Lasting Pride (Pride Series Romance Novels) (5 page)

“Mr. Derby, you do know that this…” she pointed towards the painting in question, “Is illegal in several states, and here you have it up on your walls for everyone to see.”

Ric laughed, “Detective, it’s just a painting. The viewer sees what they want to see. I see a large maple tree myself. Maybe you should tell me exactly what it is that you see?” he tilted his head to the left a little, mimicking her move.

“Never mind,” she said, quickly moving to the next picture. “You were going to show me around?” She hinted when he laughed at her again.
She loathed and liked his smile, he had a care-free way about him. She knew all too well, men like him could get what they wanted, when they wanted it, which was all the more reason for her to keep it professional.

“I believe what you wanted to see is back here,” he put his hand lightly on her back and walked her towards the stairs.

“I don’t believe it.” She stood over the hole, looking down at a thing of beauty. “I never thought I would see one of these in my life.” She bent down and ran her fingers lightly over the cold metal.

The Brown safe was a thing of wonder. She’d only seen two others in her whole life, but had never been able to touch one until now. Looking back up at Ric, she ran her fingers over the metal again.

“May I?”

He smiled, “If you think you can,” he stood with his back propped against the bathroom stall. She was just so official and he could see a blush seeping into her cheeks. He knew she was more excited about his safe than she led on.

He’d done a little research on his detective, and it appears that Rob, Roberta Stanton had been a little hell-raiser in her youth. However, on her eighteenth birthday, she’d enrolled in the Portland Police Academy and less than two years later had been promoted to Detective. Not only impressive for an officer at her age, but it appeared she was the youngest Detective in the history of Oregon.

Now he watched her as she took
a deep breath, and leaned down to try to break into his safe.

Fifteen minutes later, Ric and Roberta walked out of the men’s restroom, laughing.

“That’s why I bought a Brown Safe,” he stopped at the base of the stairs. “and another reason I put it where it is.” He smiled at her.

“I can assure you that with my expertise, I would have never thought to look for that, in there.” She smiled, enjoying the way he looked a little more relaxed. This was the first time she saw him so, and it had only added to his appeal.

“If you don’t think outside the box, how are you suppose to protect what’s yours?”

She got the feeling he was talking about more than his safe when he said that, and wanted to take a step back, but she held her ground.

“Would you care for some tea?” He nodded towards his office.

Looking down at her watch she said, “I can’t, actually, I’m already late,” she took a step backwards now, “Thank you for showing me, well, everything.” She smiled and backed away further.

“How about lunch?” he asked casually.

She stopped and looked at him, hard. He looked relaxed, standing in the lobby of his multimillion dollar art store and he was asking an ex-thief out. Did he know? Would he care?

“Can’t, you’re a case. See you later.” She didn’t give him a chance to reply as she quickly walked out. She needed to get out of there, away from his infectious smile.

He enjoyed watching her walk out of his place. The woman kept amazing him. He enjoyed discovering new things about her, each time they met. And he was looking forward to learning even more.

Y
ou can think of a lot of crazy things when you’re flying through the air upside down. At times like this, Rob always seemed to think of grocery lists, or paperwork she had forgotten to file. Her mind always cleared up though after hitting the mat, when the wind was knocked out of her temporarily.

She loved it, looking up and over, she could see the smile on Craig’s face. He must have lost a tooth since last week, now his smile was not only shockingly handsome, it was downright cute.

Better not mention that to him though, Rob knew even though he was only ten, he had a crush on her for the last year. And, any mention of it caused the skinny ten year old to break out in a beat red blush that covered his face and neck.

“Have you been working out Craig?” Rob pulled herself up from the mat. “I swear I’m going to have to start asking you to pull some of your energy back so I don’t get thrown through the wall.” The pair bowed and Craig giggled.

Rob had been teaching at Mr. K’s for almost eight years now. At first she had attended classes for two years, then after receiving her 4
th
black belt, she had decided to try her hand at teaching, and ended up being one of the top teachers at the larger studio.

Now, there were people who changed their schedules to Tuesdays or Thursday evenings when she taught, just to attend her classes. She still did one-on-one training with several of the younger kids from troubled homes once a week. Those classes, she made sure that Mr. K didn’t charge for. She also did several special classes each year for self-defense for women. That was one of her more popular classes and was actually booked solid.

“Shall we try that again?” she asked, circling around the young boy with a huge grin on her face which matched his.

It was one of those days Ric would have rather avoided. After spending two hours on the phone with one of his art dealers, he wanted to throw something against the wall. He paced up and down his small office and swore he would never deal with the Middle-Eastern Government again. They were one of the worst embassies to deal with, at least when it came to their artist. The Egyptians, Chinese, and even the Russians had nothing on the Middle-Eastern culture. Theirs was a lifestyle where they chose to hoard, especially when it came to their new artists who just happened to be a woman on top of it all.

Tossing down the file he had on Sannidhi Rangan or Sandi as she prefer to be called by the English, he felt even more disgusted at them for holding women back, culturally. Not only was Sandi's art being held by the country, they claimed for religious reasons, but now it appeared that the Seventeen year old girl was no where to be found.

He opened the file and looked at the young girl’s face. Well, all he could see were the deep desires in her dark eyes from underneath her hijab. The dull colors of the garment did little to extinguish the flames in the young girl’s dark eyes. Her art had been something Ric had immediately desired. Desired, because he knew it was not only one of a kind, but something that would eventually become an enormous asset to both him and the young woman who’d created it.

Usually he didn’t deal with artists so far away. But, when an old friend had pulled him aside at his last art show in London, he’d taken one look at the piece he’d brought with him and wanted to sign her on immediately. He’d talked to the girl only once, when he’d made arrangements for her to fly out to New York for a meeting. She’d never gotten on the flight and he hadn’t heard from her since then.

Storming out of his office, he was heading downstairs to talk to Kimberly, his new, temporary assistant. He didn’t have any time to go looking for a new assistant just now. Sure, he had a stack of resumes to choose from, they took up an entire corner of his desk. Knowing he’d have to find someone by the end of the month, caused him even more stress.

When he walked down the wide staircase which sat along the brick wall in his main gallery, Ric noticed a tall, dark haired man hovering over Kimberly. He could tell by the young girl’s face that she was transfixed and thoroughly enjoying the conversation.

Speeding his steps, he reached the pair and vaguely overheard part of the conversation.

“Of course not Mr. Cardone, I don’t mind giving you a call.” Kimberly said and almost purred with the remark. Then, she looked over as Ric approached.

When the man turned around, Ric guessed that he was a few years younger than him. Where Ric’s features where light, marking his father’s Scandinavian heritage, this man was almost his complete opposite. Sure, Ric had a dark tan from the hours of running he usually did along the beach in the California sun. But, this man’s skin was dark due to his Mediterranean heritage. Which accounted for the thickness of his accent. His black colored hair was sleeked back, his dark eyes ran up and down Ric as if he was weighing his options.

Then, he extended a hand and said, “Mr. Derby, I’m Dante Cardone. I’ve been doing business with you for several years now.”

Ric remembered the name, he’d never seen the man in person though. He knew that he usually attended auctions over the phone or computer. Never in the three years he’d worked with him had he seen a picture, let alone seen him face to face.

“Mr. Cardone,” he shook the man’s hand.

Ric noticed the dark gray suit for what it was, expensive. There was a large gold ring he wore on his left hand with a rather unique and old design. He saw that too for what it was, heritage.

“How can I be of service to you today?”

There was something in the way the man looked at him that caused Ric to maintain his stance. He didn’t like the almost sneer that had crossed his face as he spoke.

“Mr. Derby, I’d like to inquire about a piece that your lovely assistant here,” he looked back at Kimberly and Ric swore he saw the man wink at her. “Says was shipped over a week ago, but has yet to arrive.”

“I apologize for any misunderstandings,” Ric walked behind the counter to look at the invoices Kimberly was holding. “It does appear that we’ve already shipped you this item.” Ric watched anger fly into the man’s face so quickly that Kimberly, who’d been happy to flirt with him up until now, quickly took a step back.

“Well, since I’m currently standing in your gallery, I can assure you I have yet to receive what I’ve paid for.” Ric could almost hear the grinding of his teeth.

“I would be happy to check with our shipping company. It may take a day or two to get to the bottom of this. I assure you Mr. Cardone, I will get to the bottom of this matter, personally.”

Seven hours later, when Ric walked into his apartment he kept in Portland, he had a large headache. The last thing he wanted to hear was his sister’s voice on the answering machine.

“Hi Ric, it’s me Katie. Of course you know it’s me. Who else would be calling you on your personal line, surly not a girlfriend, since you’ve almost never kept a woman for too long. Anyway, I was just calling to tell you Mom and Dad are finally getting a divorce. Yup,” his sister sighed, “Mom’s in Rome or Venice, or somewhere where the men are tall dark and half naked, and Dad is fishing in Alaska. Soooo, I thought you might want to call them and work your magic. Oh, by the way, I’m getting married. Well, at least I’ve found the man I want to marry. He doesn’t know it yet, but anyway… I guess I’ll talk to you later. I think I’ve talked long enough that your machine…”

His answering machine beeped with the end of the message. Then he smiled as he heard the next message.

“is going to cut me off. Love you big brother. Signed Katie, your favorite sister.”

Katie was Ric’s complete opposite in every sense. His sister was as whimsical as he was organized and orderly. Where Ric was blond and blue eyed, like their father, Katie had dark curly hair and chocolate caramel eyes. She was almost eleven years younger than him and to his knowledge was still attending college back east. This was the fourth time since starting college that she’d told him she was getting married.

He thought she was in love with being in love. Something he’d never experienced before. Oh, he’d felt a distinct like, a bout of infatuation, and good dose of old fashion lust. But, never love. It isn’t that he was incapable of love. After all, he loved his sister and he felt love for Allison Jordan and a few others, in the same way. His parents, he tolerated.

As for his parents getting a divorce, it seemed like every other month they were getting one. His mother took off to Rome or some other place where the men were tall dark and half-naked, as his sister had said, at least once a year. As for his father’s fishing trips, well, he thought he knew why he was going to Alaska once a year, lately. And he was sure the hot little red head didn’t have fishing on her mind. Maybe this was why Ric never put himself out there?

But, this was the way his parents worked. Ever since Ric could remember he’d been patching their relationship.

Then, the last message that played on his machine took his mind off his family issues completely.

“Mr. Derby,” her voice was even sexier on his machine. He walked over and stood right in front of the large windows that overlooked Mt. Hood and the Columbia river and listened. “This is Detective Stanton, I have some information I’d like to go over with you. Please return my call at your convenience.” When his machine clicked at the end of the message he smiled.

Picking up his phone, he punched her number.

“Detective Stanton, this is Mr. Derby returning your call. When you get this message, please return my call at
your
convenience.”

Wishing he could be there to see the irritation cross her face, he then punched his mother’s number into the phone and started “working his magic” trying to mend his dysfunctional family.