Jade Island by Elizabeth Lowell Page A

in mind…” He smiled and spread his big hands. “Business is business, and may the best bidder win.”
    Caught in a trap of her own making, Lianne gripped the strap of her purse more tightly. If she admitted that she didn’t have a client, Kyle would want to know why she was bidding on a Neolithic blade when her personal passion was supposed to be Warring States jades. If she told him she thought the blade belonged to Wen Zhi Tang, that would open up a floodgate of questions, none of them comfortable or easily answered.
    The longer she thought about the blade, the more it bothered her. An outright sale was the most likely explanation for the blade’s presence in the SunCo display, but Lianne couldn’t believe that a key part of her grandfather’s Neolithic blade collection had been sold without her knowledge. Though nothing had ever been said outright, the care of the Tang family’s extensive jade holdings had gradually passed to her as Wen’s eyes and hands failed him. Yesterday, when she removed the jade pieces she had selected from the vault, the various collections had appeared to be intact.
    Not that she had checked them piece by piece. There was no need, except on the rare occasions when the jades were being loaned for various exhibitions. The Tang jadecollection was kept behind thick steel doors and heavy combination locks. Jade was a significant portion of Wen’s personal wealth. More important, the collections were the heart and pride of the Tang family.
    The simplest explanation for the Neolithic blade Lianne had seen tonight was that she had made a mistake in thinking that it was her grandfather’s. In other words, her memory, talent, training, and experience had failed her. Completely.
    It wasn’t a comforting explanation. Nor was it one she could easily accept. The only way to be certain was to get her hands on the blade, take it to the Tang vaults, and see if it had a twin in Wen’s collection. If it didn’t…well, that would lead to more questions, questions whose answers would be as unsettling as the fear she had seen in Johnny Tang’s eyes.
    Kyle noticed Lianne’s growing tension. Her slender fingers were wrapped around her purse strap with enough force to make her knuckles white. He didn’t know why the Neolithic blade meant so much to her, much less why it made her unhappy just to think about it, but he was sure it did.
    Undoubtedly Lianne knew more about the blade than she had told him. Yet. It was just a matter of gaining more of her trust. From what she had said about the Tang family, she was pretty much on her own. Vulnerable.
    Easy prey.
    The realization should have made Kyle feel good, because it made his job easier. You want me to seduce the illegitimate American daughter of a Hong Kong trading family in order to discover whether she’s involved in the sale of cultural treasures stolen from China?
    Yeah. Except for the seduction part. That’s optional.
    Unfortunately, the idea of seduction was appealing more and more to Kyle with every moment he spent inhaling the lilies-and-rain essence of Lianne. All he had to do in order to satisfy his hunger was to get his conscience to take a brief holiday. Maybe if he reminded himself oftenenough that she was the one who had begun the game, he wouldn’t feel like a jerk for taking advantage of her.
    “Relax,” Kyle said easily. “I’m sure your client has a ceiling. If the price of the Neolithic blade goes over his limit, he can’t blame you for not buying.”
    “I have to register for the auction. What about you?”
    “Same here. I hadn’t planned on bidding until I saw the blade.”
    Lianne’s mouth tightened into a downward-turning arc, a reflection of the cold certainty that had settled in her stomach. The price she could pay for the Neolithic blade wasn’t nearly as high as the price Kyle Donovan could pay.

Chapter 6
    D uring the pause between the second and third sessions of the auction, the auction room remained filled