36. Mr. Smith and My Confession
36
MR. SMITH AND MY CONFESSION
Ruby
I hardly knew which way was up anymore. I wanted to trust Jake so very badly. I didn’t think he was playing me, and while I was tempted to strip him, blindfold him, and then check his pockets, I also needed to be an adult.
Be direct , like Devon had said. My friend was right.
With everything I’d learned at the gallery—and in the alley where I found out that Jake had swiped that honey from the breakfast tray because it made him think about me—it made less and less sense that Jake had stolen my diamond.
He wasn’t hiding any of Willow’s diamonds from me—they hadn’t been there to find.
He hadn’t pilfered Willow’s stone last night—I was his alibi.
That meant I’d suspected Jake unfairly.
That also meant someone else had taken my gem, and we couldn’t talk about that critical detail until I was direct and honest with him. But god, honesty was hard. As we walked to my room, my stomach churned. Honesty was part of trust, but it was painful.
Putting yourself on the line was like diving into a bracing sea. But there was only one way to do it.
Jump in.
The second the door to my room shut, I turned to Jake.
“The jar of honey…” I began. “That was the only thing you took from the room this morning, right?”
He gave me a baffled look. An I-have-no-idea-what-you’re-talking-about side-eye. “What else would I have taken?”
I dragged a hand through my hair, then took the leap. “I need to know if you took my?—”
But before I could explain myself, someone knocked at the door. Jake and I exchanged a glance, and I called, “Who is it?”
“This is the hotel manager.”
There was another look between Jake and me, this time with a shrug . “I’d better answer that,” I said.
In the hall stood a tall, red-haired man in dress slacks and a suit jacket with a brass name tag that said Alfredo.
“Hello, Ms. Ashley,” he said politely, nodding to me. “So sorry to disturb you, but I wanted to make sure you received the delivery yesterday, and everything was in order.”
I frowned, a small kernel of worry tightening inside me. “Delivery? I’m not sure what you mean?”
Jake joined me at the door and draped an arm around my waist. The comforting and reassuring gesture was welcome, but I didn’t deserve it after doubting him the way I had. “What was delivered?” Jake asked.
The manager’s brows knotted in worry. “The envelope of documents?”
“I didn’t receive anything,” I told him. “And I wasn’t expecting anything either.”
Jake seemed on high alert. I could feel his tension everywhere we touched. “What time was this?”
The man scratched his chin as if recalling the details. “Yesterday evening, around six o’clock, a man came to the front desk and asked if he could deliver some urgent paperwork to your room.”
“And you let him?” Jake asked, thoroughly protective.
“Absolutely not. We do not give out our guests’ room numbers for any reason. But the man insisted it was urgent, so my clerk took the envelope and brought it to your room himself, leaving it on the desk at around six-fifteen. I came to confirm you had received it.” He paused awkwardly. “But obviously, you did not.”
I gulped nervously and glanced behind me in case I’d somehow missed the envelope—but the desk was bare. Wild ideas and worries swam through my brain.
Jake went to the desk and looked around and under it, then reported, “Nothing.”
The manager sighed. “I’ll check with the clerk?—”
“Did he give his name? The man who dropped the envelope off?” I asked, not caring if I was rude. “What was it?”
Alfredo cleared his throat as if owning up to something embarrassing. “Ahem. Mr. Smith, I believe,” he said. “I’ll go inquire with the staff.”
He turned sharply and marched down the hallway, his steps matching the staccato rhythm of my heart. Could the clerk have stolen the diamond when he made the delivery? If so, why take the envelope that had been his excuse to come in?
I shut the door and turned to Jake, my world spinning like a mad teacup ride in an amusement park.
“Mr. Smith?” Jake scoffed, with all the suspicion I felt.
I swayed, and the floor felt wobbly. I had no idea who Mr. Smith was, but probably someone who didn’t want to risk following me to find my room. “I think someone tried to get my room number,” I said in a tiny whisper. “And when he couldn’t, he followed the clerk here, then broke in to steal the diamond.”
Jake’s stunned expression dispelled any lingering doubts I might have had. His jaw dropped, and his eyes widened. “The what now?”
“The diamond was gone from the safe this morning. Someone must have broken in?—”
His green eyes registered confusion, then a hint of anger. “Wait. Is that why you were patting me down earlier outside the gallery?” He crossed his arms. “You dragged me from the gallery, and you treated me like you didn’t trust me—” His eyes grew impossibly wider. “Holy shit. You think I stole your diamond? Is that what you were about to say?”
“I was worried it might have been you.” The words tumbled free before I could consider them or analyze the risk in admitting that I didn’t trust a single soul right now. I squeezed my eyes shut, and a hot tear slipped down my face. I wiped it away with the back of my hand. “I freaked out because I trusted you. I let you into my room and my body, and this morning after I came out of the shower, the diamond was gone. Completely gone.”
He stumbled backward, and braced himself with a hand on the wall. “Are you serious?” he whispered. “From your safe?”
I nodded. “I found it missing right after you left. Jake, what else would I think?”
He shot me a look like I was crazy. “ Anything. Anything but that.”
“But you know how to break into safes. You broke into this one, even.”
He held out his hands as if pushing away my words and shook his head. Anger seemed to roll off him like smoke. “I would never steal from you.”
“But you figured out the combo before. In seconds.”
“And you changed it, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, but you could have figured it out again.”
He huffed and inhaled deeply, then dragged a hand roughly through his hair. “Please tell me you didn’t change it back to A-R-I-E-L.”
“No, it was?—”
“I don’t want to know what it is.” He sighed in frustration, then fixed me with a stare. “Why did you bring me back here to your room if you thought I stole the diamond?”
Time to ’fess up. To tell all. “Because Willow told me this afternoon that the diamond in her necklace was stolen last night too. And with this Mr. Smith dropping off fake papers, and with you not having any diamonds in your pockets earlier…”
When I finished, he ran his hand over his face. “Not to be rude about this, but what the hell, Ruby? I trusted you.”
Trust. That was what I longed for. I tried to believe in it. But after two such important men in my life—Eli and Duke—had betrayed my trust, how could I give it to anyone else easily? Especially a man gunning for Eli?
“I did trust you,” I said, my hands together, imploring him. “I swear I did. I woke up this morning having had the most amazing time with you last night and feeling like we were on the same page. Then my diamond went missing. All I could think was you took it. What else was I supposed to think?”
“You weren’t supposed to think. You were supposed to talk. To me. Because I didn’t do it,” he said softly, his green eyes locking onto mine.
I didn’t look away. “I believe that now.”
“Then let’s figure out who might have done it.” He took a deep breath but his mouth softened, as if he were perhaps ready to move on. “Tell me everything.”