Diamonds (Den of Thieves Book 1) (11 page)

"You know I love you more than life itself and that if anything happened to you I would never forgive myself. After what happened to your mother I cant--"
 

"Father nothing is going to happen to me," she said leaning across the table to put a hand on his arm to comfort him.

"You can’t know that my child. You don’t know the dangers out there for a beautiful woman like yourself."  His eye searched hers for understanding as he scooped up her hand in his and she instantly felt bad for having worried him so.

"No you’re right, I don’t know that for certain. But I do know that I cant live my entire life in fear of what might happen to me if I step outside of my door."

"This is true but there is such a thing as taking a calculated risk and jumping in without a parachute."

"Is that what you think I am doing? Jumping in without a parachute?"

"Daria, you hardly know anything about this man."

"I hardly know anything about any of the men that I’ve dated. That’s what dating is all about Father. Learning about the other person and seeing if there is the kind of chemistry there that would make a good strong marriage." She pulled her hand from him and patted him on the arm.

"I know darling. I want that for you more than anything else in this world. I want you to know the love that your mother and I had when you were born."  He looked off into the distance again.

The gardener had moved on to another clump of bushes a few meters further down. They once again fell into silence.

"Do you love him Daria?"

She laughed.
 

"Don’t laugh Daria, this is not a laughing matter."

"I know Father but I mean I only just met the man two days ago. How could I possibly know if I love him or not?"

"I knew with your mother the moment I met her that she was the woman that I wanted to marry more than anyone else in the world. She was to be the woman that I spent the rest of my life with."
 

"But that’s different thought."

"How so?"

"People don’t just fall in love like that anymore." The words sounded hollow as they rolled off her tongue.
 

"They don’t? Well then that is a very boring way to go through life. Never knowing if you are in love or not."
 

She laughed again, a nervous laugh, her father’s words were echoing in her ears.

Silence fell over them again as she pondered the answer to her father question. Was it possible? Was she falling in love with Peter?

"You will tell me right?"

"Hmm?"  She pulled herself back out of her thoughts.

"If you fall in love with this man. You will let me know right?"

"Of course! Why would I ever keep that from you?" She laughed. Her father could be so strange sometimes.

"You never know with you young folks now a days," he said finishing his coffee and standing up, "After all you lot cant even tell when you’re in love, right?"

She watched him walk away and she wondered if he had been able to see what she was too afraid to admit.
 

She was falling in love with Peter.
 

No one moved or said anything until they had heard the car tires screech as the Blakemans pulled out of the parking lot.

"Well that was certainly something else. You weren't kidding Jake, when you said the woman was a complete nut job," Paul said shaking his head in disbelief at what he had just witnessed.
 

"I know; I almost can’t believe it myself. She is certainly a piece of work."
 

"Did you see how she treated her man? Seriously what the fuck? Who dammed well does that to the man they are supposed to love and cherish?" Cat piped up walking back to her desk and flopping down tired.
 

They all looked like they had gone three rounds in a ring.
 

"Now do you understand what we are up against here Sebastian? She’s a huge client and we can’t afford not to take her case. We haven’t had one from the FBI in a month and last time I checked we all have bills to pay."

"I get it, really I do. But you also have to understand that I think there is something hinky about the whole situation. The more I learn about this completely dysfunctional family the more I know there is something we haven’t uncovered yet."

"Sebastian, I know that you are emotionally invested in this situation and that for whatever reason you have decided that you are right and that there is something hidden that we aren’t seeing you also have to understand that the rest of us are not blinded by love or whatever has gotten a hold of you." Paul shook his head. "And even if there is something that we haven’t found yet it really isn’t our business. Our business is finding a way to return the necklace to this woman so she will go back to the hole she crawled out of and leave us alone."
 

"As much as I would like to see this woman gone never to return, I think that Sebastian might be onto something here," Jake speculated looking over his notes.
 

"Really? Now you too?" Paul was getting frustrated now, "Can no one here see our paychecks walking out the dammed door on this one?"
 

"Look Paul, none of us want to get into any shit. We just want to do our jobs and stay on this side of the law. I have no use for getting myself in to hot water with the PD for the sake of some rich bitch and her crappy necklace," Cat snapped.

"Easy guys. No one’s going to get into any trouble with the police," Bo said putting his hands up.

"I know I’m not. I am not getting involved in this anymore." Cat threw up her hands and went to grab her bag when Paul stopped her.
 

"It’s not like you were to begin with but you can’t sit there and whine when you don’t get a paycheck when this is all over either. I mean after all no work, no money."

Cat glared at him and put her bag back down on her desk.

"So what do we do now? None of us can risk any trouble from the PD. I mean half of us are ex-criminals to start with and most have done jail time--" Rudy spoke up from behind his bank of computers and everyone turned to look at him.

"Speak for yourself four-eyes," Cat hissed. "I just wasn’t stupid enough to get caught."
 

"Umm I hate to bring it up Cat, but if I do remember correctly it was me who caught you trying to take out that mob boss five years ago and I gave you a choice to come and work for me or I'd see to it that you served jail time."

"Yeah and how did that work out for you Mister I Got Caught With My Hand In The Cookie Jar?"

"Guys! Come on! Can you please stop fighting?" No one had seen or heard Gracie come in but she had been there long enough to see the fight starting to erupt in front of her.
 

"Gracie’s right you guys. We don’t have time to be fighting amongst ourselves. We have better things to do," Bo chimed in. Sebastian could see the relief in his face that at least one of the group was remaining level headed about the whole situation.

"Alright from what I have gathered in the five minutes I’ve been standing here, we have had another wonderful visit from the lovely Mrs. Blakeman. Am I correct?" Gracie looked back and forth between them through her cat-eye frames "Right. So she’s clearly set us on edge just being in our space, but it would also seem that there might have been some information given that we didn’t have when we started this whole thing and that its something that might shed light on a reason why we shouldn’t be involved in this assignment at all. Now can anybody here tell me what you lot really should be doing?"

"Trying to validate or disprove the information we have been given?" Jake spoke hesitantly.

"Good idea. I thought Rudy was the only brainiac of the group but you are proving you are more than just a pretty face Jakey boy."
 

Jake smiled.

"Alright then. Jake are you still good enough with the LCPD that you could talk to that old friend of yours on the inside and see what you can dig up?" Paul asked his temper diminished greatly.

There was something about Gracie that no one mucked around with. She was a tiny waif of a woman, in her mid forties, but she had in the couple of years she had been with them, quickly become the glue that held them all together.
 

"I can certainly try. I can’t make any promises, as I haven’t spoken to Stan in years. Not even sure if he is still on the force or not but it wont hurt to give him a try. Worst case scenario, it’s a good reason to go and have a beer with an old friend."
 

"Good. Take Sebastian with you. He will be helpful as he has spent some time with Daria Sotir and he knows the family history from their perspective. So if something clicks he can let you know."

"Makes sense to me," he nodded. "Jake, do you mind if we stop at my house on the way out so I can shower and change?"

"Yeah I’d really appreciate it if we could. You stink man. I’m surprised that the witch didn’t have something to say about that when she was here." Jake clapped him on the shoulder as they headed for the door.
 

"Thanks - you really are saint you, know that?"

“Are you bloody well ready to go yet?”

Sebastian stepped out of his room and into the living room.

“What on earth was taking you so dammed long? You didn’t even shave for Christ’s sake!” Jake rolled his eyes.

“Sorry, looking this good is hard work,” Sebastian grinned, he felt a lot closer to being human now that he had taken a hot shower.

“Well I’m glad I don’t have to worry about that shit.” Jake shook his head and headed for the door.

Sebastian grabbed his keys and followed him out.

“So I talked to my friend before I left. Turns out the guy is still kicking around LCPD and he’s got a bit of a break so he can meet with us at some fifties diner thing in the west end of town.”

“Sounds good to me. As long as they have cold beer.”

“Don’t count on it. Sounds to me like my old buddy is back on the wagon.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah back in the day when I knew him he was a bit of a drunk. If he hadn’t had such an amazing career up to that point they would have turfed his ass long before I met him.”

“Guess he got his shit together just like we did.”

“Yeah sounds like it.”

The diner was busy when they got there.