door behind him. Despite saying no, I move toward the bar, pouring a generous tumbler for myself and one for Caleb.
Though Caleb takes the offered drink and trades me for the small bag he’s brought, he’s still surly. “Do you know we almost lost Jake to get you these? What makes them so important anyway? You said you’d explain once we had them in hand, so time’s up. Explain. I don’t think any of our men are worth losing over a fucking rock.”
I sit at my desk, setting my drink aside to focus on the bag’s contents, which I spread on a velvet mat. Grabbing the magnifying loupe, I hold one up to examine it more closely.
Under the magnification, I can see every flaw but also appreciate the beauty more fully in the kaleidoscopic lines and prismatic reflections.
Mindlessly, I answer part of Caleb’s line of questions.
“I did not know about Jake. Please pass along my appreciation for his dedication. I trust he’s okay, otherwise you would’ve said as much.”
I hum, turning a second stone and then a third as I appraise each one.
Caleb scoffs, interrupting my mental checklist. “That’s it? Tell him thanks?” He sighs heavily, and I can hear the eyeroll in the huffed breath.
He doesn’t have patience for the work we do. Not really, not like I do.
If you’d told me I’d be in charge of a billion-dollar jewelry company with the world at my fingertips at barely thirty, I’d have laughed at you, believing the very idea that I would ever follow in my father’s footsteps to be as far from possible as pigs sprouting wings and spontaneously taking flight.
I am not a businessman, or at least I didn’t intend to be. I’m a soldier, a man of action, not a desk percher whose big moves of the day are with a pen.
No, I’m used to guns, dust, and sand, battles of righteousness, and shows of power with strategy and war.
It was a good life, full of adrenaline, adventure, sweat, and action. I lived fast, partied hard, and loved long and strong before disappearing on the breeze the next day to do it all again a continent away.
But then my father died. Or rather, he was killed.
In a single moment, my whole world tilted on its axis, the things I knew to be true suddenly shown in all their falsehood, and my father’s business, both true and dark, was revealed.
Still mourning and angry at his murder, I was thrust into being the figurehead of his company, trading Kevlar vests for tailor-made suits, a GPS locator for a Cartier watch, and covert action for long board meetings in stuffy offices surrounded by hot-headed executives.
While I’d had plenty of training in combat, I had virtually none on how to run a billion-dollar global corporation.
All of the industry, both inside my company and outside it, laughed at the idiot ‘boy’ with no experience who dared to challenge the status quo.
They’d been hell-bent on teaching me my place in what is now my own company.
It hadn’t gone well. For them.
I might not have been a businessman, but I understand power. I know how to wield it like a weapon, sometimes delicate, and when necessary, bluntly aggressive.
The lengths some people will go to hoard it, believing it gives them some intrinsic worth that is greater than their fellow man, is the key.
But my father didn’t get that, and he paid with his life because of it, leaving behind a final, deadly example for me to learn from.
Caleb doesn’t understand it yet, but I refuse to let him suffer the same fate.
His life is one of missions, even now. He hasn’t evolved to design plans, foresee obstacles, and work toward something greater like I’ve had to do.
He’s like an excited dog who wants its owner to throw a bone. Merely chase, retrieve, drop it, and wait for the next throw, with an occasional treat thrown in to keep the cycle repeating.
It’s not a bad thing. I love dogs. It’s actually truly necessary to keep the company rolling. I need worker bees, and my brother, while usually coming off as a joking goof-off, is quite adept at being a high-level pack leader, my second in command, leading others in teams to chase down the bones I throw.
Like the diamonds in front of me.
I set down the last gem, giving my brother my full attention as he sits across the desk from me in a tufted leather chair.