Kane by Jennifer Blake Read Free Book Online

“but it was something of an inherited passion.”
    â€œYou mean you got your start with a collection handed down in your family?”
    That was what he was supposed to think, what Regina allowed most people to think, though she never said it in so many words. “Something like that.”
    Actually, Regina had conceived her passion for the antique pieces while hanging around a pawnshop after school. The elderly man who ran it, Abe Levine, had been the very embodiment of the word “venerable.” He’d always had time for her, putting down his book or his violin with a warm smile when she came into the shop. An endless source of knowledge about all things, he seemed to enjoy taking beautiful old pieces from the cases for her to see, relating their stories, telling her about values and where stones came from, about how to tell the real from the fake. He had given her the amber pendant she always wore, her first antique. She had lied to Kane about his being a relative, but she was sure Abe wouldn’t have minded. Anyway, he was the closest thing to a grandfather she’d ever known.
    During the long days spent in his shop, he’d firedher imagination with tales about fortunes in portable jewels shown to him by actresses down on their luck or showgirls who had taken to heart the theory that diamonds were a girl’s best friend. He knew the histories of fabulous pieces smuggled out of Russia before and after the Bolshevik revolution, or from Germany during World War II, also the tragic backgrounds of more simple pieces from those times. It was Abe who had put her in touch with the circle of buyers and sellers of old jewelry, who had helped her earn her first commission, urged her to accept her first assignment to value and sell an estate collection. Though she had also studied and learned on her own, visiting museums, reading countless books, never missing an opportunity to compare and value, she owed that gentle old man so much, including her independence.
    Abe had never cared for her cousin Gervis. The feeling was mutual; Gervis had shed no tears when Regina’s mentor died.
    Odd, but Lewis Crompton reminded her of Abe, now she thought of it.
    â€œFor someone who handles jewelry for a living, you don’t wear a lot of it, do you?” His glance lingered an instant on her hands that were bare of jewelry of any kind.
    She felt heat rise in her face, something that didn’t happen too often, or hadn’t until she came south. She seldom wore rings because they drew attention to her nails, which she wore extra short to keep herself from biting them. “No, not while traveling,” she answered shortly. “It’s too valuable to risk having it stolen.”
    He arched a brow. “But you must travel with other people’s collections all the time.”
    â€œFor which I’m bonded, of course. But I wasn’t speaking of monetary value alone.” She folded her arms, tucking her hands out of sight, and hoped the gesture wasn’t an obvious cover-up.
    â€œFunny,” he said, his smile quizzical yet sharp. “You don’t strike me as the sentimental type.”
    â€œWe all have our little quirks.” Turning from his probing gaze, she stared out the window. Kane, it seemed, was even more intent on getting information from her than she was on questioning him. There was grim humor in the idea, but somehow she wasn’t laughing.
    It was incredibly difficult, she found, not to answer his queries in full, if only to keep his attention focused on her. Something about his rich voice, the expressions that flickered in his eyes, gave the perception that he cared about what he was hearing. It was, no doubt, a valuable attribute for a lawyer.
    After a time, he turned off the blacktop road they were traveling and bumped over a sandy track with potholes large enough to swallow a taxicab. Regina opened her mouth to ask where he thought he was taking her, but