Donovans - Pearl Cove Part 33

"Wrong. You're family, and family doesn't owe family." Archer held up his hand, cutting off the hot words he saw ready to boil out of Hannah. "But I'll take whatever you spend on clothes out in work, if that will make you feel better."

"What about the airline tickets and the "

"Right," Archer interrupted curtly. "You owe me a bundle. I'll tally it to the last cent. When this is over, I'll send you a G.o.dd.a.m.n bill, you'll pay it, and you'll be free of the Donovans." He gave her a look that had her backing up. "Unless you're pregnant. Are you pregnant, Hannah?"

"I-I don't know."

"I'll get a test kit."

She stiffened. "They're not reliable."

"Neither is life. We all get through it anyway."

"Stop looming over me!"

"I haven't moved an inch."

"You don't have to. You're just just "

"Cold, ruthless, incapable of love," he said neutrally. "I know, you've told me before."

"I never said anything about love."

"Then you think a cold, ruthless man like me is capable of love?"

She shut her mouth. "Why are you pushing me?"

"Because you're pushing me. Let's look at pearls. And forget the mistress bit. No one watching us would believe it. You stiffen every time I touch you."

Hannah wanted to deny it. She couldn't.

But it wasn't distaste that made her stiffen. It was desire. She didn't know how to handle it.

Or him.

"Right," she said through her teeth. "I'm not your hired playmate. Then what am I?"

"A woman who wants to break into the pearl game."

"What's my name?"

"Hannah McGarry. You're my partner in Pearl Cove."

She blinked.

"Lying got us out of Australia alive," Archer said. "Maybe the truth will get us to the pearls."

And maybe it would get them dead. Either way, hiding wasn't possible anymore.

Ian Chang stood fifteen feet away, staring at Hannah.

Twenty.

The look on Chang's face said that he wasn't surprised to find Hannah McGarry in the Pearl Exchange. His clothes said he hadn't been off the airplane long enough to change. He strolled forward, took her hands, and kissed her. If she hadn't turned her head aside quickly, the kiss would have landed on her mouth.

"Well, well," Chang said, looking Hannah over carefully. If he was bothered by the fact that her heels made her six inches taller than he was, it didn't show. "I almost didn't recognize you."

Archer didn't like the gleam in Chang's eyes or the way he was running his thumbs over the backs of Hannah's hands. But she wasn't stepping away, even though the man's breath was all over her low neckline.

"G'day, Ian," she said automatically. She hoped he didn't sense how unhappy she was to see him. "What are you doing in Seattle?"

The blunt question made Chang smile rather grimly. "I was worried about you."

"Why?"

"Come now, Hannah." Chang's fingers tightened on hers. "Surely you realize that you're half owner of a very valuable commodity. People who own things of value are always at risk."

Sell Pearl Cove to the Changs. We're big enough to weather the coming storm. You aren't. Don't follow Len into the grave.

Hannah wished she could forget Ian's warning, and the threat implicit in it, but she couldn't. She could only put on a smile and pretend that this was a chance meeting half a world away from Pearl Cove.

"Archer Donovan," she said through stiff lips, "Ian Chang. Or have you met?"

"Indirectly," Ian said, releasing one of her hands and holding his right hand out to Archer. "A pleasure to meet directly."

"Mr. Chang," Archer said neutrally.

"Hannah told me you own half of Pearl Cove. Is that correct?"

Archer nodded, concealing his surprise at Chang's bald approach.

"The family of Chang is prepared to make you a very handsome offer for Pearl Cove," Ian said.

"I haven't considered selling."

"Do." Chang smiled. "It is worth considering, even for a man of your wealth and... connections."

Archer heard what Chang wasn't saying: Sell out or even Donovan International wouldn't keep him from being at risk.

"If I won't sell, you can always buy Hannah's share," Archer said mildly.

"My instructions don't include Mrs. McGarry."

Adrenaline slid through Archer's veins. Not good. Not good at all. Someone has thrown Hannah to the wolves. "I see."

Chang nodded curtly. "I hoped you would." He handed over a business card. "Please contact me as soon as you decide."

"You, the Australians, the j.a.panese." Archer smiled. "A lot of interest for a pearl farm that has been only marginally profitable."

"Under Chang leadership, Pearl Cove will be quite profitable." Chang looked back at Hannah. Desire, regret, echoes of anger; all were in his sad smile. "I wish you had chosen me, Sister McGarry. I would have kept you safe. Now it is too late. Stay very close to the man you did choose. Very, very close." With that, Chang released her hands and glanced at Archer. "Mr. Donovan, I look forward to doing business with you.

Soon."

Silently Hannah and Archer watched Chang turn away and walk to the elevator.

"Why do I feel like he was saying goodbye?" Hannah asked.

"Because he was."

"He knew I would never be a married man's mistress," she said, and in her voice was the same mix of desire, regret, and anger as she had heard in Chang's. "I thought Ian was my friend...."

"He is."

The sideways look she gave Archer was as sardonic as the curl of her lip.

"He just went against his family's business interests and warned you not to trust him when it comes to Pearl Cove," Archer said. "I call that an act of friendship."

"Ian warned me in Australia, when he was trying to buy me out."

Archer said nothing. He hoped she wouldn't follow that line of thought to its logical conclusion.

She did.

"Now he's not trying to buy me out," she said. "Why? Does he think you'll sell more quickly than I would?"

"What Ian thinks doesn't matter anymore. His daddy is calling the shots now."

"Right," she said impatiently. "I figured that out. But does his daddy think you'll sell?"

"Sam Chang thinks that I've got better protection in this game than you do. He'd rather buy me out than take me out."

Her eyes widened. "Take you out?"

"The way Len was taken out."

"Are you saying that Sam Chang...?" she whispered.

Archer shrugged. "He could have, but the Chinese don't have a corner on doing business the jugular way. Whenever commerce slides over to become political leverage, things get dirty real quick all over the world."

She let out a breath in a rush of air. No matter how she felt about Ian Chang and his many mistresses, the thought of him being involved in Len's death made her sick.

"Anyway," Hannah said, swallowing hard, "nothing has changed. Not really. I knew I was in trouble when I called you." Yet even as she spoke, she was shaking her head in slow denial of her own words. "No, that's not quite true. I was afraid when I called you. Now I know. Thank you for "

"Don't thank me," Archer cut in, watching the elevator again. "If I wasn't your partner, you would have sold out to Ian when he offered the first time. You would be out of the game."

"No."

Archer looked back at her. "Why not?"

"I wouldn't sell to anyone who might have benefited from Len's death. To anyone who might have practiced What did you call it?"

"Jugular business."

"Right." Hannah smiled crookedly. "Every time I think I've escaped my childhood, it comes back to haunt me."

"What do you mean?"

"At my core I believe that personal honor matters and murder shouldn't go unpunished."

Archer agreed, but all he said was, "Acting on those kinds of beliefs could get you killed."

She closed her eyes for a moment. "I don't want to die. And I don't want to live if I can't look at myself in a mirror."

He wanted to hold her, to tell her that everything would be all right. He knew better. Yet it was like a knife turning in him.

"The Donovan family will do what it can about the first," he said evenly. "The rest is up to you."

The elevator doors opened. A man and a woman walked out. They were of average height, dressed in average business clothes, and had uncommonly alert eyes. They spotted Archer the same instant that he spotted them. Without pausing, they walked to the nearest booth and began looking at pearls.

"Is that them?" Hannah asked.

"Our government tails?"

"Yes."

He nodded.

"Why are they following us?" she muttered.

"Because America has a stake in the outcome of the pearl game."

"Who do they want to win?"

"Today? I don't know, but I suspect it's not us. Tomorrow?" He smiled thinly. "Who knows? Some diplomats could exchange cables, some new international business deals could be made, and bingo, today's hero is tomorrow's sc.u.m, and all bets are off."

"That's depressing."

"That's politics."

"I prefer pearls."