Caught in the Act: A Jewel Heist Romance Anthology

by Ainslie Paton

  He felt the familiar sickening waves of guilt, hated to relive the night it all went to shit. But to make her understand, he would.

  “Tony came to me, all excited about bringing me into this big job. Knoll said he wanted to steal a necklace from a business rival, humiliate him, show him who was boss. From one of those big estates on the North Shore.” He remembered Tony showing him a picture of the jewels. “It was a Harry Winston Diamond Riviere Necklace, worth half a mil. Knoll told Tony he could keep it; he just wanted to teach his rival a lesson.” He snorted. “We should have known right then it was a set-up. Knoll would never not take a cut.”

  His stomach started to hurt, and his voice went hoarse. “I didn’t want to do it. I was on my own by then, following my own rules. But Tony assured me that it would be easy. The place was going to be empty, and Knoll gave him the codes to the alarm system. All I needed to do was scale the wall to the estate to bypass the security guards, and then walk right in the back door and disable the alarm with the codes. Hell, I wouldn’t even need to hurry.”

  “Why didn’t Tony just do it himself?”

  “He didn’t advertise it to his employers, but he had pretty bad arthritis in his wrists and knees by then.” Adam picked up one of her hands, held it in his lap. “He drove me there, parked down the road from the estate and waited. The codes were crap, of course. As soon as I entered them, the alarm went off.

  “I fucked up then.” He’d never said it aloud before. It hurt and felt good at the same time. “I fucked up so bad. If I’d run out a different door, I could have gotten away. But I panicked and ran out the same door I came in. I didn’t know it then, but the chime of the alarm was different depending on which keypad the code was entered into. So when it went off, the security guards had a pretty good idea what door I’d be coming out of. When I ran out of the house, they had guns on me.”

  He still remembered the sharp blast of fear, the knowledge in his bones that his life was over.

  “When he heard the alarm and I didn’t appear, Tony should have driven away. Instead, he somehow got onto the property. The guards didn’t know where he came from and assumed he’d been inside with me. We were both arrested.”

  He squeezed her hand. “That’s why my prints are in the system.”

  “But you weren’t convicted?”

  “Tony pled guilty on the condition that I got off. He spun up some story about how I had no idea what we were doing, that I thought we were visiting a friend.” He shrugged. “Tony had priors and I didn’t. I’m sure the DA didn’t buy it, but he got a bad guy and avoided a trial.”

  He leaned over and smelled Jess’s hair one more time. Lilacs and vanilla. Then he gently pulled away. She probably wouldn’t like what he was going to say next and he couldn’t bear to feel her stiffen against him.

  “Tony gets parole in September. Knoll’s smuggled diamonds are for him.” His throat tightened. “He’s practically an old man now, an ex-con, with no money.”

  He refused to look back at Jess, to see the disapproval he knew would be on her face. She didn’t say a word, but he went on the defensive anyway. “He’s the only family I have, Jess. He’s spent the last eight years in prison because I fucked up. He saved me as a kid. I can’t make up for the jail time, but I can make sure Knoll pays his price too. Sedarno will make his life a living hell when those diamonds go missing. And with those diamonds... I can see that Tony spends the rest of his life in safety and luxury.”

  She still didn’t say a word. His voice rose, “It might sound stupid to you—”

  “It doesn’t sound stupid at all,” she said.

  He whirled to face her. Was she fucking with him? But no, she was just looking at him with understanding and sympathy in those big brown eyes.

  “Does he blame you?”

  He blinked, unable to process her simple acceptance. He’d known it already, but the woman was really too good to be true. Or at least, too good to be his. “How could he not?”

  A line formed between her eyebrows. “You haven’t visited him? Written him?”

  He let out a harsh bark. Was she insane? “In prison? Of course not. I’m sure he hates me. I’d be the very last person he’d want to see or hear from. It’d be like taunting him with my freedom.”

  She blew out a long breath. “I think you’re wrong, Adam.” Her voice was low and serious. “You should go see him.”

  She always managed to surprise him. He thought she’d argue with him over the diamonds and instead she wanted to talk about this? “He’s never written me either.”

  “Probably because he’s exactly like you,” she said dryly. “Did you ever consider the possibility that he feels like he fucked up? That he brought you into that idiotic job and got you arrested? Maybe he thinks that you hate him.”

  No. There was no way Tony didn’t blame him. But he couldn’t deny that her words created a tiny pinprick of hope in the heavy cloak of guilt that always hung over him.

  But as she gazed at him, he realized he had no time to be hopeful. He’d wasted valuable minutes talking about unchangeable facts. He wanted to kick himself for taking comfort in her—again—when he needed to focus on getting her safe.

  He stood up. “I need to tell you why I’m here, Jess. You’re in serious trouble.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Jess stood slowly, but her mind was racing. This night was making her dizzy. For weeks she’d been hoping Adam would appear in her apartment like this. Half so that she could punch him in the face for dropping her, and half so that she could push him to the floor and have her wicked way with him again.

  In none of her fantasies did he sit in her hallway and confess his deepest secret to her with the weight of the world on his shoulders and his heart in his eyes. She couldn’t have guessed how such a conversation would make her want to wrap herself around him and never let go.

  Not that he was going to allow that, apparently. Even now, he was opening her closet doors and pulling out a suitcase. She scrambled after him. “Uh, what kind of trouble?”

  “Sedarno’s on to you,” he said. “He’s monitoring all your online activity. He could have someone watching you, I don’t know.”

  “But—” she shook her head, following him into the bedroom. “What do you mean he’s ‘on to me’—I haven’t even done anything yet.”

  Adam unzipped the suitcase and put it on her bed. “I mean he was apprehensive enough about Vegas that he looked you up, found your connection to Ignatius. He probably doesn’t know exactly what you’re after, but he does know two things: you were screwed by the University that Knoll is using to get his diamonds and you pursued the two of them while they were in Vegas discussing the transfer. That’s enough for him to be extremely suspicious. Which means you need to run.”

  She opened her mouth, closed it again. Couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually been struck speechless. “Run?” she managed.

  He yanked open her dresser drawer and started pulling out pairs of jeans. “Yes, fucking run, Jess. Put some distance between yourself and those diamonds. Get far away from Chicago. Disappear for a while. You do not mess around with Sedarno. Do you need me to tell you about all the people he’s killed? And for a lot less than 25 million dollars.”

  Jess blinked and sank onto the mattress. “Run,” she repeated. “But...my life...”

  Adam tossed the clothes into the suitcase. “You will have no life if Sedarno kills you,” he said, matter-of-factly.

  She felt numb. Run? Not only did it go against every instinct she had, but what did that even mean? Did it mean going away temporarily? Or forever? If she ran now and never exposed Knoll’s illegal activities at the University, she’d never clear her name.

  Did that matter? Ignoring Adam’s frantic packing, she allowed herself a precious moment to think. Except for Adam and Andrew, the
world-at-large thought she was a criminal who hadn’t faced judgment. To her surprise, she realized her reputation mattered less to her than it did a few months ago. Since meeting Adam, the idea of “criminal” had changed in her mind. He might break the law professionally, but he had more honor and loyalty than most people she knew. Hell, she’d broken the law with gusto over the past several months. She hadn’t hurt anybody by doing it, and if she was being honest with herself, she’d sort of enjoyed it.

  “I’ll give you money to live on for a while,” he said, slamming one drawer and opening another. “When the dust settles, you can buy a new identity, one with a solid IT education and work history. You can get a job with those credentials. Not in Chicago though.”

  Okay, this was crazy. He thought she was going to live as someone else forever? What about her family? Maybe she didn’t have an ideal relationship with her father or older brothers, but she loved them and they needed her. And Andrew was her closest friend; there’s no way she was abandoning him.

  Live as someone other than Jessica Hughes for the rest of her life? Forever leave the city she loved? NO. She didn’t say it aloud. She didn’t even shake her head. She just closed her eyes and conjured up that trusty old poker face. As it settled in her skin, her resolve strengthened, and she wished she could explain to Adam in a way he’d understand. I’m not leaving. This city is my home. I did nothing wrong. I don’t want another life when I worked so damn hard on my own.

  Adam was clearly overreacting. She understood why he needed to be so paranoid in his profession, but really, what could Sedarno find on her? Nothing. Okay, it’d been dumb of her to do the whole golf thing in Vegas. But if she was smart and quick, she could still get this done. She could still catch Knoll red-handed with the diamonds and—anonymously—turn him over to the authorities. She could do this.

  But not with Adam.

  He cares about me. She let herself watch him for a full minute as he muttered and cleared out another drawer. But, she reflected, he never said, “Let’s both forget the diamonds. I won’t go after them anymore either.” If he wasn’t going to steal them and she wasn’t going to turn in Knoll, then Sedarno would get his jewels and have no reason to hurt her. After hearing his story about Tony and the gut-deep guilt in his voice, she truly understood—but it still stung a little. Yeah, he cares about me—but he cares about the diamonds more.

  So this was it, where they truly said goodbye. She felt the lump rising in her throat and willed it to evaporate. When he’d first appeared tonight, she was so excited. Furious at him, of course, but so hopeful. Hopeful that he might have come because he couldn’t stop thinking about her and wanted to forge a way forward together. Stupid, stupid Jess.

  Adam stopped packing and stared at her. “What are you thinking?”

  Goodbye, Adam. She nodded briskly. “My travel route. I don’t need your money. I have a small emergency fund I can use. It’ll keep me afloat until I find some sort of work.” She hoped she sounded confident, like a woman on the path to a fugitive life.

  To her shock, he reached out and stroked her cheek. “I’m so sorry, Jess.” His voice was gruff. “I never should have asked you to come to Vegas. The trip was a horrible mistake.”

  Ouch. She knew what he meant, but still.

  She pulled away and shrugged. “It was my own fault. I didn’t listen.” I’m not listening to you now either. She pointed to the window where the faintest hint of orange could be seen in the sky. “Sun’ll be up soon. I’ll call a cab and...get gone.” She swallowed. “You should go now.”

  He nodded, slowly, but kept wary eyes on her face.

  She gave him a tight smile and held out her hand. “Good luck.” Good luck to us both.

  * * *

  Three days later, Jess stood in front of the full-length mirror in her room at the Marriott and critiqued her appearance.

  The red tango dress was a halter style that left her entire back bare and tied with a bow around her neck. There was a slit on her left leg that went up to her hip bone. Her own hair was tucked carefully into a wig cap, and the glossy black hair of her expensive new wig was pulled high off her face and hung in impossibly thick curls to the small of her back. Her ultra-dark spray tan, dramatic eye makeup and red lips completed the exotic look.

  In the mirror, her face was serene and relaxed, reflecting nothing of the tornado of butterflies tearing up her stomach. She was so nervous she hadn’t been able to eat all day.

  Tonight was the night.

  After Adam left her apartment earlier in the week, things had happened rather quickly. Since they weren’t on the same team anymore, she hadn’t shared with him her big news, that she’d been able to narrow the “May” window that Knoll mentioned on the golf cart recording. For legal reasons, the University stored the travel details for all the abroad students in the database for the Office of International Programs. It was easy for her to access the database and pull the flight details for Knoll’s couriers. Not legally, of course, but she was well past that.

  Two of the courier flights arrived on the evening of May 12th and two flew in on the morning of May 13th. From the recording, she knew that Knoll would consolidate the diamonds almost immediately and then Sedarno would arrive to collect them.

  Her next step was to access Knoll’s calendar and see if anything was scheduled for the 13th or 14th. That was a little tricky, but she found a way in after realizing that he’d linked his University email account to his other accounts.

  Lo and behold, Knoll was scheduled to attend a black tie fundraiser in Evanston on the 13 th. As a key donor, he was one of the speakers. She’d snorted aloud when she read the description of the gala and learned it was tango-themed. Of course it is. But the excitement really kicked in when she saw the personal notation he’d made on the calendar appointment: AS arrival United 4588.

  Arnie Sedarno. United flight 4588 arrived to O’Hare at 10:50 pm. Knoll was programmed to speak during the dinner, which was scheduled for 8:00 pm. It made sense that Knoll would collect the diamonds earlier that day, bring them to the event, and Sedarno would go directly from the airport to the gala to retrieve them.

  Which gave a three-to-four-hour window where Knoll had the diamonds in his possession and Sedarno was still in transit. A very nice window in which the authorities could catch him red-handed.

  She’d spent hours the day before summarizing the data found on the University’s computers, dummy-proofing it so that even the most inexperienced FBI agent would be able to connect the dots. She added material about diamond smuggling, so that they’d understand what Knoll was bringing in. She enclosed copies of Knoll’s financial records with an explanation of how he borrowed the money from organized crime and needed the diamonds to pay it back. She explained about the bribe to Seymour Davies and enclosed his financial statements as well.

  It took only moments to scrub her own electronic fingerprints off the package of information she so carefully put together. The FBI would receive the package from an anonymous source, and there would be no way to trace it back to her.

  Only one thing remained to take care of—the diamonds themselves. Knoll was an extremely powerful man with the typical “friends in high places.” Her package of information might be damning, but it was also illegally obtained. He needed to be caught with the diamonds in his possession.

  And...that was the problem. He wouldn’t carry 25 million dollars of diamonds on his person, but they needed to be somewhere near the gala. Maybe in his car? Or in a bag somewhere on the estate where the tango event was held?

  She couldn’t see any way around it. She would have to go the event herself and snoop around until she knew where the actual diamonds were. Then, she could make her call, email her evidence, and scoot out of there before Sedarno arrived.

  Piece of cake, right?

  In the mirror, her own eyes reflected skepticism. T
hen she called a cab to take her to Evanston.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Adam stood against the wall, nodding and smiling at the rich idiots all dressed up in different interpretations of tango-wear. It was almost hard to watch them awkwardly attempt the actual tango moves on the dance floor. Since his contact on Knoll’s staff alerted him to the party at the last minute, he’d opted for a simple black tuxedo. His hair and eyebrows were black tonight, his eyes a muddy brown. A dark mustache was the finishing touch.

  Ironic that his first real re-introduction to Knoll had come at the University black-tie event and tonight, the end, was also such an occasion. His jobs weren’t usually so symmetrically bookended. Glancing at his watch, he strolled until he was in good position to see the door. Based on the most recent text from his contact, Knoll was with a group walking through the estate’s gardens and would be arriving to the ballroom soon.

  As soon as Knoll was in the house, he needed to act. He wanted to be as far away as possible when Sedarno arrived and they realized the diamonds had disappeared. If all went as planned, he would be out of the state by the time Sedarno got to the party. If it didn’t go perfectly, he’d still be out of the city. He didn’t know what kind of effort Sedarno would put into recovering the diamonds, but he planned to be away from Chicago for quite some time.

  Away from Chicago. Like Jess. Jess. When would this godawful pressure on his chest let up? Some moments it felt like he could barely breathe. He couldn’t believe that because of him, she’d needed to flee the city. She deserved so much better. She deserved to get her life and reputation back. She deserved a man she could proudly introduce to her father. Instead, she’d gotten tangled up with him, the man who was about to deny her what she deserved.

  The fact that he’d fallen for her didn’t change a damned thing.