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Would Saleem himself have sickened in his teens, his body have been pumped full of the poison that put him in this desperate position now? Cured, alive, but unable to father a child?
And last month, at his annual physical, a ritual he took very seriously, his latest blood work showed an overabundance of white blood cells. The leukemia he’d battled as a teenager was back. He was running out of time.
With the three stones united, he would be healed and forever immortal. Not only would he have the Koh-i-Noor this very day, he also finally had in his possession the lost seventy-seven-carat stone from Antwerp. If his father had any i
dea his old friend Andrei Anatoly held his diamond all these years, he would have killed the man himself.
No matter. Anatoly was dead, and the smallest piece of the diamond was now safe in a Paris warehouse, awaiting its brothers.
He would return to Paris, open the locked box, marry the three stones, and be healed. Then he would sire a son.
Behind him, he heard a soft knock at his door.
65
Saleem opened the door to his suite. Two years since he’d seen her last, and she still took his breath away. But something was different, wrong. Her beauty was diminished. She was only a woman after all, not the mythical creature he remembered.
And then it hit him.
“Your eyes.”
She waved a hand in dismissal. “A necessary evil. May I come in, or are we going to do this transaction in the hallway?”
He stepped back and allowed her entrance. He stuck his head out the door, looking right, then left. The hall behind her was empty; she’d come alone, as instructed.
He shut the door and turned to see her watching him. She set her backpack down on the table and opened it.
“You have the Koh-i-Noor.”
“Of course. Let us do our business and go our separate ways. You are prepared to transfer the funds?”
“Let me see it first.”
She held out her hand. There was a small envelope, only a few inches big, inside her palm. “Money for the key.”
Saleem said, “Key? Key to what? Where is my diamond?”
“Safely stashed away where you will be able to claim it. As soon as I’ve confirmed the money is in my accounts.”
Was she indeed planning to betray him? Well, he’d been warned, and he was ready for her. “Why have you not brought the diamond to me?”
Kitsune pulled back her hand.
“Did you honestly believe I was going to walk in here and hand you the stone? Do you take me for a fool, Lanighan? This is how business is done. You know the proper procedure. I see the weapon you carry under your coat. Did you plan to shoot me dead the moment you have your diamond?”
They were circling each other now, Kitsune watching his hand carefully for any sign he was going for the gun in his pocket. He was not the same man she’d met two years earlier. There was something different about him.
He’s desperate, she thought, finally recognizing the problem. But why? What had happened over the past two years?
It didn’t matter. Mulvaney had warned her she shouldn’t trust Lanighan.
“I will ask you once more. Where is my diamond?”
“The Koh-i-Noor is safe. You transfer my money, and I will tell you where to take the key. I keep my bargains. I always have. Do you?”
He was becoming enraged. She recognized the signs and took three steps back, put her weight on her back foot, ready to defend herself.
He whipped the gun from his pocket and jabbed it toward her chest. “I have been warned of your duplicity, your intention to take my money and the Koh-i-Noor. I will not allow you to do this. I want my diamond, and I want it now.”
