Now, let’s see. If she were a safe, where would she be? She tapped her fingers against her chin as she peered around. Taking quick steps, she hurried down the hall when someone opened a door.
The safe was small, hidden on a bookshelf behind a series of coffee-table photograph books of remote island locations. It took all of two minutes and twelve seconds to crack. Jake held his breath as he gingerly opened the small metal door. His heart beat loudly against his rib cage and that dangerous thing known as hope dared to surface inside him. What a thrill that would be to find a velvet pouch full of the money—in the form of diamonds—that Eli stole from Bob in Middle America.
He patted around the safe and found a passport.
OK, fine. Safes were excellent places to store important identification. He stuck his hand in farther, and holy smokes. That was what Eli had in his safe?
Her pulse spiked as she bumped into another woman in the hall. The brunette sex-toy mistress.
“Oh hi, Steph,” the woman said. “I was just getting some more goodies from my car. I didn’t expect them to sell so quickly. But I can’t complain.”
“Oh well, who doesn’t need to buy a dildo?” Steph joked as her cheeks burned bright red.
“I do hope you’ll get something. And as the daughter of the house I’ll happily give you a discount.”
Steph shook her head. “Stepdaughter. And I’m all good. Really. Bought a few dozen butterflies last week at a clearance sale, so I’m good to go,” she said, then pointed to the bathroom door. “I’m just going to pop into the restroom.”
Once inside, she did her best to take a while, washing her hands and applying some hand lotion when she was through. That should buy her some time to have the hallway to herself. But when she left, the woman was there, waiting to see her back to the party.
“Here,” the woman said, reaching into the box and taking out a black velvet bag. “Just take it. It’s on me.”
Steph shook her head. “Oh no. I can’t.”
“Please. It would make me happy to give you a gift.”
Steph parted her lips to protest, but the woman was insistent, staring intently at her over her glasses. “Thank you.”
“The pleasure is all mine. By the way, I’m Monica. I hope you enjoy your new gift. Let’s go back to the party,” she said, and nudged Steph gently with her elbow, guiding her back into the cackling fest of buzzed, horny women. So much for safe hunting. Monica had safe-blocked her.
Madeline gestured excitedly as they returned to the toy fest. “Did you get it? The piece de resistance?”
“I did,” Monica said in a sex-kitten voice. She set down the big box, dipped her hand inside, and took out a small black box that looked distinctly like the one Eli had given Steph with the diamond in it. Her spine straightened and adrenaline tripped through her blood. Monica popped open the top, and the women gasped.
“Oh, it’s gorgeous.”
It was gorgeous. Blinding was another word that worked. Brilliant, too. Inside the box was a jewel, but it was bigger than the one her stepfather had given her. Brighter, even.
But something about it looked decidedly fake.
Leave no trace.
That was his mantra, and he had successfully lived up to it tonight, closing and locking the safe, rearranging the books in front of it, and shutting the office door behind him. He exited the house through the bathroom window, crouched along the roof, and climbed into the tree. Mere seconds later, he walked across the spongy grass, having covered his tracks.
OK, he didn’t entirely leave no trace. He’d taken something from the safe. He had to show Steph.
Isla made grabby hands, and Monica gave her the small box. “Look. It’s rhinestone-studded. Eli’s going to be so surprised. He’s going to love it so much.”
Isla pulled the jewel out of the box.
No. Please no. Oh God. Say it isn’t so.
“I can’t wait to give this to him, Monica. He loves this kind of play. He’s going to be so excited. We’re going to use it tonight.”
Steph smacked her forehead. “Oh, excuse me. I forgot I have a late-night dive. Must go.”
Intel was one thing. TMI was entirely another.
CHAPTER TWENTY
She marched down the stone path, around the front of the house, and walked smack into the hardest, firmest chest she’d ever felt.
“Did you find the jelly beans?”
“No. I stumbled into a gaggle of middle-age women in bandage dresses with huge egg-shaped rings ogling dolphins, rabbits, and butt plugs. Then, I got stymied by a sex-toy mistress, who followed me to the ladies’ room—”
“She didn’t join you in there, did she?”
Steph swatted his arm. Jake’s very strong, very muscular, very toned arm. “No! She didn’t join me in the bathroom. But she waited for me. To give me a goddamn sex toy,” she said, thrusting the velvet pouch at him.
Jake raised his eyebrows. “Tell me more.”
She shot him a stare that could crumble steel. “Go ahead. Look inside. Feel free.”
He shrugged happily and opened the drawstring. “That’s what we call sneaking in through the back door.”
Despite her irritation, she managed a small laugh. “For a minute there, I almost thought we had the answer to where the diamonds are. But this gem is fake.”
“Somewhere out there, though, someone is making gold-plated dildos. Diamond-encrusted vibrators. Rabbits filled with real pearls,” he said, shaking his head in mock wistfulness as they headed to her car. “Speaking of diamonds in the house, did you have any success?”