Refracted Crystal: Diamonds and Desire (29 page)

The doctor smiled once more and turned her attention to the ultrasound equipment. She manipulated and handled the probe deftly, moving it across Kris’s belly and occasionally pressing it slightly deeper into the skin.

On the screen across from them, Kris could see the eerie black and white funnel of her womb appearing in radiating lines. When she had last seen hers and Daniel’s baby, it had been little more than a conglomeration of cells clearly alive but barely recognisable as human, its heart a fierce muscle beating on the screen like a dark pattern. Now the foetus was distinct, small, delicate limbs curled around its tiny body, the head larger with eyes and nose forming upon its face.

“Well,” said Doctor Hemans after a while, “she looks perfectly healthy.”

“She?”

The doctor turned her spectacles back in the direction of Kris, her eyes creasing warmly again as she smiled. “Yes, Ms Avelar. It’s not a hundred percent definite at this stage, but it looks as though you’ll have a bonny baby girl. If you want, we could take some of the amniotic fluid for tests, that will let us know for sure.”

Feeling more nervous than she had anticipated, Kris shook her head. “That won’t be necessary,” she replied.

The doctor nodded, but then frowned slightly, reaching across to take Kris’s temperature with her hand. “Mind you,” she said, her voice still soft but with a new edge to it, “I think we should run a couple of other tests. Nothing serious, just routine. I’m worried that you might be running a slightly high temperature, and we need to make sure your health is all it should be. While you need to get as much rest as possible, don’t forget to exercise regularly.”

Kris was patient and compliant as each of the tests were run through. She was hardly surprised that her blood pressure was running a little too high, nor that her general condition was somewhat worn down. Thus far she had avoided all the usual baby and pregnancy manuals, but she had a keen suspicion that international travel and retrieving a husband from prison did not feature highly in prenatal advice.

When she left the hospital, she called a taxi but, instead of letting the driver take her back to the apartment in Chelsea she asked him to drive to the headquarters of Stone Enterprises. While the scan had calmed her nerves with regard to the health of the baby, she could not help but fret a little at the thought of Daniel’s meetings and the anger with which he had left her that morning. She did not know what to do, but she did want to see him as quickly as possible.

She sat in the same cafeteria where she had spoken to Miranda Karstans, and as she sipped at a cappucino she thought back over what the financier had said. The older woman had told her that she had information that would be of help to Daniel, though she had not been explicit as to the form that information would take. Kris shuddered at the recollection of what had happened the last time a former lover of Daniel’s had entered their life, but her instincts told her that Miranda was very different.

By the time she had finished her coffee, her mind was made up. Taking out her phone, she looked up the number that Miranda had given her.

“I’m very sorry to disturb you,” she began apologetically when the other woman answered the phone.

“No, that’s okay. It’s Kris, isn’t it?”

“How did you know?”

“I have a few English clients I speak with from time to time, but most of those tend to be men. I recognised your voice Ms St—Ms Avelar,” she corrected herself. “What can I do for you?”

“Are you sure it’s okay to talk?”

“It’s just after seven here, and I’m not at work yet.”

“Oh, God—I can call back later.”

“No, not at all. This is fine, really.” Kris heard the warmth in the other woman’s voice and relaxed slightly. She was still slightly wary, but something told her that she would have to trust Miranda.

“I’m in Chicago at the moment, just for a couple more days, then I can go home.” Now a slight edge, one more of determination than any sense of threat, entered her voice. “What can I do for you, Kris? You don’t mind if I call you Kris, do you?”

“Not at all.” Kris’s own voice dropped almost to a whisper as she glanced around herself in the cafeteria. A barista was behind the counter and a couple of visitors were seated across the room, but otherwise it was empty.

“It’s... it’s Daniel. I think he’s in more trouble than I imagined—than we imagined. Felix Coltraine... Felix is out to get him. I think, I think he wants to leave Daniel with nothing, and that...” Kris swallowed her curses and started to speak after she had composed herself. “Francis Roth is here as well, apparently. Both of them are determined to do everything they can to get at Daniel. I can’t explain why, but I think the two of them won’t be happy until they see him back in jail.”

At the other end of the phone Miranda paused for a while, saying nothing. “I see. Well, as I indicated to you before I have... something that might be useful to Daniel.”

She told Kris what she had been considering briefly, then continued: “I can give it to you. Actually, I can send it to you, but I think... I think this is better delivered in person.”

“Really?” Kris was a little shocked at this.

“Really. You could do with some explanation of how to make best use of it. I can also put you in touch with the right people. But you’ll have to do this. I don’t... I don’t want to see Daniel again.”

Kris began to speak but, once more, held her tongue. The flood of emotions she suddenly felt would not be helpful and now, more than ever, she needed to maintain her composure, to think clearly.

“When can we meet then?”

“I have to remain here till tomorrow night, but I can divert the following day to London. It will take me a little longer but it will be worth it, I think.”

Something didn't quite make sense about this, but then the question Kris had been meaning to ask crystallised in her mind.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you so keen to help Daniel?”

It was Miranda’s turn to pause. “I want to help Daniel, yes, but I want something more than that. I want revenge.”

“Revenge? Against Daniel?”

The pause this time was because Miranda was laughing in a low voice. “No, not against Daniel, never against him. I want revenge against the Roths.”

When Daniel emerged from the lobby of Stone Enterprises an hour later, his face was dark with anger and at first he did not notice Kris as she stood in the doorway, lingering at the threshold as though unwilling to enter his domain. As he saw her, he attempted a wry smile: for a second, his wrath at what had occurred within struggled with his softer feelings towards her, but as he gently touched her shoulder his posture stiffened.

“How did it go?” she asked, slightly nervously, fully aware from the look on his face that all had gone badly.

“Never mind that. Come on, let’s get out of here. I didn’t ask my driver to wait, so I’d prefer to get a taxi. Anyway, the more important question is how did things go at the hospital? I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there.”

In response to his apology, she pressed herself closer into him and lifted herself on tiptoe, kissing his cheek. “It’s fine—all fine. You have a healthy baby daughter on the way.”

“A daughter...” His words were barely audible, and for a moment Kris looked up at him in concern. Then she realised that he had drifted away from her, his eyes staring blankly into the street, glistening slightly.

“Yes, a daughter,” she told him. “Part of me wondered whether you’d be so old fashioned as to want a son more than anything, but then I decided why shouldn’t a girl inherit your mantle at Stone Enterprises?”

Despite her light tone, his laugh was bitter and humourless. “She’d do a damn sight better than I have—not that there will be anything left to inherit at this rate.”

Gently but firmly he let his arm rest across her shoulders and propelled her outside, lifting his other arm to hail a taxi that was visible at the far end of the road. Kris opened her mouth to offer him words of comfort but, unsure what to say, remained silent. She knew how she would console him later, when they were on their own.

“Why, Ms Stone, how lovely to see you here!”

The sound of Francis Roth’s voice behind them made Kris freeze over and she felt Daniel’s arm become more tense. “Keep walking,” he said to her in a low voice.

“Really, I can’t believe that you didn’t invite us to the wedding. It’s unlike Daniel not to share his property.”

The provocation was so puerile that Kris almost laughed out loud, shaking her head and concentrating on the taxi that was beginning to slow down, pulling across the road towards them. For Daniel, however, it was too much.

“Why don’t you just fuck off, Roth? Felix, can’t you keep this little piece of shit of yours under control?”

He had stopped now and, half turning her head to follow his gaze Kris saw Francis standing outside the doorway, Felix Coltraine a few paces behind him. His smirk was as repulsive as it had ever been, and the way he gloated at Daniel was barely more than she could stand. At least, she noted with some grim satisfaction, Felix had the decency to look embarrassed.

“Now, now, Daniel,” Francis replied, coming forward so that he was little more than arm’s length away from the two of them. “That’s no way to speak to the man who’ll be running this outfit in a month’s time.”

“Over my dead body,” Daniel hissed. He took a single step forward and, for a fleeting instant, Francis looked afraid, stumbling backwards into Felix before he gained his composure once more.

“I suppose I’m meant to say say something along the lines of ‘that can be arranged’,” he sneered. “But I don’t need to. Pop’s decided you’re finished, now all we need is your signature on the dotted line.”

“And do you really think your father’s going to let you run anything?” Daniel’s face was deathly pale now, white with barely suppressed rage, the scars along his cheek standing out in frightening lines. Kris herself felt scared of him all of a sudden, and she noticed that Felix was stepping backwards, his eyes suddenly bulging at the six and a half foot man towering on the pavement before them. Only Francis seemed to be filled with bravado at that moment.

“Of course he will! It’s only fitting in the end, isn’t it?” Kris held onto Daniel’s arm as Francis spoke, trying to guide him towards the taxi that was waiting at the kerb side now. He was, however, as immobile as granite.

“After all,” Francis continued blithely, “after the false son failed to deliver the goods, it’s only right and proper that I show him how it’s done. Who knows, when the famous Daniel Stone is out of the picture, perhaps I can pick up with this pretty, plump wife of yours where we left off—”

Suddenly, with a speed that shocked both her and Felix, Daniel’s arm shot out and, almost without effort, he grabbed Francis around the throat and lifted him up into the air. Immediately the younger man’s toes bobbed down to the pavement once more as he scrabbled with his fingers against Daniel’s iron hard hand.

With his throat being choked, Francis’s face was beginning to turn purple, but Daniel’s own features remained pale: only his eyes burned brightly, betraying the hatred he felt towards the other man. Bringing his second hand up to Francis’s jacket, he raised him once more into the air so that he could say in a quietly threatening voice:

“I know you’re determined to drag me down, you bastard, but listen to this. Touch one hair on her head—one hair!—and I won’t let you live.”

“Daniel!” The voice was Felix’s, attempting to attract the attention of his former colleague.

“I don’t care what you do to me, and I don’t care how long I have to wait. I’ll use everything I have—every cent, every breath in my body, to find you and rip you apart.”

Raising her hand to his arm, her heart beating in her chest so loudly that she thought everyone around her must be able to hear, Kris said as calmly as she could manage: “Daniel, please. We have to go.” She felt no compassion at all towards this man who had tried to rape her, but now she realised with a sudden cool inrush of reason that nothing good would come if Daniel lost himself to his passions now.

Feeling her touch on his arm at last, Daniel glanced down. His eyes were still on fire, and the knuckles of his hand were still white as he gripped Francis tightly. At last, however, while the younger man choking in his grasp, those eyes became clearer, the dazzling pupils contracting slowly in pain as he saw her clearly. His fingers relaxed at last and Francis stumbled backwards, spluttering.

“Fuck you, Stone!” he howled, staggering away towards the doorway. “Fuck you! And your fucking whore! You’ll fucking pay for this, Stone!”

Daniel, however, paid not the slightest heed to him. Instead he lifted one hand softly to Kris’s cheek.

“Come on,” she said quietly. “Let’s go.”

For a few moments, Felix Coltraine stood on the pavement, watching the pair of them as they climbed into the waiting taxi. Before Kris could close the door behind her, however, he leaped forward and grabbed hold of it. Shocked, she looked up but his expression was not one of violence, anger or even distaste. Instead, his eyes were filled with a sadness and pain similar to that she had noticed in Daniel’s.

“Keep him away from here,” the older man told her, almost whispering so that Daniel would not hear. “The Americans are winning this one. For his sake—and yours—keep him under control.”