Midnight in Ruby Bayou Read Free Page A

father-in-law, but he had left things until the last second. If the future bride hadn’t been Faith’s best friend in college, she would have refused the commission despite the allure of working with such fine gems—and getting to keep the smallest one as her fee. If Davis hadn’t agreed to gold rather than platinum, she wouldn’t have been able to meet the deadline at all. Platinum was the most unyielding of all the metals used in jewelry. While she worked with platinum occasionally, because nothing had its icy shine, she much preferred the various colors of gold.
    Standing, Faith took off her leather apron. Like the long wooden workbench, it bore the scars of much use. The process of creating jewelry was as grubby as the result was elegant. That was something her ex-fiancé, Tony, had never understood or wanted to understand. He was lazy by nature, so the idea of someone spending her life wearing goggles and hunched over tools that marked her hands as often as the workbench offended him. Especially when her parents were wealthy enough to carry her around on a silk pillow fringed with diamonds.
    Faith shoved aside the unhappy memories. Anthony Kerrigan was the worst mistake she had ever made. The important thing to remember was that Tony was right where he should be: in her past.
    Sooner or later, he would get the message. Then he would stop calling her and “accidentally” bumping into her. But until then . . .
    With a muttered word she reached for the phone and punched in a familiar number. Kyle answered on the second ring.
    â€œSorry,” she said hurriedly. “I know I’m late. Do you want me just to lock up and come home?”
    â€œAlone? Not likely, sis. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
    â€œIt’s not necessary. I could just—”
    She was talking to herself. With a disgusted sound she hung up. She had fought having a Donovan International guard assigned to her shop, but she had lost. Part of her understood that it was a sensible precaution, if not for Tony then for the rash of muggings and burglaries that was plaguing Pioneer Square.
    But another, less sensible, part of her resented being dictated to by large, overbearing males. Even if they were her brothers instead of her bullying, ham-fisted ex-fiancé.
    â€œNo, don’t go there,” Faith told herself through her teeth. “You already know that you made a mistake. Beating yourself up about it won’t teach you anything new.”
    Sleet spattered and clung to the windows, sliding down in streaks of winter tears. Faith watched the random trails for a few moments and thought about what life would have been like if she had found a good man to love, like her twin sister Honor had. She wondered what it would be like to hold her own child during the day and be held by a man who loved her at night.
    â€œDon’t go there, either,” Faith said aloud, because the silence was overwhelming.
    Maybe she would get lucky someday. Maybe she wouldn’t. Either way, she would still be a good person who had a flair for jewelry design and a family who loved her. She had nothing to whine about and a lot to celebrate.
    As Faith locked up the workroom, she played with ideas for a piece of jewelry for her mother’s fortieth wedding anniversary. A present for The Donovan, her father, was a much bigger problem. She hoped her brothers had an idea.
    She hoped, but she didn’t expect much. Her brothers were, after all, men.
    Difficult, in a word.

2
St. Petersburg
    T he river Neva was opaque white, the same color as the wind screaming sideways through the boulevards and narrow alleys. Though the room had a view overlooking a park with the required monument to Russian valor—and the trashed remnants of monuments to Soviet vision—there wasn’t much to see, only bundles of black clothes scurrying from shelter to shelter on the street. Vehicles weren’t so much parked as stuck