[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

challenge that had always satisfied him. It was one of the
reasons Cade had bucked family tradition and chosen his
particular line of work.
There was enough rebel in him that he would have chosen
almost any line of work that bucked family tradition, but
opening his own investigation agency had the added benefit of
allowing him to call his own shots, solve those puzzles and right
a few wrongs along the way.
He had very definite opinions on right and wrong. There were
good guys and there were bad guys, there was law and there was
crime. Still, he wasn't naive or simplistic enough not to
understand and appreciate the shades of gray. In fact, he often
visited gray areas, appreciated them. But there were certain lines
that didn't get crossed.
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
He also had a logical mind that occasionally took recreational
detours into the fanciful.
Most of all, he just loved figuring things out.
He'd spent a good deal of time at the library after he left Bailey
that morning, scanning reams of microfiche, hunting for any
snippet of news on a stolen blue diamond. He hadn't had the
heart to point out to her that they had no idea where she came
from. She might have traveled to D.C. from anywhere over the
past few days.
The fact that she, the diamond and the cash were here now
didn't mean that was where they had started out. Neither of them
had any idea just how long her memory had been blank.
He'd studied up further on amnesia, but he hadn't found
anything particularly helpful. As far as he could tell, anything
could trigger her memory, or it could remain wiped clean, with
her new life beginning shortly before she'd walked into his.
He had no doubt she'd been through or witnessed something
traumatic. And though it might be considered one of those
detours into the fanciful he was sometimes accused of having,
he was certain she was innocent of any wrongdoing.
How could a woman with eyes like hers have done anything
criminal?
Whatever the answers were, he was dead set on one thing he
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
meant to protect her. He was even ready to accept the simple
fact that he'd fallen for her the moment he saw her. Whoever and
whatever Bailey was, she was the woman he'd been waiting for.
So he not only meant to protect her he meant to keep her.
He'd chosen his first wife for all the logical and traditional
reasons. Or, he mused, he'd been fingered calculatingly by
his in-laws, and also by his own family. And that soulless
merger had been a disaster in its very reasonableness.
Since the divorce which had ruffled everyone's feathers
except those of the two people most involved he'd dodged and
evaded commitment with a master's consummate skill at
avoidance.
He believed the reason for all that was sitting cross-legged on
the rug beside him, peering myopically at a book on gemstones.
"Bailey, you need glasses."
"Hmm?" She had all but pressed her nose into the page.
"It's just a wild guess, but I'd say you usually wear reading
glasses. If your face gets any closer to that book, you're going to
be in it."
"Oh." She blinked, rubbed her eyes. "It's just that the print's
awfully small."
"Nope. Don't worry, we'll take care of that tomorrow. We've
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
been at this a couple hours. Want a glass of wine?"
"I suppose." Chewing on her bottom lip, she struggled to bring
the text into focus. "The Star of Africa is the largest known cut
diamond in existence at 530.2 carats."
"Sounds like a whopper," Cade commented as he chose the
bottle of Sancerre he'd been saving for the right occasion.
"It's set in the British royal scepter. It's too big, and it's not a
blue diamond. So far I haven't found anything that matches our
stone. I wish I had a refractometer."
"A what?"
"A refractometer," she repeated, pushing at her hair. "It's an
instrument that measures the characteristic property of a stone.
The refractive index." Her hand froze as he watched her. "How
do I know that?"
Carrying two glasses, he settled on the floor beside her again.
"What's the refractive index?"
"It's the relative ability to refract light. Diamonds are singly
refracting. Cade, I don't understand how I know that."
"How do you know it's not a sapphire?" He picked up the stone
from where it sat like a paperweight on his notes. "It sure looks
like one to me."
"Sapphires are doubly refracting." She shuddered. "I'm a jewel
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
thief. That must be how I know."
"Or you're a jeweler, a gem expert, or a really rich babe who
likes to play with baubles." He handed her a glass. "Don't jump
to conclusions, Bailey. That's how you miss details."
"Okay." But she had an image of herself dressed all in black,
climbing in second-story windows. She drank deeply. "I just
wish I could understand why I remember certain things.
Refractometers, The Maltese Falcon  "
"The Maltese Falcon?"
"The movie Bogart, Mary Astor. You had the book in your
room, and the movie jumped right into my head. And roses, I
know what they smell like, but I don't know my favorite
perfume. I know what a unicorn is, but I don't know why I've got
a tattoo of one."
"It's a unicorn." His lips curved up, dimples flashing. "Symbol
of innocence."
She shrugged that off and drank down the rest of her wine
quickly. Cade merely passed her his own glass and got up to
refill. "And there was this tune playing around in my head while
I was in the shower. I don't know what it is, but I couldn't get rid
of it." She sipped again, frowned in concentration, then began to
hum.
"Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy,'" he told her. "Beethoven, Bogart and
a mythical beast. You continue to fascinate me, Bailey."
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"And what kind of name is Bailey?" she demanded, gesturing
expansively with her glass. "Is it my last name or my first? Who
would stick a child with a first name like Bailey? I'd rather be
Camilla."
He grinned again, wondered if he should take the wine out of
her reach. "No, you wouldn't. Take my word for it."
She blew the hair out of her eyes and pouted.
"Tell me about diamonds." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]