“I did, indeed. Is this for your sister?” Wilder asked as he reached into his pocket and handed Jake a small pouch. Jake peeked inside, pleased at the contents.
“Nope. This one is not for my sister. But I’m glad we were finally able to do business together.”
He shook the man’s hand, then said good night.
Andrew arrived bright and early the next morning. He called as soon as he caught a cab, and told Jake he’d be at the hotel in fifteen minutes.
“Great. Come to room 412, and I will gladly give you all these bad boys,” Jake told him, eager to complete the final step in his job—giving the objects to the client who’d hired him to retrieve them.
“Can’t wait.”
His taxi must have been zippy, because he knocked on the door ten minutes later. When Jake opened the door, Monica greeted him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
He slammed the door shut.
His heart rate spiked. His blood pounded. Monica was fucking relentless.
“Who is it?” Steph asked as she joined him in the entryway.
He dragged a hand through his hair and blew out a long stream of air. “Monica. The diamond saleswoman. I thought she was done, but she’s still hunting them and must know—”
A loud rapping blasted through the room.
“This is Monica Potkin. I’m an investigator with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please open the door.”
Steph’s eyes widened. “Shit, is she going to arrest us?” she whispered.
“I don’t think they can make arrests, can they?” he said in a low voice, too.
“Don’t worry. I’m not here to arrest you,” Monica said.
“She has good hearing,” Jake said.
“Please open the door so we can talk.”
“What do we do?” Steph asked, holding her hands out wide.
“She knows we’re here. It’s not like we’re going to escape through the balcony on the fourth floor at this point,” he reasoned.
Steph shrugged. “What else can we do?”
“I know you’re not going to climb out the balcony, so it would be awesome if you open the door.”
There was no way around this, so Jake reached for the handle, turned it, and opened the door to the woman who might decide his fate. She strode into the room with purpose. Her hair was slicked back. Her demeanor was cool, and she nodded at both of them behind those cat’s-eye glasses.
“You’ve been following me,” Jake said, parking his hands on his hips, turning the tables on her. Like he could catch her.
“Right you are. We received a tip that Eli Thompson had stolen money from his hedge fund, turned it to gems with the help of a notorious luxury goods merchant, and skipped the country with diamonds lining his pockets. I’ve been here in the Caymans working undercover to investigate this case for a few weeks now. When you came into the diamond store with the gem, I knew we were getting closer. But it hasn’t been an easy path. Eli Thompson set traps for everyone, and I want to know if he set a trap for you, too.”
Jake looked to Steph, and Steph looked to Jake, and they both seemed to know instinctively to keep quiet. Monica might not be the thief, but she possessed powers they didn’t have.
“Oh, c’mon,” she said, exasperated. “I’m not going to arrest you. I just want to know if you were hired by the Eli Fund to recover the jewels, and if you succeeded.”
She knew the Eli Fund had hired its own team? Before he could answer or even decide what to answer, there was another rap on the door.
“This better be Andrew,” he muttered, and marched to the door, yanked it open, and tugged Andrew into the room. He’d never been more grateful to see a client in his life.
“Andrew, meet Monica Potkin with the SEC,” Jake said through tight lips. “She’s here for you.”
“Ah! So glad you’re here, too,” Andrew said, striding over to Monica and pumping her hand.
“Wait!” Steph interjected. “You know her?”
“We talked on the phone yesterday,” Andrew said, then turned to Jake. “When you told me about the theft of the fake rocks, I contacted the SEC and turned the case over to them. They informed me they had an investigator working on it all along and they were already aware and suspicious. So much for my efforts to do this quietly.” Andrew’s focus shifted to Monica. “If there’s any way we can keep this on the down low, I’d be most grateful.”
“That’s not really a promise I can make, but I’ll consider it,” she said.
“You know, I’m kind of feeling like my work here is done,” Jake chimed in. “What do you say we hand the gems over to you, and the two of us can get on out of town?”
Monica shook her head. “Not so fast. I need a few details. But I meant it when I said you aren’t under arrest. Nor are you in trouble. I know you might find this hard to believe, Mr. Harlowe, but we’re both on the same side of the law in this case. The right side. Now, tell me more about the diamonds.”
The silvery stingray swam over to Steph. She beamed and brushed a kiss on its slick body. She smiled for the lens as Jake took her picture with a disposable, waterproof camera. He went next, dropping a lip-lock on the creature. Then, they aimed for a hat trick, taking a selfie of a joint stingray smooch.
“I already feel pretty lucky,” she said a few hours after they’d left Monica and Andrew to sort out the paperwork.
“Me, too. But just in case, I’d better kiss you.”
“You’d better.”
They kissed in the shallow blue waters.
Later that afternoon, she put Jake on his flight back to the States, and Steph stayed a few more days to conduct her new tours.
During that time, the investigator held true to her word. Monica had only wanted information, and those details would likely be used to file charges against Eli Thompson. That saddened Steph immensely, knowing what was likely coming next for her stepdad. But he’d made his choice, and she’d fought hard to help him avert such a fate.
In the days that followed, Monica worked with Andrew to convert the diamonds back into cash, and then return the money to the rightful owners.
A most successful recovery of stolen assets, she’d deemed it.
After Steph returned home to Miami, she promptly found a pawn shop to pay her a good price for the Rolex. A small morsel of guilt coursed through her. It was a stolen watch, after all. But then again, Eli had offered it, so she didn’t feel too bad. In fact, she didn’t feel bad at all when she paid the lease on her mom’s new jewelry shop.
“You didn’t have to do that,” her mother said as they settled in for mocktails on South Beach one fine afternoon.
“I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. Now, let’s watch the people go by.”
They made up stories about a Miami Vice–style man in a white suit and a pink shirt, then two women in fluorescent-green bikinis riding skateboards, and then a very handsome man wearing cargo shorts, flip-flops, and a T-shirt, who was walking in her direction.
“That man is heading our way to find the love of his life,” her mom declared.
The man whipped off his shades, and Steph nudged her mom.
“You get to meet my boyfriend,” she said, and then Jake joined them at their favorite spot on South Beach.
Ah, life was good. Life was very, very good.
EPILOGUE
One Month Later
A blue tang fish swept past her, its fins brushing her leg. A parrot fish darted by next.
The water off the coast of Miami was calm today, and the view under the sea was as spectacular as ever. Today’s dive was hers. No customers, no video, just Steph and her brother, Robert, exploring one of their favorite spots.
With the regulator in her mouth, she swam past a coral reef and began to make her way skyward.
It was her first “fun” dive in weeks, but she couldn’t complain about the work ones, either. Business had been good and had steadily picked up—both here in Miami and around the Caribbean. She’d been f
ortunate enough to book a few tours in Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas, and those had kept her busy. They’d also kept her away from Jake, but she knew the score. She knew what she’d signed up for, and she loved every second of their moments together. They were apart more than not, but they made the most of the days when the stars aligned to bring them back to Florida. He’d been gone for the last week, tracking a missing Rembrandt in Switzerland, and she hoped to see him in a few days.
She’d landed a Caymans tour next month, and she didn’t think she’d see Eli there. His string of luck had mostly run out. He’d been sentenced to securities fraud, but he’d lawyered up once more and had landed a lighter penalty. He had to spend one year in jail, and then he and Isla would serve out the rest of his sentence with extended community service. They were being sent to Africa to build schools for the charity they’d funded.
That had seemed fitting when Steph read the news.
Steph reached the surface with Robert a few feet behind her. They swam to Lance’s boat twenty feet away as the afternoon sun cast golden rays across the water. They chatted about the new woman Robert was seeing, and when they reached the hull, Steph grasped the hand that Lance offered her.
But when she turned her face, she saw Jake was the one hoisting her back onto the boat.
“You’re back! I didn’t think you’d be back for a few more days.”
“I didn’t think I’d return this soon, either,” he said as she climbed over the edge and joined him on the deck. Robert followed behind.
“Did you find the Rembrandt?”
“Under a floorboard in an old villa in Tuscany.”
“Did you use your hammer?” she asked as she shed her dive gear.
He nodded. “I sure did.”
“Hey, Harlowe!”
The shout came from Robert, who was dripping wet on the deck of the boat now, too.
“Yeah?”
“This is the part where you kiss the girl.”
Jake saluted Steph’s brother. “Then I’d better take her to my boat,” he said, and she spotted a smaller boat, moored next to Lance’s, attached by a rope.
“You bought a boat?” Steph asked, because that didn’t seem his style. She grabbed her bag with her sundress, sunscreen, and phone in it.
“Nah, just rented it for the afternoon because I couldn’t wait to see you.”
“How did you know I was here at this spot, though?”
His lips quirked up. “Called Robert yesterday. He told me. I wanted to surprise you.”
“All right, you two need to get off my boat before you start making out,” Lance said in a surly growl.
“We’re leaving, we’re leaving,” she said, climbing up on the starboard side and stepping onto Jake’s boat. He joined her, and Lance helped untie the two vessels.
Lance cranked the motor and took off with her brother, waving good-bye.
She was alone with the man she loved, on the ocean, under the sun, bobbing in the gentle waves. “So, is this my surprise? You? Because I like that kind of surprise,” she said, lacing her arms around his neck and planting an it’s-so-good-to-see-you-again kiss on his lips.
“Mmm,” he murmured as he showed her how much he’d missed her, too.
But then he broke the kiss and dug into his pocket. “I had this made for you,” he said, handing her a small black velvet bag. “By your mom.”
Excitement pinged through her. She didn’t know what was in the bag, but the fact that he’d gone to her mom meant the world to her.
“Open it.”
She tugged on the drawstring, dipped two fingers inside, and pulled out a silver necklace with a small charm. She gasped as the sun reflected off a new treasure chest necklace. “I love it.”
“Look inside,” he told her, and this necklace was different from the one she’d lost. This one had a treasure chest that opened, and the top dangled from the end of the chain. She popped the top.
A brilliant red gem sparkled, lit up from the sun.
A ruby.
“My birthstone,” she said, flashing back to their conversation at the beach in the Caymans.
“Told ya I knew birthstones,” he said, rocking back on his heels, a note of pride in his tone. He stepped closer and threaded his hand through her wet hair. “And I know you,” he whispered. “I got it our last night in the Caymans. Bought it from Wilder at the bar.”
“You did? You’ve been planning this for a whole month?”
He nodded, smiling broadly as he tapped the charm. “Read the inscription on the bottom.”
She flipped it over and covered her mouth with her palm. A tear slid down her cheek. A tear of happiness. “You’re my treasure,” she whispered as her throat hitched. “I love it.”
“Let me put it on you,” he said, and she lifted her hair. He unhooked the necklace, then clasped it around her neck, letting it fall to her chest. He ran his fingers along the charm. “Beautiful. Like you. Now, what do you say we sail off into the sunset and spend the evening on the boat on the ocean?”
“Will you do bad things to me?”
“Don’t I always?”
“You do, but even when it’s bad it’s good.”
“And it always will be,” he said as he parked himself in the driver’s seat and held her hand as she sat next to him.
He started up the motor, then met her eyes. “By the way, funny thing about rubies,” he said as they began cutting through the water.
“What’s the funny thing about rubies, Jake?”
“Got a tip that a guy in Spain had some rubies stolen from him. I’m talking to him about getting them back.”
She arched an eyebrow. “I take it that means you’ll be in Spain for a while?”
“I might be. It might also be more fun if I had a partner with me.”
He squeezed her hand as they rode over the ocean, chasing the sun to the horizon. She weighed the possibility of traveling to Spain with him. “Does that mean you want me to be your partner in this ruby affair?”
“Ruby affair. I like the sound of that.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have always loved heist movies. They are among my favorites, and I’ve looked for the chance to pull off a heist tale, showing characters using their wits and brains while on a wild caper. To that end, I am thankful for the films that have inspired me over the years, such as Ocean’s Eleven, The Thomas Crown Affair, How to Steal a Million, The Italian Job, and many others.
The Sapphire Affair grew out of a simple conversation with Helen as we tossed about ideas for such a caper. “I’d like to write about a jewel thief,” I said, and many twists and turns on the path to publication later, that idea took shape into Jake and Steph’s story.
Thank you to Helen, Irene, and Alison for shepherding this concept through all of its phases and cheering it on. Thank you to Michelle Wolfson for darting and weaving and making things happen as only you can do. Thank you to Jessica, Anh, and the entire team at Montlake for championing The Sapphire Affair and sharing your excitement every step of the way.
I am indebted to my editors. Thank you, Alison, for your passion and enthusiasm, as well as your professionalism! It’s easy to work with you! I am grateful for my talented story editor, Selina McLemore, who knew precisely what the books needed to shine. Thank you, Selina, for being tough, as I want you to be! You’re also brilliant!
Much gratitude to K. P. Simmon at Inkslinger for reading early pages and for helping me, as always, figure out what to do with all these books! Abiding thanks to Bella Andre for the spot-on advice given at RWA. Thank you to the fabulous foursome for all the support and encouragement—I would not be able to navigate this world without K. Bromberg, Laurelin Paige, and C. D. Reiss. Huge hugs and love to Monica Murphy, Lili Valente, Sawyer Bennett, Kendall Ryan, Violet Duke, Lexi Ryan, Tawna Fenske, and the inimitable Marie Force!
Most of all, thank you to my family, especially my husband, who put up with daily—wait, hourly—conversations that often started with, “W
hat if Jake went here . . . ?” Or, “And then what should happen next to Steph . . . ?”
And, as always, thanks to my dogs!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lauren Blakely writes sexy contemporary romance novels with heat, heart, and humor. She is the author of eight New York Times bestsellers and sixteen USA Today bestsellers. Her series include Sinful Nights, Seductive Nights, No Regrets, Caught Up in Love, and Fighting Fire, as well as stand-alone romances like 21 Stolen Kisses and Big Rock. She also writes for young adults under the name Daisy Whitney. Lauren believes life should be filled with family, laughter, and the kind of love that romantic songs promise. She lives in California with her husband, children, and dogs.
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