem that looks as good as the real thing but is worth a fraction of the promised item.”

“There’s probably good money in the swindle scam business, huh?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“So Leena knew she was working the wrong side of the law?”

She sighed. “Aren’t you tired?”

“Not in the least. But if you’d rather take those pjs off and show me the six-minute vibrator trick…”

The look she shot him threatened his family jewels. “Tell me this, at least. What does all of this have to do with you?”

“Nothing, really. I left Stone Cay when I was sixteen. But Leena recently decided to leave, too, and Rick…objected.”

“Objected how?”

“Most of Leena’s work is legitimate designs and creations.”

“Most but not all.”

She agreed with a slight nod. “Once in a while, he pressures her to do a job that isn’t on the up and up. He needs her to set the gems. Both the real ones and the fakes.”

“Why does she do it?”

“Fear.”

He shook his head. “Not good enough.”

“You’ve got a penis,” she pointed out. “You don’t feel fear like a woman can.”

“Come on, Maddie. She has the law on her side.”

Her expression didn’t change, but he got a really bad feeling. “Okay, why doesn’t she have the law on her side?”

“Ten years ago, she had a…” Something flickered across her face then, unhappy memories, and his bad feeling doubled. “…Disagreement with one of Rick’s underlings.”

“What happened?” Whatever it was, it was big.

“Manny came up dead the next day.”

Yeah. Big.

“Rick linked Leena to the guy’s death. He says he’ll bring her up on murder charges if she leaves him.”

“To which she said too bad, so sad and left anyway?”

“To which she caved. She was afraid, Brody.”

Yes, and she wasn’t the only one. Maddie had been afraid, too. Terrified. It was there in her eyes. “What sort of disagreement exactly?”

“Leena dated Manny. Once.”

“What about the dead part? Did she do that, too?”

“No.” Her voice was tight, certain. “No, she didn’t.”

“And so you stopping Leena from working now is going to accomplish what? Allow her to make her great escape while you put yourself at risk for someone who should have walked away years ago? Because she should know Rick isn’t going to turn her in—it’ll expose himself.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Help me to.”

“It’s the middle of the night. I’m going to sleep.”

“And then?”

“And then, I’m going to the docks to get my sister.”

“And when Rick comes after you for stopping her?”

“That’s a worry for another day.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Tapping her foot, she stared at him. Silent.

But he was done with silence. “Am I going to wake up and find you gone, Maddie?”

“You’re my pilot. How gone can I get?”

“There’s always a commercial flight.”

She wrinkled her nose and nearly made him laugh. She was a food snob and a plane snob.

“Look, you should really just wait here anyway. You don’t need to risk yourself for Leena—”