by SL Beaumont
Chapter 24
There was a quiet knock on Stephanie’s bedroom door a little while later.
“Come in,” she called, expecting it be her father or grandmother. James slipped in quickly; breathing heavily as he quietly shut the door behind him and leaned against it.
“This place is worse than Fort Knox,” he complained.
“Well I guess you would know, Mr Knox,” she said, shocked to see him standing there.
James chuckled.
“What are you doing here? Are you stalking me now?” Stephanie asked.
He saw fear flicker across her face, along with the defiant tilt of her chin, as he strode over to where she sat. Stephanie jumped up, knocking over a small table with a glass on water on it. She moved away from the sofa, feeling the sudden need to put some distance between them.
“I am not involved with whatever it is that you think my family is doing,” he said bluntly.
Her eyes flashed with anger. “Really? Then why have you been threatening me?”
James sighed. “Alex said he had a deal on that you were putting in jeopardy with your snooping around. He said I had to warn you off or he would. And believe me – you would rather it was me,” he said.
Stephanie didn’t answer immediately. She couldn’t decide whether to trust him or not. All her instincts where screaming No, but there was measure of sincerity in what he was saying. “Why didn’t you just explain that?” she said eventually.
“Like that would have stopped you,” he said quietly.
“Oh so now I am unreasonable too,” she said.
“Come on, Steph. I haven’t come here to fight. This is doing neither of us any good,” he implored.
They stared silently at one another for a few moments. James’s cheekbone was shiny and red from where she had hit him earlier. It looked like he would have a bruise on it the next day. She knew she should be feeling frightened, but for some reason, she no longer did. The image she had built of him in her head over the last few days had been of some monster out to hurt her, but instead it was just James standing in front of her; the same James that she had kissed passionately a week earlier, but then had argued so bitterly with. He seemed to bring out such strong emotions in her.
“Steph, there’s a lot more going on here than either of us realise. It’s more than just bitterness over what happened all those years ago,” James said.
“Yeah, I know. Have they sent you to extract everything I know, before they kill me too?” She eyed him suspiciously, only half-joking.
“Yeah, just call me Bond,” he said, laughing quietly.
“No, James, I’m serious,” she said. “I’m a bit out of my depth here, so I’m really not sure who to trust. You aren’t very high on the trustworthy scale right now and the one person I did trust has ended up unconscious in hospital.”
James moved towards her, holding out his hand in a gesture of peace. She looked at his hand, torn with indecision. Her instincts were telling her not to trust anything he said, but her heart was betraying her by thumping loudly and excitedly in her chest.
A loud knock on her door made them both jump. James looked at her in alarm.
“Stephanie – are you okay? Can I come in? It’s Vince,” a voice called.
They both froze.
“Quick – in here,” she whispered, making a hasty decision and pushing him towards her walk-in wardrobe. “Get behind the curtain.”
“Hang on,” she called. “I’m not decent.” She quickly pulled off her dress and pulled a light summer dressing gown around herself.
James raised his eyebrows appreciatively, before ducking behind the curtain. Stephanie glared at him, her cheeks burning, and rushed to the door.
“What’s up, Vince? I was just getting ready for bed,” she asked as she opened her door and stuck her head around it, trying to keep her voice calm.
“A security alarm went off and your father asked that I check on you and your grandmother,” he said, looking past her into her bedroom. “May I come in for a look?”
Stephanie hesitated, but stepped aside to allow him into the room, “I didn’t realise that we had such high tech security,” she said.
“Who were you talking to?” Vince asked, ignoring her comment.
“Was probably the internet – I was just downloading some new music.” Stephanie waved her hand toward her laptop and iPod lying on the sofa.
Vince’s trained eyes scanned the room. His eyes stopped on the spilled glass of water and upturned side table.
“Are you okay?” he mouthed silently to her.
Stephanie felt a shiver of fear. “No, I mean yes. You banging on the door startled me and I knocked it over when I jumped up,” she explained. She walked as calmly as she could over to the small table and righted it, picking up the now empty glass. “I’ll just get a towel to mop this up,” she said walking into her ensuite bathroom. Vince followed, looking behind the door and in the shower. He paused to look into her walk-in wardrobe. He walked directly to the curtains covering the window of the small room and pulled them back. Stephanie gasped, but it was empty behind them. Vince visibly relaxed and smiled at her.
Where was James? Stephanie could barely look.
“Okay – all clear in here. I’m sure it’s just a false alarm,” he said walking back to the door of her bedroom. “Lock yourself in though – just in case.” He nodded to her and went out into the hall.
Stephanie closed the door behind him and quickly turned the key in the lock. She momentarily leant on the door and let out the breath she had been holding, before rushing over to the walk-in wardrobe and pulling the curtains back herself. “James?”
“Here,” a low voice sounded from behind her. She spun around and stumbled into him.
“Thanks,” he said quietly, not taking his eyes off hers.
Stephanie stood still, her heart beating furiously. She wasn’t sure if it was from the fright of nearly being caught in a lie or from the fact that he was standing so close to her – probably a bit of both. He left his hands gently on her shoulders where they had steadied her a moment earlier. They stood like that for several moments, looking into one another’s eyes, each trying to assess what the other was thinking. Stephanie lowered her gaze to his lips and before she realised what she was doing, she reached up on her tiptoes to kiss him.
The kiss was gentle at first, until James ran his hands down her back and pulled her firmly up against him. She responded by winding her hands around his neck and into his hair. He flicked his tongue over her bottom lip and with a low moan in the back of her throat she opened and kissed him back. Their bodies pressed together, the pent up feelings of the past weeks spilling over.
When they finally pulled away, they stood silently gazing at each other, their breathing uneven.
Wow, Stephanie thought, quickly trying to gather her scattered thoughts.
“Um,” she said eventually, breaking the silence. “How are we going to get you back out of here undetected tonight?”
Stephanie took a step away from James, trying to physically put some distance between them to allow her to think clearly. What has just happened here? Why am I kissing someone that I don’t completely trust? Is it because it feels a little dangerous? Yet strangely, it somehow felt right, at the same time.
“I don’t actually think I’ll be going too far tonight – even if I wanted to,” he smirked.
She took his hand and led him to the sofa.
“You wait here, while I get changed,” she instructed, pushing him onto it.
“You really don’t need to,” he called quietly to her retreating back, with a smile in his voice.
“Oh no, I really do,” she replied, pulling on dark blue jeans and a rose pink hoodie. She needed a couple of minutes alone to regain her composure. Careful, Steph, she warned herself, you don’t know what he is up to.
She came back into her bedroom and sat cross-legged at the opposite end of the sofa, studying him.
“You
know it’s not just my family guarding secrets,” James said, leaning towards her and gently pushing her hair back where it had fallen over her face.
Stephanie flinched slightly at his touch. A hurt expression at her reaction flashed across James’s face, and then was gone. “Well, why does your eighty-five-year-old grandmother have an ex-SAS officer here?”
“What? Vince? He works for Dad,” Stephanie frowned. “Actually, that does make sense. He is very military, isn’t he?”
“Check him out, Steph, and you’ll see I’m right. He served two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan,” James said.
“So now you’ve been looking into my family,” she stated, frowning at him.
“He’s not your family,” James replied evenly.
“What about Victoria, James?” she asked, unsuccessfully trying to mask the bitterness in her voice. “Do you and Alex take turns?”
James flushed and blew out a breath. “Long story – but I was as surprised as you to see her with Alex tonight. She and I were finished months ago. Not terribly mature I know, but I was just trying to make you jealous after seeing you with Sam. She doesn’t care for me – too busy being in love with herself or maybe Alex,” he said. “Although how anyone could love Alex is beyond me.”
“Yeah, but why this sudden change of heart? You’ve ignored me for days, you were really quite nasty at the café last Saturday, you threatened me at the club in London and frightened the hell out of me earlier tonight,” Stephanie said.
“You are actually very hard to ignore,” he said, laughing.
Stephanie let out a frustrated sigh. “Stop avoiding my questions, eh?” she said.
James moved closer to her on the sofa and put his hand under her chin and lifted her face to meet his. “I’m sorry – I really am. My grandfather hates your family for what happened during the war and will never forgive them for their part. The thought of me hooking up with a Cooper was too much for him. He made all sorts of threats. I’ve been disinherited several times in the last few days, whatever that means. After that night I showed you the photos in the library, he and my brother insisted that I cease all contact with you immediately ‘for the good of the family’. And then your name kept coming up and Alex made it very clear that he would deal with you if I couldn’t stop you looking into our family history. He has some top secret deal on and you were asking questions about us and drawing unwanted attention. You don’t know him. He is ruthless when anyone gets in his way and I couldn’t stand you getting hurt.” He dropped his hand and sat back, watching her reaction carefully.
Stephanie bit her lip. It all sounds very plausible, but can I trust him? She shook her head, trying to process what he had said. The usually confident James was gone and a vulnerable looking James sat in his place. But it could be just an act to find out what I know?
“Steph, can I ask you something?” he said suddenly.
She nodded.
“Sam…” he began. “Are you and he…?”
She sighed. “No. We were together, but it ended six months ago,” she said.
“Andy was right,” he said as much to himself as to her.
She half smiled. So he has been talking to Andy about me.
“So, James, what now? Because I have uncovered some information that you are really not going to like. And I think that it’s going to be a problem, because something is really off here and since someone keeps trying to stop me, I have to see this thing through,” Stephanie said moving away from him. “I owe it to Michael to at least find out who ran him off the road.”
“You think that’s related, don’t you?” he asked.
“I know it is,” she replied with certainty.
James took a deep breath. “Okay – why don’t you tell me what you think you have found,” he said.
Stephanie hesitated. She couldn’t just tell him bits, she would have to tell him everything and she still wasn’t sure. She was beginning to believe that maybe he was sincere, but there was still that nagging doubt that he might use whatever she told him, against her.
James sensed her uncertainty and sat back from her, giving her space. “Let’s start with what were the police looking for at my place tonight?” he suggested.
“Okay,” she agreed, “I don’t know, but I suspect that some of Alex’s business deals are not all above board.” I will test the waters with that one.
“Okay, somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” James said looking thoughtful. “The cops tried to blag their way in without a search warrant. It seemed that they were looking for one thing in particular. Do you know what that might be?”
It was Stephanie’s turn to take a deep breath. “The painting in your library.”
“What – the little one?” he asked.
“It’s a van Gogh which is on a list of stolen artworks, missing from Germany since World War II,” she said.
Silence.
“No.” James shook his head. “Grandfather was given that by a business acquaintance, many years ago.”
“How many years ago?” Stephanie asked.
“Before the war, from what I understand….” His voice trailed off. “How do you know that it’s not just a copy?” he said.
“Well, the Nazis marked all the artworks they acquired with a black swastika and yours has one on the back,” she said.
“And you know that, how?” James frowned.
Stephanie blushed. Oops.
“Ah – the day you were looking for your ‘lost’ earring. Right?” he said remembering his conversation with Alex. When Stephanie nodded, he continued. “Jeez, Steph – that took some nerve – you could have been caught at any moment.”
“I know,” she agreed quietly. “Here, I will show you the information on it.” She stood and walked over to her desk, grabbed the large file of papers and her laptop and brought them back with her to the sofa.
“You think Alex is trying to sell it,” he said drawing his own conclusion.
“I don’t know. But it is worth millions,” she said.
“Mmmm. It disappeared from the library a few days ago,” James said quietly. “I asked Grandfather about it and he said it was being cleaned.”
Stephanie looked at him long and hard and made a decision. She shuffled along so that she was sitting beside him. She sat forward on the front edge of the sofa so that her feet were flat on the floor. Her leg pressed against his as he settled comfortably beside her resting one arm on the sofa behind her and leaning in against her shoulder. She opened the folder across their knees and proceeded to take him through everything that she had found. He interrupted with questions every now and again. She showed him the file she had saved on her laptop comparing her mobile phone photo with the screen shot of the missing painting.
After about half an hour, James sat back and ran his hands through his hair. “Bloody hell, Steph. I don’t know what to say.”
“I don’t either. Part of me thinks I should take this to my dad. Those guys that came to your place tonight with the police are from Israel, I think; military or law enforcement of some kind. They are downstairs having a meeting right now.”
“What? Here? Now?” he asked, surprised. “Hey, tell me honestly, what is Michael’s involvement? He has been helping with more than setting up your laptop.”
Stephanie blushed. “Yes,” she admitted. “He was helping me with an internet search to cross reference German visitors to your place before the war with the list of missing Nazi art. You see many of them had valuable paintings in their art collections that haven’t been seen since the war and Sophie’s journals mention that your grandfather and his father were acquiring new art and other valuables long after war was declared. Here I’ll show you,” she said, flicking to the relevant pages in Sophie’s journal.
After reading over her shoulder for a few minutes, he sat back deep in thought. “So why exactly do you think Michael was targeted today?” he asked.
“He had a copy of David’s memoir from the library with him, but
it’s missing,” she sighed and leaned into him slightly, feeling a strange relief at having shared all the information that she had gathered, and having him believe her at last. “I just don’t know what my dad’s involvement in this is. Maybe he is on the other side of Alex’s deal? Although, I can’t believe that he would be involved in anything illegal, but then I’m sure that you think that about your family.”
“That’s where we’re different. I could so believe that about Alex. It’s all about money and power with him. I don’t know your dad, so I can’t comment on him,” he said.
“Maybe Alex doesn’t realise that the painting is stolen,” Stephanie mused.
James laughed. “This is Alex we’re talking about. He’s an art dealer. If the provenance is dodgy – he will know. It certainly explains why he has been so concerned with you looking into our family around World War II.”
Stephanie walked over to her desk to return the folder and laptop.
A movement outside caught her attention. Vince and another man were out on the front lawn with torches and headsets. She gasped. James vaulted the sofa and was at her side in an instant. She pushed him away. “You need to stay away from the windows – they’re still searching.” A sudden thought crossed her mind. “Did you drive here? Will they find your car?” She felt a sharp stab of panic.
“No – the Vespa is stashed in a hedge about a kilometre back on Ridge Road. They won’t find it,” he said.
Stephanie breathed again, relieved.
James yawned and looked at his watch. It was midnight. He pulled out his phone and tapped a text.
“Just letting Grace know that I won’t be home tonight – not that anyone will notice, but still,” he said, his voice trailing off.
Stephanie didn’t know what to say. She stood studying him for a few moments. She really wanted to trust him. He yawned again.
“You’re tired.” Stephanie could see the dark circles under his eyes and the bruise that was beginning to show on his cheek. He looked worn out.
“Yeah – it’s been a long day. Can I sleep on your sofa tonight?” he asked shyly.
“Of course,” she said.
James kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the sofa. Stephanie went to get a spare duvet from her wardrobe and laid it over him. She wandered into her bathroom to get ready for bed. When she came out five minutes later, he was fast asleep.
She curled up on the chair opposite the sofa for a long time, watching him sleep and thinking. Finally, she decided that he was truly asleep and that she was safe to do the same. She stood and stretched. James looked so relaxed and somehow younger when he was asleep, with one arm thrown back behind his head and his hair flopping down over one eye. She leaned over him and gently brushed it back. He murmured and stirred. She very gently kissed the top of his head and climbed into her bed and fell into a restless sleep.
