Donovans 02 - Jade Island

April said, still looking at Lianne.
    Somehow Kyle wasn’t surprised.
    “We’re going to Farmer’s private island the day before the museum opens,” April added.
    “Day after tomorrow?” Kyle asked.
    “Yes. I’ll arrange for Lianne to come with me on the appraisal,” April said, turning to him. “I’m good, but she’s better. That’s assuming she’s still out of jail. Big assumption.” April turned back to Lianne. “Kyle got you close to the suit before the guards tossed you out. Was it real?”
    “If you stay out of our face until the appraisal,” Kyle said before Lianne could answer, “the shroud won’t be a problem.”
    “What are you going to do?” April demanded again.
    “You still don’t want to know.”
    April put her fists on her hips. “If you get caught, we don’t know you from skid marks on underwear.”
    Kyle nodded. “When will I get the equipment?”
    “It will be delivered to your condo by eighteen hundred.”
    “Six P.M.,” he translated before Lianne could ask. “What about her passport?”
    “I’ll get it,” April said.
    “Take her off the immigration shit list, too. Just in case.”
    “I’ll try, but…” April shrugged and headed out of the room. “This is a bureaucracy, Donovan. Better that her name never gets punched into a border computer in the first place.”
    As soon as the door closed behind April, Lianne said, “I don’t need a passport to—”
    The words ended in a muffled sound when Kyle kissedher firmly, shutting her up. After he lifted his mouth, all he said was, “Are you through here?”
    Lianne looked down at the sculpture she still held. As eager as she was to see the last of the building where she had been handcuffed and locked in a room, she still was reluctant to part with Bride Dreaming.
    Kyle took the sculpture from Lianne’s hands. As he set it on the table, he looked at the jade for the first time. He whistled in a sliding, musical tribute to the artist’s skill. The entire piece had been designed to take advantage of the remarkable chatoyance of the jade that lay between the woman’s thighs, the physical door to a metaphysical experience.
    “Is this the one you called Bride Dreaming?” Kyle asked without taking his eyes off the shimmering, gleaming jade.
    “Yes.”
    “I see what you meant. This is much superior to the version Han Seng owned.” As Kyle lifted his hands, he skimmed the ball of his thumb over the focus of the sculpture. “Extraordinary. But…”
    “What?”
    “Yours is prettier.”

Chapter 24
    T wo hours after the meeting with April, Lianne felt like a lion tamer without a whip or a chair. Everywhere she looked there were large, healthy, potentially dangerous animals sprawled on the floor of the Donovan condominium. The mass of muscle and bone made her feel beyond petite. She felt miniature.
    “How does Susa stand it?” Lianne muttered. “All these big, overwhelming, overbearing males. ”
    The males in question ignored her. They were debating various approaches to Farmer Island.
    Faith looked up from a jewelry auction catalog and smiled. “You should see it when Dad, Justin, and Lawe are here.”
    “Frightening.”
    “Only if they’re not on your side.” Faith’s mouth drew down in a frown. Her family’s restrained dislike of her fiancé gnawed at her. Even Honor, who normally could be counted on for support, had to make an effort to look happy when Tony showed up.
    As though Honor understood exactly what her twin was thinking, she asked Faith about Tony.
    “Still in Tahiti,” Faith said. “He’s doing PR—oops, image consulting—for one of the new pearl houses. When he called this morning, he said it might be another week before he could come home.”
    “Bet you wish you had gone with him,” Honor said.
    Faith’s smile was strained. She had wanted to go, but she hadn’t been invited. Tony was furious that she wouldn’t approach Donovan International about switching its business to her future father-in-law’s advertising firm. “Not much point in going,” she said. “He’ll be working sixteen-hour days.”
    That left the nights, but no one in the room mentioned it.
    “Kyle,” Lianne said, “what if—”
    “No,” he interrupted without looking up. “You’re not going.”
    “Describe Farmer’s jade shroud,” she said.
    “Green.”
    “What will you do if he’s switched bad for good to fool China’s expert?” she challenged. “We’ll be back where we started as