The Sapphire Heist (A Jewel Novel Book 2) (17 page)

Quick. She had to think fast. Eli rounded the landing.

Make a noise. Make a sound. Something that would get everyone to freeze. That would lure Eli back down to the first floor and alert Jake.

When it hit her, she had to reign in the wild grin that threatened to burst across her face. Instead, Steph adopted a look of abject fear, pointed to the dining room table, and shouted in her best blood-curdling cry: “Spider!”

Isla shrieked. Eli doubled back. And somewhere upstairs, Steph imagined Jake scrambling. Then, with Isla and Eli hunting for the spider, she made a split-second decision. Her hand shot out to the marble table, like a frog’s tongue nabbing a fly.

The woman had some serious lungs on her. Thank Christ for that. He hightailed it out of the office, shut the door, slinked across the hallway, padded through the bathroom, and climbed out the window. He crouched low, out of view of neighbors, and made his way to the other side of the roof, shielded by trees. He lay flat on the roof and waited ’til they left.

Five minutes later, a car pulled out of the garage, and in sixty seconds, he clambered down the tree and slipped into the passenger seat of another vehicle, his getaway driver pulling away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Spider?”

“She hates spiders,” Steph said matter-of-factly as they drove out of Corey’s Landing. “I had to improvise.”

“It worked.”

“And did it work for you? Did you get them?”

He lifted his backpack and flashed her a grin. “Got ’em all. Left the passport behind, though.”

“Are the diamonds
inside
them?” she asked, breathless with excitement. Adrenaline still coursed through her veins and probably would for days.

“Well, I wasn’t going to check without my partner.”

“Good answer,” she said, and they pulled into a parking lot at the nearby beach. Steph cut the engine.

As Jake unzipped his backpack, she told herself she’d be fine with whatever the outcome was. She’d gained so much from this trip and this chance with him that anything more would be icing.

She wanted the icing, though.

She was a big fan of icing.

He dug into the pack and grabbed a handful of chocolate bars procured from the safe in Eli’s office. The same kind of bars he’d found the first night. But back then, Steph didn’t suspect Eli had hidden his diamonds in his chocolate bars.

But once she’d set eyes on Jake’s Ghirardelli chocolate gift, the possibility came to her that he’d squirreled the gems away in his “happy place.”

“The real ones are safe and sound and so well hidden that no one will figure it out. Didn’t even need to put them in a bank.”

Chocolate was the perfect hiding spot for Eli. It suited him to a
T
—hiding his jewels inside something he loved. Someplace he thought no one would look. And since he’d used nuts as his diamond decoy, she reasoned that he’d tucked the diamonds away in the same tongue-in-cheek,
aren’t-I-clever
fashion.

He loved being smarter than everyone else and pulling off his own heists.

Placing the bars on the center console, Jake presented the chocolate with a flourish. “You can do the honors.”

A wild ribbon of nerves unspooled inside her. She gulped, steeling herself for whatever she found inside. She unwrapped the first bar from Ecuador and broke it in half. Her heart sank. “Looks like chocolate,” she muttered.

“Break it up more,” he said, encouraging her. She crumbled the bar into tiny pieces in the wrapper.

“It’s still only chocolate,” she said, and she wished, she really wished, she could hide the forlorn sound in her voice.

“I know,” he said, his tone positive. “But this bar is the same kind I nabbed the first time I tried the safe. We need to test one that says on the wrapper it has nuts.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t forget what you told me about what you learned from working with me.”

“Use what you know about the target,” she repeated, searching through the stack of chocolate bars for one with nuts. If she was right, the bar would be nut-free but diamond-full.

She opened the silvery wrapper, her fingers slipping once. She steadied herself, gripped the shiny paper, and ripped it. One long inhale of air, and then like a jackhammer she broke the chocolate bar into pieces.

Diamonds rained down.

Shiny, glittering gems.

Chocolate-covered jewels.

A wild exhilaration flooded her veins in a deluge as she and Jake demolished more chocolate bars. Some were chocolate, but some were full of chocolate and riches. When they finished the stack, they had a pile of diamonds in her car and a pound of chocolate.

“How do we know if these are fake, too?” she asked as a new worry set up camp.

“Don’t worry. I know just the guy.”

Jake had always loved bras.

Loved them for what they held inside. Loved them because they were the last line of defense protecting some of his favorite things on the planet.

Tonight, he was ready to worship at the throne of the black lace bra Steph donned. It was the perfect home for millions.

“You’re such a hot mule,” he said, blowing her a kiss.

They’d packed up the loose gems into two small black pouches; then Steph had tucked them into the cups of her bra. “It’s the safest place around. So much safer than a . . .” She trailed off and pretended to bang the drums on her punch line. “A safe.”

Jake mimed dunking a basketball. “She shoots. She scores.” He offered her his elbow. “Shall we go see our diamond man?”

“Let’s do it,” she said.

They left his hotel room and headed to the downstairs bar. If the diamonds checked out as real, he’d call Andrew and let him know he’d managed to turn a sinking ship around big-time. He scanned the crowd for the man with the thick black hair and beard. He spotted Wilder at the end of the counter, nursing what looked to be an orange juice. Jake walked up to him and shook his hand.

“Thanks for meeting me. Especially at the last minute,” Jake said.

“Yes, you very nearly rustled me from my beauty sleep. I have a sharp nine p.m. bedtime,” the man said with a wide grin. Wilder shifted his attention to Steph and bowed slightly.

“Pleasure to meet you,” he said.

“And you as well.”

Jake gestured to a table in the far corner of the establishment. “Why don’t we go to where it’s a little quieter,” he suggested, and they parked themselves away from the noise and hubbub of the bar.

Jake reached into his pocket and removed one loose diamond. The gems in Steph’s bra weren’t going anywhere. They were cozying up to her breasts to stay out of the way.

Pinching his thumb and forefinger together, Wilder took the jewel. Jake tried to read his expression as the man assessed the diamond, studying it through a small magnifying glass. When Wilder set down the glass, the corners of his lips curved up. “Color is good. Clarity is good. Weight is good. You have a very real, very expensive ten-thousand-dollar diamond from the Frayer mine.”

Jake sighed in relief, then grabbed Steph’s hand and squeezed it.

“Thank you. A million times over, thank you.”

“It is my pleasure. I assume you will buy me another orange juice,” Wilder said, holding up his nearly empty glass.

“Consider it done.”

While they waited for the drink refill, Jake called Andrew and told him to catch the next flight to the Caymans. He wanted to hand off those puppies as soon as possible. Jake’s job was nearly done, and Andrew could ferry them back to the United States of America and begin his task of converting them back to money, then distributing the funds to their rightful owners.

When he ended his call, Wilder was studying a Rolex.

Jake arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

There was a gleam of triumph in Steph’s eyes. “Just a little something my stepdad wanted to give me. I was curious what it’s worth.”

“Where did you get it?” he asked out of the side of his mouth.

“Someone taught me how to pickpocket,” she whispered.

“You took his watch?”

“Well, it was just lying there on the marble table in the entryway. I felt it was calling out to me.”

Wilder raised his face. “This watch is quite valuable, too,” he said, then gave them a price that nearly made Jake’s jaw drop.

“Thank you,” Steph said, then deposited the watch in her purse.

Later, as she popped into the restroom near the bar, he pulled Wilder aside. “Did you bring it?”

“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.