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And they didn’t want to disbelieve Damien.”

“What did they do with you?” she asked.

“I was taken away to jail. Of course, my accomplice was never found. Later, I learned that Damien left the orphanage shortly after that.”

“And no one suspected even then?”

Chance shook his head, almost smiling at the vehemence in her tone. “He was close to eighteen, and he had a right to leave.”

“What happened to you?” she asked.

Chance smiled. “Don’t look so worried. The one thing I owed Damien for was that I’d become very good with locks. I spent one night in the town jail before I blew the place.”

“You were twelve and alone on the streets?”

Because he couldn’t resist her, he briefly touched his lips to hers. “The streets were a hell of a lot better than that jail. Now that you know what Carlo is really like, is there any chance that I can convince you to leave?”

“No.”

There were some battles you could win, Chance thought, and some you retreated from so that you could fight another day. Tipping up her chin, he met her eyes steadily. “We’re going to have to be very careful.”

“Yes, we’ll need some kind of a plan.”

Chance could almost hear the wheels inside her head turning.

She glanced around. “I’ll be able to think better once we get out of this place. If there’s one creature that scares me more than alligators and snakes, it’s spiders.”

Laughing, Chance tucked his gun away, then pulled her to her feet and said, “Follow me.”

“HAVE YOU GOT IT?” Natalie asked.

Chance glanced down at her as they stepped onto the circular drive that led to the house.

There were smudges of dirt on her nose and cheeks, but she was totally focused on explaining the tack she thought they ought to take with Brancotti. It wasn’t bad as plans went, Chance supposed.

“I’m going to be upset, angry, afraid,” she said. “Someone shot at us, and I’m going to want answers.”

Natalie Gibbs was a woman who seldom lost her focus, except when he was making love with her. Then that line of concentration disappeared from her brow, and that incredible mist would fill her eyes and darken them.

“Well?”

He filed away the image that had filled his mind and glanced down at her.

“And you’re going to be—?” she prompted.

“I’m going to be upset and withdrawn. Let you take control. I don’t much like that part.”

She shot him a grin. “Steven Bradford’s a bit of a weenie. That makes him very sexy to someone like me.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” Chance said.

“I’d rather that you remember the plan—and stick to it.”

He’d stick to it for a while, at least. Their best shot at leaving the estate with the diamond was to continue playing their roles. Natalie’s instincts were good, and she was managing to keep her objectivity a hell of a lot better than he was. For the moment, he couldn’t do better than to follow her lead.

“Ready?” she asked as they climbed the steps.

“Yeah. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” She drew in a deep breath, let it out. And then Chance watched her turn into Calli.

Her step quickened and she slipped her hand into his. “The first thing I’m going to do is demand that you see a doctor.”

“Whoa. That wasn’t part of the plan you just outlined. I don’t need a doctor,” he said. “It’s just a scratch.”

“It’s bleeding. A doctor should look at it.”

She was being mother hen, Chance thought in some disgust. There was a lot of Natalie, the big sister, in Calli.

They stepped into the entrance hall just as Lisa entered from one of the hallways.

“I demand to see Carlo,” Natalie cried. “Someone just tried to kill Steven.”

“This way,” Lisa said, gesturing them into the hallway she’d just stepped out of. “Carlo has already been informed of the incident. He’s talking to the security people right now.”

Chance let Natalie draw him down the hallway. Lisa stopped at a door with a coded keypad. Figuring that this was the same room that Carlo had shown Natalie on her tour, he took a quick survey as he stepped through the door. He spotted the guard right away, just outside the doors that opened onto a patio. Natalie strode forward and placed her hands, palms down, on Carlo’s desk. “What is going on here?”

Carlo glanced at Chance, then back at Natalie. “I’m working on it. My men are searching for the shooter. I hope to hear shortly that they have apprehended him.”

“And why should we trust you?” Natalie asked. “How can we be sure that it wasn’t one of your men who shot Steven?”

For a moment there was silence in the room as Carlo looked from Natalie to Chance and back again. Chance could see the anger in Carlo’s eyes and in the pulse beating in his temple. For a moment, he wondered if Natalie had gone too far.

Finally, Carlo moved around his desk and took one of Natalie’s hands. “You’re upset.

Understandably so. Please.” He glanced at Chance and gestured to the two chairs in front of his desk. “Sit down. Lisa? Pour our guests some brandy.”

As Lisa did his bidding, Natalie and Chance sat while Carlo picked up his phone and punched in numbers. “I’m calling my own personal doctor. She lives right here on the estate. You’ll want to have the wound looked at.”

“It’s only a scratch,” Chance said. “Give me some antiseptic and a Band-Aid and I’ll be fine.”

“Thank you. He’ll see a doctor,” Natalie said.

Carlo gave orders over the phone, then hung up and waited for Lisa to distribute the brandy snifters.

He took a quick sip of his before he spoke, and Chance used that moment to study his old enemy more closely. Carlo’s hand wasn’t quite steady as he set his glass down on the desk. He was either rattled or giving a good imitation of it. Of course, Chance was well aware that Carlo was skilled at deception.

But what would be the point of acting rattled? Unless he truly was. Was it possible that Natalie was right and Carlo wasn’t behind the shooting?

Chance had no reason to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“I want to apologize.” Carlo said. “Nothing like this has ever happened on my estate before. In answer to your earlier question, I don’t usually invite people here to shoot them.

This villa—” he gestured with a hand “—is a place where I conduct a very lucrative business. And most of my clients are repeat customers. If word got around that something like this could happen here…well, you can imagine the repercussions. That is why you may rest assured that I had nothing to do with this deplorable incident. You can also be certain that I will do everything in my power to get to the bottom of it.”

It was a nice speech, Chance thought. There was a line of tension in Carlo’s shoulders and a bite of fury in his movements as he lifted the glass and took another sip of brandy. It was a superb performance.

“You say the shooter isn’t one of your men. But how could he have gotten past your security?” Natalie asked.

Bull’s-eye, Chance thought as a muscle twitched in Carlo’s jaw. Was that why Carlo was so angry?

“That is an excellent question. I will have the answer soon,” he promised.

On impulse, Chance said, “I want to send Calli home.”

She rounded on him. “No. If we go, we go together. I don’t care about that diamond. I only care about you.”

There were real tears in her eyes. Chance would have staked his life on it. And they hadn’t discussed this scenario. He’d sprung it on her out of the blue.

“No. Please,” Carlo said.

Ignoring him, Chance looked only at Natalie. “I can’t put you in danger.”

She reached for his hand. “I won’t leave you here.”

The phone on Carlo’s desk rang. “Excuse me.” He reached for it. “Yes?… I’ll be there shortly.” After replacing the handset, he said to them, “My security team has apprehended the shooter. I’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise you. In the meantime, I want you to let my personal doctor look at the wound.” He turned to Natalie. “I promise you that you will both be safe here. I don’t want you to leave. I’ll auction the diamond tonight.”

Good,
Chance thought. The sooner he got Natalie off the estate, the better.

Natalie kept her grip tight on Chance’s hand. “Will you see the doctor?”

“Yes. All right,” Chance agreed.

“Ah,” Carlo said as a small round woman with gray hair and wire-framed glasses was ushered in. “Dr. Canfield, I’d like you to meet Steven Bradford and his friend Calli. Steven has a bullet wound that I’d like you to take a look at.”

“It’s a scratch,” Chance protested.

The woman stopped short and sent Carlo a stubborn look. “I have to report a bullet wound.” Chance got the impression the outspoken woman wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything.

“By all means,” Carlo said. “I plan on making a report myself just as soon as I speak with my security team and find out why this unacceptable incident occurred.”

“Just so we’re straight.” With a brief nod for Carlo, she bore down on Chance and set her black bag on the edge of the desk. Then she said to Calli, “Is he going to be a baby about this?”

Natalie raised her brows. “He’s a man, so of course, he’s going to be a baby.”

Chance suspected Dr. Canfield was biting back a smile as she turned and opened her bag.

“I’m leaving you in good hands,” Carlo said as he signaled Lisa to follow him out of the room.

13

“TWO THINGS.”
Natalie pitched her voice low, gesturing with the lollipop the doctor had given him as a joke after she’d dressed his wound. She sat cross-legged on the edge of the bathroom sink while he shaved. Behind them, the shower was thundering like Niagara Falls, so they could talk safely.

“First, I think the diamond might be in the safe in Carlo’s office after all.”

Chance let his razor pause in midstroke and shifted his gaze to Natalie. “Why?”

She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts, and a tiny line appeared on her forehead.

Chance wondered if she was at all aware that she’d slipped into being Natalie. “Three reasons. Number one and two are related—the guard and the fact there was no camera in the room.”

Chance continued to draw the razor down his cheek. She was good. There wasn’t a second that they’d been in Carlo’s office that he’d seen her attention waver from either Carlo or him, but she’d still managed to scan the room for recording devices. “It’s not surprising that he wouldn’t have a camera in his office. That’s his private space. He wouldn’t want someone even on his own security team seeing everything that goes on in there. Or overhearing everything he says on the phone.”

“Yeah.” She tapped the lollipop against her lips. “That’s the way I figure it, too. But the presence of a guard could mean there’s something very valuable in the safe to protect.”

“Or the guard could be stationed there to protect Carlo.”

She shook her head. “He didn’t go with Carlo. He stayed in the room. I’m betting Lisa is Carlo’s bodyguard as well as assistant. And I think she sleeps with him.”

Chance shot her a questioning glance. That was something he hadn’t noticed. “They’re lovers?”

“I’d bet good money on it. There’s something in the way that Lisa looks at him.”

“Your third reason?” Chance rinsed his razor under the faucet.

She frowned. “It’s harder to explain, but it goes back to games. You mentioned he’s fond of misdirection. So at first, I thought that he showed me the office with the coded access pad to make me think the diamond’s there when it’s really in the gallery. But maybe it’s the other way around—and he took me to the gallery to make me think it’s there while it’s in his office with a coded pad on one door and a guard stationed at the other. Does that make any sense?”

Chance nodded. “Perfect sense. But we’ll still have to hit both safes.”

Natalie sighed. “Agreed. But I think we should do the office first.”

Chance said, “We’ll see.”

“We should have a definite plan.”

“I’m working on it. You said two things. What else did you want to talk about?”

She straightened a bit and rotated her shoulders. “I’m more convinced than ever that Carlo wasn’t behind the shooting.”

“Be careful.” Chance drew the razor on one final stroke along his jawline. “You’re letting the man get to you again.”

“No. But I do have to give him points for calling in his private doctor.”

“Damage control. He doesn’t want it to become public knowledge that guests on his estate run the risk of being shot. And you only liked her because she swabbed my shoulder with something that could take the finish off cars.”

Her lips curved. “Don’t be such a baby.”

Chance took a towel off his good shoulder and wiped his face with it. “Remember, all of Brancotti’s charm is on the surface. Underneath, he’s as cold and ruthless as they come.

And he’s the most likely candidate. He knew we were both down on the beach—the security cameras would have shown him that. All he had to do was pick up a phone and give the order.”

Natalie pulled the lollipop out of her mouth. “But he was rattled when we walked in the room. And furious.”

“Because his men botched the job.”

“Or because something happened on his estate that took him by surprise, something that he wasn’t in control of. That would piss him off.”

She had a point. He’d given it some thought himself, but he wasn’t convinced. Chance studied her as he rinsed his razor under the running water. As she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear in a gesture that was pure Natalie, something tightened around his heart.

When the job was done, he was going to miss working with her, pitting himself against the sharp mind of hers. He was going to miss her. Period.

“Carlo didn’t like it at all when he thought we might leave.” Pausing, she pointed the lollipop at him. “I didn’t appreciate that little improvisation either. It wasn’t part of the plan.”