Jake shrugged. “Same as always.”
Jake, like his father and grandfather before him, headed security for Staffordshire International. Since Leonard got Staffordshire International after their grandmother’s death, Leonard also got Jake.
“Are you happy there?”
Jake shrugged and Ana knew he wouldn’t answer the question.
“Jake, there you are. I’m not paying you to stand behind potted plants and flirt... Oh.”
Ana smiled the same fake smile she’d perfected as a child. She wasn’t going to be the one to make a scene. “Cousin,” she greeted.
“What are you doing here?”
She faked confusion. “I got a lovely gilded invitation. Are you saying you didn’t invite me?”
Ana loved nothing more than pissing off her jackass of a cousin. This smile was real. Sometimes even she had trouble believing they came from the same family. She and Leonard had been playmates as children, but after their parents died, he’d changed. And not for the better. He’d fallen in with a bad crowd at school and he’d never seemed to want to crawl his way out, no matter the opportunities. She spent so many years trying to be his friend as children, and again after they were left as the only two Staffordshires, but he seemed to thrive on being a horrible, manipulative person. She’d seen him hurt too many people in the past to want anything to do with him, even if he was the only family she had left.
“Came to get one last look at the necklace, did you? Still pissed that the family left it to me and not you?”
It hadn’t been left to him. It had actually been left to Ana’s father as the oldest male heir, as had been done for generations. Unfortunately, both her parents and Leonard’s parents had preceded their mother in death. Grandmother hadn’t been able to do anything about it.
Leonard showed off his perfectly straight, overly white teeth, his version of a smile.
“You know it’s always been my favorite thing this name has brought me,” she said.
Grandmother would’ve shown off the diamond in a museum if it helped someone in need, but never for it to be a spectacle. Her grandmother had actually worn the diamond most of the time. It was completely inappropriate to wear around their small beach town in Massachusetts, but that had never stopped Gretchen Staffordshire. Playing dress up with her grandmother and the diamond were some of the happiest memories of Ana’s life.
“Just remember who owns the necklace,” Leonard spat. “Jake, your job is to be my bodyguard. That means you stay with me, not her.”
Leonard turned on his heel, wobbling a bit because he hadn’t inherited the Staffordshire grace, and stalked away.
Jake stepped back and looked at her from the top of her updo—held up with an incredible amount of bobby pins and decorated with an antique clip—down to the tips of her red pointed-toe pumps. If asked, she’d lose the entire ensemble for him in a heartbeat.
“Always nice to see you, Princess.”
Ana took a deep breath once Jake followed her cousin across the room. He seemed to suck all of the air out of her vicinity whenever he was near. On the surface he fit in with all of the other suit-wearing folks milling around, but there was always something different about him. Something simmering just under the surface. He was like an uncut diamond in a sea of polished gemstones.
Jake stood between her and the diamond. Jake and his stupid sense of right and wrong. Her entire plan hinged on the fact he’d be guarding the diamond tonight. Leonard would be taking it home tomorrow to prep for the sale. Ana had used all of her remaining contacts in the world where she and Leonard had grown up. No one knew what he was doing with the diamond. Tonight was her last, her only, chance.
So she was going to do the one thing she’d always wanted to do but would never let herself. She was going to get down and dirty with Jake.
She’d distract him with her body, and once she’d wrung every ounce of pleasure out of him, she’d replace the Staffordshire Diamond with the glass replica in her purse and stroll out of the museum, into her new life on a small private island in the South Pacific.
* * *
Anastasia Staffordshire.
If that name didn’t scream princess, he didn’t know what did.
She and Jake had been playmates as children, reluctant acquaintances through their teenage years, and he’d been half in love with her for as long as he could remember. Not that he could ever act on his feelings. She was American royalty and he was the hired help.
The red lace dress she wore was sinful.
It hugged all her curves, her tight round ass, her more-than-generous handful of breasts. He’d jacked off to the thought of those breasts more times than he could count. Every time he saw her he made a mental note to thank his tailor for his well-fitting suits so no one could tell how hard she made him.
Leonard could never know how Jake felt about Ana. At times, Jake wondered if Leonard suspected. Luckily he’d always been able to distract Leonard with something else. If Leonard caught on, he’d find new ways to make Jake’s life miserable. And he couldn’t take the chance that Ana would be affected. So Jake did what he always did. He waited and he watched and he planned, biding his time until maybe someday they could be more than whatever the hell they were now.
He followed Leonard around. The man didn’t need a bodyguard. Leonard didn’t matter one bit in the grand scheme of things. No one was out to get him. Even Leonard’s shady business deals with people who shouldn’t be crossed weren’t enough to get him in real trouble—not yet anyway. Leonard was, in a word, unimportant.
Still, Jake spent more time than he wanted following the idiot around.
It was payback for all the times Jake bettered Leonard. Leonard had been forcing Jake to compete since they were children, and Jake won, every time. So as punishment, he had to stand three feet behind a man he hated, listening to him prattle on about unimportant things.
Ana was the only bright spot in this party.
It was difficult to believe that Ana and Leonard could actually be related. For all the Staffordshire money, Leonard couldn’t seem to do anything about his appearance. He was in his early thirties, but looked a decade older. His expensive suits couldn’t disguise his expanding belly, and nothing could help his receding hairline. Jake knew Leonard hadn’t exerted himself in years, yet a light sheen of sweat shined on his forehead. The overhead lights in the museum were unforgiving and he somehow looked both pale and ruddy at the same time.
Ana most definitely got the better genes. She had her grandmother’s auburn hair, her grandfather’s blue eyes and the Staffordshire height.
She’d been the bright spot in a lot of Jake’s life, though he didn’t see her much these days.
Her red dress called to him like a beacon in a sea of black and white cocktail attire. She laughed with old friends and acquaintances, but no one seemed to care that she never smiled for real. She kept darting glances at the Staffordshire Diamond.
“Fuck,” he muttered, earning a “we’ll talk about this later” glare from Leonard.
But they wouldn’t.
Leonard had no idea Jake was finished with Staffordshire International. After the museum closed tonight, before the sale could be made sometime tomorrow, he was to stay overnight with the diamond, a stupid job Leonard came up with just to make Jake suffer.
But the joke would be on Leonard, because neither Jake nor the diamond would be here in the morning. Jake had a buyer lined up already. A private buyer of gemstones who simply wanted it in his collection to look at. He’d stroll out of the museum with the diamond in his pocket in the wee hours of the morning, after one of the preprogrammed check-in times, make the sale, and be on his way to his new life by the time anyone knew he was missing.
Jake was going to steal the Staffordshire Diamond.
And he knew with sudden clarity
that Anastasia was here to do the exact same thing.
Chapter Two
Jake struggled to keep a smile on his face as the party droned on endlessly. The invitation very specifically said the party lasted from seven to nine, so why were all these people still here at ten-thirty?
Since Jake’s primary job was the diamond, he’d pawned off Leonard bodyguard duty to someone else. After making sure all was right with the necklace, he headed off to find Ana. Until now, he hadn’t lost sight of her since he’d arrived. He found her behind the same potted plant as before.
“These people can party,” he said dryly, coming up behind her.
She didn’t react to his sudden presence. Could she be half as attuned to him as he to her?
“Yeah, or they’re waiting for me to make a scene.”
Honestly, he figured that was the case, but he wasn’t going to be the first to bring it up.
“Hell, it’s been years since you’ve made a scene,” he said with a smile. Not many people would joke about her troubled past, but he wasn’t most people.
Ana rolled her eyes but smiled up at him. She’d had a rough time of it in her early twenties and, on more than one occasion, had been portrayed by the media as a raging bitch. She didn’t suffer from the spoiled rich kid syndrome most people thought. Her grandmother had been killed in a plane crash on the way to Ana’s nineteenth birthday party. This had been after her parents and Leonard’s parents had been killed in a car accident ten years prior. Suddenly, Ana had been alone in the world.
She hadn’t been a bitch, she’d just been suddenly thrust into adulthood with no one to lean on. Jake had tried to do as much as he could for her, but he’d been off fulfilling his duty to his country after graduating from the Naval Academy. When he came back to take over for his father as head of security for Staffordshire International, Leonard had kept him on a very short leash.
Guilt also kept him away from her. Had Jake’s parents not been celebrating his graduation festivities with him, they would’ve been on the plane that killed Ana’s grandmother. Ana and her grandmother were supposed to show up the next day for commencement, but neither of them ever arrived. Instead, the last thing he’d done before heading out to sea for six months was help bury Gretchen Staffordshire.
“How are your parents?”
“They’re good. Mom wishes they could travel more. Still. Every time I talk to them, they go on and on about their garden.”
He couldn’t imagine getting worked up over zucchini, but maybe that was what retirement did to a guy. Although he figured he’d end up on a beach somewhere after he sold the necklace, so maybe he’d have to look into citrus gardening.
“I miss them,” she said.
“They’d love to see you.”
His mother once told him that seeing Ana’s broken heart was too painful. Afraid they only brought up painful memories for Ana, they kept their distance and left the ball in Ana’s court. Jake knew Ana was too proud to ask for help, and she saw seeking out his parents as asking for help. As much as he’d tried over the years, he’d never been able to convince his parents that she needed them. It was that same guilt that had him keeping a respectable distance all these years. He looked out for her, but never too closely.
“The gossips are out in full force tonight.” She nodded toward a group of impeccably dressed women cackling and occasionally looking in their direction.
“Do you care?”
She shook her head. Even when Gretchen had been alive, grooming her granddaughter to be a member of polite society, something about Ana had stood out. She always seemed so much more than many of these people. “Did you learn anything interesting?”
He couldn’t give a damn about these people. He’d always been on the outside looking in. He fit in well enough that he could pass for a guest here, but he’d never be one of them and they all knew it.
“Nope. Somebody talked shit about Mitzy Frasier’s dog, or maybe Mitzy is the dog, I don’t know, I tuned out most of the conversation.”
He laughed out loud.
Gretchen would have had a fit if she heard her granddaughter curse at a function like this. But in the privacy of her own home, Gretchen had sworn like a sailor. Jake’s time in the navy had been nothing compared to his time in Gretchen Staffordshire’s kitchen on Thanksgiving Day as she prepared dinner for the entire staff.
He smiled at the memory and noticed Ana smiled, too.
“How’s the job?” Jake asked.
Leonard had been furious when Ana turned down the job he’d so generously offered her at Staffordshire International in order to work for a nonprofit group that helped women escape from abusive situations. Laughing at Leonard’s reaction had been well worth the lecture he’d received.
“It’s as good as it can ever be,” she said. “I’m glad I’m helping people who need it. I’ve actually started tutoring a lot of the kids who come through the house. Many of the moms are hesitant to let their kids go to school so I’ve been helping them keep up to date on their schoolwork.”
“That’s great,” he said, though he already knew everything she told him.
She wasn’t an official SI job, but that didn’t mean Jake didn’t keep tabs on her. She’d be pissed if she knew, but her situation could be dangerous. Ana’s safety had always been his concern.
Staffordshire International might be the name on his paychecks, but it’d been drilled into him from a young age that his job was to make sure the Staffordshires were safe. He took that responsibility very seriously.
Except for Leonard. Fuck that guy. He’d spent his years as head of Staffordshire International taking advantage of people when they were down. He made millions from unsuspecting people who thought they could trust Gretchen Staffordshire’s grandson. They’d been wrong, and it killed Jake to know that he hadn’t found out about it in time.
Jake’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He peeked at it and saw the status update from Leonard’s bodyguard. He clicked a few keys and confirmed that he was connected to museum security.
“Leonard is leaving so the place should start to clear out soon. Will you stay to see the rock one more time?”
* * *
The rock?
The Staffordshire Diamond was a breathtaking work of beauty. It had no equal. The emerald cut showed off the lack of color and flawlessness, both internally and externally. Sure, there were bigger diamonds, diamonds more famous than the Staffordshire, but none that had been in the same family as long, not with such a rich history that only involved love and happiness.
And Jake called it a rock?
Ana tried to keep her expression neutral. Stupid, because Jake saw right through her; he’d always been able to.
Finally, she nodded.
“Stay around until everyone is gone.”
He reached out and brushed his hand up and down her bare arm. She shivered. Crowds of people parted as he stalked through them to the diamond display. The necklace rested on a pedestal in the middle of the room, out of its usual protective glass case. Presumably, why Leonard insisted on his own personal overnight security. Though she didn’t understand why Leonard didn’t just take it home with him tonight.
No matter. Her cousin’s confidence would be her gain.
No one got too close to the necklace with Jake standing guard. But she had every intention of getting too close. And she was prepared to do anything to make that happen.
A shiver of excitement coursed through her body.
She’d been raised to be a good girl. Her grandmother had insisted she be the perfect young woman as befitting American royalty. In public. In private, her grandmother taught her how to fight, how to swear, and how to drink a man under the table.
Being the good girl at the party sucked. She was ready to be alone with Jake and unleash her bad side.
A museum employee escorted out the stragglers and she made her way over to the middle of the room. To the diamond. To Jake.
“Miss Staffordshire, may I show you out?”
She recognized the museum employee’s polite way of kicking her out.
“She’ll be staying with me for a bit,” Jake said.
He didn’t have to come to her defense, but she liked that he did.
“But Mr. Staffordshire said—”
“I’m well aware what Mr. Staffordshire said, but Anastasia would like to see her family’s necklace one last time in private. Surely you wouldn’t deny her that?”
The man wilted under Jake’s stare. “Of course not, Mr. Hoffman. I will see you at seven in the morning in order to complete the transfer of the necklace into private hands. We’ll be sorry to see it go. Not only is it a popular item, but I’ve always loved the stories.”
Ana looked away from the pity in the man’s gaze. She didn’t want it. Didn’t need it.
The museum director nodded one more time, told Jake he’d set the alarm system and then left the display gallery. Moments later they heard the echo of a slamming door, sealing them in the museum. Alone.
With the necklace, which was practically a personality itself.
They circled the display stand in opposite directions. She studied the necklace from all angles.
“It’s breathtaking,” Jake said, breaking the oppressive silence. “But it’s so cold just sitting on the display.”
“Like my grandmother said, it was meant to be worn.”
The diamond itself could be detached from the necklace. It could be reattached to several other pieces of jewelry Ana usually kept in her safe deposit box, but were now tucked into the carry-on bag in the trunk of her car.
Caught in the Act: A Jewel Heist Romance Anthology Page 11
