35. Reverse Con
35
REVERSE CON
Ruby
He was inside.
So easily.
Because that was what he did. Slipped in and out and stole.
I was damn near ready to just let him dangle in the breeze.
Hell, he was probably going to do the same to me. While we were together, it felt like we were working together. But as I stood lookout, my worries from earlier resurfaced. We wanted different things from the jewels. I wanted to help my mom—he—wanted to help the investors. Jake could steal the gallery gems, then give me the slip. He’d have all the diamonds and I would have none. No down payment on what Eli owed to my mom, and no leverage to make him do the right thing by her.
Jake could waltz back to Andrew, repay all the clients that Eli had defrauded, and fulfill his contract. The recovery expert’s job was to recover the investors’ money. But Mom wasn’t a formal investor. I was the only one looking out for her interests.
I spun around from the window and nearly ran into the gentleman who’d come up to the second floor and stood between me and the stairs. My pulse jumped—I hadn’t expected to see anyone—but I breathed easier when I saw from his name tag that he worked at the church.
“Hello. Do you need anyone to pray with?” he asked, hands pressed together, bowing slightly.
“No,” I said through gritted teeth as I skirted around him to the stairs. “But it would be great if you could pray for mercy for Jake. Thanks so much.”
I vaulted down the steps and out the main door, improvising a new plan as I went. Because the fact that people knew me in this town might have been a liability, but it was an advantage too. I could walk right into the gallery. Willow liked me. And after the sex-toy party, I knew way too much about her private life to call myself a stranger.
Reaching the gallery, I pushed the sunglasses up on my head, opened the door, and entered a scene of art and laughter, and a verifiable smorgasbord.
Casual and cheery, I waved to Willow. “Just in the neighborhood. Wanted to say hi.”
Willow’s chocolate-brown eyes lit up. She wore a sleek, short cranberry dress, and her dark hair was curled in waves around her shoulders. “So good to see you, Ruby. You came by at the perfect time.”
“Oh!” I feigned surprise, looking at the spread as if I hadn’t been the one to order it. “Are you having a party?”
“An impromptu one.” Willow beamed and clutched my arm. “Can you join us? It’s such a treat to see you again, and there’s plenty of food.” She gestured to the spread. “Lynx surprised us with a catered lunch. This is his art, which I was telling you about.” I took the cue to look around at the bright white walls adorned with his images. “Have something to eat, and we can catch up properly.”
“I would love to,” I said, though I had no interest in food or a tour. I gestured to the only hallway, lowering my voice. “I’m just going to pop into the ladies’ room first if you don’t mind.”
I walked to the rear of the gallery before Willow or her employees could offer to show me the way. My feet sped up with my pulse, but nobody followed. I didn’t want anyone to stop me and, even though I was pissed at him, I didn’t want Jake to be caught.
Pausing only a moment to listen to the gallery owner and staff chat over their lunch, I yanked open the office door.
Jake stood at the desk, glancing through some papers, but he didn’t startle at my intrusion. The smooth operator. He simply looked at me, brow furrowed, and mouthed, Everything okay?
“No,” I whispered in warning. “Get the diamonds and let’s go.”
“They’re not here,” he said in quiet disappointment.
Like I believed that.
“What’s taking so long?” I hissed then tipped my head toward the door. “We need to go.”
Nodding crisply, he folded the paper, and stuffed it into his pocket, and I hurried him down the hall and out the back door into the alley.
“What’s going on?” he asked quietly once the door had closed behind us.
I pressed my lips to his for a quick, consuming kiss then told him something true. “I was worried.” The decision to kiss him had been calculated, but it also intoxicated me, and my instincts took over. I hummed with desire as I explored his mouth. He groaned in response, a sexy, masculine rumble that I’d evoked by taking the reins in this carnal moment.
With effort, I remembered my ulterior motive. My hands rested on his shoulders. I slid them down, over his chest, his pecs and shirt pocket, then ran them along his sides.
Jake squirmed and laughed.
I fought back a grin. “Ticklish much?”
“Suspicious much?” he asked, one brow raised. He looped his arms around me. “Not that I mind your hands on me, but something tells me you aren’t trying to cop a feel.”
“Maybe espionage turns me on,” I said, sliding my hands around his waist to his back and then down, spreading my fingers to cover his ass.
His insanely toned and sexy ass.
And his empty back pockets.
“My wallet is in my right front pocket if you’re planning to rob me.” His voice was calm and tinged with curiosity along with the teasing. Mister So Freaking Smooth.
“This front pocket?” I asked, sliding my hand into the pocket in question, enjoying the way he sucked in a shaky breath as I felt his wallet and then…a jam jar?
“What is this?” I asked.
“It’s some of your weirdly delicious honey that I lifted so room service wouldn’t clear it.” The corner of his lips quirked up in a rueful smile. “It was supposed to be a surprise, but you caught me.”
Was he that innocent or that good an actor?
In either case, I’d found nothing in his pockets but that, his wallet and phone, and the paper he’d taken from the office.
“I was anxious to see the diamonds,” I said by way of explanation, fixing on a sweet smile.
“They weren’t in the gallery office. I told you that before.” He huffed in frustration. “If they were ever there, they’ve now been moved.”
A vision of the empty walls of the office caught up with me, and I gasped in realization. “No art. But Kalila said there were several pieces hanging there in her office. She said he spent a lot of time picking the frames,” I said, sounding desperate as I recalled her words. Desperate because I wanted them to be true.
He shook his head. “Not a single frame on the wall. They might have been moved recently. I did find some interesting paperwork, though, about some donations?—”
I pressed my finger to his lips. “Hold that thought. I need to make an excuse to Willow so she doesn’t wonder why I never came back from the ladies’ room.” I trailed my finger down his chin, his neck, and the buttons of his shirt. “Be good and wait for me by the souvenir shop.”
He nodded but furrowed his brow. “You’re in a bossy mood today. I kinda like it.”
I pulled him close by tugging on his shirt and gave him a deep, drugging kiss. The kind of kiss that said don’t question it, just enjoy . “Hold that thought too.”
Then I stepped back, feeling smug about his slightly dazed look, and returned to the gallery’s rear entrance. Once Jake had left the alley, I doubled back into the main gallery, where Willow’s employees were praising the coconut flan. My heart raced until I returned to the front.
I tapped Willow’s shoulder and motioned for her to come with me to the foyer, where I could see Jake across the street, looking at postcards. “I hate to do this, Willow, but I just got a last-minute call to do a snorkel lesson for some beginners over at Happy Turtle, so I can’t stay,” I said apologetically.
Willow frowned. “Oh no. I was looking forward to showing you the art. Can you come back?”
“I’ll try.” I cast a brief glance toward Jake, thumbing through the trinkets on display street-side.
I returned my attention to Willow, then jerked in surprise when I realized there was something missing from Willow’s wardrobe. I found myself touching my fingers to my own throat and my treasure-chest necklace.
“Willow,” I whispered, pointing to the other woman’s neck. “What happened to your diamond? Is it being resized or something?”
Willow sighed heavily and clasped her hand over her heart. A pendant dangled from her neck, but it wasn’t the blue-tinted gem she’d worn at her house party. There was a substitute rock in its place, a too-bright cubic zirconia. Willow dropped her voice to a barren whisper. “It was stolen.”
My brows shot up in surprise. A knot of tension twisted in my bones. “Are you serious? When? Where?”
“Last night. Right here,” Willow said, pointing to the gallery’s blond wood floor. “During a reception. It was on my neck, then it was gone. I was freshening up my drink, and moments later, Eli noticed it was missing. It must have fallen out of the setting on the necklace, and then someone took it.”
I blinked. I swallowed. My skull echoed. “What time was that?”
“It was around eight.”
Jake had been with me on the boat at that time. He couldn’t have taken Willow’s stone. “We looked everywhere. We canvassed the entire place,” Willow continued. “As you can see, there isn’t a lot of clutter. It’s quite bare. But there was no diamond anywhere. So it can’t have been lost.”
“Do you have any idea who took it?”
“None. But thank God we moved the other diamonds from here a while ago.”
The other diamonds.
Holy moly. I did not expect Willow to hand me confirmation of our suspicions. “Other diamonds? Here?” I pointed to the floor like she might mean anywhere else.
Willow nodded and leaned close, placing her hand on my back and lowering her voice even more. “We used to have a lot here but not anymore. You can’t be too careful. I do hope you’re keeping the stone that Eli gave you safe.”
“Of course,” I said on autopilot as I tried to make sense of this new information while the surprises kept pummeling me. “I should go.”
“Let’s do this another time,” Willow said, rebounding to the upbeat woman I had originally met. I agreed and exited the gallery, nearly stumbling and breathless with confusion.
Jake leaned against the brick wall of the souvenir shop, right where I’d told him to wait.
Was I wrong in my assumption that Jake had taken my gem? Everything was topsy-turvy, and I desperately needed to get Jake alone.