Deception Read online

  ‘Because I was the only one who never took anything from you,’ wailed Libby. ‘It was the only way of showing that I love you and not all that bloody money. And now you’ve gone and given it to me when I don’t want it.’ Fat tears leaked from each eye, taking the remains of her mascara with them. ‘I can’t lose you too. I think I’m going to lose Nathan and I can’t live without both of you. Don’t you get it?’

  I raised my arms to hug Libby, my heart cracked wide open by her words. She was right. I hadn’t got it until that moment. Struggling on her own and not asking me for financial help was her stupid, proud, messed-up way of showing she loved me. I’d just thought she was being stubborn.

  My hand was jerked back by Jack. Luckily Lib, busily wiping away tears and making an even more horrible mascara mess, didn’t notice.

  ‘Take it back,’ she said. ‘Just take back the money and we can pretend it never happened.’

  I shook my head. ‘You’re not thinking straight. I love you guys and I’m not going to sit here in this bloody mansion while you struggle to keep hold of that dreadful bungalow you live in. Now maybe you can pay to get the air conditioning fixed, and afford to run it, before that Picasso I gave you is completely ruined by heat and humidity.’

  ‘A Picasso?’ I could hear the groan of horror in Jack’s voice, but he was universally ignored.

  ‘Anyway, I can’t take the money back, and if you don’t like it I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to swallow your pride this time and stop being so bloody-minded. It’s not about you, it’s about Nathan and the kids.’

  Lib drew in a long shuddering breath and her eyes slid to Jack. I tucked the cuffed hand behind my back.

  ‘Who’s this?’ She jerked a thumb at Jack and narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

  ‘Jack.’

  She looked him up and down.

  Jack reached into his jeans pocket with his un-handcuffed hand, and pulled out a neat clean handkerchief and handed it to Lib.

  ‘Oh wow,’ she said. ‘I thought your sort only existed in movies.’ She took it. Then, with a sly glance at him, she blew her nose loudly.

  Jack was smart enough to ignore the inflammatory action.

  ‘You must think I’m nuts.’ She tried to hand back the handkerchief, but he waved it away and she curled her fist around it.

  ‘Not at all.’ There may have been a slight hint of insincerity in his word.

  I snorted. ‘Of course he does, Lib. Because you are nuts. He’s being polite.’

  Lib frowned and looked from one to the other of us. ‘Am I interrupting something? Are you two …’ A smile started to grow as she stared curiously.

  ‘We are not—’ I started to hold up the cuffed hand, but Jack jerked me back and wrapped his arm around my waist.

  ‘Meredith and I are in negotiations over something very precious that she has.’ His breath, as he spoke, tickled the side of my neck, and despite trying not to I shivered. It was not missed by Lib, whose eyebrows nearly hit her hairline, or Jack, as a rumble of amusement vibrated though his chest.

  ‘Well, be gentle with her.’ Lib smiled a wan smile. ‘She’s precious herself.’

  I let out a sigh of relief. ‘So I’m forgiven then?’

  Lib shook her head and her face hardened. ‘Not even slightly. If this ruins our friendship … if this …’ She dabbed at her eyes, tears welling again.

  She was such a good person. She was such a mess. She didn’t deserve any of it.

  Fuck cancer.

  ‘I wouldn’t have paid off the mortgage if Nathan was well. I know how you feel.’

  ‘Wealth has never brought you happiness. It killed your mother, the money—’ She stopped speaking abruptly and shot a guilty glance at Jack.

  Her words, so unexpected, slipped under my tough everyday shell and grief twisted beneath my heart. The money had never made any of us happy.

  I fidgeted from one foot to the other, and wondered how on earth I was going to get out of this situation. I’d rather deal with Jack without Lib there to laugh like a hyena at the handcuffs and bring it up every five minutes for the next fifteen years.

  ‘Does Nathan know about the mortgage yet?’ I asked, desperate to get her out of the house.

  Lib shook her head. ‘I stormed over here the moment the bank called to ask if we’d had a good customer experience during our time with them. I’ll go to the hospital next.’

  ‘Maybe you should go tell him now?’ I glanced at the doorway, sending hints with my eyes.

  ‘Okay.’ Lib knew when she was being given marching orders. ‘Are you sure you want me to go?’ She gave me a speculative look. ‘Something doesn’t feel quite right here. You look a bit … tense.’

  Tense was understatement of the year. I sighed, and dragged my hand out from behind my back. ‘I swear, if I hear one word about this.’

  Lib gasped at my new bracelet, and then started to laugh, eyes wide. ‘What the hell?’

  ‘He’s handcuffed himself to me and swallowed the key.’ I waved the arm with Jack’s attached. Lib pressed a hand to my mouth, eyes alight with amusement. ‘I’m just waiting for you to leave so I can kick the crap out of him and then drag his battered bleeding body downstairs to find a bolt cutter. And he threatened to out me to the media as some fetish chick.’

  ‘I should probably stay, for his protection. The last thing we need is a murder charge haunting us. I do know a good spot for burying bodies.’ She gave me a reassuring nod. ‘If the worst happens.’

  ‘Merry is being difficult.’ Jack gave an unapologetic shrug. ‘I need some jewels she has. I want to buy them and she’s being very obstinate.’

  ‘And he’s far too well informed about the jewels and how Dad kept them up at the beach house.’ I slid him a sideways glare.

  ‘Good grief, if I didn’t know better I’d have said someone had met their match.’ Lib glanced from one to the other of us again, shaking her head and grinning like a loon. ‘Never thought I’d see the day.’

  ‘Just go get the bolt cutters, there’ll be some downstairs, in the storeroom next to the strongroom.’

  A half-victorious expression crossed Lib’s face. ‘I’m not grateful.’ She lifted her chin, belligerence written all over her. ‘I told you not to pay off my mortgage. So if you want the bolt cutters you can drag this fine man downstairs and get them yourself.’

  ‘Lib,’ I snapped, a shiver of panic re-emerging. ‘Be serious.’

  But Lib shook her head and turned her attention to Jack. ‘She will hand you your arse on a plate. I hope you are ready for it, because it’s not going to be pretty. But something tells me you thoroughly deserve it. Handcuffs? Really? That’s your solution?’ Lib used her disappointed-mum voice.

  I felt Jack squirm slightly next to me.

  ‘You are not leaving me like this?’ I protested, even though I knew it was useless. Once disappointed-mum had made an appearance, you had to work hard for forgiveness.

  ‘Watch me,’ said Lib. ‘I’ll be back to check on you both after I’ve been to the hospital to see Nathan.’

  With that, she stalked out of the room.

  But her footsteps stopped abruptly and she hurried back. ‘Do not kill or maim him.’ She pointed at me with a stern finger. ‘No broken bones.’ Then she left and we listened in silence as the front door opened and then slammed shut.

  ‘Arse on a plate? What does that even mean?’ muttered Jack.

  I pursed my lips. ‘She’ll calm down. Eventually.’ I lifted a hand to my face, forgetting the handcuff, and nearly hit myself in the nose with Jack’s hand. ‘We need to get these things off, Houdini.’

  Or the opposite of Houdini.

  Did Houdini have an opposite? I filed that question away for a Google search at a more convenient time.

  To my surprise, Jack shook his head, his mouth turned down in an obstinate expression. ‘Not yet.’

  I narrowed my eyes, allowing my dissatisfaction at his response to be fully understood. ‘I will drag
you downstairs and cut them off—’

  ‘No you won’t. You’ll stand there and listen to me for a minute.’

  I took a step back.

  ‘You’re not going to beat me up, are you?’ He smirked.

  ‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘Only because my mother taught me no fighting in the house, and that’s a Ming vase over there. Dad would murder me if he came back and I’d broken it.’

  ‘Yet anyone can walk in the unlocked front door and make off with a Da Vinci?’

  I shook my head. ‘This place is like Fort Knox. Lib knows how to get in. It’s just as hard to get out.’

  He took a breath. ‘I have a friend like her.’

  ‘Really?’ I purposefully sounded surprised. ‘Well, I’m glad.’ Sarcasm dripped from my tongue.

  ‘He’s a good friend. Who tells it like it is and reminds me when I’m being an arse.’

  ‘We could do with him now.’

  Jack laughed, showing even white teeth, and causing me to remember the fantasies I’d had. Not that they were ever that far from my mind.

  ‘He got into trouble.’ Jack’s grin had faded, replaced with a look of strain; it sucked the boyishness out of his face, made him look more serious businessman than beach bum. ‘Over the jewels. Bad trouble. And I’ll do what it takes to make him safe.’

  ‘How very dedicated to him you are.’ A thought occurred to me.

  I took a tiny step closer, more of a shuffle, searching his face. Disappointment touched with humiliation started to creep up my torso and turn my cheeks pink. He wasn’t into women. I’d got it all wrong. He’d not struck me as gay, in fact quite the opposite, but, ‘Are you in love with him?’

  Jack shook his head, with a rueful smile. ‘No.’ He closed the gap between us, so close I had to tip my head upwards to look him in the eye. ‘I like girls lots,’ he murmured.

  He dipped his head towards me, and though I knew he was without doubt the worst person on earth to be kissing, I didn’t move.

  He brushed his lips gently over mine. It was barely a kiss, barely anything at all, but I felt it, right down to my core. Warmth trickled through me, and I felt the thick walls I’d built against intimacy of any sort melting without a hint of argument. Embarrassingly easily. He shifted slightly and the handcuffs chinked.

  Raising my free hand, remembering who he was, I pushed at his chest, but there was no strength in my push.

  In response, he opened his mouth over mine. I melted. I melted like white chocolate on a black leather car seat on a midsummer day. I knew I should protest.

  As his tongue slid across my bottom lip, the urge to resist him, already fading, disappeared completely.

  His hand came up behind my head, fingers tangling in my hair. I didn’t want to stop.

  I angled my head, pushing my mouth against his, pulling him deeper. Tongues touched, teeth chinked. I thought I was drowning. I stopped fighting the nagging hunger and let it wipe out all conscious thought as we devoured each other.

  I rubbed my hips against his, and felt the ridge of his hard-on press against me. He shifted, so that his leg slid between mine, and the pressure sent little sparks up to explode in my brain.

  I groaned, and he responded by kissing me even more deeply. Loosening his hand from my hair, he slid it under my t-shirt. Then, when I broke the kiss, because a girl has to breathe, he met my eyes and so very gently squeezed my tight nipple.

  I bit back a groan. Lingering stubbornness making me want to hide the effect he had on me.

  He increased the pressure.

  ‘Go on,’ he murmured. ‘Make some noise.’

  It was like the words zipped through me, down to my throbbing pussy. He snaked his cuffed hand around my back and placed it on the small of my back, pressing me against him, pressing my aching pussy against his leg. Then he squeezed my nipple again. Hard.

  The groan burst out, loud and long, I couldn’t have stopped it, even though I wanted to.

  ‘See.’ He rubbed his thumb back and forth across the tender peak, it set off so many sensations I could barely think. ‘I knew you’d be noisy.’

  He’d thought about this?

  ‘We need to stop,’ I stuttered.

  ‘But it’s just getting fun.’ He dropped his hand though. My lips throbbed, my nipple throbbed, everything throbbed, and I suspected I had a wedgie from all that thrusting.

  I licked my lips, trying to assess the damage.

  ‘Don’t do that. It makes me want to kiss you some more.’

  ‘A no would’ve been enough. You didn’t need to go that far to prove you weren’t gay.’ I put an edge in my voice.

  ‘Yeah, I know, but I wanted to make sure we were clear.’

  ‘Oh, we are completely clear. Sexing me up isn’t going to work.’

  He laughed, and the sound made me tingle.

  ‘Sexing you up? Is that what I was doing? Seducing the jewels out of you.’

  I scowled. ‘Its pretty obvious.’

  ‘I wasn’t planning on manipulating you into selling me the jewels with sexual favours, Merry.’ He spoke slowly, as if he was trying hard not to laugh. ‘I kissed you because I’ve been thinking about it since we met at the beach house.’

  I pressed my lips into a thin line to hide any quiver of emotion that statement might elicit.

  ‘That’s not what I meant. Anyway, your favours are unlikely to be worthy of the jewels.’ I raised an eyebrow to match the challenge in my voice.

  The mirth dropped from his expression, replaced with a dark intent that made my insides curl in anticipation. ‘We both know that neither of us would be doing any favours. It’s all mutual. No doubt about that.’

  ‘So you plan to seduce me with that sympathy angle, is that it? With sob stories about your friend Dan?’ I tugged on the handcuffs. Being so closely connected to him was skin-tinglingly intimate. I needed space. I needed to process what just happened. I needed to figure out what it all meant. Being in touching distance of the guy who just sent me to heaven by fondling my nipples was not helping get anything figured out.

  ‘I want to get these off now. I’ve had enough of your games.’

  He tipped his head to one side and smirked. ‘Sorry, Lioness, we’ve got a lot to talk about.’

  I swallowed when I noted the expression in his eyes. They said listen or be kissed. The choice was mine.

  I secretly wouldn’t have minded more kissing so much.

  ‘Continue then. Tell me your story,’ I cleared my throat, trying to be unemotional and businesslike. ‘It won’t make any difference though. I’m warning you.’

  ‘I knew your father had the jewels. He’s the one who put my best friend in a world of shit, nearly got him killed and then nearly got me killed.’

  ‘Oh please,’ I snapped. ‘Dad would never—’

  Jack jerked on the handcuffs, pulling me so close we were practically breathing in the same air.

  ‘He would and you know it,’ bit out Jack. ‘Dan and I spent months researching and tracking the jewels after they were stolen from an Indonesian museum while they were on tour. We were working at the request of the Indonesian government, and several leaders in the Buddhist realm, including the Dalai Lama.’

  I swallowed nervously. That had a ring of truth. The jewels were stolen. I should have realised it the moment I’d found them buried at the beach. At the time I’d put it down to my father’s idiosyncrasy. Paranoid and possessive, he had a habit of stashing his most precious items away in odd places, then forgetting all about them. ‘I assume you have proof.’

  He stared at me for a moment. ‘I can show you the emails from the Indonesian government. But you know I’m telling the truth, I can see it in your face.’

  ‘I don’t know the truth of anything.’ I looked away. I didn’t want to break his stare, but my eyes slid away, trying to hide the fact that his story was setting off alarm bells. If the jewels were stolen I had no choice but to return them to Jack. That would cost Dad’s life. I pushed a sudden burst o
f panic aside. I’d get him out of this. I’d think of something. He was the only family I had, and flawed and weak and idiotic as he was, I loved him.

  ‘The jewels are said to be the remains of revered Buddhist monks. When each was cremated, jewels were found in their ashes. They’re said to bring incredible happiness and fortune to their owner, and even the gift of foresight to a select few. They were sent on tour in Indonesia and were stolen from a museum in Aceh.’

  ‘My father would never steal. Come on …’

  My voice faded, and I hated the uncertain note in it. Stealing in the antiquities trade was a grey area. Dad would never break into a museum and help himself to something, but at the same time, who was to say that taking ancient artefacts from an abandoned temple wasn’t stealing? Taylor Antiquities adhered to the laws that governed the finding and keeping of ‘treasure’ in each country we worked in, but it was a morally ambiguous business, and we all knew it.

  To my surprise Jack nodded in agreement. ‘Your father didn’t steal them. I know who did. A Chinese businessman named Wuu Sing Chow. He paid thieves to steal them. I think he arranged the whole tour to set it up. He wants to give the jewels to his daughter on her wedding day. He’s completely fixated on it.’

  ‘Wuu Sing Chow?’ The name was familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

  ‘Dan and I uncovered all of this. Then approached Wuu to negotiate the return of the jewels in return for … well, no trouble with pretty much every Buddhist alive, and no consequences from the Indonesian government, who—as you might imagine—are rather shitty about the whole episode.’

  I turned away from Jack to look out of the window at the picture-perfect view of Sydney Harbour. A few white puffy clouds hung in the sky, the sunshine glinted off the water and the yachts moored near the house.

  ‘The Indonesian government have covered it up, haven’t they?’ I guessed. ‘There’s been not been a whisper about this and it’d be front page news if it was public knowledge.’

  ‘Few knew about the theft,’ said Jack neutrally. ‘But one of them was your father.’

  ‘How do you know?’ The question was meant to be accusatory, but it came out quiet. I could hear the defeat in my voice.