Ring of Lies (45 page)

‘
Not yet
.
The details are inside.
’
The man
tapped the envelope.
‘
This has to look like an accident, you understand
?
’

‘
Hey,
I’m not stupid.
I
finished
school.
’

The envelope
slid across the table.
‘
The
b
alance
will be transferred to you
r
account
when I
read about
this
tragedy
in the
Miami Herald
.
’
The
man’s chair scraped back
. H
e
settled his
glasses
more firmly on his nose
,
gathered
up his jacket and
left the bar.

Vasquez pocketed the envelope.
He downed the last of his beer, then picked up
the other
glass
and
swallow
ed
the contents in one
gulp.

Jack wasn’t a mathematician, but
he
knew
t
he trick to breaking any code
was finding the key.
He pulled the notebook
across the desk
and stared at the combination of letters and numbers
.
Instinct told him they were somehow
connected
to the
amounts deposited in
Elliott’s
bank account, but
it
could be a shopping list for all he knew. What’s more, t
here seemed to be no
discernable
pattern.

He compared the numbers on the slip of paper Grace had found with the passport to those in the notebook. None of
them matched.
He stretched and sighed, then
settled deeper into his chair
.
He could ask
the tech guys
to
run the entries through code breaking software or email it to one of Bureau’s experts
.
And he still would if he couldn’t decipher it.

Among the board games on the bookshelf was a box of
Scrabble
.
He picked it up, and carried it back to the desk
and emptied out the contents
.
He
tried forming words by
shifting
the tiles around, but they made even less sense than the entries in the notebook.

Grace placed a mug of rich, dark coffee under his nose.

‘
If you
study that
much longer, your eyes will cross.
’

‘
What do you mean will
?
’
Jack said.
He lifted his head and
looked
down
at
the tip of his nose.

‘
Ha, ha
, ve
ry funny.
’

He grinned.
‘
Just trying to lighten the mood.
’

‘
Well, you’ve succeeded.
’
She indicated the
Scrabble
tiles
with a nod of her head.
‘
Think you can
put th
em
aside
for half an hour?
’

‘
What did you have in mind?
’

Grace smiled.
‘
After the events of last night, I don’t think a
walk on the beach
is a good idea
.
But
I can’t stay cooped up in this house all day.
I’ll go mad.
How about we take advantage of the pool?
’

Jack took a sip from his mug and weighed up the risk.
It would be dark soon and w
ith Anderson and Kennedy taking turns watching the perimeter, and the coastguard cutter patrolling just offshore,
the
threat
to Grace would be minimal
.

He
pushed his chair back from the desk
and stood.
‘
Okay.
I don’t see why not.
’

Her mouth curved into a smile.
‘
I’ll go change
and see you by the pool
.
’
She
turned and left the room as silently as she’
d entered.

Jack
looked at his watch
. H
e figured seven hours sleep was enough for any agent.
He
picked up his cell phone and keyed in
Anderson
’s number.
‘
Get your ass out of bed.
I need you and
Kennedy
to make
a
sweep of the garden
and beach
.
’

‘
Why
?
W
hat are you gonna do?
’

‘
C
ool off in the pool
.
’
He cut the connection with
Anderson
’s mu
ffled curse ringing in his ears
and went to change.

By the time Grace emerged from the house,
he’d
checked in with Kennedy
once more
to ensure no one was loitering in the vicinity of
the house. He
left
his gun
under a towel
within easy reach
of the pool.

When she
slip
ped
out of her robe
, he
sucked in a breath.
The one-piece
jade
suit she wore clung to her
like a second skin, accentuating
her full breasts
and narrow waist.
Unlike the local women, her skin was
pale, almost alabaster white.
His pulse quickened, as his gaze
roamed over
her face to her shoulders, then
settled on her
long and shapely
legs
.

Miami beaches were full of women
who wore
less, yet none
, not even Rosa,
stirred his blood the way
Grace
did.
He watched her balance on her toes, dive
in
,
and swim a length underwater
.
She surfaced, slicked back her hair
,
and
offered him
a
broad
smile
.

‘
Are you going to stand there all afternoon, or are you going to join me?
The water’s
warm
.
’

A
rivulet of water
r
a
n
down
her neck to
the triangle of skin revealed by her suit
.
Jack
wondered what her reaction would be if he were to haul her out of the water and lick th
e droplets off one by one.
Six months of hearing her voice in his dreams, imagining what it would be like to feel her naked body
beneath
his had been
bad enough, but
sleeping in the same room and being this
close to her
,
was ex
quisite torture.

With a silent curse he looked away
.
G
iving into temptation was a real bad idea and
the only thing he could do was wrap the investigation up as soon as possible, then
get
her
back on a plan
e
to England
and out of his life
.
H
e dove into the turquoise water and
swam
the length of the pool, not once, but three times, finally surfacing next to her.

Grace
wasn’t accustomed to seeing half naked men and couldn’t help staring at Jack
in nothing more than a pair of hip-hugging black
Speedos
.
P
owerful,
tanned,
well muscled
,
with
a
sprinkling of
dark
hair on his chest
, he moved with ease.
He was so compelling, his magnetism so potent, that her pulses suddenly leapt with excitement.
A rush of pink stained her cheeks
and
she
hoped he didn’t notice
.