Romance of a Robbery: Thieves of Desire Book 5, page 13
Arie shifted his boot and patted his back, feeling the weapons he had stored there, should they come in handy. He was well aware that he should have asked Damien to accompany him on this little errand, but he had been hesitant to bother his brother. For one, he was sick of hearing from Damien and Grace just how he had apparently taken advantage of Damien’s unique skill set, but besides that, he did know how much Damien preferred to spend his time with his wife and not out doing Arie’s work. Arie had to do that himself now.
He walked around to the back of the shop, finding the door leading within unlocked. Stupid.
He pushed through, ignoring the door that led into the jewel shop itself, and instead began to creep up the stairs. Arie paused at the door, slightly ajar, at the top, shifting so that he could push it open enough to see within the room in order to determine just how many men he would have to contend with.
And nearly sighed aloud when he saw just how easy it would be.
One man was asleep, or perhaps drunk, in a chair near the door, while another was sitting in the corner, drink in hand as he lazily took one sip after another. There was a third man across the table from him, seemingly slightly more alert, although if the drinking man’s countenance told him anything, it was that his opponent was allowing him to win their card game. He would guess the drinker was Jenkins then.
From what he could tell, it was not actually a home, but set up as a workroom.
Arie’s eyes narrowed on a piece that sat on top of a table across the room. Annabelle had said the only thing that had been stolen was a bracelet she had just finished. She hadn’t described it, but from what he knew of her designs, that looked rather distinctive. Arie braced himself before he shouldered the door open, realizing as he did so that he actually did not have the faintest idea what he was going to do once he had their attention.
“Jenkins!” he said in a voice that was half grunt, half summons, and the drinking, card-playing man stumbled to his feet as he searched the room for the threat. The other man was instantly on his feet, his hand coming to his side in search of his pistol.
But Arie was quicker, and he had the advantage of surprise. His own weapon was up and pointed at Jenkins, the leader of the group.
“I’d put that down, if I were you,” he said out of the corner of his mouth to the second man.
“Put it down, Ballard,” Jenkins said, and Ballard hesitated for a moment, looking from Arie to Jenkins and then at Arie again, before he slowly lowered the weapon.
“Very well,” he grunted. “What is the meaning of this?”
Arie, aware of the sleeping man on the other side of the room, checked to make sure he stayed that way, before he advanced toward Jenkins. He didn’t stop until the pistol was resting against Jenkins’ forehead, and Arie’s lips turned up in a grim smile.
“I’ve come to deliver a warning.”
Jenkins swallowed, the bump in his neck moving.
“From whom?”
“From me,” Arie said through tight lips. “You broke into a shop that you had no business stepping foot in. And you destroyed the living quarters of someone who is under my protection.”
Jenkins’ eyes flashed. “Under you, then, is she?” He smirked, and Arie pressed the gun harder against his forehead, knowing that it would leave a mark when he removed it.
“Have you ever heard of Arie Hondros?” Arie asked, and the man nodded nearly imperceptivity.
“Mebbe.”
“If you don’t want his men to return here and show you exactly what happens when you mess with us, then you will leave Annabelle Kennedy alone in the future, do you understand me?”
“And if I don’t?” Jenkins said, either brave or stupid, Arie wasn’t entirely sure.
“Then the next time I frequent this establishment, it will not be to deliver a warning.”
“You can tell that bitch—”
Before he could get the words out, Arie had cocked his left arm back, his fist driving forward into Jenkins’ nose, where it landed with a satisfying crunch.
Arie grinned and turned, preparing to take on the man’s friend, when the door pushed open once more, this time filling with two men who seemed far more official and not at all pleased with the situation.
“Someone want to tell us what’s going on here?” the one man asked, as Arie recognized the other, understanding who they were.
“Runners,” he said as his only greeting.
“Hondros,” the one man who Arie knew only as Drake said in response. Smart but inexperienced, he had tried to bring Arie down before but had failed every time. Arie never left enough evidence behind. “Care to tell me what you’re doing here?”
“Retrieving a piece of jewellery for my—for my brother and his wife,” Arie said, not wanting to link Annabelle to him in any way. “Jenkins here helped himself to it the other night. Destroyed the entire living quarters above the jewellery shop in the process.”
“This shop called A Jewel for the Taking?”
“It is.”
“Heard about it, although no one issued a formal complaint.”
Which they wouldn’t, not when they were associated with Arie, who operated much on the wrong side of the law.
“We’ll take the jewel and speak to them. In the meantime, Jenkins here will come with us until we determine if he is guilty of theft or not.”
“I can take the jewel.”
“Let us do our job, Hondros,” Drake said, fixing a stare upon him that could rival Arie’s own. “Unless you want us to get more involved in your line of work.”
Arie waved him away in a gesture that he hoped was nonchalant. “Do what you must. If you need anything, I’m sure you know where to find me.”
“Rest assured I do. Now, I’d suggest you put that pistol away unless you’d like us to take you in along with Jenkins.”
Arie hated being told what to do. But there were times – like in this instance – when he didn’t have much choice. He tucked the pistol back into its holster, although not before first sending a pointed look to Jenkins and then his friend.
“You won’t be bothering my friends again, then, will you?” Arie asked Jenkins, who shook his head morosely as he held a dirty piece of linen against the blood leaking from his nose. “Good.”
“Get out of here, Hondros, before I take you with them,” the detective said, and, with one look back at the jewel, Arie turned and walked out of the room.
He wasn’t completely satisfied, but, if nothing else, he had stood up for Annabelle.
It just scared him how perfect it felt to do so.
CHAPTER 19
Arie sat in his Louis VI chair in the living room the next morning, looking at his siblings and their partners assembled before him. Beside him sat Annabelle, who he had heard Xander remarking to Damien looked rather like his queen.
Arie actually wouldn’t mind if that’s what she was, although he would never admit that to his brothers. He was only just starting to admit it to himself.
“What are we doing here?” Diana asked, her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she studied him, as though she knew something was amiss. “Wade has business to attend to.”
“It will only take a minute,” Arie said. “I wanted to catch you all up on where we are at.”
“Well, this should be interesting, then,” Xander said, his eyes brightening as he leaned back in the chair, and Arie knew there was no jest in that statement. His siblings had come to care nearly as much about the scheme as he did – nearly.
He rubbed his hands together.
“Annabelle and I have one last meeting today with Mr. Montgomery and select members of the Board of Trustees. I will tell them that my final requirement is to fully understand their security before donating the artifact. Hopefully they will share all with me and I will have the information that I need. Annabelle has spent some time at the museum and has learned some of their protocols, but I would like to be fully aware of what we will be facing.”
“What happens when they ask to see the artifact?” Wade asked, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. Annabelle had learned that he was one of the only people who had no qualms about questioning Arie, seeing himself as his equal. It wasn’t that the rest of the Hondros family saw Arie as above them; they just saw him first as the man who had saved them from a different life and couldn’t release the thought that they owed him something.
“Don’t worry about that,” Arie said, dismissing the question. “I’ll take care of it.”
“They were pretty insistent last time,” Annabelle murmured, and Arie turned his head slightly to look at her. He had tried to avoid any contact with her for most of the morning, certain that as soon as he did so, his siblings – Diana, for certain – would know what had happened between them. He tried to think that he wasn’t so easily read, that he kept his emotions well enough hidden, but when someone knew him as well as Diana did…
He breathed in, trying to keep his annoyance under control, even though it was not so much annoyance at Annabelle, but at the fact that he cared what she thought, that he wanted to reassure her.
“I will tell them that I have the artifact but that I don’t want to pass it over until it is time.”
“That will show them you don’t trust them,” Damien commented, leaning back in his seat, stretching his arms out over the back of the sofa, one of them behind the shoulders of his wife, Grace, who watched them with eyes that appeared demure but were just as observant as any of them.
“It doesn’t matter whether or not I trust them,” Arie said patiently. “What matters is that they trust me.”
They all stopped for a moment as they thought on that.
“After that,” Arie continued, “the plan goes into place. That’s when I will need you all to be ready.”
“When do we go?” Xander asked.
“In a week or so. I am hopeful that they will agree to hold an unveiling for the donation, which should occupy the guards. Annabelle has determined which of them are most lax and has created a schedule of sorts of when they are on duty.”
“How did you do that?” Juliet asked, addressing Annabelle this time.
Annabelle straightened her spine. “My charms.”
Juliet’s lips curled upward as Arie tensed at the thought of knowing another man had been the object of Annabelle affections – fabricated as they had been.
Juliet, obviously, had an inkling of the truth. Arie looked over at Annabelle, his question to her as to whether she had said anything to her friend a silent one. She shook her head ever so slightly.
When he turned back, he saw that they were all staring at him with slightly open mouths that they closed at his glare.
“That’s all for now,” he said tersely. “Prepare your most nondescript clothing and I’ll tell you everything else that we need to know closer to the time.”
There was a chorus of protests – protests that he wouldn’t have heard had it been a couple of years ago. But now, after providing a bit of space for his siblings to do as they pleased and go against his wishes to find the people they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with, he had also given them space to question him.
He didn’t like it.
But, he considered as he cast his eyes over the room, they were happy. Decidedly so. All four of them had found people who they loved more than anyone else in the world. He worried about it – he knew what it was like to lose everything. But it was their choice to make, and he just prayed that they would never have to learn such power.
As for him? He didn’t have it within him to go through it again.
“Why not at night?” The question came from Xander, and was a good one.
“It’s too dark. We cannot take lanterns because if there was ever an accident, we could burn everything down.”
“You care about that?” Annabelle asked in surprise. It seemed there was always more to learn about Arie.
“I do,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Arie?” Juliet said innocently, and as all eyes turned to her, Arie didn’t like the curl of her lips, as though she was satisfied about something – something that had to do with him. “We had an interesting visit this morning.”
“Did you now.”
“A constable – Drake, I believe his name was.”
The rest of his siblings whipped their heads toward Juliet, instantly on edge at the thought of a runner visiting one of their places of business – even if it was a completely legitimate one.
“And what did he have to say?” Arie asked, even though he knew very well just what the man had come for.
“He had one of our jewels with him – the very one that went missing from Annabelle’s rooms. Isn’t that interesting?”
“Very.” Arie grunted, wondering just what else the detective had decided to share. He preferred that Annabelle wasn’t aware the lengths he was willing to reach in order to protect her.
Juliet just smiled wider, even as Annabelle looked between her and Arie with curiosity, although she wouldn’t ask in front of the rest of them what else had transpired – oh no, for that, she would wait until they were alone. If he didn’t tell her, then she would pester Juliet until she learned more. Arie sighed, not enjoying this business of doing things for other people.
Apparently no longer concerned, his siblings began to filter from the room, and he turned to Annabelle, determined to make sure she knew that, going forward, this was all going to be business between them, the pleasure restricted to their nights together.
“Arie,” she said before he could utter a word, “you have barely looked at me all day.”
“I’ve been busy,” he said. “Now—”
“Arie,” she repeated, reaching out and placing a hand on his arm. “I need you to know something.”
She seemed quite determined, so he finally relented and allowed her to say whatever it was she felt she had to say.
“I’m not sure if you completely regret last night, but I know what you are worried about.”
“Do you now?” he arched an eyebrow, leaning back against the chair that gave him some comfort with its reminder that he had the power – here and among everyone he met.
“You are worried that I am going to make something out of this. That – no matter what the outcome of our… relations… I am going to want more from you.”
She wasn’t entirely right, but it was close enough. For there was no scenario plausible in which he would ever tell her the truth – which was that his greatest fear was that he would be the one to fall for her.
“I meant what I said,” she said slowly, looking around her to make sure no one had stayed back to eavesdrop, “that this could be a mutually beneficial arrangement between us.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?” he practically growled.
“I promise you that I will not ask more from you,” she said, holding herself up tall, “which means that while we maintain this charade of being husband and wife, we can continue to enjoy one another… in other ways. And at the end of it, we will go our separate ways with lovely memories intact.”
Arie knew he should be ecstatic at her suggestion. It was every man’s dream, to be able to have a beautiful woman who was eager and willing to be with him without the expectation of forever.
Yet, somehow, her proposal felt off to him. What he couldn’t determine was whether he was the one who was unsettled by the suggestion, or whether she was lying to him, or even to herself.
He was not, however, fool enough to say no.
“Very well, Annabelle,” he said with as little enthusiasm as he could muster. “That works just fine for me. Now, Mrs. Callas, we have a meeting to attend.”
“First,” she twisted her hands together, “I must ask. Did you have anything to do with getting the bracelet back?”
He paused for a beat, allowing his pulse to return to its regular rhythm after the anger quickened it once more, and a sense of protection coursed through him, filling him with that same urgency of possessiveness he had felt when he had first laid eyes on Annabelle.
“No one harms anyone – or anything – that is under my protection.”
Then, without a glance behind him, he strode out through the door, trying to determine what the hell just happened.
* * *
Annabelle sat stiffly next to Arie in the carriage, trying to decide how to make him aware of just how annoyed she was.
She had offered herself to him without any attachment, and he had responded as if he was doing her a favour. The nerve of the man. Then there was the fact that he had obviously done something about whoever had broken into her rooms but seemed to have no desire to talk about it. At least with that, it seemed she could go to Juliet to determine more.
She fisted her hands in her lap as she glared at him across the seat. The worst part was, he didn’t seem to have any idea that he had done anything wrong.
He sat there, his icy stare roving from the window to rest on her face.
“Are you going to explain your displeasure or are you going to sit there for the rest of the afternoon looking as though I was the one who destroyed your home?”
“Nothing is wrong,” she said through tight lips. “I am just fine.”
“Right,” he said with a nod, not seeming to care in the least that she was perturbed. “Let’s go over the meeting again, shall we?”
Annabelle ground her teeth together as he spoke of the damned meeting. Arie Hondros was going to drive her mad. For not only did she want to slap that stupid, expressionless stare off his face until he revealed even a glimpse of what was going on in his mind and his heart, she would also like him to share at least something of what he felt for her. She didn’t care what it was. Anger, frustration, hopefully some attraction – as long as he actually expressed it to her.
But he didn’t. Nor did he acknowledge that he appreciated all she was doing to help him, help that she could easily have rescinded.
After they had been together, she had hoped that things would warm between them. But, if anything, he had only turned colder, while she was near trembling in wait to do it again. For the briefest of moments, she had sensed a crack in the guard he kept barricaded around him, and she could only hope that if they were intimate again, that wall would crumble just a bit more.
