The Diamond Affair Read online

  Damn, she was a mind reader too. Or maybe she knew men well enough to know what he'd been thinking. He liked the fact it didn't seem to bother her that he found her enticing. Most women would be offended but she shrugged it off with a laugh.

  He also liked that she had a sense of humor. Reminded him of Matt. He wondered if hers stemmed to practical jokes as well. The readiness to laugh was about the only thing Ruby shared with her brother. That and the dark curly hair. Where Matt was big in every way, Ruby was small and fine. Matt's skin was tanned where his sister's was pale. And he hadn't exactly taken much notice of Matt's eyes but he was pretty sure they weren't as blue as Ruby's or he'd have remembered.

  "What are you smiling at?" she said, crossing her arms beneath her breasts which only pushed them up in just the right way.

  "Ruby."

  "Yeah, that's my name."

  "So did your parents just like the name or did they know you were going to be a gemologist?"

  "Dad was a gemologist and my parents thought it would be a cute name. Lucky for Matt there aren't any gems that make good boy names."

  "Garnet? Topaz? Amethyst?"

  She laughed out loud, a full, sultry tone that filled his apartment. "Can you really see my big brother answering to Amethyst?"

  He laughed too as she disappeared into the bedroom.

  ***

  Ruby listened in to half a phone conversation and wondered who Jake knew that could give him information on Beauvoir. Cops? Criminals? Security experts like himself? It wouldn't surprise her that he found out everything, including the kind of underwear Beauvoir wore. Jake seemed like a man who could find out anything he wanted.

  After the fifth call, he finally returned the phone to its cradle. "Let's go," he said.

  "You going to tell me what your contacts said?"

  "No." He grabbed his keys and a black backpack then strode to the front door.

  She sighed. "I'm paying you, remember? That means you keep me in the loop."

  He opened the door for her. She crossed her arms and didn't move. He shrugged and walked through. "I'll go see Aaron by myself."

  Damn him! She picked up her handbag and raced after him. "Tell me what you found out about Beauvoir," she said.

  "You don't want to know."

  "Don't tell me what I do and don't want. You don't know me." She thought she heard him mutter, "Thank God", but couldn't be sure. Even so, it only made her temper rise more.

  He stabbed the down button for the elevator with his thumb. "I can give you all the gory details if you like, starting with the off-shore accounts and tax evasion schemes and ending with the ex-wife he used to keep doped up on cocaine after she threatened to divorce him and take half his money. She died of an overdose, by the way. Then there's the mob connections. Heard of the gangland killings? He probably financed several of them but there's nothing definite to pin on him. That enough for you?"

  Ruby was shocked as much by Jake's anger as his words, and they were shocking enough. She suspected Beauvoir of tax evasion and some shady deals but she'd never have suspected murder. That took him into another realm of bad altogether. But the real question was why did Jake look like he wanted to punch something ever since he hung up the phone?

  The elevator doors opened and they stepped in. "What the hell were you associating with this guy for anyway?" he said as the doors closed. He sounded furious, as if she should have known better than to go to the lair of a man like Beauvoir.

  "I went to his office once and to his home on one other occasion. I'm hardly a business associate. Besides, I didn't know everything you just told me. You didn't know everything you just told me until you spoke to your contacts."

  She got the feeling he wanted to say more but they stopped at another floor and two people got in. The ride down to the basement was slow with several more stops. The lift became crowded and she got pushed back against Jake, her head bumping his chest. His heat warmed her, surrounded her, and every part of her body grew aware of just how close he was. Something deep inside her throbbed.

  She shouldn't be affected by him, didn't want to be. He was totally wrong for her. He was clouded in mystery and darkness whereas she was an open book and loved to laugh. She was shallow where Jake Forrester's waters ran deep and turbulent and should come with a No Swimming sign.

  Finally the elevator opened onto the basement level and the crowd poured out, dispersing to their luxury cars. She climbed into Jake's SUV in silence and they drove most of the way to Aaron's place in Prahran in the same manner. She'd already called her assistant and told him to wait for her before he left for work.

  They were early enough that traffic hadn't got really nasty so it took only fifteen minutes before they reached the trendy suburb. Aaron lived on the ground floor of a big old house that had been divided into four apartments. Jake stood to one side as she knocked. Aaron's door opened and before she could say "hi", a gun was pressed to her temple.

  CHAPTER 4

  "Don't move or I'll shoot her and her friend." It took Ruby a second to realize it was Fat Frankie and he was speaking to Jake.

  Jake held up his hands and nodded once. So much for her bodyguard. He'd given up at the first sign of trouble. She wanted to cry at the hopelessness welling inside her. Without Jake backing her up, who could she turn to?

  Frankie's thick lips curled into a sneer. "Where is the diamond, Mizz Jones?" he said. "And no tricks this time."

  "Where's Aaron? What have you done to him?" Oh God, if he was dead...

  "He's having a little nap on his kitchen floor." He slung an arm around Ruby's middle and squeezed, making breathing difficult. The stench of garlic and rotten breath pierced her nasal passages. "I'll ask you once more. Where. Is. The. Diamond?"

  "I don't have it." Her words tumbled over themselves in their rush to get out. "Now," she licked dry lips, "when you say he's having a nap, do you mean he's just knocked out?" Please God, let it not be a euphemism for something more final.

  Fat Frankie dragged her backwards, his arm almost cutting her in half. She lost her footing and had to be carried the last few steps to the kitchen. Jake followed them, his face impassive. Why didn't he do something?

  "There?" Frankie said. "See him?" He swung her round so she could see Aaron lying on the tiles. There was no blood and she could just make out his chest rising and falling with each breath.

  He lived.

  Air returned to her lungs along with a flood of relief. Tears stung her eyes but she forced them back down. Now was not the time to get all wimpy. She had to be brave, strong.

  She tried to signal Jake with her eyes but his own gaze was shuttered. So it was up to her to get away. Frankie still held her in a bruising grip but her brother had shown her some self-defense moves. Unfortunately those moves only worked on guys who didn't have guns. She had no doubt Frankie would use his if he had to.

  "Where is it?" he said again. Impatience threaded his voice and his grip tightened. Out of the corner of her eye, she was sure she saw Jake move. But he still looked disinterested, uncaring, so she must have been mistaken.

  Her breath came shallow and shuddering, the only sound in Aaron's apartment. "I don't have it." Frankie pressed the gun harder into her temple. She shut her eyes. "Please, don't hurt me. I'm telling the truth." She sobbed and that opened the floodgates for more tears. This wasn't supposed to happen to her. It was the stuff of nightmares and Hollywood movies. She was only twenty-seven! She began to cry.

  "Quit your yowling," Fat Frankie snapped.

  She couldn't stop. All the emotion she'd been bottling up since last night had swollen inside her. The first sign of a crack and the dam had burst under the pressure.

  "Quit crying or I kill your buddy in the kitchen."

  She swallowed the next sob and chewed on her lip to stop it wobbling. Why the hell wasn't Jake doing something?

  But he just kept looking down at the ground then up at her again over and over, as if he had something in his eye.

&nbs
p; And then she got it. He wanted her to duck. How was she supposed to do that with Frankie's meaty arm round her waist?

  "Okay, you win," she said, trying to claw back some control. "But I don't have the Florentine on me."

  Frankie grunted. "Then where is it?"

  "Somewhere safe. I'll take you there." She had no idea what she was saying but she had to say something. If only to get Frankie away from Aaron. Hopefully when they left, Jake would snap out of his stupor and do his thing.

  "No. You tell me where it is first."

  So much for that plan. "Well, you see, the thing is—"

  "It's right here."

  Fat Frankie's grip loosened at the sound of Jake's voice after his long silence. Jake flipped something to them and Frankie went to grab it, giving Ruby the opportunity to slip out of his arm. She bobbed down and scooted out of the way just as Jake lunged at him in a football tackle. They both smacked into the wall, rattling the picture frames hanging nearby.

  For a big man, Frankie recovered quickly. He lifted his gun and fired.

  Ruby screamed.

  Jake stopped in his tracks but he didn't topple over, didn't bleed all over Aaron's floor. He wasn't dead. She all but collapsed onto the floor herself in relief. Frankie had missed.

  The big oaf ran through the door and Jake gave chase. "No, don't!" she shouted after him. Was he crazy? Maybe he was. He drew out a gun from wherever he'd hidden it—his waist band? "No!" she shouted again. "There are people everywhere."

  Jake grunted but didn't fire. Fat Frankie lumbered down the path to the front gate. It was like watching a slab of jelly move and Jake would have easily caught him except Frankie turned, aimed.

  Jake dove for cover behind a tree. Frankie kept running, jumped into a red sports car and sped off.

  "You okay?" Ruby asked as she raced up to Jake.

  He stood. "Yeah. You?" He looked her over, his eyes hard and cold like she'd never seen them before. His breathing was slow, even, and his body was still, his hands loose by his sides. "Did he hurt you?"

  "No," she said, rubbing her ribs. "But what the hell were you doing in there?" She shoved him square in the chest but he didn't budge. "All that time you had a gun and you let him threaten me?"

  "He wouldn't have killed you, he wants you alive remember? And I was biding my time until he lost his concentration. If I'd gone for my gun earlier he might have panicked and shot you anyway, despite his boss's orders."

  She could see the sense in what he said, but it rankled that she'd had to go through so much fear only to find out he had the situation covered. "I'm going to check on Aaron." Her dismissal might have been abrupt, but if she dwelled too much on the fact that someone could have been killed, the waterworks would start all over again.

  Jake followed her inside. Ruby's assistant was coming-to and looked up at them, wild-eyed. She knelt down beside him and started explaining—about the diamond and Beauvoir and finishing with an explanation of Jake's presence. She sounded calm, composed, even though she must be shaking inside. She'd just gone through a harrowing ordeal, the second in less than twenty-four hours. She wasn't the sort of girl that things like this happened to. She wasn't the sort of girl who deserved to have things like this happen to her.

  It made his blood boil to think that someone like Beauvoir had dragged her into his lair using a lure like the Florentine. The man had no right to turn her life upside down like this.

  But she handled it better than many men he knew. Matt would be proud.

  Aaron got up, smiled shakily at him and nodded. "Thanks," he said.

  "Yeah," Ruby said quietly. "Thanks."

  Her eyes shone and her smile wobbled. There was something in the expression on her uplifted face, something tender and full of emotion. It set alarm bells ringing loudly in Jake's head.

  "So do you know the whereabouts of the Florentine?" he asked Aaron.

  "Jake," she snapped, all trace of tenderness gone. Good.

  "It's okay, Rube," Aaron said. "He's only trying to do his job."

  "He just saw you nearly get killed!" She spoke to Aaron but she didn't take her gaze off Jake.

  "He's not completely off the hook," Jake said. "That scene could have been staged."

  She shook her head. "You don't trust anyone, do you?"

  He didn't bother answering her, just crossed his arms and glared right back. He wasn't going to let her get the upper hand. A woman like her could take advantage of a man if she got on top of him.

  Finally, she turned away and he started breathing again.

  "Have you got somewhere to go for a few days?" she asked Aaron. "Somewhere out of town maybe. I'll call you when this is over."

  Aaron nodded. "I'll take my phone with me." He pulled her into an embrace which she readily returned. They held each other for a long time. If she hadn't mentioned that Aaron was gay, Jake would have suspected there was something going on between them.

  He headed outside, keeping his eyes on the road and listening for movement in the nearby bushes. Apart from traffic and a white cat licking its paw, it was quiet. A few minutes later, Ruby appeared and they walked together to the car.

  "Was that question necessary?" she asked as soon as she closed her door. "Considering everything you saw just now?"

  "Yes." After a pause, he added, "You care about him."

  "He's like a brother to me when Matt is away. He's the next best thing to family. That's why I know he didn't steal the Florentine. He wouldn't deliberately get me into trouble."

  "Point taken."

  A few minutes later, he said, "You should carry a gun."

  "No thanks. I hate guns. They're dangerous."

  He couldn't help smiling at her. "But it's okay for me to carry one?"

  "You know how to use them. I've never even held one."

  "I can show you if you like."

  "I said no." She spoke with such finality he thought it best to drop the subject. "So where are we going now?" she asked.

  "Home to think this through some more. There's gotta be another suspect."

  Ruby sighed and rubbed her forehead. She could feel a headache coming on. Thinking wouldn't help it to go away. "Maybe I should just go to the police. This is getting out of hand." It was one thing for her to be dogged by Fat Frankie but it was entirely another for her friends to be subjected to his filthy presence. Thank God Aaron was heading out of town where he'd be safe, and thank God Matt was overseas.

  "The cops won't be able to help you," he said. He sat relaxed at the steering wheel, as if he hadn't just been shot at. "Even if they find Frankie, he's unlikely to talk and the cops need him to talk to get the link to his boss. Beauvoir would have paid his goon a small fortune to make it worth his while to have a stint in jail rather than give the cops that link."

  She groaned and pressed her hands to her temples. "Surely they could get something connecting the two of them if they couldn't get Frankie's confession."

  He shook his head. "People like Beauvoir know how to cover their tracks. He's been doing it very successfully for years. Let's just get him off your back and let the cops worry about convicting him for one or more of his other crimes. That's not our job."

  No, but it made her feel hollow inside to think there was nothing she could do to bring him down.

  Jake's phone rang. He glanced at the name flashing on the display and an odd growl rumbled at the back of his throat. Instead of answering it, he pressed the Off button but not before Ruby saw the name.

  Dad.

  She glanced at him. He was focused on the road ahead, his hands twisting around the steering wheel like he wanted to strangle it. She opened her mouth to say something then shut it before she could put her foot inside. As much as her curiosity burned to know why he'd hung up on his father, it wasn't her business.

  The phone beeped to indicate a message had been left. Jake ignored it.

  When they got back to his apartment, he continued to ignore it. If Ruby knew she had a message on her phone, it would
drive her nuts until she listened to it. Then again, she had no self-control which was why she had to keep only one chocolate bar in the pantry at all times. Any more and she'd eat the lot in one go. She bet Jake's chocolate lasted for months. That's if he even ate it.

  "Will coffee help you think?" he asked as coffee poured from the café-style machine into a mug.

  "Think?"

  "About who could have stolen the Florentine."

  "I'm telling you, I don't know." She rubbed her forehead. The piercing headache had thankfully subsided, replaced by a dull throb.

  "Then let's think about who else might know he had it." He added the right amount of sugar and milk to the mug and handed it to her. "If you were Beauvoir, who would you tell?"

  She sipped the coffee and sat at the kitchen table, watching his back as he made his own. The black T-shirt stretched across his shoulders, taut in all the right places and clinging to every muscle as they moved beneath the cotton. Nice. Very nice.

  Then there was the bottom half. The black jeans fit snugly around his—

  "Personally I wouldn't tell anyone," he said, turning around. He caught the direction of her gaze and one corner of his mouth lifted in a smile.

  Oops.

  "My brother." She held the mug in front of her face to hide her blush as best she could. "And Aaron too, just because I know it would be a dream of his to see it."

  His smile vanished. "Your loved ones," he said, flatly. He leaned against the kitchen bench, cradling his mug in both hands and studying the contents as if coffee were the most fascinating thing.

  Didn't he have anyone to care for him? What about his father? Maybe he was the problem. Or maybe Jake was the one with the problem, not his dad.

  Don't do it. Don't dive into those muddy waters. She needed to keep focused on the dangers of Beauvoir and not the dangers of whatever lurked within Jake Forrester. "Do you know if he has any loved ones?" she asked.

  He looked up, his expression hard and closed. "My sources told me he remarried a woman twenty-years his junior. He also has a seventeen year-old daughter from his previous marriage."

  "Okay." But she shook her head. "Why would his family steal from him? It doesn't make sense."