Beachcomber Heat
Beachcomber Investigations Book 5
By Stephanie Queen
Sample Chapters
Chapter 1
Dane watched Shana reach back with both hands and lift the heavy mane of hair off her neck, arching her breasts forward and exposing the glistening pale column of her throat. Her head was thrown back, supported by her long bare arms gleaming with a film of perspiration. He stared and held himself as still as a mountain—with an effort. He wished they were anywhere else on the planet besides Captain Colin Lynch’s office at State Police Headquarters on Martha’s Vineyard.
Cap—the name his inner circle gave him—cleared his throat. Dane turned to him.
“Get on with it. What’d you call us in for—an overdue parking ticket?” Dane said.
Cap raised a brow and said, “No, but I’ll be looking into that.” Cap shifted his gaze to Shana. Dane held his jealousy muscles in check.
“I got a request for your services.”
That got Shana’s attention. “Do tell.” She dropped her hair and leaned forward, all business now. A rotten shame. But a relief to Dane’s too-tense man parts.
“You want us to fix your air conditioning?” Dane said. He didn’t mind disrupting Cap and annoying Shana. But this time she didn’t even bother to glare at him with her Shana the Destroyer look.
“We’ve had a rash of missing jewelry—likely thefts. The first report came from an insurance company, but by the time we got the third report of high-end jewels missing, we figured they were stolen. And all by the same person or team.” Cap paused.
“And?” Dane said.
Shana glared at him. He smiled.
“Someone wants to hire us to get their jewels back?” Shana said.
“Not exactly.”
“Security?”
“Partly. I think they want you to prevent a theft. We think they’re being targeted. When we looked into the matter, we found that each of the reports of missing, presumed-stolen jewelry had one thing in common—the owners had recently hosted parties.”
“You think someone from a backyard barbeque ran inside and lifted the family jewels?” Dane said.
“These were no backyard barbeques—these were lavish affairs in the most expensive oceanfront neighborhood on the island. Their family jewels were worth millions. The parties’ guest lists overlap substantially and they include anyone who’s anyone on the island—and some from off island. Wealthy or famous—”
“Or apparently notorious—they’ve got a jewel thief on their lists,” Dane said.
“Will you please take this seriously?” Shana said. “We need a case and these people have money to pay us.”
“She’s right—you should charge double your normal rates,” Cap said.
“We don’t have normal rates. We don’t have any rates.”
“That’s the problem,” Shana sighed. “You don’t take the business seriously. We need to try to make money.”
The instant tensing of muscles across his back and the tightening of his chest reminded Dane of a mild tazing—either that or he was having a heart attack. But in truth, the tension was all too familiar—it was his what happens if Shana leaves the island tension. He couldn’t bring himself to figure out the answer. That would too likely lead to gut-wrenching misery. And then he might have a heart attack for real.
“Okay. Fine. We’ll charge them whatever you want, girlie. You can be in charge—”
“Oh no you don’t. You’re not bailing out of doing the work. We’re in this together, aren’t we?”
A warmth like he’d just downed a mug of hot cocoa ran through him. Her words eased the previous tension down to a background annoyance—one he could operate with. One he had been operating with. Was he really that easy? Yes. He’d put up with hell in the name of pursuing those flashes of warmth.
“You’re right. We are in this together,” he said.
“Damn right,” she said. “We’re partners.” She frowned and turned back to Cap. Dane noticed Cap was enjoying their exchange. As usual. Shaking his head, Cap continued giving them the background on the jewel heists.
“That’s the theory—that someone from the parties is a jewel thief, but they have no idea who. These parties are outfitted with security, and all the homes have alarms and state-of-the art safes. All the caterers and staff have been vetted and all have been working for at least three summers on the island. The guest lists are large and we’re going through them. It’s possible someone brought a guest who the hosts didn’t know. If an invited guest did bring someone, none of the hosts turned them away.”
Dane said, “That’ll teach them to be gracious.”
Shana swatted a hand at him. He caught it and held on. She tugged but he didn’t let go. She stopped tugging and let him hold onto her hand. There was no point in her resisting him. They both knew he’d win. It was like that.
He wondered what it would be like if he didn’t have to struggle with her. Would the magic disappear—or is that when the magic would start?
“My men are checking into the backgrounds of the people on the guest lists—but it’s going to take a while,” Cap said. “We’re also checking the security footage—so far nothing—but we have miles of it between the three locations. I’m emailing it all to you for your viewing pleasure.”
Dane checked the gesture using a certain finger aimed at Cap.
“Great,” Shana said. “I’ll look through them.”
Dane gave her a sideways glance to confirm that she was not kidding. The prospect of charging obscene fees for watching grainy footage of nothing for hours seemed to please her far too much. Her lack-of-money problem had become too serious. It was quickly adding to all the other problems between them. He needed to do more about it.
“What about the missing jewels?”
“I have the lists—I’ll email them to you with pictures if you want them. Boston is looking at fences—nothing yet. We got the police work covered,” Cap said.
“Where do we come in?” Dane didn’t bother to hide his skepticism.
“The next party is scheduled for tomorrow night. William Gable is the host.”
“Gable? The movie producer?” Shana asked.
“That’s him. He wants to meet with you both today. He wants more than his usual security and more than the state and local police can do.” Cap pulled his drawer out and took a card from it. “Here’s his—”
Shana freed her hand from Dane’s. She reached out and snatched the card from Cap before Dane had even finished reacting to losing his hold.
“We’ll call, but I don’t know what we can do for him,” Dane said.
Cap shrugged.
Shana said, “I’ll find something to do for him.”
Her words sent a frisson through him. “‘I’?” He looked at her, willing her to face him. “I thought we were partners.”
She turned and gave him a no-nonsense look. “Then start acting like it.”
