ONE
PAUL: The Auction
A NOTE BEFORE YOU BEGIN
THIS IS NOT A STANDALONE
This is Book Two.
Every love story has a beginning.
The Swanpicks up immediately afterThe Starlingends. If you haven't met Paul and Vivianne yet—if you don't know about the Van Gogh, the kiss in Paris, or the secret that changed everything—stop here.
Trust me. You don't want to miss how it all began.
Read The Starling first.
Then come back.
They'll be waiting.
Thirty million dollars and a bioweapon—Nicholasalways did like to gift-wrap his revenge.
The second painting of the evening shines under the spotlights—a lesser Monet that won't kill anyone, unlikeDr. Gachet, which waits its turn like a loaded gun.
The bid price climbs past eight million, but my mind calculates different numbers.
Ten years since Nicholas and I called each other brother.
Ten days since Vivianne crashed into my world.
Three since she uncovered my secret—and Nicholas returned to stealDr. Gachet, concealing anthrax beneath Van Gogh's paint.
And just five minutes since Vivianne touched my shoulder and whispered she needed water.
The bidding draws to its close, paddles dropping one by one. Urakov shifts his weight, ready to fight for his motherland's bioweapon. The terrorists think they're buying death in a frame. Interpol thinks they're tracing arms money. Vivianne thinks we're here to recover stolen art.
They're all right, and all wrong.
Nicholas orchestrated this entire setup, and I still don't know why.
"Sold!"
Bidding ends on the second painting, andDr. Gachetis brought to the podium. Vivianne has yet to return.
Where is she?
After I specifically told her to stay close.
I don't have time to track her down.Dr. Gachetis up, and the opening bid is placed.
Urakov takes position at the opposite end of the room, close to the podium. His back is to me and the rest of the crowd. The Russian intends to bid and reclaim what he hopes is smuggled inside, but if I let Urakov have the painting, it will be lost to the world.
Vivianne wants to returnDr. Gachetto the Musée d'Orsay. I will see it done.
The whole exchange smells wrong, and I can't determine Nicholas's role in either theft.
In a usual exchange, a client who needs to launder several million dollars purchases a painting. Dirty cash transfers for the commodity, becoming washed in the process. In a separate event, that process reverses. The client resells the painting, pulling out clean cash.
