The Diamond Affair Page 13

  It wasn't fair. In fact, it was downright torture now that he seemed to have decided their relationship was non-existent. He hadn't come near her all day and he'd not brought up their love-making once. He was definitely avoiding her.

  Maybe he'd change his mind if she offered to lick him dry...

  He surfaced and flicked his wet hair off his forehead with a shake of his head. "I think we can assume Beauvoir knows about Sinestri and Sonya," he said. It seemed he wanted to talk about business.

  Fine by her. She had to do something to get her mind off his wet muscles. "What makes you think that?"

  "I told Frankie, and Frankie would have told him."

  "So if he knows, why hasn't he done something about it?"

  "Good question." He dove again, right to the bottom, and surfaced at the far end of the pool. He swam smoothly back to her, his efficient strokes propelling him through the water with ease. He crossed his arms on the edge of the pool and rested his chin on them. "Any ideas?"

  She stared at a drop of water clinging precariously to the end of his hair. It lost its grip and dripped onto his forehead then slid past his eye to his cheek. "Perhaps he loves her," she said, unable to take her eyes off the drop. It rested in the little curve where his mouth met his cheek. If only she could capture that drop...

  "Perhaps she loves him."

  "Pardon?" Jake tilted his head in her direction. The drop slid off and blended with the water splashed on the side of the pool.

  "I, er, I said perhaps he loves her. Maybe he doesn't want to confront her because that might mean losing her."

  He frowned, considering that. "No, not Beauvoir. He's a man who likes to own things, and people. He has Frankie work for him exclusively, he seems annoyed that his daughter is spending too much time with her boyfriend, and he wants his Florentine back so much he's prepared to ruin your life over it. That is not a man with love on his mind."

  She stood. "And you'd recognize one who does?" She couldn't help the sneer in her voice. It just came out.

  Jake stared at her from beneath damp lashes. "Meaning?" The word sounded hard, cold. A pulse jumped high in his cheek.

  Ruby stood her ground. "Meaning you've never loved anything in your life. Your father is lying in a nursing home, suffering from his stroke, and you're running away to Sydney when you should be here looking after him. Is that the actions of a loving son?" She swallowed. His face had grown darker, if that were possible, his eyes narrower. Maybe she'd gone too far…

  "He's never given me a second thought when I needed him so why the hell should I look after him now he needs me? It works both ways, Ruby."

  "What happened?" If she'd already gone too far, it wouldn't matter if she went one step further. Besides, she wanted to help him, wanted him to open up to her. "You can tell me, Jake. I care about you. Tell me your story."

  Instead of answering, he pushed off from the edge and swam away. She sighed and part of her wished she hadn't interfered. But she'd come from a loving family and she wanted him to have a crack at having one too, or at least to open up to the possibility that his father loved him despite whatever had happened between them in the past.

  He reached the end in what seemed like an Olympic record, turned and swam back. He repeated the laps twice more then stopped and rested his arms on the side of the pool in front of her again.

  "He left my mother when I was a kid," he said, his gaze fixed on her with a frightening intensity. "He didn't even say goodbye. My mother couldn't cope and she turned to drink. We were dirt poor because she couldn't hold down a job and she finally died when I was eighteen. Dad got in touch with me after her funeral but we argued. He said he left for my own good. Like not having a father was a good thing for a teenage boy. I told him to get out of my life and then I joined up to the army. We've hardly spoken since. Not civil words anyway." He spoke flatly, without inflection, as if he was reading from a newspaper.

  Ruby pressed a hand to her lips to stop the sympathetic comments. She didn't think Jake was the sort of man who'd want to hear them.

  "Now that you know," he said, "I don't want my dad mentioned again. Understand?" He pushed off and continued doing laps.

  Yeah, she understood. She just wished she knew how to help him.

  ***

  The ringing phone got Jake out of the pool. The water hadn't cooled his temper nor eased the aches from his bruised joints but at least it had hidden any emotions that might have shown up on his face. Dismay that Ruby could think he wasn't capable of love being foremost.

  No, not dismay. That wasn't a strong enough word. More like despair. He'd thought they'd made a connection. He felt he could trust her, that's why he told her about his father. But maybe he'd got her all wrong. Maybe she didn't get him at all.

  He picked up the phone from the wooden table she'd been sitting at and answered the call. "'Lo."

  "Put Mizz Jones on." Fat Frankie. How'd he get Damien's number?

  Jake's heart kicked into top gear. "What the hell do you want, Fatoros?"

  "Put. Mizz. Jones. On."

  "No. You talk to me."

  "I won't talk to anyone unless it's Mizz Jones."

  "She's not interested in anything you have to say, Fatoros."

  "That's for her to decide, not you." There was a laugh in Frankie's voice.

  Jake didn't like it. Didn't like this. The sonofabitch was up to something.

  But Ruby was safe. He'd seen her go inside moments before, and Frankie wouldn't be asking to speak to her if he had her.

  Even so, the bad feeling wouldn't go away.

  What the hell was going on?

  "Anything you have to say to Ruby goes through me," Jake said into the phone. "You don't speak to her, you don't go anywhere near her, you don't look sideways at her. Got that?"

  Ruby came out, a deep frown scoring her forehead. He hated seeing her in any mood but a happy one, and he hated even more that he was partly responsible for making her happy moods few and far between.

  The man on the line was the other one responsible for it. He and his boss.

  "Who?" she mouthed.

  He shook his head to discourage her questions. No way was he going to let Frankie speak to her. She crossed her arms and perched on the table, close enough that he could feel her warmth, smell the delicious scent of her. One slight movement of his elbow and he would brush the plump breast outlined beneath her thin top.

  "Listen to me, Forrester," Frankie's voice bellowed down the line. Jake had to hold the phone away from his ear he was so loud. Ruby's eyes widened. She must have heard Frankie too. "If you don't put Mizz Jones on, you're going to be very sorry. Put her on, or you'll regret—."

  Jake didn't hear anything else because Ruby snatched the phone off him. That's what happened when she was around—he let his guard down. Another reason why she was going to remain at the house that evening while he did some more investigating.

  "It's Ruby," she said into the phone. She stood up and walked to the far side of the table, facing Jake, probably to keep her eye on him and make sure he didn't try to take the phone back. It didn't matter. He'd let her speak to Frankie. She'd tell him everything afterwards anyway. Of that, he was sure.

  Her face darkened and began to crumble and he regretted letting Frankie talk. Something was wrong. Very wrong. He went to her, folded her into his arms and gently removed the phone. He listened but Frankie had hung up.

  Ruby started shaking and all he could do was hold her tighter. He stared at the phone. Wanted to break it, break Frankie. What had that bastard said to her?

  He wouldn't get a sensible answer out of her yet. She was shaking too hard and crying and trying to breathe at the same time. So he rubbed her back in smooth, circular strokes and waited. His heart hammered like mad, but there was nothing else he could do.

  When she was no longer breathing in gasps, she pressed her forehead to his chest. "Evie," she said on a loud sob. "He's got Evie."

  CHAPTER 16

  Ruby pulled aw
ay and looked up at Jake. What he saw in her face tore at his heart, ripping it to shreds.

  Dread.

  "He's going to kill her." She gripped his arms, her nails digging into his skin. Her watery eyes stared at him but he wasn't sure if she really saw him.

  "No. No he's not," he said with far more certainty than he felt.

  Her lip quivered and she bit it. She was trying hard to hold it together. He wanted to tell her how much he admired her bravery, her sheer determination, but he didn't think his words would be appreciated right now. Instead, he rubbed her shoulders and pulled her close, hoping his actions said enough.

  "How can you be so sure?" she asked, voice wobbling against his chest. Her palms pressed against his back, holding onto him as much as he was holding onto her.

  "Because he needs her alive to get to you," he said, stroking her hair. "That is what he said isn't it? That he wants to exchange Evie for you?"

  She pulled away again and nodded numbly. "I have to go to her."

  "No! No way. Ruby, that's crazy. You—"

  "But you said yourself, she's safe as long as he needs her to get me. If I don't give myself up, Frankie'll..." A short, sharp sob erupted from her throat before she took back control.

  "And as soon as you give yourself up in exchange for Evie, what's to say he won't kill both of you?"

  Ruby felt sick. If it wasn't for Jake's solid presence, she would have thrown up already. Just simply having him near was comforting, but being held by him, caressed by him, made her believe that everything would be all right.

  For a moment.

  Then reality slammed back into her, knocking her under water and holding her down with a knee to her chest. She couldn't breathe through her choking tears, couldn't see past the awful images dogging her ever since she hung up from that scumbag.

  Beauvoir's man. She had to remember that he was the one pulling the strings. It was Beauvoir who'd ordered the capture of Evie to bargain for Ruby. Fat Frankie was the one enjoying it.

  If you want to see your friend alive again, go to the cabin. If you don't come by midnight, she'll be dead.

  Frankie's threat still echoed in her brain. The snarl in his voice still grated along her nerves. He meant every word of what he'd said. Evie would die unless Ruby turned herself over to him.

  "You're not going," Jake said.

  "I have to," she said weakly, turning away from him.

  But he caught her chin and made her look at him. She lifted her gaze, briefly, and saw brutal determination in his eyes. The kind that made small men laugh nervously and big men keep their mouths shut. Ruby got the feeling not too many women got to see this look. It was ugly and scary and not something she wanted to see again.

  It was exactly why her brother said Jake wasn't a man to be crossed. She could understand why no one in his unit dared go against him when he got in this mood. It was like waiting for a bomb to explode.

  She looked away again and pulled her chin free. "Jake—."

  "No!" He swore under his breath and shoved his hands onto his hips. You're not going anywhere near Frankie." He paced across the pool deck, naked from the waist up, his hair curling at the ends where it was drying. It was like watching a caged lion—a magnificent, powerfully formed animal desperate to save a member of its pride. Snarling. Trapped.

  Alone.

  Ruby stopped him with a gentle hand to his arm. He stared at her, his chest rising and falling with deep breaths, his eyes simmering with barely controlled anger.

  Her throat closed around her words. What could she possibly say to make it better when she didn't believe it could get better? Tears welled again but she sucked them back before they spilled.

  He pressed his palm gently to her cheek with surprising softness. "I can't let you do it, Ruby. Do you understand? It would destroy...your brother."

  She drew in a deep breath to steady herself. "But Evie..."

  He pushed her hair off her forehead, his fingers twisting the ends as if he saw something worth studying in the strands. "Evie will be fine." His voice rumbled deep in his chest, low and filled with confidence. "I'll sort this out. You have to trust me, Ruby."

  "I do," she said. And she meant it. She really did.

  It was Fat Frankie she didn't trust.

  "Good." He dropped his hands to her shoulders and lowered his head to look into her eyes. "I'm going to see Beauvoir." He held up a hand when she began to protest. "It's time to sort this out. I'm going to make him see that you're not responsible for the theft of the diamond. I'll tell him about his wife and Sinestri, put the idea into his head that they're not simply having an affair."

  "At least let me come with you," she said. "I'll go crazy here worrying about you and Evie."

  "No," he said. "I work alone and I'll work better knowing you're safe. No one knows about this place except us. You'll be okay here."

  Safe but out of her mind.

  Jake towel dried his hair and strode into the house. "Where and when did Frankie say the exchange would take place?"

  Ruby watched his back, the dark bruises from his accident still prominent, the muscles working as he toweled himself while he walked. He didn't stop to look at her. It seemed the time for comfort was over. He was all action. It was what Jake excelled at.

  But he couldn't make it right. She knew it in her heart. Frankie had warned her that if she didn't go alone to the cabin, he'd kill Evie. If there was so much as a bugging device planted on her, Evie would die.

  Jake couldn't save Evie. Only Ruby could.

  "He didn't," she said quickly.

  Jake stopped and turned around. He was a magnificent sight, a seething tower of anger and power. Ruby would hate to have those twin weapons turned on her, but it was the lesser of two evils at that moment, and she chose it over Frankie's threat.

  "He said he'd call me back in an hour to see if I've made up my mind, then give me instructions."

  Jake scowled then turned away again and kept striding down the hallway to his bedroom. "I'll be back in an hour then."

  Within moments he came out, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt. He grabbed the keys off the kitchen bench and made for the front door. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob.

  "You wouldn't do anything stupid while I'm gone," he said. It was more statement than question and she wasn't sure it required an answer. "I'll be back by the time Frankie calls. I'll know what to do by then." He cupped her face with one hand and kissed her forehead. His mouth lingered, as if he didn't want to stop. "It'll be all right. Trust me."

  He left, and when the car turned the corner, Ruby went into the garage. Jake had said he didn't want to drive his mate's expensive cars when there was a high risk of damaging them. It didn't matter if Damien's car got trashed, he claimed, and it was inconspicuous. There was nothing inconspicuous about the big SUV and sports car in the garage.

  Ruby chose the sports car for its speed. The keys were hard to find but eventually she located a set high up in a kitchen cupboard. Then she found one of Jake's guns in his belongings. She placed it down the band of her shorts and chose a looser T-shirt to hide it.

  All she had to do now was find her courage and she'd be ready.

  ***

  Jake sat in the car around the corner from Beauvoir's house and listened in to a conversation between father and daughter. He didn't want to confront Beauvoir with Penny around, but he'd do it if she didn't leave soon. Time was precious and running out.

  "Do you like it?" Beauvoir asked. He must have handed Penny something.

  "Did you pay for it?" she sneered. "Or was it a freebie from one of your contacts?"

  "Darling, of course I paid for it. It cost a lot of money."

  "You're pathetic if you think you can buy me with a few diamonds. The way you bought Sonya and my mother."

  "Penny! How can you say that?" For a man with a reputation for being a ferocious negotiator and tough businessman, Beauvoir was doing a very good impression of a kitten. He must love his daughter a
great deal. "I loved your mother."

  "You kept her out of her mind on cocaine! How is that love?"

  Jake shifted in his seat. He shouldn't be listening to this. It wasn't his business and it had nothing to do with the Florentine and Ruby. But he needed to keep listening. He'd give it five minutes—if the conversation was still going after that time, he'd go in.

  "That's not true!" Beauvoir yelled. "She chose cocaine. She chose it over me, and you, Penny. Never forget that."

  Silence then a high wail.

  "Darling, I'm sorry," Beauvoir said. "I shouldn't have said that. But we need to stick together, you and me. We need to—"

  "Don't touch me!" Penny screamed. "It is not you and me! It's you and Sonya. Although she probably won't be around much longer."

  "What have you heard?" Beauvoir sounded harder. The placating tones of earlier were completely gone. Maybe he'd realized his daughter wasn't going to suddenly turn all warm and fuzzy on him.

  "God, Dad, you're pathetic. You can't even keep a wife. Hey, I know, why don't you drug her? That way she can't leave."

  The sharp crack of skin slapping skin ripped through the airwaves. Jake turned off the equipment and jumped into the front seat. Time to go.

  A minute later, he parked in Beauvoir's driveway and banged on the door. No one answered. He tried the handle. Locked. He jogged around to the back of the house. The sliding doors leading out to the pool area was open. He stepped through and followed the sounds of Penny's shouting. The harsh whine of her voice was at least an octave above her father's stumbling apology.

  "I'm just worried about you," Beauvoir said.

  "You hit me because you're worried about me?" Penny yelled. "You think I'm dumb enough to believe that?"

  Jake didn't have to creep along the hallway. No one would have heard him above the shouting.

  "I know you're under pressure with your final year," Beauvoir said, "and I know that boyfriend you're seeing isn't helping."