Claimed (Diamond Tycoons 1)
She winced. Because of what he’d said or the angry way he’d said it, he didn’t know. He should stop throwing that in her face, considering he needed her help, but she’d asked why he was the way he was about his business. What happened six years ago was a huge part of that.
She didn’t say anything, didn’t fire back like she normally would. That didn’t reassure him, though. Not when she was looking at him with something akin to regret in her eyes. He wanted to believe it was for the past they shared, but his gut told him it was about his request.
Sure enough, after a long silence, she told him, “I can’t do it.”
“You mean you won’t do it.”
“No, I mean I can’t. I’ve got a full load of classes this semester as well as a side project of my own going on—”
“This won’t take long,” he said. “A day and a half, two at the most for travel to Canada, then a couple days at my headquarters, comparing the mineral composition of my diamonds with those from the Canadian mines. Even if you wanted to trace a random sampling of serial numbers, shipments and documentation, it shouldn’t take much longer than that.”
“That’s best-case scenario, if I don’t find any irregularities.”
“You won’t,” he assured her with total confidence. He knew his business inside out. There was no way conflict stones were going through Bijoux. No way. Not when he and Nic worked too damn hard to ensure that they always sourced responsibly.
“You can’t guarantee that,” she reiterated.
“I damn well can. My business is clean. My stones come from Canada and Australia and each and every one of them can be traced from the mine to me. There are no irregularities.”
“You don’t source from Africa at all? Or Russia?”
“No.”
“There are a number of mines in both places that certify their diamonds as conflict free by Kimberley Process standards—”
“But I can’t guarantee that no child labor went into mining them. I can’t know for sure where the profits are going. Most of the mines I use in Canada and Australia have shareholders that they answer to, and those that don’t have very rigorous—and open—bookkeeping. My diamonds are as clean as I can possibly make them, Isa. Trust me on that.”
She snorted a little, muttered something under her breath that sounded an awful lot like “Yeah, right.”
He couldn’t help stiffening at her response. She had no reason not to trust him—he’d never lied to her. He’d never betrayed her. He was the first to admit he’d acted like an ass when he’d had her removed from his building, but he hadn’t schemed behind her back, hadn’t lied over and over again because of misplaced loyalty. No, that had been her modus operandi.
He wanted to call her on it—any other time he would have called her on it—but right now, he needed her more than she needed him. The knowledge grated like hell. He’d sworn a long time ago never to give a woman power over him again and yet here he was, giving that power to not just any woman but to the one who had nearly destroyed him.
So instead of picking a fight he couldn’t afford to lose, he swallowed back his bitterness and growled, “It’s a short-term assignment but that doesn’t mean it can’t be very profitable for you. I know it’s short notice, but I’m more than willing to double—or triple—your regular fee.”
She reeled back as if he’d slapped her. “Are you trying to bribe me to certify your diamonds as conflict free?”
“Bribe you?” He went from annoyed to furious in two seconds flat. “I already explained that I have no reason to worry. The last thing I need to do is bribe someone to lie about my business.”
“Then why the extra money? My regular fee is steep enough to make most companies wince.”
“Jesus, you’re suspicious.”
“You have to admit, I have reason to be.”
No, damn it, she didn’t. He had never been anything but straight with her. “Bijoux isn’t most companies. And I don’t have the luxury of time. This ridiculous exposé is supposed to run on Friday and if I don’t kill it, it’s going to destroy my business. Why the hell wouldn’t I pay double your regular fee if it meant you’d take the job?” This time he didn’t bother to keep the bite out of his voice. Her lack of trust was getting to him, big-time, and he had no problem letting her know it.
Except Isa didn’t seem to care. She narrowed her eyes at his tone, watching him for several long seconds. “You know this isn’t going to work, right?” she finally said.
“It will. I’ve worked too hard to lose my company now.”
“I don’t mean the certification. I mean us working together. You need to find someone else.”
“There is no one else, not with this short notice.”
“Have you called around, tried to check it out?”
“No.”