Page 144 of Family Jewels

The vision lasted a second or two, but when I opened my eyes and said, “You’re not gonna screw Trixie for a week or your balls will fall off,” the look in his eyes told me I’d just scared him even more.

He cast a glance over to Neely Kate, then said in a panicked tone, “Fine! I won’t touch her!”

Turning toward James, I tried to control my expression.Theywere scared ofme? “Do you have anything you’d like to address, Mr. Malcolm?”

His face remained impassive, but the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth told me he was fighting a grin. “No. I think you’ve covered it all.”

I pivoted back to the troublemakers on the other side. “We’re done here. Don’t make me call you back. I won’t be so lenient next time.”

Buck snatched up the necklace, and the men beat a hasty retreat to the door. Before they left, Hugh glanced back at me and winked.

When the door closed behind them, I let myself relax slightly, even though I was far from finished. It was time to deal with James.

I shifted and took a few steps so I was standing in front of James, the table between us, my heels echoing in the empty space. “No argument about handing the necklace over to Buck Reynolds?”

“I’m not happy about it, but you handled it well. The look on his face when he thought you were going to smash it would have been enough to make it worthwhile.” He held my gaze. “You forced a vision.”

“I had to be sure he’d honor the agreement.”

“And will he?”

“For the time being. He’s scared of me and Neely Kate.”

“It was pretty effective when you told him you didn’t work for Skeeter,” Jed said with a grin. “That you’d only joined forces with him.”

“I meant every word.”

Jed’s grin faded.

I turned back to James. “You were going to make me look like a fool, James Malcolm.”

He stood. “I never would have let that happen.”

“You deceived me.”

The emotion in his eyes shuttered closed.

I pressed on. “You’ve come to me with information about your world for months now, and I never once thought of using it for my own personal gain behind your back. I never strung you along trying to get information.”

He clenched his fists at his sides. “Rose, goddamnit, that’s not how it was.”

I put a hand on my hip. “Then how was it? Because here’s how it looks to me—you found out that I was looking for the necklace, and once you realized how much it might be worth, you decided you wanted it for yourself. And when you found out it belonged to Buck Reynolds . . . well, that’s quite the trophy, isn’t it? Tell me if I’ve gotten any of this wrong.”

He remained silent.

“So you let me and Neely Kate do all the grunt work, but you sent Jed to follow us around in case we actually happened to find it.”

His jaw set with anger. “That’s not true. He was there to protect you.”

“Well, then he was there for dual purposes. Lucky you. You got a twofer.”

“He was never going to take it from you.”

“But he wasn’t going to let me turn it over to Raddy either, was he?”

Silence.

Dammit. He wasn’t even trying to lie to deny it.

---