Don't Say a Word - Barbara Freethy [140]
When they were all in the bedroom, Julia finally let herself breathe. They were safe, at least for the moment. That security hadn't registered with Elena, whose blue eyes were dark and worried. Her skin was pale, and beads of sweat lined her forehead. Elena was probably even more confused than Julia. Her sister hadn't spent the past week running from some sinister force the way Julia had.
She turned to Brady, suddenly aware that he had taken the contents of the safe-deposit box out of her bag. The letter he'd expressed interest in had been tossed onto the bed. Brady was now fiddling with the frame on the Icon.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
He didn't answer her. Instead, he produced a small screwdriver and took the frame apart. His eyes lit up as he pulled out a dark red stone that caught the sunlight. A ruby?
Julia had the sudden feeling the surprises weren't over yet. "Oh, my God! Is that real?"
"Oh, yeah," he muttered.
The ruby was followed by another huge stone, then another, until there were six in all: an opal, a diamond, two sapphires, two rubies-a fortune in jewels.
"I knew it," he said in satisfaction. "I knew they were in there."
"What do you mean, you knew they were there? Where did they come from?" Julia demanded.
For a moment it didn't appear that he would answer her; then he shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter if you know. The jewels belonged to your great-grandmother. She was a favorite with the Imperial Court. She received one perfect stone after each performance and had them sewn into her costumes. Then the revolution swept across Russia. The costumes disappeared. Tamara claimed they'd been stolen, but it was rumored that she'd hidden them away." His smile grew smug as he faced Julia. "Your mother told me about them one night. She said they could be used to buy her family's freedom. How could I resist an offer like that?" He glanced down at the stones. "I've waited twenty-five years to hold these babies," he muttered, closing his fist around the stones. "They're finally mine."
"Yours? They're ours," Julia corrected.
"I don't think so."
Julia looked into his cold, dark eyes and saw the truth. Brady had been in Russia at the time of the defection. He knew about her parents. He knew about the jewels. He'd probably worked both sides. He hadn't wanted to help her parents defect; he'd wanted to get the treasure. She swallowed hard, realizing where her thoughts were taking her. She was probably staring at the man who'd set a trap for her parents. "It was you, wasn't it?" she asked, the words escaping from her lips before she could consider the wisdom of saying them. "You're the one who killed my parents."
"They double-crossed me," he said flatly. "They set me up to think I already had the jewels in my possession. It was their ticket to freedom, but they gave me fakes. They deserved what they got."
"They didn't deserve to die," she protested, pain and anger filling her soul at his callous disregard for their lives.
He shrugged. "It had to be done. I couldn't let them leave the country with the jewels."
His coldness, his complete lack of conscience, was now starkly evident. How could Julia have missed it before? How could she and Alex have been taken in by his offers to help? That answer was obvious now, too. They'd trusted Brady because Charles and Stan trusted him. Did the other two know of his duplicity, or had they been conned as well?
"Did anyone ever suspect you?"