The Sapphire Affair (Jewel #1)(33)

No, gawked was the better word.

Her jaw had dropped, and she whispered, “Andrew?” when the name of his client auto-filled on her screen.

His heart fell. Shit. This was it. He was about to lose the job when Andrew found out that he’d blown his cover. Damn it to hell. He had to stop letting his too-soft heart get in the way of work.

She stabbed at her phone and ended the call. She pointed at him. Her eyes were judge and jury. “I don’t need to talk to him. I know who you are.”

“You do?”

“You’re the guy Andrew hired to find out about the money he thinks my stepdad stole. I have his number because I did a dive tour for him a few years ago, and my mom is friends with him.”

“Your mom is friends with him?” he repeated, stalling, buying time, backpedaling however he could, when the waitress arrived with a small plate with a slice of cake on it, a scoop of ice cream on top. “Your mango cake,” she said, then placed two forks next to it.

He reached for one, but Steph dropped her hand on his and squeezed when the waitress left. Her tone shifted once more, this time to a curious one. “Jake Harlowe, ’fess up. Are you the guy my stepdad’s former business partner hired to find out what happened to the money? Because I think you are, and I want the same things. The truth. I know something bad happened, and it somehow involved Eli, and I’m pretty sure it also involves—”

They both answered at the same time, “—diamonds.”





CHAPTER THIRTEEN


She pointed at him. He pointed at her.

“Are you working for Andrew?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’m not working for anyone. I took this upon myself, but my mom told me Andrew hired someone, and clearly that someone seems to be you, judging from the picture on your phone of me that I highly doubt is from your sister and I’m willing to bet is from your client and my mom’s friend.”

“You appointed yourself private detective?”

She nodded. A burst of pride surged through her. She’d already tracked down some useful intel and had started putting clues together. “I did. I came down here a few days early to see what’s going on with the money. But wait. Let’s rewind. Why did you just say diamonds?”

“Because I saw one on Eli’s fiancée, and the evidence is pointing in that direction.”

Suddenly, the diamond in her safe seemed a lot hotter than it had this morning. Had her stepdad actually given her a gift from the stolen money? She’d tangoed with the possibility when she saw him, but now it seemed more plausible.

And more poisonous.

“So you and I are both trying to figure out what he’s doing with the money, and maybe if that money is in diamonds? And you have evidence?”

“I do.”

She wanted to know what he had, but something else gnawed at her brain. Something that warned her not to trust him. The part that had been burned. “Wait. You’ve lied to me so far, and now you’re here clearly trying to get closer to me because you think I know something. Is that why you’re having lunch with me today? Is that why you found me at the Pink Pelican last night?”

He sighed heavily and shoved a hand through his hair, like a bulldozer. “No. No. No. I didn’t find you last night. I didn’t know who you were at all. And besides, if you may recall,” he said, tapping his chest, “I was at the Pink Pelican already. You walked in.”

Damn, he made a good point. He hadn’t been following her last night, and she was the one who’d left the trail of clues behind for him today. Chalk one up in his favor in the honesty column. “Fine. True,” she admitted. “But don’t you see how this looks? Like you knew who I was and you were trying to get info from me.”

“Here’s the reality. I saw you at the bar, thought you were stunning. We talked, we kissed, we had a good time. This was all totally separate from the job, because I didn’t have a clue who you were last night. I wanted to see you again, plain and simple. Hell, I didn’t even know your name. Then, I happened to spot you at breakfast with your stepdad at Tristan’s—”

“You were following me?”

“No. I was in the area doing some recon work,” he said, his voice firm, making it clear he didn’t like her accusation. “Anyway, when I saw you finishing breakfast with him, I asked Andrew who you were. He told me, and now it turns out we’re both, for all intents and purposes, working for the same people. You on your own for your mom. Me for Andrew. We’re both looking out for the people who got screwed. I only made up the part about my sister texting me your photo. Everything else was true, especially the part about my telling her I met a woman last night who I wanted to see again.”

She let his words soak in. She liked the ones where he said he wanted to see her again, because she’d sure wanted to see him, too. She’d been lingering over all the possibilities of him before she even saw him today. Still, she felt tricked. “You’re saying none of that last night at the bar was an act? What about the kiss on the beach? Was that an act?”

He laughed loudly and shook his head. He gestured to his lap. “Did it feel like an act? Did you think I was faking it? That it was a few stuffed socks in my pants?”

She pressed her lips together, fighting hard to resist chuckling. “No, it didn’t feel like a sock. But is a hard-on evidence that you didn’t set me up?”