Corazon stared at her, and Iris felt the prick of daggers tipped with bitterness and anger.
“Oh.” Little more than a soft gasp, the single syllable pulled her attention to Allie, whose eyes were brimming with moisture. “Then we’re sisters. I have sisters.” The blonde grinned.
Sisters. Iris shared a common bond with these two women. They’d all been betrayed by Cosmo. Peachy.
“I still say it’s a mistake,” Corazon told the detective. “These are lies to get us to reveal information to you.”
“Information about what? About your father’s dealings?” Justin asked, suddenly alert.
“Dealings?” Allie’s nose scrunched up as cute as a bunny’s. “He was a magician.”
“And a gambler, a cardsharp, a con man, a liar-” Iris ticked them off with her fingers. “And apparently, a womanizer.”
Corazon’s eyes flared with heat. “My father was no liar or cheat.”
“Really?” Iris raised an eyebrow, feeling more righteous than intimidated by the brunette. “Maybe you’re lucky-maybe your mother cheated on Cosmo.”
The brunette’s olive skin paled. “Leave my mother out of this. The love they had was real, not some cheap imitation.”
Before Iris could spit out her comeback, a shrill whistle cut through the room. She winced and looked to Hunter, but he stood with his hands over his ears.
To her surprise, the delicate Allie lowered her fingers from her lips. “Sorry about that, but throwing insults won’t get us anywhere. It’s pretty obvious both of you were happy being an only child.” The blonde gave a heartbreaking smile. “But I love knowing I have sisters. I hope we’ll get to know each other, but for now, we should focus on Daddy.”
“Daddy?” Corazon’s incredulous tone nearly made Iris laugh. This whole situation was absurd.
“Daddy doesn’t need any help from anyone,” Iris said flatly.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Hunter scratch his ear, a wry grin twisting his lips. “I’m not so sure of that,” he said. “We think Cosmo got involved in some kind of deal-something shady-and now someone’s out to kill him. He may be running scared.”
A tremor coursed up Iris’s spine as she remembered the sexy con man who’d whispered about ten million in gems. Then there’d been the call from her security company. But if Cosmo had been in serious trouble, surely he would have left her a message? He’d known he could count on her, right?
She remained mute, unwilling to share her suspicions. Noticing Corazon’s lips pressed together in a stubborn line, Iris wondered whether the brunette was also holding her cards closely to her vest.
Apparently, secrets were a Fortune family trademark.
“I’m sorry this has come as a shock to all of you, but we sincerely want to help your father.” Hunter retrieved a stack of papers from the small table near the door and handed a packet to each of the women. “These are some highlights from the background check we did on Cosmo. It’s how we traced the three of you. It would help us if you’d each review this and see if there are any pertinent details we’ve missed, anything at all that might give us a clue as to where he could be hiding.”
Silence hung about the room as they all looked at each other until, finally, Hunter chuckled sheepishly. “Look, I can’t force information out of you. I’m just asking. I’ll step out of the room for a few minutes, give you ladies a chance to talk in private.”
“Like you won’t be listening at the keyhole?” Corazon’s head tilted, weighted down by sarcasm. Against her will, Iris found herself rooting for the brunette.
“I won’t need to.” Justin backed up and opened the door. “We’re recording everything you say.” He stepped out, and the door snapped shut behind him.
If anything, the tension in the room increased. Apparently, silence could be measured in decibel levels. Right now, it was deafening.
“This is a travesty,” Iris said.
“A curse,” Corazon muttered.
Allie continued smiling. “It’s a blessing, and one day, you’ll both see it.” Without another word, the blonde began to peruse the pages in her hand.
God forbid. Iris looked to Corazon, and discovered she was also reading. Despite the needles of fear pricking her, Iris focused on the document. What could be more shocking than learning Cosmo had two other daughters?
Well, learning that Cosmo had been married to Allie’s mother for fourteen years before he married Irina Nikolaevsky. Or that Iris had been born a scant six months following her parents’ marriage. Even though she was older than Corazon by two years and Allie by five, she had to wonder what Cosmo’s life had been like all those years before he married her mother.
Biting her lip, Iris folded the document in half and pulled her car keys from her purse. “I need to get back to my shop.” The urge to flee nearly swamped her.
“But we need to talk.” Allie stepped toward her then paused as if she feared Iris would bolt. “Between us, we may have the answers to finding Daddy.”
That term of endearment wedged a spike between Iris’s ribs, straight at the heart. He’d been her daddy, once, long ago. Before she’d lost faith in him, and maybe in herself.
Iris tugged on the doorknob. “Let’s get this straight. I’ve been trying to rid my life of Cosmo for nearly ten years now. I don’t see any reason to help find him.”
Finding him wouldn’t make anything better. Only worse.
McCarran Airport wasn’t the only spot in Vegas that still had pay phones, Cosmo knew. But if he gave the police enough time to trace a call, he might be able to convince them he’d split town.
He slid the Alaska Airways ticket inside his jacket and retrieved the leather briefcase from the conveyor belt. Security hadn’t questioned his identity at all. He’d have to compliment Viktor on the quality of the fake ID. Assuming he still didn’t get caught.
Nudging his way through the crowded gate area, he finally reached a bank of five pay phones. Each offered a tiny seat and practically no privacy. Cosmo set the briefcase down and straightened his cuffs. Now the polished professional, complete from pomaded hair to wingtips, he doubted anyone would be interested in listening to him.
His first call was long past due, and he kept his message brief. “If you receive word of my death, it’s a bit premature.”
He thought about calling his daughters, but decided Cory would get them word he was safe. For now. Squaring his shoulders, he dialed an international call.
“Cosmo? What is happening?” As always, Marko’s accent was heavy and guttural. It was pre-dawn in St. Petersburg, but he’d answered on the first ring.
“Nothing to worry about.” Mostly. “I may be out of touch for a few days, but I’m home in Las Vegas.”
“Aunt Tatiana was furious to find you’d left the country with those gemstones,” Marko said. “You know they’re an heirloom. If you lose them, she will hunt you down and kill you.”
“That seems to be a recurring theme these days.” In the periphery of his vision, Cosmo caught sight of two police officers. His eyes followed their progress down the terminal without him ever turning his head. “I only need the stones for a few days. I’ll check in again then and make arrangements to return the, er, merchandise to its rightful owner.”
“See that you do. And Cosmo? Call if you need help.”
“Thanks, but I wouldn’t want to involve you.”
“Nonsense. You are, how you say-family.” Marko’s tone was decidedly gruff.
Damn, Cosmo had always doubted the bastard really cared. He hung up and dialed his last call. Three digits.
“Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”
“I want to speak to Detective Justin Hunter of the LVMPD.”
“Sir, this number is for emergencies only.”
“Ma’am, I’m a fugitive wanted in connection with a homicide. If it makes you feel better, someone is trying to kill me, but let me speak to Hunter.”
“Please hold, sir.”
Already they were recording the conversation and tracing his phone number for location.
“Cosmo? Where are you?” Hunter panted into the phone, as if he’d run to get the call. Good.
“You already know I’m at McCarran.”
“Don’t try to leave town-”
“I’ll do what I have to do to save my hide. You wanted an insider, you got your information, now I want you to repeal the APB.”
“It’s for your own safety, Cosmo. We just wanted to question you, we know you didn’t kill the guy in your car.”
Cosmo felt a pang. He was up against some serious people, people who treated others’ lives as one more marketable commodity. “Was it anyone I knew?” he asked.
“You tell me. We identified him as George Halsted.”
“Poor bastard.” Halsted had flown to Russia with him. He was the jeweler who’d verified the authenticity of the gems they’d purchased. Cosmo had tried to warn George that certain death awaited them when they returned to Vegas, but George wouldn’t listen. Donovan’s hired gun had killed the jeweler and left him in Cosmo’s car as a message. Or had the plan been for Mickey to kill him at the same time?
Mickey had asked for the gems. That meant Turner didn’t have them. And that meant Turner hadn’t left George alive long enough to ask where they were. George would have talked faster than a New Yorker on crack and spilled his guts. Sadly, he probably had done that last part, just not willingly.
“How did Halsted fit into it?” Hunter asked.
“He was a jeweler and a fence.” And a sometime friend.
“Do you still have the jewels, Cosmo?”
He glanced at his watch, knowing it would be only one to two more minutes before he had police swarming this terminal. “They’re safely stowed. Don’t let anything happen to me, or you’ll never find them.”
“Jeez, we’re the ones trying to help you, Cosmo. As long as you have those gems, you’re a walking target. Turn yourself in and let us put you in protective custody.”
“Not yet. You want to capture Turner and whoever’s hired him, and I’m the only one who can do it. Gotta fly!” He hung up the phone and walked calmly through the gate lounge before taking a seat on the other side of the waiting area just as five uniformed cops arrived. As they examined the phones and questioned the people nearby, Cosmo melted into the queue of people debarking and heading toward baggage claim.
Iris sought the sanctuary of her high-rise apartment, desperate for a few hours in an environment that was all her own. As she pulled into the parking garage, she gave thanks her business provided well for her. She didn’t need to count on anyone for anything. She earned a comfortable living, made her own decisions-she’d been on her own since her mom died. At twenty, she’d inherited Lying Eyes and its clientele, so she quit college and threw herself into designing jewelry and running the store. She’d never regretted the decision.
Cosmo had encouraged her to strike out on her own, and now she understood why. He’d had two other daughters still in high school. She wondered why he’d never told her about the others but thought she knew-she hadn’t been much of a daughter to Cosmo, so why would he think she’d do any better as a sister?
Carrying her purse and the dreaded packet of papers, she sauntered through the hot garage to the elevators, conscious that she wanted something, someone. As much as she’d needed to get away, she didn’t really want to be alone. Already she was wondering if Cosmo had been a better father to those other two women than to her. Had she been that big a disappointment that he went out and fathered two other children?
The elevator provided welcome air conditioning to cool her skin if not her nerves as she rode to the eighteenth floor. She was scheduled to meet David in an hour and, for once, she wasn’t looking forward to it. Two sisters and Cosmo’s bigamy weren’t going to ignite anything but disappointment in his eyes. She wanted to be the model wife for him, and here she was about to saddle him with more problems. She had to pull herself together so they could discuss how this affected their future together. Right now, she could barely think, much less talk, about it. She was the emotional equivalent of gum-chewed to a sloppy mess then spit onto the sidewalk without a second thought.
Foolish to react this way. It wasn’t like Cosmo had just abandoned her. He’d been doing it her whole life. “I really need to harden my heart,” she muttered as she let herself into her apartment.
“And here I was hoping to soften you up with a little gift.”
The voice from her living room, decidedly masculine and somehow familiar, scared her flat against the door. Someone had broken into her home. Heart pounding, she drew two steadying breaths while a dangerous curiosity battled with the natural temptation to flee. Curiosity finally won.
Iris peered around the corner and her pulse hopscotched again at the sight of Mickey. His dress shirt and jeans, both in black, made a bold contrast against the soft desert colors she’d chosen for her furniture, carpet and walls.
She dropped her purse and the papers onto the little table near the door. “Do you think it was wise to come here?” Thank heavens she sounded level-headed, not giddy with the potential chaos of having Mickey Kincaid anywhere near her.
“Like you’ve never caused a man to act foolishly,” he practically purred. He appeared completely relaxed as he reclined against the sage-green pillows of her overstuffed sofa. His lips curved into a knowing smile. She remembered how those lips had nuzzled her ear last night, and she wondered how they’d taste.
No. No. And no. Iris tugged off her gray suit jacket, then regretted the choice when his hooded eyes narrowed even further on her black lace camisole. She couldn’t tell whether he was giving off pheromones or she was, but the room was thick with desire.
This man was dangerous, in all the wrong ways. But then, David had never looked at her with that open hunger that promised a banquet if shared.
Somewhere in the back of her endorphin-fogged brain, a synapse fired to tell her Mickey was exactly the person she needed right now. Giving herself a mental shake, she tossed her jacket on a chair. “The best gift you can give me is leaving.”
“Not a chance.” He rose, sending a tremor through her.
Not fear, no, was that…anticipation? God, she needed to get a grip. “What do you want?”
“Answers.” He stopped and nudged a box on the floor with his foot. “But aren’t you going to open your present?”
Despite her better judgment, she stepped forward, curious.
Mickey chuckled. “It won’t bite you. At least I hope not.”
Warily, she unfolded the top of the box. “It’s Edgar. Why do you have him?”
“Cosmo left him with me last night before he took off. I thought I’d bring him to you.”
“To me?” Her laugh sounded brittle, even to her. “What am I supposed to do with him?”
Mickey refolded the box lid, as if he feared the inquisitive rabbit would leap out and attack him. “It’s your dad’s pet. I figured you’d want to take care of him.”
“Well, you figured wrong. Let one of my dad’s other daughters take care of him.” She ran a hand through her hair, but that only further loosened her French knot.
“Ah, so now you know.”
Her hands stilled. “What, you mean you knew? Did Cosmo tell you?”
He hunched his shoulders as if embarrassed he’d revealed so much. “No, but in my business it pays to know everything you can about everyone around you. I’ve got sources as good as any the police have.”
Dandy. Cosmo hadn’t even bothered to hide his bigamy well. Anyone with a suspicious nature could have learned the truth years ago. Obviously, she hadn’t been suspicious enough.
Agitated, she plucked the pins from her hair and finger-combed it as best she could while she walked to the dining room. The mirror over the breakfront confirmed that she’d made a mess of her shoulder-length curls. She’d have to fix it before she saw David later.
Mickey trailed behind her. “God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered, prayerlike.
Her gaze swept up to catch his reflection. That hunger in his eyes had transformed to a longing that was more than carnal, but even as she glimpsed it, he shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and looked away.
Maybe she’d imagined it.
“Where’s your boyfriend this evening?”
“My fiancé works. I’m meeting him later.”
“Works on the weekend, huh? Fool.”
“And your lifestyle is so much better?” She raised a brow at him.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” He grinned wolfishly. “Even if I worked hard all day, I’d make damn sure to get back home to you as quick as I could. If David could see you like that and still remember what he does for a living, well, I’m just saying…” He shrugged.
Her body warmed to his words as well as the appreciative gleam in his eye. David, with all his pretty speeches, had never heated her blood and shut down her brain the way this guy did. It was sheer animal magnetism, and that was bad.
Even though she liked it.
Iris slipped out of her high heels and walked back to the living room. “What is it you want, Mr. Kincaid?”
Mickey watched the sway of her hips. Oh, yeah, he wanted a lot of things from Iris Fortune, only that wasn’t in the cards. He gave a soft lazy laugh as he followed her. “There’s no rush, is there? Aren’t you going to offer me a drink or something?” When she turned to glare at him, he winked at her.
She froze for a moment then thawed with a chuckle. “Why not? The bar is over there. Make yourself a drink, make yourself at home for that matter.” With a wave she seemed to forget about him and sank onto the sofa, her legs curled beneath her. He mixed two gin and tonics while she removed her pearl bracelets, rings and earrings, and dumped them on the coffee table.
Stepping behind the sofa, he handed her both drinks as she reached up to undo the clasp of her necklace. “Hold these and let me do that for you.”
She leaned back to consider him, her brandy-colored eyes fringed with dark lashes lifted in surprise. Soft curls, the golden red of an angel, fell back to reveal a mile of ivory throat tapering to nearly bare shoulders. His gaze roamed over her breasts, which curved into the lace confines of that sexy little camisole that did nothing to hide her erect nipples.
An erection of his own responded. Great, but now was not the time. He needed information from her, not a night in her bed. Although…
He teased them both by sliding his fingers along her clavicle and up her throat to her nape, while his other hand bunched her hair to one side, the silky texture a welcome torture. Leaning close, he breathed against her ear and smiled when she visibly shuddered. Finally, he undid the catch on her necklace and released one end to let it slip into the valley between her breasts. His gaze locked with hers, he slowly withdrew it, the pearls gliding against her soft skin.
Noticing her closed eyelids, he leaned close. “I’m available any time you need help undressing,” he whispered.
Her eyes shot open to consider him speculatively. Mickey held his breath-time itself seemed to stop. Finally, Iris offered his glass to him. When he took it, she turned her palm over to receive the pearl necklace. He laid it in her hand.
“Sit down, Mr. Kincaid. You want something, and whatever it is means more to you than sex.”
“Am I that obvious?” He rubbed his temple and sat on the opposite end of the sofa. “I must be slipping.”
“Don’t play me. Last night you told me Cosmo stole ten million dollars in gems.” She sipped her drink. “How do you know that?”
“The people I work for hired him to pick up the goods, only Cosmo never delivered. I don’t know if he’s trying to sell the gems or if he’s trying to get my employers to pay him a higher fee. Either way, he could wind up dead-like the guy in his car.”
“You know about that?”
“He’s the jeweler who authenticated the gems. I think your dad was looking for easy money, but he doesn’t know the type of people he’s up against.”
Iris pushed back her riotous curls. “Where is he now?”
“I don’t know. But I need to find him before anyone else does.”
“Let me guess-he’s put your ass on the line, too.”
“He’s got all our asses on the line.”
Iris choked on her drink. “All? What have I got to do with this?”
“These people will use you and your sisters to get to Cosmo.”
Her eyes darkened at the mention of her sisters, and Mickey remembered that she’d only learned of them this morning. He knew all too well what it was like to have your life yanked out from under you. Sympathy stalled his next words in his throat, but the role he had to play here doggedly forced them out. “So don’t be some kind of sap for your old man. What kind of gems are they?”
“You’re asking me? How should I know?”
He regarded the outrage in her raised brows and the negative slant to her lips. Was it possible Cosmo hadn’t asked her to copy them?
“You don’t think he asked me to copy stolen gems?” She laughed in that broken way of hers that meant she wasn’t amused. “Not that Cosmo includes me in any of his little schemes, but even if he did, I’d sure as hell recognize something that valuable and know he was up to no good.”
“And you’d refuse to help him do something illegal?”
“I don’t break the law.”
Mickey nodded at her emphatic idealism. “Even if breaking the law could save your father’s life?”
She rose swiftly, barely setting her drink on the coffee table. All but visibly twitching, she stood a few feet away with her back to him. “What is it you want from me?”
“You haven’t answered my question-”
She spun on him, her brandy-colored eyes blazing. “Cosmo’s lied to me, cheated on my mother and now you’re telling me he’s stolen. A man like that doesn’t deserve filial duty, he deserves what he gets. Now, what do you want?”
She’d still avoided the question, but he’d allow it. The non-answer was answer enough for him. He held her drink out, until she slowly stepped forward and accepted it as she sat. She donned that controlled façade of hers while she sipped, ice tinkling like a wind chime before a storm.
He wished he could tell her the truth about his ruse. But then, she hadn’t been very forthcoming with Hunter. He frowned. Telling her he was a cop might not get him anywhere, and it would be a stupid risk to give her that kind of ammunition.
Best to play it out as Mickey the hood. “I need to know what I’m dealing with, searching for. What does ten million dollars in gems look like?”
She snorted. “It could look like anything, depending on what type of gem. The problem is you’re talking about a lot of stones for that kind of money.”
Mickey massaged the back of his neck, where the first trace of a headache always started. “No, the package was something Cosmo could easily carry and conceal. Wouldn’t diamonds be worth that much?”
Iris leaned over, showing a length of supple spine, as she rooted on a shelf beneath the coffee table’s glass top. Her hands tugged an oversized book into view, and she flipped through the pages, before laying it on the table before them.
Mickey liked that she sat much closer to him now that her attention was captured by their topic. The headache receded, and he leaned forward to peruse the book.
“In today’s market, diamonds are more plentiful, therefore, their price isn’t as high. Now, there are still special finds, large uncut stones that could fetch that sort of price, but there’s been no publicity of a find like that for years. The largest diamonds mostly belong to Britain’s royal family and are held in state at the Tower of London.”
Her pink manicured nail traced from photo to photo as she named them. “There’s the Koh-i-Noor that belonged to the Queen Mother, and the Cullinan Two found in the Imperial State Crown. The Cullinan One, or First Star of Africa, in the royal scepter is the second-largest cut diamond in the world. Its estimated value is around four hundred million dollars.”
“How big is it?”
“It’s 530 carats.”
“Say it so I can understand it.”
“It’s roughly the size of a large pear.” She held her hand up, her thumb and fingers curved open to form a large open C. “Like this.”
“So, ten million dollars’ worth of diamonds should be much smaller.”
“It’s not that simple.” Iris riffled the pages for another picture. “You could have an uncut diamond that same size that wouldn’t be worth even one million dollars.”
“How’s that?”
“Until a gem is cut, it’s just another rock. Many have imperfections that will prevent them from ever becoming valuable gems. Some can be cut and polished, but if they don’t have exquisite clarity, then they’ll have a lower value. Each finished gem is judged on its carat weight, cut, clarity and color.”
Mickey scrubbed his face with his hands. The headache was definitely returning. “What color? Diamonds are all clear, aren’t they?”
Iris laughed, this time amused by him. He found he liked the idea of making those lips twist into an unplanned smile. “Diamonds can be classified as white, yellow, blue or pink. When you look closely at them, they have fire inside.”
He scanned the open pages as he reviewed what she’d said. Something needed to add up better than all this. “Why would anyone involve Cosmo in stealing diamonds?”
She shrugged. “Are you sure they’re diamonds?”
“They’re the most valuable gems, right?”
As Iris shook her head, her bronze curls cast a riot of fiery light. “Too plentiful, over-mined. The real money is in rare colors of emeralds or sapphires or…” Her voice trailed off and she tapped her lower lip with her index finger.
Now there was a look he liked. Then he noted her furrowed brow. She retrieved the book and flipped some more pages before setting it back down again. “Or, if you’re looking for a reason to tie in Cosmo, there’s always alexandrite.”
“Alexandrite? What’s that?”
She pointed to two pictures showing a green rock and a red rock. “That’s alexandrite. It’s arguably the highest priced gemstone on earth. Well-cut gems of the highest quality could sell for as much as a million dollars per carat.”
Mickey studied the pictures. “It comes in red or green?”
“The stones are red and green. Alexandrite has an interesting property. The stones look green by daylight, but if you put them under incandescent lighting, they turn red. Those pictures are of the same stone.”
“Now there’s a trick I’d like to see.”
“It’s not a trick of the eye. It’s a property inherent to the chemical makeup of the stone.”
“Why haven’t I ever heard of alexandrite before?”
“It’s very rare. The initial find was in the Ural Mountains of Russia in the mid-nineteenth century. A selection of the stones was presented to the Romanov family and named for their son Alexander.”
“Romanov, as in-”
“The Russian czars, until Nicholas II and his family were put to death by the Bolsheviks. Alexandrite, once prized in Russia, went out of fashion.” Iris shrugged. “This wasn’t that big a deal, since after the initial expedition, there was precious little of it ever found. Some alexandrite was mined in Brazil back in the 1980s, but nowhere near the quality of the original Russian stones.”
“So, ten million in alexandrite would be very easy to carry or conceal.”
Iris nodded.
“And Cosmo knew all this history?”
She nodded again. “Because of my mother’s Russian heritage, Czarist alexandrite was a bedtime story for me. Mom told me over and over about how one set of ten jewels were all cut from a single alexandrite stone by one of our ancestors. The jewels were given to Alexander II and placed into a new crown, but the crown was never used. I guess it was a myth.”
“Myth?” Mickey pierced her with his gaze.
“There’s never been any proof the story is true, but Mom always believed in it.”
Mickey downed his drink, conscious that his headache was gone. At last things were beginning to fall into place. Of course, if he hadn’t been so interested in Iris, he might have seen the problem from this angle long before now. The magician hadn’t been some happenchance choice-Cosmo’s bosses had a motive in hiring him to move the gems.
Cosmo knew about alexandrite from his Russian wife; he possibly had connections over there. And Mickey knew the magician had flown back from St. Petersburg three nights before.
Mickey started to rise when he heard a telephone trill. Iris lurched to her feet, reaching up to touch her hair as if to be sure everything was as it should be. She faltered a moment when she realized her pins were gone and her hair down.
“Excuse me,” she said before hurrying toward the kitchen. He waited, and his silence was soon rewarded. “Hi…No, I’m here and everything is fine…What?”
During the lengthy pause, Mickey had to force himself to remain seated.
“I just found out today…Well, shocked, really…Oh, now he didn’t kill anyone-even the police said they didn’t think he was responsible. It’s just that the body was in his car, so naturally they want to question him, only he seems to have disappeared.”
The ragged breath she drew told him in an instant she needed someone on her side. “And there’s something else you should know, something I just learned. Cosmo committed bigamy, and he had two other families…Yes, I have two younger half sisters.”
The tone of defeat in her voice tugged at him. Mickey rose, ill at ease with eavesdropping on even half her conversation with the noble if clueless David. Still, he crept toward the doorway to watch her. Why did she always sound like she was apologizing to the guy?
“No, of course I didn’t know anything about them. I’m still trying to fathom how he kept this secret from all three of us for so many years.”
There was another pause, but he noted that she squared her shoulders.
“It’s awkward for you?” This time, her brittle laugh about shattered Mickey. “You might have given me at least thirty seconds of sympathy before you brought the campaign into it…No, I don’t think we will discuss it over dinner. I don’t think I even want to see you tonight.” With a sigh, her voice eased. “David, it’s been a long day, what with the police, Cosmo’s two other daughters-”
The jewel thief in my living room, Mickey finished the thought for her. He backed away to survey the living room, dotted with the remnants of Iris’s casual striptease, their drinks, the telltale indentations on the sofa where they’d sat, and willfully suppressed the urge to clean things up. It was best for her to continue to think of him as a bad guy.
Best for them both.
She returned, composed and collected. The façade was well constructed, but he wondered how much it cost her. “Are we about done here?”
“Yeah.” He set down his drink. “Is he coming over?”
She eyed him but let the invasiveness of his question slide. “No.”
“Because I could help you pick up, make it look like I was never here.”
Iris wished it were that easy. Sure, she could clear away all physical traces of him, and David would never suspect a hot thief had visited her. It would be much harder to prevent Mickey’s sexy image from haunting these rooms. She should never have allowed him in here.
Wait, she hadn’t let him in. He’d broken in. Hot or no, the guy was still a criminal, and she’d be crazy to trust him.
“That’s not necessary.”
He got the hint. “Thanks for the lesson. I’ll call you as soon as I have some word on Cosmo.”
“Thanks.” She followed him to the door, but paused as he took her hand. The way his charismatic eyes held hers, and those lips-they curved in an invitation. His fingers tightened on her arms, and she knew the momentary triumph of an impending kiss.
An abrupt knock made them both freeze.
Mickey raised his brow at her, and Iris shrugged. Standing on tiptoe, she peered through the peephole. Cosmo’s two other daughters stood in the hall.
Peachy.
She looked sidelong at Mickey. “I don’t suppose you can climb out a window?”
He didn’t answer, merely nudged her aside to look through the peephole himself. “Wow, are those your sisters?”
She pushed him out of the way and opened the door to glare at the women. “What do you want?”
Corazon’s brow immediately furrowed, and her eyes took on an adversarial glint.
But Allie smoothed things over with a smile. “We wanted to talk. Please, Iris.”
“Why don’t you ladies come in,” Mickey said with a sweep of his arm. “I was just leaving.”
“Are you David?” Allie tilted her head to look at him.
“How do you know about David?” Iris asked, feeling that more than her home was being invaded by these two.
Corazon pushed over the threshold waving a handful of paper like a weapon. “First, your engagement is listed on this. Second, we’ve been down at your shop. Once Ginny found out we were your sisters, she told us your whole life story.”
“Oh, jeez.” Iris leaned back against the open door. She’d crafted a sensible adult life with the same skill and artistry she’d use for any new piece of jewelry. How could her hard work come crashing down upon her all in one day?
Allie still stood in the doorway, studying Mickey’s face. “You’re not, are you? David, I mean.”
He held out his hand to her. “Mickey Kincaid. I’m Iris’s cousin.”
“On my mother’s side,” Iris added.
“Well don’t get all snitty about it.” Cory shook hands with Mickey, too. “Cory Fortune and this is Allie. We’re Iris’s half sisters.”
“So I gathered. She’s been telling me about it.”
Cory leaned forward to whisper to him. “Is she always this bitchy?”
Mickey smiled. “She’s had a rough day.”
“Haven’t we all?”
Iris resented the sarcasm. More than that, she resented that the other woman had any right to judge her. Grabbing Mickey’s sleeve, she tugged him into the hall. “Sorry you have to leave, cousin.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow, Rissie. Sooner if I find Uncle Cosmo.” He bent down to kiss her cheek.
Iris didn’t move away fast enough. The roughness of his five o’clock shadow melted as the warmth of his lips on her skin tingled all the way down her body. Everything about this guy was so wrong, what made his kisses feel so right?
His jaw was set in a hard line as he withdrew from her, and she thought she spied a tic in his cheek, as if he were irritated about something. Maybe the interruption by the other women. She was annoyed by it, too.
God, she was in such trouble. She should be thanking these women for saving her from the biggest mistake of her life. Sad to let pheromones or whatever tempt her into doing something stupid, something she’d regret.
Still, there was no denying the regret she experienced as Mickey walked down the hall. He never even looked back, leaving her alone to face Cosmo’s other daughters.
She refused to think of them as sisters.