Page 103 of Smoke Screen
“Brendan Eckert. He didn’t have any ID on him, but they ran his prints. He’s in the system. A career thief.”
Did she know that name? Had she run across it anywhere? No. Not that she recalled. “Do you think there’s anything on the phone that can help us? The photos he showed you. Will you be able to figure out where the jewels are?”
“I don’t know. It’s a warehouse with an iron fence. It could be anywhere in the Charlotte area. Cruz and Rohan are playing with the images, seeing if there’s anything distinguishable. Maybe in the background or something. There might be metadata they can grab.” He shrugged. “We’ll see.”
All of this work to find stolen jewels. Yes, they’d be paid a hefty fee, she knew that for sure, but they’d gone beyond their job to help her. Phin specifically.
She held his gaze for a minute, soaking in every inch of his face. The long, straight nose, the bit of stubble over carved cheekbones. Perfection. Phin perfection anyway. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Everything. Helping me. Giving me a place to hide from reporters. All of it. You’ve done so much, including battling with your brothers, for me. You’re a good man, Phin Blackwell.”
“It was the right thing to do. And, as for my brothers, it’s not a normal day around here if we’re not fighting.”
The warm gush of a smile made it to her face. Phin did that to her. Made her happy.
She wanted him. Quite badly. Wanted to feel his hands on her. His lips on her. Maybe it was the trauma of the day, the stress of the last week or maybe she just needed the connection.
“You know,” she said, “don’t take this in a weird way.”
What was she doing? Jumping in like this.
Again.
“Maybe take it weird. I don’t know. All I know is that someone shot at us this afternoon and we could be in a morgue right now.”
She closed her eyes, thought of beaches and sunny skies and the crash of the ocean. Anything to get the memory of Brendan Eckert on the pavement from her mind. She opened her eyes, found Phin staring at her with his electric gaze she’d never forget. “I’m doing it again.”
“What?”
She let out a strangled laugh. “That thing I do. I fall hard for certain men. Thinking I see in them what I want. What makes me feel good and warm and …safe. It’s like an addiction, this love thing. Iloveto be in a relationship. But every time I think it’s going great, it somehow doesn’t work out and I question—question, question, question—my choices. It’s a brutal cycle that tears me up.”
His eyebrows hiked up a fraction. A barely noticeable move—oh, Phin was so good at masking his feelings—that let her know she might be freaking him out. Scaring him off before they even got anywhere.
Good. At least she’d know now. Before it got worse for her.
“Um,” he flashed that Phin smile, rolled his hand in front of him, “just making sure you’re thinking straight here.” He threw up his hands. “Not that, you know, this doesn’t all sound amazing to me because it does. Really amazing. We gotta make sure, though. That you’re not feeling something only because of what happened today. That would be bad. For me. Really bad. So, I want to make sure.”
Make sure? Hello? Had she not been clear? “Phin?”
“Yeah?”
“What the hell are you talking about? I’m basically throwing myself at you. What is it you need confirmation on?”
“I need to be sure this is what you want. That your wires aren’t crossed. Because I’m about to bang the hell out of you.”
20
What was happening?
Phin Blackwell, asshole supreme, totally taking advantage of a woman in a vulnerable state.
With his mother right downstairs.
Oh, man. He needed to get that thought out of his mind.
Maddy’s head lopped forward. “You want to bang the hell out of me?”
