by Dale Mayer
Joining the navy had been the making of him. Becoming a SEAL had been a highlight of his career. When he’d walked away, he’d walked away knowing he’d done his best for his country and needed to do something else. Working for Levi had been that something else. It was fun; it was exciting; it was different. He wasn’t sure he was ready to give that up. But then this little voice inside him asked, Why would you have to give anything up? She worked in Houston. It wasn’t like he couldn’t stay in Houston with her, or commute back and forth between her place and the compound.
But then that just brought them back to the financial inequity between them. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. It had never come up before.
Thinking of that, he brought up his phone and sent Levi a message about the three sisters. And the father’s company with its IT breach.
“Now who are you contacting?” Diamond demanded. She glanced at her father. “He’s forever sending messages back and forth. It’s quite irritating.”
“I’m sending tidbits of information to the rest of my team,” Dezi said. “An awful lot of people are working on this right now. We’re running deep background checks on at least forty people, and, until something pops, we won’t know which direction to go. But the fact that you’ve had an IT break yourself will help us direct our attention into that area. Is there an ongoing investigation into Ruby’s boyfriend?” he asked, looking up from his phone to study Diamond’s father’s face, which wrinkled up in a sad look.
“I have to investigate him,” he said. “I don’t like to. I try to stay out of my daughters’ relationships. But unfortunately, having the asset base that I do, means an awful lot of less-than-nice guys have been using my daughters to get at my money.” His voice hardened at the end as he glared at Dezi.
Dezi gave him a bland look back. “You can keep your money,” he said. “I’ve never had any. Wouldn’t know what to do with it. I’m much more comfortable without it.”
“Every guy says that,” her father scoffed. “But, when it comes down to it, it’s the money they want.”
Dezi gave a quick shake of his head. “The only reason I would go forward with a relationship is if I couldn’t live without the woman. I can live without everything else in life. But, when I find the one woman I can’t leave, I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep her. And nobody, nobody,” he snapped, “would stop me from making that happen.”
The two men glared at each other for a long moment, then Diamond stepped in and said, “Well, now that we have all of those typical male conversations out of the way, … Dad, did you eat dinner?”
Startled at the blandness of the question, he looked at her in surprise, glanced at his watch and said, “Yes, I ate hours ago. I need to head back to the hotel and see if we can figure out this mess.”
“What’s her boyfriend like?” Dezi asked Henry.
“Slick,” her father said. “He’s well-dressed, three-piece suits, comes with all the right connections and all the right family ties. The right education. And he certainly knows what he’s doing in the computer world. I helped him get the job at our company. I probably shouldn’t have done that.”
“What was he doing before he met your daughter Ruby?” Dezi asked.
“He worked for one of the bigger IT companies. He came with good references,” her father added tiredly. “And, of course, I don’t know for sure that he is involved. It’s possible somebody else is making it look like he’s involved.”
“Of course. How are your daughter Ruby’s IT skills?”
“Better than anybody else’s in the family,” he said, “but I can’t guarantee she has anything other than average skills because I don’t even have those. So what she can do looks amazing. Whereas you’d probably swim circles around her.”
Dezi nodded. “Understood.”
“But, and let me make this clear, I don’t have any reason to suspect any of my daughters would be involved in something like this. There’s no need. They have plenty of money.”
At that, Diamond said, “Dezi mentioned earlier that, for many wealthy people, there is no such thing as enough. If you own one Learjet, then why shouldn’t you own two or three?” She laughed. “Although I was raised with lots of money, I don’t feel like I have that attitude.”
Her father gazed at her affectionately. And Dezi’s heart warmed to see it appeared real.
He squeezed his daughter’s fingers. “You are the least money-oriented of all of us. Once you found your passion, everything else ceased to exist. The fact is, you’re so damn good at what you do,” he added in admiration, “you’re making money hand over fist regardless.” He glared at Dezi. “It’s important that you not lose that because of some male.”
Dezi grinned. “Absolutely. I agree with you,” he said sincerely. “It’s very important, no matter what the relationship.”
Diamond chuckled. “There is no relationship between Dezi and me,” she said, assuring her father.
Henry shook his head. “You can’t fool me,” he said. “There might not be a relationship yet, but, the minute I leave this house, you’ll take it one step further.”
Color rolled into her cheeks. “That’s hardly fair,” she murmured. “We don’t even know if we really like each other.”
“Doesn’t matter,” her dad snapped. “The attraction is definitely there. The trouble is, with somebody like him, he already knows how to find people pulling shit deals like this on families. That also means he knows how to set it up and could take advantage of you easily.”
She straightened her back and stood. “He could, yes.” She glared at her father. “But I’m not a total fool either, Dad. I know you still have a lot of hard feelings about Mom betraying you, and I don’t know if that’ll ever go away, but you also have to trust me that I can judge somebody for myself.”
“What about your last two relationships?” he pointed out. “Both men were just there after my money.”
“And mine.” She nodded. “But remember how I’m the one who broke up both relationships. I saw who they were, and I took steps to get them out of my life.”
Henry sat back and thought about it. “True, you did. Okay, I’m just a father who’s worrying about his youngest daughter.” He stood, opened his arms, and she threw herself into them.
“And so you should,” she said warmly. “Well, maybe right now you should be worrying about Ruby and her boyfriend.”
“Indeed, I am.” He looked at Dezi. “Ruby is nine years older than Diamond. I’d bet the boyfriend is about three years younger than Ruby.”
“What’s his name?” Dezi asked.
“Ronnie Riverson.”
When he got the name, he texted it to Levi. “Yet another name for us to hunt down to look into his background.” He gave an easy smile. “And, in case you’re wondering, we go a lot deeper than a normal security company would.”
“Into their financials?”
“Into much more than their financials. If need be, we can search through texts and emails as well.”
“Just like somebody did to me?” Diamond asked.
Dezi nodded. “But we only do so if we’re afraid we have a prime suspect in a criminal case. We would not take that step if we had other choices. We do deal in many life-and-death cases.”
She sighed. “The trouble is, it’s a slippery slope.”
“Every slope is,” he said gently. “It’s a matter of having the brains and the humanity to wear the right equipment for the job.”
Her father looked at him with respect. “That’s very true. I hope you find out what the hell is going on in my daughter’s life. And you never know. I might have need of Levi’s services someday.”
“He’s always available,” Dezi said. “We do a lot of jobs in Europe.”
Her father nodded. “Yes. I have somebody I’ve used a couple times out of Africa as well.”
“Bullard, by any chance?”
Her father slanted a hard gaze his way. “Do you know Bullard?”
“Bullard, Levi and Ice work together a lot,” Dezi said smoothly. “I trust Bullard with my life when it comes to this kind of work.”
“Good to know,” her father said. “Does that mean Bullard would give you a recommendation or a reference?”
“Bullard, definitely. Levi, definitely. And I know lots of the individuals at Legendary Security too. Plus others that help us when they can. I know Charles out of England, but I don’t know if you do.”
Her father straightened and nodded. “If it’s the man I’m thinking of, then yes. You are well-connected, aren’t you?”
“I’ve been in the business of protecting people for a long time,” Dezi said. “But it all has to start with the right set of equipment. And, in my case, it’s honor and loyalty and honesty.” He stood and shook Diamond’s father’s hand. “I can tell you sincerely that I will do everything I can to protect your daughter.”
“And yet, all I really want is for you to fix my problem and to find the asshole who is forging my work,” Diamond said.
Dezi looked at her, gave her a gentle smile and said, “How about I do both?”
Chapter 6
After her father had left, she walked back outside. Darkness settled in, and the automatic lights were on in the gardens. “It’s so pretty at this time of night,” she said. She walked back inside, grabbed the wine bottle and topped off their glasses. As she sat again, she said, “Do you really mean that about my business and protecting me?”
“Yes,” he said. “If something happens to you, what happens to all your designs?”
“The sold pieces out there with my customers will go up in value because now there will be a supply shortage, and most artists’ work increases in value after they pass away.” Then she sucked back her breath. “Okay, now that really bothers me. I would not be happy to have somebody think they could kill me to raise the value of whatever assets they hold.”
“We won’t give anyone that chance. I can’t tell you that’s their end game because what we have at the moment is evidence of a hack and a simple forgery—a bait and switch, a theft—and potentially somebody who is trying to destroy your life. I don’t know the desired result of that just yet.”
She nodded. “I don’t like any of this.”
“You don’t have to,” he said gently. “What you do have to do is stay safe. And, as that is a large part of my job, you have to trust me.”
She glanced at the water in the pool, then said impulsively, “Do you want to go for a swim?”
His eyebrows shot up. “Absolutely. But I didn’t bring any trunks with me.”
She chuckled. “I’m not a prude. I highly doubt you are either.”
What she did next left him gasping.
She stripped off her breezy dress, and next the slip dress beneath it, stepped out of her sandals, and, just in her underwear and bra, walked into the water. It soothed her tired flesh and eased the stress that had rippled through her nerves all evening. When she got to the bottom step of the pool in the shallow end, she put her arms over her head and dove in. She swam to the far end, turned around and lifted her head for a breath of air, finding him swimming slowly at her side. She smiled, rolled over and floated. “See? It was a good idea.”
“It was a great idea,” he admitted. “Just dangerous as hell.”
She looked at him, frowning. “Why? It’s not like anybody will break into the backyard and disturb us.”
“I didn’t mean that kind of dangerous,” he said.
The look he gave her had her flesh heating up. “Oh?” she challenged. “What kind of danger did you mean?”
He slid his hands to her cheeks to hold her head firm; then he said in a thick voice, “This.” He lowered his head and kissed her.
Flames shot down to her toes and back up again. She wrapped her legs around his hips and hung on as he deepened the kiss until they both sank in the water. She hadn’t thought about them being in the deep end until they sank below the surface, but she didn’t stop their downward slide.
When he hit bottom, he bounced back up again, never letting her go, still kissing her. When they broke the surface, he lifted his head so she could breathe.
She gasped and whispered, “Wow. I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Liar,” he called it. “Of course you were.”
“Well, not quite so fast,” she said with a grin. “But, of course, a guy like you doesn’t waste time.”
“A guy like me?”
“Somebody who is comfortable in your own skin. The one thing I noticed about you right from the beginning was how sure of yourself you were. How defined your movements were, as if you were always one step ahead of the rest of the world. Every step you took had a surge of power in it because you were confident you were taking the right step. I’ve always admired that,” she admitted. “It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do. Back then I didn’t have the confidence to believe I could do this and could make a living at it.”
“What changed your mind?” he asked. He slowly swam them toward the shallow end, and, when he could stand, she dropped her legs and stood beside him.
“It wasn’t what. It was who. My father gave me the confidence. He said he knew exactly what sold in the world of jewelry, and I had what it took. And, when I finally believed him, I used him as a judgment call every time I created a new piece. And then finally I didn’t need to anymore because he loved everything I did.” She laughed. “He still does,” she said affectionately. “He would be more than happy for me to shut down my store and let him carry my designs exclusively all over the world.”
“You don’t want to do that?”
“I’ve thought about it,” she said, “and it’s something we still talk about. I wanted to run my own business though. But, if it cuts too much into my designing time, then I will give them a contract to carry my stuff exclusively.”
“How serious an idea is that?”
“I thought it’s what he wanted to talk about tonight because the bigger I get, the more he worries about me keeping up. He wants to promote me as his exclusive designer, instead of my own business where people can walk in and have direct access to me.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if he’s right or wrong about that. I do struggle with designing custom pieces. I love the work, but sometimes the clients aren’t the easiest to deal with. I prefer to design a piece the way I think it needs to be and then sell it to somebody who falls in love with it as is.”
“So have you discussed shutting down your business?”
“Not really,” she said. “Whether I would continue to work in the back, I don’t know. I have been thinking for a long time about moving and setting up a better studio.” She looked around her backyard, a big smile forming just at the sight of this perfect oasis for her. “The other alternative I have is to make some renovations to this place, beef up the security on my residence and then just work from home. Which, considering how I love my backyard, would be my preferred route.”
He stared at her for a long moment. “You do realize that brings up a completely different aspect to what’s going on?”
She slid her arms around his neck and kissed his chin. “How do you figure?”
“Well, let me ask you this. How many people in your store know about this idea?”
“All of them,” she said in surprise. “We’ve discussed it. There’s a possibility of a place for them at the nearest Liechester store, only it’s not close by and they all live in this area.”
“All of them could be absorbed into your father’s business?”
She nodded. “If they wanted to, yes. Which wouldn’t likely include Sammy. He was less enthusiastic than the others about my idea.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he felt I’d be doing less artwork, even though I would, in fact, be doing more. But it wouldn’t be mine. He said he believes I’d be giving into the competition, and they would absorb me into their world with all the other designers.” She smiled. “In a way he’s right. B
ut, in another way, I know my father would never allow me to be just one of the other designers. He’s too proud of the work I do. He’d keep my work front and center, high priced and exclusive.”
“Sure. But how much is Sammy devoted to his own particular brand of art?” Dezi asked. “How far do you think he would go to keep you dedicated to yours?”
*
Dezi watched the awareness come over Diamond’s features. This was something she didn’t want to look at. Something she didn’t want to accept. But she understood Sammy, the man himself. He was as passionate about his art as he was about being true to it.
“I’m not saying he’s guilty by any means,” Dezi said, his hands slowly stroking up and down her arms. “I’m just saying that he has a very passionate mind-set when it comes to art.”
Her nod was slow and hard to discern; then so was the concept Dezi had proposed.
Dezi ran his hand over her wet hair. “And again that doesn’t make him guilty. Just passionate about something that’s important to him.”
She gave him a tremulous smile and slid close to him, her arms tightening around his neck.
His breath caught in the back of his throat as she pressed her lace-clad breasts against his chest. Oh, man. He was totally okay to take the next step, but he wasn’t so sure about her. He thought she was one of those forever type women. He didn’t want her to feel this was something other than what it was, whatever that was. They were at the beginning, for sure. But the beginning of what? Yet he couldn’t clear his churned-up thoughts.
She kissed the cleft in his chin.
He let out a shaky breath. “We’re playing with fire here. You do know that?”
She kissed his cheek and then his nose. “I know,” she whispered. “But right now playing with fire feels very damn good.”
He wrapped his arms around her back and held her close, not kissing her, just enjoying the feel of her smooth silky skin in this unique environment. She had such a beautiful setting here and a beautiful home. She was such a beautiful woman inside and out. He knew creativity drove her, and living with her would be a unique experience because she probably didn’t have any idea what a nine-to-five job was. But then neither did he. His work took him a long way away most of the time.
