Kitty, with a final wistful look at the orchid, smiled and stepped around him to sit beside me in the chair opposite Storm’s desk.
“We appreciate your willingness to meet with us, Storm,” I eventually declared when he’d also taken a seat.
“Of course. Once I heard the rumors and the gossip about your family’s fascination with rubies, I admit I was curious.” He tucked a hand into a desk drawer and retrieved a box. “Then, when we found this, I didn’t think you’d be interested anymore.”
Kitty hummed as she stared at the pearl necklace, which was strangely undersized in length. Less of a necklace and more a bracelet, but the pendant, an oversized pearl, said otherwise. “May I?”
Storm nodded and she reached out for it, careful with the pearls as she tilted the rose-cut rubies this way and that. It was a clever move. It let me see what we were discussing without me touching the necklace, which meant Storm’s gaze was less intent, more relaxed.
“It’s beautiful. Are the rubies real? I’ve never seen them as big as this before.”
“We think so,” Storm told her. “Had it appraised, at any rate.”
I tipped my chin. “And what price are you asking?”
A part of me expected he’d request a favor. Another part hoped he wouldn’t.
Luc and Rory had given me the go-ahead to do whatever it took to get the rubies, but that didn’t mean I liked being beholden to people.
I already owed a bunch of people favors on a personal level. As a Valentini, the fewer we owed them to, the better.
Tokens shaped business, after all, and we were already in debt because of the curse.
Storm retrieved an envelope from the same drawer in his desk. He pushed it over to me, and I pulled out a certificate of authentication.
“Can’t they be forged?” Kitty asked politely, attention flicking between the rubies and then the certificate.
My lips curved at the question, so did Storm’s. “I guess they can, but I have no interest in pissing off a brotherhood with as much reach as the Valentinis’.”
“A smart man,” Kitty praised. “But then, I already knew that. It’s really hard to keep some of the tropical orchids alive.”
“Mostly, it takes time and patience.”
“Both admirable traits.”
WhatIadmired was her ability to step through this meeting despite it being a potential minefield.
Even as I wondered if this came from her being a nurse and having to deal with a million walks of life converging in her ER or simply being the big sister in a clan like the Frasiers, I scanned the certificate and read the valuation.
The pearls were of no value to me in the grand scheme of things, but theywereinteresting. Antiques according to the document in my hand.
“The jeweler we used for the appraisal said they were originally a set.”
My gaze darted over to him. “What kind of set?”
Storm’s hands settled on his abs as he rocked back in his seat. “The pearls are famous. Belonged to Catherine the Great or something. She had these made into two small necklaces for her two daughters. Apparently, one of these remains in Moscow because Elizabeth became the Empress of Russia, while the other went with her sister, the Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, who died when she was only twenty. It’s why this one left Russia—she passed away when giving birth to her son.
“If you look in the envelope, there’s a picture of them wearing it.”
I retrieved the photographs of two paintings, surprised to find that one of them was a small girl wearing the necklace and the other an older woman with a castle in the background, the necklace worn on her left wrist of all places, the pendant resting against the back of her hand.
“How fascinating,” Kitty whispered, gazing at the necklace with awe then the pictures.
“With such a history, they’re not our rubies,” I reasoned, disappointment filling me.
“Still worth a fortune, and it’s not like we hand out pearls and rubies to our kids in an MC.” Storm’s smile was sharklike. “There are others interested in it.”
I narrowed my eyes on the piece, deliberating over the truth of the story, but a part of me, the part that was an Anjou-Valentini,covetedthis necklace.
