Chapter 39
39
“Huh, this is a slightly nicer yacht than the one I chartered,” Santiago said, stepping on board. His bag hung heavy off his shoulder, and he still wore the same suit he was arrested in, but he looked good.
Before anyone could greet him, Beatrice screeched and nearly tackled him to the deck. Sebastian stepped away to avoid getting hit. Celeste jumped up from her seat, hoping to get a hug in, but Beatrice hung off Santi’s frame like a baby sloth.
“I can’t believe you’re here! I’m so sorry I didn’t save you!”
Santiago chuckled as he rubbed her back and kissed her cheek. “Don’t worry, Bonita, you’ll probably get another chance.”
When Beatrice finally released him, Celeste scrubbed his buzz cut with her knuckles. “I’m glad to see you, jailbird. They treat you okay?”
“As far as jail goes, this place was decent. Luckily, Sebastian is a good actor. I have a feeling that the real US Embassy lawyers aren’t nearly as threatening as he is.”
“It was quite thrilling,” Sebastian admitted. “I hadn’t felt a rush like that since working with Doris.”
Celeste held out her hand. “Thank you for coming through. We really appreciate your help.”
Sebastian skipped her hand and pulled her in for a hug. “I may not have stolen anything, but you managed to make an old man feel alive again.” He pulled away and peered at her. “Speaking of which, what did you think of my distraction? Très théatral, oui?”
Celeste tried to bury her grimace under a smile. “I wish you had let us know that your diversion tactics were that explosive.”
The old man managed a contrite shrug. “It was a nod to Doris. We’d done something similar during the Cold War... My apologies, mademoiselle. How is Larsson faring?”
“Magnus is below deck, sleeping off a gunshot wound.”
The old man grimaced. “Merde... And the jewels?”
“Acquired.”
“Excellent travail, chérie,” he said, patting her on the shoulder. “I think it’s more than time for us to shove off. Tallinn anyone?”
“Tallinn, please,” Santiago said.
Once Sebastian and his men were on board, the captain set sail due east. Celeste and the rest of the crew descended below deck to regroup and check on Magnus, who had woken up.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” Celeste demanded.
He was in the middle of changing shirts with one working arm and managed to get his face stuck in an armhole. “This is the first time Celeste St. Pierre is trying to lure me into bed.”
She helped adjust his shirt, pushing it over his head. “What are you doing?” she asked, pulling it down his torso.
“I sweat through my other shirt,” he hissed as she lifted his arm. “Did we get Santi?”
“I’m here, mano!”
They gathered in a common room outside the cabins, all of them breathing a sigh of relief as the gentle hum of the yacht’s engine vibrated throughout the vessel.
“I think we’re due for a rundown of events,” Lawrence said, clapping his hands. “Some of us missed all the action.”
“A damn shame, too,” Santiago said from behind the bar. As he made his drink, Celeste noted how Beatrice couldn’t take her eyes off him. She smiled to Magnus, who couldn’t seem to stop staring at her. “Magnus, have you ever been shot before?”
“Nope,” he said, collapsing into a nearby chair. “And I don’t plan on making a habit out of it.”
“Was anyone ID’d?” Santiago asked.
“Not yet,” Beatrice said. “The last image of Celeste is her going to the basement bathroom and then the lights went out. The security guard who Magnus knocked out may have seen your faces...but it’s hard to say what he’s going to remember under the influence.”
Lawrence chuckled. “Poor guy is gonna wake up with a nasty hangover.”
“When the inspector and curators go upstairs, they’re going to find a completely locked down Treasury Room,” Beatrice said with a grin. “And with all the confusion, there’s no way the police have interviewed everyone who attended the gala. Collections will eventually realize they have costume jewelry, but not tonight.”
“And the princess?” Santiago asked. “Will she be questioned?”
“She’s long gone.”
For her part, Princess Astrid left an interesting trail of social media posts detailing her evening. One TikTok video was captioned: “Get ready with me for my last royal engagement.” While her makeup artist worked on her face, she shared her plans to bow out of the Swedish royal family to millions of followers. At the gala, she made an Instagram boomerang of her knocking back a glass of champagne. That caption read, “Thankful that Svenska jewels are safe again! #Freya #BossGirl.”
The last TikTok the princess made for the night was posted while she was on a private jet. She lip-synced to a catchy pop song while showing off her left hand. A giant diamond graced her ring finger. Her massive following made the news of her engagement go viral within minutes. Celeste was impressed with the young woman’s ability to be a distraction.
Santiago took a long swig of whiskey. “Did we truly get away with this?”
The rest of the crew silently looked around at one another, probably afraid to admit they’d pulled it off. In the hours after the robbery, yes, they’d made it, but a couple days from now could be different. Maybe the grate above that toilet stall would fall off. Maybe the inspector would study the footage before and after the blackout. Maybe one of the witnesses remembers a Black woman who seemed like she didn’t quite belong there...
“We got the jewels,” Magnus finally said.
“Hear, hear!” Lawrence said, raising a beer.
“Hear, hear.”
March 30, 2023
Oh, they’re going to hate this.
And there’s a good chance they will hate each other.
But I have too many hopes that trump their petty squabbles. I hope that Magnus finds it in his heart to come back to the fold. I hope Celeste accepts him. I hope that Santiago desires another adventure with his friends. I feel like he’s just as lonely as the other two, but he pretends to be too happy to admit it. Lastly, I pray that Lawrence has the strength to tolerate all of them.
It’s strange knowing that the end is coming for me. It certainly doesn’t feel like this train should be pulling into the last station, but here I am, checking my watch and gathering my bags. While it feels strange, I’m not frightened of the end. I will finally get to rest. I will see Momma and Daddy again. Cousin Willy will be waiting for me. And when we’re reunited, maybe then I’ll tell them about my life. It would be nice to tell someone...
I just don’t want to go before I’ve made my peace with the crew. I hope they know how much I love each and every one of them. I hope Celeste knows how much she’s like a daughter to me. I spent so many years trying to shape and mold her, only to miss the woman she actually grew into. I don’t remember telling her how proud I am of her accomplishments. It wasn’t just about the paintings and jewels she stole. Celeste surpassed me in so many ways. I should have told her to be with Magnus. He’s who she actually needs.
Lord, I hope she realizes that before it’s too late.
I don’t want her to be alone.
We all need someone. Especially near the end. I have Lawrence, my most trusted friend, but I should have worked hard for the rest. I would trade away most of my Baroque collection in the Long Island estate for another chance to see Sebastian again. If only to bump into him on the street and steal his wallet. Sometimes I dream of his pale green eyes, caught in the backdrop of a brilliant blue Mediterranean Sea. I wake up and feel a fullness in my heart. I smile and wonder how he’s doing. If he still enjoys Estonia like we did in the eighties...
I can be thankful, though.
I’m happy that I lived my truth.
A Black girl from Biloxi, Mississippi, is only born with so much. The rest she picks up along the way. Some of it is luck; some of it is grit. I got both. I saw the world, loved deeply and stole so many things. The truth is, I’m quite extraordinary. I’m giggling as I write this, but it’s true. I’ve lived an enviable life. I hope Celeste gets to live this life as well.
Celeste had tears in her eyes by the time she closed the journal. Doris’s last entry, plus the end of this job, broke the dam. She sat at the foot of the bed she shared with Magnus and wept.
This time, she cried tears of relief.
She was thankful that Doris was no longer suffering. She was glad that Doris had taught her everything she knew before leaving this Earth.
“Are you okay?” Magnus asked, standing in the cabin’s doorway.
Celeste looked up and smiled. “I think so?”
She was lucky to have him .
“You’ve been crying,” he said with narrowed eyes. “You rarely cry.”
She shrugged. “When I do, it’s for a good reason. I’m crying because I love Doris and I miss her.”
Magnus pulled away from the threshold and sat beside her. “You’ll cry about her from time to time, then. She was quite the woman.”
“She had quite the life,” Celeste said, quoting the diary entry.
“I know,” he said, taking her hand. “Because she taught you. And I love you.”
This was her second time hearing the words, but she believed them. Magnus, for all his faults, loved her...for all her faults.
“When did you know that you loved me?” she asked.
Magnus appeared to think about it for a moment. “While we were ring shopping.” He reached down by the bed and hauled his go bag up to his lap. “When we played Ball and Chain, you made me feel something I hadn’t felt in years. It scared the hell out of me.”
He pulled a tiny box out of the bag and Celeste instantly recognized it. He popped it open with his thumb and presented the contents to her.
An emerald set in a ring of diamonds.
“You didn’t sell this?” she exclaimed.
Magnus grinned sheepishly as he held the ring aloft. “It was hard to keep this to myself when it matched your gown perfectly last night.”
“Mags, why would you keep this?” she asked in a hushed voice while extending her hand. She stopped herself short of actually touching the small velvet box.
“I just never got around to it,” he said weakly.
She shot him a deadpan look. “Really?”
He shrugged. “Truthfully, I wasn’t confident in my abilities to work with you at that counter. You were right to be frustrated with me that day. We could have pulled it off. I just didn’t have faith.”
As she searched her memory of that day, she found the moment on the street when he looked insecure. He had evaded her with his excuses, but she felt like something was off. “But you’ve kept it this long?”
“As a reminder,” he admitted. “To work with you, not counter.”
“Is it mine?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Everything I have belongs to you, Celeste,” he told her.
The tears came back in full force because the value of the ring didn’t matter. It was his earnestness, his promise to her.
“I love you, Magnus.” She finally held her hand out, palm down.
He grinned and shook his head. “Left hand, my love.”
“Oops!” She switched hands. He started to slip it on her finger when she quickly jerked it back. “Wait, no! If you’re going to do this, don’t you think you should do it right? Get on one knee.”
He paused, narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. “Yeah?”
“If we’re no longer pretending, I want you where you belong. On your knees.”
Magnus immediately slid off the bed and onto his knee. “Will you be a geology professor’s wife, for real this time?”
Celeste gave a watery chuckle. “If I’m going to be married to a geologist, it must be you. I only want you.”
He slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her knuckles. “You have me.”
Her tears couldn’t be abated. She choked back a sob as she slid off the bed to join him. She took him by the face and kissed him deeply. He took her by the waist with his good arm and drew her closer. She couldn’t help but return to Doris’s last diary entry and think about hope and gratitude.
She was thankful that she had him.
She’d hoped they could grow old together.