Shackled by Diamonds

Leo looked at her blankly.

‘Jenny?’

‘The blonde model; the skinny one!’ said Anna, with some of her old asperity.

‘That one? The neurotic-looking one? Are you telling me she stole the bracelet?’ Leo demanded.

‘Yes. She took it when the jewels spilt on the floor. She must have slipped it inside her shoe to get it into the changing room. I found her with it in her bedroom and made her see sense! I said I’d get it back and no one would know! But—but you caught me. Red-handed.’

She fell silent, biting her lip.

Emotions were working inside Leo. Strange, strong emotions. He was having difficulty controlling them. But he had to. It was essential that he did.

In his head, the world was turning upside down.

‘You never stole the bracelet? You were covering for the other model?’ His voice was flat.

Anna nodded dumbly.

‘And you took the rap for it.’ His eyes flashed suddenly. ‘My God, you let me go on thinking you a thief,’ he said wrathfully.

‘I had to!’ Anna cried. ‘I couldn’t let Jenny be blamed. Oh, God, Leo, she’s in so much trouble already.’

‘She makes a habit of stealing?’ jibed Leo harshly. He seemed angry—far angrier than Anna had thought he would be when she told him the truth.

‘No! I told you—she was desperate, terrified. It was just an impulse thing—opportunistic. Oh, God, Leo, she needs money to hide—and even I didn’t know just how badly she needs to hide. Those gunmen weren’t after me—they were after her. They thought I knew where she was—I told them I didn’t know, but they didn’t believe me. They were going to torture me to make me talk. And if they find her they’ll—’

Her voice broke off, high with fright.

‘Why are they after her?’ Leo’s voice was grim.

Anna took a sharp, painful inhalation of breath.

‘She had an affair with some rich sheikh. I warned her not to. I warned her. But the idiot just went ahead anyway—and now he’s trying to find her. So she’s got to go into hiding. I know it sounds insane, but it’s true, Leo. Look—she’s right to be terrified. Those gunmen were killers.’

He was just lying there, looking at her. His eyes were still dark with anger.

‘Leo.’ She bit her lip. ‘Please, please don’t be angry—she isn’t really a thief. Not really. She was just so frightened—’

‘I’m not angry with Jenny,’ he said in a flat voice.

She looked at him anxiously.

‘If you’re angry with me, I accept it. I lied to you, and covered up the truth. And I’m sorry—I really, really am. But I had to protect Jenny—’

A burst of staccato Greek came from Leo. His dark eyes glittered.

‘Christos, it’s me I’m angry with. For being stupid enough to let you get away with fooling me that you were a thief. I was so convinced about you. It tied in with everything I thought about you. Oh, God, Anna, it made me such a brute to you—I can’t bear to think of it. And all the time—’

Remorse and guilt shot through his eyes. ‘And even when I thought the worst you were getting to me. I kept thinking it was just sex, but it was so much more—so much more. And that day we spent together, when you were nice to me—oh, God, that really started to open my eyes to what was happening to me. And then you turned me down again, as if I were nothing to you—nothing at all. I was so angry with you—angry that you were calling me things I knew were true about me and didn’t want to hear! Then, when I heard you’d been abducted…’

He fell silent, and she saw remembered fear stark in his eyes.

Then they flashed again. But something in them seemed lighter. Brighter. ‘Damn you, Anna Delane. What I’ve gone through for you. I had you pegged as a troublemaker—and you are.’

‘What do you mean, a troublemaker?’ she demanded indignantly.

His eyes were glinting. The harshness had gone, quite gone.

‘Oh, you’re a troublemaker, all right, Anna Delane. I knew that from the first moment I saw you, lashing out at that jerk Embrutti. Quoting your contract at him. And it went on, didn’t it? Thinking you knew better than me about not wearing all the damn Levantsky diamonds at once. Let alone not even caring that they were the Levantsky diamonds. And as for your pièce de resistance—turning virtuous on me at the last possible moment and slinging me out of your room as if I were some kind of animal in rut. Thee mou, what do you call that except a troublemaker?’

She bridled. ‘Just because I stand up for myself you call me a troublemaker? That is just so bloody typical! I said you were spoilt and arrogant, but I let you off lightly. You’re the most—’