Love and Splendor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 5 (33 page)

“Yes it is,” Lily cut him off. “He sent me a note, asked me to come here, then attacked me, and now he’s trying to lie his way out of it. Ask Colt. He found the note and that’s why he’s here.”

Colt was coming out of the sea of pain slowly, but was aware of all that was going on and nodded in agreement.

Drake was unflustered, surely Dani would listen to reason. “I sent a note, but not to Lily. It was to Colt, asking him to come here tonight. It was my intention that he find her here and then realize she didn’t care anything about him and was only after a rich husband.” He shook his head. “I can’t understand how he could have misinterpreted my note.”

Colt sneered, struggled to stand. “You never intended for me to read it at all, you goddamn bastard. Neither did Lily. She thought she tore it up, but I could make out just enough to know who it was from and where she’d gone.”

Drake slammed his hand against his forehead. So! Colt never received the note. Someone else had intercepted it, tried to destroy it. Who and why could be determined later. The important thing at the moment was to do something to smooth over this mess. He did not like the way Dani was looking at him with such pain-filled eyes. He held out a hand to her. “Will you believe me?”

Her voice was so cold, it seemed like an echo from a tomb. “I think I knew all along just what you are but my heart kept arguing with my mind. No more,” she finished quietly, then turned and walked back to the elevator.

“Wait!” Colt hurried to follow, the elevator doors closed.

Drake felt his own anger rising. Was this all he meant to Dani? Was she yet further proof that all women were selfish and willful…just like his mother?

Lily stood, started toward him with a lust for vengeance glittering in blue eyes suddenly black with rage.

Drake regarded her coolly. “The best thing for you to do now, Lily, is to have the elevator sent right back up.”

He turned and walked out of the room.

Despite herself and the rage within, Lily knew he was right.

Cyril eased the window open with little effort or noise. He stepped inside. Dani’s shop was dimly illuminated from the light of a street lamp filtering through the front windows, but he did not need to see to find his way, for he had memorized the interior.

He went directly to the wall where the paintings of the Monaco Find were displayed. He found the one he was after, removed it, stepped back outside the window, the precious painting held tightly against his chest. He did not bother to reclose the window. After all, he wanted to make sure that the burglary looked exactly like what it was—an “inside” conspiracy…only the finger of suspicion would be pointed at Drakar, for he was the one who would be disappearing so suddenly, so mysteriously—not he!

He hurried down the alley, pausing in the shadows only long enough to make sure no one was around, then happily went on his way.

Drake frowned with irritation at the sound of someone knocking. He stood before the door. “Yes, who is it?” Lord, it was after three in the morning.

“Telegram, sir.”

Drake was at once apprehensive. News of his mother’s arrest, then her later escape from Siberia, had come in the night at such an hour.

And he had received the painful news of his father’s death at a similar time.

He took a deep breath of dread, held it, let it out slowly.

“
Monsieur
Drakar,” the voice said, quietly insistent. “Please,
monsieur
, I have a telegram for you.”

Drake opened the door and took it, fished in his pocket for a few francs, then closed himself away from the world as he tore open the crisp envelope.

His heart began to pound faster with each word. He’d never heard of the cousin who had sent the message, but that did not matter. No doubt, every kin of Mikhailonov blood and heritage would want to see the honor of the family name restored, and this one, whoever he was, thought he knew where the Fabergé egg was hidden.

Drake was ecstatic and at once began rushing to get his things together. The cousin had intimated he was in danger—the revolutionaries suspected he had important information—and so no time could be lost in enlisting Drake’s help.

He paused, needled with thoughts of Dani.

How he wished there had been time to confide in her, then she could share his joy at this first hope in ten years.

But she hadn’t wanted to share his life…had not cared enough about him to hear him out. And now it was too late.

Another willful, selfish woman. He hated them all! With a sneer, he resumed his packing…all the while knowing that he hated far less than he dared to admit.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Dani was awake but reluctant to rise and face the day. She wondered whether she had even been asleep, for the night was a misty blur of misery.

Drake and Lily.

She squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to blot out the painful image of them together.

Why?

She had felt she had come to know and understand Drake, she had believed him not to be as the gossips whispered.

Until last night.

She swiped furiously at a tear with the back of her hand. She would not cry. There was nothing to cry over. She was still herself, her own person, independent and free. Nothing else was of consequence. If he tried to explain, to make peace, she would turn a deaf ear. It was over. Of course, it was actually none of her business whether he saw other women, but she had no intention of wasting her time with a man who could not be trusted. After all, Lily was engaged to her brother, and for Drake to see her was unforgivable.

Finally, she convinced herself that nothing was being accomplished by lying in bed in mortifying reminiscence; life had to continue despite the undeniable aching within.

She bathed, dressed, and went downstairs to her shop to make coffee, determined to stay busy.

She was having her second cup of coffee when Colt walked in, looking as though he had not been to bed. Brow furrowed, eyes puffy and shadowed, he approached her to grimly murmur, “What can I say except that I’m sorry?”

Her heart went out to him but she knew he did not need, or want, her sympathy. “There’s no need to say anything. Coffee?”

“Please.” They went into her little office, and he slumped into a chair.

“Have you been to bed at all, Colt?”

He shook his head. “Afraid not. I went back to the house and I may have dozed some during the night from sheer exhaustion. “Mostly,” he admitted with chagrin, “I was thinking about what a fool I was.”

Wryly, Dani corrected, “What fools we are.”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. We were both taken in.”

He went on to confide that he reasoned Lily had become desperate. “No doubt she thought that if she couldn’t drag me to the altar, Drake was a viable option.” Looking at his sister thoughtfully, he wondered just how much of his personal life to reveal, then decided maybe he could ease her own pain a bit and bluntly admitted she was the reason he’d had second thoughts about marrying Lily.

She blinked in confusion. “Whatever makes you say that?”

He had no choice but to remind her of her indiscretion. “You stayed out all night with Drakar but didn’t want to marry him to smooth things over.”

Dani was at once defensive. “Of course I didn’t. That’s certainly nothing to base a marriage on, regardless of what others might think. I have to live my own life.”

“So do I.”

She wondered what on Earth he was talking about, then it all came flooding back at the same time he offered revelation.

“Lily came to my room one night. I’d had too much to drink, I’m afraid. I didn’t make her leave.”

He waited for her reaction.

Dani merely shrugged.

Colt wondered if he’d not been explicit enough. Surely she was sophisticated enough to know what he was talking about. Patience ebbing, he went on to bluntly admit, “I know now she was lying, but at the time she pretended I was the first man she’d ever had and declared that no decent man would want her for a wife, and it was all my fault because I seduced her…” He paused, shook his head from side to side in self-admonishment. “What a crock of bullshit! And I was stupid enough to believe it.”

Dani’s heart went out to him. “I know all about that night, Colt.”

He stared at her, amazed. “How?”

She related Lurline’s story.

Colt’s reaction was to laugh. “Seems everyone knew the truth about Lily but me. If Drakar hadn’t run like a scalded dog, I might be inclined to believe he did set it all up for my benefit.”

Dani had turned to refill her cup but whirled around sharply. “What did you say?”

“I said I might’ve been inclined to believe—”

“No, no.” She shook her head, long hair flying. Something was needling within, a strange feeling she did not like. “What do you mean—Drake ran?”

Colt hated being the one to have to tell her, for he had no way of knowing how far their relationship had gone, how deeply she had been hurt by all of this, but saw no other way now except to inform her Drakar had left suddenly and mysteriously sometime during the night.

“I went to the hotel this morning to get some answers. I wanted to get it straight in my mind whether or not he was telling the truth, but when I got there, the concierge said he’d left during the night and wasn’t expected back anytime soon. That makes me think maybe he was guilty and didn’t want any more trouble and decided to just get out of Paris till things had a chance to cool down.”

“Strange,” Dani whispered, more to herself than to Colt, then mused aloud, “Drake isn’t the type to run from trouble. It doesn’t make sense that he’d ran away in the middle of the night like a coward when he was more than ready to face you last night, when you were in a rage.

“And,” she added in a pained voice, “I would have thought he’d make some attempt to speak with me.”

Colt got up to place his hand on her shoulder in a gesture of love and comfort. “I’m sorry, Dani. I really am. I guess you just had him figured all wrong. I know how you feel because I was taken in the same way by Lily.”

Dani admitted to being hurt, but more than that she was confused. “Are you sure he didn’t tell anyone where he was going?”

“The concierge said he’d probably gone back to Russia.”

Dani bit back tears of regret for what might have been, for what she had thought there was.

“Yes, I suppose he would return there if he wanted to get away for a while.” She turned and gestured. “He seemed to love his country, said this painting reminded him—”

She gasped, fell silent, hands flying to her face as she stared at the empty wall.

Colt followed her gaze, did not understand anything except that her face was suddenly drained of color and she looked horrified. “Dani, for God’s sake, what’s wrong?”

She pointed a trembling finger to the blank space on the wall where the painting of the Alexandrovsky Palace should have been hanging. “It’s gone.”

“What’s gone?” he echoed, alarmed.

“The painting Drake liked so much…one of the ones I found in Monaco and refused to sell to him. It’s been stolen.”

“Are you sure? Maybe you set it aside to dust it or something—”

“No, no!” She was almost screaming. “It’s been stolen. But how—”

Her gaze fell on the open window she had not noticed before.

“There! That’s how he got in! Drake must’ve slipped in here last night while I was sleeping upstairs.”

“Why would he want it?” Colt asked.

“The bastard!” she fumed. “The arrogant bastard! So used to having his own way that he takes what isn’t given to him.”

Colt was mystified by the intensity of her reaction. “Was it valuable?”

“That’s not the point! Don’t you see? He wanted it! I told him he couldn’t have it. He stole it from me. And I’ll be goddamned if anyone uses me that way!”

Colt started for the door, his own ire rising. “I’m going to report this to the authorities.”

“No. Don’t.”

He turned to stare questioningly. Surely she couldn’t be so infatuated with the rogue that she was going to let him get away with burglary.

“I’m going to deal with it myself. In my own way.”

He walked back to where she stood. “What are you talking about? What do you think you can do? Let the police handle this and do a complete investigation. Something else might be missing that you haven’t noticed yet. Besides, you can’t prove Drakar did it.”

“I know he did it. Who else would want just that one painting?” She sighed with exasperation, then repeated, “I told you he wanted to buy it, and I told him it wasn’t for sale. I remember noticing the way he looked at it, almost in a trance. It was strange, but I never thought much about it at the time, only that maybe it made him homesick because it was a painting of a palace where he had spent a lot of time when he was a boy.”

Colt was fast growing impatient. “Dani, you’re being ridiculous. A man isn’t going to commit a theft just to take some worthless piece of art that reminds him of a boyhood home.”