Part 31 (1/2)

”When you say the Chinese...” Kyle began. ”I mean the Chang family,” Archer finished. Discomfort forgotten, Lianne scooted around until she was sitting between both brothers. ”All right. The Aussies have d.a.m.n few export products worth as much as pearls. They're worried about losing out to the Chinese. How would killing Len improve the Australian position in the pearl market?”

”If Len had a covert alliance with the Changs,” Archer said, ”the Aussies had good reason to fear that he would turn over the secret of the black rainbows to the Chinese.”

”Which would give China a lock on all levels of the pearl trade,” Lianne said. ”Goodbye Aussie leverage. But Len had to know the Chang family was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g him. Why would he give them anything as precious as the rainbow pearls?”

”He wouldn't,” Archer said. ”He would just let the Changs think he was going to. I'm sure he was dangling the same lure in front of the Aussies. Otherwise they would have driven him out of business years ago. Len was a big thorn in their jockstrap.”

”Ouch,” Kyle muttered. ”What about the j.a.panese? They can't be happy either way.”

Archer shrugged. ”j.a.pan doesn't have any warm oceans to grow South Seas pearls in or any chance of acquiring that kind of real estate, short of World War Three. They're hanging on to as much of their pearl sales monopoly as they can. Again, the high-end stuff is slipping away from them. Again, it's the Changs who are taking over. If the j.a.panese knew about Len's pearls, they'd want them.”

”Who wouldn't?” Lianne asked. ”I love jade, but that pearl you showed me was extraordinary.”

She leaned against Kyle's shoulder and stared at the screen. The twins went into overdrive. She sighed and s.h.i.+fted again. This time she rested her round belly on Archer. Feeling the tattoo of life against his arm, he turned and smiled at Lianne.

”Isn't it time for their nap?” he teased.

”In my dreams.” She grabbed his hand and put it on the most active twin. ”Here, Uncle Archer. Soothe the savage beasts while Daddy slays the computer dragon.”

Obediently Archer stroked over Lianne's big belly, pausing to savor the b.u.mp and seethe of hidden life before he stroked again soothingly.

Archer didn't know that he had a small, almost dreamy smile on his face, but Hannah did. She stopped in the doorway to the suite and stared, frozen. The contrast between the hard planes of his stubble-shadowed face and the tenderness of his smile was shocking. The difference between his muscular body and the care of his hand soothing his pet.i.te and visibly pregnant sister-in-law was equally shocking.

The child will know his or her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Most of all, the child will know me.

Archer's words echoed and reechoed in Hannah's mind, making her dizzy. She had a.s.sumed he was threatening her because he was angry. Now she realized that he had simply told the truth. Whether she liked it or not, whether she trusted him or not, he would be a part of their child's life. If there was a child.

”Ah, see?” Lianne said, laughing softly. ”The little devils are settling down. You're in for a lifetime of babysitting, Archer.”

”Doesn't scare me a bit. When they get big and ornery, I'll give them back to you.”

Kyle snickered. ”I'm going to teach your kids how to make mud pies in the linen cupboard.”

”Is that the worst thing you ever did?” Hannah asked from the doorway.

At her first word, Archer changed as he had in the gym, withdrawing into himself so completely that Hannah could almost hear the doors closing and bolts slamming home. He became again the man she feared, cool and ruthless, watching her with emotionless eyes.

”Sorry,” she said, drawing back. ”I didn't mean to intrude.”

”No problem,” Kyle said without looking up from the computer screen. ”You must be Hannah. I'm Kyle, and the beautiful Munchkin draped against Archer is my wife, Lianne. I'd introduce you to the twins, but we haven't picked their names yet.”

”Twins?” Hannah asked.

She didn't hear the wistfulness in her own voice, but Lianne did. ”Two of them,” she said. ”At least, that's what my doctor is saying. At the rate I'm growing, I'm wondering about triplets.”

”Bite your tongue,” Kyle said.

She leaned over against him and whispered something that made her husband smile. He gave her a promising-remembering kind of look along with a grin. ”I'll take a rain check on that,” he said, ”hut not for long.”

Archer didn't say anything. He simply watched Hannah standing in the door with the elegance of a dancer and the mouth of a siren calling to her man. The travel-wilted clothes she wore couldn't conceal the curves and hollows, the lure and the promise of her body. Distance couldn't conceal the deep wariness in her eyes, the tension that radiated from her when she looked at the man she didn't trust. The man she feared. The man who wanted her so much he had to remind himself to breathe every time he saw her unexpectedly.

Motionless, Archer waited, praying that none of the emotions seething beneath his calm showed through. But they must have, because Hannah took another step backward. At her retreat, his eyelids flinched in a reaction that was as involuntary as it was painful.

Deliberately he turned back to the computer, not wanting to look any longer at the woman he loved backing away from him.

”If control of the high-end pearl market wasn't motivation enough for Len's murder,” Archer said neutrally, ”our half brother had a talent for making enemies. Hannah could tell you more about that than I could. In the end, it doesn't really matter. Len is dead and the black rainbows are gone. Find them and you'll find Len's murderer.”

With a smooth, powerful surge, Archer came to his feet. ”That's why I brought Hannah here. She needs protection while I find the pearls.”

”Protection? Why?” Lianne asked, turning to Hannah.

”Whoever killed Len thinks I have the secret of making the black rainbows,” she said. The words came out tight, almost harsh, so curt that Lianne frowned. ”I don't.”

”Until Len's murderer is found,” Archer said, ”she's at risk.” He looked at his watch. ”I'll be back by dinner.”

”You better be,” Kyle said. ”Dad will want to talk to you.”

”Hannah knows more about Len than I do.”

”What I know, your father doesn't want to hear.” Abruptly Hannah fell silent, thinking of a graveyard in Broome, when Archer had asked her to remember the good things and let go of the bad.

”I've already answered Dad's questions about Len,” Archer said as though she hadn't spoken. ”There are more useful things for me to do than hash over a past neither one of us can change.”

He walked toward the door as though Hannah wasn't blocking it.

”Where are you going?” she asked, watching Archer approach. Her voice was husky with memories and something she refused to recognize as hope.

He stopped very close to her, expecting her to back away. She didn't. ”To see a man about some pearls.”

”Len's pearls?” she asked.

”Possibly.”

”Then I'm coming with you.”

”No.” The word was smooth and cold, leaving no room for argument or interpretation.

”You need me to ”

”No,” he cut in. ”Not now. Not ever. Not in any way.”

Kyle and Lianne exchanged looks. They hadn't ever seen Archer like this, leaving ice burns with a few deadly calm words.

”Ah, Hannah,” Kyle said, trying to defuse the explosion he sensed coming.

”If you think I'm letting you go after the Black Trinity on your own,” Hannah said in a low, savage voice, ”you're as crazy as Len was.”