Page 210 of Poison Aches

“Or maybe it’s about timing,” Emmett suddenly says, then he speaks up loud enough for the entire room to hear his sexy voice. “Twenty million.”

Shock ripples through the room.

Anyone who knows jewelry can tell the pieces are old and they need a lot of work, but here the Eastons are bidding high numbers.

Vaughn frowns and then he turns back to the auctioneer. “Twenty-five million dollars.”

“Fifty million dollars,” Emmett counters with a finality that stuns the room into silence.

I stare at him, wondering if he has lost his mind.

Even Vaughn looks at him, but George only chuckles.

“Sir, did you just say fifty million dollars?”

Emmett only looks at him as if he’s wasting his time.

The auctioneer glances at Vaughn but Vaughn is glaring daggers at Emmett.

“Fifty million dollars going once, going twice? Sold to Mr. Easton for fifty million dollars.”

Shocked, I watch as the items are authenticated, certified, and then bagged into these weathered, nondescript boxes that are obviously the original storage for the jewelry pieces, and then several people with silver trays bring them to our table to give to Emmett.

“Where would you like these to be stored, sir?” one man asks Emmett, but he doesn’t respond, only staring at me.

Suddenly all eyes shift to me.

“What?” I whisper, confused.

“Did your hunger affect your hearing?” Emmett mutters. “Where should these be sent?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Ty,” Emmett mutters, and like magic, Ty appears right behind Emmett. “Take care of this for Ms. Irving.”

My jaw drops to the table.

“Yes, sir,” Ty says then he gestures for the people to follow him but after he’s gone, the looks Governor Hughes and Beverly give me raises my hackles.

Immediately after that, a very elusive painting of a human anatomy is brought up for auction.

From one angle you can see it’s the human anatomy, but from another, as if hidden in the shadows of the black and white sketch, is the appearance of the human heart in 3D.

“Wow,” I murmur.

Bidding opens at one hundred thousand dollars and then it ends at ten million dollars…bought by Vaughn.

When the item is brought to him, he also gestures to the men to ask me where the ten-million dollar piece of art should be sent.

My entire soul is on the floor at this point and again, Ty appears and takes the painting.

“You just spent fifty million dollars…” Melissa suddenly speaks, looking at Emmett, her words jumbled as if she’s choking. “And you spent ten million, a total of sixty million dollars… all for her?”

Emmett doesn’t bother responding to her.

“There are a group of people who have spent far more for her, and are dying to spend even more,” George says with a small smile.

“The moral of the story is this, child,” Vaughn jumps in, answering Melissa but he’s looking at Governor Hughes and his wife, who are both looking stunned. “As long as Ivy so much as merely finds interest in something, it will be taken care off.”

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