by Kim Baldwin
Allegro didn’t answer, but neither did she object when Kris took the antiseptic and gauze from her. She watched Kris’s profile as she carefully and gently cleaned away the blood. Her face was unreadable and her whole demeanor was subdued. “Are you okay, Kris? I mean, are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Kris answered, but her hands started shaking almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth. She stopped what she was doing. “No, I’m not,” she finally said, her voice rising as her eyes met Allegro’s. “I’m confused and I’m scared and I want to know what the hell is going on.”
Allegro studied her injury as she considered how much she was going to tell her. “That looks better.” She took the antiseptic from Kris and poured more of it into the wound. “Son of bitch, that burns.”
Kris leaned over until her face was just above Allegro’s thigh and blew on the wound for several seconds. The pain subsided. “Is that better?” she asked, looking up at her.
“Everything with you is better. Even this.”
Kris sat up and she frowned. “Angie, what’s going on?”
“Let’s finish this first, okay? Are you any good at sewing?”
Kris’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding me.”
“No, I’m not. If you can’t do it, I will. Hand me the duffel.” Allegro pulled out a bottle of local anesthetic spray, a wide roll bandage, and a sealed sterile packet containing silk thread and a needle.
“Are you serious?”
“It’s not the first time.” Allegro sprayed the anesthetic on her leg and broke open the sterile pack. She’d just finished getting the thread through the needle’s eye when Kris stopped her hand.
“I can do it.”
When the anesthetic took effect, Allegro did the first stitch herself, gritting her teeth, to show Kris how deeply to insert the needle in the flesh. Then Kris took over, stopping now and then to check with her and wipe away the blood. Each stitch was placed with meticulous care. Five was all it took.
“You’re very good at this,” Allegro said. “You’ve been holding out on your talents.”
Kris almost smiled. “I’ve never even sewn a button in my life.”
Allegro lifted her leg so Kris could wrap the gauze around her thigh and secure it. Her hands were as gentle as they’d been on her body the night before, and Allegro had to fight to keep those images out of her mind. Kris looked at her a long time before she spoke. “Will you tell me what’s going on, Angie?”
“Mishael.” Her voice was so soft, she barely recognized it.
“What?”
“My name is Mishael Taylor.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kris stared in bewilderment. “Are you with the police or something?”
Allegro shook her head. How was she going to answer this? “It’s complicated. I work for a private organization.”
“Doing what?”
“Whatever is necessary. I can’t talk about that.”
Kris studied her face for a long while. “Are you a spy?”
“Not exactly. I don’t work under any one government.”
“You’re some kind of mercenary?”
“I try to make this place a safer world to be in.”
Kris shied away from her, her body pressed against the passenger door. “Christ. You kill for money?”
“I sometimes have to get rid of scum,” Allegro said. “And sometimes I have to defend myself. Or others.”
Kris eyed her warily. “Who was that man?”
“He’s here for the same reason I am, except that he plans to kill you once he has what he wants.” Allegro hesitated, trying not to scare Kris any more than was necessary. She almost laughed at herself. How much worse could it get. They’d already been chased and shot at. “I was sent here to retrieve a diamond that went missing a long time ago and belongs to the Afghan government. It’s the one your father left you.”
“Are you saying I have the real Blue Star?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?” Kris looked stunned. “My uncle has a specialist looking into it.”
“Your stone’s authenticity has already been confirmed by Professor Bayat,” Allegro said. “He may not have admitted it to you, but he told the Afghans it was the real deal. The guy in the museum was sent by them. He’s been stalking you for days. I’m almost certain your mother was not hallucinating. He probably went into her room looking for it. She’s lucky to be alive.”
Kris inhaled sharply. “And I discredited her because of her illness.” Her shock and incredulity finally seemed to be giving way to dismay. “I don’t understand why they would go to such lengths. Why didn’t they just ask for it if they want it bad enough to kill for it?”
“Because only a handful of higher-ups there know it’s missing,” Allegro said. “They’ve been displaying a fake gem for decades, and they would be disgraced if the Arab world found out. They couldn’t run the risk of you or Mr. Hofman going to the press.”
“We wouldn’t do that,” Kris said with painful naïveté.
“I know, but we’re talking about a mistrustful government,” Allegro said gently. “The way they see it, if they steal the stone, no one will ever believe you had the real one in the first place. But that’s not the worst. There’s a corrupt Afghan politician trying to get his hands on the diamond before it ever makes it back into the Persian crown, so he can use it to fund al-Qaeda operations. He figures no one will ever know about the fake jewel as long as the real one never shows up.”
Kris looked horrified. “So you came here to steal the diamond from me and give it to the Afghans?”
“I need to get the stone to someone who will return it silently to the crown. In return, he’s going to give us information on an imminent terrorist attack against Western targets.”
“How do I know that you’re telling the truth?” Kris asked. “Why should I believe you? How do I know that you’re not like this maniac who is after me? A common thief, an imposter?”
“Because you’ve seen what a common thief is capable of,” Allegro said. “The maniac, as you called him, has no problem putting a gun against your head to get what he wants. Have I forced you? Have I threatened you?”
“No.”
“If I were like him, I’d just put my gun to your face and demand the diamond and you’d give it up, wouldn’t you?”
“Why haven’t you?”
That Kris could believe she’d even consider that option stung, but Allegro kept her hurt well masked. “For various reasons,” she said. “To begin with, I don’t believe in harming innocent people. Even if you’d turned the diamond over to the man who shot at us, this politician he’s working for couldn’t take the chance that you’d make all this public. Too many people would be eager to check the crown and they’d find out the stone on display is a fake. My mission was to steal the diamond without you knowing, and give it to someone who will discreetly put it back in the crown.”
Kris went quiet and looked away, out the window, obviously considering all she’d just learned. Two men passed close behind their car, headed toward their own, and Allegro kept her eye on them in her mirrors, as she had everyone who’d come into the garage since they’d arrived. The men were speaking Russian, replaying an evening with two blondes the night before.
Kris turned toward her once more. “So that story about coming to Europe to get away from your family in the States and get some emotional rehab was all bullshit.”
“I live in England and I don’t have a family,” Allegro said. “I was born in Iran and placed in an orphanage there. Five months later, I was adopted by the organization I work for.”
“You sat there and listened to me talk about my screwed-up life and pretended to identify with me, and sympathize, when in reality, you don’t give a fuck.”
“That’s not true, Kris. I do care. And my life is plenty screwed up.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me for the damn thing? It would’ve saved you the trouble of having to fuck me.”
Kris’s tone was scarily calm. She didn’t rant. She didn’t curse. On the contrary, she looked sad and defeated. Like a boxer who’d received the final blow and had resigned himself to the fact that the game was lost.
“Please don’t say that, Kris.”
“You know what’s crazy?” Kris blinked hard against the tears that were beginning to stream down her face. “If you’d asked me for it, I would have given it to you. Even without knowing why you wanted it. God knows I need the money for my mother and all the other debts, but…I thought I’d found something a lot more precious than a damn stone. When am I going to learn?”
Allegro’s heart ached at the pain on Kris’s face. “I’m so sorry. I was only doing my job. I never expected…this.”
But Kris continued as though she hadn’t heard, talking more to herself than Allegro. “I thought I’d learned my lesson after all these years of users. You made me believe you were different. Christ, what a fool.” She put her head down and started to sob, jerking away when Allegro gently touched her shoulder. “Don’t you dare,” she warned, glaring at her with red, swollen eyes, furious. “Don’t…you…dare touch me.”
Allegro ran her hand through her hair in exasperation. She thought she knew what pain was, but nothing could compare to the sting of Kris’s disgust and hurt.
Kris turned to stare out the front window, her gaze unfocused. When she spoke again, the defeated tone was back, the anger gone as quickly as it had flared. “My uncle recently said to me that I’d let myself die. That I’d stopped living, and you were just what I needed, the right person to bring me back. I believed him. I believed him because I wanted to. I needed to believe that you could help me feel again. And you did.”
“You made me feel, too,” Allegro said, leaning toward Kris but careful not to touch her. “For the fir—”
Kris turned to face her, and the anguish in her eyes stopped Allegro cold. “You’ve made me feel more dead than I ever have. God, this hurts.” The tears streamed down her face. “And I hate you for it,” she shrieked, beating her fists repeatedly against Allegro’s chest. “I hate you.”
Allegro made no move to stop her. She sat there taking it, because she deserved it. She couldn’t feel any physical pain beyond the pain in her heart, and in the midst of the tirade, she whispered, “I love you, Kris,” not sure if Kris even heard her and not caring if she did.
It was the first time she’d said those words to anyone, and now she’d said them to a woman who hated her. A woman who’d placed her trust in her, and whom she’d betrayed. The pummeling against her chest slowed, then stopped. The sound of Kris’s loud, rapid breathing, punctuated by sobs, also eased as she collapsed back against her seat and closed her eyes. She looked thoroughly spent. The front of her blouse was wet from her tears. After couple of minutes, she dried her eyes and sat up straight again, but she didn’t look at Allegro.
“Let’s go get your diamond, Ang…Mishael. God, I can’t even say your name. Just get me out of here.”
Allegro started the Audi and headed out of the garage. Her thigh ached, but she’d been conditioned to ignore such pain, and had dealt with far greater injuries than this. “Where am I driving us?”
“Back to the house,” Kris replied, staring straight ahead.
Allegro called Domino. “We’re headed to the mansion. Where are you?”
“I’m still in the city,” Domino replied. “Are you okay?”
Allegro glanced at Kris. “She’ll give us the diamond. But no, I’m not okay.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Domino said.
“Are you still picking up his signal? Where is he?”
“I lost him half an hour ago,” Domino informed her. “He’s out of range.”
“Damn. Meet us back at the house.” She signed off.
“Who was that?” Kris asked, her attention still focused out the passenger window. They were in stopped rush-hour traffic, still a couple of miles from the A20 on ramp.
“A colleague,” Allegro replied. “She’s meeting us back at the estate.”
“Am I the only one who’s been living in the dark?” Kris asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Actually, very few people know about this,” Allegro replied seriously. “And you have to keep it that way, Kris. For your own sake.”
Traffic began to move again. When she got onto the highway, Kris finally turned to look at her once more. “How long have you been following me?”
“Since Venice.”
“Venice?” There was a long silence. Allegro could almost hear the wheels turning in Kris’s head as she began to make the connection. “That night. In the den. The mask. You kissed me. You’d been in the cellar.”
“Yes. That was me.”
“You were looking for the diamond?”
“Yes.”
She heard Kris’s snort of disgust. “You were playing with my emotions even then.”
Allegro glanced her way again. “I didn’t have to kiss you, but I couldn’t help myself. You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”
Kris didn’t respond. Her eyes grew moist and she turned away, looking forward almost wistfully, like she wanted to believe it was true. Allegro darted in and out of traffic, keeping an eye on her rearview mirror for any sign of someone following them.
“What will happen after I give you the diamond?” Kris asked.
“My colleague and I have to return it, in exchange for the intel about the attack.”
They drove in silence through the vast stretches of farmland between Amsterdam and Haarlem. The bucolic scenery was right off a postcard. Lazy cows and cozy stone farmhouses with tidy gardens outside, the occasional glimpse of a windmill in the distance, the pastoral serenity in sharp contrast to the tense atmosphere inside the car.
“There’s something you need to do after we leave with the diamond,” Allegro said.
“I don’t know that I’m in the mood to do anything for you.”
“It’s not for me. It’s for the safety of your family. As long as interested parties think you still have the diamond, they’ll keep sending people after you.”
That got Kris’s full attention. “What do you mean? Once you return the diamond, the Afghans will know they have it and they’ll leave us alone.”
“The Afghans will, but not the Germans.”
Kris’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “Germans? I don’t understand.”
“Your father got the diamond from a Nazi lieutenant during World War Two,” Allegro explained. “His son, a guy named Manfred Wolff, knows you have it. He also wants it back. I know for a fact he sent one of his cronies from a neo-Nazi group after you.”
Kris seemed lost in thought for a while. “The German killed in town…”
“I found him snooping around at the estate. I took care of him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Wolff sends others.” In her peripheral vision, Allegro could see Kris watching her during the long silence that followed. “I didn’t have a choice. He was going to kill you, and when I interrupted him, he tried to shoot me.”
“When did all this happen?”
“Two nights ago.” It seemed a lifetime had passed since then. “The Afghan was there, as well.”
“The night you tackled me in the garden,” Kris recalled.
“I heard him shoot, and jumped on you to protect you.”
“You weren’t protecting me, you were protecting the diamond,” Kris said, with that same disquieting tone of sad defeat she’d had earlier. “The only reason you kept me alive is because I know where the damn thing is, and you don’t.”
“That’s not the only reason,” Allegro said. “Before I go, I’ll make sure the Afghan isn’t a threat, but I need to know you’ll be safe after I leave as well. You and your uncle need to make a statement to the police and the press tomorrow morning, saying you recently inherited a diamond from your father. You were going to have it appraised, but it was stolen before that could happen, so you have no idea of its history, value,
size, anything like that.”
“Do you think that will keep this Wolff guy from sending anyone else after me?”
“It should. And you can’t stay at the mansion until that statement gets out. Why don’t you stay with Ilse tonight?”
“How sweet of you to care,” Kris said bitterly.
“I do care, damn it,” Allegro gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles went white.
“Is there anything you’ve said to me that wasn’t a lie?”
It was a fair question. And it deserved an honest answer. Allegro glanced over at Kris, who was staring out the window again. “Yes,” she said softly, unconsciously relaxing her grip. “Fifteen minutes ago. When I said I loved you. I’ve never said that to anyone before.”
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t have the right to expect anything from you. And I have nothing to gain by saying that I do. All I can do is hope that you believe me. Last night was not about the diamond. Was not about work. Last night was not about taking anything from you, it was about giving myself to you.”
Kris didn’t answer or look at her, or in any way acknowledge what she’d said. The Audi ate up the miles as dusk began to fall, and just as they reached their exit, Allegro’s cell phone broke the unbearable silence.
“I’ve picked up Azizi’s signal,” Domino reported. “He’s stationary, in Haarlem.”
“The bastard is waiting for Kris.”
“Why don’t we let him follow us to the house and take care of him there?” Domino suggested.
Allegro glanced at Kris. “I don’t want to do it there, for obvious reasons.” She didn’t want Kris to witness what she was capable of.
“Want me to take care of it?”
“No. You’re here eyes only, without a cover.” Since she’d pulled Domino away from her civilian job, she had only her real passport with her. If the situation went wrong, and the police got involved, Domino’s well-guarded, true identity would be compromised. “This operation is mine, and that includes taking care of whoever stands in the way of its completion.”
