“Beach girl?” Gage asked.
“I like heat.”
“Figured as much when I saw you spending time with that cop.” He drained the bottle, then tossed it in the garbage can.
“We’re just friends.”
“Not sure if he understands that,” Gage said. “But he’ll be busy now that the necklace has been stolen again.”
“Someone stole it again?” I stared at him aghast. “How?”
“The private collector who had loaned it to the museum came to pick it up personally. Understandably, he changed his mind about leaving it with the museum for the exhibit. He had it authenticated by the insurance company when he arrived, and hired an armed car service to transport it. But when he got home, the necklace in the secure case turned out to be fake.”
I went to get the bleach from Rose’s kitchen. Her house was still and quiet. Was it only nine weeks ago that my life had been a disaster, and I’d almost killed Stan? Now I was debt-free. I had my own place, an event planning business, and a new group of friends. I’d found my passion and I’d found love, although not the traditional kind.
I flicked on the light, heard a scream. A groan. A thump.
Rose was on the counter. Her new male friend was on the floor.
It was save-the-naked-octogenarian time all over again. This time I didn’t need Chloe. I could handle it on my own.
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
?“Do you have to leave?”
I rolled to my side in my new bed, watching Jack dress. He’d shown up at my door last night to say good-bye. I’ve never been a believer in karma or spiritual energy like my aunties, but I had known he was coming. I could feel a pull inside me. When I heard the rumble of a motorcycle outside, I opened the door because I knew it was him.
No one had ever looked at me the way he did that night. No one had ever seen me. I don’t think an army of Mr. X’s could have stopped him from coming through the door. When he wrapped me in his arms, something clicked into place—the other half of my soul.
“They’ll be coming for me,” he said. “If I stay, you’ll be in danger. I should have left last night.”
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you repossessed the Wild Heart.” I pushed myself up to sit. “Don’t look so surprised. When Garcia came to my office to tell me it had been stolen again, I knew it had to be you.”
“Garcia was at your office?” He crossed his arms over his chest, his forehead creased in a frown. His jealousy was utterly endearing.
“We’re friends. He brought me an office-warming gift to celebrate my new venture.”
Jack muttered something under his breath that I couldn’t hear. “What gift?”
“A Boston fern.”
“A Boston fern?” Jack barked a laugh. “Are you working in a rain forest? They are incredibly hard to keep alive indoors. They’re also outdated. It’s not the nineties anymore. I was worried for a second, but a Boston fern . . . ?” He chuckled to himself, mumbling something about loser plants.
“What do you mean by ‘I was worried’？” I knew exactly what he meant but I wanted to hear it.
“He doesn’t just want to be friends,” Jack said, pulling on his jeans.
“Is that a problem? You’re going away and you can’t tell me when you’ll be back? Am I supposed to sit around waiting for you? I have needs.”
“I thought I just took care of your needs,” he said. “I didn’t even get any sleep, you were so needy.”
“What about tomorrow? Or next week?” I was teasing him. We hadn’t talked about the future, but I didn’t want to be with anyone else. Not even Garcia, who had made it clear with his gift he was interested in pursuing something now that I wasn’t a thief.
“Simi . . .” A pained expression crossed his face. “I can’t make you any promises, but there’s no one else for me. I’m going to try and get out of the business, but it’s going to take time.”
I wrapped the sheet around my body and crossed the room. “There’s no one else for me, either.”
“No police boyfriend?” He wrapped an arm around my waist and drew me close.
“No one but you.”
He buried his face in my neck and sighed. “I’ll pick up a burner phone as soon as I land in Delhi. You’ll always be able to contact me.”
“India?” I pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “Isn’t that where the Wild Heart is originally from?”
“I believe so.”
“I can imagine the Indian government would love to have a piece of such cultural significance returned to their country,” I said.
“Countries are always very grateful to have their antiquities repatriated.” He backed up another step. “Or so I’ve heard.”
“Should we have code names if we have to communicate by burner phones? I’d like something daring and adventurous, something wild.”
“Simi,” he said. “That name ticks all the boxes.”
“What about you?”
“I have a code name. Oliver Twist.”
I wound my arms around his neck. “It’s a good name because Oliver Twist had a hard life, but in the end, everybody lived happily ever after.”
“Except Fagin, who was arrested and hanged, and Monks, who died in prison.” His bitter tone told me everything I wanted to know. He hadn’t shared any more about Mr. X, but I had a strong suspicion he was the Fagin in Jack’s life.
“Where are you going after India?” I dropped my sheet and pushed him back against the door, hoping to chase away the shadows that had fallen across his face.
Jack responded with a growl of approval. “Egypt, and Greece after that. I get a new burner every time I hit a new country. I’ll make sure you get my numbers. Keep an eye out for flower deliveries with secret messages.”
“I remember seeing statues from Egypt and Greece in Mr. Angelini’s office,” I mused out loud. “When I went to see him to collect our money, he said they’d been stolen during the wedding.” I rubbed up against him, eliciting a groan.
“That’s quite a coincidence.”
“Do you know what else is a coincidence?” I’d been waiting all night to share this with him. “Garcia told me that he received a tip that Simone’s missing necklace from the charity ball was in Mr. Angelini’s office safe, along with papers that showed he was guilty of loan sharking and forcing people out of their homes on the very block where your grandmother lived. He had planned to develop the entire area as a shopping mall.”
“Garcia talks too much,” Jack said, pulling away. “Maybe he should put some of that energy into learning about plants.”
“He thinks Mr. Angelini will be going to prison. Thank God I already got my five-star review.”
“He deserves far worse than prison.” Jack pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “You are making it almost impossible to leave, but I can’t miss this flight.”
“I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you, too, sweetheart.” He grabbed his bag from the floor. I’d tucked an envelope in it with the number of an account Chloe had set up that contained a share of the reward money and the wedding planning fee. Everyone had agreed Jack deserved it, even though he’d never asked for a cent.