Dangerous Allies (The Ruby Danger Series Book 1) Read Free Page B

across a hologram, frowning as it caught the light.
    After sliding the bonds back into the torn envelope, she placed both envelopes on the bed and scanned the remaining items in the box: a printed itinerary and two plane tickets for a flight to Caracas from an airstrip on Pintado Island. The Apollonis would arrive at Pintado Island in two days. Was Antony planning to leave the cruise? And why would he need two tickets?
    Ruby brightened. Maybe one was for her. Maybe this was a second honeymoon surprise, and the fake passports an elaborate joke. She tapped a finger on her ear, studying the itinerary with a sigh. That didn’t sound like Antony.
    She turned back to the papers on the bed, pawed through them for the third American passport and opened it. A blonde woman in her early twenties stared back at her. The name was unknown to Ruby, and so was the face.
    Water trickled down her back as she gaped at the passport. Shivering, she reached for Antony’s cardigan and started to slip it on. The room shimmered as tears stung her eyes. Ruby ripped the sweater off her arm, bundled up the cashmere, and hurled it across the room where it landed on the floor in a heap. She crossed her arms and leaned over, feeling as if she had been kicked in the stomach.
    A voice startled her, and she jerked her head around.
    “Sorry. I thought the room was empty.” Mila, the maid from the balcony, stood in the doorway, clutching towels to her chest and staring at the bundles of cash. Then she backed out of the room.

Chapter Three
    A s the door closed behind Mila, Ruby sighed at the papers strewn over the bed. Now the entire crew would know there was enough cash lying around the Emperor Suite to buy a small yacht. Just what she needed, more rumors.
    She stuffed the cash back into the leather box and stood up, sniffling. Antony had promised her a second honeymoon and she was jumping to conclusions. There had to be an explanation and she should simply ask him.
    Pacing beside the bed, she mentally rehearsed that conversation. She would tell Antony she had broken into the safe and, now, wondered why he had taken three fake passports and twenty million dollars in bearer bonds on a one-week cruise. She paused, blowing air through her lips. Yeah, that would work.
    Her gaze fell on Antony’s laptop on the desk in the den next to the bedroom and she walked over and flipped it open. Hari had set up this laptop for Antony, so the password would be impossible to guess. But knowing her husband often neglected to turn off his computer, Ruby pressed the space bar. Sure enough, the screen lit up. She glanced at the door into the bedroom. A quick look couldn’t hurt.
    After first tightening the towel around her chest, she sat down and scanned the screen. The most prominent folder, labeled Caracas , held several documents. One was an itinerary that matched the one in the leather box. Another was a statement for a numbered account at a Cayman Islands bank, with dozens of deposits but no withdrawals.
    Tapping a finger on the keyboard, Ruby studied the statement. Antony managed her nieces’ insurance settlement, the one Quentin’s lawyer had negotiated after Lily’s fatal accident. Given Antony’s lauded investment smarts, the girls’ fund could be worth two or even three million dollars by now. Antony had set up several Carvon subsidiaries in Ruby’s name to lower their taxes, and this could be a similar dodge for her nieces.
    She had not kept track of her nieces’ fund, and Quentin hadn’t either. During her last visit to Vancouver, Ruby found account statements, the envelopes still sealed, on her brother-in-law’s desk. Quentin never cracked open the business pages, as far as she knew. He was content to let Antony invest the girls’ money. She had tucked one of those statements into her tote bag, intending to file it away at home. Since she hadn’t cleaned out that bag in months, it was probably still there.
    She scrolled down to the final total on the