Meet Me in Venice by Elizabeth Adler Read Free Book Online

point in his life where he was just marking time, trying to decidewhat to do next. Mary-Lou had been an exciting temporary diversion. But it was time to move on and tonight he’d planned on telling her that. Now though, she had come up with this necklace scheme, based, as far as he could tell, on a fuzzy photograph she claimed to have taken of these “rare” jewels and the story of the “corpse” pearl. A story that appealed to him, in fact, though he doubted its veracity.
    “Exactly
who
has this necklace?” He took another cube of ice from the crystal bucket and added it to his drink.
    “I can’t tell you that.”
    He glanced up, brows raised. “You mean you expect me to sell jewels for you without knowing where they come from? Come on, Mary-Lou, you won’t find a criminal in town who’d go that route. How do I know you’re not going to kill someone to get your hands on that necklace?”
    Her amber-speckled eyes turned as cold as his iced bourbon. “I will,” she said. “If I have to.”
    Bennett sat back and picked up his glass. He thought Mary-Lou might have the face of an angel, but she had a soul forged of pure cold steel. He liked that. They were alike in more ways than one. He took a sip of the bourbon, looking at her.
    “I’m still not convinced,” he said. “And anyway, I wouldn’t work with you without knowing the whereabouts of the necklace and who has it now.”
    “I can’t tell you that.” She was stubborn but he knew she was softening.
    He reached across the table for her hand. “Look, sweetheart,” he said in the patronizing tone she knew well from other “rich”men who’d dumped her for the next pretty girl, “you’re asking me to work in the dark, put myself in possible legal jeopardy without knowing the facts. Get real. Tell me what’s what, or let’s just say ‘goodbye, it was fun while it lasted.’ Right now.”
    It was the “let’s say goodbye right now” part that got to her, just as he’d known it would. Tears swam in those beautiful eyes and she gripped his hand tightly. “Don’t say that,” she whispered, “please don’t say that, Bennett.”
    He removed his hand from her grip and sat back with an indifferent shrug. “You ask too much,” he said, summoning the waiter for the check.
    He heard her take a deep quavering breath. Then, “It’s my partner, Lily,” she admitted. “She has the necklace. It’s been in her family for generations. I don’t know how, or why she has it now. I swear she didn’t before, otherwise she surely would have sold it. I know she’s looking for a buyer though, and that’s why I—
we
—have to get in before it’s sold.”
    Bennett thought about Lily, the woman Mary-Lou had implied she was prepared to kill if she had to. He wondered whether he might not be better off with Lily than with Mary-Lou. After all, Lily had the necklace legitimately, though from the provenance it seemed to him to be likely it would be confiscated by the government if it ever resurfaced. Still, it was worth exploring.
    “I’d like to meet Lily,” he said, paying the check and adding a generous tip. Even when he was running short of money Bennett was still a big tipper; he found it paid off, it always guaranteed him a good table and the best service, and it created a good impression.
    Mary-Lou watched him, puzzled, asking herself why he would want to meet Lily. As if in answer to her question, he said, “I need to know exactly who we’re dealing with, if we are to be in business together.” He got up from the table and held out his hand to her. “Come on, partner,” he said, “let’s call Lily and take her out to dinner.”
    Mary-Lou’s smile lit up the bar as they walked together out of Cloud 9.

ELEVEN
    L ILY was in her peaceful courtyard garden, feeding the gold fish. The gentle slide of water over the smooth copper surface of the wall fountain was the only sound, until the ringing phone jolted her out of her Zen state of mind.