“He’s gone, Sergei. He’s fucking gone and he’s not answering the cell… No… no. I want a trace on it. Even if he’s burned it, we might get an idea of his last location.”
I paused outside the door, not wanting to intrude, but startled by the anger in Max’s voice. I’d never heard him like this before. He almost sounded like a different person.
“It was all under control until Savvin got fucking greedy. I was right on schedule with Ana. There would have been no problem with the Blue. It was that asshole deciding unilaterally that he wanted everything.”
I held my breath at the mention of my name and leaned back silently against the wall. It was so wrong to be listening in… But what did he mean, on schedule with me, and who was he talking to about the diamond…?
“Goddamn it, Serge, I know. But he’s threatening Ana now. If I don’t take the whole fucking collection, he’ll turn her over for planning to steal the Blue on her own. And if she goes down, I come back home to Russia with nothing. The only fucking option left is to stop him, any way that I can.”
I stood in the dark hallway, mouth open, unable to take a single breath. Somehow I made my way back to my car, the instinct for survival making me silent as I had crept down the stairs. I just drove then, without destination… without even seeing the road in front of me. All I could see was my whole world, crashing down around me. And I had no one to blame but myself.
I’d fallen for him, fallen completely… The looks, the lines, the charm. A couple of fancy restaurants and I’d fallen into bed with him… and fallen in love with him. And I’d never even known who he really was.
I jerked the wheel, avoiding another car, knowing I was driving way too fast and not giving a shit. Tears were running down my cheeks, soaking the front of my blouse. I couldn’t go back to work now. Shit, I thought, I can’t even go home. My mind was racing, trying to put all the pieces together. My unlocked apartment door and the photo of the Strastnyy… Had that been this man Savvin… or had that been Max’s doing somehow…?
I swallowed the lump in my throat and wiped the tears away with the back of my hand as I drove. It was one thing to fall in love too quickly… I felt my stomach roll with shame at my own stupidity. But this… this was betrayal on a level I couldn’t even fully grasp. And I’d put the museum’s entire collection in jeopardy. I’d allowed a fucking thief into my life and hadn’t even seen it. He’d been using me all along. Just to get to the diamonds… to the Strasnyy.
None of what we’d shared had ever been real at all.
I slammed on the brakes, nearly hitting the car in front of me before I pulled off and stopped. I turned off the engine and sat still, watching the traffic race past. I felt lost, almost outside of myself. It was all too much to grasp. That he’d seduced me, used me, and taken it as far as telling me that he loved me. Even now, knowing it was all a lie… It had felt so real, when he held me in his arms…
I wiped my face with a tissue and blew my nose, working to slow my breathing. I leaned my head back, feeling a painful emptiness in my chest. Max’s words ran through my mind in a jumble of confusion. I tried to focus… to remember exactly what I had heard.
Turn her over for stealing the Blue on her own, he’d said.
Max wasn’t just planning to use me to steal the diamonds himself, he’d intended to set me up to take the fall.
The pain and shame I felt at my own blindness, at allowing myself to be used and betrayed was fast giving way to a flood of new emotions as well. Max’s resemblance to Anton’s portrait, his interest in my work… his supportiveness. How he had seemed like my perfect man. It had all been orchestrated from the start.
I felt rage running hot through my veins then, along with the contrast of icy cold fear. He’d said he would stop Savvin… any way that he could. I couldn’t go back to work and I couldn’t go home. I couldn’t even go to the police. If Max was capable of killing Savvin, was it possible he could kill me too?
My head ached as I tried to sort through my feelings. Every thought seemed to lead to a hundred others and soon the tangle of confusion was too much. Cars continued to race past mine, all headed to their own destinations.
I stared, exhausted and blank, unable to finish any thought but one.
I was completely and utterly alone.
23
Ana
I drove out to where Max and I had our picnic only two short days ago, and parked the car where I had a view of the water. I ran my hands through my hair, staring out over the river, unseeing. I felt oddly hollow inside as the tears dried on my cheeks. I needed time to think… and I needed to stay far away from any place Max might come looking for me.
I got out and walked toward the river. The dark sky merged with the grey water, both disappearing on the horizon. I pulled my thin sweater closer, shivering… but not from the cold.
All the pieces of the last week of my life were shifting into position now. How Max had appeared, how much he’d encouraged me to talk. And how little he’d said about himself. How he’d used my attraction to him, and how much I’d shared freely. About my work. And myself.
A cold sense of calm washed over me, as I watched the flow of the river. Of course, he’d used me. I’d done nothing but make it easy for him from the very beginning. And the Strastnyy had been the prize all along. That’s what Max wanted. It had never been me, and now the whole Imperial collection could be in danger too. I shivered violently.
There was no way to know all the ways I might have been implicated… If the police weren’t already after me, Max and the men he was working with soon would be. He would know that something had gone terribly wrong, when I didn’t come home to him after work tonight… I remembered us, here in the tall grass together, his hands on my bare breasts, his warm mouth on mine. I knew it was so wrong, but deep inside I still wanted him. Maybe his feelings had never been real... but mine had been.
I looked around me, remembering the picnic, being in Max’s arms… Then a wave of panic began to rise, as I flashed to the phone call that had interrupted us that day. Ally had called and I’d told her all about Max. And she’d told me about the man she’d just met…
I headed back for the car, my pace picking up as a growing fear started to spread inside me. He had an accent, she’d told me. And he was a foreigner…
I started to run. I had no proof at all, nothing but a sick, cold feeling in my belly. If Max and whoever he was working with could lie, steal, maybe even murder to get what they wanted…
I got back in the car, locking the doors, forcing myself to think. If there was even the smallest chance that Ally was in danger… I punched her number into the phone and hung up when I got her voicemail. There was nothing I could leave in a message. I had to talk to her, and soon. The diamond was set to arrive at Hillwood in only a couple of days. I needed help, and there was no one I could turn to, no one I could trust but Terry. And how could I ever involve her in all this… My mind raced frantically.
I want you to feel like you can come to me, Stuart’s words shouted through the chaos of my thoughts and the noise of my ragged breaths. He’d been so warm and kind this morning in his office. Would he be willing to help me… would he even believe me, after the long months of things being so strained between us?
I sat, blinking, eyes darting from my phone to the darkening grey sky outside. I had to find a place to stay, where Max wouldn’t think to look for me. And I needed help… especially if Ally might be in danger. Stu would help me, even if it was only to protect the collection and avoid a scandal being connected to the museum.
I pushed the lingering doubts from my mind and punched in Stuart’s work number. “Pick up… please…”
“Mt. Hillyard, Stuart Collins speaking.”
The sound of his familiar voice felt surprisingly comforting. “It’s me, Ana. I need you to listen, Stu. You’re the only person I can turn to…”
The whole story came spilling out in a rush. Afterwards I sat back, catching my breath, wond
ering if Stu had even understood what I’d told him. He’d been so quiet, listening while the story poured out, only interrupting to remind me to take a breath, to try to stay calm. I waited now, for what he would say. He didn’t owe me any favors, but I was trusting him to take the threat to the museum’s jewels seriously.
“Ana,” Stu said, his voice low and tense. “You haven’t gone to the police…? You’ve only told me about this?”
“I was afraid to go to the police, Stu. They might think by now, that I’m the one they should arrest. And then who would help my sister? Or keep the Blue safe from the real threat that’s still out there…?”
“Listen to me Ana. You’ve done the right thing. I am the one who make this right. The only one who can.” Stu sounded calm, focused. I listened hard, willing his calmness to soothe the riot in my head.
“Don’t say anything to anyone else, Ana.” I could hear the rustle of papers on Stu’s desk and the scrape of his chair legs on the wooden floor of his office. “Meet me at my house in half an hour. Don’t talk to anyone. Just drive. I’ll be there before you are.” He paused for a moment. “You were right to come to me, Ana. I’m glad you’ve finally seen that for yourself.”
“Did anyone see you?” Stu asked, opening the door and closing it quickly behind me. “You didn’t talk to anyone…?”
“No, Stu,” I said, dropping onto the brown plaid sofa. “I came straight here. And I don’t think I was followed…” Stu looked out through the drapes, closing them, and came to stand in front of me in the darkened room.
“It’s good you came to me, Ana. I’m glad you decided to trust me.”
“You can make sure the collection’s safe, Stu. I had to make sure you knew there was a threat.” I ran a cold hand across my forehead. “But I need your help to make sure Ally is safe too. If you could go to the police and make them understand, that I was set up and that my sister may be in danger?”
Stuart paced as I spoke, pausing only for a moment to watch me. “The collection? No, it was just the one stone, just the Blue,” he muttered softly to himself, lines creasing his forehead. He sat down, taking my hand in his. I felt his palm, warm and moist on mine.
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Stu. Not to have seen… To have trusted a man like Max, and to have allowed him so close.” I shifted and Stu’s hand tightened on mine. When he’d closed and locked the door behind me, I’d felt safe for the first time, since I’d learned who Max really was. But a strange feeling was beginning to creep up my spine now, as I looked into Stuart’s face and saw an unnatural brilliance in his eyes. I tried to stand but he gripped my hand tight.
“You finally came to me Ana,” he said, his voice strangely flat. “LIke you always should have done.”
He looked past me, his eyes unfocused. “You were always so obsessed with that fucking diamond, Ana. I found the picture of it, that you’d taken home with you.” I gasped, realizing that he had been the one in my apartment that night, looking at my things, touching them… I felt my skin crawl as I looked at him.
“You wanted to prove your theory, that it had belonged to Catherine… that it was a sister stone to the Hope diamond.” Stu’s words were coming faster now. “You wanted to make a name for yourself in the field, Ana. A name would make you the most renowned employee at Hillyard… maybe in our entire field.” His glazed eyes focused unsteadily on mine. “And you didn’t think a man like me was good enough… not good enough to date… never good enough to fuck…”
I wrenched my hand, trying to get away as Stu twisted my arm behind me, forcing me to the ground. “Stu… no, Stu. I never meant to…” He jerked my arm, making me gasp with pain.
“Shut up, Ana. It’s too fucking late now. It’s been too late for such a long time now,” he said softly.
I looked up to see the doors to the dining room slide open, and saw the frozen, white face of my sister Ally. Behind her was a tall, wiry man with short blond hair and pale blue eyes. “Savvin,” he said, “Leave your young lady here with her sister.” Stuart made a sweeping gesture with one hand, using the other to keep me on my knees at his feet. “Tonight we celebrate good fortune.”
Stu lifted me painfully by by arm. “The Blue for you,” he shot a smile toward the other man. Then he pulled me close, his breath sour in my face. “And for me, my Ana.” He leaned in, kissing me as I strained to pull away, the shock of what he was saying and doing only beginning to register. “You don’t need that fucking diamond, Ana, or to prove that damned worthless theory of yours. What you need is me. I’m the only one who can save you now. You said it yourself. You need me, Ana… only me.”
“And now you’re finally mine.”
24
Max
“Fuck, fuck… fuck!”
From the beginning, I’d felt something was off with that goddamn Savvin and now the asshole was fucking gone. And he had access to everything… information on the heist, Hillwood Museum, our family, me… and Ana. For him to disappear so close to the transfer meant only one thing. The fuck had gone rogue. And there was no predicting now, who he might take down with his own greed.
I headed for my car, a barrage of thoughts in my head and none of them any fucking good. I needed to call Sergei and I fucking had to find Savvin. But it was all second to finding Ana, to making sure she was safe. I flashed to all the information Savvin had on her, all the details of her everyday life and felt a cold wave of fear deep inside. She was so fucking vulnerable… and had no way to protect herself. She didn’t have a clue…
I took off for Hillwood, not giving a shit that I’d be intruding at work, or that her fucking boss would be pissed to see me there. I had to see her, and I knew that somehow, I was going to have to tell her far more than I’d ever wanted to. She was in danger and she had the right to know. I just hoped she could fucking forgive me someday. Rage was building inside, at Savvin and at myself. I’d never imagined it would get so out of hand, that Ana would ever be at risk.
I pulled into the parking lot, slamming the door behind me and heading for the main entrance. It wasn’t until I got to the doors that I realized something wasn’t right.
Ana’s car was gone.
“Max, how nice to see you,” Ana’s friend Terry said, opening the doors for me and letting me into the main lobby. “Did you bring Ana back with you? I need those papers. The lab’s all in an uproar, what with the stone coming in even earlier…”
“Terry,” I said harshly, startling her. My mind raced with everything she’d just said. “What do you mean, bring Ana back? She drove herself in today. She left for work hours ago…”
“Well, you two must have missed each other is all,” Terry said, smiling, her cheeks pink. “I just thought she’d be back by now. She left for your house about nine this morning… She’d left some papers at your place.”
“Where is she now, Terry?” I asked, a feeling of dread washing over me. “Did she call… Is she with anyone?” I watched her face, needing something. Anything.
“She was just going to get the papers. She said she’d fax them over within thirty minutes, but I don’t have them yet.” She looked up at me, searching my face. “I just figured the two of you… well, you know…”
I sucked in a long breath, and looked over the top of Terry’s head absently. “I never saw her, Terry. If she ever got there, I never saw her…”
I felt my guts turn to ice, as it all fell into place. I tried to breathe, but felt the muscles of my chest locked tight. The fucking timing of when Ana would have gotten home… when I was on the phone, talking to Serge. If Ana had overheard…
“Has there been anyone here, Terry? Anyone asking for her, any calls… anything unusual at all?” I knew Terry was Ana’s friend, and I could see the concern starting to show in her eyes.
“Has anything happened here today, before she left… or after she was gone? I can’t explain it now Terry, but I need to find her.”
The lines in her forehead deepened as she took my arm and pulled me
along with her. “I don’t know, Max. But she might have said something to Stuart.” She was walking fast now, with me on her heels. “He usually knows everything going on around here, especially if it involves Ana.” She knocked at his door. When there was no reply, she opened it gingerly. “Stuart?”
“Well, that’s not like him, to leave without letting anyone know.” Terry stepped inside and I followed. My eyes scanned his desk, looking for anything that might give me a clue to where Ana might have gone. “And he never just leaves, in the middle of the day…” She rifled through a stack of messages on his desk. “Especially with that transfer moved up to Thursday…” she mumbled. “He’s got half a dozen messages from one guy alone,” she said, taking out a handful of slips from her pocket and adding them to the stack. “They don’t make sense… there’s no name, and no number…”
I picked up a slip from the top of the stack and stared at it. I grabbed a handful of others, and felt my heart begin to race.
“Terry, I need you to help me now.” I took her by the shoulders, dipping my face down to hers. “And I need you to help Ana. I can’t explain… there’s no time. But I love her, Terry. She means more to me than anything else and she needs me right now.” I took her face in my hands.
“I have to find Ana, and my gut tells me that means finding Stuart first.”
25
Ana
“Oh god… please Stuart…” I strained against him, but he had my arm twisted high behind my back. “Just let Ally go, Stuart, and I’ll do whatever you want. Just let her go, Stu… please…”
The man called Savvin gave Ally a rough shove and she landed next to me on the floor.
“Ally, honey… are you hurt? What’s wrong?” She was still where she’d fallen, her mouth slack and her eyes dull and glazed over. She rolled toward me weakly and made a noise deep in her throat.
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