Chill (11 page)

Isabella lifted her head to look at him. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. He needed to focus. Bring it home. “What does Leon want from Marcus?”

He’d thought Marcus had learned his lesson about letting anyone get close enough to be used for leverage. How could he have let Isabella get that close? Stupid bastard. He had to have known it would endanger Isabella to let her become important to him, yet the selfish son of a bitch had done it anyway.

“They want a necklace,” Isabella said.

Of course. It was always about the antiquities. The money. “What necklace?”

She hesitated a fraction of a second, so briefly he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been paying such close attention. “I don’t know the details about it. It came in that afternoon, and I hadn’t had time to research it.”

Sudden certainty made Luke tense. “You have it.”

Isabella’s face became wary. “No, I don’t. I—”

“Son of a bitch, Isabella.” He was standing now. “Do you have a death wish? Leon is ready to kill for this thing and you took it?” Shit! No wonder they were pressing so ruthlessly for her. “That’s why you kept saying that getting out of Alaska wouldn’t make you safe. You know they’ll hunt you down until they get what they want and you’re dead.”

“I didn’t
take
it,” she retorted. “Marcus made me wear it for his birthday party, and when I ran, I still had it on. They all know I was wearing it. It’s the only thing keeping Marcus alive. It’s my leverage.”

“It’s suicide.” He held out his hand. This changed everything. “Let me see it.”

Isabella began to unzip her jeans. “I hid it in here.” She began to tug her jeans over her hips, and he couldn’t drag his gaze off her flat belly, the curve of her hips, the black lace of her underwear…

His cock hardened instantly.

“Turn around,” she demanded.

“No.”

She scowled at him. “Luke!”

He turned.

It was the longest three minutes of his life before she tapped him on the shoulder.

Her pants were back up, but she hadn’t buttoned them yet. Disappointment hit him like a chainsaw in the gut, and he realized he was sunk. All he could think about was burying himself—

“Here.” She set a warm piece of metal in his hand. “I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t know what it was. I haven’t had time to research it.” But something in her eyes said she knew more than she was letting on.

Luke dragged his gaze off her to look down at the necklace. It took a moment to register, and then he recognized it. “Bloody hell.”

They were in deep shit.

That necklace meant it wasn’t just about Isabella.

It was also about him.

Isabella hadn’t even gotten her jeans buttoned before Luke grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“We’re getting rid of this.”

“What? No!” She stopped. “It’s our only way to get Marcus free.”

Luke spun on her, his jaw twitching. “I searched for this necklace for seven years. It’s part of a collection.”

Excitement pulsed through Isabella. It was just as Marcus had said. “You’ve heard about this necklace?”

“Yeah. That’s why we’re getting out of here.” He yanked open the front door. “Into the plane. Now.”

“Okay.” Isabella followed his lead and they ran across the moonlit meadow toward his plane. She was so excited. She’d known Luke would be able to help her.

They were strapped in and taxiing within minutes.

“The entire set dates back only about three hundred years,” Luke said as he circled the clearing. “It’s a necklace and matching earrings.” He slanted a look at her, as if assessing how much of this she already knew. “The key is the stones. They were part of a collection that belonged to a Ciradian tribe, who believed they had mystical powers to provide safety and love and wealth.”

“Ciradian?” Isabella gripped her seat as the plane bumped over the clearing as it picked up speed. She had been so right that Luke would know enough to help her. As much as she knew, he clearly knew a whole lot more. “They were known for violence?”

The plane caught loft. “Yep. They believed their role was to protect the earth at all costs.” He rubbed his jaw. “They were scientists way ahead of their time. I couldn’t believe they were able to—”

“The necklace, Luke.” She grinned at his distraction into the scientific realm. No wonder he was interested in this area, and it was clear why Marcus had put Luke on the trail of this particular artifact.

“So, yeah, they put the stones of protection into the set of jewelry, and the elders of the tribe wore them. To the Ciradians, the jewelry was about protection, but others were simply interested in the monetary value of the jewels. The tribe protected those jewels at all costs, and they became increasingly violent in the face of so many treasure seekers.”

“Like Marcus.”

He glanced over at her. “Like Marcus.”

“How much is the necklace worth? Or the set together?”

Luke whistled softly. “The set’s enough to make Leon decide it’s worth it to turn on Marcus.” He nodded at her injured shoulder. “Enough that it’s worth a few lives.”

Isabella hugged herself. “So do you think Leon has the earrings? Is that why he’s acting now?” She shook her head. “No, I would have known if the earrings had been found. I would have heard about it.”

Luke was silent.

She raised her brows at his sudden reticence. “Luke? Do you know something about the earrings?”

“I do.”

“What?”

“I found them.”

She shot a sharp look at Luke. “You did? When?”

“Eight years ago.” His jaw was hard.

“Oh my God. So now the whole set has been recovered.” Isabella hugged herself. No wonder Leon was after her. “Does Marcus still have the earrings? Or did he already sell them?” Surely he hadn’t kept them all this time. “And who did he sell them to? Do you remember?”

Luke’s jaw flexed. “Marcus doesn’t have them. He didn’t sell them.”

“He didn’t?” Isabella frowned. “So where are they?”

“He has no clue. They disappeared.” Luke banked the plane and the half-moon was on Isabella’s side now.

Isabella rubbed her shoulder, which was starting to ache again. “Did you actually retrieve them? Or just locate them?”

“I got them.”

Isabella heard an edge to his voice that made her wary. “You stole them? At gunpoint?”

“Yep. Nate and I did it together.” There was resignation in his voice. Bitterness. “Scared the shit out of the three children. Nothing like having two gunslingers invade dinnertime to fuck up a kid.”

Isabella studied the necklace still clenched in Luke’s hand, a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Did Marcus know you stole it?”

Luke raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Of course he did. It’s his business model.”

Isabella leaned her head back against the seat. She
had had suspicions over the years about how some of those items had been retrieved. Not the ones he sold in his store, but the ones dealt out of his storeroom in his basement. The ones that never made it into the public eye. Deep down, she’d known. But it still made her heart ache. “I’m sure he didn’t want to endanger the children, though.” Not the children.

Luke said nothing.

Isabella looked over at him. “Luke?”

“Don’t ask me for answers you aren’t ready to hear. I won’t lie for him.”

A deep ache gripped Isabella’s chest. “I know he’s not perfect,” she said. “But I love him as if he were my own father.”

Again, he said nothing, but his mouth was tight. She knew he was thinking only about how much he hated the very man she loved.

How could they resolve this? How could they work together on this? Luke wanted Marcus dead. She wanted Marcus safe. There was no common ground. Right now, the only thing they agreed on was keeping her alive, and she still didn’t understand why Luke cared.

Or maybe he didn’t.

Maybe he was simply using her to get back at Marcus…

Betrayal thudded in her stomach and she closed her eyes in dismay.
Please, not again.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.

“We’re putting it back.”

Her heart congealed with dread.
No, Isa, don’t lose faith. You have to believe.
“Back? What do you mean?”

“One of the elders for that tribe lives in Northern Alaska. We’re giving it to him.”

Isabella sat up. “We can’t! That necklace is my only leverage to bargain for Marcus’s safety! And they won’t stop coming after me—”

Luke’s expression was unyielding. “We’ll make sure Leon understands that it’s gone, and then you’ll disappear. I’ve done it once, and I’ll show you how.”

“But Marcus—”

“Will die, if he’s not already dead.” His voice was flat. “I know.”

“No!” She yanked the necklace out of his hand. “I won’t do it!”

His grip tightened on the controls. “You don’t get it, do you, Isabella?” His voice was soft. Quiet. Lethal.

“Get what?”

“It doesn’t matter what you want.” His voice was hard and unyielding, as was the tense set to his shoulders. “I’m going to save your life, and you have no say in it.”

“But—”

“Your choice was made the day you walked into my life and handed your life over to me.”

“I didn’t hand my life over to you! I asked you to help me save your father!”

“No. You asked for my help, and you said someone was trying to kill you.” His jaw was hard. “They will kill you, Isabella. You brought these bastards down on you, and down on me, and it ends now.” He gave her a hard look of barely contained fury. “You brought this shit into my world, and now we play by my rules. The necklace gets lost and then you disappear. End of story.”

Luke’s shoulders were set, his muscles rigid, his tone brutal and hard. He was a man who was going to get exactly what he wanted, and he didn’t care one bit what
mattered to her. As she clutched the necklace, a feeling of doom settled over her. After a lifetime of struggling for control over her life, of fighting for what she wanted, Luke was stripping it all away. Her father, her home, the only security she’d ever had…he was ripping it from her grasp. “You’re a jerk—”

“And you’re mine.”

The tin shack was exactly the same as it had been when Luke had come eight years ago, seeking absolution he hadn’t gotten.

The building was tilted to the side, rust crawling up one wall. A stovepipe stuck out of the roof, emanating a thin spiral of gray smoke. But the house was flanked with the most amazing fauna he had ever seen.

Luke had spent hours that day with the man who called himself only Ren. He had been blown away by Ren’s knowledge about the earth and plants, and he’d picked Ren’s brains for every shred of information.

At the end of his visit, Luke the scientist had been humbled and awed by the wizened, bent man. Luke had also sensed the remnants of violence in Ren’s past, an echo of Luke’s own soul, and he suspected Ren had felt the commonalities between them.

Which was why Ren had told him never to return, and why Luke had listened.

Until now. When Luke had realized what artifact Isabella had brought with her, it had changed everything. Because now, if anyone found out he was involved, the hunt for him would be ruthless and relentless, because he was the one who had made those earrings disappear. Now that they had the necklace, it tripled the value of those earrings, and if anyone realized where Luke was, they’d hunt him and do anything
it took to get him to reveal where those earrings were today.

It would no longer be just about Isabella. It would be about him, and Cort and Kaylie and everyone else he cared about would pay the price. Getting Isabella out of Alaska had been urgent before, but now, it was at crisis level.

He still couldn’t believe that necklace had been found. Of all the damn items that could have been involved, it was his Achilles heel. Which was why he was returning the necklace to Ren. If he could get the necklace to disappear, the earrings would lose value again, and there was a chance Leon and Marcus would let Isa walk away before all hell broke loose.

It was his best opportunity for heading this thing off before people started dying, and he was banking on the fact that Ren wouldn’t follow through on his promise to kill Luke for returning. Luke had stolen his family’s heritage, and for that, he could never be forgiven.

Luke understood. He didn’t forgive himself for his past either.

But if he could save Isabella…maybe some of the blackness on his soul could be expunged. Not that she was making it easy on him. The woman still believed she could save Marcus, and that his soul was worth the risk of hers.

To say she hadn’t wanted to return the item to Ren was an understatement. Unfortunately for Isabella, she’d been trapped in a plane and had had nowhere to go. She had argued fiercely with him for the first two hours of the plane ride, but he hadn’t engaged.

Didn’t know how, really. She unsettled him. Took him out of his zone. Mostly because she called to him
in a way he hadn’t experienced before. Her courage, her loneliness, her loyalty to her mother…inside the veneer that had been tainted by Marcus’s world was a woman with a heart that loved, that could break, that deserved to live.

And he was going to make sure that happened, even if it made her hate him forever.

He hadn’t listened to his instincts before, and two women he loved had died.

Isabella wasn’t going to follow that path.

She’d eventually given up arguing, but the hostility was palpable, and he knew she was going to make a break for it at the first opportunity.

She was silently assessing the tin shack as he shut down the propellers. He didn’t kill the engine, just in case they needed to bolt quickly. He had full faith Ren would be on Leon’s radar sooner rather than later.

And as for Isabella…She was eyeing the rusted Land Rover parked haphazardly next to the shack. He held out his hand for the necklace. “Hand it over.”

“No way.”

“I’ll get it myself if you want me to.” The thought of digging into her jeans sent a flash of sudden heat through him.

Isabella’s cheeks flushed. “You wouldn’t dare.”

He didn’t waste time with an answer. He just grabbed her around the back of her neck and hauled her toward him. Her eyes widened, and she started to protest, but he slammed his mouth down over hers before she could get a word out.

She tasted like the hot sun on an Alaska day, like the damp moisture in the summer air after a storm. She tasted of freedom, of courage, of survival. Things that
reached into his core and hit hard. Despite the fact that Isabella Kopas embodied his worst nightmares, she was also his chance to escape from that life.

After a moment of hesitation, she kissed him back. Tentatively. But it was enough, and with a low growl, he pinned her to the seat and deepened the kiss. He loomed over her, needing to take her. He wanted to possess her, to lose himself in her, and he pushed relentlessly, unwilling to pull away when he felt her responding. Despite all the shit between them, she wanted him as much as he wanted her, and it felt damn good.
She wanted him.

He ran his hands over her body. The curve of her hips, her narrow waist…satisfaction rippled through him when her stomach trembled beneath his palm. She tightened her grip and pulled him closer. Her kiss turned frantic, answering everything he gave her.

Luke grabbed her hips to haul her onto his lap, and he felt the bulge of the necklace in her pocket.

They both froze, and Isabella pulled back. “I need it,” she said, an edge to her voice. “Kissing me won’t change my mind.”

For a moment, he was tempted to give her exactly what she wanted. To be the man she wanted him to be. To stand by her side and help her get everything she desired.

But he knew she was living in a fantasy world, and if he gave in now, he’d be standing over her grave within days.

He couldn’t do that to her. Wouldn’t allow it to happen again. “I can’t.” He slid his fingers into her pocket.

She clamped her fingers around his wrist. “Don’t.”

He pulled the necklace free and twisted his hand
easily out of her grasp. Her fingers slid away, and there was a look of such fury and betrayal on her face he felt it stab him. “I’m doing this for you,” he snapped, his voice harsher than he’d intended.

“No. You’re doing it because you’re a bastard.”

“Not going to argue that one.” He dropped the necklace into his pocket. “I’ll be ready.”

Confusion flickered across her face. “Ready for what?”

He nodded at the truck parked outside the plane. “For you to run.”

Her mouth opened, then shut again.

No denial.

The battle lines had been drawn.