Free The Sapphire Affair (A Jewel Novel Book 1) by Lauren Blakely

endless blue water and sky.
    “I’m doing my best. I’ve got a tour next week, and you know I’ll be bringing them here to your shop,” she said with a wide smile, grateful to chat about work for the moment. Getting to the heart of her visit would be tougher—intel about Eli.
    “Hey! Can we do that thing we used to do? Where we plant a little treasure chest on the sandbar?”
    Steph cracked up, clasping her belly at the memory of their antics. On a few of their guided stingray city tours, they’d actually lugged a wooden chest into the water and lined it with huge, and clearly fake, gems. Visitors had gotten a kick out of the notion of discovering a pirate’s booty. Funny thing was, despite all the tales and stories of buried treasure and pirates, in reality there weren’t many documented findings of treasure maps or undersea discoveries throughout history.
    Only fiction. Only lore.
    “We have to do that again. That was our greatest hit.”
    He scratched his chin. “Hey, I have a private group at the end of the week. A short couples-only visit to the stingrays. Want to help out?”
    She nodded enthusiastically. “I would love to. Text me the details?”
    “Absolutely.” He tipped his forehead to her in question. “So you came to town early? Any special reason?” He fixed her with a stare that said he was waiting.
    Nerves skated across her skin. She took a breath and segued into the real reason for her stop. Recon. This was odd for her, since she’d never needed her local friends for information before. But now she did, and she’d have to ask in a way that didn’t reveal her true motives—to find out what her stepdad was up to and whether any of his actions suggested he’d been up to no good with other people’s money.
    Sure, she planned to call him later and make plans to see him. But she needed to be smart and gather some info first. It wasn’t like she could just show up at Eli’s house asking about his finances. Even inquiring about how business was going would raise a red flag, since they’d never had those conversations in the past. He was far too shrewd to fall for that sort of questioning. That’s why she was going in through the side door, tucking away potentially useful details before she saw him.
    “So, Devon,” she said, clearing her throat. “I need your honest opinion on something.”
    “Uh-oh.”
    “It’s not bad.”
    He arched an eyebrow. “It’s never good when someone says they want an honest opinion.”
    Devon was Switzerland. He had nothing against her stepdad. Eli had been a reliable customer for years, so she had to be careful, to tread a fine line. “I want your unbiased opinion. Now that business is picking up for me again, I need to do everything to run a tight ship and make sure customers are happy. So when someone on a tour asks me about the nightlife . . . ,” she said, then made a rolling gesture with her hand.
    Devon’s mouth formed an O and he nodded like a wise man. “I get it. You want to know how Sapphire is doing.”
    She mimed whacking a hammer. “As always, you hit the nail on the head.”
    “That place is red-hot. All the young people are partying hard there. They talk it up when they come in the next day. It’s a huge hit. Crowds every night. Packed to the gills. It’s like a goddamn mint.”
    Mint.
    She gritted her teeth, biting back the comments that threatened to fall from her lips. Is Eli making a mint with someone else’s money? Did his company unknowingly fund that damn club? She sucked down those words, because this was what she needed to know. Eli Thompson still had the Midas touch. Nothing changed.
    She leaned across the counter and planted a soft kiss on Devon’s leathery cheek. He pretended to catch the kiss in his hand. “Now I’ve got my next seven years.”
    “If only a kiss from me had such powers.”
    “Oh, I suspect it has great powers.”
    She returned to a kiss from a few hours ago and sent a silent wish to the