Shackled by Diamonds

by Julia James

  Leo was standing there very still, just looking at her.

  Quite expressionless.

  The dark padded ski jacket made him look even more formidable than he usually looked.

  ‘I would like you, Ms Delane, to empty your pockets.’

  The blood drained from her face completely.

  With an effort of will she forced an expression of astonishment to her features.

  ‘What?’

  He did not move. ‘You heard me. Empty your pockets.’

  ‘No!’ she retorted indignantly, trying desperately to stay in character. She took a harsh breath. ‘What is this? What the hell is going on?’

  ‘You’ve gone pale, Ms Delane. Even paler than usual. Why is that, I wonder?’

  His eyes were resting on her like weights, but she had to keep staring back at him angrily. Not letting her fear show.

  But the fear was there, all right—like pickaxes gouging in her stomach.

  ‘Because I don’t want to be anywhere near you. That’s why! Isn’t it obvious, Mr Makarios?’ she thrust defiantly at him.

  Did his eyes narrow very, very slightly?

  ‘Obvious—or convenient?’

  ‘What?’

  His mouth tightened.

  ‘Just empty your pockets, please.’

  ‘No, I will not. What the hell is this about?’

  ‘Just do it.’

  Anna’s expression hardened.

  ‘How dare you harass me like this—?’

  Leo Makarios’s face suffused with instant thunder. His hand slammed down on to the surface of his desk.

  ‘You will not use that word! Christos—’ He took a harsh, ripping breath. ‘Very well—if you do not wish to empty your pockets, you need not do so.’ He moved his hand, picking up the phone. ‘You can instead let the police search you.’

  ‘The police?’ With all her nerve she tried to inject as much withering bewilderment into her voice as she could. ‘Are you mad?’ she challenged derisively. ‘I’ve had enough of this!’

  She turned on her heel and headed for the door.

  It was locked. Between fear and fury she rattled the handle viciously. She could no longer tell whether she was still in character as someone totally innocent, or succumbing to an overriding instinct to run and run and run.

  ‘Let me out!’

  Footsteps sounded behind her across the carpet. Then Leo Makarios was right behind her.

  ‘Of course,’ he said smoothly. His arm came around her to unlock the door.

  The other hand slid into her trouser pocket and drew out the bracelet.

  He stepped back.

  For one endless second Anna froze. Then she twisted round, pressed back against the door panels. Like a deer at bay, cornered by a ravening leopard.

  Leo Makarios was just standing there, hand palm up, a river of fire draped over his long fingers. He was so close to her his presence pressed on her like a crushing dark weight.

  For a moment he said absolutely nothing, just hung her eyes with his as if he were crucifying her.

  Then he spoke.

  Each word a nail in her flesh.

  ‘Well, well, well,’ he said slowly, and the way he spoke was like acid dripping on her bare skin. ‘So the virtuous Ms Delane—so virtuous she won’t allow her lily-white breasts to be photographed, so innocent she is outraged by a man’s touch on her—all along is nothing but a thief.’

  She couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Could only feel the horror spreading through her like freezing water.

  Think! Think—say something. Anything…

  But every synapse in her brain was freezing.

  She watched him walk back to his desk, lay the bracelet on its surface. Then he turned back to look at her.

  Fury flashed across his face. Anger so intense she thought it would slay her where she stood. Then, with monumental effort of will, his face stilled.

  Behind her back she could feel the hard panels of the door pressing into her. Nowhere to run; nowhere to hide.

  Caught red-handed in possession of stolen property. A ruby bracelet worth untold tens of thousands of pounds!

  And the only way to clear her name would be to incriminate Jenny.

  I can’t! I can’t do that! Whatever happens, I’ve got to keep her out of it!

  But even as the resolution went through her she felt fear buckle. It was all very well to say something like that, but if she took the can for appropriating the bracelet it would be her the police sirens would sound for, her the jail would beckon—and her career would be left in tatters.

  Oh God—please, no!

  Leo was looking at her, just looking. There was nothing in his face. Nothing at all.

  Then, softly, he spoke.

  ‘What shall I do with you? My instinct is to hand you over to the police, to hear the prison doors clang shut on you. And yet…’

  He paused. His dark, expressionless eyes rested on her.

  Into the silence Anna spoke, each word cut from her. ‘What’s the point of getting the police involved? You’ve got the bracelet back. No damage done.’

  She was speaking for Jenny; she knew she was. Jenny had acted out of desperation, not greed. Pregnancy did things to you—to your head—and, terrified as Jenny was of the man who had done it to her, the balance of her mind had tipped for a few short, fatal moments. It had been an impulse—desperate, insane—to slip the bracelet into her shoe…

  She saw his face change.

  ‘You steal—from me—and think no damage done?’ His voice was like a thin, deadly blade.

  ‘Well, there isn’t, is there?’ She made herself give a shrug. Instinctively she knew she had to hide her fear from him. It would show him her vulnerability, and that was something she must never, never show to Leo Makarios.

  Another line of defence came to her, and she lifted her chin defiantly. ‘Besides, I can’t imagine you’d welcome the publicity that would arrive with the police. You’re supposed to be getting good publicity from this launch bash—not bad! And it would make your security precautions look pretty pathetic—having some of your precious Levantsky jewels walk off from out under your very nose.’

  Even as she spoke she wished she had never said a word. Something was changing in his face again, and it was sending icy fingers down her spine.

  He fingered the bracelet, looking across at her, leaning his hips back against the edge of his desk.

  ‘How very astute of you, Ms Delane,’ he said. His voice was soft, but it raised the hair on the nape of her neck. ‘I would indeed prefer not to make this incident—official. Which is why—’ his eyes rested on her ‘—I am prepared to allow you to make your…reparation…for your crime privately, rather than at the expense of the taxpayer.’

  Something crawled in her stomach.

  ‘What—what do you mean?’

  ‘Let’s just say…’ he answered—and his voice still had an edge in it that was drawing along her skin like a blade—‘…that I am giving you a choice. I can hand you over to the police—or I can keep you in personal custody until such time as I think you have made sufficient…amends.’ His eyes held hers. ‘Which is it to be?’

  She swallowed. Her heart was thumping in hard, heavy slugs.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Her voice was faint. She wanted it to sound defiant, but it didn’t.

  Leo Makarios smiled. It was the smile of a wolf that had its prey in its clutches. Her stomach clenched. His eyelids swept down over his eyes, the lashes long and lustrous.

  ‘Oh, I think you know, Ms Delane. I think you know.’ For a long moment he held her gaze, telling her in that exchange just exactly what he had in mind as reparation.

  She felt a shiver go through her.

  It was revulsion. It had to be.

  It had to be.

  A sharp breath rasped in her throat.

  ‘No!’ It was instinct—pure survival instinct—that made the word break from her.

  He raised an eyebrow.

 
; ‘No? Are you sure about that, Ms Delane? Have you, I wonder…’ his voice was conversational, but it screamed along Anna’s nerves ‘…ever been in prison? You’re a very beautiful woman, as you know—exceptionally so. And I’m sure that it isn’t just men who find you so. In prison, for example, there will be inmates who—’

  ‘No!’

  It was fear this time. Naked and bare.

  Just for an instant something showed in Leo Makarios’s eyes. Something that did not fit what he was taunting her with. Then it was gone. In its place was merely that cold, scarily level regard.

  ‘No? Then, given the choice, which will you make, hmm?’

  Her face convulsed. ‘Choice? You’re not giving me a choice!’

  Anger showed like a flash of lightning in his features.

  ‘You think you deserve one? Thee mou, you’re a thief! A thief. You stole from me! You had the audacity, the stupidity, to think you could do so with impunity?’ His eyes scorched her, as if he would incinerate her on the spot.

  Suddenly a Greek word spat from him. He turned, seizing up the phone on his desk, and punched in a number.

  ‘Polizei—’

  Anna jerked forward.

  ‘Please—don’t! Don’t…don’t call the police.’

  There was panic in her voice. He mustn’t involve the police—he mustn’t! They would investigate the theft, Jenny would realise she’d been found out—and she’d confess—Anna knew she would.

  And the consequences would be unthinkable. The case would hit the press, Jenny’s condition would inevitably be exposed in the time it took to come to trial, and when it did she’d lose her baby for ever.

  The man who had threatened to take her child from her would arrive to make good his threat. Jenny would lose her freedom and her baby. She’d be branded a criminal and end up in jail, her life ruined, her child taken from her…

  And Anna could not let that happen.

  Not if there was some way to avoid it.

  Slowly, as if from a long distance, she saw Leo Makarios lower the receiver to the handset and turn back to her.

  Faintly, forcing her voice to pass her throat, Anna spoke.

  ‘I need to know…know…exactly what would be involved if I agreed to…to the…the reparation you…you spoke of. I mean—how…how long for…and…when? I mean…’

  He was looking at her. Something was in his eyes again, and it made her feel cold.

  ‘How long?’ he echoed. His voice was silky suddenly. ‘Why, Ms Delane—until I’ve had all I want of you. Or—’ there was a note in his voice that shivered down her spine ‘—until you please me sufficiently to earn your parole. There—is that exact enough for you? Or would you like me to spell out exactly—’ his repetition of the word mocked her ‘—how I envisage you earning your parole?’

  He was baiting her, taunting her, wanting her to lash out, scream her defiance, her revulsion at him. She could see it, knew it all the way through her.

  And she burned to do it! Burned to tell him to take his disgusting sick ‘choice’ and—

  But she couldn’t. Couldn’t do anything except just stand there and let him say such things to her.

  ‘And…’ She swallowed, forcing herself to go on. ‘And if I…if I agree, then…then you won’t involve the police, or the press, or…anyone else? No one will know except…you?’

  His mouth curved in a contemptuous curl.

  ‘No one will know that you are a thief—is that what you mean?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She stared at him. It was essential, essential that he agreed that. Because somehow she had to keep this from Jenny. Her mind went racing ahead. If she could tell Jenny that she’d safely returned the bracelet, that no one had found out, that it had all gone quiet, she might just save her friend.

  What else am I going to have to tell her?

  Oh, God, what on earth was she going to say to Jenny? No, she would think about that later. Not now. Not when Leo Makarios was looking at her with a contemptuous expression on his face that would have made her flush with shame if he’d had the cause for it he thought he had.

  But he didn’t have cause. She knew he didn’t!

  So was that why she lifted her chin and stared back at him defiantly, refusing to let herself be cowed, humiliated, ashamed.

  She felt her resolve stiffening as she held his coruscating gaze. What did she care what he thought of her? What did she care if he thought her a thief or not? Because she knew exactly what she thought about him—a man who’d walked into her bedroom last night in the sublime assumption that she was just going to sigh with gratitude and lie down for him…

  No—don’t think about that!

  Because if she thought then she might remember, and if she remembered then she might…

  She might prefer Leo Makarios to phone the police after all…

  But she couldn’t let him do that.

  Oh, God, it was like being crushed between walls closing in on her, closing in—

  With a mental strength she hadn’t known she possessed she pushed them apart. She could not collapse now—could not panic, or faint, or burst into tears. She had to keep going—keep going with what she had done. So she went on staring at him defiantly, chin high.

  She could see it angered him. See it in the flash of blackness in his eyes, and she was darkly, viscously pleased. She knew it was irrational, and certainly stupid, to anger even more a man who had such cause to be furious with her.

  And part of her brain told her it was unjust as well.

  He thinks you’re a thief. He’s got a right to be mad with you!

  But reason did not hold sway. Somehow keeping Leo Makarios angry with her made her feel safer—safer than Leo Makarios feeling anything else about her…

  Or was it?

  As Anna stood there, her back pressed against the door, with those heavy-lidded, hard-as-stone eyes boring into her like diamond-tipped drills, a sense of almost overpowering disbelief shuddered through her.

  Oh, God, what have I done…?

  The words ricocheted round and round inside her head. Like bullets. Each one a killing shot.

  But it was too late to do anything now. Far too late. She’d taken on the burden of Jenny’s crime and now she had to see it through.

  And the only way to do that, she knew, was not to think about it. Absolutely not think about what she had just agreed to.

  A barrier sliced down in her brain. Don’t think about anything but now! That was all she must deal with.

  ‘Well,’ she heard her voice say, and marvelled that it sounded so cool, so unconcerned, ‘what happens now, then?’ She levered herself away from the door panel, deliberately thrusting her hands inside her pockets, staring, chin lifted, across at the man who had caught her red-handed with a priceless ruby bracelet in her illicit possession.

  Again her attitude seemed to send a flash of black anger through his eyes.

  ‘What happens now, Ms Delane,’ he intoned heavily, with that killing look still levelled at her, ‘is that you get out of my sight. Before I change my mind and get you slung into jail, where a thief like you belongs! Now, get out.’

  Leo’s eyes were dark, inward-looking, his face closed. He could feel the black deadly rage roiling through him like a heavy sea.

  How dared she think she could steal from him? And then deny it, defy him as she had? Christos, he had heard the word shameless used before, but never had he realised just what it meant. His face darkened even more. Now he did.

  She stood there in front of me, lying through her teeth. Pretending her innocence even as the bracelet was in her pocket.

  And she might even have got away with it.

  He saw again in his head the moment when she’d headed towards the front door of the Schloss, walking with her elegant, poised model’s saunter, distancing herself completely from the search going on behind her.

  And all along…

  But she’d given herself away. That tiny but instinctive gesture sh
e’d made with one hand, brushing her pocket.

  Checking if something was still there…

  And he’d known—known with every gut instinct—that the thief was her. He’d already carpeted the cowering Justin, lambasted the head of security for the shambles that had happened that afternoon. It had been obvious that that was when the theft had taken place, and the only suspects had been those close enough to the spilt jewels to have purloined any.

  It had been Anna Delane who’d spilt them in the first place. Anna Delane who’d been the first to scrabble down to the ground. Every finger had already been pointing at her.

  But investigating would have been a delicate business. The missing bracelet could have been anywhere in the Schloss—secreted in any of a thousand unlikely places for collection later. Or even off the premises. It could have been miles away, in completely different hands. Searching any of the suspects’ rooms would have been fruitless.

  And Anna Delane had had the audacity to think she could walk straight past him carrying it on her!

  The black rage roiled through him again. That anyone should have stolen from him—and for it to be her—her of all people.

  His eyes narrowed.

  Had he been mad to let her walk out? Mad not simply to pick the phone up again and get the police here?

  But the vixen had been right. She’d gone immediately for his one weak spot—his determination to avoid any bad publicity tainting the launch of the Levantsky jewels.

  No. Leo let his rage sink down again, congealing into a cold, hard mass inside him. He’d done the right thing. No police—no publicity—no prison.

  Anna Delane would make amends to him in a manner he would find far, far more satisfying.

  She didn’t want him in her bed? Thought herself too virtuous for his desires?

  A grim smile twisted at his mouth.

  She’d be begging for him before he was done with her!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ANNA sat in her wide leather seat in the first class cabin and stared unseeingly at the glossy magazine lying across her lap. At her side, separated from her only by a drinks table, sat Leo Makarios.

  He was working at his laptop, completely ignoring her.