Chapter Two
They made it all the way to the rental car before Jess burst out laughing. “Oh my God,” she sputtered. “You look like a Ken doll. A trust fund baby who doesn’t know that he aged into his thirties.”
He grinned at her through five-hundred-dollar sunglasses and under a mop of carefully tousled blond hair. “You wound me, love,” he said in an impeccable Australian accent.
“Don’t start that before we get there,” she said dryly. “I already almost can’t look at you.”
“Sorry,” he said in his normal voice. “But I was using this cover on Todd before I even met you. I didn’t know I’d get involved with a woman who hated playboys from down under.”
Jess faked a gag and shuddered. “Just don’t ever put on a disguise with a man-bun,” she warned. “I can only handle so much.” She pulled the seat belt across her body and grabbed a bottle of water from her bag. Instead of traveling in her disguise, she’d chosen to wear baggy sweats and a ball cap that completely covered her long dark hair and obscured most of her face. “How long a drive is it to Sonoma?”
Adam put the car in drive and followed the signs leading to Highway 101. “If we get lucky with traffic, just over an hour.”
“Perfect,” she said, stifling a yawn. He felt a pang of sympathy. Jess had tired eyes. She must have arrived back in Chicago late at night only to get on an early flight to San Francisco. She’d probably had just enough time to get back to her apartment and grab her bags and equipment before heading back to the airport.
At least she seemed to be in high spirits. She pulled out her laptop. “Plenty of time to go over everything again.”
Jess started reviewing her notes, but immediately became distracted by the sights of San Francisco. Adam watched out of the corner of his eye as she oohed and aahed over the Painted Ladies and trolley cars. “I thought you’d been here before.”
She flushed. “Just twice. Once for a college golf tournament, once for a work conference. I didn’t get a chance to do much sightseeing either time.”
He smiled. Jess was always so sure of herself that he forgot she hadn’t been afforded the chance to travel widely. Growing up as one of four kids to a single dad, her childhood trips were limited to road trips to cabins in Wisconsin. As an adult, she’d been a workaholic, her schedule rarely allowing the time for vacation. “Maybe we should stick around a few days next week. You can get to know the city a little.”
He took a left, navigating the streets with ease. The Golden Gate Bridge loomed in front of them and Jess squeaked in delight. As they drove over the bridge, she looked out her window and gaped at the water and Alcatraz Island. “Wow,” she breathed. Adam rolled down his window and inhaled the cool fresh air. Jess was right; it was absolutely beautiful. He’d been out there so many times he didn’t see it anymore. Which was a damn shame. Thank God he’d found Jess. He hadn’t even realized how jaded and faded he was becoming until she lit the spark in him, made him see the world again.
Once they passed Sausalito, Jess reopened her laptop, her brow furrowed as she reviewed the pictures and specs on the world’s most secure safes. The computer bounced on her lap but it never disturbed her focus.
Adam couldn’t even imagine reading off a computer screen in the car. He shook his head. “If I tried that, I’d throw up.”
She raised an incredulous eyebrow. “You get car sick?”
And how. “Any kind of motion sickness, really,” he admitted. “I have to take Dramamine before I get on boats, I don’t like to sit backwards on trains.”
She grinned at him, biting her lip. “That’s really funny.”
“Why?”
“Because I think of you as a sort of Superman,” she admitted.
He snorted. “Only if Superman is deathly afraid of turbulence.”
They both laughed. He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Sometimes I forget we haven’t known each other that long.”
Jess squeezed back and then brought his hand to her lips to press a soft kiss on his palm. “Me too. I feel so close to you that it’s a little weird how much we still don’t know about one other.”
This long weekend would be a start to changing that. In Adam’s limited experience with partners, he knew that nothing broke down barriers faster than teaming up undercover.
“You really seem to know your way around here,” she commented.
“Lot of rich people in California. Lots of jewels.” He shrugged. “I’ve worked in this state quite a bit in the last several years.”
She squeezed his hand. “Only work?” Her voice was too casual. “No trips with girlfriends?”
He took his eyes off the road for a moment to glance over, but her face was turned to look out the window. Another thing they hadn’t done yet—talk about exes. Not that he’d even had any exes of note. “Nope,” he said. “No trips with girlfriends.”
He debated asking her about trips with ex-boyfriends, but hell, he didn’t really want to know. He felt way too possessive about Jess as it was. He didn’t need to get all Neanderthal if she talked about a vacation with some dude she dated before he even met her.
Luckily, Jess seemed willing to drop the topic too. Back on her laptop, she closed her file on safes and opened a photo of the Red Scarlet. “I have to admit, this necklace is amazing. I’m not much of a jewelry girl, but this one is wow.”
“Agreed,” he said, briefly resting his eyes on the photo. The Red Scarlet was a one-of-a-kind stunner. It featured twenty-six Pigeon Blood Burmese rubies, varying from 1.27 to 5.38 carats. Each of the rubies was surrounded by a cluster of four marquise—and pear-shaped diamonds. The stones were set in platinum and white gold. Even more impressive than the sum of its parts, the Red Scarlet caught the eye because of its floral design. The jewel clusters looked like red and white flowers. When worn, it was supposed to look like a sparkling lei. Adam couldn’t be sure if it actually did. It had been privately owned for years and he’d never seen it on a woman’s neck.
The Red Scarlet had a lot of admirers. Hundreds of knockoffs had been designed over the years, and it was on a lot of “Most Expensive” jewelry articles and websites. At first, the fame of the necklace was a huge turn-off for him. Because it was so well-known, it couldn’t be fenced on the normal market. In these kinds of cases, a buyer needed to be found before the theft or it wasn’t worth the risk. But a year ago, one of his regular fences let him know that he had a very interested buyer if the Red Scarlet ever became, ahem, available.
So, Adam had gone into Step Three of his so-successful-it-should-be-patented thieving process: researching the target to get a sense of the person. In this case, that meant befriending Todd Fielding.
The Fieldings had owned vineyards in Sonoma for decades and had been a name in the viniculture business almost as long—but Todd had raised himself to near-celebrity status in the last ten years, due to his flamboyant personality, love of the press and a decision to produce obscenely expensive Cabernets.
One of his most outlandish stunts had been to announce his acquisition of the Red Scarlet after procuring it at auction four years ago. After dropping over five million dollars to possess it, the very single Todd announced to the press that someday the Scarlet would become the property of his wife.
Adam didn’t know if Todd intended to throw himself in the path of every gold digger who read celebrity gossip, but over the next couple of years he’d never been photographed with the same woman twice.
Adam had met Todd personally three times now, but had been a little frustrated in determining the nature of Todd’s true character. He had a huge personality—half Texas cowboy (not that he’d ever lived in Texas), half reality TV star. He loved to be the center of attention and he loved to talk. In Adam’s opinion (and the opinion of many of his more reserved Sonoma neighbors), Todd came across as a loudmouthed buffoon.
But Adam couldn’t ignore the feeling in his gut that the persona might be just that. That the real Todd might actually be a decent guy who’d learned the unfortunate truth of the world: forceful, talkative idiots often got ahead more than any other sort of individual.
Adam had forged his acquaintance with Todd by purchasing tickets to a few of his pricey wine dinners. Adam’s cover was as a silly-rich Australian trust fund baby who was toying with the idea of “getting into wine.” During the dinners, he talked constantly to his captive audience, often dropping uneducated, semi-shocking comments on all sorts of controversial topics. Religion, world politics, women’s reproductive rights—no topic was out-of-bounds for his boorish pontificating.
To say it was off-putting was the understatement of the year.
But Adam’s instincts told him that Todd was just putting on a show. In their one-on-one interactions, Todd was more measured. He still talked passionately, but about wine and art—two things he truly knew a lot about. From digging into his finances, Adam knew Todd also gave tremendously to charity. Maybe it was just for tax breaks or some other sort of bragging rights, but if not, there was no way Adam was going to steal from the largest donator to homeless shelters in all of Northern California.
He couldn’t wait to get Jess’s read.
It would also be interesting to meet the woman who’d convinced Todd to settle down. Apparently, he’d met the beautiful Helen during his last trip to Tokyo. After a life-changing evening, he’d convinced her to abandon her plans and travel with him. Whipping through a whirlwind romance, he’d proposed just three months after they met.
Right now, Adam and Jess were headed to their engagement party extravaganza. Taking advantage of the long Labor Day weekend, Todd and Helen had planned a party to end all parties. They had an event scheduled for each day and had invited hundreds of guests. Tonight, Thursday evening, was a Welcome Party Barbecue, although Adam sincerely doubted there would be any hot dogs or flip flops. Friday and Saturday afternoon, the guests would be treated to personal tours of the winery and vineyards. Saturday night was the official engagement shindig, a big fancy party. On Sunday was an overnight spa getaway for the ladies and golf for the gents. Jess had turned up her nose at this. She’d much prefer to play golf than get a facial.
He wasn’t exactly sure how long they’d stay. Generally, the nature of his business was to get in and get out quickly in order to reduce any impressions on people. But he didn’t think they needed to rush through this reconnaissance stage. He’d already become a casual friend of Todd’s, and they weren’t stealing anything this weekend. Maybe they could actually treat it as a working vacation.
He’d never done one of those before. He smiled at the thought of drinking wine and strolling through the vineyards with Jess. It would be perfectly in line with their current covers. Adam’s cover, Chase Kelly, Australian playboy, was known to Todd to be somewhat of a womanizer. Jess would be posing as a casual new girlfriend. So it would make perfect sense for them to sneak off on romantic interludes...
Yes, he decided, with another sideways look at Jess. This could be good.