“Woof.”
He stood up and leaned over her. “Let me tell you how this is going to work. You are going to give me the Koh-i-Noor, and in return, I’ll put in a good word for your friend Grant Thornton. You remember him, don’t you? He’s the one who gave you the information about the Koh-i-Noor stone moving to New York months before it was publicly announced? As we speak, he’s being transferred to the tombs in London. Into a mixed cell. You know how they love the pretty boys. Word gets out he’s former SAS and they’ll want to make an example of him.”
She paled, couldn’t help it, and Nicholas thought, Got you.
Kitsune raised her chin. “He has nothing to do with this. Nothing, and you know it.”
“I beg to differ. As does Her Majesty’s government. Thornton will be stripped of his rank, his work, his pension. He will be an outcast from his world, a pariah. On top of his humiliation, he’ll go to jail for the rest of his life. If he survives the night, naturally.”
He walked around her, circling his prey. “A man like him, who’s dedicated his life to queen and country? You’ve destroyed him, Kitsune. It’s all on your head. He lost everything because he had the misfortune to fall in love with you—a fraud, a chimera, only the illusion of a woman who didn’t really exist.”
Kitsune closed her eyes and saw Grant. Beautiful, innocent Grant. He would be the one to suffer, and she’d done it to him. The Brit was right about that.
“I’ll save him if you give me the Koh-i-Noor.”
She gave him a long look, weighed his word, he knew, weighted him. She said finally, “I have conditions.”
Nicholas stopped his pacing, went back to his chair and sat, eyebrows politely raised.
“You’re hardly in a bargaining position, but let’s hear it.”
“Grant walks, no stain on his character, and he returns to his job. Has he been told about me?”
“No.”
It was an unutterable relief. She nodded. “He will not be told about any of it. Not about me, not about Lanighan. Nothing.”
“All right. And?”
“Lanighan is holding a man in the warehouse. He is important to me. See that he’s freed and I’ll tell you where the diamond is.”
“Ah, now, Kitsune, you’re going to have to do better. If you want our help, you tell us up front where the Koh-i-Noor is, and then we’ll talk about meeting your conditions.”
She shook her head. “My friend first. And your word, as a gentleman, that he will not be harmed.”
Mike stepped in. “Are you talking about William Mulvaney?”
Kitsune couldn’t believe this. Did everyone on the planet know about Mulvaney?
“Yes. His name is Mulvaney.”
“What’s he to you?”
“A friend.”
At Nicholas’s raised eyebrow, she added, “More than a friend. He is my mentor, my partner. He is a man I have known more than half my life.”
“You sound like you would give your life for him,” Mike said.
Kitsune said simply, “Yes.”
“Is he your friend? A man you would trust with your life? A man you would sacrifice yourself for? Is he really?” and Nicholas queued up the phone conversation they’d overheard on their way to the warehouse.
“Where is the bitch with the stone?”
“She’ll come. She wants her money too much to betray you. It’s all she ever cared about. Relax.”
Mike said, “Is this the voice of your friend Mulvaney?”
Kitsune rolled her eyes. “Please, I know how you work. You can manipulate anything, make Drummond here sound like the president of the United States.”
Mike said, “Yep, that’s certainly possible, but take a look at this. We couldn’t have screwed around with this. We took this from your car at the warehouse.”
She put Kitsune’s laptop on the table and opened the lid. The video camera feed from the warehouse was still running.
Mike backed the feed up, set the small computer in Kitsune’s lap.