She took a few hesitant steps. Lanighan grabbed her arm and yelled, “No. First the Koh-i-Noor.”
Mulvaney smiled at her, a bitter smile, one filled with shadows and hate. “Yes, where is the diamond?”
All pretense gone, Kitsune’s eyes turned hot and dark, and despite himself, Mulvaney took a step back. “You betrayed me! You’re working with him. Why, William? What could I have possibly done to make you hate me so much?”
It was as if the dam had burst. Mulvaney yelled at her, “I gave you everything, you faithless bitch! I saved you from the gutter, trained you, taught you endlessly. Damn you, I loved you! I made you the center of my life. We were together. We were meant to be together always.
“And how did you repay me? I’ve seen your computer history, Kitsune. I know you’ve been checking up on that man Thornton. Hoping against hope once you showed up with fifty million dollars he’d take you back. You were going to leave me for another man, walk away from your life, our life. I spent years making things perfect for you, making you perfect for me. We were supposed to be together. You are the one who betrayed me!”
Somewhere deep she’d known but simply hadn’t wanted to face it, to accept that such a thing could be possible. She said calmly, “I never betrayed you, William. You were like a father to me, and I loved you like a father. I gave you everything I could give you.”
“No, you did not give me what I deserved, what I wanted. You gave what should have been mine to Thornton—he was nothing more than a tool, someone to throw away when you had no more use for him. What did he do for you besides screw you? Damn you, Kitsune, he was nothing, and yet you chose him over me.”
“No, I did throw him away because I had to, because of the job. And you’ve been spying on me this whole time? You’re pathetic! A pathetic old man.”
There was nothing more to say. Kitsune reached into her shirt and withdrew a blue velvet bag, tossed it to Lanighan.
“Here’s your bloody stone. I’m leaving.”
Lanighan looked from Mulvaney to Kitsune. “Is your drama played out? Good. Now, Kitsune, you and I are not done. You will give me something else, something I must have. It will be your final gift. Hurry, Mulvaney, do it now!”
Mulvaney lunged at her, grabbed her arm, twisted it behind her back, and began pummeling her kidneys with hard punches. He outweighed her by a good forty pounds, and he knew all her moves. He’d taught them to her, after all. But she was much younger and very fast and strong, and she fought him with everything in her, twisting and punching and kicking.
Lanighan ignored the battle and opened the bag, dumped the Koh-i-Noor into his palm. It was luminescent, sparkling, lit from within, recognizing its true master. The great stone was his at last.
He went to the small table in the corner, where he’d set his grandfather’s ancient rosewood box.
Using the bone-handled knife he’d brought from his family’s estate, he cut his finger, laid the wound against the golden lock. The hasps began to turn with a creaking noise he remembered as if it were yesterday, and the lock sprang free.
He opened the box and looked down at his grandfather’s huge stone, and the smaller one retrieved from Anatoly’s safe. Both were dull in comparison to the Koh-i-Noor, their internal fire hidden. He pulled them from the box and laid them next to one another. He heard a noise begin. It was as if they were greeting one another, a small hum growing louder and more insistent. He pushed them closer together and the hum became screams. He put a finger on each of the stones, caressing them, giving them thanks.