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Laughter ensued from the men.

Daniel pressed the gas pedal again and the car crawled forward. The valets and patrons going to and from moved on with their day. They didn't see Jessie leave. They didn't hear the fear rising in her chest and pounding in her ears.

Conversation sparked between Daniel, Jefferies, and Andrew in a language Jessie couldn't interpret. She had no idea Daniel even knew another language. She kept to herself. She dared not to look up at them. The rumble of the engine over the street reverberated like the loudness of her heart. Her bones shook. Her head hurt. She didn't know how to react. Everything from the hotel to this point happened so fast, she couldn't keep up from one minute to the next. There wasn't anyone to help her. No weapon for protection. No phone to call for help. Not even an ear to hear her scream.

The car turned abruptly. The tires squealed. A bump sent her midsection stretching up to fall painfully back on the floor. Bits of grime stuck to her skin. She tried to stay focused on how this all had happened. “How did I not see Daniel's involvement?”

Daniel broke his conversation with Andrew. “Did you say something?” he said.

“You said you were her friend.”

“Friends are overrated.”

Jessie cursed under breath.

“Come again?” Daniel said.

“She won't tell us what she's thinking,” Andrew said.

“Her sister didn't either,” Daniel deadpanned.

Jessie jumped. Jefferies boot held her down.

Andrew laughed and said something in another language.

“Your sister begged for her life,” Daniel said.

A cry escaped Jessie's mouth. She started to get up and Jefferies dug his heel into her back. The piercing, concentrated pain nailed her body to the floor. It immobilized her. Tears sprang to her eyes and dripped from their corners.

Laughter erupted from his mouth. Jefferies also joined. The demonic, sick sound tugged at Jessie's gut and the beats of her heart grew faster…and louder…and she realized she held her breath and had to physically remind herself to exhale.

Jefferies kept his boot on her as a reminder not to fight back.

Her mouth parted. Her throat turned dry. These were the men who had beaten up her sister. They changed Jessie's life and she could hardly see straight with the knowledge. If she ever got out of this nightmare she would make sure they got what they deserved.

Brent arrived on time to Whitaker's. On any other day he liked the sight of this place. But not today. Not when he wasn't sure what awaited him on the other side. Instinct was a powerful tool against the unknown, and he relied on that skill now. He knew he was walking into danger. This wasn't like any other negotiation he'd been involved with. This wasn't the deep channel of a mountain or a vein of the jungle, and for the first time, Brent didn't have anything to bring to the table.

His heart raced in his chest. He bit the inside of his mouth. Whatever awaited him beyond the door was his own doing. He'd given up control the moment he agreed to marry Victoria. He wished he'd never done that. It would have been fine to disappear from Jefferies radar, if not for Gabriel. He hadn't planned on having a son.

Brent stopped at the front door. He did nothing except stand there. Whitaker's seemed like an unlikely place to meet. Then again, Brent had refused to fly to South Africa. At least he could be protected under American law if he stayed in the States. All bets would have been off if he'd flown to Jefferies' home country.

At least both parties had agreed to not involve the police. This was about something taken and something returned between two individuals. A deal signed and condoned by Brent himself. He promised to bring back the family heirloom and in exchange, get his son. He'd been offered the deal just in time, before he'd shipped the diamonds to that other buyer. That was luck. But his luck had run out once Melanie ended up in the hospital and the diamond fell up in Jessie's hands.

That's the moment everything spiraled away from him. The moment Jessie slammed into his life. Without knowing, she'd stolen a piece of his control over the situation. She punched a hole into everything he'd tried to hold together since making the deal with Jefferies. But despite that, Brent knew he'd failed her. He'd made a mistake the first time she came to him, to tell him that story about her grandmother's bracelet.
He'd
changed the rules. Not her.

Brent checked his phone. There was no message from Daniel. By now he should be here, or at least he should have checked in.

Where's he gone?

The time on his phone flirted with the hour mark. He couldn't wait any longer. One last time, Brent glanced over his shoulder. The street remained empty of cars, and in particular, Daniel's SUV.

Now was the time to go on. Brent turned the doorknob. The door opened with quiet ease. Not even a creak or squeaky hinge to announce his presence.

He'd seen the interior of Whitaker's several times at night, but never in the day. The lights were off. Sunlight streamed in through the windows. The tables with vases full of flowers were gone. There were no beautiful women sipping drinks or men in tuxedoes checking them out.

The house echoed the wind, as if it could speak and tell him not to do this. The empty fireplace sent a chill through the room and up his spine. The knife holstered around his calf rubbed his leg. It was the only weapon he'd brought.

Footsteps sounded in another room. Brent turned quickly. He followed the trail of the sound with steps quiet as a ghost. The person on the other end of those footsteps wasn't aware of Brent's presence…yet.

He knew the layout of the building well. The corner turned and led him to another hallway. Floor-to-ceiling windows made up one side of the path. A heater blew up the curtains and moved.

A sound shifted behind him. Brent whirled around.

Daniel stood there.

Brent nodded curtly to the door at the end of the hall, the auction room. Daniel nodded back in understanding. They walked side-by-side until they reached the closed door.

Daniel jutted his chin, the signal for Brent to go first. He turned the knob and pushed with gentle ease.

Brent expected to see Jefferies.

What he saw, he couldn't comprehend. He was looking right at Jessie. The back of Jessie to be exact. “What the hell?” he said, running to her.

Slowly she turned from her seat in the front row. It took him a moment for her appearance to register. With each step he saw the damage more clearly. Each one like a blow to his heart. One of her cheeks was swollen. Her eye was closed and red; her lip cut with blood trickling out the wound. He saw how she trembled and the terror in her eyes. Brent's temper didn't flare. It exploded. The sight of her agony pushed him over the edge.

“Don't come closer,” she mouthed.

“Where are you?” he roared, spinning around on his foot. He scanned the room for Jefferies.

The moment he turned, a fist smashed into his face, the
crack
he heard his nose breaking. Blood spewed out of his nostrils as he stumbled back in time to see Andrew Wilhelm, one of Jefferies security men, come at him again.

“You,” he said to Andrew.

Brent's hands flew up to grab Andrew. Andrew evaded him, bouncing on his feet like a well-trained fighter. Another jab to Brent's face sent him backwards. Brent's body hit the floor. A white light burst through his vision as the back of his head slammed onto the hardwood.

He didn't know how long he'd been out, but Brent came around to the sound of lowered voices talking fast, and in another language. They spoke Russian. He picked out Daniel's voice as well as that of Jefferies.

A warm hand touched his jaw. “Wake up, Brent,” he heard her say. A tender, soothing voice that made him want to open his eyes and find the face that matched. “Wake up,” she repeated urgently.

A hand jostled his shoulder. Brent opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was her face. She leaned over him. Her hair spilled over his shoulder. The enjoyment faded at the sight of her injuries. This hadn't been a dream. Jessie was hurt. They were still at Whitaker's.

“Don't speak,” she whispered. “They told me to wake you.”

“Get out of here,” he ordered.

“We haven't even begun negotiations,” Jefferies said, standing over him.

Brent inclined his chin to Jessica. “Did you do that to her?”

Jefferies chuckled. “I don't concern myself with someone like her. She deserved what she got. She put my wife's beautiful diamond out of my reach forever. She might as well have taken my heart.”

“She didn't know what she was doing.”

“Oh, I think she did.”

A quick motion by his hand and Andrew appeared. “It's been a long time, Brent.”

“You remember Andrew,” Jefferies said.

“I remember a coward. I also remember that he slept with your wife.”

The smug grin on Jefferies face disappeared. “Now is really not the time to bring up betrayal. Unless, you'd like to take a look at the people whom you trust the most. Daniel, for example.”

Brent turned his head. He saw Daniel come up alongside Andrew.

Jefferies continued and said, “All this time. All these years. Every transaction you've made. Each business deal, Daniel has been with you. He even worked his way into your new jewelry store. You and your stupid brother confided in him. You took him in. But you didn't see that I had put him in your life in the first place. I paid him to be there the very first time you met him at the Tanzanite mine.”

Brent's body went rigid.

The whole time.

His heart turned black.

Today there would be no negotiation. There wouldn't be compromise or leverage. Anything Brent could possibly use against Jefferies or to bargain with he already knew about. Jefferies knew everything that had transpired since he'd made the deal in the first place. Which meant these men were responsible for Melanie's attack and they were here to do the same to him.

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you going to do? Lie there on your back like a coward?”

Brent needed to get Jessica out of the room. He needed her to be safe. They would kill her too.

Daniel and Andrew laughed. “Look,” Daniel said, “it's sinking in, the extent of his trust in me.”

“Why did you do it?” Brent said.

“To protect Jefferies and his company.”

“Why!” Brent shouted.

“Because,” Daniel said, “I'm his son.”

Brent laughed. He looked from Daniel to Jefferies. “You're his what?”

“His son; Victoria was my sister, my half-sister to be exact.”

“Victoria had no siblings.”

“She did,” Jefferies said. “As long as my wife was alive, she had no idea. No one did. You think I wanted my spoiled daughter to inherit everything? I had a son. I kept him a secret.”

Brent shook his head and looked to Daniel. “I was your friend.”

“You were in the way. Victoria took what wasn't hers. You brought the diamonds here. You put your family in danger and Melanie got in the way. She overheard me talking to Jefferies on the phone. There was no denying she heard that I was his son and I was going to get back the diamonds.” Daniel leaned over and grabbed Brent's shirt by the collar. He got in his face. Spit sprayed on Brent's cheeks. “She knew too much and she was going to go right to you and Luke. Something had to be done, so I made a deal with her.”

“No!” Jessie screamed.

Daniel broke his gaze with Brent and looked at Jessie. “I told her if she didn't get me the diamonds, that I would kill her daughters. If she went to you or her husband I would have brought hell down on her house.”

Jessie's mouth trembled. A tear slid out of her red, puffy eye. “You met her at the Palace that night.”

“She wasn't supposed to live!”

Brent knocked his head against Daniel's, and stunned him. Daniel stumbled backwards.

“Go!” Brent ordered to Jessica.

He flew to his feet. He faced his enemies standing up. Brent charged at Daniel. Fists out. Arms swinging. Abs clenched. Feet quick. Daniel ducked the first jab and grinned. His own aim misfired and only sideswiped Brent's knuckles. Brent swooped back as Daniel's arm grazed his chest. Brent's arm swung around with perfect motion and his fist collided with Daniel's jaw.

The punch temporarily phased Daniel. But he staggered only a step back. Brent knew the look on Daniel's face and the challenge in his eyes. Daniel enjoyed this. Brent knocked the smirk off his face with a second blow, direct to his nose. Daniel came back at Brent. He hit him square in the jaw. Then unleashed another to his abs. Daniel closed in like a wild predator and attacked Brent. Hit after hit came, each one thrown harder and with more control. Blood trickled down Brent's nose. He tasted the warm salty ooze on his lips. He couldn't shake Daniel. He couldn't get ahead.

“I'll finish off your girlfriend when I'm done with you,” Daniel said and smashed an earth-shattering punch to Brent's face.

A sharp stab traveled from his throat to his groin. Black spots fizzled in Brent's vision. The solidarity of his feet weakened and he fell down like a rag doll. Daniel stepped on him in the exact spot where the pain radiated and dug his boot heel hard into Brent's flesh. He choked. He grabbed the shoe to get it off his body and couldn't. He cursed Daniel and tried to reach for the knife secured under his jeans. His fingers stretched to his lower leg. One more inch and he'd get the blade and stab the traitor where it counted. Close…closer now…

Andrew's boot pinned down Brent's wrist before he ever had a chance. “No,” he said.

Daniel looked over to Brent's hand. A split second of fear sliced over his face before he kicked Brent's wrist, and reached inside his pant leg for the knife. This was the moment Brent knew he would lose.