by Vivien Dean
He chuckled. “Well, you’ve got moxie, no doubt about that. But I don’t think I need a private demonstration.” He pursed his lips as he studied her, then nodded. “Okay, you got one shot.” A knock at the door pulled his attention. “What?”
Sammy poked his head in. “The car just pulled up with Cash and Maddy.”
“Get Cash in here,” Lombardi growled.
Ava almost sagged in relief. A familiar face. Finally.
He held the door open for Maddy as she kept her skirts close to her body, careful about not snagging the fragile fabric on anything that might tear it. She had been uncharacteristically silent ever since he’d told her the story of Dubai, and while he was dying to tease her about how long she took to get ready in this world, Cash held his tongue, waiting out the quiet until she reached whatever decision she needed to. It was killing him. He wanted desperately to know what was going on inside her head.
They stopped short when Sammy materialized in front of them. “Mr. Lombardi wants you in his office, Cash,” he said, his eyes darting back to where Maddy stood.
Cash sighed. “Wonder what the hell I’ve done now.” He started to saunter after the manager when Maddy’s voice stopped him.
“Hey!” When he glanced back, she was watching him with a too-wide smile on her face. “Since when don’t I get a goodbye kiss?”
It was part of the charade for the club. It had to be. But as he returned to her side and saw the slight gleam buried in the blue of her eyes, Cash began to wonder if it was something else as well. The wall that usually surrounded Maddy seemed to be lower, more like she was standing right up to it, leaning over, and less like she was thirty yards back and ordering workers to add more bricks to make it taller. Her posture was more relaxed as well, and when she rested a small hand on his jacketed arm, a tremor ran through her fingers.
“You’re going to have to punish me later for forgetting,” he said with a smile.
Maddy chuckled. A moment later, she tilted her mouth upward, offering it without hesitation. Her breath was warm as Cash leaned in, teasing the line of her bottom lip with his tongue before skimming over its surface, trying not to grab her up when her hands lifted to the back of his neck and forced him to intensify the kiss. He wasn’t going to waste time trying to figure out the why. Maddy was too delicious not to appreciate fully in the moment.
She was the first to break away, her breathing ragged, her pupils dilated. Two spots of color were high on her cheeks. “You…better go.”
Pushing a loose strand of hair off her forehead, Cash grimaced. “It’s probably a good thing I have to stand for my job. I don’t think sitting is going to be very comfortable any time soon.”
She laughed and shoved him away. He loved the crystalline timbre of her laugh. He didn’t get to hear it nearly enough. “I’ll see you later.”
Cash turned on his heel and followed Sammy to Lombardi’s office, a noticeable lightness to his step. Humming under his breath, he cast one last glance at Maddy while the manager waited for permission to enter.
The sight of Gino standing just inside the room, arms folded across his burly chest, didn’t surprise Cash in the slightest. It was the dark-haired, scantily clad woman who swiveled to see who was in the doorway that did.
“Cash!” Ava cried out.
Leaping from her chair, she threw herself against him, full breasts smashed to his chest as she hugged him impossibly close. Though he gave her a perfunctory hug back, Cash caught the confused frown on Lombardi’s face and the sudden glower on Gino’s. Carefully, he pushed her away.
“Hang on.” Taking a step back, Cash poked his head out into the hall, spying Maddy as she was about to enter her dressing room. “I think you might want to get in here,” he called out to her.
He held the door open and stepped out of her way as she came into the office. Maddy’s eyes immediately widened.
“Ava! You’re here!”
The two women embraced. The question of whether or not this new arrival would put a crimp in his developing relationship with Maddy gave Cash pause. Somehow, he didn’t think so. Ava had hinted more than once that she thought he should ask Maddy out.
“Where else did you expect her to be?” Lombardi commented in annoyance. The pair guiltily broke apart. “Vacation’s got to end sometime.”
“How are you?” Ava asked Maddy. “Are you okay?”
“Just fine. You know. Considering.” Her blue eyes rolled discreetly, and she gave Ava a small smile.
“Yeah, it’s a little…weird, isn’t it?” Ava brightened. “Oh! But guess what? I get to be on the roster!”
That stopped Maddy. “What?”
“We’ve just been talking about it. Just for tonight, though. I have to prove myself.”
Maddy swept past her to square off with Lombardi. “Take her off,” she ordered.
“She’s the one who asked for it, Cardinale.”
“She’s not…ready.”
Ava grabbed her friend’s arm, turning her around. “Maddy, I really want to do this.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Trust me, Ava,” she said, speaking very deliberately. “You don’t.”
Her smile faded. “I…don’t?”
“I can’t stress it enough.”
Lombardi sighed. “Are you two about done?”
“Yes,” Maddy said. “It’s decided. She doesn’t go on the roster.”
“Fine. Then you dames get out on the floor. You both got jobs to do.”
Gino stepped forward. “What about Ava’s foot?”
All eyes turned to her as she rotated her ankle. “Much better,” she announced. “Nothing bruised or broken except for the old ego.”
“Come on.” Maddy looped her arm through her friend’s and pulled her out the door.
Cash was about to follow, when Lombardi said, “No, you stay. Gino, get your love-struck ass outta my office and get back on the door.”
Maddy pulled Ava aside as soon as they were clear of the others, eyes darting surreptitiously at Sammy hanging around the hall. “Are you really okay?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Ava replied, matching her tone. “How is any of this even possible?”
“That’s going to have to be a Cash story. Trust me. It’s a doozy.” Her gaze traveled over Ava’s clothes. “What are you supposed to be?”
“The cigarette girl—” Her mouth clicked audibly shut as the door opened and Gino came out, hands thrust deep into his pockets. He glanced down at her, blushed, and rushed off, with both women looking after him with a frown. “And I think the bouncer kind of likes me,” she added.
“That’s a trick of the painting,” Maddy said. “It makes up this entire history for you. To make you fit in better, I think.”
The sound of a crash on the other side of the office door was followed by a long stream of English curses, catching both of their attentions. “And I can see that’s really working out for Cash,” Ava commented.
Maddy smiled. “As it turns out, I’m not the only one who has a problem with Cash’s chronic tardiness.”
“What does he do here?”
“He’s a bouncer, like Gino.”
Behind them, Sammy cleared his throat. When they glanced at him, he stuck out his wrist, waving his watch in their general direction.
“I think that’s our cue,” Maddy said. They were halfway to the door that led to the club when she grabbed Ava’s elbow, pulling her close again in order to speak softly in her ear. “Oh, and if anyone says anything about me and Cash, just…go with the flow, okay? Don’t argue with what you might hear. I’ll explain everything after—”
“The clock’s ticking, ladies.”
With one last dirty look at Sammy, Maddy pressed her lips together and pushed the door open. The rich blare of a trumpet filled the back halls as she and Ava stepped out into the brilliant club lights.
Chapter Eleven
Hugging the wall, her eyes darted around the darkness of the back hall in search of Sammy’s lurking presence. He had been very clear about when she was supposed to take her break, and in light of her earlier troubles with him and Mr. Lombardi, Ava knew she had to be careful she didn’t get caught sneaking away ten minutes early. He didn’t like her very much, and twice he’d scolded her for some imagined infraction. Whatever history the painting had created for her, she didn’t think excelling at her job was part of it.
She slipped into the first dressing room she found and immediately toed the shoes off her feet. The relief was palpable, and she sighed in bliss as she sagged against the door. Finally. Nothing had ever felt so good.
Her respite was short-lived. Muffled crying emanated from the far end of the room, distracting Ava from her discomfort. Though it looked like she was alone, there was another door on the far wall, drawing her closer as she sought out the source of the tears. Hesitantly, she opened it, and the sound grew instantly louder.
Peering into the dark closet, Ava could just make out a huddled form in the corner and took a step inside to get a better look. It was a woman, blonde, dressed in one of the vivid gowns from the dance floor. Ava’s presence prompted her to look up.
“Go away,” she said through her tears.
Ignoring the command, Ava stepped forward, crouching down to meet her eye to eye. “What’s wrong?”
The blonde wiped at the makeup leaving black streaks down her cheeks. “Oh, like you care,” she spat. “She’s your friend. She’s happy, you’re happy, and who cares what anyone else is feeling.”
Ava’s mind whirled. Being thrust into the middle of all these situations without knowing what was going on brought back nerve-wracking memories from high school when she’d been forced to take a drama class and suffered a semester full of actors’ nightmares. She was in the middle of another play and didn’t know her lines. Time to improvise.
“You want to talk about it?” That was safe. It also might give her more information she could use to get on in this world. “Sometimes it helps if you can get it out of your system.”
“He just used me,” the other woman murmured, her dark eyes averted as she rocked on the floor of the closet. “All along. I didn’t mean anything to him.”
“Who? Who are you talking about?”
She ignored the question, her lip curling into a sneer. “You should’ve seen him last night. He was all over her, holding her, dancing with her, laughing at her stupid little jokes. I even went up and asked him for a dance, you know, for old time’s sake, and he brushed me off. Said last night was for her.” She looked up at Ava, her eyes brimming with tears. “Why do they do that? They tell you they love you, and then someone else comes along, and bam! It’s like you never existed.”
Ava sighed. She didn’t need specifics to understand this. Men could be jerks, no matter what world they were in. “Most men have the self-control of a bunny in heat. It’s got nothing to do with you.”
The blonde laughed, in spite of her tears. “Yeah. Control isn’t exactly Cash’s strong suit.”
Though it was finally a name to put with the description, Ava was stunned into silence. She’d had a thing with Cash? Except, not the real Cash, she reminded herself. He hadn’t been gone long enough for that to happen. But who was this other woman she was talking about?
Then it dawned on her. She’s your friend. It could only mean Maddy.
“He can’t just get away with this.” Her tears had stopped, and she struggled with her voluminous skirts as she rose to her feet. “You can’t play with someone’s emotions like they don’t mean anything. It’s not right.”
Stunned, Ava could only watch as the blonde reached for a long coat, her hand disappearing into a side pocket before extracting a tiny gun. The sight of it made Ava bolt upright, but the sudden movement put her weight on her weakened ankle, and she wobbled to keep her balance.
“You don’t want to do this,” she said.
The blonde shook her head. “Of course, you don’t understand. You were so quick to move out when he moved in with Maddy, to give them space, you said. They need quality alone time. You’ve been on their side all along.”
“I’m not on anyone’s side! I’m totally sideless!”
“I wish I could believe that. I’m really sorry, Ava.”
Maybe it was because she was distracted by the pain in her foot. Maybe it was because people in this painting world were blessed with unnatural speed. Or maybe it was just because she didn’t really believe the blonde would do it. Any way she spun it, Ava was taken by surprise by the force of the other woman’s blow, sending her reeling into a black oblivion even before her body slumped to the closet floor.
Gino saw Ava wincing as she snuck off the floor. It had to be her ankle. Why hadn’t she spoken up to Lombardi? He would have let her go home for the night. After all, she’d come back from her vacation a day early. Technically, she wasn’t even supposed to be working.
When she had walked in earlier, Gino had been stunned into immobility. Her wide smile lit up the back hallway like a beacon, and she called out a casual hello to him before disappearing into the dressing room with the other girls. Ever since she had started working at the Rising Sun, Gino had been thinking of no other girl but her, watching her when he wasn’t supposed to, getting into trouble more than once to help cover up some of her mistakes. Ava was one of the few dames in the joint who actually talked to him like he was a person, not just a piece of meat necessary to guard their precious little selves, and he had responded to her friendly overtures like a hungry puppy. She was, without a doubt, the smartest girl he’d ever met, but at the same time, she didn’t treat him like he was some dumb mug like some of the others. When he didn’t understand something, she was patient enough to explain it to him. That, more than anything else, cemented how he felt about her.
His gaze darted to the employee door again. She wasn’t back yet. Hopefully that didn’t mean Sammy had caught her. The manager had been gunning for Ava ever since she started. The last thing she needed right now was another run-in with the little twerp.
Without moving his body, Gino tilted his head almost imperceptibly toward Cash. “Call of nature,” he said, his lips barely moving. “Be back in a sec.”
“I’ll be right here.” Cash’s eyes never left the dance floor.
Gino chuckled as he headed for the exit. There was no question who Cash watched. It was almost as if he expected Maddy to disappear if he stopped. The depth of the couple’s feelings was enough to make a guy without a gal jealous.
He collided with the rushing blonde who emerged from the back at the same time Gino opened the door. “Oh! Sorry about that, Pauline,” he apologized, stepping out of her way. He didn’t even turn around to watch her take to the dance floor. All he wanted was to make sure Ava was all right.
Maddy forced her smile wider as the bottom of her partner’s foot connected yet again with her toe, squashing it under his weight before stepping away and sweeping her closer to the orchestra. Keep the customer happy, she reminded herself. Do the job. It was just a shame not everyone could dance like Cash.
Unbidden, her gaze wandered to the front of the club. He stood there straight and tall, the crisp lines of his tuxedo broadening his muscular frame. She was surprised to see he was already watching her, and when their eyes met, the corner of his mouth lifted ever so slightly, warming the connection between them with more than the electrical attraction she could no longer deny. It was difficult to look away, but the swing of her partner made it inevitable, driving Maddy back to her thoughts.
After knowing the truth about what Cash was, what he had done, sh
e had expected him to look different to her. More menacing. Deceitful. The truth was…he did seem different, but not in the way she imagined. While he’d told his story, Cash had visibly struggled not to show his guilty feelings about what happened in Dubai. Every memory tortured him. He truly believed that the losses were his responsibility, and while she had no idea what that kind of life might have been like, she did know it made him more human than he’d ever been before. It explained a hell of a lot.
It also made it easier to allow her attraction to Cash to thrive.
Maddy was jolted from pleasant memories of their kisses when a blonde deliberately knocked into her. Stumbling into her partner, Maddy clutched at his arms and whirled in anger, ready to tell off the other woman. It was the sight of the gun dangling from the girl’s hand that stopped her.
“Are you all right?” her partner asked.
For a moment, his body blocked her view. By the time Maddy wrenched herself free, the blonde with the pistol had lifted her arm, aiming it at the sole occupant in the doorway.
“Cash!” Maddy shouted.
She didn’t wait to see if he heard her. Damning her long skirts, Maddy broke into a dead run, determined to get to the other woman before she could pull the trigger.
She tackled the shooter as the gun’s discharge pierced the air, sending the club’s occupants scurrying for cover. More than one woman screamed. Maddy tumbled into the orchestra, the blonde tight in her grip, and together, they sprawled across the laps of the front row as music stands and chairs went flying. A tuba managed to bounce against Maddy’s back, but she was oblivious to the sudden pain, too intent on wrenching the small pistol from the woman’s hand.
The blonde glared, her cheeks tearstained. “You’ll see,” she said. “He’s going to hurt you too. That’s what he does, you know. He’s an expert at it.”
Strong hands pulled them apart. Maddy found her feet to discover the conductor gazing down at her in sympathy.
