Donovans 02 - Jade Island

required. I left.”
    “Has Daniel mentioned the Jade Emperor?” Kyle asked quickly.
    “I never spoke to Daniel until the day after the auction. He all but called me a thief and tried to keep me from seeing Wen.”
    “What did he accuse you of stealing?” Archer asked.
    “Nothing directly.” Lianne took a breath and said what she really didn’t want to say. “I think…it’s possible…” Her voice fragmented.
    Archer waited.
    Beneath the table, Kyle put his hand on her leg in a gesture that was comforting rather than provocative. Her flesh flinched but she didn’t move away. She couldn’t. There was nowhere left for her to go.
    “What is it, sweetheart?”
    “Don’t call me that.”
    “Honey, darling, sugar, baby, love, buttercup ,” Kyle said. “What do you think is possible?”
    Lianne wanted to scream or snarl at the lover’s knowledge in Kyle’s eyes and the gentle, implacable intimacy of his hand. The charade of mutual interest had been exposed, yet he wouldn’t stop pretending it was real. Last night she had gone to sleep alone on the couch and awakened in the middle of the night in his bed, in his arms.
    She could take the questions and the distrust, but not the offer of loving refuge where nothing existed but a needto pry knowledge out of her, knowledge that would be used against the only family she knew, the family that had betrayed her.
    Betrayal. Everywhere she looked, everywhere she turned. Betrayal. But nowhere did it enrage her as much as in Kyle’s beautiful, lying eyes.
    Archer’s eyes narrowed at the emotion vibrating in Lianne. Either she was a fine actress or she really wanted to take her coffee mug and cram it down Kyle’s throat.
    “The Neolithic blade and the camel aren’t the only substitutions made in Wen’s collection,” Lianne said.
    “We know that,” Archer said. “Tell us something we don’t know.”
    “Wen used to own the same jade suit that Farmer has now.”
    After a moment, Archer whistled through his teeth in shocked surprise. “You’re certain?”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Kyle asked at the same time.
    “Why should I?” she retorted. “You didn’t tell me why you were screwing me.”
    “I was screwing you because you got me so hot I didn’t know which end was up. I’m still picking splinters out of my butt from the dock. Wasn’t I a gentleman, sweetheart? You only got splinters in your knees.”
    Archer lifted his eyebrows and smiled down into his coffee cup. He would have laughed out loud, but there was too much anger in Kyle’s voice. His brother was baiting Lianne every way a man could. Only fair. She was baiting him the same way.
    “I got you so hot,” Lianne said, her voice rising. “You son of a bitch! I didn’t even know people could do it that many ways, much less that it would feel so—” Abruptly she remembered that there was another person at the table, and that person was Kyle’s brother. She flushed from her breasts to the top of her head. “Never mind,” she muttered. “It has nothing to do with jade.”
    “Coffee, anyone?” Archer asked blandly.
    No one answered. He poured the rest of the coffee into his cup, drank, and put the finishing touches on his reassessment of Lianne Blakely.
    It didn’t take long. Archer had his faults, but stupid wasn’t one of them.
    “You’re sure about that jade suit?” he asked.
    “Yes. I saw it twice in Wen’s vault.”
    “Why didn’t you mention it sooner?”
    “I gave my word I would never speak about the burial suit to anyone except Wen. But now…” Lianne stared down at the yellow scraps of omelet scattered across her plate. A little piece of green pepper gleamed like precious jade against the stark white plate. “Jades are missing. Wen thinks I’m a thief. Somebody is stealing from Wen and blaming it on me.”
    Archer nodded. “Why didn’t you tell this to the government? Mercer said the Feds know their case against you is circumstantial at best. They offered to cut you loose if you would cooperate with them about the Jade Emperor.”
    “I’m innocent. The Feds can go screw themselves.”
    Archer smiled slightly. “I admire the sentiment, if not the logic.”
    “No matter what Kyle’s reasons,” Lianne said, “he saved my life—”
    “You fought for your life,” Kyle said.
    “—and then he got me out of jail,” she finished, ignoring him. “If I can help out the Donovans, I will.”
    Archer’s smile widened. This was a logic he