The Thief Of Mardu Part 13

"Harron, hmm," Cheltam paused. A decanter of purple liquid suddenly appeared in the center of the table surrounded by three gla.s.ses.

"Cheltam," Catam warned.

"Hold a minute, Mardu." The inflection in the informant's voice didn't change, but she could tell Catam had irritated him. "In celebration of Harron's certain and unavoidable demise, I ordered Chelfont 2040." He nodded to the purple liquid.

"You have expensive tastes," Isa murmured.

"But I so deserve it."

Catam sighed and squeezed Isa's thigh. "First you drink it, then I will."

Cheltam muttered something under his breath but he took a sip before pouring Catam a gla.s.s. After Catam swished the liquid in his mouth, he nodded and released her leg.

Cheltam poured Isa a gla.s.s. "See? It's vintage wine, something even you can appreciate, Mardu."

Catam rolled his eyes at the veiled insult and Isa chuckled. There was something about Cheltam she liked, though she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Now tell me about Harron," Cheltam said softly.

Isa explained her job for Harron, leaving out nothing in the details concerning Daarna or Arnath. The informant listened in silence.

"Well?" Catam said to dispel the quiet. "What do you know?"

Cheltam finished his wine, refusing to be hurried. His arrogance spoke volumes and Isa wished she felt as easy.

"We don't have all day," Catam growled.

Isa glared at him. They couldn't afford to scare Cheltam off, not at this point.

"How do you put up with him, my dear?" Cheltam sighed and pushed away his now empty gla.s.s. "Very well. Harron has been working for Daarna Klin for the past five years. Statesman Klin was in office for eight years, and the last five were spent keeping his wife in line."

"So he did know about her affairs," Catam said, as if confirming what he already knew.

Cheltam nodded. "But he didn't know this past year she had an ongoing affair with his fiercest rival, Arnath Bedenzi."

"That makes sense," Isa said. "But where does Harron come in?" She didn't understand. Klin had been wealthy, so Daarna shouldn't have wanted for anything. Why steal from her husband? And why use Harron to p.a.w.n her own goods?

"At first Daarna stole from her husband to finance her gambling habit. That's how she met Arnath in the first place," Cheltam explained.

"He was blackmailing her?" Catam toyed with his gla.s.s. "That sounds like his style."

"Yes," Cheltam agreed. "She began p.a.w.ning her jewelry and antiques to finance Arnath's campaign against her husband. Apparently once he won Klin's seat, Daarna would be off the hook."

"She isn't," Isa said with a frown.

"Ah, but that's because she has him right where she wants him." Cheltam smiled. "It was her idea to use Harron in the first place. He came up with your name, Isa, because you refused to work with him on so many other jobs. Why did you concede this time?"

Isa shook her head. "I wasn't thinking straight." No, Teve had dumped her and she'd desperately needed to escape.

Catam frowned. "You sure as h.e.l.l weren't." She glared at him and he coughed. "I mean, it's too bad about the whole situation."

Cheltam stared at him strangely before continuing. "Yes, well, in any case, Daarna decided to murder her husband, steal his wealth, and place the blame on a thief from Aran. The blade used to stab Klin was Voranian. Arnath's father made it, and Harron just happens to have it in his private safe."

"How do you know this?" Isa asked, amazed at what Cheltam knew.

He shrugged. "Information is my game. It's what I do." He acted nonchalant, but she could see him preening.

Catam saw it too, for he muttered, "Peac.o.c.k."

"All I need to do then, is steal it back from Harron and we've got the evidence to support my story."

Catam looked thoughtful. "It seems almost too easy."

"It is." Cheltam smiled, and his affability faded under a predatory grin. "It so happens I acquired the knife from Harron. You can have it, for a price."

Catam stilled, menace filling his frame. His eyes glowed and Isa wanted to warn Cheltam to tread carefully. Catam would only be pushed so far.

"You owe me," Catam reminded him through clenched teeth.

"I think not. I don't owe you a thing," Cheltam answered calmly.

"d.a.m.n it, you--"

Isa cut off Catam's roar by "accidentally" spilling wine on his lap. He looked shocked and had she not been so desperate to salvage the situation, she would have laughed.

"Look, Cheltam, I need that knife. Just tell us what you want."

Cheltam's gaze remained on Catam when he answered in a cool voice, "I want you, Isa. Just you."

Chapter Thirteen.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Catam said and lunged over the table.

Cheltam surprised them all, dodging the attack and pinning Catam to the wall with one hand on his throat and another holding a phaser.

"Don't move, my dear," he said quietly, "or I'll put your lover to sleep for a long, long time."

Isa stopped in her tracks, just a foot away from smas.h.i.+ng Cheltam in the head with the carafe.

"Put it down," he said without looking at her.

She placed the gla.s.s decanter on the table and stared angrily at the back of his head, wis.h.i.+ng him to h.e.l.l.

"That's right, everyone calm down." Cheltam released Catam who snarled angrily. The informant wisely kept his phaser sighted on Catam's chest. "Both of you sit back down and listen.

"I want Isa, and I want her to accompany me, tonight, back to my home. If she's as good as I imagine," he said, his eyes blazing with a sudden heat, "I'll give her the knife and a thank you."

Isa's jaw dropped. She'd never before had anyone blackmail her for ... s.e.x? Maybe Catam had done something to her that made her seem s.e.xy to the male species. Her sisters had men fall all over themselves for their attention. But not Isa. Not until Catam, and now apparently Cheltam.

"Let me get this straight," she said for clarification. "You want me to go home with you and have s.e.x with you. That's what you want in exchange for the knife?"

Cheltam grinned, and for the first time Isa noted how handsome he was. He shouldn't need blackmail to get a woman. Why this, and why her?

"Cheltam," Catam growled, "this is the most asinine thing--"

"I figure this way I'll be enjoying Isa while you deal with the Ari on her head. This is as good a place as any to start searching."

His words doused Catam's anger and made Isa puzzle with worry. Cheltam knew about the Ari? If she indeed had an Ari over her, the smart thing would be to avoid her, not bring her home. What was Cheltam thinking? Then again, as she'd often heard said, men tended to think with their c.o.c.ks or not at all. It seemed Cheltam wasn't as intelligent as she'd originally thought.

Catam cleared his throat. "Okay."

Isa turned an incredulous gaze on him. "Okay?"

He looked uncomfortable as he avoided her glare. He did, however, radiate frustrated anger as he cursed Cheltam. "When this is over, I'm going to peel your lips from your face, you piece of drun."

"Okay?" Isa repeated, in shock.

"Cheltam, give us some privacy, if you can manage that, you back-stabbing b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Cheltam nodded and stood, ever calm, ever polite. "Of course. I'll wait by the bar. Drekk, the man with the scar, will escort you to my conveyance when you're ready to leave," he said with a bow to Isa.

The minute he departed, Isa turned to Catam in a rage. "Okay? As if you have any right to turn me over to him! There's no way I'm going to have s.e.x with Cheltam to get that knife back! h.e.l.l, give me a few hours and I'll steal it from him."

"Isa, calm down. I have to take care of the Ari. Much as you don't want to admit, until the Ari disappears, your life is forfeit. And I can't defeat them if you're with me, distracting me."

"But to have s.e.x with Cheltam?"

"You will not f.u.c.k Cheltam," he said evenly, s.p.a.cing out each word. "Stall him, lead him on, whatever, just keep him busy 'til I join you again. Despite that he's an a.s.s, he won't hurt you. He won't force himself on you ... unless you want him to."

His gaze held a touch of hurt, as if he'd seen her attraction to Cheltam, and she blushed.

"He's an attractive man. Excuse me for noticing. But I'm no way in h.e.l.l going to have s.e.x with him!"

Catam stared searchingly into her eyes. He must have found what he sought for he sighed and hugged her close. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's come over me. I just see red imagining you and him together, alone."

Isa watched him grow angry all over again.

"Catam, trust me. I'll be waiting for you with my clothes on and my ears open." The thought of him facing the Ari, for her, was the deciding factor in telling him the truth. "Please be careful," she said and hugged him to her. "I love you."

I love you.

What kind of words were 'I love you' before a woman left her man to 'have s.e.x' with her man's brother?

What the h.e.l.l was Rafe doing posing as Cheltam? Some undercover work! When Catam first spied his older brother sitting pretty as you please in the corner, his blood had boiled.

All this time Catam had been receiving tips from his contact Cheltam, tips that led to one successful bounty after another. And those tips had been given to him by his law-loving, peacemaker brother?

He shouldn't have been surprised Sernal kept the truth of Rafe's ident.i.ty from him, if Sernal even knew the truth.

Catam frowned.

Rafe could be one unruly b.a.s.t.a.r.d. It was possible Sernal didn't know about 'Cheltam,' or what Rafe had planned tonight. Then again, Sernal normally seemed to know everything, an irritating trait that made getting away with anything nearly impossible.

Cheltam, a.k.a., Rafe of Mardu, had been right warning him about the Ari though. Catam would be better able to fight the a.s.sa.s.sins without worry for Isa clouding his focus.

As long as Rafe kept his Flor-d.a.m.ned hands off Catam's woman.

Mentally castrating his brother, Catam seethed and left the table in search of the a.s.sa.s.sins. Rafe's, "This is as good a place as any to start searching" comment clearly indicated the a.s.sa.s.sins had trailed them to Qalteh's. But if what Rafe said about Harron was true, then Rafe had the evidence pointing to Isa's innocence--unless he'd lied to ensure Isa's compliance.

d.a.m.n. All this second-guessing was giving Catam a headache. Grumbling under his breath, he opened his senses and proceeded to "sniff out" those involved in the Ari.

The ride to Cheltam's home had been uncomfortable. The man said nothing, simply stared at her profile the entire way back.

He politely escorted her inside a ma.s.sive structure in Tekar's wealthy sector, then left her in his study while he changed into something "more comfortable."

She immediately began a search of the study. She didn't imagine Cheltam foolish enough to leave her in a room hiding anything important, but she might find something useful before he returned.

His bookcases held cla.s.sic volumes of Mardu poetry and Sildorian prose, an eclectic mix of musical disks, from the conventional to the hottest trends in today's clubs, and myriad holograms of landscapes, presumably places he'd visited or hoped to visit.

Not surprisingly, she found no family portraits or evidence of ties with another living soul. From the little she knew of Cheltam's reputation, he brokered information. He never divulged his sources and always proved reliable. Descriptions of the man always varied considerably, and she wondered if he had in fact worn a disguise at Qalteh's.

If so, she figured he'd stay in character. She only hoped his level of "comfort" matched hers.

"You like Mardu poetry?" his smooth voice called to her from the open doorway.

She hastily set down a volume she'd been holding. It had looked out of place so she'd taken the book from the stack hoping to unlock a hidden compartment. No such luck. Turning, she opened her mouth to respond and froze in shock.

His dark brown hair was slicked back from his head, his hair wet from a recent wash. He wore simple gray trousers that though loose, clung to his frame when he moved. His s.h.i.+rt lay unfastened over a brawny chest, his skin a smooth, golden brown.

She couldn't stop staring at his male beauty. h.e.l.l, he reminded her of Catam. The look in his golden gaze told her he was aware of her attraction, and the satisfaction that glinted there warned her to be wary.

As he strode toward her, she noted absently his lack of footwear. That he wore only the outward trappings of civility made her want to run and not look back.

"Like what you see?" he teased and stopped a breath from her. He tugged on a lock of her hair. "I do."

As he bent his head for what she a.s.sumed was a kiss, she narrowly avoided his lips and took a hurried step back.

Catam, think of Catam, she mentally repeated, not understanding how this man could seem so attractive. Making love with Catam had convinced her she could never be a pleasurer. Before Cheltam, the thought of s.e.x with another male made her shudder. But now, this golden-eyed stranger made her stomach quiver and her heart race. A distressing situation all around.