Tiptoe Kisses

Chapter 35

Chapter 35

The media reports the jewelry heist at Graff Diamonds of London occurred during the daytime.  The police will not say how much the stones taken are valued at but a close source of the world renowned jewelers say that the diamonds stolen could be worth more than a forty million dollars.  The theft was carefully planned.  The thieves were in and out of the jewelry store in a matter of minutes.  A long-time employee of the store suffered a heart attack.  The security guards and a couple of the store’s employee’s left their work stations to assist the victim watching as she was put into an ambulance.

It is thought because the paramedics had the front doors of the jewelry store open to assist the heart victim, the security system was deactivated for a short period of time.  The employees left inside the store were tied up and thrown in a locked closet.  The diamond thieves knew the layout of the store and targeted trays containing special cut diamonds and some special orders for some billionaire clients. All employees are being questioned and the woman that suffered the heart attack is in critical condition.

Taylor sits on the edge of the bed watching Santo zip up his overnight bag.  He knows she’s upset with him right now because he won’t take her with him. He doesn’t want to have a fight over this, he is already concerned about leaving her in the same city as Alina.  He hasn’t told her about their encounter yet but what else can he do?  Now is definitely not the time and he doesn’t want to anger her further.

“How do you know for sure it’s them?”  Taylor lays her hand on top of his when he picks up his bag.

“Clayton Simon robbed a diamond brokerage house in Marseille about two years ago.  This store has a similar layout and security system.  The thieves used the same plan.  In the Marseille heist an employee  had a heart attack, the man died.  It was later determined that he was drugged.

“But…why would they take that chance.  You said yourself, they are on the run.  Why risk getting caught now in a jewelry heist.” 

“Amore mio, they are desperate.  They need large sums of money.  The raids we did shut down their operations in the states which is their home base.  We were able to close up a lot of their financial resources in major countries because of their past activities and warrants for arrest.  They didn’t know we were coming so they didn’t have time to hide additional funds.  The money from this heist will allow them to move comfortably underground.”  Santo patiently explains to her.

“What if they did this to draw you out?  Nathan’s so angry with you.  You’ve taken everything from him.  He feels like you ruined his life and my father, I mean my birth father….I don’t know what his motive is.  He’s never cared about me before, I don’t know why he wants me know?”  Taylor responds.

“What do you think Taylor, why do you think I’m doing this?"  He sits on the bed beside her holding her hand.

Looking into his eyes she kisses him tenderly.  “I think you are doing what you promised Julian you would do.  You take care of people and you’re good at it.  You’re saving La Croix’s and in doing so you’re helping me.  I know a big part of this is my fault and I’m grateful to you for all that you’ve done.  I can’t help it, I do wonder if you would go after Nathan so hard if you and I weren’t involved.  He was the man I was going to marry and now I’m with you.  I love you and I worry about you.  I don’t want this to become so much of a focus for you that you forget about you and me.”  Taylor grips his hand in hers tighter.

Santo is silent with his head bent.  He thinks of the real reasons he’s doing this and debates whether to tell her.  If she knew, she would try to stop him.  Even if there wasn’t the threat of her going to prison he knows in his heart he wants to crush Nathan.  A part of him is still jealous of the love she had and the care she still shows for this man that has treated her so badly.  It’s the way she is and part of the reason he loves her so much.  In spite of the way her birth father treated her she still thinks about him and deep down he knows she wants to make peace in their relationship.