“It’s tradition,” Titus declared. “That is howwedo business.”
“Yes.Youmake the rules,” Ian said. “The game has already changed a great deal in its history. There’s nothing that stipulates we must enforce the current rules.”
“Idiota!” Costa jeered. “It’s an insult. If people bend and break rules, they have no authority.Wehave no authority.”
Ian nodded slowly, as if Costa had convinced him that change was impossible.
Instead of inevitable.
“You want to play for more than the emeralds, and the assets staked to them,” Ian said.
“We play to win,” Titus confirmed.
“I have a proposition, then.” Ian walked to a small linen-covered table and handed the crystal decanters for wine and water to the bishop before spreading the emerald necklace across the table. “No one truly knows what this necklace looks like. It’s never been painted or photographed.”
“I recognized it,” Costa retorted. “Anyone who was at the lastIl Giocowould.”
Titus snorted. “You were too drunk to remember your own name. I was sitting directly behind the players and barely got a glimpse.”
Ian withdrew another coil of glittering jewels from his pocket and placed it above the emerald necklace. “Then it would be difficult to determine which one of these was theIl Giocoprize.”
He handed the loupe to Titus and Costa so they could examine it.
Both men required a second look. And a third.
Eventually, Titus said, “This new necklace. The stones are twice the size.”
“It belonged to the same Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal. Which makes it worth…” Ian turned to Sunderland. “Five times as much as the other necklace?”
“Seven,” the duke corrected him.
The sudden quiet that fell over the church made Ian purse his lips together to prevent himself from smiling.
Costa tossed a hand. “Even if the gems are worth more, it is not an equal swap. The first necklace is tied to bounty beyond the gems.”
“True.” Ian turned to Sunderland, who handed him a small ledger. “This is the list of assets my father recorded, the year he wonIl Gioco. The Tarka still possess most of them and will transfer them to the new necklace.”
He placed a scrap of paper on top of the ledger. “This is what remains of my father’s stake in the docks and its current market worth.”
On top of that, Ian placed a smaller card. “This is a bank account with that same amount of money. It will also transfer with the new necklace.”
Titus’s eyes narrowed. “That’s a lot of capital to raise quickly. You must have mortgaged everything.”
Without Diana’s investment, Ian would have. “The money is there. The bishop has verified it.”
“Mae de deus,” Costa spat. “None of this matters. The emeralds cannot be bought or sold.”
“But they can be traded,” Ian said. “No one needs to know.”
“Everyone is expecting us to playIl Gioco—”
“So we play,” Titus interrupted. “With the new necklace. And the money.”
The Manu Rossocapopaused. “And without Holt.”
Titus turned back to Costa. “He’s impossible to beat without cheating. Less trouble for all of us if he surrenders his claim.”
Costa reached for the bank slip. His lip curled as he raised his eyes to meet Ian’s. “I never want you near my business or my family ever again.”
