As she stood, Roarke, in cat-burglar black, came through the window.
“You can’t be here.”
“Now then, I have a job to finish, just as you.”
He walked past her, gave her a wink, then stepped into the vault.
He opened a satchel and drew from a velvet bag the ivory Venus.
“Lovely, isn’t she?”
“It doesn’t belong here.”
“It wasn’t for me to decide that. A man has a living to make, after all.”
With care, he removed the tiara from the Royal Suite from another bag, placed it, then the necklace, the bracelet, the earrings, and finally the ring.
“I held those,” he said, “held them as my own for a brief moment of time. Ah, and the thrill of it, beyond words. But it was the ready I needed, not the sparkle.”
He turned, smiled at her. “Though you’d look like a queen wearing them. A goddess.”
“That’s not what I want.”
“I know it, my darling Eve, or why would I have stopped looking for that thrill? I found more in you than ever that. You brought me the joy, the comfort, the ease—and who would’ve thought I needed the ease of belonging?”
He stepped out, gave her arm an affectionate rub.
“The precious and the priceless,” he said, “but nothing in there is worth more than the life of the man you stand over and for. I believed that before you, and know it only more strongly since. I might have risked my own life for the precious and priceless, but that’s a different thing than the taking of one.
“You know that very well.”
“Yes. I know that.”
“I’d best be off now, as you’ve work to do.”
“Who took everything else?” she murmured.
As he stepped through the window, Roarke sent her a smile. “There’s a question.”
And he was gone, like a shadow in the dark.
On the floor, Nathan Barrister sat up. His face, his clothes were wet with blood. His eyes looked dull and full of sorrow.
“I didn’t take any of those things. I didn’t know about them until after my father died.”
“I believe that. But you kept them, for weeks after you did know.”
“It’s not the same, is it?”
“The possession of stolen property… No, not the same.”
“I loved my father. I thought I knew and accepted his flaws. He wasn’t what you’d call a great dad. I know because I’ve tried to be. But he was a good father. He built an important business, ran it well. He treated his employees fairly, even generously.”
With those sorrowful eyes, Nathan looked into the vault. “I don’t know why he did this, why he needed this.”
He turned to Eve. “We wouldn’t have kept all this. Is it so wrong I wanted to find a way to fix this and still protect my family? Our business? My father’s reputation? What harm did it do to take some time to find the best way?”
“It harmed you, Nate. It killed you.”
