Diamonds are for Surrender. Bronwyn Jameson

of a search that could go on for weeks.”

      Garth made a sound of agreement. He folded the paper he’d been scanning and placed it neatly on top of the others. “I can hear him now, growling in horror at the share devaluation.”

      “The price is still sliding today?” Ric asked.

      “Down another five since opening. At this rate every second analyst will be tipping us as a prime takeover target by the end of the next week.”

      “It’s not the raiders I’m concerned about.”

      Ryan turned in front of the window, hands on hips, framed by the city skyscape at his back. “Who are you concerned about?”

      “Matt Hammond.”

      “Still holding him accountable?”

      Ric’s jaw tightened although the blow had been aimed much lower. He didn’t give Ryan the satisfaction of responding. Instead he zeroed in on the reason he’d called them together. The threat of a takeover, not by an anonymous corporate raider or venture capital consortium, but at the hands of a man motivated by vengeance. “Howard holds fifty-one percent of the Blackstone Diamonds stock.” He turned toward Garth, the company secretary, who was also the executor of Howard’s will. “Can you confirm how that will be distributed?”

      “Equally between you, Ryan and Kimberley.”

      “No chance he wrote Kim out of the will as he threatened?” Ric asked.

      Garth shook his head. “He was set on that course when he returned from his November trip to New Zealand, but maybe he thought twice after he cooled down. Maybe I managed to talk him out of it. God knows, I talked long and hard enough. And maybe he took his lawyer along on this trip with a new threat of disinheritance. Whatever the reason, his will remains unchanged. That three-way split of his company stock still holds.” The older man’s eyes narrowed astutely. “I take it you’re concerned about Hammond pursuing Kim’s share, the way he went after William’s ten percent?”

      Two months ago Howard’s older twin brothers, William and Vincent, each had owned a stake in Blackstone Diamonds. Then Hammond took advantage of rumours of a falling-out between the brothers. Needing cash in a hurry William had seized the chance to unload his stock at a premium price, and he’d been dirty enough on Howard to relish selling to his adversary.

      “He wouldn’t have to be that aggressive in chasing Kim’s stock,” Ric said. “She wouldn’t be looking for instant profit. He would only need to spin a good story, convince her she was doing the right thing, and with those two bundles and whatever else he can pick up on this depressed market, it’s conceivable he could acquire a majority share.”

      “We know he’s not a player. He’s only doing this for one reason.” Ryan’s expression was as hard and dark as black diamond. “The son of a bitch would gut the company.”

      Garth grunted in agreement. “We need Kim on our side. Any chance she would reconsider returning to Blackstone’s?”

      “I’m working on that,” Ric said. His gaze shifted to Ryan. “As long as there are no objections.”

      “She’s a Blackstone. She should never have left.” There was a world of condemnation in the words and in the other man’s expression as he faced Ric down. “Makes me wonder what you intend offering to bring her back from Hammonds.”

      “A fair question.”

      “Do you have an answer?”

      “I’ll offer whatever it takes,” Ric said with steely resolve. “Leave it in my hands. I will bring her back.”

      “You’re not wearing the new dress?”

      Kimberley hesitated on the staircase, her gaze dropping from Sonya’s arched eyebrows to the plain oatmeal linen sheath she’d changed into at the last minute. Okay, so she’d changed several times. Possibly half a dozen. And during that process the dress Sonya talked her into buying had been relegated to the very back of the queue. Not that she didn’t like the soft, inviting fabric or the leopard-spot print—even the sexy touch of lace was growing on her—but it was just too unbusinesslike for a dinner that was all about business.

      “This is more suitable,” she said, lifting her head and continuing resolutely down to the foyer.

      Sonya had paused, a stem of roses in each hand, in the middle of arranging a massive vase of freshly cut blooms from the Miramare gardens. She raised her elegantly shaped brows even higher. “I thought the purpose of today’s shopping expedition was to choose a dress for tonight.”

      “That was our excuse to go shopping,” Kimberley said with a wink. Then, over her shoulder, as she proceeded through to the living room, she said, “I would never have got you to agree to come along otherwise.”

      And they’d both needed to get out of the house. Kimberley hadn’t thought she would miss the presence of Perrini and Ryan and Garth, after they’d taken their mobile phones and their constant grim-faced pacing and returned to the city megalith that housed the headquarters of Blackstone Diamonds.

      Danielle had left, too, to apply the final touches to her collection for the annual Blackstone Jewellery show. Each year the event launched the latest in-house collections, as well as showcasing an emerging young designer. This year was Dani Hammond’s big break.

      This is what you’ve worked so hard for, Sonya had said, encouraging her reluctant daughter to return to her Port Douglas studio. I have Kim here now, so I won’t be alone. You still have work to do, so go, be inspired, be brilliant. Make me proud, make Howard proud … and make those critics who pooh-poohed his choice eat their words!

      Without them all, the house echoed its vast emptiness. Kimberley had felt the impact most acutely when she’d woken that morning. Wednesday. Marise’s funeral day. Beautiful, headstrong, self-assured Marise was dead and for the first time Kimberley forced herself to face the reality that her father, too, was gone. This house, which had always been a reflection of the man and his taste for the grand, the opulent and the glamorous, would forever feel empty without him and the ever-present party of business and society acquaintances he brought home.

      Sonya felt the emptiness, too. Kimberley had taken one look at her aunt’s haunted eyes and restless hands as she fussed around preparing a breakfast neither of them would eat, and she’d decided they both needed a distraction.

      Perrini provided it with a phone call and what had sounded like an off-the-cuff invitation.

      “Dinner?” she’d asked. Her heart kicked up a beat and her free hand curled around her pendant charms. “I don’t think that—”

      “You need to eat? To get away from that house for a few hours? To discuss details of my proposal about the Blackstone’s board vacancy….”

      Oh, yes, he’d been clever. He’d known over the weekend that the waiting and inactivity were making her stir-crazy, and he’d picked the perfect time to lure her with the board position and the prospect of changing old animosities from the inside. Then he’d left her a day too long to think it over. Now she was hungry for more information, to find out exactly what was going on at Blackstone Diamonds … and why she’d been targeted for the Blackstone-only board position.

      That’s the only reason she’d accepted his invitation. That’s why she’d gone with the plain business-meeting dress, despite playing along with Sonya’s fancy to choose something fun, flirty, and way different from her usual classic style. The shopping trip to her favourite Double Bay boutique had been a game, a ploy, a distraction to take both their minds off the funeral in progress just a couple of suburbs away.

      It had nothing to do with tonight’s “date.”

      Now, as she wandered the living room unable to sit or stand or settle, Kimberley wished she’d insisted on meeting Perrini at the restaurant instead of letting him railroad her into the “more convenient” pickup. Being all dressed up and waiting for a man to arrive on her doorstep