Kept in the Dark

by Heather MacAllister

  She did look good. It had been a very long time since she’d worn this dress and she never thought she’d wear it again. No ordinary evening gown, the dress could be worn any number of ways and was flowy enough to conceal the tools strapped to her legs. The metallic roping around the bodice and belt was actually real rope, should she need one, and there were pockets within pockets where small objects, like, oh, a snuffbox, could disappear. She wore leggings underneath, just in case she needed to go climbing, say through a small hexagon-shaped window in an upstairs bathroom.

  Kaia normally didn’t do strapless, but Royce had insisted that she be prepared to model some of his necklaces. He was acting as though he’d forgotten why she was really here. Meaning getting his bracelets back and not the other real reason—finding the snuffbox for Casper. It was complicated.

  For just a moment, as she surveyed the party area, Kaia imagined her parents and uncle already working the room, being the perfect guests—as long as you ignored the stealing part.

  But they weren’t here. They weren’t going to be here. Tonight, Kaia was on her own.

  THUNDER RUMBLED IN the distance and the wind picked up.

  It was dark for seven-thirty on a summer night. A Friday night. A casual meet-for-drinks-after-work date night. If you were dating. Which Blake wasn’t. Dating meant planning, meant a relationship, meant commitment. Ever since Kaia, Blake had been going through a let’s-not-complicate-things phase.

  He sat on the decorative stones by the kitchen and watched the activity. From this vantage point, he could see through the windows where the chefs plated trays of hors d’oeurves and barked at assistants. He watched as the decorators drove off—but not before Luke had the van and personnel inspected. He sat there long enough to see that his men had changed into their dress suit uniforms, and watched the valets receive their instructions and jump to attention as the first of the guests drove up to the awning.

  Time to join the party.

  As he stepped from beneath the sheltered kitchen area, Blake felt the sudden coolness that heralded a storm. Twenty-four hours ago, it hadn’t been on the weather radar. Now it was moving up the coast, fast and furious, but should clear out by the time the guests left.

  He could hear the fabric of the dark green awning flapping and started to press his earpiece, but changed his mind. If he used the com system, all his men would hear. He punched in Luke’s cell number.

  “Yeah, boss?”

  “The wind is kicking up. We probably ought to walk around and check wiring and connections, especially on the temporary installs.”

  “Already on it.”

  “Good.” He should have known. “If you need me, I’ll be observing the main room.”

  Blake positioned himself outside at the center of the windows showing a panoramic view of the long room. Bright lights. Lots of sparkle. A jazz quintet. Black and white clad waitstaff carrying silver trays passed through the crowd. A bartender tossed a shaker into the air and caught it to the amusement of a small group waiting for drinks. Everybody was moving, smiling, looking normal.

  The addition of the large floral displays and eleven tall black columns displaying Royce’s jewelry crowded the room. Yes, Blake had made a good decision to be here tonight. There was too much going on for a normal crew to keep track of.

  Blake scanned the room again, marking reference points, noting the eleven display columns. Except when he counted this time, there were only ten.

  He was rusty, he thought, swearing softly when he counted again and came up with eleven.

  And then one of the pedestals moved and Blake saw that it wasn’t a black-covered column, but a woman in a black strapless gown. A woman with beautiful, creamy shoulders. Lush dark hair twisted up in back. Strong profile. Elegant fingers deftly undoing the clasp on the necklace she wore. Red lips smiling as she held it out for another woman to admire. Gracefully side-stepping to fasten it around her neck. Raising her head to give him his first unobstructed view of her face.

  He stopped breathing, not because she was a stunning beauty, although to him she was, but because after years of dreaming about her, he was staring into the face of Kaia Bennet.

  5

  BEFORE THE PARTY got under way, Kaia pulled out her cell phone and keyed in Tyrone’s home number. She called his landline because she wasn’t trying to reach Tyrone, who was on alert for her tonight; she was trying to reach his wife. Clearing her throat, she prepared to be casually friendly. And cheery. Or at least pleasant.

  “Hi, Yolanda!” she gushed. Too much, too much. Way more than pleasant. Even way more than cheery. She sounded like a pathetically eager geek calling the most popular girl in school.

  “Hey, girlfriend.”

  And that was the way to do casually friendly, even though Kaia wasn’t exactly a girlfriend. But she was certainly trying.

  Her court-ordered counseling sessions had led to the discovery that Kaia did not have any women friends. Technically, she didn’t have any friends, but she was afraid of what the counselor would make her do if he found out. Practicing on Tyrone’s wife was painful enough. Yolanda was nice and all that, but Kaia wasn’t the meet-for-lunch-and-shop type. She was the break-into-your-house-when-you-aren’t-home type.

  “I wanted to thank you for letting Ty get my back tonight. I know it’s your date night.”

  “Not a prob,” Yolanda said, and Kaia could hear the TV in the background. “’Cause you know what I want.”

  Relaxing, Kaia grinned for real and walked toward Royce. “All I can do is steer Ty in the right direction, but it’s going to be an expensive direction.”

  “Girl, it’s our fifth wedding anniversary! For what that man makes me put up with, it had better be an expensive direction!”

  Kaia laughed, also for real. Maybe this was how women friends talked to each other all the time. Maybe Yolanda hadn’t figured out that Kaia had been ordered to find a woman friend outside of work. Maybe Ty didn’t mind his wife getting chummy with an ex-con.

  As Kaia reached Royce, he stepped back and she got the full effect of the animal-inspired bracelet display he’d been fussing with. She actually gasped. She, who had seen some serious jewels in her day, gasped.

  “What? What?” sounded in her ear.

  “Leopard,” breathed Kaia. “And tiger, and zebra, oh my.” The bracelets were so fine. And they looked it. They glittered with the authoritative sparkle the way only real stones could.

  “Keep talking.”

  “I’ll do better than that.” Quickly, Kaia snapped a photo of the display and sent it to Yolanda. “Incoming. Check it out.”

  “Hey.” Royce raised an eyebrow. “Did you clear photography with security?”

  Kaia held the phone away with her thumb over the mouthpiece. “Hey, nothing. I’m making a sale for you.”

  Squealing sounded from the phone as the picture came through. “See?” she said. “That’s my attorney’s wife. Their anniversary is coming up and she likes your stuff.”

  “I hope he’s a well-paid lawyer.”

  Kaia mentally appraised the pieces. Small diamonds, black, white, yellow and brown. Not the best quality, but they didn’t have to be. The design and workmanship more than made up for it. In particular, there was a green and black snake meant to coil from elbow to shoulder that Kaia wouldn’t mind owning, even if she had to pay for it. “What kind of prices are we talking?”

  When Royce told her, Kaia’s eyebrows raised. “That’s quite the markup.”

  “While you were in the clink, I got popular.”

  “Stop it.” Kaia gave him a deadly serious look. “Not funny.”

  Royce held up both hands, palms out.

  “Kaia!” Judging by the tone of Yolanda’s voice, she’d been trying to get Kaia’s attention for a while.

  Without looking away from Royce, Kaia spoke into the phone. “I’m here.”

  “I love the leopard! I want the leopard! I need the leopard!”

  Royce could hear her. “It’s
cheetah,” he murmured, looking heavenward and shaking his head.

  “Which one?” Kaia asked.

  Yolanda told her and Kaia pointed to the bracelet on the bottom of the artful stack.

  “My mistake,” Royce said. “It is leopard.”

  “How much?” she mouthed.

  “Thirty-five,” he mouthed back.

  And he didn’t mean hundred. “Seriously?” she mouthed again. Aloud she said to Yolanda, “Let me see what I can do. These are a little pricey.” She ended the call. “What are you on?” she asked Royce. “Haven’t you heard that we’re in a recession?”

  “I’m an artist. It’s not only about the stones. It’s the name and the exclusivity. I never repeat a design. Variations, sure, but each piece is unique, the workmanship impeccable, and the gold solid.”

  “Oh, please. Spare me the spiel. And the gold would be 22k, not solid.”

  “That’s understood.” Royce glanced up at the lights and made several minute adjustments to the bracelets and darned if they didn’t sparkle that much more. “I thought the ad copy sounded great. I’ve found it very effective.”

  “Bully for you. I want a leopard bracelet and I’m not paying thirty-five.”

  He arched a brow. Kaia was pretty sure it was plucked. When had Royce become the sort of man who plucked his eyebrows?

  “I didn’t think you were paying at all,” he said.

  She smiled.

  “For you, thirty.”

  “Come on, Royce. They’re good people.”

  “How rare.” He made a last pass over the display with a jeweler’s cloth.

  Kaia waited and then said, “You know, I don’t blame you for giving my name to Casper’s people—then or now.”

  “I never thought you did.” He glanced at her. “Interesting that you should mention it while we’re haggling.”

  Kaia made a tsking sound. “‘Haggling is such a common word’.” They’d both heard her father say it more than once.

  “That it is.” Royce stared at the stack of bracelets and then lifted the top ones and removed the leopard bangle. After examining it, he reached for a folder and opened a monogrammed case filled with colored artist’s pencils. “I might be able to make some adjustments and still maintain the integrity of a Royce original.” He began sketching.

  A Royce original. Kaia turned so he wouldn’t see her roll her eyes. She’d known him back when he had two names and worked for her dad making copies of estate jewelry. And some of the copies were actually legit.

  Kaia scanned the room, noting the unconscious straightening of the waitstaff and lights shining through the windows as cars arrived at the valet stand. Show-time.

  The first guests had spilled into the room when Royce tore out a sheet of paper, held it at arm’s length, squinted, and then handed it to Kaia. “Fourteen karat instead of twenty-two, with just enough sparkle to distract from the generous use of enamel. Thirty-five. Hundred.”

  One tenth the price. Kaia studied the sketch. “You know, Royce, this is so good, it’s actually worth the price.”

  Royce plucked the sketch from Kaia’s fingers. “What’s her name?”

  “Yolanda.”

  He wrote, “For Yolanda” and signed the sketch with a stylized “R.”

  Kaia took out her phone and sent a photo of the design to Yolanda. “Now, what about doing something similar with the snake for me?” she started to ask when someone called to him.

  “Royce!”

  He raised a hand to wave across the room. Kaia followed his gaze and saw the beautifully groomed trophy wife of Casper Nazario, aka Tina the Klepto.

  Quite an age difference between Casper and his wife. Kaia would bet that if Tina were twenty-five years older and had lost her looks, Casper wouldn’t be so tolerant of her little idiosyncrasy.

  “Duty calls.” Royce straightened the bolo tie at his neck.

  “I’ll let you know what Yolanda thinks,” Kaia said.

  “Oh, she’ll love it,” he replied confidently, and spread his arms. “Tina!”

  Of course, Yolanda loved it, beyond thrilled to have a Royce original designed especially for her. “He did that? Just now? After you told him about me?” she asked over and over.

  “Yes.” Kaia laughed. “But I’ve gotta go. The party’s started.”

  Now all Kaia had to do was convince Tyrone to buy the bracelet. Because that’s what a friend would do.

  She ignored the unrepentant little voice inside that whined that a true friend would steal it.

  Kaia put on the first of the pieces Royce wanted her to model. The heavy necklace was so not her style. A diamond pendant was her style, specifically, a smallish yellow diamond with a black flaw that made it look like a cat’s eye. And if all went her way this evening, she’d have it back.

  Kaia stood silently behind the main jewelry display, observing the people, getting a feel for the rhythm of the gathering.

  Since this was a trunk show, the guests would be trying on the pieces that interested them. Beneath each table was a notebook for orders and sales. Royce had given her a quick overview of his system, but she was more into acquisitions, than sales.

  Her eyes were drawn to the knot of people surrounding the hostess. Tina wore a half a dozen bracelets on each arm, a ring on every finger and multiple necklaces, including one she wore as a headband. What piece would she steal as her commission tonight? If she only took one.

  Bad Kaia. Tina Nazario didn’t steal. She borrowed.

  But whatever her faults, Tina sure knew how to throw a party. People poured in, the music was catchy, and the bartender had created colorful “jewel” drinks—diamond, sapphire, emerald, and ruby, all served with a festive rock sugar swizzle stick. If she weren’t working, Kaia would have liked to taste them. Unfortunately, drinking on the job slowed her reflexes and she’d need them sharp tonight.

  Was she allowed to eat the party food? Kaia wondered as a waiter carrying a silver serving platter passed by. On it quivered gelatin jewels in keeping with the theme. Maybe too much theme.

  Time to circulate. Just for grins, Kaia added the snake bracelet to her upper arm, earning her a frown from Royce. She put it back. One piece at a time, he’d said. Fine.

  Just as she’d attached the bracelet around the display cylinder, a woman approached.

  “What a gorgeous necklace!”

  Her cue. “It’s one hundred thirty-two carats of matched aquamarine.” She hoped Royce hadn’t fudged the carat weight in the catalog. “Would you like to try it on?”

  As she spoke, lights flickered and flashed, drawing her attention to the windows. There was lightning in addition to the car headlights.

  “Oh, it’s that storm! The flooding and wind damage down south has been all over the news,” the woman said. “They say it should move through pretty fast.”

  Kaia hoped so. Weather always stirred up a crowd and tonight, she didn’t want anybody stirred up.

  She took off the heavy necklace and sidestepped around the shorter woman, bending to fasten it around her neck.

  She opened her mouth to assure the woman that it looked beautiful on her but was surprised into a genuine compliment. “Oh, the blue exactly matches your eyes! And it’s such a pretty color. Royce has been using aquamarine a lot this season.”

  She had meant to imply that it was fashionable, but the woman looked disappointed. “Well, I wouldn’t want to have what everyone else is having.” She frowned and touched the necklace as though getting ready to remove it.

  “No, I meant that he acquired several parcels of superior quality stones that have inspired him.”

  The woman looked doubtful, so Kaia caught Royce’s eye and beckoned him over. He practically shot across the room, so Kaia knew either the woman or the necklace was worth serious bucks. Probably both.

  “Royce, you just have to see how these stones match her eyes,” Kaia said, and stepped back to let Royce do his thing.

  He picked up his cue. “You’re the only one I�
�ve ever seen with true aquamarine eyes. Such a unique look.”

  Thunder rumbled as lightning flickered and a gust of wind rattled the glass panes. Kaia gazed out to the front drive where red-coated valets jogged back from parking on the street that ran in front of the house. There was a line of cars now. Just how many people had Tina invited?

  A crowd would work to Kaia’s advantage. There was no way Tina could expect all the guests to use the powder room downstairs. An excellent excuse to go upstairs later, Kaia thought just as several lightning strikes lit up the outdoors.

  She saw a figure standing outside looking in at the party as wind swirled the bushes and the valets scurried behind him. Probably one of the security guards. The next crack of lightning was followed by a boom of thunder that caused a few gasps, including Kaia’s.

  The figure was brightly illuminated for only a second this time, but it was enough to see his face clearly. Blake McCauley.

  That was Blake standing out there watching the party. Watching her.

  Kaia waited to feel shock or anger or bitterness—something. She’d had more of a reaction just seeing his name this morning. But maybe all the emotional hits she’d taken today had numbed her. Numb was good. She didn’t need to battle any emotions this evening.

  Ignoring Royce and the woman, Kaia walked over to the windows and tried to see past the reflection of the bright room into the darkness outside. If Blake was out there, he’d already seen her, so there was no point in pretending otherwise. When lightning next flashed into the shadows, the figure was gone, like a ghost—a ghost from her past, if she felt like being dramatic.

  Kaia wanted to convince herself that it had been her imagination, that she’d been thinking of Blake, so she’d imagined that she’d seen him, but she was too practical. His company was on duty tonight, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable for him to be here, too. And also, hadn’t it just been that kind of a day? It was like old home week for her life.

  So, Blake was here. And, clearly, he’d seen her and recognized her.