Risking It All: The Proposition / The Dare / The Favour / The P.I. / The Cop / The Defender

“I love to touch you here.” His eyes were so focused, so hot. His fingers pushed into her—not far enough, not nearly—then withdrew.

She should push him away. In some far corner of her mind, she remembered that someone was listening to every word he said. And they still had to get the real diamond from the safe in Carlo’s office. But with the pleasure streaming through her, she couldn’t find the strength to raise her hands.

“Come for me, Calli. I want to see you come. Now.”

Afterward, she would wonder if he could have made her come simply by commanding her to. There was something in his voice, something in the way he was looking at her…

But he didn’t leave it to chance. As the heat of his words coursed through her, he slipped his fingers into her again—deeper this time. “Steven.” That one gasp was all she managed before the orgasm that had been building since she’d started the strip tease slammed into her.

He held her there, propped against the column until the last wave of it receded, then he whispered against her ear. “Get dressed. We have to go now.” She took some satisfaction in hearing that his voice wasn’t quite steady.

She pulled on the clothes he handed her, a flood of emotions pouring through her. Shock, wonder—those were the only ones she could identify easily. And just below the surface, racing through her veins, was fear. No one had ever had this kind of effect on her, this kind of power over her. What was she going to do when their adventure was over?

“Ready?”

The whispered question had her dragging her thoughts back to the present. Chance was stooping at the open window, planting a listening device. If and when Carlo sent security to check the room, they’d have some advance warning.

At least that was the plan as he’d described it to her in the bathroom.

Chance crossed to the chair he’d been seated in and tucked a small tape recorder under it. For as long as the tape lasted, all anyone would hear would be a couple making love. The plan had been to play the tape from the moment she’d finished her striptease and blocked the camera. But Chance had decided to improvise.

There’d be time enough to worry about that after they’d finished what they came here to do. She moved to the window.

As he joined her, she became aware for the first time that he was wearing a cape and a mask.

On some level, she’d been aware that the clothes he’d handed her fit like a second skin, but it was only when he handed her a mask that she realized they were wearing new costumes. A quick glance down at her own confirmed her suspicion. Batman and Cat Woman.

Clever, she decided. The outfits would help them blend into the darkness of night and if they were caught, the new costumes should buy them a little time.

Chance said nothing as he threw one leg over the window ledge. His movements were smooth as he twisted and drew his other leg out. Then he was gone.

The only sound in the room came from the tape as she murmured Steven’s name. Even above the scent of flowers from the garden, she caught the smell of sex. Anyone entering would have to be convinced that someone had made love in this room. Was that why Chance had made her come? Was it simply his way of being thorough? Or had it simply been to buy them extra time?

Later, she promised herself. Later, she’d not only have answers, she’d have revenge. Natalie threw one leg over the edge of the sill, twisted, wiggled and let gravity pull her until only her fingers were gripping the window ledge. Then she dropped.

The impact was still singing up her legs when Chance grabbed her hand and they began to edge their way along the wall of the house.

CARLO SCANNED the ballroom as he listened to the report from his chief of security through the small receiver in his ear. The shooter they’d been interrogating all day had finally named the man who’d hired him. Hassam Aldiri.

The news confirmed what Carlo had already suspected. Aldiri had a reputation for ruthlessness and Carlo had heard that the man would do anything to get what he wanted.

Lifting a hand, Carlo rubbed at the knot of tension that had settled at the back of his neck. Soon it would turn into the same raging headache he always got when he had to suppress his anger.

He was angry—furious—because Aldiri had hired someone to shoot a guest on his estate. And he was also angry at himself for not anticipating that a man with Aldiri’s reputation might try something like this.

“Before you dispose of the shooter,” Carlo said into his microphone, “I want to know how he got past my security system.”

“Yes, sir.”

Carlo let his gaze sweep the room again.

“And about the other matter, sir?”

A couple dressed as Oliver and Hardy had slipped into his gallery fifteen minutes ago and were currently making love. Carlo knew from an earlier report that the couple was Steven Bradford and Calli. Thanks to his security staff, he knew the identity of every person in the main salon.

He also knew about Calli’s striptease. Evidently, Bradford and Calli weren’t as upset by the shooting as he was. His gaze rested on Risa Manwaring and Armand Genovese. They’d arrived together as Napoleon and Josephine, and currently they were dancing.

As far as he knew, they’d met each other for the first time at dinner last night. Had they teamed up to buy the diamond? That would surely make tonight’s auction more interesting…and profitable.

Carlo rubbed at the back of his neck again. Part of his tension was due to the fact that he still wasn’t sure if one of his new guests was Chance Mitchell.

“Should I send someone into the gallery, sir?”

Carlo dragged his attention back to the voice in his ear. “You haven’t lost the audio in the room?” he asked.

“No. They’re getting that loud and clear.”

Carlo bit back a smile. He could imagine that the volume was turned up high in the security room, and there must have been a loud groan of protest when they’d lost the video. For a moment, he debated whether or not to send guards into the gallery. Doing so might embarrass the couple, and they’d already been shot at today.

Glancing at his watch, he said, “I’ll handle it in about fifteen minutes. But let me know if you lose the audio.”

“Yes, sir.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lisa approaching with Hassam Aldiri at her side. So the man had tried to kill the competition. On one level, Carlo could understand and admire that. He wouldn’t forget that the attempt had been made on his estate, but for tonight, he’d concentrate on business.

Turning, he smiled as Aldiri reached him.

“Ms. McGill tells me that you will be auctioning the jewel tonight?” Hassam said.

Carlo glanced at his watch again. “In about two hours.”

“I will top any offer that you receive,” Aldiri said. “I want that diamond.”

A man who didn’t mince words, Carlo thought as he watched Aldiri move away. For the first time all evening, Carlo felt some of his tension ease. If the price went up high enough, perhaps he could forgive Aldiri for trying to shoot one of his guests. Turning to Lisa, he said, “It promises to be a profitable evening.”

CHANCE MOVED as swiftly as he could along the wall of the villa. The clock was ticking. The tape he’d set in the gallery would last for ten minutes—if Carlo let it run to the end.

Flowering trees grew so close that now and again, he had to lift them away so that he and Natalie could squeeze by. Taking the path through the gardens would have been quicker, but he had no way of knowing how many security men were monitoring the cameras or how often the various sites rotated on the monitor screens. He wasn’t taking the chance of letting one of those cameras pick up anything suspicious. The longer they kept their attention focused on the gallery, the better.

Just ahead, a palm tree butted up so close against the house that he ducked low and drew her around it. They had about one hundred yards left to go before they reached the courtyard near Carlo’s office.

Natalie followed quietly behind him. She hadn’t said a word since he’d touched her. He’d already asked himself what he’d been thinking. But he hadn’t been thinking at all. Bringing her to orgasm certainly hadn’t been part of the plan. They’d had a recording that they were going to play for the benefit of the men looking at the monitors. His job had been to place the listening device while she opened the safe. But the moment she’d started stripping, something had come over him.

She’d come over him. His mind should have been totally focused on the job. Instead, it had been focused on her. It was Natalie’s tug on his hand that made him stop. When he turned, she whispered, “Here.”

He glanced at the top of the wall and spotted the camera. It was aimed into the courtyard. If she hadn’t spotted it, he wouldn’t have stopped, and they’d have gone past Carlo’s office and then wasted some of the precious moments they had by backtracking. Later, he promised himself. Later he would sort out what had happened to him in the gallery. Right now, he had a job to finish.

Pulling the tranquilizer gun out of the pouch he wore around his waist, he handed it to her. If they were lucky, the guard would be stationed on the patio. It would take less time to put him out of commission if they didn’t have to lure him out of Carlo’s office.

Leaning down, he cupped his hands. After she placed her foot in them, he gave her a moment.

“Ready,” she whispered.

He straightened and boosted her up the wall.

NATALIE DUG her fingers into the crevices in the wall as she shifted first one foot and then the other onto Chance’s shoulders. When she was sure she had her balance, she moved her hands to the top of the wall and slowly straightened until she could see over the edge. The patio was dim, illuminated only by the light spilling out from the office. But the French doors were open.

And then she spotted the glow of a cigarette. The guard was standing in the shade of a palm tree three feet to the left of the open door. She could hardly make him out, and she was only going to get one shot.

Heart hammering, she reached into her belt and pulled out the tranquilizer gun. Drawing in a deep breath, she aimed it in the direction of the palm tree. All she could see was the glow of the cigarette, and it wasn’t moving. Impossible to tell if the guard was standing to the left or the right of that glowing circle of light. Was he sitting or standing?

She picked up a loose stone from the top of the wall and pushed it onto the patio. The guard moved toward the sand, stepping out from beneath the palm. Natalie aimed and fired.

“What the—”

She saw him raise a hand to his shoulder, then fall to the ground. Chance’s hands gripped her ankles, lifting her until she could work the top half of her body over the wall. While Chance climbed up the wall to join her, she crawled over to the security camera and pointed it out at the gardens. If they were lucky, the guard watching the monitors wouldn’t even realize that it had been shifted.

“Ready?” Chance asked.

Yes,” she said as she began to lower her body over the edge of the wall. They dropped together.

Chance glanced at his watch. “The tape I left in the gallery just ran down,” he said as they moved toward the French doors.

Natalie felt a rush of adrenaline. The clock was ticking now.

Moving quickly, she entered Carlo’s office. The safe was just where she suspected—behind the painting at the back of his desk.

Her stomach sank. “I’ve never opened this kind of a safe before. Maybe, you should—”

“You can do it,” Chance said.

She took one moment to gather her thoughts and then focused all her attention on the combination.

15

CARLO WAS MORE FURIOUS than he had ever been in his life. The headache raging behind his eyes only intensified when he walked into his gallery with Lisa and two security guards and saw the scattered clothes and the open window. After striding toward it, he glanced at the ground below.

“They’re not here.” He spoke into the microphone that connected him with his security chief. “Secure the grounds. No one is to leave this estate until they’re found.”

He turned to Lisa and the two security men who’d followed him into the room. “Check the Venetian room and see if they’re there.”

When Lisa didn’t follow the guards, he said, “Go back to the salon. I need you there.”

“What is going on?’ she asked.

“I intend to find out. Go.”

He followed her to the door and locked it behind her.

Then with a sliver of fear skipping up his spine, he went to the column and removed the bronze sundial. His fingers shook as he opened the safe. When he saw the red velvet pouch, his frown deepened. They hadn’t broken into the safe. Otherwise, surely the diamond would be gone. Unless…had they had time to open the safe and discover that the diamond inside was a fake?

Clamping down tightly on his anger, Carlo focused as he surveyed the room again. They’d convinced his security staff that they’d come in here for sex. And the room smelled of it. So why had they exited through the window? Why not put their costumes back on and rejoin the party?

Or had they simply decided to take their lovemaking to a more private place?

Carlo studied the room. Clothes had been tossed everywhere. Trousers covered the security camera, one shirt hung over the back of a Louis XIV chair, another draped a Chinese vase a few feet from where he was standing. Next to it was the undergarment that had given Oliver Hardy his added girth.

Squatting down, Carlo turned the garment over. No padding. Whatever had been inside was something they’d taken with them. A new costume? Safecracking tools?

Had they come in here merely to throw him off and give themselves extra time to break into his office safe?

His gaze shifted to the window. Once they’d dropped into the garden, they’d only have to circle the house to reach the entrance to his private wing.

As Carlo strode toward the door, his mouth curved in an appreciative smile. Clever, he thought as he replayed in his mind every scene, every impression that he’d taken in since Steven Bradford and Calli had arrived on his estate. They were a couple who couldn’t bear to be parted for very long, who couldn’t keep their hands off one another. And they’d managed to create the illusion that there was more between them than sex.

No one, not his chief of security, and not even he had been overly suspicious when they’d sneaked into his gallery for a “quickie.”

Oh, yes, they were much more clever than he’d anticipated. One of them must indeed be Chance Mitchell. It had been a long time since he’d had to pit himself against such a worthy opponent.

A new thought occurred to him. Could he be wrong about Aldiri? Had this “Chance” arranged for the shooting this morning just to throw him off? If so, he or she was very clever indeed. As he exited the room and relocked the door, Carlo spoke into the microphone that connected him to his chief of security. “Meet me at my office.”

But Chance wasn’t clever enough. The safe in his office wouldn’t be as easy to open as the one in the gallery. It was a new model, and he’d had to practice on it for hours before he’d become sensitized to the fall of the tumblers.

IT’S TAKING TOO LONG. Natalie tried to ignore the nagging little voice in the back of her head as seconds ticked away. The muggy night air defeated the air-conditioning in the small room. She’d taken off her mask, and still she could feel sweat trickle down the back of her neck.

If her fingers slipped at this point… Very carefully, she lifted them from the lock and wiped them on her costume.

“Here,” Chance whispered as he handed her a handkerchief.

“Thanks,” she said. Where was Carlo right now, she wondered as she wiped her fingertips. He’d had plenty of time to go into his gallery, open his safe and see that the false diamond was still there. If the real diamond was here in his office suite, he’d check on it. He could be on his way.

The sound of static drifted in through the French doors, and her heart skipped a beat. Someone was trying to contact the guard she’d stunned. Time was running out.

She closed her fingers over the lock again. She had three parts of the combination. And she’d only had to try once for the last number. All she needed was for one more tumbler to slip into place. Just one more tiny click.

Chance said nothing, but she could feel him shift behind her so that his back was to hers. That way he could face both doors. Time was just about up.

She began to turn the lock very slowly. Seconds stretched into minutes, but she heard nothing. An icy sliver of fear slid up her spine, and she lifted her hand again. “I think I missed it. I must have missed it. I have the first three numbers. Maybe you’d better give it a try.”

Chance placed a hand on her shoulder. “Start over if you have to. I fixed the lock so they’ll have to force the door. There’s still time.”

But there wasn’t. They both knew that. Natalie drew in a shaky breath and let it out. “I—”

Chance squeezed her shoulder. “You can do it, Nat.”

Natalie went perfectly still. Later she would wonder whether it was Chance’s belief in her that did it. Or perhaps it was his hand on her shoulder—that simple physical connection. Whatever it was, she could feel her self-doubt drain away as swiftly as if someone had pulled a plug. Suddenly, her mind was crystal-clear and her fingers felt each and every groove on the lock.

The same thing had happened the first time that she’d opened a safe. From the time she was little, her father had let her play with the one he’d kept in his office. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight the first time she’d cracked it.

Opening locks had been a game then, something she’d done in the precious time that her father had spent alone with her. With Rory he’d played cards. With Sierra he’d read books. But during the time he’d spent with her, they’d worked on locks. Even that first time, the last number had given her trouble. She recalled how he’d put a hand on her shoulder and said, “You can do it, Nat. Trust in your talents. You can do anything you want.”

And she could. After drawing in a deep breath, she held it and focused all her attention on the connection between her mind and her fingers. The only sound in the room was the soft whir of the overhead fan. But even that faded when she felt the tiny click.

Someone pounded on the door.

With steady hands, she opened the door of the safe, grabbed the black velvet bag, and checked the contents. In it lay a diamond, the twin to the one they’d found in the gallery safe. There was no time for the jeweler’s loop this time. Chance barely had time to replace it with the fake diamond they’d brought with them before the wood frame of the door began to splinter.

Together they closed the safe and replaced the painting.

The noise at the door grew louder, and wood splintered again.

Chance grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the French doors. Shouts came from beyond the patio wall.

They were trapped. For one moment they stood frozen in the frame of the open French doors. Shouts beyond the patio were getting closer, louder. The door to the office was about to give. Chance stripped off his mask and threw it toward the patio wall. Then he shoved her behind a floor-to-ceiling drape at the side of the door. A second later, Natalie felt her breath go out on a whoosh as he flattened her against the wall. Heart hammering, she waited.

The door gave first and there was the sound of guards rushing forward. Then the darkness fled as someone flipped on the lights.

“Get out of the way.”

Natalie recognized Carlo’s voice even when he slipped into Italian and swore viciously. He must have seen the guard lying on the patio.

There was a rush of wind to her left as guards entered through the French doors. For one long second, the drape covering them puffed out. Natalie could have sworn that her heart skipped three beats until it settled around them again.

“Tell me you’ve got them,” Carlo said.

His voice was close now—inches away. Chance had gone still as a statue, but she could feel every muscle in his body tense.

“No, sir. There’s no sign of them. All we got is this.”

Carlo swore again. And again, the curtain shifted with the breeze. This time, out of the corner of her eye, Natalie caught a quick glimpse of Carlo standing in the doorway, taking something from the guard. If he turned right now, he would see them.

It came to her in a flash that Chance would be the one Carlo would catch sight of first. Chance would be the one that Carlo would shoot. She felt her heart stop and then the drape settled around them in slow motion.

“They can’t be far. Cover the beach and the woods. I want them caught. Bring them to me alive, if possible.”

In some part of her mind, Natalie knew that the guards had left and Carlo had moved away. The room had become silent except for the sound of the overhead fan whirring. Then she heard a scraping sound. Her heart skipped a beat. Carlo must be removing the painting so that he could check the safe.

Seconds ticked away. Natalie had to remind herself to breathe slowly, silently. What would happen if he discovered that the diamond in the pouch was a fake?

“Lisa?” Carlo had to be talking to Lisa on his cell phone.

“Everything is under control. I have the diamond right here in my hand. No. I don’t have them yet. But I’ve issued orders that no one is allowed to leave the estate.”

Chance shifted slightly. For one long moment, Natalie wondered if he would step from behind the curtain to confront his old enemy. The urge to do just that must be tearing him apart. She found his hand and gripped it tightly in hers.

“Tell Aldiri and the others that the auction will take place in an hour.”

Carlo’s voice was firm now, without a trace of the temper and anger that had filled it when he’d come into the room.

“You worry too much. I’m bringing the diamond with me. Tell them one hour from now in the gallery.”

Natalie counted off ten beats as she listened to the sounds of Carlo closing the safe, replacing the painting and leaving the room. It was ten beats more before Chance stepped away from her and drew her from behind the drape.

She threw her arms around him then and held tight. A flood of emotions swept through her. He was safe. They both were for the moment, and she didn’t want to let him go. Natalie wasn’t sure how long they both stood like that before Chance drew away. “We have to go.”

“I thought you were going to step out and confront him,” she said.

Chance met her eyes steadily. “I was.”

“But you didn’t. Why not?”

“Because I knew my partner would follow right behind. Besides, I came up with a plan.” He took a piece of paper from Carlo’s desk and wrote one word. “Gianni.”

Natalie understood exactly what he was doing. She thought of the young boy betrayed by his friend and sent to jail for something he hadn’t done. Then she let herself imagine Carlo finding and reading that note—after the auction.

Meeting Chance’s eyes, she said, “He thinks he still has the real diamond.”

Chance smiled at her. “Ego. He didn’t think that we could pull it off, and he found a diamond in each safe. So he didn’t bother to check.” He placed the note in the middle of Carlo’s desk.

“And he won’t find it until after the auction.”

“Oh, I think the fake will be discovered before that,” Chance said. “I can’t imagine any of those prospective buyers parting with a cent until they authenticate the diamond.”

“They won’t be too happy with Carlo when they realize it’s a fake,” Natalie said. “And I don’t think I’d want any of those characters unhappy with me.”

“Hopefully, the fear of retribution will keep Carlo here on his estate until I can get Interpol to send someone to arrest him,” Chance said.