Amy Atwell - Lying Eyes

“Be that way, but I plan to marry Mrs. Livingston.”

She swiveled her head to stare at him. For a second, hope warred with outrage in her dark eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

“If she’ll have me.”

The silence stretched until Cory’s shoulders slumped with an audible exhalation. “Papa, do you think I can ever forgive her?”

“I don’t see why not.” He tilted her chin up until she met his eyes again. “You’ve already forgiven me. Now, you better check on that sandwich. I think you’ve just invented ‘charred cheese.’”

Iris sat in the Gorseyevs’ suite at the Bellagio Wednesday evening. For the first time in nearly a week, she didn’t feel as if danger lurked in every corner. Instead she felt insulated by family and friends. Amazing how much had changed in her world over a long weekend.

Aunt Tatiana had requested a family dinner, and even though she’d invited Cory and Allie, the two women had politely refused, saying that this once, at least, Iris should have her family to herself. The three sisters had enjoyed a long evening together the previous night, and Iris treasured the memory of how the three of them had bonded.

“What are you smiling at?” Beside her, Mickey laid a hand on her knee. “Me, I hope.”

She moved his hand before it started an up-thigh climb. “Stop. I was thinking of my sisters and my cousins and, well, everything.”

“Probably just as well. Not sure I’m quite up to, you know.” He wagged his brows at her as his lips slid into his familiar pirate grin.

“Behave.” She brushed a stray lock of hair back from his brow, grateful the doctors had seen fit to release him today-with strict orders to limit his activity. “Or I’ll put you in Aunt Tatiana’s wheelchair.”

He leaned close to her. “Is it true she was a KGB agent during the Cold War?”

“So they tell me,” she whispered. She pointed to her burly Russian uncles, who were laughing over a drink with Sergei and Cosmo. “And Marko and Viktor own a security company and train bodyguards.”

Her great-aunt sat in a wing chair across from them, every inch a monarch on her throne as she called for a small glass of vodka. Her color and energy had bloomed in the past day, and she was already demanding that Marko bring her back to Las Vegas every year for a visit.

Iris’s gaze traveled back to her father, but her former suspicions were now reduced to curiosity. Earlier in the day, he’d stopped at the store and asked her for those fake rubies she’d taken off Edgar’s collar.

“What are you up to?” she’d asked.

“Just returning things where they belong.”

“No funny business?”

“Never again,” he’d said, solemnly. She’d accepted his word.

But tonight he looked like his old self. The trickster ready to take the stage. He and Marko regaled each other with stories that made Sergei laugh out loud, and even Viktor occasionally broke a smile. She was sure the exploits were heavily embellished, but she’d no longer doubt any of their abilities or their love for their families.

“And what’s up with your cousin Sergei?” Mickey asked. “I heard he struck Turner in the arm with a knife from thirty paces. He could have killed you.”

Iris giggled. “It turns out Sergei is the black sheep of the family. He ran off with a circus for five years where he learned sword-swallowing, knife-throwing and trapeze before he returned to take a job within the Ministry of Justice. Personally, I think he works for the FSB.”

“FSB?”

“Russia’s version of the FBI.”

“Cosmo Fortune!” Aunt Tatiana commanded attention with her strident voice. “I have waited and waited. Where are my gems?”

Cosmo came forward, the jester to her queen, prepared to entertain. “Aunt Tatiana, I have brought them as promised.” Like the magician he was, he conjured up a pouch from thin air. Bringing it to Tatiana, he motioned for her to hold out her hands.

She played along and allowed him to shake the ten gems into her gnarled fingers. A cackle escaped her. “I never thought to see these again.”

“Those are yours to keep,” Cosmo said. “Unless, you’d care to trade them for what’s in here.” Again, he conjured a bag.

Iris and Mickey exchanged a look. “What’s he up to?” Mickey asked.

Iris shrugged. She was as enthralled as everyone else in the room.

Cosmo held the black velvet bag high. “George Halsted was a jeweler, a fence and, at times, a good friend. He gave his life to authenticate these gems. May he rest in peace having done such a good deed.”

“What do you mean, Cosmo?” Tatiana demanded. She piled her gems in her lap like a child gathering eggs when she fears the chickens might rise up and steal them back.

“Donovan sent me to Moscow with George Halsted to pick up the Romanov alexandrite. More than anything, George wanted to hold those mythical gems in his hand.” He brought the bag to Tatiana and bent down on one knee to offer it to her. “Now I give them to you and the Gorseyev family. You know so much of their past, you should decide their future.”

Tatiana regarded him with suspicion. “Show me one of them.”

Cosmo opened the bag and withdrew a single vivid red gem.

Tatiana took it and held it to the light. Turning it over and over, she analyzed it from every angle. Finally, she looked at Cosmo. “Where did you get this?”

“These are the stones purchased from the Russian mafia leader Konstantin Vanislav. To the best of my knowledge, they are the Romanov alexandrite.”

Astonished, Iris hurried to her aunt’s side. “May I?” She took the gem in her hand and studied it at length. The color was exquisite, a true red like a ruby, while the clarity was unparalleled. The facets of the stone were those cut by a master.

“Is there a fluorescent light anywhere?”

Marko pointed to the kitchen alcove. “Under the cabinets-it lights the countertops.”

Iris carried the gem over and flipped the switch. Holding out the stone, she held her breath as it turned from ruby red to vivid emerald green. She nearly dropped it. Spinning around, she cast an accusing glare at her father. “How? Where have you been hiding these?”

“I wasn’t hiding them. George hid them. Then he put the information on where to find them inside some fake rubies and put them on a collar for Edgar.”

Iris thought back to Sunday morning. When she’d decided to change out the stones on Edgar’s collar, she hadn’t looked twice at the lightweight fake rubies. “Stop. Go back to the beginning. How did you get involved, why did you get involved and why did you take Aunt Tatiana’s gems?”

“You’re taking all the fun out of this, Iris.”

“Humor me.”

Cosmo grinned that shameless coyote grin of his. “Donovan came to me a couple months ago. He wanted to hear all the stories about the Romanov alexandrite. Then he told me he had a lead on where the gems were and offered to hire me to help acquire them. And that’s when I got the idea-”

“You are a dangerous man when you get ideas, Cosmo Fortune.” Tatiana pounded her cane on the floor with anticipation. “Go on.”

“I decided to borrow the Gorseyevs’ synthetic alexandrites and switch them for the Romanov gems.”

Iris gasped “But that’s-”

“Stealing?” Cosmo’s entire face was lit in amusement. “Think about it. Donovan had already told me his plan to authenticate the Romanov gems and then send them as a gift to the Russian Minister of Culture.”

“Alexei?” Marko and Viktor shared a look.

“Exactly. So, Aunt Tatiana’s gems would have been on their way back to Russia almost immediately if Mickey hadn’t interfered.”

“Interfered?” Mickey snorted. “Cosmo, you’re lucky Donovan sent me and not Turner after you.”