Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Hot. That was just hot.
If I wasn’t in love already…She had killer getaway driver skills. Hook, line, sinker. I was a goner.
61
A REALLY EXPENSIVE CHOCOLATE BAR
Ruby
“Spider?” He sounded incredulous but amused, and looked as excited as I felt. As amped up and alive.
“She hates spiders,” I said, laughing as we drove out of Corey’s Landing. Spiders were nothing to laugh at, but the look on Willow’s face had been. “I had to improvise.”
“Look how far you’ve come. Thinking on your feet like a pro,” he said, tossing me a glance like he was turned on.
Well, he probably was. I kind of was too. My nerves tingled with adrenaline and probably would for days. “Did you get them?” I asked. That was the important thing, now that he was safe.
He lifted his backpack and flashed me the world’s most satisfied grin. “Got ’em all.”
“Are the diamonds inside them?” I asked, breathless with excitement and worry. This was our last shot. Everything we’d worked for depended on this.
“Well, I wasn’t going to check without my partner,” he said, making me smile again. I had no idea how much I’d wanted to hear those words until he said them. I felt like his partner. One hundred percent.
“Good answer.” We pulled into a parking lot at the nearby beach a comfortable distance from Eli’s place. I cut the engine.
As Jake unzipped his backpack, my shoulders tensed and my chest grew tight. I’d be fine with whatever we found.
Totally fine.
And yet, I wanted those rocks. Badly.
He dug into the pack and pulled out the handful of chocolate bars he’d taken from the safe in Eli’s office. They were the same kind as the one he’d taken the first time he’d broken in. But I had no idea, had never even considered, that the diamonds might be hidden in the bars.
But as Jake had pointed out when he’d lifted the lone example—who kept chocolate in their safe?
“The real ones are safe and sound and so well hidden that no one will figure it out.”
No one but someone who knew him. The way Eli loved jewels, collected them like they were candy. The way he stashed sweets to satisfy his sweet tooth. His smarter-than-you jokes with himself.
He loved being smarter than everyone else and pulling off his own heists.
Jake presented the chocolate with a flourish, placing the bars on the center console. “You can do the honors.”
A wild ribbon of hope unfurled inside me, chased by worry that I had it wrong again. I steeled myself, unwrapped the first bar from Ecuador, and snapped it in half, examining the rough ends. My heart sank. “Just chocolate,” I muttered.
“Break it up more,” he encouraged. I broke the bar into tiny pieces in the wrapper.
I’d told myself I’d be fine no matter what we found, but I’d been wrong. I was devastated.
“It’s still only chocolate,” I said, and I wished I didn’t sound so forlorn.
But it was my voice now. Forlorn was all I felt.
“I know,” Jake said, still the glass-all-full guy. “But this bar has the same wrapper as the ones we tasted. We probably would have noticed diamonds in there. Which means…just because the diamonds aren’t in this one doesn’t mean they aren’t in the others.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Look at the others and remember what you learned from working with me.”
“Use what you know about the target,” I repeated, studying the remaining bars. And there it was. The clue. I grabbed one of the bars with nuts. Of course. “Eli hates chocolate with nuts.” If I was right, the bar would be nut-free but diamond-full.
I steadied myself and ripped into the shiny paper, held my breath, and broke the chocolate bar into pieces.
Diamonds rained down.
Shiny, glittering gems.
Chocolate-covered jewels.
He’d substituted the nuts for diamonds. Doing the reverse was just like Eli.
Wild exhilaration flooded me—my cells, my bones, my entire being. It was like a summer rainstorm, the kind that made you hold your arms wide and invite the beautiful deluge as we demolished more chocolate bars. Some were chocolate, but some were full of chocolate and riches. When we finished the stack, we had a pile of diamonds in my car and chocolate flakes everywhere.
The rental car place wouldn’t be happy.
But Jake and I were ecstatic.
“How do we know if these are fake too?” I asked, afraid it was too good to be true.
Jake’s lips curved up in a fantastically cocky grin. “Don’t worry. I know just the guy.”
62
BLACK LACE AND PAYBACK
Jake
Damn, my woman looked good in that black lace bra. It was the perfect home for millions.
“You’re such a sexy mule,” I said, giving her a salacious wink in the hotel room, as she stuffed her sexy-as-sin lingerie with…two small black pouches full of gems.
She checked her silhouette in the mirror, making sure the additions weren’t obvious, then she turned to me and struck a pose. “You think people will be able to tell they’re fake?”