The Sapphire Heist (A Jewel Novel Book 2) (15 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

She spent the night at Devon’s. He ordered a pizza, and they watched the first thirty minutes of
Talladega Nights
before she fell asleep on his couch, curled up under a blanket. Sometime in the middle of the night, she kicked it off. The sliding glass door to his deck had been left open, and a breeze drifted in. Warm and tropical. A kiss from the Caymans. She stirred and sat up on the couch, hooking her arm over the side and staring out the open doors into the night.

Like this, when the beaches were quiet and the sounds of the day were folded up into sleep, the ocean was at its most constant state. A steady drumbeat against the shore. The ceaseless
whoosh
of midnight waves crashing into the sand. The pull of the tides.

High above, the moon shone, casting spotlights over the black licorice soup of the sea.

She breathed in deeply, inhaling the salty air, letting it soothe her. She imagined tossing her sadness about Eli out in the ocean, allowing the endless waters to carry it away, like a message in a bottle that would someday wash up on a distant shore. She’d harbored a false hope for so long, but yet, she didn’t regret having tried to preserve at least one good memory of him. She would, however, have regretted it more if she hadn’t tried. A calmness settled into her bones, knowing she’d done all she could for the man who’d raised her. She had to be at peace with his choices and with her own.

And she was. She finally was.

But when it came to Jake, she had no answers. She wasn’t sure what to make of him. She was glad, though, that she’d shared her heart with him.

As she sank back down into the pillows, pushing the blanket to her calves, she spotted the light on her phone flashing. Grabbing it, she checked quickly for messages. A few sales alerts from Etsy. A note from Lance about a sunset tour in a week. She responded quickly that she’d be back and ready. She scrolled to an e-mail from the ladies who’d been on the stingray private trip earlier in the week. The sister in the purple bikini wrote that she had friends in the Caymans who wanted to do a scuba tour in three days and was that too late? Another note from an earlier inquiry asked if she was still available for a snorkel trip to Eden Rock.

At three in the morning, she smiled and tapped out her replies, confirming yes and yes. She extended her trip and settled back into slumber, grateful that her business seemed back on track. She’d come to the Caymans with only one tour booked, and she’d landed another two, and one more at home.

A star winked in the night sky.

Maybe her luck was turning.

He called Andrew. Told him the latest. He hated ditching a case, but this one was getting far too slippery even for his adventuresome taste. Cops were involved. Arrests were made. The target was onto it. He could smell the ending if he kept on pressing, and it smelled like the kind of trouble he didn’t need in his life. The kind that would land him on the wrong side of the law. In his line of work, he tangoed with that possibility often enough as he bent the rules. One more bend, and he’d break.

“Hey, you gave it your best shot, and I appreciate that,” Andrew said.

“Sorry, man. I really wanted to deliver for you.”

“Me, too,” he said with a sigh. “But that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Sometimes, you can’t right a wrong.”

A pang of regret lodged inside Jake. “Truer words,” he said.

“Besides, it’s probably time for me to go to the SEC and let them know what happened. I’ve been trying to deal with this under the radar, but sometimes you need to call for backup.”

“I hear ya, man. I’m guessing it’s time.”

“You heading back home?”

“I’ve got a flight out of town tonight.”

“I’ll send you the final payment,” Andrew said, and Jake liked being paid but hated being paid for work he couldn’t deliver. He said good-bye, shouldered his bag, and headed to the door of his hotel room.

As he put his hand on the knob, his phone rang. He grabbed it from his pocket and slid his thumb over the screen when he saw it was Kate.

“Are you all packed up and ready to fly?”

“I am indeed.”

“Can you unpack and stay one more night?”

“Why? Don’t tell me it’s about Eli Thompson because I just got off the phone with Andrew.”

“Nope,” she said, a burst of enthusiasm in her tone. “New gig. Just got a call from a corporate bigwig. His nineteen-year-old son is in the Caymans partying it up too hard. He wants to get him out of there and back home before he causes more trouble. The client is in California, so he figures we can get to his son faster than he can.”

“What’s the catch?” Jake asked, his antennae up, as he set down his bag.

“No catch. Just find the guy. I’ve got a few leads as to where he’s been seen. Should be easy.”

He scoffed. “The last job was supposed to be easy. It wasn’t.”

“Oh, excuse me. Did you go into this line of work because it’s simple? Get over it. Move on. Some jobs pan out, and some don’t.”

“Fine,” he huffed. She was right. He couldn’t let his frustrations over Eli affect his approach. Time to move on to the next gig. Besides, he wasn’t annoyed about work. He was annoyed he’d fucked up so badly with Steph. “Give me the details.”

In the morning, Devon handed her a steaming cup of coffee. “You need fuel,” he said.

“I do.”

She downed the coffee, crunched into some toast, then showered and dressed. “I’m ready. Thanks again for letting me stay here.”

“You are welcome anytime,” he said, then patted her on the back as she left to meet her group on the dock, along with the crew for the tour. She’d shoved all thoughts of Jake, diamonds, and heartbreaking stepfathers out of her head. Her sole focus centered on showing her customers how beautiful the islands were. Judging from the sheer number of underwater pictures they took, the smiles on their faces, and the thank-yous she received, she’d done her job. From the caves at Bloody Bay to the parrot fish under the sea, the ocean revived her spirits and reminded her that doing what she loved mattered most.

She’d brought her happy place to others, and for a couple of days it was their happy place, too.

Twenty-eight hours later, he’d found the party boy drunk and sleeping it off at Happy Turtle Cove. Five hours after that, he’d put the guy on a flight back to the United States. And ten minutes later, the dude’s dad called to thank him.

“This means the world to me. I can’t thank you enough for finding my son,” the man said.

“Happy to help. Glad he’s on his way back home.”

“I’m at the airport already, even though he doesn’t arrive for a few hours.”

“Good luck,” Jake said, and it was an easy job, but also a surprisingly rewarding one. Sure, the kid needed some sense knocked into him. And yeah, he needed to stop drinking. But he had a family who cared enough to try to help him. Jake hoped that made the difference in the kid’s life.

He exited the airport to return to his own hotel, and this time he planned to check out for good. The two extra days had been fine, but sleeping in the same room without the woman of his dreams had, to put it mildly, sucked. He couldn’t wait to return to Key Largo and crash in his own bed. Once he was home, he’d figure out a way to properly apologize to Steph. To try again. She’d clearly needed the space, but he had things he wanted to say to her, and he couldn’t risk fucking it up again. A good night’s rest would help reset his mind. Briefly, he wondered what had become of Monica. He hadn’t seen her following him since Clarissa had been cuffed. But that made sense, he reasoned. Monica and Clarissa had been after the same prize, so Monica had no need to follow Jake anymore.

His stomach rumbled as he pulled onto the main road. Up ahead, a convenience store beckoned to him, so he parked and popped in to grab a snack. A bag of pretzels sounded reasonable enough, so he grabbed one and headed for the counter. A cardboard cutout of a coconut behind the counter caught his eye.

A grin took shape across his face as an idea popped into his head fully formed. No need to wait to see her in Florida. The present was now.

Checking the time on his phone, he realized he had an hour before Steph returned from her tour. She’d finish at Stingray City, and he’d have to grovel like he’d never groveled before. He’d acted rash, assuming the worst about Steph because of his fears. But he had to let go of the way Rosalinda had deceived him. He had to move forward, not remain stuck in the hurt of the past. Life was full of risks, and so was love. She was a risk worth taking.

So he went to the car wash.

Her neck was bare. Somewhere in the ocean lay her treasure chest. She didn’t know when she’d lost her necklace, but it had fallen off under the sea. Maybe someone would find a buried treasure at last.

No point in worrying about it. She’d ask her mom to make her a new one. After she said good-bye to the last of the group on the dock, she called her mother.

“Tell me everything. How did it go?”

“It was amazing,” Steph said, unable to contain the smile that spread as she thought of the last thirty-six hours. She shared the highlights as she finished packing gear in her Jeep, parked in the lot near Devon’s snorkel shop. She had some snorkels of his to return. “But I lost my treasure chest necklace, so I was wondering if you know an amazing jewelry craftswoman who could make me a new one?”

“Hmmm,” her mother said, sounding as if she were thinking about it. “Let me see if I can come up with anyone who might possess that skill set. But you need to stop wearing that diving.”

“I know. I know. I hate taking it off.”

“Well, the ocean took it off for you.”

“The ocean always wins.” Steph pushed her sunglasses up on the bridge of her nose and slung a mesh bag on her shoulder. “Speaking of jewelry, any news on leasing that space from Lance’s mom?” she asked as she closed the car door with her hip.

Her mom sighed lightly, and in that sound Steph detected a note of frustration. But her mom tried to sweep it away. “I’m working on it,” she said.

“You mean you need the money for it?”

“Well, money helps,” she said in a too-upbeat tone.

“What about Eli and the alimony? Did you call him back? Is he going to start paying?” she asked as she crossed the gravel lot and headed along the path to Devon’s shop. The afternoon sun warmed her shoulders, and in the distance a pelican dived into the water, chasing an afternoon snack.