Damn, he made a good point. He hadn’t been following her last night, and she was the one who’d left the trail of clues behind for him today. Chalk one up in his favor in the honesty column. “Fine. True,” she admitted. “But don’t you see how this looks? Like you knew who I was and you were trying to get info from me.”
“Here’s the reality. I saw you at the bar, thought you were stunning. We talked, we kissed, we had a good time. This was all totally separate from the job, because I didn’t have a clue who you were last night. I wanted to see you again, plain and simple. Hell, I didn’t even know your name. Then, I happened to spot you at breakfast with your stepdad at Tristan’s—”
“You were following me?”
“No. I was in the area doing some recon work,” he said, his voice firm, making it clear he didn’t like her accusation. “Anyway, when I saw you finishing breakfast with him, I asked Andrew who you were. He told me, and now it turns out we’re both, for all intents and purposes, working for the same people. You on your own for your mom. Me for Andrew. We’re both looking out for the people who got screwed. I only made up the part about my sister texting me your photo. Everything else was true, especially the part about my telling her I met a woman last night who I wanted to see again.”
She let his words soak in. She liked the ones where he said he wanted to see her again, because she’d sure wanted to see him, too. She’d been lingering over all the possibilities of him before she even saw him today. Still, she felt tricked. “You’re saying none of that last night at the bar was an act? What about the kiss on the beach? Was that an act?”
He laughed loudly and shook his head. He gestured to his lap. “Did it feel like an act? Did you think I was faking it? That it was a few stuffed socks in my pants?”
She pressed her lips together, fighting hard to resist chuckling. “No, it didn’t feel like a sock. But is a hard-on evidence that you didn’t set me up?”
“What did I set you up for? Tell me. What on earth am I setting you up for?” he asked, holding his arms out wide. “I had an amazing time last night. Kissing you rocked my world, and I wanted more.” He paused, then leaned closer and lowered his voice to a rough and sexy whisper. “A lot more.”
A shiver ran down her spine, heating her up and turning her on in seconds. “I wanted more, too,” she said, and he locked eyes with her, looking at her as if he were picturing her naked. She liked him looking at her that way. “I want all the bad things.”
“I’m very good at doing bad things,” he said in a rough, dirty tone. She dug her fingernails into her palms so she wouldn’t launch herself across the table and ride him hard here at the restaurant.
OK, she really wouldn’t do that. But maybe grab him and tug him into the ladies’ room and pull him snug against her. Let him grab her wrists, pin them over her head, hike up her dress, and just take her. It had been so long, and she was willing to bet he could deliver everything she wanted.
But even so, she didn’t know how to trust Jake, or anyone for that matter. She drop-kicked all those naughty thoughts away. “I’m sure you are quite skilled in the dirty department, but you’re really telling me none of this was planned?” she asked, narrowing her eyes, maintaining her skeptical stare.
“Look, things got complicated today when I learned who you were. I’m not going to deny that. But I’m still here. Still talking to you.” He tapped the table with his finger. “Because, maybe, we should work together to find the jewels. We’re on the same team.”
Her body said, “Yes.” Her brain said, “Don’t be stupid, girl.” She wouldn’t be fooled by lust. She had to remain focused. “Why should I work with you? What do I need from you? I’m the one who was invited into Eli’s house later this week. I can just find them myself. I don’t have to, you know, break in,” she said, whispering the last words sarcastically. She might want the man, but that didn’t mean she was going to team up with someone she just met twenty-four hours ago.
“What if they’re not there?” he suggested casually. “What if they’re, say, in the nightclub?”
“Then I’ll find them there,” she said, though admittedly, her task would be harder if they were in Sapphire. Still, she needed to stay the course and do this on her own. Maybe she wouldn’t find a big, huge bag of diamonds. But perhaps she could find a way to get back her mom’s money and even unearth evidence that Eli wasn’t the man who’d so coolly dismissed her reasonable request at brunch. She wanted him to be the man who’d hugged her, who’d reminded her that he would have helped her business if she had asked. That’s who she’d known him to be, and he’d shown her that inkling today. She held tight to it. Dipping her hand into her bag, she fished for some bills and set them on the table. “I’d better go. I have work to do.”
As she stood, a willowy redhead appeared.
“Steph!”
“Sandy!”
Sandy wrapped her in a hug. “So good to see you. I missed you around here.”
“I missed you, too,” she said.
“I want to hear everything that’s going on.”
“Yes, me, too. We have to get together.”
“A bunch of us are having a party on a friend’s boat later this week. Want me to text you the details? Penny is off camping, but she should be back then.”
“That sounds great. I’ll be there.”
“We can catch up and you can see the whole crew.” Sandy squeezed her arm, then held up her finger. “It is so good to see you, and I’ll be back. I need to run to the storage room. But stay here.”
As Sandy scurried off, Jake met her gaze. The look in his eyes was one of satisfaction. He tipped his forehead to the disappearing Sandy. “That’s why.”
He had an idea. He had a plan. It was crazy, but they might be able to kill two birds with one stone. Though he vastly preferred to work solo, especially given the Rosalinda fiasco, he had a hunch that he was going to need Steph on his side. This feisty, fiery woman wasn’t going to step out of the picture on her own, not when she was motivated by personal reasons to hunt the diamonds. If Jake let her walk away, he’d keep running into her and butting heads. She was in a unique position to be his best weapon in this case. Better to work with her than against her.
He just needed her to see the benefits, and he didn’t mean the physical ones, because tearing each other’s clothes off needed to stop. ASAP. Besides, she seemed closer to throat-punching him than yanking off his shirt.
“Teaming up makes sense for us both.”
“Why?”
“You need me and I need you. You know everyone on this island, which is great,” he said, giving her his best pitch for why she’d want to work with him. “But it also means that people recognize you. It only took you going out to one breakfast with your stepdad for me to find out who you were. But me? No one knows me. I could be anyone. I can go places you can’t go. I can be unseen. You have inside access, but I can walk around unnoticed.”
She crossed her arms. Her lips were doing an excellent impression of a straight line. “Unless I told my stepdad who you were.”
He scoffed and stared hard back at her, calling her bluff. “I highly doubt you’d do that.”
“Why do you doubt me?”
“Because you want the same thing. You want to know what happened to the money. And I’m willing to bet you’ve already asked him, and he hasn’t given you the answer you want.” Her eyes widened, telling him he was right. “Am I right?” he asked, softer this time.
“Yes,” she muttered.
“OK, so let’s try to get the real answers.”
She raised her face. “Show me, then. Show me this evidence,” she said, her voice both strong and wavering. He could tell she was torn, but there was no doubt in his mind.
With his phone very tightly in his grip, he showed her the e-mail, giving her time to read it. He walked her through all the backstory, showing her some of the other documents, from how the date of the e-mail matched dates when money was moved from the
fund, letting her take in the full scope of the crime.
She winced as if she’d just eaten something sour, then she blinked several times.
“We don’t know for sure he stole anything,” she said, desperation coloring her tone. “Just that he was in contact with someone. The only thing I know for sure is he screwed over my mom. That doesn’t make him a criminal, just a man.”
As far as Jake was concerned, Eli was 100 percent guilty and then some, but Steph was clinging to some shred of hope. It pained him to see her like his, but he had to think like a mercenary, not a man who would bend too easily to a vulnerable woman, so he made a lateral move.
“That’s the evidence I’m working off of, and my job is to get this ten million and return it. You’re still looking into the missing money, too. We can work together and finish faster. Join forces. We both bring something to the table.”
She huffed, returning to her tough-girl persona. “Fine. That may be true, but I was the one who was invited into Eli’s house,” she said, tapping her chest. “In-vi-ted. Me. I’ll just be strolling through the door on Thursday night, and I can wander around and check it out.”
“Oh right. Of course,” he said, deadpan, nodding several times for effect. “Because he probably keeps a bowlful of diamonds on his desk.”
She shot him a side-eyed stare. “Ha ha, funny guy. But for your information, no. I don’t think my stepdad treats them like jelly beans,” she said, miming dipping her fingers into a bowl and grabbing some. “The point being, I can get the lay of the land. How many places can there be to hide diamonds in a house?” she said, in a tone full of bravado. It was, admittedly, adorable. Especially as she straightened up in her chair, acting all cool and tough. “I’ll see if there’s a loose floorboard somewhere. Or a piece of art hiding a safe behind it.”
That’s when he knew he had her. When he knew his plan would reel her in. She was, by her own admission, playing private detective. He was, by his profession, making a living as one. She had moxie and access, and he needed both, but he had something to offer her—skills. “When you find this floorboard, will you just yank it up with the hammer you keep in your back pocket?”
She breathed in sharply, and he was sure she was biting back all the things she didn’t want to say. She snapped her gaze away from him and stared off the deck at the water and the waves gently rippling along the shore. The blue waters lapped the sand, and as she watched them, her expression seemed to soften. When she turned back to him, she lowered her voice. “Maybe I do keep a hammer in my back pocket. It’s not as if I’m incapable.”
“I don’t think you’re incapable at all. I’m simply offering to help.”
“Because you keep a hammer in your back pocket?”
“No. But because I know how to do things. Like tracking down and retrieving a stolen Stradivarius that was stuffed into a cabinet with dirty laundry in a second-story flat in Pigalle. Like finding a seventeenth-century Medici artifact that was hidden in the flour tins in an Italian bakery,” he said, and she arched an eyebrow as he rattled off some of his jobs. “Like tracking down a Degas drawing that was tucked under a floorboard in a house in Boston.”
“And you used your hammer for that?”
His lips curved up in a mild grin. “Yes. I used a hammer for that, and the owner was thrilled to have it back. I can also open most safes.”
“Is there anything you can’t do?” she asked sarcastically. “Now you’re a safecracker, too, MacGyver?”
“I’m not a safecracker,” he said as his lips twitched in a grin at the nickname. “But five years in the army working in intelligence gave me a lot of insight about how people think, and the best tools to use to solve problems. And I’ve been in this line of work long enough to develop some key skills. Those include but are not limited to picking locks, opening safes, removing floorboards quietly, climbing through windows silently, jumping out of windows without a sound. Running across the roof, shimmying down the trellis, then darting through the bushes, and doing it all without being seen.”
He left out the part about how a squeaky shoe on the wet cobblestones had gotten him stabbed. Besides, he’d escaped with the prize, despite the squeaky sole.
“My, my,” she said, making an O with her lips as he tried to sell her on his skills. But he couldn’t tell if she was truly impressed or still annoyed. “You dart, you shimmy, you dodge. You are a jack-of-all-trades.”
“Why thank you,” he said, though he was well aware she was mocking his best sales effort.
“So you want me to be the front woman, sniffing out information, and you can be Captain Adventure?”
“Sure.” He managed a smile. “I actually think that’s a perfect partnership. One that maximizes what we both bring to the table. Or think of it like this. You’re the sniper; I’m the gun.”
“But what if I just don’t need a gun, Jake? What if all I need are my eyes?” She pointed to her blue eyes. Her gorgeous, pretty-as-a-picture blue eyes that were so damn innocent and sweet-looking, just like the tone she was using now. This woman, she could work him over. He had to stay on his guard.
“Tell you what, Steph. Go to Eli’s on Thursday night. If he does have the diamonds in a bowl on his desk, or on the dining room table, or wherever, then all you have to do is stuff those beauties in your pocket and run back to Miami with them. I am happy to call Andrew and say I failed abysmally at my mission.”
She didn’t answer right away. She simply watched him, like she was studying him. “Hypothetically, if we’re partners and I went to his house to scope out the scene, would you wait quietly in a bush or trellis for me? You know, in case there are dangerous guard dogs you need to rescue me from?”
“I doubt you’d need rescuing from anything. But yes, I could do that. And by the way, I know there aren’t trellises on your stepfather’s property,” he said, his voice cool and casual, as he picked up the fork.
“How do you know that?”
“It’s my job to know that. His house is on the water. He has palm trees, an orchid tree, a rose bush, an infinity pool, and a boat in a private dock. He lives in a two-story stone house, with a stucco roof, purchased a year ago in a condo development called Corey’s Landing.”
She raised her eyebrows. The look in her eyes said she was impressed. “You do your homework.”
“Maybe I’m not just muscle. Maybe I have the brains, too,” he said, tapping his temple. “So what do you say? Are we in? If we find the diamonds, we return them to their rightful owners, the Eli Fund, and presumably that helps your mom, since she helped start the company,” he said, then he zeroed in on her soft spot, since it was his, too—looking out for others. “Look, let’s say he didn’t do it. But someone else did. Let’s pretend someone else took something from the fund. What happens if you dig into this and run into this person,” he said, and though he was convinced of Eli’s guilt, he also knew you could never be too careful, and he couldn’t rule out Eli having accomplices he didn’t know of yet. “What if you find someone else is involved? I’ll be your backup.”
“Like a bodyguard?” she asked, a bit playful.
“I give good backup, Steph,” he said, and she managed a small smile. “And good protection.”
“You know that sounds dirty.”
“I know. But I mean it, too. What do you say? You won’t rat me out and I won’t rat you out, and we help each other get to the bottom of the diamonds.” Stolen diamonds, he added in his head. He picked up the other fork and handed it to her, wanting her yes. This job would be finished a hell of a lot faster with an inside woman. He held a breath as he waited.
She took the fork but didn’t dig into the cake. The fork hovered in midair in her hand. “The diamonds might be in his nightclub.”
“They might.”
“Eli invited me to go tonight. He won’t be there. But they might be in a bank, too. If they’re in a bank vault, I doubt your hammer or lock-picking tricks would work.”
He nodded. “You’
re right. And I certainly don’t intend to break into a bank. Even I have lines.”
“What if they are in a bank?”
“Then I give Andrew that information. He hired me to conduct some recon and drum up intel. If I can nab the diamonds, I certainly will. But if they’re guarded in a bank, my job will be of the information-recovery rather than item-recovery nature.” He quickly added, “Our job.”
“Our?” She quirked up the corner of her lips. “So you’ve already decided we’re partners? What if I don’t trust you?”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t be partners. But I also think you probably trust me more than you think. Because you like me,” he said with a lopsided grin as he waited patiently for her answer.
She laughed as she shook her head, bemused. Then she roamed her eyes over his face, his chest, his arms. Her gaze wasn’t sexual. She seemed to be considering his offer. His plan might be grade-A insane, and Lord only knew that the last time he’d worked with a woman, he’d been burned. But he had no plans of letting her into his heart. Nope. This was only work. Nothing more.
“It seems you have talents that might come in handy,” she admitted.
“See? I knew you could be convinced of my talents,” he said, wiggling an eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes. “In this case, I was actually thinking of the other talent you mentioned. The one where you could wander around town, ask questions here and there, act like a tourist, and no one thinks anything of it. There are a few things I have in mind. But they require both of us.”
He held out his arms wide. “That’s what I’m talking about. So does this mean we’re working together, Ariel?”
She nodded, then lowered her voice to a whispered warning. “But just work. No funny stuff.”
“No funny stuff,” he said, agreeing to the necessary rule. Though shucking off the desire he felt for her was no easy task. Hell, it was maddening lust that had raged inside of him when he spotted her on the beach. But that had to end. “I’m not suggesting we fuck. I’m suggesting we track down ten million dollars in stolen diamonds and return them to their rightful owners—the Eli Fund and its middle-America customers. And if we can’t do that, we get as much intel on the diamonds as we can. If we work together, we can get the job done faster, cleaner, and be done with each other sooner.”
The Sapphire Affair (A Jewel Novel Book 1) Page 11
