A Bid for Love

by Rachel Ann Nunes

  “You will give in to me one day,” she had told him once, smiling her perfect smile.

  “Maybe if you start coming to church with me,” Jared replied jokingly. It was always best to keep things light with Laranda.

  She arched a perfectly sculpted brow. “Is that what it would take? Maybe I’ll convert you instead.” She cast him one of her ardent looks that made him back away in self-defense.

  Jared never fooled himself that Laranda wanted him for his good looks or his inner qualities, but simply because he had put himself out of her reach. He knew instinctively that any romantic relationship between them would be temporary for her and painful for him. He believed he had the potential to love, whereas Laranda had suppressed such tendencies long ago.

  “She may be successful,” Jared muttered to himself now, “but she’ll end up alone.” His words reminded him of what Trudy Martin had said about having posterity, and how grateful she had been to have her family around her when she died. That was what he wanted—to be surrounded by family. It suddenly dawned on him that since he had gone to the hospital to help Cassi, he hadn’t felt alone—not once.

  Jared quickened his pace. The sooner he got rid of the Buddha, the sooner he could be with Cassi. He could feel the touch of her lips against his even now. When he’d kissed her the night before, Jared admitted to himself that he was in love. But in the end, the Buddha had fallen, and during the ensuing discovery of the diamonds, he hadn’t been able to tell her his feelings. It was love, wasn’t it? Or was it too soon to know?

  Jared forced his mind away from thoughts of Cassi and back to Laranda and the Buddha. Despite the tension between him and Laranda, they were also longtime friends. He respected her business sense almost entirely, though he occasionally disagreed with her methods. She had been a good boss, giving him leeway with his purchases and helping him gain confidence. Unlike most of his previous employers, she was willing to take a risk if the odds were right. On his end, Jared had done the extra research that had made those risks pay off. He had earned his position, but Laranda had given him the room to prove what he was worth.

  What would she do when he brought her the diamonds? Jared knew she would want to keep them, but in the end, she would turn them in. Even her greed would not overrule her logic.

  Jared came to a stop, shifting the weight of the Buddha. He was nearing the gallery now, and he needed to scope out the situation. One or all of the three groups after his precious cargo would likely be waiting for him. “Unless two of them are working together,” he muttered.

  At any rate, he would be a fool not to take precautions. He began walking again, but more slowly. Sure enough, two men stood separately on either side of the gallery steps. At this distance Jared couldn’t be sure, but he thought he recognized the hooked nose of one of the men who had attacked him at the hotel.

  “Newspaper?” a young boy asked. He stood near a corner magazine stand with a stack of newspapers. Inside the stand, the boy’s father sold magazines and gum, as well as more newspapers.

  “Thanks.” Jared handed the boy his money. He opened the paper and stood slightly to the side of the stand, studying not the print but the gallery. With each passing minute, more people arrived in the busy streets, as many of the businesses opened at eight. With this natural cover, Jared felt confident he would not be spotted by the men in front of the gallery until he was closer to his goal. Then he noticed several cars parked across the street from the gallery. A few had people still inside them—an unusual occurrence at this hour, when most people were hurrying to work or to complete their daily errands. Also, there were several cafés whose outer tables held more customers than normal. Something was definitely amiss.

  How could he get to the gallery without being seen? Two alleyways on either side of the gallery led to the back entrance, but Jared spotted men he didn’t recognize in front of both. He continued to puzzle over the possibilities, but every idea came back to the alleyway nearest him. Somehow he would have to sneak past the guard.

  Jared’s attention wandered over the people around him, searching for an idea. His eyes fell on the boy selling newspapers. The youngster awkwardly helped his father by stopping people in the street as they passed. Most ignored him, and some cursed because he was in their way. Jared waited until the boy drew near. “You there,” he said.

  “You want another paper?” The boy eyed the one already in Jared’s hands.

  “No, I want to hire a messenger.”

  “For what?”

  “There’s a man standing in the alleyway on this side of the art gallery. I want you to deliver a message to him.”

  The boy’s eyes grew calculating. “How much?”

  “Ten dollars.”

  “Really?”

  Jared nodded. “Will you do it?”

  “Sure. What’s the message?”

  “Tell him someone wants to meet with him about the Buddha. I know what’s in it, and I want to make a deal. Got it?”

  “Someone wants to meet him about the Buddha, you know what’s in it, and you want to make a deal. Easy. But aren’t you going to tell him where to meet you? Or do you want me to bring him here?”

  “No, not here,” Jared said quickly, nearly kicking himself for the oversight. “There’s too many people.” He looked around furtively for the child’s sake. The boy’s smile grew. “Tell him to go inside the café across the street, to table ten, and I’ll call him with further instructions.” The boy’s eyes widened. Jared pulled out the money and handed it to him. Then he added, “I’ll leave another ten in the plants at the base of this tree for when you get back.” Jared squatted down beside one of the trees that occasionally dotted the street and began making a hole in the greenery at the tree’s base, making sure none of the passersby could see what he was doing. Not only would the extra money urge the child to deliver the message quickly, but would assure that his attention would be elsewhere when Jared slipped into the alleyway.

  The boy dropped his few papers on the ground near his father’s stall and raced down the street. Jared quickly finished burying the money and followed as closely as he dared. Just before the boy reached the man, Jared slipped into the first open door he spied, a bakery shop. Delicious aromas tantalized Jared’s nose, and his stomach growled with hunger. He had eaten a little this morning when he had cooked breakfast for Cassi, but he had been too agitated to eat a full meal. He walked to the counter.

  “May I help you?” asked the elderly lady.

  “A croissant please,” he said, twisting his head around so he could look out the window. He had expected to see the man walking across the street by now, but he was nowhere to be seen. Was it possible Jared had missed him?

  He paid for the pastry and sidled up to the window near the door, careful to stay slightly to the side so that anyone walking casually by wouldn’t notice him. There was still no sign of the man.

  The crusty bread filled his mouth and somehow brought memories of Cassi. Why couldn’t he get her out of his mind? That morning he had awakened early, thinking to leave before she had a chance to object. But as he passed the living room, he had peered in to see her sleeping soundly, and he knew he had to say good-bye.

  She had been disappointed about his decision to see Laranda alone, and maybe even hurt. Jared told himself he would explain later. He would make her understand that he had only been trying to protect her.

  The man Jared had been waiting for appeared suddenly, but not crossing the street as Jared expected. He was right outside the bakery window with the boy. Jared drew back further from the window, reaching under his jacket for his gun. Miraculously, the man didn’t see him.

  “He was just over there,” the boy’s voice drifted into the shop, “but he’s gone now. You’ll just have to go to the . . .” The voice trailed away, and Jared dared a peek out the window. The man and boy walked over to the tree where Jared had left the money, and the child reached down and brought up something in his hand. The man nodded, satisfied, and
left, crossing the street in the direction of the café. The boy stared after him for a moment, and then ran to show his father the money he had earned.

  Jared was out the door in an instant, stuffing the rest of the bread in his mouth and walking quickly to match pace with the pedestrians on the sidewalk. There were even more people now to blend in with, but he sighed with relief when he was able to duck into the deserted alleyway. It wouldn’t be long until the thug realized he’d been tricked, and Jared had to be inside the gallery before his pursuer came looking for him. Once he and Laranda notified authorities that the Buddha was safe, they could close in on the gallery and the thugs.

  In less than a minute, Jared was at the end of the alleyway, only to come across another man as he turned the corner. They saw each other at the same time.

  “You!” the man said in a gruff voice that sounded strangely familiar. He was a big man, and he held out his hands menacingly, though Jared could see no weapon. Jared darted around him and ran toward the back door of the gallery. If he could reach it in time, he’d lock the door. But the man’s hands reached out and grabbed Jared’s duffel bag, pulling him to a stop.

  “You got the Buddha?” the man rasped.

  Those four additional words were enough for Jared to place the voice. This was one of the men who had been at his apartment the night before. Anger welled within him, and with a burst of energy he tore the bag from the man’s hands and punched it toward his exposed stomach.

  “Umph,” the man grunted, reaching for a gun Jared spied in a holster at his back.

  Jared hit him again, this time in the head. There was a loud pop as the hard case inside the bag made contact, and the man reeled. He took a couple of steps backward and roared with anger. Fists clenched, he came at Jared, his eyes murderous. Jared dropped the Buddha, thinking that its condition hardly mattered anymore. It was a fake and worthless, shattered or not.

  He feinted and then jabbed at the man’s face, hitting flesh. Jared was smaller than his opponent, but what mattered now were the long hours he spent at the gym each week. His reflexes were sharp and his punches hard. The man he fought was also experienced, but unlike that night at the hotel in L.A., there was only one to fight. Now Jared’s trimmer build worked to his advantage as he made a smaller target for the man’s potentially lethal strokes.

  He stepped to the side to avoid a blow, feinted twice, and then scored on the man’s jaw. Enraged, the thug came toward him, punching without pausing. One of his blind punches hit Jared in the stomach and another in the chest. Jared gasped in pain but didn’t step back. Instead, he moved closer, swinging hard. The man retreated slightly and Jared pressed his advantage, no longer feinting but trying to make each punch score, while dodging the ones thrown at him.

  Finally the man gave a grunt of pain and dropped to the blacktop, still breathing but unconscious. Jared’s hand ached from the blow that had felled his large opponent, and his sore chest heaved. He threw the bag with the Buddha on top of the man and dragged them both up a short ramp to the back door of the gallery. With his key he opened it and pulled the man inside, locking it securely after him and rearming the gallery’s alarm system. They were in the packing department, and Jared quickly found some thick packing twine to tie the man’s hands. He looked like he might be out for a while, but it was possible he would come to and sound the alarm to his employer. He needed to stay inside the building until help arrived.

  Slow clapping alerted Jared that he wasn’t alone. He turned to see Laranda sitting calmly on one of the packing tables, watching him. “Very good, Jared. I knew you would make it here.”

  “This man tried to get the Buddha,” Jared said.

  She shrugged and slid off the table. She wore a glittering, skin-tight red dress that flaunted her ample bosom to good advantage. Matching stilettos set off her lovely ankles, and her neck, ears, and wrists sported expensive diamond and white-gold jewelry.

  She glanced at the man on the floor before focusing on Jared. “He doesn’t matter. You do. I underestimated you.”

  “What do you mean?” Jared asked. Laranda wasn’t making sense.

  “Give me the Buddha,” she said, ignoring his question.

  He handed her the duffel bag. “Uh, it got a little beat up.”

  Her expression was bemused. “How do you expect me to sell a broken statue?”

  “It’s a fake, so we should get reimbursed by the auction company.” The words tumbled from Jared’s mouth as she opened the bag. “That’s not all. There are diamonds inside the Buddha. Someone’s using the statue to smuggle them into the country, probably from India where the Buddha came from, or maybe from somewhere else. I don’t know. We need to call the police. The FBI might already be involved, but there’s at least two other groups that have been chasing me. If I’d known about the diamonds in California, I would never have tried to bring them here.”

  Laranda paid no attention to his rambling. She drew the Buddha out of its case, significantly more damaged than the night before. Diamonds flowed into her hands, and she gave him a calculating smile. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Her voice echoed eerily in the large room. She rolled them around on her palm, watching the full range of colors they reflected. Some seemed to glow like icy fire, as if reflecting Laranda herself.

  Jared felt suddenly cold inside. He glanced around for the first time, realizing that the room was empty of the regular employees. “Where is everybody?” he asked.

  Laranda tore her eyes away from the diamonds with apparent difficulty. “Taking the day off.” She turned back to the diamonds, inverting the Buddha to let them all slide into the case.

  “But—” Suspicion crept slowly over Jared. “I’d better call the police.”

  Laranda laughed. “Come with me. I have something to show you.” She picked up the case of diamonds and walked to the large vault in the corner of the room. Without looking to see if Jared followed, she twirled the dials. “We can’t call the police,” she said. “I’ve yet to complete the deal with my buyer.”

  Before Jared could object, she opened the heavy door and stepped inside the vault. She walked quickly to the back and unlocked a drawer with a key, stepping to the side. “Open it,” she directed when he caught up to her.

  Jared did as he was told. He gasped as he saw a Buddha identical to the first, except that it was uncracked and whole. Understanding flooded through him.

  He stared at Laranda. “You had the fake Buddha made.”

  She nodded. “By copying the original I bought a few years ago in India.”

  “Then you—” Jared’s eyes swung to the diamonds she carried.

  She smiled her icy smile. “Of course it was me.” With one hand she shut the drawer with the Buddha and turned abruptly, leaving the vault.

  Again Jared followed her. “But how did you know I would get it at the auction? I mean, there was another man who seemed very interested, and a woman who might have outbid me.”

  “The man bidding against you was the one who hooked us up with the diamond suppliers,” Laranda said. “He was there simply to make sure you bid the proper amount for my last payment—which, incidentally, is only a tiny margin of what I’ve already paid for the diamonds. The woman was unimportant. As the price of the Buddha went above its real value, all others would lose interest. Wasn’t that so?”

  Jared nodded. “But just in case, you told me to get it no matter what the price. You couldn’t risk that someone would find out about the smuggling.”

  Laranda shrugged and ran her fingers through the glittering stones in the case. “These diamonds are worth much more than I paid for them. Much, much more.” She smiled once again at Jared, and then jerked her head toward the doorway that led to the gallery itself. “Ivan!” she shouted. A block of a man appeared with a gun. Jared’s idea of calling the police and turning Laranda in vanished even as it formed.

  “Yeah, boss?”

  “Untie your useless companion over there. I’ll hold your gun while you fr
ee him. Then come and guard this man for me while I decide what to do with him.”

  “They work for you?” Jared’s betrayal knew no end. Not only had Laranda used him to buy the Buddha, but she had sent these thugs first to rob the hotel safe in Los Angeles and then to search his apartment.

  “I didn’t want you to find out.” Laranda leaned back against a table and rubbed a long fingernail over her red-painted bottom lip. Her other hand held the gun steadily. “When you started talking about staying longer and about the Buddha not being quite right, I knew you wouldn’t be satisfied until you had some answers. So I hired them to steal the Buddha before you figured it out, only you didn’t put it in the safe like you promised.”

  Jared snorted. “You didn’t give me a chance. When I went to put it there, the safe had already been broken into and the Feds were there.”

  “How nice of you to avoid them for me.”

  He gritted his teeth. “I wish I hadn’t.”

  Laranda laughed, sounding genuinely amused. “You kept away from my competition, too. That was smart of you. They are very unhappy that I’ve taken over so much of their business.”

  A horrible thought came to Jared’s mind. “You mean this isn’t the first time?” He’d been hoping to convince Laranda of the uselessness of her situation, but now his hopes were failing fast.

  “I’ve been doing it for several years now. Not only smuggling, but paying my suppliers by bidding high on certain objects. Remember that painting you didn’t want to buy and I assured you I would triple my profit?” She laughed. “Well, that was a first payment for some lovely rubies that came later in another statue. It has all been working out quite nicely. Only now it appears everyone’s catching on. Fortunately, this is my biggest and best deal, and when it’s done, I’m going to lose myself in Europe. I’m quite wealthy now, you know.”

  Jared found he wanted to touch her beautiful throat, but to choke, not to caress. “How could you do this—”

  “To you?” she finished. “Oh, come on now, Jared. This isn’t personal. You never let it become that, did you?” She shook her head in mock sadness. “It’s too bad you found out about the diamonds. I had thought to leave you in charge here while I retired in Europe, but now I’m going to have to kill you.” Her voice was calm, but her eyes sparkled with excitement.