Touched by a Thief (11 page)

Where was Ian? Her only assurance that he’d return for her was that he’d left the Degassi. Why was that? He knew she could escape if she wanted. Which meant he knew she had no plans to leave.

Trust me, he’d said. Had he left the diamond as a symbol of his trust in her? No, he’d known she wouldn’t leave until she knew the full scoop, until she knew the right course of action to take.

How the hell had he gotten himself into this mess? Hell, Ian knew exactly how he’d gotten himself into this. By getting himself into Monty. That’s exactly how everything had become so fucking complicated.

Because he was going to have to screw her over again.

And not the way he’d screwed her on Gerard’s plane. Hell no. That had been stupid. Just as screwing her at Gerard’s penthouse had been foolish.

Then again, Monty made him a fool.

Which had to be the reason for his current dilemma.

He wasn’t supposed to be questioning what he was doing. Wasn’t supposed to question what he was trained to do. What his whole purpose in meeting Monty had been.

From the beginning she’d been a pawn in a game much bigger than either of them.

A game that would be played out to her detriment whether he went through with his role in the whole sordid mess or not.

Whether…what the hell was he thinking? Of course he would go through with this. It was his job. His duty. His loyalty to his country and fellow mankind.

“Damn,” the man cursed. “Kincaid will have the diamond sold to the highest bidder any day now. Already word has come that he meets with General Chang.”

Not until the bastard hooked back up with Monty and the Degassi. It had been Ian’s job to get the diamond safely into the country. Gerard had ordered him to deliver Monty and all her jewels. The bastard didn’t know he or Monty had any inkling of the diamond’s real purpose.

“You think I am not aware of this, Robert?” he sighed, thinking that he’d destroy the diamond himself prior to letting it fall into the hands of a cold-blooded killer like General Chang. Not that his or Robert’s governments would appreciate that course of action. No, they wanted the data the diamond contained. Wanted to track who’d put the satellite in orbit that would access the information and activate the weapon.

“What I think is that you are blinded by a piece of ass.”

Ian arched his brow at his long time friend. “When have I ever let a woman come between me and my job?”

“Never,” Robert admitted in his clipped accent, leaning back in his chair and taking a puff off a pipe that Ian often thought the man used merely to try to add a sense of mystery and age to himself. “But there is always the first.”

“Not on this. Never on this.” Even as he spoke the words Ian knew ultimately they were true. Monty would be sacrificed. Ultimately, there was no way around deviating from the plan. And he was the bastard who would be her slayer even though he’d told her to trust him.

Either way this played out, he’d lose Monty forever.

Chapter Eight

Having been going stir crazy alone at the apartment, Monte blinked at the man standing in the doorway.

Not the man she’d been expecting. Not the man she’d been wanting from the moment she’d awakened to discover he’d left. Hours had passed and he’d yet to return. Ungrateful bastard.

“Gerard?”

“Surprised to see me, love?” Gerard swaggered into the room with all the confidence of a man who owned the world and knew it. A man who didn’t seem surprised to see her in London in the slightest. Maybe he really had ordered Ian to bring her here. Her head ached from trying to figure out what was the truth and what was lies.

“Few people surprise me, Gerard. One has to have expectations to be surprised.” Expectations that she obviously was nowhere near as well equipped not to have as she’d like to be. As she should be. When had she lost her edge? She’d trained with the best during her military stint, had developed a tough outer shell any man would be proud to claim, yet for the past six months she’d become…weak.

“And you have no expectations?”

“None.” She was lying, but she gave good face and knew it. She hadn’t lost the ability to hide her emotions. Not when she wanted to hide them and she didn’t want Gerard seeing a damned thing she didn’t want him to see.

A basic rule of survival was knowing your strengths and weaknesses, knowing your opponent’s just as thoroughly. She was Gerard’s weakness.

She let her gaze lower slightly, pouted her full lips, and moved closer to him, so close that their bodies almost touched. “You could probably tell me more about my mistakes than I know.”

Taking her into his arms, he sucked her lower lip into his mouth, gently bit into the plump fullness. “You might just be right about that. I could.”

She wanted to know what Gerard knew. All of what he knew, yet she figured she’d have to play her cards right or she’d end up with knowing little more than she’d already figured out on her own.

Or dead.

She pressed herself more fully against Gerard, smashing her breasts between her and the expensive material of his shirt, and wound her arms around his neck, letting her fingers play in the soft hairs at his nape. “Ian works for you, does he?”

An amused look lit Gerard’s eyes. “He does.”

She touched the tip of her tongue to his throat, traced a slow pattern toward his clavicle. “How long has he worked for you?”

Gerard took her by the wrists, held her far enough away from him so he could look into her eyes. “You want to know if I hired him to set you up to take that fall?”

Letting her gaze rest on his mouth, as if she wanted nothing more than to feel his mouth against hers, she shook her head. “No. I already know the answer. You did,” she ventured. “You saw an opportunity to get what you wanted and you took it. I respect that.”

His grip loosened slightly, his body shifting back against hers. “So what are you wanting to know, my curious pet?”

“How long did he work for you prior to his setting me up? Was I his first job?”

Gerard regarded her a minute, his beautiful lips twisting with mirth. “Are you suggesting he was working for someone other than me? That he infiltrated my inner circle only to get to you and that I’ve been double-played?”

“Is that what he did?” She had no idea how long Ian had worked for Gerard. She just wanted to plant doubt in Gerard’s mind. Even if he knew that’s exactly what she was doing. “How long?”

Trust me. Ian’s words echoed through her mind.
Never
.

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter how long McGowen has worked for me. He wouldn’t double-cross me. He wouldn’t dare. No intelligent man would.”

Monty arched her brow.

Almost she’d say Gerard paled beneath his flawless tan. Almost. Then he just smiled the same arrogant smile she’d seen numerous times over the past few weeks.

“He’s proved his worth to me ten times over.”

Her, too, Monte thought, but didn’t speak. She was playing a dangerous game. One where she hadn’t quite decided who was the bad guy and who was the good guy.

Just that she didn’t trust Ian. Nor Gerard for that matter.

Reality was neither Ian nor Gerard were the good guy, so what she was really trying to decipher was who was the lesser evil, the lesser threat.

“Everyone has a price, Gerard. You and I both know that,” she pointed out in a low, seductive tone, liking how his gaze watched the movement of his mouth. “For me, it’s the thrill of the steal, the adrenaline of breaking in, knowing I might get caught, knowing I’m pulling off what some say can’t be done when I take a rare jewel. I like that rush. Like it enough that I risk my freedom. That’s the price I paid. What’s Ian McGowan’s price?”

Trust me, Ian had said. But how could she? How could she when he’d set her up and she’d spent four months in jail? Four horrible long lonely frustrating months where avenging herself had been her only though. When seeking revenge against him had burned deep in her soul.

And what had she done? Seen him and ended up with him buried deep inside her within minutes.

Because reality was, Ian was the only man she’d ever really let in, let behind the walls she’d erected over the years, the only man she’d ever trusted, the only man she’d ever loved.

She’d wondered, but assumed Gerard knew. How could he not have when he’d sent Ian to set her up? He had to have known how Ian used her.

Fine. She’d just see what all else he knew.

She shifted her pelvis against his groin, liking how his eyes dilated at the motion. “You don’t mind that we joined the mile high club on your plane?”

A tic jumped to life at Gerard’s temple.

Ah, so he hadn’t known quite everything. Probably nothing that Ian didn’t want him to know, actually. Had Ian been ordered not to touch her again? Had he anyway? What did that mean? That he was insubordinate and did what he wanted regardless of his boss? Only, Ian had at least two bosses. That she knew for sure. Otherwise he wouldn’t have had the pen.

“You are not to have anything to do with Ian McGowan again.” Gerard’s normally even tones held real threat, a cold icy threat that moved glacier-like through Monty’s veins.

“As if I’d want to.” She rolled her eyes, wondering why she was back-tracking, making an effort to protect Ian from Gerard’s anger. “If the man never takes another breath, I could care less.”

“His orders were to bring you and your jewelry to London. Nothing more. He certainly didn’t have permission to touch my woman on my fucking plane.”

“I’m no man’s woman,” she quickly refuted, bristling at the possessiveness in his tone, knowing Gerard would suspect something if she became too submissive anyway. She’d never been a submissive kind of girl. “Not even yours.”

“You’ve been good to me these past few weeks. Spoiled me beyond my wildest dreams sexually and physically. However, when the time comes, I will leave, but at the moment, I’m where I most want to be.” She twined her arms around his neck, brushed her fingers over the tailored lines of his collar. “With you.”

Because she wanted to know more about the Degassi Diamond. Wanted to get her greedy little hands on the secrets behind the jewel.

Gerard was her strongest link to those secrets.

Ian could rot in hell.

Only…God, for all the times she’d imagined wrapping her hands around the man’s neck, she hoped Gerard hadn’t really done anything to him.

Monty was lying. Gerard knew it as well as he knew his own name. He should punish her for her insubordination, for her screwing around on him.

Only he couldn’t stand the thought of marring her beautiful body. Which was a bit ironic as sparring with Monty gave him pure enjoyment and he never held back when they fought. Or when they had sex.

Neither did she.

Which he loved.

Loved? No, he didn’t love her. More that he was obsessed with possessing her. Of all the beauties around the world, Monty had been the only one to hold his attention. The only one to turn him down flat from the very beginning. He didn’t like the rejection, not did he want to obsess over her.