Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

one but my very own love. Yet I should not—should not have—t-trusted him.” Her breathing fragmented into tears.
    Jake handed her another round of tissues and waited impatiently for the storm of weeping to end. He had never understood how Kyle had put up with Marju’s tears and tirades. Among Baltic peoples, Lithuanians were famous for their low flashpoint and keen sense of personal drama. For Jake it was a wearing combination.
    “Pull yourself together,” he said finally. “This isn’t helping anyone.”
    Marju gave Honor a look of mute appeal. Honor sighed, smiled, and patted the other woman’s shoulder.
    “Don’t worry about Jake,” Honor said. “American men are uncomfortable around tears, but he’ll put a sock in it for now.” She gave Jake a hard glance. “Won’t you?”
    He looked at his watch, then out the window. Even in the more protected areas, whitecaps showed in a solid wall. Haro Strait would be a washboard roller coaster. The “sheltered” water around the rest of the islands wouldn’t be much better.
    “Have a good cry, Jones,” Jake said. “Get it out of your system. It’s pretty dirty out on the water right now anyway.”
    “Too much slang,” Honor said.
    “You’re assuming she’s listening to anything except her own sobbing.”
    Honor put her hands on her hips. “This may come as a rude shock to you, buttercup , but when a woman discovers she has been betrayed by the man she loves, she’s entitled to a good cry!”
    “You didn’t. But then, underneath all that feminine fury I guess you knew I didn’t really betray you.”
    “The jury is still out on that one,” she shot back. “Don’t push it.”
    “Truce, not an end to the war, is that it?”
    “Bingo.”
    Both of them became aware at the same time that Marju was watching them with a look of concentration, as though she was having trouble following their words.
    “Sorry,” Honor said. “We didn’t mean to leave you out. As you undoubtedly know, Jake can be . . . difficult.”
    “But of course,” Marju said, bewildered. “He is a man.”
    Honor laughed.
    “Right,” Jake said curtly. “So you carried the panel to Kyle in your own little hands. Then what?”
    “I used a handcart, not my hands. Together Kyle and I loaded it into the truck. After that, he went to pick up the driver at the pub near the waterfront, you remember it?”
    “I remember. Then what?”
    “I do not know. Soon Kyle’s brother—”
    “Which one,” Jake interrupted.
    “The cold one. Archer? Is that his name?”
    “Yeah.”
    “He was not very understanding,” Marju said, blinking against tears. “He did not want to hear that Kyle had used me—used me to—”
    “Hell,” Jake said under his breath. He waited for the crying to subside before he asked curtly, “Where is the rest of the Amber Room?”
    Marju shook her head and spread her small hands as if to show they were empty. “I was never told. My cousin simply brought me the panel, I took it to Kyle, and we put it into the truck as I told you.”
    “So only your cousin knows where the Amber Room is now?” Jake asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Where is he?”
    “I do not know.”
    The look on Jake’s face said he wasn’t surprised. “How can you get in touch with him?”
    “I? That is not possible.”
    “Sure it is. He’s your cousin. Call an aunt or grandmother or something.”
    “My whole family is against me! Would you trust the woman who betrayed everything for her lover?” she asked bitterly, tears brimming in her voice and eyes.
    Jake grunted. “Then why are you here?”
    “I thought if I could t-talk to Kyle, he would—would—” Tears overflowed. Marju’s beautiful eyes vanished behind a mound of crumpled tissues.
    “Christ,” Jake hissed.
    He looked at Honor and jerked his head toward the kitchen. After a small hesitation she left Marju and followed him.
    “I have to pick up some stuff at the cabin,” he said, “but I don’t want to leave you here alone.”
    “I’m not alone.”
    The sounds of heartbreak from the living room underlined Honor’s words.
    Jake hissed another word under his breath. “If you don’t hear from me in half an hour, call this number,” he said, pulling a business card from the pocket of his wool shirt.
    “’Ellen Lazarus, consultant,’” Honor read out loud. She looked at him questioningly. “The lady in the red jacket?”
    “Yeah. After me or Archer, she’s your best bet.”
    “For what?”
    “Getting