“Come on, let’s go down to the campfire and have a cup of coffee.” Eve took Jane’s arm. “We’ll leave MacDuff to his research. Maybe Caleb won’t get what he’s looking for.” She was leading her toward the door. “Maybe the collector MacDuff chooses as our prime candidate will be a little, white-haired college professor with wire spectacles and a generous disposition.”
* * *
Two hours later, Jane marched down to the lake, where Caleb was lolling lazily beneath a pine tree and gazing out at the distant mountains. And that very indolence irritated her even more than she was already.
She tossed the sheet of paper down on his stomach. “Your collector. And you’ll be happy to know that he’s not a little white-haired college professor with wire-rimmed glasses. And he certainly doesn’t have a generous nature.”
“Am I supposed to know what you’re talking about?” he asked mildly as he sat up. “And did you come out to hold my hand?”
“No, I’ve been waiting for MacDuff to finish researching so that I could bring it down myself and tell you what an idiot you are.”
“I always appreciate your attention, no matter what the motivation.” He glanced down at the paper. “Derek Helmberg. Munich, Germany. That’s not bad. At least it’s not in the middle of Africa. I was thinking that it might be.”
“Not bad? He not only smuggles antiquities, he’s a gunrunner. He also dabbles in human trafficking and computer hacking. According to that résumé you have in front of you, the only passion he has other than the acquisition of money is his coin collection, which he keeps at his estate in Munich.”
“He has the correct coins?”
“Yes, MacDuff thinks that he even has a few that he’s liberated from historical libraries that are virtually unknown on the market. Perfect.” She paused. “Except that collection is guarded by several of Helmberg’s goons, and you have an excellent chance of being killed. But that’s perfect for you, too.”
“Ah, that’s why you’re so angry with me. You think I’ll get killed; and then what would you do? No one to fight or abuse. And all those possibilities looming on our horizon disappearing…”
“I’m angry with you because you’re taking chances, and it’s stupid for you to—Even if Joe goes with you, it’s still a risk.”
“I won’t take Quinn with me.” He held up his hand. “I won’t need him. What I’ll do requires Helmberg and me, and anyone else will get in the way. It’s not that I don’t think Quinn would be of value getting us in and out of the estate. But there is a risk, and Eve may need him more than I do.” He smiled. “You should be on board with that, Jane. Eve needs a father for that child. I can’t keep him out of whatever action goes down in the future, but I can do this.”
How was she supposed to argue with that?
“He’ll want to go along.”
“Then I’ll leave now, and you can tell him how stubborn and difficult I was about having company. You’ll be very good at that.”
“Yes, I will.”
He got to his feet. “And while I’m gone, you’ll think how brave and self-sacrificing I am, and you’ll worry and remember all the good things I am and none of the bad.”
“No, I won’t. I wouldn’t give you that satisfaction when you’re probably only doing this to manipulate me.”
He chuckled. “We’ll see who is right.” He started to turn away. “Good-bye, Jane.”
“Wait.”
She couldn’t let him leave like this.
He looked over his shoulder.
“Maybe I do want to hold your hand.”
He smiled and came back to her and took both her hands in his own. “Thank you,” he said softly. “I’ll remember this when I’m fighting the dragons and being disgustingly heroic.”
“You’ll only remember that you got your way.” She looked up at him. “How are you going to get those coins from Helmberg?”
“The usual way, shock and intimidation. Even someone who has a fanatical obsession can be persuaded that he’d rather stay alive to collect again.”
“You’re going to do that … blood thing?”
“The ability to control blood flow is what I do best. I’d be foolish not to use it as a weapon if necessary.” He lifted her wrist to his lips. “Though I much prefer to use it this way.”
Heat. Her arm was tingling, hot. Her pulse pounding in her throat. Her breasts were swelling, her breath coming in pants. She wanted to step closer, brush against him, take more of him.
She jerked her arm away and stepped back. She was still panting. “Not fair, Caleb.”
“Very fair. I picked a time when I could derive pleasure, then walk away and not be tempted to carry it further. That’s almost noble.” He was walking up the slope toward the road.”And it took your mind off the less pleasant aspects of my talent that was causing your imagination to run riot. I’ll see you soon, Jane.”
When would she see him?
She could feel her eyes sting. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides as she watched him walk up the slope.
He stopped when he reached the road and turned back toward her. A mischievous smile lit his face as he gave a half bow and blew her a kiss.
Asshole.
It was almost as if he’d read her mind because he threw back his head and laughed.
Then he turned and headed for his car, parked down the road.
MOSCOW
Ivan Sabak was ready, Natalie thought, as she strolled slowly down the driveway toward the gatehouse. She had been preparing the way for the last several days, but she’d had to be cautious. Sabak was afraid of her father, and that had to be overcome. She needed complete compliance from him if she was going to succeed.
But she would get what she needed. She always did.
She saw him coming toward the garden gate as she approached. He was eager. She could see the faint tension in his muscles. Yes, he was ready.
She smiled at him. “Hello, Ivan. I couldn’t wait to get to you tonight.”
He frowned. “You didn’t come last night.”
“It was so difficult. My father … You know how he is. And I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”
“I can handle Kaskov.”
“Of course you can. I just didn’t want you to have to do it.” She came closer to him. “I know how strong and smart you are. My father would never have assigned you to guard my daughter if he didn’t know it, too. Did you know I asked him to do that because I knew you were the best and most clever man he had?” She sighed. “Being a mother to a child like Cara is so difficult. Sometimes I think he likes her more than he does me. I feel so alone. I know it’s only a matter of time before he sends me away.” She took a step closer to let him feel her warmth, catch her scent. “I think I’m going to need someone to be there for me when that happens. Will you be that person, Ivan? Will you help me?”
He stiffened.
He wasn’t ready for commitment yet, she thought. But now he knew it was coming. He would become accustomed to the idea once he found it was to his advantage.
“I have some money. I can get more, much more. But I need someone to protect it, protect me.” She took his hand and put it on her breast. “I want it to be you,” she whispered. “I’m a woman who needs a man, and what a man you are, Ivan.” She moved closer. “Let me show you how much I need you.”
His hand closed brutally on her breast. “Are you playing with me?”
“Let’s go inside the house. The couch in the living room.” Her tongue moved on his lower lip. “Let me show you…”
He started to drag her toward the French doors leading to the living room, then stopped. “The kid. She might hear us.”
Let him get a hint of the way it was going to go. “I don’t care.” She rubbed slowly, sensuously, against him. “She’s not important. You’re important. She’s just getting in our way…”
MUNICH, GERMANY
One guard at the road leading up to the house.
One guard who was pat
rolling the grounds and patio area.
Another guard in the massive garage where he kept his collection of antique cars.
Helmberg was evidently a collector of a number of objects besides antique coins, Caleb thought after he had disposed of the guard patrolling the grounds. He moved across the patio toward the French doors that led to the library, where a light was burning.
The door was unlocked. Why not, when the grounds were so well protected? Caleb could see Helmberg sitting in a leather easy chair before the fire with a brandy in his hand. His gray hair was perfectly barbered, as was his Van Dyke beard, and he wore a black designer smoking jacket. He was relaxed, comfortable, a king enjoying his kingdom.
Time to invade the kingdom.
He silently opened the door, but there must have been a gust of wind because Helmberg started to turn his head.
Caleb went into top speed, across the room in seconds.
“Who the hell—” Helmberg didn’t get the rest of sentence out before Caleb reached his chair.
Caleb’s hands were around his throat. “We can do this easy or hard, Helmberg. Your choice.”
“I’ll kill—” He gasped as Caleb’s grip tightened. “You won’t get away with this.”
“But I will. You’ll see that I do.” He looked down into his eyes. “You’ll do everything I want you to do, or you won’t live through the night. I’m tempted to just end it now, but there are reasons why I don’t want a stir to ripple out from our little meeting.”
“Someone will come. You won’t get off the property.”
“Then I’d better get down to business, hadn’t I? Your coin collection. Go to the safe and get it for me.”
He stiffened. “The hell I will.”
“You’re going to experience pain in your left temple. It won’t be excruciating, just a demonstration to show you what could be on the horizon.”
Helmberg screamed!
“Should I do it again?”
“What—is—this?” Helmberg gasped. “Are you some CIA interrogator or something?”
“Oh, no, just a common thief. But I do want what I want. Get me the coins.”
He moistened his lips. “I don’t keep the collection here. It’s at my safe-deposit box.”
“Wrong answer.”
Helmberg screamed again. His face contorted with pain.
“You wouldn’t have that collection anywhere you couldn’t see it, touch it. Collectors have a passion, and they have to have it satisfied. It’s probably tucked behind that Rembrandt painting. Now go to the safe and get me the coins.”
“Very well. Let me go.”
Caleb released him and stepped back.
Helmberg got up and moved toward the wall behind the desk. As he reached the desk, he dove for the carved ivory box on the corner. He knocked it off the desk and a Luger fell out of it. He followed the gun to the floor and grabbed it.
“At last, something interesting,” Caleb said. “I was getting really bored.”
“Sit down.” Helmberg got to his knees and pointed the pistol at him. “We’re going to have a little talk.”
“I don’t believe I have the time. But I applaud your initiative.” He shook his head regretfully. “No, you really have to drop that weapon. I need those coins.”
“You fool. I’m going to kill you. But first I want to know who you are and who sent you. I won’t—” He threw back his head and groaned. “What—” He looked down at his hand holding the gun. It was swollen twice the normal size, and his finger on the trigger was bleeding, gushing blood, around the nail.
“I think you’d better drop the gun,” Caleb said. “If you don’t, your hand is going to explode. I judge in about two minutes.”
Helmberg almost threw the gun away from him.
“Good. Now go to the safe and get me what I want.”
“I can’t use my hand.”
“You can use it. Very clumsily, but you can use it. But it’s still swelling and will continue to do so until you open the safe.”
Helmberg staggered to the picture and swung it back to reveal the safe. He stood looking at it. “I could pay you a lot of money. Don’t take the coins.”
“Open it. You won’t be able to do it in another minute. It would be difficult without a right hand.”
Helmberg hurriedly spun the combination and opened the safe.
“Now take out the containers and put them on the desk, so I can examine them.”
Helmberg took out the two velvet boxes and placed them on the desk. “Do you even know what you’re looking for?”
“Am I an expert?” He shook his head. “But I have a description of a few of the coins in your collection that are very valuable. I just have to make sure that they’re all here.” He looked through the first box, then opened the second. He gave a low whistle. “This one wasn’t on my list and by the way you have it displayed, I’d wager that it’s the star of your collection.”
“Don’t take it,” Helmberg said hoarsely. “I’ll give you anything.”
Caleb shook his head. “I’m afraid that you’ll have to give up coin collecting. Your car collection with have to suffice.”
“I’ll come after you. You won’t get away with this. Who the hell are you?”
“You won’t come after me. You won’t mention anything to do with this night to anyone. As far as anyone knows, your collection is still intact.” He moved toward Helmberg until he was only inches away. He stared into his eyes. “Do you know how much it hurts when your organs explode? First, I’d do the lungs before I went for the heart. Pressure. Excruciating pressure. The blood controls everything, you know. Let’s have a little preview. Are you starting to feel it?”
Helmberg’s hands were clutching his chest, his face scarlet as he struggled to breathe. “Don’t—” he gasped. “Hurts.”
“Just a little more. I want you to remember.”
“No.” Tears were running down Helmberg’s cheeks. “Please…”
“I’ll lessen it, but the pain won’t go away until an hour after I leave here. You’ll stay there on the floor and won’t call for help. If you try to move, the pain will increase, and it may affect your heart.”
His eyes were bulging. “I … won’t move.”
Caleb knelt beside him on the floor and took out his phone and tossed it across the room. “And you’ll pretend I never paid you a visit. If I hear that you’ve said one word, then I’ll come back. And you’ll find out how much it hurts to die very slowly. I can stretch it out a long, long time, Helmberg. I would kill you now, but I don’t want any suspicion surrounding anyone who is a known collector.”
“I don’t know … what you mean.”
“You don’t have to know. You just have to do what I tell you.”
Helmberg screamed and clutched his chest.
“Oops.” Caleb got to his feet. “Sometimes my feelings get away from me. You might remember that.”
“Who—are—you.”
“Names aren’t important.” He shrugged. “But at the moment, I’m one of the good guys.”
“No.” Helmberg was still cradling his chest. “You’re … a monster.”
“I’ve been called that, too.” Caleb gathered up the two boxes and headed for the door. “But then I’m sure so have you, Helmberg.”
Then he was outside the door and drawing a deep breath of the cool night air. Not a bad evening. Not as satisfactory as it might have been. He really didn’t like Helmberg. Maybe he’d have a reason to pay him another visit.
Oh, well, forget Helmberg. Even if being one of the good guys was a bit boring, Jane would be pleased, and that was always paramount. He moved quickly across the manicured grass toward the gates and his rental car parked beyond them. He should be at Gaelkar within the next three hours …
* * *
“You got it?” Eve was looking down at the two boxes Caleb had just placed on MacDuff’s desk. “Any trouble?”
“No, he was surprisingly obliging.” Caleb said. “He agr
eed to everything I asked of him.”
“And is he still alive?” Joe asked dryly.
“Of course. We wouldn’t want any rumors circulating around that a well-known coin collector had been killed. He agreed that coin collecting was no longer for him. He’s looking at other hobbies.”
“And he won’t come after you?” Jane asked.
“I doubt it. Though I’ve been wrong before.” He glanced at MacDuff, who was going through the coins. “I checked before I left his library, and all the coins you mentioned were there. And one more coin in that second box. He was really hurting when I took that one.”
MacDuff opened the box. “Good God.” He carefully took out the coin and examined it. “If I didn’t know where that Greek drachma was at this minute, I’d think this was it.”
“Drachma?” Eve asked.
“It’s a silver coin minted in Sicily during the fifth century B.C. So far only twelve have been found, and they’re either in private collections or museums. One was auctioned off fairly recently. But this one might be even more valuable. It was minted two years earlier.”
“What was the auction value on that drachma?” Eve asked.
“Two million pounds.”
“What?” Joe gave a low whistle. “No wonder Helmberg was in agony about losing it.”
“Well, actually it was kind of a combined effect,” Caleb murmured.
“I imagine it was,” Jane said as she stepped closer to the table to look at the chariot with four horses on one side of the coin. “It’s beautiful, true artistry. It doesn’t look that ancient.”
“We can be sure it was if Helmberg had it in his possession. He wouldn’t have bothered with it otherwise,” Joe said. He looked at MacDuff. “So do these coins look like the real thing?”
“They are the real thing,” MacDuff said. “And they look like what they are. They were all minted in the years before the eruption of the volcano at Herculaneum in 79 A.D. So the time factor is correct. They came from the nations that were in existence then and whose money could have ended up in Cira’s treasure chest.”
Jane picked up the drachma from the box. “I wonder if there is one of these in her chest…”
“What do you think?” Caleb asked.
“I believe there’s a good chance. Cira was very canny about money.” She put the coin down again. “We’ll have to wait and see.”