Chapter 94
“It’s hard to say for sure. Probably close to ten million dollars.”
She felt the blood drain from her head, leaving her woozy and weak. “So much?”
“On the black market, they’ll probably sell for a bit less. These days anything that comes out of a cutting house is laser cut with the Messina Diamonds logo and a serial number, which means in order to be sold again, they have to be recut. But once that’s done—”
“They’ll be untraceable.” She finished the sentence for him. “That’s a huge amount of money. But I don’t understand. How could anyone have possibly known the diamonds would be here tonight? Didn’t you say there are rarely diamonds here at all?”
“That’s the point. They couldn’t have known. They must have had an inside man.”
Both Candace and Nolan sat in silence as he drove her home. Naturally, she’d protested that she didn’t need the ride. He’d expected that and eventually his insistence had worn her down. Under other circumstances, he might have felt guilty for taking advantage of her emotional exhaustion. Tonight, with ten million dollars worth of diamonds stolen out from under his nose, he didn’t have time for guilt.
As he steered his car away, he glanced over and noticed Candace staring at him.
When he met her gaze, she said, “You didn’t have to drive me home, you know.”
“So you keep saying. But it’s late.” A valid argument since by the time the FBI agents had started letting people leave, it was after two in the morning. “It’s no trouble,” he added.
She sighed, a sound filled with more exasperation than resignation. “It’ll be trouble for me in the morning when I have to call a cab to drive me downtown to pick up my car.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“Which brings me back to my point. Your client was just robbed. Surely you have better things to do than chauffeur me around Quinley.”
“Now that the robbery is over, it’s in the hands of the FBI. There’s not much for me to do.”
Candace harrumphed. “You don’t seriously expect me to believe that, do you? That you’re just going to step aside and let the FBI find out who’s behind this?”
She was smart. It wouldn’t take her long to figure out the real reason he was sticking so close to her side. He wasn’t going to break down and tell her first. If he was lucky, she was too tired to figure it out tonight.
When he didn’t say anything, she kept talking. “No. I know you. You’re going to be out there, tracking down leads or whatever it is you security types do in this situation. You’ll be interviewing witnesses or tailing suspects or something.”
“J.D. can handle most of that. He’s fairly trustworthy.”
“Fairly trustworthy? I thought he was your second in command?”
“He is.”
“Boy.” She shook her head. “When you said everybody was a suspect you really meant it. You don’t trust anyone, do you?”
“It’s my job to be suspicious of everyone. I learned long ago that most people will disappoint you.”
She was silent for a long moment, looking out the window with her head resting back. Her posture was either one of relaxation or pensive contemplation. He hoped she’d fallen asleep, but doubted it.
Without moving, she murmured, “I’m sorry.”
“You’re not responsible for your brother’s actions.”
“That’s not what I’m apologizing for.” She looked over at him. “I’m sorry that what happened between us twisted you into this bitter, distrusting man.”
There was that pity again. Damn it. His hands clenched the steering wheel. “Is that really how you see me?” He glanced in her direction. In the flickering light of the passing streetlights, he saw a frown crease her forehead.
“How am I supposed to answer that? You were definitely not like this when we met. You are very successful. You have all of this money. But you have no one you can really trust. Not even your second in command. You seem to have lost all faith in humanity.”
Forcing a smile, he quipped, “I never had much faith in humanity to begin with. I was trying to start over when we met. Guess that wasn't the real me you met.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You weren’t like this. Despite everything… even with your father, you had so much hope. And you trusted me. Now…” She trailed off and abruptly she stiffened. “Wait a second. You don’t trust me. You think I could be involved. You’re…” she sputtered, waving her hands around for effect. “You’re tailing a suspect. You’re following me!”
He braced himself to get whacked by her purse again. “Not you,” he began to protest, but she didn’t let him finish.
“Yes, me. You’re in the car with me, aren’t you?”
In the flicker of the passing streetlights, he’d have sworn he could see her glaring maliciously at him.
She harrumphed again, turning in her seat, staring straight ahead with her arms crossed over her chest. “I can’t believe you think I had something to do with this.”
“Not you,” he repeated as he turned off Illinois into her neighborhood. “Andrew.”
But apparently she was too far into her rant to listen to him. “If I’d had anything to do with this at all, why would I have stuck around tonight as long as I did? Huh? Wouldn’t I have just skedaddled out of there as soon as you turned your back on me?”
He pulled the car to a stop in front of her house and flicked the ignition off. “Let’s go inside and talk about this there. Is Michelle in? And your brother… I'm pretty sure after everything that's happened tonight he won't be,”
“Well,” she said, hopping out of the car. “Michelle is at her boyfriend's place. She's been spending a lot of time over there since I returned, and Andrew doesn't spend much time here at home. He's always been like that. I wasn't going to follow him around trying to find out where he goes like he's some damn kid. And about you following me inside, I don’t suppose I have much of a choice, do I? Since you’re going to tail me anyway.”
So much for her being emotionally exhausted. He climbed out of the car and beeped it locked, watching her flounce up the walkway to the front door. The light that hung over the front door cast a golden circle of light over Candace, bringing out fiery tones in her hair. When he came up behind her, she glared at him over her shoulder as she rammed her key into the lock.