The Diamond Affair (23 page)

Then the cold
came. So cold.

But Jake was
there, warming her, holding her. His face near hers, white with shock, his eyes
wide and a little wild. He said something but she couldn't hear him. She tried
to tell him to talk louder but nothing came out of her mouth.

Don't let me
get any colder, Jake.

She was falling
but he held her tight as if he was afraid she would slip away altogether. His
face, always so closed to expression, suddenly crumpled. Tears shone in his
eyes but that couldn't be right. Jake wouldn't cry. He was too strong. Too...uncaring.

Not true. He
cared for her.

Jake...

She cared for him
too.

I love you
. Since her mouth wouldn't work against the onslaught of so much
pain, she tried to convey it with her eyes. She didn't know if it worked.

She was much too
tired to stay awake and find out.

CHAPTER 19

There wasn't a
lot of time for thinking. Jake had things to do. There were cops to placate. Furniture
movers to organize. A funeral to attend. And a phone call to make to a mate. Ex
mate. Matt wouldn't want to remain friends after this.

So much to do. Thank
God. Because the last thing Jake wanted to do was remember and think.

***

Ruby woke up with
one hell of a stomach ache. It felt like someone had thrust a sledgehammer into
her gut. The nurses told her what had happened, or at least the little they
knew. Evie filled her in with a few (wildly) speculative suggestions. When she
was alone again in her hospital bed, Ruby had time to think it all through. Too
much time. All she knew for certain was that Penny had shot at her father and
missed, hitting Ruby instead. The shaking hands could explain the poor aim, but
Ruby liked to think fatherly love had played a part too. Evie had told her that
couldn't be true because Guy had then removed the gun from Penny's hand in the
confused aftermath and soundly whacked his daughter with it. She'd ended up
with a bruised forehead. He'd ended up with the Florentine after removing it
from her pocket.

One other fact Ruby
knew for certain was that someone had called the cops. Sonya or Sinestri probably.
Both had strong motive to put Beauvoir behind bars for a long time. It seemed
Penny had, so far, escaped arrest since the diamond had been discovered on Guy's
person and not hers. The fact she'd stolen it from her father had been
conveniently swept under the carpet. Apparently she'd overheard her father
telling Sonya the plans for transporting it, and had snuck into the back of the
car and removed it from the locked case using the key she'd lifted from her
father earlier. She'd proved herself to be quite the little thief.

The third known
fact was that no one else had been injured. That alone had been a blessing.

The last fact she
knew was that Jake hadn't visited her once since she'd been in hospital. An
ambulance had delivered her, the nurse said. No one matching Jake's description
had been in.

Ruby tried not to
care. She had a body to heal and a life to resume. There wasn't energy enough
left for Jake.

Or so she told
herself. Truth was, she wanted him. From the moment she'd woken up, she'd held
her breath every time someone walked in the door. She'd had a steady stream of
friends, neighbors, and even a few clients. But no Jake.

Then Damien had showed
up. The wiry, bespectacled guy looked fresh out of college. He gave her some
flowers and smiled shyly. Ruby thanked him for his help then summoned up her
courage.

"How's Jake?"

Damien shrugged
shoulders that were too wide for his spindly frame. "I don't know. As soon
as he heard you were going to be okay, he left for Sydney."

Jake was gone. He'd
left her, just like she knew he would. She closed her eyes and sank into the
pillows. She'd lost him.

Damien talked
some more but she didn't hear a word. Eventually he must have realized she wasn't
listening so he got up to leave. "I have his Sydney address if you want
it," he said, smiling sympathetically.

"Did he ask
you to give it to me?" she said, hope rising once more.

He shook his head
and looked away.

She drew in a
deep breath. "Then no, thank you. He knows where I am if he wants me. I can't
imagine I'll be going to Sydney anytime soon."

Damien turned to
go but stopped near the door. "If it makes you feel any better, I think he
really liked you. More than any other..." He blushed. "Well, he
really liked you."

The phone beside
her bed rang. Her heart fluttered as she answered it. Maybe Jake had changed
his mind...

"What the
bloody hell has that scumbag done to you?" Matt.

Ruby wanted to
laugh the way she always did when she heard his voice while he was away on tour.
Then she wanted to cry. She needed her brother now more than ever.

"Ruby?"
Matt's voice turned thin and uncertain. "Rube, you okay?"

"Fine,"
she managed. "Just fine."

He sighed
heavily. "I thought I was the one who was supposed to nearly die and have
my sibling pine for me on the other side of the world."

"You're
pining for me?" It was easier to tease. More comfortable than facing up to
what had nearly happened.

"Did I say
pine? I meant peeved. I'm going to kill that sonofabitch."

"Jake? Matt,
it's not his fault. He helped me."

"He nearly
got you killed!"

"
I
nearly got me killed. He did everything he could to protect me, but you know
how stubborn I can be."

Her brother
grunted. It was as close to an acknowledgment of Jake's innocence as she'd
probably get. "You sure you're okay?" he asked. "If not, I can request
to come home sooner."

She closed her
eyes. As much as she wanted him there with her, it wasn't fair. She was fine. "You'll
be home in a month anyway."

"Three
weeks. You've lost track."

"I've been a
little busy lately."

"So I heard."
She had to strain to hear his soft voice down the line.

"You spoke
to Jake?" she asked.

The silence
stretched so long, Ruby thought they'd lost the connection. "He called the
base and left a message. I called him back as soon as I could. He told me
everything. At least I think it's everything. When I get back I plan on beating
the whole story out of him."

"If you can
find him." Ruby drew in a deep breath and blew it out. "He's gone to
Sydney."

"Good. Best
place for him."

"Matt."
She closed her eyes and summoned her courage. "I love him."

More silence. "I
don't care where the hell he is, I'm going to hunt him down and kill him."

"Matt! Did
you just hear a word of what I said? I love him. And I can't give up on him. Not
yet. Not until I know the full Jake Forrester story. I want you to fill me in
on the bits I don't know. Starting with why he owed you a favor."

"Ah. That."
He drew a deep breath. "All right. I'm only telling you this because you
think you love him and this will hopefully set you straight."

It wasn't worth
arguing with him so Ruby kept silent.

"There's a
village near where we were stationed at the time Jake was still in the SAS. When
we weren't under direct threat, we were assigned to help the locals rebuild. Jake
was assigned to the school. Classes were still being held there while he and
his team worked and he got to know some of the kids. He used to play footy with
them during his breaks or taught them English. They idolized him and he, well,
he adored them I guess.

"Then one
day he got some intelligence that put the lives of the villagers in danger. I
don't know how he found out but he did and he tried to save those kids. When I
saw him sneaking out one night, I confronted him. He told me what was going on
and...I let him through the roadblock. From that time on, he says he owes me."

"And the
kids?" Ruby held her breath, but she knew the answer.

"He was too
late."

She closed her
eyes. The pain in her side throbbed. Jake...

"He left the
SAS soon after that," Matt said. "According to mutual friends, he's
been on the edge ever since."

Ruby nodded even
though she knew he couldn't see her. "What about his family? Do you know
anything about them?"

"All I know
is, his father left him and his mother when he was a kid and his mother died a
few years later. I'm not sure what killed her."

"Alcohol,"
Ruby said.

"Yeah? Well,
that explains why he never drank when we were off duty." Someone in the
background spoke and Matt answered him. "Hey, Rube, I have to go. Take
care of yourself, okay? I'll call whenever I can."

He hung up. Ruby
replaced the phone in its cradle and sank back into the pillows and closed her
eyes. It hurt. Everything hurt. Her stomach, her head and mostly her heart. Oh,
Jake.

Maybe she should
get the Sydney address off Damien after all.

"Was that
your brother on the phone threatening to kill me?"

She sat up. Or
tried to. She cried out as pain sliced through her. Jake was at her side in an
instant, his strong arms gently lowering her back down to the bed.

"You need to
take it easy," he said, settling in the chair beside her. "The doctor
said you'll make a full recovery." He leaned forward, dangling his hands
between his knees, and lowered his head. "Ruby," he said on a breath.
He shook his head as if he couldn't think what to say next.

"You're supposed
to be in Sydney," she said, trying not to think too far ahead. Trying not
to hope. But he was here, wasn't he?

"I flew back
this morning and came straight here," he said without looking at her. "I
couldn't leave without saying a proper goodbye."

So he had no
intention of staying. Her heart suddenly dove. "You're a coward, Jake."

He finally looked
at her. Shadows circled his red-rimmed eyes and something like the agony she
felt was reflected back at her.

"Or should I
say, you're running away," she said.

His eyes
narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I spoke to Matt.
He told me about those children."

"Ah. And
from that you concluded that I'm running away from you?"

"Not from
me, from love. I got it wrong. I thought you weren't capable of love. But it's
actually the complete opposite. You love very deeply and that's when you get
hurt. Everyone you've ever loved has left you, one way or another. So you're
afraid if you love me, I'll go away too."

Several beats
passed before he said, "You nearly did."

"Not
voluntarily!"

No," he
said, dragging a hand through his untidy hair. "But the end result is, I
almost lost you."

She wanted to
reach for him but he was too far away and the pain in her side reminded her
that she should be lying still.

"Those kids,
my mother..." he went on, "none of them wanted to leave but they did.
And when they were gone, I..." He rubbed a hand over his chin and became
silent.

"Fell apart."

He nodded and
stared down at his feet. He was hurting, and she could do nothing about it. "What
about your father? Why did he leave?

"Unlike the
others,
his
departure was voluntary. He left me and my mother and that drove
her to drink. The drink drove her to an early grave. Or so I thought." He
sat beside her, not quite looking at her, a dark energy vibrating off him. "I
went to see him just before I left for Sydney. He didn't exactly apologize for
all the problems he caused but...it wasn't too bad seeing him. We talked. It
turns out he left her because she'd already started drinking. He couldn't stand
to see her like that so he left. She threatened to harm herself if he took me
with him."

She wanted to
reach for him, hold him, but she didn't think her sympathy was wanted or needed
at that moment. "But still, he came back eventually."

"Yeah,"
he said softly. "But he's dying now too. Like I said," he sounded
bitter, "everyone leaves in the end."

"Except me."
She wouldn't give him up without one hell of a fight.

A haunted look
crossed his face. "I can't be sure of that."

"I love you,
Jake. You
can
be sure of that. And if I have to chase you all the way to
Sydney, then I'll do it. You can't get rid of me that easily. Hasn't my
miraculous recovery from a gunshot wound proved that?"

"Don't talk
about it so flippantly," he growled. A shudder rippled through his body. "I
can't risk losing you too. You're too...precious."

"Do you
really think moving to another city will change how you feel about me?"

He didn't answer.
He'd gone quite still, his intense gaze just missing hers. Ruby saw her chance
and took it.