She Does Know Jack (34 page)

“Ready?” He
asked when she took up position next to him. “This is Matthew’s make-shift
studio.”

Nodding, she
swept inside when he opened the door and flicked on the lights. Several
unfinished paintings on easels met her gaze. As she worked her way around the
room, she marveled at Matthew’s talent. Even unfinished, the paintings were
incredible, his use of colors stunning and his ability to capture the subject’s
essence staggered the mind. Whether landscape, seascape or portrait, he caught
the heart and soul.

“Matthew’s
something else,” she said, eyeing a portrait of Mandy. The love on the blonde’s
face, and with which the portrait was painted, brought tears to Brielle’s eyes.
She blinked them away, then checked behind the long curtains adorning both
windows. Nothing. She twisted around to survey the room and gasped at the lone
painting in the back row.

Her hand flew to
her heart-filled throat. “That’s…us.”

“What is it?”
Jack rushed to her side. “Oh.”

Her throat
burned with unshed tears. Matthew had captured everything she’d felt for Jack.
Everything
.
Brielle swiped at her wet cheeks and gazed at Jack’s painted face, longing to
touch, but didn’t for fear the paint would smear.

The portrait of
Jack holding her in his arms depicted the man and the mood that night
perfectly. He gazed down at her, those mesmerizing blue eyes smoldering with
all the passion that had flowed between them. She sniffed. That had been before
she’d lost Jack’s trust. Before her heart had cracked open.

“Brielle…”

The hoarseness
in his voice shuddered through her. She didn’t answer, didn’t move—couldn’t—not
until she collected herself.

“Brielle,” he
said again, this time stepping in front of her, his finger gently forcing her
to look up. “Is what Matthew painted…true?”

She blinked.
“I…what do you mean?”

“Did you really
feel that way about me?” His sapphire eyes searched hers, eager, hopeful and
apprehensive at the same time.

This was it.
Finally, her chance to be honest with him. It was a new experience, and one
she’d longed for over the past few weeks. “Yes,” she replied with all her
heart, touching his hand.

He closed his
eyes and swallowed. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Taking a risk, she
burrowed into him, then let out a small sob of relief when his arms closed
around her and crushed her close.

“I’m such a
fool, Brielle,” he said into her neck. “I’m so damn sorry for doubting you—for
not trusting you.” He drew back to stare into her eyes. “I’ve been burned
before. Trust is a big problem for me. Can you ever forgive me?”

She cupped his
face and peered deep into his eyes. “Of course I forgive you.” Her smile
spilled tears down her cheeks. “I know we should get back to work, but I want
you to know that I understand about the trust thing. Matthew told me about
Caroline.” Her thumb skimmed his lip when he opened his mouth. “I had a similar
experience with Grant.

Jack stiffened,
grabbing her hands. “Who’s Grant?”

“He’s a jerk I
foolishly got involved with on a somewhat similar case. Turns out he didn’t
care about me, only the combination to the jewel I had access to.”

“Then he was a
jerk.” Jack wrapped his arms around her and gathered her close again. “He should’ve
realized
you
were the treasure.”

Another wave of
tears rolled down her face. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
She sniffed and held him tighter. “We’ve both been used, Jack, and that made us
foolish. You were right. I should’ve told you my real identity. I’m so sorry I
didn’t tell you right from the start.”

“No.” He shook
his head and drew back again. “You were under orders, something I know all too
well. I had no right to expect you to break them for me. None.”

“I should have.”

The lights went
out, plunging them into darkness and bringing their confessions to a halt.

“Shit, this
isn’t good.”

Jack’s words
echoed her thoughts.

“Rodriguez?
Rodriguez, are you there?” he said into the radio. The blue LED face cast a
small glow between them. “Rodriguez? Damn. Why isn’t he answering?”

“I don’t like
it.” Pulse thumping, Brielle turned to where she’d last seen the cameraman.
“Phil put your light on. I know you’re operating off of a battery so we should
be good.”

After a click,
the room lit up. “I’d forgotten about that, Miss. Good thinking,” he said. “Now
what?”

“Now we go check
on my family.” Jack grabbed her hand and they scrambled to the door. “Douse the
light,” he called over his shoulder as they entered the hall.

After her vision
adjusted to the dark, she turned and hurried to the stairs with Jack. The
moon’s soft glow spilled through the high windows to reveal an empty foyer. She
gave him the thumbs up, and they scurried downstairs. When they stepped off the
bottom step, a faint rustling sound hit her ears. She stilled.

Jack leaned in
and whispered, “Did you hear that?”

“Yes, sounds
like it’s coming from the gathering room,” she replied in his ear and felt his
roughened cheek brush hers in a nod.

She slipped off
her heels, then stealthily crossed the marbled floor, not stopping until they
were outside the closed gathering room doors.

“Briel—” The muffled
cry came from inside and stopped Brielle’s heart.

Mandy.

God, she wished
she had her gun.

Now that she was
shoeless, Jack bent down, pressing his mouth near her ear. “Once inside, you go
left, I’ll go right. Here, take my gun.” Cold steel touched her palm, but she
shook her head.

“No,” she
whispered back, positively refusing to allow him to go into a dangerous
situation without a weapon. She was the idiot who lost hers, not him. “I’ll be
all right. You keep it.”

He opened his
mouth, but she cut him off. “I don’t need it. Honest.”

“Too bad. You’re
taking it,” he said, voice full of the steel determination coiling his hard
body. He released the clip to check it, then cursed.

“What?”

He tipped the
chamber for her view. “It’s empty.”

Son-of-a…
Her heart
nearly pounded through her chest. “What is going on, Jack?”

“I don’t know,
but I think we should go back to the dining room. I want you to stay there.
I’ll bring Rodriguez back with me.”

And she finally
saw the side to him his mother had warned her about. The one where he didn’t
want her in harm’s way. What surprised Brielle the most was her lack of anger.
She understood his request. Was warmed by his request. He wasn’t trying to
control her; he didn’t want her harmed. She meant too much to him.

And that’s when
she knew.

She cupped his
face and kissed him hard on the lips, then took advantage of his surprise and
stepped back before he could pull her close.  “You and I can handle this.”

Jack opened his
mouth as if to protest, then clamped his jaw tight in an apparent attempt to
come to terms with the fact the woman he cared for could actually handle the
situation. His gaze softened, and he reached out to touch her cheek.

“I’m beginning
to see, together, you and I can handle anything.”

Unrestricted joy
burst the last remaining bands from Brielle’s chest. She leaned into the hand
on her cheek and nodded, never losing eye contact. “I see that, too.”

Warmth entered
Jack’s gaze, and he stared at her a moment before his expression turned
serious.  “You ready?” He searched her face for signs of reluctance.

Brielle knew he
wouldn’t find any. She was more than ready to rescue Mandy, take down the
culprit who’d made her life hell the past few weeks, and then get on with her
life…with Jack. They still had more air to clear, and she wanted that. No more
secrets. No lies. Just good old-fashion honesty. Brielle had already bared her
body, now she was willing to bare her heart and soul to the man she’d fallen in
love with.

“You bet I’m
ready.”

His gaze
narrowed slightly, no doubt detecting a double meaning in her tone. With a swift
move, he brushed her lips with his. “Be careful.” Gaze intense, he lingered a
moment before dropping his hand. “And don’t forget about the landing and
stairs,” he reminded, holstering his gun.

“Okay,” she
whispered back, adrenaline rushing through her body. “On three.”

He nodded.

“One. Two.
Three.”

He opened the
door and together they slipped inside the pitch-black room. With the heavy
drapes closed, the moon’s light stayed outside, leaving the room in total
darkness. She couldn’t even see her own hands.

Experience and
adrenaline kicked in and turned her into a calm, controlled machine, relying on
her heightened senses. Tension crackled in the air. Someone was definitely in
there with them. Listening for movement, she quickly recalled the furniture
layout and made her way off the landing and into the room. About to investigate
a noise to her left, a hand clamped around her shoulder.

Without
hesitation, Brielle grasped the wrist—noting the coarse hairs under her
fingertips—and flipped the male assailant over her shoulder. His grunt echoed
around her when he hit the floor. Hard. A similar struggle sounded to her
right.

Damn. That meant
there were two culprits. Maybe more. She twisted her assailant’s arm to keep
him on the floor and had her foot on his back as she listened for further
movement.

“Brielle, are
you okay?” Jack called out.

“Yes,” she
replied a second before the lights unexpectedly came back on. Blinking at the
sudden brightness, she took in the room’s clapping occupants, then glanced down
when her assailant spoke.

“That’s
wonderful to hear, hun, but I’m not fine,” he said, trying to turn his head to
look up at her. “Do you think you could release me now?”

Brielle dropped
his arm and gasped. “Uncle Franco?”

C
ompletely confused, Brielle stared at
her uncle. She thought she’d heard Mandy. Why was everyone in here?

She bent and
helped him to his feet. “What are you doing here? I don’t understand.”

“I know you
don’t.” He brushed his sleeves and fixed his tie before meeting her gaze with a
proud smile. “That was some flip.”

“Matthew, you’d
better start talking. Fast.”

Jack’s hostile
voice grabbed her attention, and she turned to watch him extracting his brother
from the floor.

“I’m way out of
patience.”

“I know,”
Matthew repeated her uncle’s words.

“Brielle and
Jack,” Greg, the host, said, emerging from the crowd of familiar, smiling
people, hovering in the corner.

What the heck
were Danni, Carla and Stacy doing there?

She was still
working on an answer when Greg continued, “Welcome to
Meet Your Mate
.”

Oh.

My.

God.

Brielle blinked,
her heart diving past her weak knees, leaving her with no strength and a
sizable amount of pressure in her chest. She glanced around the room of smug
faces.
What did they do?
Her intuition put the puzzle together, and she
wasn't happy with the picture it made.

That would mean…

“Oh, you’ve got
to be…” Voice trailing off, she did a three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn, her
dress spinning in a swirl of aqua and white around her legs.

Carla, Danni,
and Stacy winked at her, while Jack’s staff, the production crew, Mr. and Mrs.
Anderson and her uncle all smiled.
Smiled!

Those…
bastards.

Brielle shook
her head. The past few weeks finally started to make sense. Anger and relief
mixed to take half the stiffness from her shoulders. But only half.
“Unbelievable.”

“What the hell
is going on?” Jack’s mouth thinned, clearly too angry for it to sink in.

She snickered.
“You’re not going to believe this. Hell, I don’t believe it. ” Jamming her
hands on her hips, she stared hard at Matthew and her uncle. “There were never
any threats, were there?”

They grinned
wider and shook their heads. “No.”

Jack bit out an
expletive and Brielle silently applauded his choice of words.

“No?” He
repeated, his eyebrows rising higher than his voice. “What the hell do you mean
no
? I’ve seen them. I’ve heard them.” He advanced on his brother. “If
there weren’t any, then where the hell is Mandy?”

“I’m right
here.” The blonde emerged from behind the crowd, her smile sparkling across the
room.

Brielle drew in
a breath and counted to ten.
I will not kill Mandy, I will not kill Mandy.
 

Oh, how she
wanted to kill Mandy.

And Matthew. And
Uncle Franco. Hell, everyone in the room, except Jack.

She exhaled and
turned to him. “They were all in on it. They played us.” She shook her head,
shock of the revelation wearing off. “None of it was real.”

“What?” Jack’s
gaze narrowed before he turned to glare at Matthew. “All that bullshit about
finding a mate that would love you for you and not your money was just
that—bullshit?”

“Pretty much.”
Matthew rocked back on his heels, a sheepish grin spreading across his lips.

Jack’s fists
clenched and mouth thinned. Brielle knew the signs, but wasn’t quick enough to
step between them as his right hook connected with Matthew’s chin and knocked
the artist to the floor.

“Jack!” His
mother rushed forward with her husband.

“It’s okay, mom.
I suppose I deserved that,” Matthew said, holding his jaw.

“You suppose?”
Jack glared down, eyes narrowed to slits. He grabbed Matthew’s lapels and
lifted him straight to his feet. “You
suppose?
Matthew, do you have any
idea what you put us through? All the worry? All the investigating?”

“Doubting our
abilities,” Brielle added, placing a hand on Jack’s taut bicep. He glanced at
her and nodded.

“Yeah, doubting
ourselves, losing sleep, running around like unguided missiles—”

“Actually, I
found that part particularly entertaining.” Matthew smiled, then winced, hand
flying to his reddening jaw.

“Oh, well, since
it entertained you, then I guess it’s okay.” Jack released his brother with a
push. “What’s not okay was putting Brielle at risk.”

Her gaze snapped
in Jack’s direction. The anger she could feel shaking through his limbs was
because of his concern for her? Brielle’s heart did something it hadn’t done in
a real long time. Swelled. So big in fact, her chest could hardly contain it.

Jack slipped out
of her slackened grasp and stepped toward his brother again. Getting right in
Matthew’s face. “Do you know what it did to me when those boats crashed? When I
knew they were going to hit and I couldn’t help her? Or when she hopped over
the side of the yacht to help your girlfriends? Or each time she entered a damn
room we searched tonight unarmed?”

The raw emotions
in his roughened tone rocked her enlarged heart. He’d been worried on the
yacht? She’d though he’d hated her. Brielle watched, mesmerized as Jack closed
his eyes and swallowed.

“I knew exactly
how you felt,” Matthew replied.

Jack’s eyes
snapped open, and his troubled gaze darkened further as his foolish brother
raised a hand and waved.

“Hello? Artist
here. I read emotions, remember? And just for the record. That boat incident
was
not
planned. We really did run out of gas. We’d never put Brielle in
danger like that.”

“No, never,”
Uncle Franco confirmed. “That was heavenly intervention.”

Matthew winked
at Brielle. “Yeah. You were great going out on the nose like that, tying the
two boats together with your belt—fearless. How could my brother resist?”

“How indeed?”
Jack’s chin rose. Anger tightened his fists and jaw as he glowered at their
audience. “So, you’re telling me that everything was fake? The notes, the phone
calls, Brielle’s clothes, the snake, the girls being thrown over the yacht,
they were all fake?”

“Yes,” Matthew
said, enveloping Mandy in a hug when she neared with the rest of the group.
“There never were any phone calls. I lied.”

Jack cursed
under his breath. “Who wrote the notes?”

“I wrote them,”
Phil said, peeking from behind his camera.

“Hah!” Brielle
slapped her thigh. “I knew there was something off about you!”

“We couldn’t
risk any of you recognizing the writing.” Uncle Franco’s eyes lit with
satisfaction. “I can’t tell you how many times you two almost caught us. And
you…” Her uncle shook his finger at her. “Requesting those cameras to set up in
the security booth. I had to send you broken ones in case we needed to sneak in
there to rewind more tapes.”

Inconceivable.

She rubbed her
bottom. “You have no idea what I had to go through to get those damn cameras.
The shooting competition was easy, but the horse?” She shuddered, then turned
to the girls. “How did you two end up over the side of the yacht?”

“We climbed
over.” They laughed.

Laughed…while
Brielle stared at them slack-jawed, and her brain went into that
does-not-compute
mode again.

Danni’s hands
jammed her hips, pride gleaming from her smiling face. “We practiced that stunt
for weeks and did it all on our own.”

Jack muttered a
curse…or three. “Who the hell are all of you?”

Matthew
chuckled. “They’re all models and actresses, except for one.” His brother
smiled, pulling the blonde closer. “Mandy’s my publicist’s daughter—
and
my girlfriend.”

Brielle choked
out a laugh.
No friggin’ way!

Jack exchanged a
look with her before he expelled a breath and groaned at the ceiling. “You’re
too much, Matthew.”

She turned to
Mandy, and to keep from strangling the girl, Brielle folded her arms across her
chest and asked her a question instead. “So, what exactly do you really do?”

Mandy smiled.
“I’m an engineer for NASA down in Houston.” The voice, no longer clueless, was
tinged with a Texas drawl. “My parents and colleagues felt I needed to loosen
up, so when Matthew mentioned the show, I thought it’d be fun.”

Brielle
scratched her temple, unable to keep from returning the woman’s smile. “That
would explain the bits of intelligence that would cross your face. I swear I
saw you fight it off a few times.”

“I did.
Mandy
the hand model
was tough to play. Thank goodness she’s not me, although she
was a hoot sometimes,” the blonde said, reverting back to her clueless voice.

Matthew hugged
Mandy closer and kissed the top of her head. “You did a great job, honey. I
especially loved the sex-on-the-beach comment about Jack not knowing how.”

Heat shot
through Brielle’s body at the image those words created. She knew better than
anyone in the room, at least she’d better know better than anyone in the room
that Jack certainly knew how to have sex. And just the thought of a rendezvous
with him on the beach was enough to make her damp.

Her gaze shot to
a nearby camera. Cripes. She shifted her weight and fought back a groan. She
was wet on national television.

Apparently
willing to let that one slide, Jack switched his attention to Rodriguez who
suddenly tried to become one with the wall. “I take it you and the men were in
on this, too?”

The wall nodded.
“I was responsible for rewinding the tapes and shutting off cameras when
needed.” Rodriguez glanced at the Andersons and smiled. “How could the men and
I possibly turn your parents down?”

“Indeed,”
Brielle said under her breath, watching Sophia kiss the man’s cheek.

Jack turned to
her uncle. “So, none of the evidence we’d collected was ever processed.”

“Nope. I fed
Rodriguez bogus results, and he passed them back to you.” Uncle Franco winked.
“You kept me hopping, boy.”

“My heart
bleeds.” 

Her uncle turned
to face her. “I swear you nearly caught me watching several times.”

She inhaled
again. Cripes, there wasn’t going to be any air left in the room if she kept
that up. “So, my intuition
was
right. Someone had been watching.
You
were here when I was in the hot tub, and it was
you
I felt watching me
from the yacht!”

Her uncle
nodded, and Jack cursed under his breath.

“I’ve been
sneaking around, watching the two of you since the beginning. So, you see? Your
intuition is gold, Brielle.” Uncle Franco moved to stand in front of her, and
placing his hands on her shoulders, he smiled gently. “You should never doubt
it.”

And just like
that, uncertainty flittered away like a morning fog, and she stood straighter.
All her musings on this case—even though the assignment wasn’t real—had been
correct. There was nothing wrong with her intuition. Nothing.

She smiled and
hugged her uncle tight. “Thank you.”

“Now that that’s
settled. I’d really like to know why?” Jack’s tone was still hard and
aggravated.

She released her
uncle and moved to stand next to Jack, grabbing his hand. “Me, too.”

He squeezed her
fingers while staring at his parents, confusion clouding his gaze. “Why go
through all this? You certainly didn’t need the money from any television
show.” 

His mother
stepped forward. “It wasn’t about money or television, Jack. It was strictly
about you and Brielle.”

“Us?” Brielle glanced
from Jack’s parents to her uncle. “But why?”

“Because the two
of you deserve each other, and no matter what we’ve tried over the past year,
we couldn’t get you two together.” Uncle Franco sighed, shaking his head. “We
had no other choice than to go with desperate measures.”

“This is true.”
Donald Anderson stepped forward to place one hand on his wife’s shoulders and
the other on her uncle’s. “So, when Matthew came to us with the idea, we
contacted Franco...and you know the rest.” 

“Yes, but I
swear it was touch and go for awhile there.” Uncle Franco tsked, shaking his
head. “You two are the most stubborn kids I’ve ever seen. I’ve no idea where
either of you get it.”

If she hadn’t
been in shock from his words, Brielle would’ve laughed. “You went through all
this trouble just to get us together?”

“
Yes
!”
the whole room answered at once at a decibel just below
blow-your-eardrum
loud.

She stared
wide-eyed at them. “But why not just invite us to the same party or something?”

“Yeah.” Jack
lifted his shoulder, gaze still confused. “Why the elaborate set up?”

His mother
reeled back. “You’ve got to be kidding. We tried for months to get you to take
out Franco’s niece, and every time you’d come up with one excuse or another.
And if it wasn’t you, it was her.”