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“Your coat is on its way back here and room service will deliver in five.”
“You had my coat collected?”
“The front desk was very obliging.”
He’d known she left her coat at the club when she was trying to lose him. Had he guessed there was something important about it? She needed a change of subject fast before he connected it to Celestia.
“You set up a trust for me. Why?”
He sighed as if having to explain this again was a bore. “Because whatever your father’s game was, you didn’t deserve to be treated so poorly. His assets rightly belong to you.”
“And you say I can simply show up and claim the house.”
He nodded. No showmanship, no sales pitch. Maybe he was telling the truth. But she’d be a fool to trust a maybe. “I’m not letting you take Celestia,” she said.
“You won’t be able to shift her.”
“You didn’t know I was going to snatch her. You don’t know what I can do.”
“Anything you set your heart and mind to, Aria. But walking into a yakuza stronghold would be a mistake.”
Poker face, but it was hard not to react. He thought she could do anything she set her heart on. Christ, why did he say that? It made her want to throw herself at him, forgive everything and start over. But worse, how did he know about Shoma?
“I don’t know what would make you think I’d do that.”
“There’s only one buyer in the world willing to take such a famous stone and pay a fair price for it, and I’ve been her main supplier for years. You’re poaching on my territory.”
“I have a list of buyers.”
“No, Aria, you don’t. Th
is is a rare stone that needs a rare underworld buyer, and Shoma knows it.”
She worked to keep distress off her face. He knew almost all her secrets now. “I suppose you’re going to tell me it’s for my own good to hand Celestia over.”
“I was trying to think of a way to make that not seem like defeat when it’s the only option you have. I’ll cut you a deal.”
“I don’t need your charity.”
“No, but until you’ve moved that stone you need my protection. Shoma knows I don’t have Celestia. And she’d prefer to take it from you than buy it from me. And she will take it from you.”
“I’ll find a way to make the deal. I don’t need you.”
“I wish that was true, Aria. If I thought you could hide from the yakuza, and Shoma wouldn’t have me tortured till she found you, maybe—” He was interrupted by a knock at the door that startled her.
She watched him answer it, calmly signing for the room service and then carefully receiving and hanging her coat on a padded hanger in the cupboard. There had to be a way around this. Celestia was her score and she’d think he was lying except she’d tried to contact Shoma again and her calls had gone unanswered. But they were traceable, even if she ditched the yakuza phone. Shoma would know where to start looking.
If there was any truth to what Cleve was saying, she was in danger already.
Chapter Eight
Once delivered to the room, buttoned and square on the padded coat hanger, the navy trench coat hung longer on the right side. Aria had stitched Sweet Celestia into the lining. Cleve ran a hand down the coat’s length to check and found the bulge. Clever, but not clever enough to outwit Shoma. He simply had no recourse but to convince Aria to take him on as a partner and secure the sale—and her life.
You’d think that would be easy. She’d loved him once, impossibly, recklessly. She looked at him now like she might feel something for him again, but maybe not as much as she felt for the steak sandwich she was attacking.
He settled at the table opposite her and watched her devour everything on her plate. What was he supposed to do if he couldn’t win her over? Hit her over the head with something and drag her back to Bali where he could keep a watch on her? The moment he turned his back she’d drown him in a rice paddy. Forcing her wouldn’t do, but that left winning her, and she thought he was a liar still.
“Please let me show you records of the trust.”
