Hustle

by Claire Chilton

  ‘Just turn this boat towards Florida, and then tell him we’re at the village. It’s about five miles away from this side of the island, due south.’

  She glanced at the shore. Her heart ached for leaving Jacob behind, but she’d made her decision when she left the village. This time the Heart of Fortune had won, and Jacob had lost.

  Jimmy shook his head as he turned the boat around, heading away from the island.

  She turned with the boat and watched the shore with a sigh. Jacob will never forgive me for this. She tried to ignore the lump in her throat, but it refused to go away. At least I’ll live to regret it.

  Something tickled her neck.

  She spun around to see Cheryl holding a lock of her hair.

  ‘Wow, this soooo needs conditioning. It reminds me of Wookiee hair. You ever seen that movie about star thingies? I loved it, but not the Wookiee hair. All those split ends, gah! You know…’

  Great, I look like crap. Ellie slowly exhaled and closed her eyes, trying to drown out Cheryl’s voice. There was a dull the ache in her heart. It finally hit her that she and Jacob were over. She’d broken her own heart this time. Maybe I do belong in Hell.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Ellie stared across the golden sands at Jimmy and Cheryl as they played volleyball together. Well, Cheryl played. Jimmy tried.

  Cheryl, it turned out, really was in love with Jimmy. After he’d bought her diamond earrings, she’d borrowed his credit card to book him a nicer boat for his trip. She’d heard him talking about it on the phone and decided to surprise him. Okay, she’d booked it on his credit card—she wasn’t perfect, but the intentions had been good. They were happy and in love. Who could complain about that?

  Ellie sighed, sinking back in her seat and under the awning of the beachfront cafe for some shade. It had been a week since she ditched Jacob, but he hadn’t left her thoughts for a moment. Like a ghost of what could have been, he was haunting her. She could still see his face; the look in his eyes when he was pissed off at her, the look in his eyes when he worried about her.

  And how did you repay him for caring about you?

  She shook her head. She’d beaten herself up about abandoning him in the jungle too many times.

  Not again.

  At first, she’d worried if he had escaped the island. Then—when he turned up on the cover of several gossip magazines with a supermodel on his arm—she’d worried about what he thought of her now.

  Get over it. He hates you. You deserve it. Move on.

  She stood up and walked towards the car park. It was time to move on. He hadn’t come looking for her, even for revenge.

  She tried to shake off the hollow ache in her chest and the feeling of emptiness that threatened to swallow her whole. It doesn’t matter. I have the treasure and, by a lucky twist of fate, a shitload of money.

  It turned out that her father had bank accounts all over the world. Jimmy had found them after tracking her father’s activities in the United States. Ellie would inherit a couple of million, assuming her lawyer was as good as Jimmy claimed. She planned to give half of the money to Jimmy. He was her brother after all.

  Jacob had only wanted a heart-shaped diamond from her. She was certain of it. Look how fast he walked away when he thought it was gone. For love, you’d fight a bit harder than that if it were real.

  She sighed and opened the door to her jeep. It was time to move on. There was a job in Miami that she’d heard about. Apparently, her father had a complete life over here. Word about his daughter had got around. She shivered for a moment. Word about who killed Meyer had not got around. She rubbed her arms to warm them up before shaking her head. She didn’t want to think about the repercussions that could come from killing a man like Meyer. As long as no one found out, she’d be fine. She had a new life to start here now. If you wanted to find something, you now called Ellie Phillips. It wouldn’t be a bad life—not bad at all.

  She smiled and glanced back towards the beach. She wouldn’t need Jimmy for this job. She was finally ready to try out the world on her own.

  Cold metal clamped around her wrist, locking her hand to the steering wheel of her jeep. She stared down at the handcuff in shock. What the hell?

  She glanced into the back seat of the jeep to see Jacob open the door and climb out of her car.

  ‘You’re not going anywhere, sweetheart…’ He stood close to her, pinning her against the open door. ‘…without me.’

  Oh God, did he find out about the—

  Her mind went blank as his lips descended onto hers in a brutal kiss that caused her limbs to tremble. He pulled away, studying her with fire in his eyes. ‘What? You thought it would just end like that?’

  ‘You know that cuffing a girl to her vehicle isn’t a mating ritual, right?’ She grinned as she said it, but worry clouded her thoughts. Why is he here?

  ‘You know that leaving a guy in the jungle is the worst way to break up with him, right?’ He narrowed his eyes at her, but there was smile playing on his lips.

  She lowered her head, a mountain of guilt growing inside her. ‘I didn’t mean to do that. I—’

  ‘Look, I don’t know if you want to hear this, or if you even want to see me again, but I need to say it. If you want me gone after that, then I’ll leave you alone. Just hear me out, okay?’

  She glanced up at the serious expression on his face, nodding in agreement.

  ‘I love you. I don’t know why because you drive me crazy, but I do. I loved being stuck in the jungle with you. I was happier back there with you than I ever will be anywhere else. I love that you fight me on every stupid, fucking thing, and I love that you just don’t quit.’ He paused, his eyes searching her face for a sign. He looked hopeful. He looked sincere. ‘I know that my father wasn’t the man I thought he was. I know that you may not think I am a good man because of that, but I don’t want to be like my father. I want you to know who I really am. I want us to start our lives without the sins of our fathers hanging over us. I want us both to start a new life, together.’

  ‘What about the treasure?’ she asked. His words tugged on her heart. It was everything she wanted to hear, but that was how all good cons worked.

  ‘I don’t care about the treasure, and I don’t care if we never find anything ever again. You are the only treasure I want. I found you. That’s all I was looking for. I just didn’t know it.’

  ‘So, if I had the Heart of Fortune in my bag, right now, you’d let me keep it?’ She knew it was a risk, but she wanted to know how he really felt.

  ‘I’d throw it into the fucking ocean for keeping us apart this long, and then I’d drive off into the sunset with you!’

  ‘Go on then.’ She nodded at the bag on the passenger seat.

  He frowned. ‘Are you shitting me?’ He pulled over the bag and opened it. The large diamond inside glinted in the sunlight. He gasped and his eyes widened. Now she would find out what he really wanted. Hope blossomed in her chest. Please choose me.

  He turned, frowning at her. Without saying a word, he picked up the rock and walked away from her with it in his hands.

  Shit.

  Her hopes plummeted into the pit of her stomach. I’m such a fool.

  She narrowed her eyes on Jacob’s back. Dad didn’t raise a fool. She pulled a hairpin out of her hair and fiddled with the lock on the cuffs while watching Jacob walk across the car park. Like hell he’s stealing it. Her heart ached, but she tried to ignore it. He never loved me, he nev— She paused and frowned as he walked towards the pier. What the fuck is he doing?

  She widened her eyes and dropped the pin when he reached back and flung the diamond into the ocean. It skimmed across the surface and bounced a few times before dropping into the depths far into the distance. No! What’s he doing? Idiot!

  He turned and walked back down the pier towards her, then crossed the car park with a look of determination on his face.

  ‘Do you trust me now?’ He folded his arms as he stopped to face h
er, wearing a scowl.

  ‘No! You just threw away a priceless diamond. What are you, fucking crazy?’

  He grinned. ‘Crazy for you.’

  ‘Oh, very cheesy. From now on, you are not touching the treasure we find. Is that clear?’

  ‘The treasure we find?’ A smile lit up his face.

  ‘Yeah, and I’m the boss.’ She grinned back.

  ‘That depends on your orders?’ He leaned over her, his lips hovering over hers.

  ‘After you’ve kissed me for a reasonable amount of time, you can unlock the handcuffs.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’ He kissed her, and the world around her disappeared. It seemed the most precious treasures of the world were hidden inside the heart all along—the kind that beats.

  A prolific writer with wide-ranging interests, Claire Chilton specializes in new-adult fiction and speculative fiction, which includes genres such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, comedy and romance. Hustle, her Harlequin debut, won the publisher’s So You Think You Can Write contest on Wattpad. Her previous books include a humorous young-adult science-fiction series called The Squishies Series and a paranormal comedy series, The Demon Diaries.

  Claire Chilton is a web designer with an honors degree in English literature and a passion for great stories. She’s done just about every job on the planet at least once, and she’s won an award for being “the most likely to trip over the red carpet and flash her arse at the cameras.”

  After exploring the world in her misspent youth, traveling across Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, she now lives in an ancient Roman city in Yorkshire with her Californian fiancé and a fluffy kitten called Shadow, who is convinced she is a bigger cat than she is.

  You can find her online at claire-chilton.com.

  eISBN: 978-1-4603-3626-7

  HUSTLE

  Copyright © 2014 by Claire Chilton

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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