Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,37

enough now. “You bought two uncut diamonds for, as far as I can tell, about fifty dollars. That was a fifty dollar note you gave him, wasn’t it?”

“It was. A 1904 fifty dollar note, which was merely a partial payment.”

“Partial?”

“Mr. Einaudi understands that I will be coming into my inheritance when my ailing father dies. He is prepared to wait for full settlement, especially as the balance keeps growing.”

“That’s…generous of him.”

“He’s charging three percent.” Aran’s tone was dry.

“Is that a lot?”

“For here and now, very much so.”

“But you keep going back to him?”

“He has good diamonds.” Aran glanced around and behind them. He made it look like he was looking for a building number, but she knew he was looking for eavesdroppers or anyone paying them too much attention. “I keep going back to Mr. Einaudi because not only does he have good quality diamonds, but in six month’s time he will be murdered at the back of his store. The whole store will be burned to the ground to hide that all the jewelry and money had been taken. In fact, the whole building was destroyed and no one remembered that the little jewelry store at street level was also gone. Einaudi was thought to have died from the fire.”

“Then how do you know he didn’t?” Jesse murmured.

“Because I jumped to that time and watched it happening, from the roof across the street. I wanted to be sure he really was in deep with the Mob before I started using him.”

“The Mob killed him?” she breathed.

“Payback for holding out on them. Einaudi only looks like a pleasant and amenable fellow. He’s a crook and con artist and he swindled the wrong person, in the end.”

She shivered. “If the building burns down, there are no records of your transactions with him, or the money you owe him…” She frowned. “Then we take the diamonds forward and you sell them at current market prices, yes?”

“Now you see it.”

“I sort of had it figured when I saw the diamond store,” she admitted. “But this seems way too simple, Aran. This is really how you can afford a cottage in the Cotswold and your car and an apartment in Georgetown?”

“And a great many other things besides,” Aran said. His tone was calm. He wasn’t boasting. “This simple thing…” He gave a soft laugh. “I paid fifty dollars for two nearly perfect uncut diamonds. Careful cutting will make them flawless. The lumpy one—”

“The one you really wanted,” she slid in.

“Yes. Twenty-five dollars in 1906 terms is about…perhaps seven hundred. How much do you think the lumpy diamond will sell for? Even if I didn’t have a jeweler on tap who doesn’t try to stiff me because he thinks long term and wants my busines to continue.”

“You mean, if someone like me walked in cold, put it on the counter and asked how much?” She laughed. “I couldn’t even begin to guess. A few thousand?” His talk of seven hundred dollars for a fifty-dollar bill made her scale up her guess. A near fifteen hundred profit per diamond would add up steadily over the long term, and Aran had clearly been doing this for a while.

Aran shook his head, smiling. “You’re not a diamond girl at all.”

“Not even close,” she said, taking no offence. “I don’t get women who go gaga over diamonds. It just doesn’t compute.”

“You drool over the Wilson Combat 9mm Classic semi auto, but jewelry baffles you.” He laughed.

Jesse was a little surprised he even knew what a Wilson Combat Classic was. They were gun porn—luxury, super expensive embellished handguns that started at mid four figures. She tried not to let her feelings be ruffled. “And you think D.C.—the seat of western world power—is the minor leagues. Everyone’s tastes run different.”

A streetcar rolled past, the overhead wires hissing and the wheels making the tracks groan.

“I wasn’t laughing at you,” Aran assured her. “I was…well, never mind. The two uncut diamonds I just bought, I paid…let’s say I paid five hundred each for them. They’re uncut, but I have cultivated a diamond cutter in Amsterdam. Actually, I didn’t have to cultivate him at all. He’s an artist at heart and loves the challenge of bringing out the best in the big stones I bring him. He takes a small flat fee for expenses and a percentage of the sale in return for the cutting and arranging certificates for them. Then I sell them in New York. Or I could just sell the uncut