The All-Seeing Security Guard

Chapter 007

Ten times the price?

Everyone in earshot did the math in an instant. A single piece of high-quality jadeite could run into the millions. Multiply that by ten and the number climbed toward eight figures. Even for the sharpest players in Rivermont's business world, that was not pocket change.

Julian Ashford felt the fresh wave of stares like a physical weight. He looked at the mocking curve of Cade Merrick's mouth and felt blood rush to his head. Before he could stop himself, he wrenched the rough jade from Cade's grip.

"Ten times the price. Do you honestly think I can't afford it?" Julian lifted the stone higher.

"You're cutting this open today whether you like it or not. And did you really think every single stone in this hall turns up green inside? If this one comes up empty, you can crawl on your hands and knees and bark like a dog for everyone here. Don't forget that."

Cade reached out and caught Lila Sinclair's wrist before she could lunge forward to snatch the stone back. His voice stayed level, almost lazy.

"Of course. A gentleman's word is worth more than gold."

"A gentleman?" Julian barked out a laugh and shoved the stone into Beck's hands. "A bodyguard calling himself a gentleman. That's rich. Cut it open."

Beck ground out his cigarette in a hurry and took the rough stone with both hands, waving over two of the laborers to get the saw ready.

Every eye fixed on Beck's hands. More than a few onlookers were already savoring the thought of watching Julian make a fool of himself.

The blade bit in. Dust and grime sloughed away from the surface.

Green, at last.

The color showed, though it was nowhere near as fine as what had come out of Julian's half. This was icy jadeite too, the same grade as before.

Julian's grin froze solid on his face. Beck stood there with one hand braced on the cutting machine, looking like he had no idea what to do with himself.

Cade listened to the murmurs and understood that his piece sat somewhere in the middle, nothing spectacular. Still, a flicker of satisfaction lit up behind his eyes. He didn't know the finer points of grading jadeite, but he knew one simple rule: the fewer the flaws, the higher the value.

His stone, like Julian's, held two distinct pockets of jadeite fused together. But where the second half of Julian's stone was riddled with impurities, the hidden half of Cade's stone looked, from what little had already shown, considerably cleaner than what had surfaced so far.

Cade let the satisfaction show openly on his face as he looked at Julian, and that smug expression lit a fresh fire under Julian's skin.

"Still want to keep cutting, Julian?"

"There's no shame in stopping now. I doubt Lila wants to see you embarrassed any further than this."

"You..." Julian jabbed a trembling finger at Cade, too furious to finish the sentence.

Desmond Pike saw his chance and fanned the flames.

"Come on, Julian, that's just one corner of the stone."

"There might be nothing worth mentioning in the rest of it."

"Exactly!" Julian's expression hardened and he barked at Beck. "Keep going. Cut it again. Now."

The second cut came down, and the result matched the first almost exactly, if anything the green seemed to run a touch deeper this time.

"Now that's interesting," came a voice from the edge of the crowd.

"Would you mind if this old man took a look?"

An elderly gentleman in a traditional mandarin-collar jacket approached, a young girl trailing a step behind him. The moment the crowd spotted him, jaws dropped across the hall.

"Professor Thorne!"

"The Professor Thorne from the Rivermont history department?"

"That's him. He's one of the most respected names in antiques and jade circles nationwide."

Cade glanced toward Lila, who gave a small, obedient nod and answered softly.

"Of course. Please, go right ahead."

Professor Alaric Thorne inclined his head slightly toward Lila, then walked over to where Beck stood. He took a jeweler's loupe light from the girl's hand, angled it into the cut window, circled the stone several times, and ran his fingers over the surface.

After a long moment, he raised a single finger toward Lila.

"One and a half million dollars."

"Would the young lady consider selling?"

The hall erupted the instant the words left his mouth.

A million and a half? Even if the entire stone were solid icy jadeite from end to end, the market value would land near a million at most. For Professor Thorne to name a figure that far above what seemed reasonable was almost unheard of.

Lila and Dana Whitlock felt their hearts hammering as the crowd buzzed around them, and both women turned instinctively to look at Cade. His luck tonight bordered on the absurd.

Professor Thorne raised a hand, and the crowd quieted almost immediately.

"The green in this stone is only going to deepen as it's cut further. Judging by the cut surface, it may well surpass icy jadeite in quality. And from what I've observed over the years, a piece of this caliber is rarely small."

Listening to the professor, Cade felt a flicker of genuine respect. The old man had gotten every detail right, without any of the advantages Cade himself had. Cade was relying on a cheat, his borrowed sight into the stone. Professor Thorne was relying on decades of study and hard-won experience, and more impressive still, the man had been willing to say it plainly in front of everyone. That kind of honesty was rare.

Professor Thorne stepped closer to Lila, who still looked too stunned to form a coherent thought.

"If you're willing to part with this stone, young lady, we could certainly sit down and discuss a price."

Lila's mind had gone completely blank. She turned to Cade almost on reflex, searching his face for an answer.

"Cade, you're the one who picked this stone."

"What do you want to do?"

Cade let his gaze slide over to Julian, whose face had gone the color of raw liver by now, and spoke with deliberate calm.

"I'm sorry, Professor Thorne, but this stone already belongs to Julian. He placed his bet on it."

"So, Julian, are we continuing?"

Professor Thorne turned toward Julian with a flicker of recognition crossing his face. "Ah, so this is Mayor Ashford's son." A trace of regret colored his voice. "Congratulations, then, on a find like this."

The moment those words left his mouth, every face in the crowd turned toward Julian, lit with barely concealed anticipation of what came next.

Julian felt the pressure building behind his ribs and managed only a stiff, strained smile in response. Anyone else who dared speak to him like that would have earned a mouthful of curses on the spot, but this old man commanded enough respect that even Julian's own father treated him with careful deference.

All Julian could do now was pray the professor had misjudged the stone, though deep down he knew the odds of that were slim. He gritted his teeth and snapped at Beck.

"Cut it. Keep cutting."

"Open up both of those remaining corners. All the way."

Beck let out a quiet sigh and turned back to the machine.

The girl trailing behind Professor Thorne brought over a folding chair, and once he settled into it, she turned to him with open curiosity.

"Grandfather."

"Is that stone really worth that much?"

Thorne chuckled softly. "Patience, Ella."

"We'll know soon enough, won't we?"

The third cut came down, and a shade of green far richer than anything shown before spilled out across the fresh surface.

A collective gasp swept the hall.

"That's glassy jadeite!"

"My god, Professor Thorne called it exactly!"

"What kind of luck is this? The bodyguard picks a random stone and it turns out to be glassy grade?"

"There's no way Julian walks away from this one clean. Ten times the price, remember."

The green cut straight through whatever composure Julian had left. If Desmond hadn't grabbed his arm from behind, he might have gone down on the spot.

The fourth cut sealed it. There was no more room for doubt.

Cade walked up to Professor Thorne and pressed his palms together in a respectful greeting.

"Professor Thorne, what would you say this stone is worth now?"

Thorne rose and stepped closer, studying the stone carefully before answering.

"No less than three million dollars."

He turned toward Marcus Dunne, standing at the edge of the gathered crowd. "Mr. Dunne, how does that estimate sit with you?"

Marcus answered quickly, his tone thick with flattery.

"Your eye never misses, Professor."

"That figure is the floor, if anything."

"Well then." Cade turned toward Julian, who stood propped up by Desmond's arm, and let a note of mock innocence creep into his voice. "Julian, I imagine thirty million dollars isn't much to you at all, is it?"