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)
I frowned, thinking over past conversations with my client. “Actually, Andrew gave your mom an offhand kind of compliment yesterday. He said you take after her.”
Ruby gave a short but genuine laugh. “That’s not necessarily a compliment.”
Running my hand over her calf, I assured her, “It is if she’s as tenacious and strong as her daughter.”
Crinkling her freckled nose, she set her empty glass on the ground and pushed up onto her elbows. “Jake,” she said softly, “do you trust Andrew? How do we know for sure what he’s told you is legit?”
“Kate vetted everything beforehand. I wouldn’t have taken the job if I didn’t believe his info was solid and checked out,” I said, feeling enough certainty for both of us. Maybe I could impart some of my own to her.
“What if Kate made a mistake though?”
I blinked at this unexpected turn. “Excuse me?”
“What if those documents and emails were doctored?”
“No. I saw them myself.” Where was she going? I thought we were past this distrust. Also, it was one thing to doubt my character when she barely knew me and another to doubt actual evidence. “Kate specializes in document analysis. She doesn’t make mistakes.”
Ruby hummed thoughtfully, like she was accepting my answer. “Maybe I’d feel differently if I weren’t so personally involved.” Her voice was threaded with frustration as much as suspicion. “I just feel like I’ve had to take people’s word for everything, and it’s led to nothing but dead ends and, oh yeah, the theft of the one thing I did have,” she said, so clearly disappointed. “I don’t want to take Eli’s word for things either. I’m just tired of being in the dark.”
I paused, soaking that in. I’d said I understood that she felt torn, but I could only imagine. It was personal for Ruby in a different way.
“Ruby,” I said softly, and running my fingertips down her arm. She tensed. Selfishly, I couldn’t risk fighting with her like this. There was too much at stake. She might tip off Eli. She might turn her back on me. She might cross me. I didn’t think she would, but she could.
But even more than that, I hated to see her hurting.
I skimmed my fingers down her bare skin once more. This time, she softened. “I know it’s hard. I want to solve this too. I get that it’s tough for you because it’s personal,” I whispered.
“Thanks for understanding. I almost wish I’d left it alone. I feel helpless,” she said in a broken whisper, devoid of anger now, laced only with sadness. “I feel like we’re being set up. Everywhere we turn, we hit a snag.”
“That’s the nature of a case like this. Three steps forward. Two steps back.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the diamonds were with the charity. Or with Nigel. He made the strangest comment when I left today that made me think he knew the combo to my safe. Or maybe Tristan has them. He’s trying to make a deal with my stepdad to carry some new drink.”
“Or with the sex-toy diamond saleswoman,” I said, thinking it was more likely Monica had lifted the diamond from Ruby’s room the other night. She knew the value, after all. She knew Ruby too. “It’s entirely possible that she wanted that diamond of yours from the second I showed it to her at the store. She could have followed us to figure out where you were staying.”
“See? This is my point. I’m being followed. People are stealing from me. My stepdad’s manager makes odd comments. I just want to do my job. But there’s still this one big, fat issue for me,” she said, stopping to take a beat and meeting my gaze. “What if Eli is telling me the truth?”
I didn’t trust the guy, but he didn’t raise me, so I carefully asked, “Do you believe him?”
She frowned. “I don’t know what to believe. It’s not even about the jewels anymore, Jake. Or who they should or shouldn’t belong to,” she said, dragging a hand through her hair. “I don’t know what to believe about him.”
I didn’t know how to reassure her or if I even could. I didn’t have to grapple with the same issues she did. Eli had helped raise her, he’d lived with her, he’d taken her to kiss stingrays. That bond wasn’t easily dismissed, despite his sins and omissions on other fronts.
But to me, Eli was simply the target. I didn’t have to divorce my emotions; there were none.
I ran my hands down her legs, reaching for her foot. Her eyes drifted closed, and she moaned softly as I pressed my thumbs against the ball of her foot. A contented sigh fell from her lips as I massaged her heels, her arch, her toes, all the way to her little pinkie. I wiggled it, and she laughed, a sweet sound, like bells.