Read Touched by a Thief Online
Authors: Jana Mercy
“Gerard will come after me,” she warned, knowing it was true, if for no other reason than that his ego would demand he find her. “You know he will.”
Ian’s eyes lit with amusement. “After he watches his surveillance video and sees you fucking me?”
Oh God. Her eyes closed and she inhaled a deep breath of air, counted to ten. What had she done?
“You said there were no cameras in his bedroom.”
“Did I?”
She thought back over what he’d said exactly. “You said Gerard didn’t have surveillance in his bedroom. But you did, didn’t you? What did you do? Leave something where he’d find it? Take something where he’d think I--” she stopped, stared at him with wide eyes. Excitement surged within her. “You found it, didn’t you?”
He blinked innocently. Too innocently. “Found what?”
She punched his shoulder. “The Degassi.”
He grinned. “And if I did? What’s it to you, jewel thief?”
Monty’s mouth watered at the thought that somewhere in Ian’s possession was the Degassi diamond.
No, not in his possession. She’d touched every part of him. There was no diamond on Ian. Not unless he’d… “What did you do? Swallow the thing?”
He laughed. “That would certainly cut down on the odds of you stealing it from me, wouldn’t it?”
“Don’t think I wouldn’t slit your belly wide open if necessary.” She ran her finger down his chest, over his chiseled belly, then leaned back against the plush seat before she got so turned on that she had to have him inside her again. “I need that diamond, Ian.”
She needed him, too, but wouldn’t let her mind go there. Couldn’t let her mind go there. Ian was so bad for her. So bad.
“Why?” His dark brow quirked high, skimming beneath a loose strand of silky black hair.
“I just do.”
“Do you have any idea what the Degassi is, Monty?”
“All I know is that it’s a very valuable diamond and I want it.”
He shrugged. “The diamond really isn’t that spectacular.”
“Keep talking, big boy, but you’re not going to convince me of anything. I want to see it, Ian. If I have to cut you open to do so, then so be it.”
He laughed again. “Always full of spunk.”
“Even when kidnapped.”
“I didn’t kidnap you,” he reminded. “Actually, I was your special guest upon your lover’s jet.”
Ian had arranged the private jet to be waiting for her under the guise that she’d been the one to want him to do so. Gerard would think she stole the diamond, that she’d left him, that she’d run off with another man.
A smidge of regret settled into her belly. Whatever his flaws, he had been good to her. Because she wasn’t convinced that Gerard had hired Ian to send her to prison. Ian had set her up on that too, planted a seed of doubt regarding Gerard’s intentions. Lord, why had she ever trusted this man?
“You don’t work for Gerard, but you do work for someone, don’t you, Ian? You set me up intentionally, sent me to jail intentionally, but not because Gerard had hired you to do so.”
His grin was cocksure. “You always were too smart for your own good.”
“Who? Who would want you to send me to prison?” Because no matter how much she racked her brain she couldn’t come up with anyone she’d pissed off that much in the past. Even thinking that Gerard had set her up just to have sex with her again had been pushing her suspension of belief. That someone would manipulate her life to this level was unthinkable. She was a jewel thief. A good jewel thief. Not an assassin.
But once upon a time when she’d worked for the government…No, she wouldn’t let her mind go there. She wouldn’t. She robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.
“You’re just a pawn in a game much bigger than you or me, Monty.”
She curled her fingers into his t-shirt, making a fist against his chest. “Don’t speak to me in riddles! Tell me the truth.”
He regarded her for long moments, seem to come to some kind of a conclusion. He held out his hand. Just looking at his fingers, knowing the power he wielded at the slightest stroke of his fingertip against her skin had Monty shivering.
“Give me your bag,” he ordered.
“What?” No, she wasn’t giving him her bag. Those jewels would go a long way to helping her cause, to helping needy children.
“Give me the bag where you stowed all the trinkets Gerard gave you.”
“Hell no. You’re not taking my jewels. I’ve given you enough of my trinkets in the past.”
His face remained impassive, his hand remaining outstretched. “Give me your bag.”
She didn’t move, didn’t budge. “No.”
He sighed, shook his head and mumbled something about stubborn women before reaching for her bag. She struggled against him, trying to fight him off, but his brute strength won out and without much effort he clutched her bag, prying open the top and dumping the contents into her lap.
Monty grasped at the jewels, trying to retrieve them prior to Ian taking them all. It had been so long since she’d been able to make a donation to the charity fund. She needed these jewels. She wouldn’t let him take them.
“I only want the necklace, Monty.”
She stopped scrambling for jewels. “The necklace?”
“The sapphire and diamond necklace Gerard gave you.”
“Why?”
His grin was devilish. “Hand it to me, and I’ll show you.”
Reluctantly, Monty handed him the necklace. If the bastard wanted it badly enough it wasn’t as if she could stop him anyway.
Ian reached into a black briefcase that had already been in the limo, pulled out what appeared to be an ordinary ink pen, clicked a button and shined a laser beam at the largest stone.
To Monty’s shock a computer screen image appeared in the air above the largest diamond. Names, numbers, sequences of dates, and codes of some sort ran across the projected image.
“What is this?”
“The Degassi Diamond.”
“My necklace is the Degassi Diamond?”
“Gerard had the stone changed out, had the original put into the ring he gave you.” Ian’s eyes glittered. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice, you being such a premier jewel connoisseur.”
Had she even taken a close look at the necklace since that first night? Had Gerard been laughing at her? Her, a jewel thief and he’d put the Degassi around her neck.
“Why would he give me the Degassi Diamond?”
Ian shrugged. “He has a sick sense of humor, apparently. Although my guess is, he suspected the jewel to be safest with you. Despite the fact you’d rob him without another thought, he knows you well enough he trusted your sense of loyalty to bind you to him long enough for him to achieve what he needed.”
“What did he need to achieve?”
“To line up potential buyers and let the bidding wars begin, I imagine.”
Monty motioned toward the information flashing across the screen. “What is this?”
“Victims.”
“Victims?”
“The Degassi Diamond is a weapon, Monty.”
Which fit what little she’d been told by the man who’d let her leave prison in exchange for this jewel.
Not a jewel. A weapon. She took another look at the gem, taking note that nothing gave clue that it was more than a simple jewel until Ian had activated the data with the pen-like instrument.
“How does it work?”
He clicked the pen off. “Now, that is the billion dollar question, isn’t it?”
Monty’s jaw didn’t drop open. Barely. “Billion?”
Ian just grinned.
She let the facts digest. The facts as she knew them. Yet, how much of what Ian told her could she believe? The man was a liar, had already betrayed her at least once, probably numerous times.
Obviously there was something different about the necklace Gerard had given her. No ordinary jewel generated computer images at the click of a pen.
But if Ian didn’t know how the Degassi worked, how had he known about the pen? Then again, he hadn’t said he didn’t know how the Degassi worked, had he?
“Where did you get that pen?”
Ian snorted wryly, sliding the pen back into his briefcase. “Like I said, too smart for your own good, Monty. Think about it. You’ll figure it out.”
She ran through everything in her mind again. This time her mouth dropped open. Holy shit.
“You’re working for the government, aren’t you?”
His eyes glittered like obsidian. “Now why would you think that?”
“Because it’s fucking true.” She collapsed against the seat, shaking her head back and forth. Did Ian know she was with Gerard under duplicitous circumstances?
Had he been the mastermind behind everything from the very beginning? She’d thought Gerard had set her up from the beginning, but perhaps she’d looked toward the wrong man in her life. Perhaps Ian had been the true mastermind.
“Who are you?” she demanded. “Who are you really?”
“Ian McGowan.”
“That’s your real name.”
“As real as anyone else’s name.”
“Which means it’s not.” She didn’t even know his real name. Which mattered exactly why? She’d done worse. Much worse.
He took a deep breath, then clasped her hand into his, squeezing tightly. Her gaze lifted to his.
“You have to trust me, Monty.”
Trust him? Ha, as if.
“Why should I trust you? All you’ve ever done was lie to me from the day we first met.”
“Because I’m your only hope out of this mess.” He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against her fingers. “And not everything was a lie. Look into your heart and you’ll know it’s true.”
She yanked her hand free from his, rubbed her fingers against the cool leather of the seat trying to ease the burn of his touch. “You’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”
His expression remained somber. “I know more than you think I know.”
Which meant what exactly?
“The last time I trusted you, I ended up locked in a jail cell,” she reminded, herself as much as him. “For four horrible long months.”
His gaze never left hers. “None-the-less, you have to trust me now.”
Her heart skipped a beat at how his eyes searched hers, beseeched hers, as if her trusting him really was important to him. To him personally. She was such a fool. A pansy waiting for him to take advantage of her yet again.
“I can’t trust you,” she whispered, hating the emotion she heard in her voice. She didn’t want to feel anything for this man. Not anything but hatred at how he’d used her and left her to rot in jail. “Not ever again.”
He pulled her too him, brushed his cheek against hers, brushed his lips against her temple in a motion so gentle her ribs squeezed the breath out of her, making her dizzy, making her want to for just once lean on someone else, to lean on him.
“Look inside your heart, Monty,” he whispered, kissing her temple again. “You’ll find everything you need to trust me because you and I are two of a kind. A matched set. You know I’m right. Listen to your heart.”
Her heart was foolish. Was blinded by his pretty words and the heat of his body.
“You’re wrong,” she denied. “There’s nothing of you in my heart. Nothing.”
He pulled back enough to stare directly into her eyes again. “You deny that you still love me?”
She couldn’t deny her feelings for him. Not to herself. But nor would she humiliate herself by admitting to those feelings either. Never again.
“I don’t love you, Ian. Or whoever you really are. You don’t even exist in my world. Not beyond someone who is talented in bed.”
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, trying to figure out her next course of action. Did she go with Ian or did she escape him? And if she escaped where did she go? She had the number she was to call memorized, would have the Degassi back in her hands before making her exit. But was she willing to hand the diamond over to anyone before knowing exactly what it was, before knowing the ramifications of her actions?
The answer was no.
Which meant she had to see this through, had to see where Ian was taking her, what he planned to do. And the longer she was with him, the more precarious her situation became.
Because she didn’t doubt that when push came to shove, Ian would betray her at first opportunity, would break her heart into so many pieces it would never beat to any rhythm but his.
Trust him? No, that wasn’t something she could ever do again.
Monty woke slowly, not recognizing her surroundings, but grateful not to be back at the penitentiary as she’d first thought. She’d dreamed she’d been back behind bars, dreamed that Ian had stood with the warden, laughing at her. Her dream had morphed into she and Ian having hot and sweaty sex with the warden watching, laughing, jacking off onto two inmates as his eyes clung to her and Ian’s bodies slapping against one another, her taking him deeper and deeper, lifting her body to his, wanting every inch of him enveloped within her.