The Diamond Affair (3 page)

"You know Matt."

He grunted. "Just
because you're related doesn't mean you've got similar principles." His
body had been very still but suddenly he started fidgeting with his glass and
shifting in his seat. It was as if all his energy had been contained for too
long and needed release. "Blood relatives can be as different as...you and
I."

"I didn't
steal the Florentine. You have my word and at this point my word is all I can
offer. It'll have to be enough."

He shrugged and
with that movement, he became still again, relaxed but watchful. "It doesn't
matter. You're paying me to do a job. Whether you're innocent or not, it makes
no difference. I just like to know everything up front. No surprises. Got it?"

Instead of
answering him, she said, "Not a great believer in ethics then." She
couldn't keep the sneer out of her voice.

"If you've
seen what I've seen, done what I've done, you'd know that ethics don't mean a
damn thing. Now, the only reason I'm asking is because we need to find out who
really stole it. Then we can hand the thief over to Beauvoir and you'll be off
his hit list."

"You make it
sound so easy."

He stood abruptly.
"Let's go," he said and walked off.

"Where to?"
Ruby followed him, trying to keep up with his long strides.

"Check you
into a hotel. We can talk some more on the way."

"Right. A
hotel. Good." She couldn't go home. Fat Frankie or one of his off-siders
would be waiting for her there. But staying at a hotel didn't seem like the safest
option either.

Jake held the
door open for her and she slipped past him. She breathed deeply to draw the
warm evening air into her lungs and inadvertently caught the scent of him. The
combination of subtle cologne blended with raw masculinity caught her off
guard. She breathed in again and looked up at him, at the skin beneath his ear
where he would have splashed on that cologne before coming to meet her.

"What?"
He glared at her, breaking the spell.

She tried to
think what she'd been going to say before his smell—his smell for crying out
loud!—made her forget. "You said check
me
into a hotel. What about
you? Where will you be?"

"Home."

Snug in bed
sleeping like a baby, no doubt. Or a giant in Jake's case. Now that she stood
beside him, she realized how big he was. She only came up to the middle of his chest.
"How will you protect me from there?"

"You won't
need protecting because Beauvoir and his men won't be able to find you. You'll
use an assumed name, pay with cash and won't talk to anyone. Got that?"

It all sounded
completely logical. But still... "I'm paying you to protect me as of now,
not starting tomorrow morning. I'll feel much safer if you're sleeping in the next
room rather than...wherever the hell your cave is."

"My
cave
is just around the corner from the hotel. You have my number. Feel free to call
me if you get nightmares."

She was pretty
sure that was his attempt at a joke. "It's not the nightmares I'm worried
about."

They'd stopped at
her car, or rather Evie's car. Jake placed his hands on her shoulders and her
heart leapt a notch. The man had a presence that affected her, that was for
sure. But she couldn't work out whether that presence was a scary one or
something else, something baser.

"You'll be
fine," he said calmly. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to
you. Matt would kill me if I did." By the light of the street lamp she
could see a ghost of a smile.

"Then take
the room next to mine," she pleaded. "I'm paying remember."

He removed his
hands to run them through his hair and her heartbeat returned to normal instead
of trying to break out of her ribcage. Good thing too because she needed her
wits about her right now and she couldn't stay focused if her body parts went
crazy when he got too close.

"Please,"
she whispered. When he looked away, breathing heavily, she knew she had to say
more to sway him. He was close but not quite there yet. "I'm scared, Jake.
I just need to know that you're not far away. Otherwise I might as well sit in
the car all night because I won't be getting any sleep anyway and it'll be
cheaper." The scared little sister act had always worked on Matt whenever
she wanted him to pick her up from the train station at night. It seemed the
same act appealed to other he-men too because Jake swore again and she knew he
was close to giving in. Good to know which tactics worked.

"All right,"
he finally said. "You might as well come home with me."

She chewed on her
lip to stop her relieved smile. Somehow she didn't think he would appreciate
it. "Not the hotel?"

"If you
insist on me being in the next room then we might as well stay somewhere the
coffee's going to be drinkable in the morning. This your car?" He nodded
at Evie's rust bucket.

"A friend's.
I borrowed it when I saw Frankie trawling through mine."

He nodded. "Good.
Leave it here."

"Why?"

"Parking's
bad at my place."

She followed him
to an SUV—black of course—and they drove to the inner-city Docklands area. Jake
parked in the basement parking lot of one of the apartment towers rising above
the restaurants and bars. Why he hadn't chosen to meet her in one of them
instead of O'Brian's was a mystery.

They took the
elevator to the twenty-first floor and he carried her overnight bag to his
apartment. When he switched on the lights, her jaw dropped.

"Wow, what a
view!" One entire wall was all glass and looked out to the twinkling
lights of the city beyond. She moved closer for a better look.

"It's not
bad," he said, standing so close behind her she jumped.

"It beats
the view from my place. The neighbor's brick wall gets a little boring after a
while."

"You could
move in here after I move out. I can put a good word in with the landlord if
you like. These places go fast but I'm pretty sure he'll hold it."

"You don't
own this?"

He crossed the
room to a heap of boxes stacked to one side of the lounge room. He was packing,
she remembered, which also explained the bare bookshelves and walls.

"No, a
friend does." He pulled out a pocket knife from his back pocket, flipped
it open and stuck the blade into the tape sealing one of the boxes. "He's contracted
to do security in Iraq for another year. I'm sure he'll let Matt's little
sister stay."

So another SAS
mate. "Does he owe my brother a favor too?"

He pulled out a
set of linen from the box. "Not that I know of."

"Then he's
not likely to give me a discount and I can't afford this place without one."
The apartment looked new with a modern kitchen and freshly painted walls. She
bet the toilet didn't leak and the floorboards didn't groan either.

He picked up her
bag from where he'd left near the front door. "The second bedroom has a
double bed. You can sleep in there."

She followed him into
the bedroom and together they made up the bed. He tossed her a towel as well. "Bathroom's
next door."

"Thanks. I
think I'll take a shower."

"Oh, and Ruby?
My room's on the other side of the lounge." He gave her his sardonic look.
"In case you have nightmares."

Smartass.

"We'll talk
in the morning," he said. "Get some sleep tonight."

He left and she
went into the bathroom to take a shower. The warm water massaged her shoulders
and back, easing some of the tension but nowhere near all of it. She pressed
her forehead against the cool wall tiles and closed her eyes. How could this
happen to her? She'd never done anyone wrong, always paid her bills on time and
swore only when really pushed. It wasn't fair. Girls like her shouldn't be at
the top of a dangerous megalomaniac's hit list. She wasn't equipped to be held
at gunpoint by emotionless thugs.

But Jake
Forrester was. And she would give him every last cent in her bank account if
that's what it took to keep him at her side until this was over.

CHAPTER 3

"Who else
could have taken it?" Jake asked.

Ruby spread
butter over her toast, right up into the corners, then picked it up to take a
bite only to stop before the toast got to her mouth. "Fat Frankie said it
was stolen en route to Beauvoir's house. So anyone who knew that's where it was
headed would be my bet." She took a large bite and shrugged. "Could
be anybody," she said after swallowing.

He sipped his
coffee and leaned back in the chair to study her. She sat opposite him at his
small kitchen table, looking a little bleary from a restless sleep. He'd heard
her tossing and turning half the night before he finally fell asleep himself. She
must be worried. No, make that scared. She wouldn't have called him if she had
any other options. Knowing her brother the way he did, Matt would have made
sure she knew Jake was absolutely the last resort.

As he recalled, Matt
adored her. Their parents had died a few years back and he'd been parent to her
as well as big brother. No way would he want her anywhere near someone like Jake
for fear of...well, the obvious. Matt had never introduced her to any of his
unit mates in between his tours because he'd never thought any of them good
enough for her. He'd said so, in a joking way of course, many times. And Jake
knew Matt directed most of that concern his way. Serial daters and little
sisters were a bad combination all round. Jake respected that.

Although seeing
her get butter over her chin, he didn't understand what all the fuss was about.
Sure, she was cute and had a great body—hell, it was hard not to miss the body
in those skimpy PJs—but she wasn't a beauty. He'd dumped better looking women
than her. At least she wouldn't provide a distraction beyond the mission. He
couldn't delay leaving Melbourne any longer than necessary.

He looked over at
the boxes, all sealed and ready for the removal company to take on Friday, a
little over thirty-two hours away. He'd have to postpone them till next week. This
wasn't a simple job. Damn it.

"If we leave
out Fat Frankie himself," he said, "and the guys who drove the
Florentine—"

"Why leave
them out?"

"Because
they're all still in town. You've seen Frankie and the others must be here or Beauvoir
would have suspected them first and you wouldn't be a target. So the question
is, who else knew about the Florentine's transit?"

"Who else
knew about the Florentine at all?" She sat back and studied the mug of
coffee she held in both hands. "As far as I know, I was the only
gemologist he showed it to. So unless Beauvoir told someone else about it, the
only other person who knew he had it would be the person he bought it from."

It would be next
to impossible to find out who that had been. Jake's contacts didn't extend to
the international black market for gems. "What about you? Did you tell
anyone?"

"No!" Her
bright blue eyes flashed but the anger quickly vanished and she lowered her
gaze to her mug again. "Well, I did tell Aaron."

"Your
boyfriend?"

"Hardly. He's
gay. He's also my assistant and I trust him completely. No way would he have
stolen it. No way
could
he. He's just too...nice."

Jake resisted the
instinct to roll his eyes. Man, she was so naïve. It was a wonder she hadn't
been taken for a ride already. It was also a wonder Matt hadn't given her a
talking to about trusting people too much.

"Nice people
have been known on occasion to do bad things," he said. "And stupid
things. This would fall into both categories."

There was that
eye-flashing again. Her dark blues could burn holes into a man's skull if he didn't
keep out of the way.

"Aaron did
not steal it. He's never so much as slipped a cubic zirconia into his pocket. That's
a fake diamond if you didn't know."

"I knew."

She lifted one
shoulder and the flimsy strap of her pajama top slipped down revealing the
plump rise of one breast. He wondered what the skin there would feel like,
taste like.

"You going
to eat that?" she said.

"Yes." He
shook his head to dislodge the image of a naked Ruby. "I mean no." She
reached for the piece of toast on his plate but he caught her hand. "On
second thoughts, I think I will."

"That's your
third piece. You must be hungry."

She had no idea. Felt
like forever since he'd tasted...toast.

She withdrew her
hand and picked up her coffee mug again. "So what's the plan?"

"We speak to
Aaron."

"I just told
you, he didn't do it."

"And you're
paying me to do a job. Let me do it. We check out Aaron before we dismiss him
as a suspect."

"Fine."
She stood. "I'll go get dressed before you decide you need another piece
of...toast." She tossed a sly grin at him over her shoulder that said
gotcha
.