Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

words in a language Honor didn’t recognize, and then a pungent curse in English.
    “I know that one,” she snapped. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
    “Have you ever heard of the Amber Room?” Archer asked finally, reluctantly.
    “Sort of. It belonged to a czar, the walls of the room were covered in amber mosaics, and it’s supposed to be some of the most beautiful decorative art ever made.”
    “The Nazis stole it. No one has seen it since the end of World War Two. Or if they have, they’re not talking.”
    “So?”
    “A panel from the room was stashed with the shipment of amber Kyle supposedly took from Jay.”
    “Jay? Who is— Oh, you mean Jake.”
    “A son of a bitch by any other name is still a—”
    “Son of a bitch,” Honor finished, looking right at the naked stranger in her bed and trying to forget that she was equally naked herself. “So Jay/Jake got his hands on a chunk of the Amber Room, slipped it into a legitimate shipment of raw amber, and set up Kyle to look like the thief?”
    Jake’s eyes could have been borrowed from hell, but he didn’t say a word.
    “That’s the simplest explanation,” Archer said. “Unless you prefer to think that Kyle did it.”
    “Who is this Mar-you person?”
    “Marry-you? Oh, Marju. She’s the one Kyle lost his head over.”
    “The one he might have stolen for, except that Jake beat him to it?” Honor asked coolly, watching the thief in question.
    “That’s about it,” her brother said.
    “What does Marju say about this mess?”
    There was a pause.
    “Archer,” Honor said, biting off her brother’s name, “don’t hold out on me again.”
    “Hell, sis. All we have is second- or third-hand gossip.”
    “I’m all ears.”
    “Marju says that Kyle pretended to be in love with her in order to get his hands on the Amber Room.”
    Honor’s eyelids flinched. “What about Jake?”
    “She thinks he was in partnership with Kyle. Informally, if you get my meaning.”
    “A collaboration of crooks.”
    Silence.
    “What do you think, Archer?” she asked.
    “I think there’s more to this mess than we’ve been able to uncover.”
    “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
    “I’m given a choice of trusting Mallory, who I’ve known for less than a year, or I can trust Kyle.”
    “How well do you know him?”
    “Kyle?” Archer asked in disbelief.
    “No.”
    “Oh, Mallory.”
    “A son of a bitch by any other name,” she agreed bitterly.
    “Until the Amber Room came on the scene, I would have trusted Jay with my secrets, my business, and my life if it came to a fight in a dark alley. But every man has a price. The Amber Room was Mallory’s.”
    “But not Kyle’s.”
    “Kyle doesn’t need money and he’s not a serious collector of amber. His first love is jade. Jay doesn’t need money, but he loves amber the way some men love God. Love isn’t a particularly reasonable emotion.”
    Honor’s throat closed. She had a growing suspicion about just how irrational, unreasonable, and unruly an emotion love could be. She was, after all, the fool who had declared her love to a man who was merely an exquisite lover.
    “Do you think he killed Kyle?” she asked baldly.
    “I don’t think Kyle is dead.”
    “That’s not an answer.”
    “It’s the best answer I have. Hell, anyone can kill in the right circumstances, even you.”
    “No argument there,” she said, looking right at Jake.
    “What is this about Dimitri Pavlov?” Archer asked.
    “Dimitri who?”
    “Snake Eyes,” Jake said clearly, guessing the course of the conversation.
    “Oh, him,” she said. “I didn’t hire him.”
    “Stay away from him,” Archer said. “He’s the kind of person you hate to do business with but don’t have any choice if you want to work in the modern Russian Federation.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Russian mafiya ,” he said succinctly. “The new interface between capitalism and chaos in the old Soviet Union. They have the morals of a mink and the scruples of a shark.”
    “That’s how Snake Eyes struck me,” she agreed. “He’s following me whenever we go out fishing. So is the Coast Guard and at least one other private boat. Maybe two.”
    “Bloody wonderful,” Archer said under his breath. “Well, at least you’re safe on the water. Who ransacked Kyle’s place last night?”
    “I don’t know.” She looked at Jake. “Do you know who was here last night?”
    “No.”
    “He doesn’t—” she