Chapter 20
“I’ll help you,” she said impulsively. Because of course. If she was nothing else, she was impulsive. When her intuition screamed at her, she always listened.
“What do you mean? Why?”
His blunt question took her aback.
“It’s intriguing. How often do you get a chance to help a billionaire look for his missing crystal?”
“CHUM,” he corrected.
“Sorry, I’m not calling it that. I’m going with crystal.”
His nostrils flared, but then a moment later, he laughed. “Are you always like this?”
“Like what?”
“This…” He waved a hand at her. “Exactly this. Yourself, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No,” he said after a long moment, his voice rough with something she couldn’t identify. “It’s not a bad thing. Okay, next question. How would you help me?”
She licked her lips, knowing this would be a hard sell. “Well, I can’t help you at the Royal Leilani because I just got fired.”
“Damn it, because of me?”
If only she could blame it on him. But no. “No, no, your ego can pipe down. It was because of me. Eddie left a schoolbook behind and I got busted.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine. It frees me up to help you, unless you need to get back on the property.”
He shook his head. “No, I’ve searched there enough. The CHUM—the crystal—is not there.”
“All right then. Here’s what I can do,” she said, taking a breath. “I can help you get closer to this Tanaka.”
“What?” He bolted to his feet and glared at her. “Hell no. That’s not safe. Also it’s insane.”
“It’s not at all insane. Hear me out. I told you what my father is.
He always loved working those expensive resorts, and he used to drag me along with him.
I spent more time pretending I was lost, or a sick orphan, or a little rich girl than I did as myself.
After I turned twelve I refused to help him anymore, but I still remember the con artist basics. ”
His gaze drilled into her. “You’re saying you would pose as a guest at the Kona Queen? There’s no point to that. He wouldn’t talk to you. He avoids Westerners. He’s devoted to his wife.”
“Oh God. I’m not going to flirt with him.” She laughed at the thought of playing some kind of honeypot. “I’ll just be the excuse for you to be there too.”
“We can’t pretend we’re a couple. I told you, he knows me. He would recognize me.”
“Even if you’re staff?”
He looked at her blankly.
“Don’t you get it? I’ll be a wealthy divorcée. You’ll be my manny. You’ll be the one watching my kids.”
“You’re saying…bring Eddie and Mia?”
“Maybe just Eddie, because Mia’s a little too old for a nanny. He wouldn’t go anywhere near Tanaka. We’d just be playing at the pool and that sort of thing. As his manny, you can take little breaks and snoop around. One of us will be watching Eddie every second.”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he leaned against the window. Behind him, nothing but darkness and rain as the storm raged. “It’s too risky.”
“Is it riskier than letting this Tanaka guy have free rein with your crystal?”
Muscles flexed in his jaw. “His bodyguard saw you at the Royal Leilani.”
“My hair was up then, and I was wearing my staff uniform.”
He shook his head. “He still might recognize you. You’re very…beautiful.”
The compliment made her skin tingle. “Well, I’ll make some changes just to be safe. New hair color, new clothes, some oversized sunglasses, that sort of thing. I know the drill.”
She’d done it with her father, although this was different. It was a public service. The crystal could pose a danger if it was found by the wrong person. In this instance, she’d be using those old acting muscles for good, not to rip people off.
“The only catch is, I don’t have the funds for any of that kind of thing,” she added. “That part will be on you.”
“I’ll get you a credit card to use.”
Her gaze flew to meet his. She saw wary acceptance on his face.
So they were doing this. They were going to infiltrate the Kona Queen as a rich divorcée and her manny. She was already filling in her backstory. Her ex, an elderly oil tycoon, had cheated and forgotten all about his prenup.
“Better make sure that card has a limit.” She winked at him. “I’ll probably need a lot of help to look like someone who can afford a full-time manny.”
“It won’t have a limit. You can use it however you want. Charge your mortgage on it for all I care.”
“What?” That didn’t feel right. She untangled her legs from the chair and rose to her feet.
“No. Sorry. You’re not my sugar daddy.” He winced, making her wish she hadn’t sounded quite so harsh.
“I mean it,” she said, more gently. “It’s just for expenses related to this…
mission, or whatever you want to call it. ”
He tilted his head, his deep green eyes going hooded and cautious. Had she hurt his feelings? Too bad. She had to draw her boundaries.
“And I’m going to pay you back for all those bribes at Banyans, and the Urgent Care bill you covered. That was you, wasn’t it?”
Embarrassment rippled across his face. “It was, but please don’t pay me back. Consider it a thank you for helping me get into the Kona Queen, if we do this. That’s fair, right?”
She thought about it, and decided that she could live with that. She was taking a chance aligning herself with Lincoln Kerr, and especially bringing Eddie into it.
“Fine. One more thing. You mentioned a police force you have working for you. Could one or two of them be assigned to watching Eddie on the down-low while we’re doing this? I wouldn’t mind having backup.”
“Done,” said Lincoln. He pulled out his phone to give the orders.
“It’s nearly midnight. You’re going to call them now?”
“My security staff is on call twenty-four-seven.”
“Why not just make a note and call tomorrow? Let whoever it is get their sleep?” It made no sense to her. Everyone needed sleep to perform their best. Even his crack security team. If they were going to be protecting Eddie, she didn’t want them groggy and yawning.
Slowly, he removed his thumb from the key he was about to press. “Fine,” he said. “I suppose you make a good point.”
Wow. Billionaires really were a different breed. She might have understood him better if he actually had been an alien.
She tightened the belt of her robe. The soft carpet felt so nice on the soles of her feet. One night in the lap of luxury…she planned to enjoy every second of it.
“We’ll have to book a suite ASAP. The Kona Queen is in demand.” Then something else occurred to her. “You’ll have to get some support documentation for us. We need to be completely legit.”
“Of course. More calls,” he made a note in his phone, “that I will make to my assistant first thing tomorrow.”
She smiled to herself. He learned quick.
He respected her input, at least while she was standing right in front of him.
And he looked damn good in his clean white t-shirt and the heather-gray sweatpants with a University of South Carolina logo on them.
Sharing a hotel suite with him was not going to be any sort of hardship at all.