Page 27 of Falling for the Wrong Guy

I smiled and nodded and hurried down the sidewalk to my car. I climbed inside. The tears that had been sitting there, waiting to break free, did just that. I allowed myself a good five-minute sob. The windshield fogged up. I wiped it clean with the sleeve of my coat and started the car. I glanced up and caught a glimpse of my red eyes in the rearview mirror. And that was when it all hit me—like a ton of bricks. The tears had nothing to do with Kellan and everything to do with Dex.

ChapterSeventeen

Dex

The rain didn’t make for an easy ride home, but it felt good to get on the open road, even with the mist blowing at my face. I left Kellan’s place feeling as if I’d had both my knees knocked out from under me. It wasn’t my usual anger-filled conversation with my brother that had flattened me. It was knowing that he was dating Aria. And I couldn’t explain why that had been such a gut punch, except he didn’t deserve someone like her. Was it jealousy? My brother had always been far more successful than me. He’d always had more friends,properfriends as he would tell me, though I was never quite sure what constituted a proper one. He was popular in school and hung out with all the big shots. He even managed to stay popular in college, getting invited to all the right parties and hanging out with all the right people. Again, according to him. We both had different ideas about therightpeople. But they were certainly the people who had big futures carved out for them, whether through family connections or lofty degrees. Even with all that going for him and very little on my side of the balance, I’d never felt even a twinge of jealousy over my brother. He was happy in his life, and I was happy in mine, and we rarely crossed bridges for comparison. But knowing that he had someone like Aria, someone beautiful and strong and smart on his arm, well, I guess there was no way to deny it. For the first time in my life, I was jealous of my brother. It was a ridiculous waste of my time and energy to even think about it, especially since she made it clear that she hated me, but still, this one would stick in my craw for a long time.

The landscape had been a blur as I kept my head down to avoid the mist, then something caught my eye. A truck was parked on the side of the highway near the lighthouse. It was the old green Ford. Stupidly, it hadn’t occurred to me that they might have more clues than me. They obviously knew the stolen coins were hidden somewhere in Whisper Cove. Maybe their prison connection had given them something more thanlyin’ talk. I pulled over and parked the bike.

I could see a flashlight swinging back and forth around the base of the lighthouse. And I saw two silhouettes. It seemed the one I’d hit with the skillet had finally found his bearings after being knocked senseless.

I zipped up my coat, stuck my hands in my pockets and pulled the hood up over my head. There was one main gravel maintenance road leading to the lighthouse. The tower seemed to grow taller and more imposing the closer I got. The grounds around the lighthouse were mostly gravel and cement pathways. It certainly wasn’t a place you would hide a box of stolen gold coins. The coins, gold ones recovered from a Spanish galleon, had been in a private collection. Unfortunately, the very wealthy collector had made two big mistakes. He hired a pool man named Sam, who had a keen interest in getting his hands on something valuable. The collector’s second mistake was his boastfulness—he told Sam about the rare treasure in his house and even brought him inside to see it. For months afterward, Sam and his friend, Victor, made a plan to steal the coins. Quinn and I had spent far too much time with Sam and Victor in our twenties, but I grew tired of them. And they knew it. They also knew Quinn was always looking for that big break, and so they talked him into helping. For a quarter of the cut, Quinn would drive the getaway car, in this case a pool cleaner’s truck—a vehicle the neighbors had no reason to be suspicious about because they’d seen it parked there many times. The owner went out, and Sam and Victor executed their plan. It wasn’t a good plan. They were sure they had all the security systems offline, but they didn’t know about the backup one, probably a necessity if you were a braggart who showed everyone your priceless collectibles.

The house was far enough on top of a hill that they could see the flashing lights before the police reached the private road. They tossed the coins in the truck, and then Sam and Victor took off on foot in different directions, planning to meet up with everyone at the mini mart in the next town. Quinn took off. The last thing he wanted was to get caught with the stolen coins in the truck, so he hid them under a stone bench in a front yard. Then he drove to the mini mart to wait for Sam and Victor. He decided to go inside and get a soda. When he came out the truck was gone. Sam and Victor had grabbed it. They’d decided not to wait for Quinn. They were arrested a few blocks away. Quinn hid out the rest of the night, grabbed the coins and carried priceless gold treasure home on the public bus. He decided to hide the coins and lay low for a while, but his heist buddies ratted on him in exchange for a lighter sentence. Sam and Victor were sent upstate to serve their time, and Quinn was sentenced to ten years in a local prison.

The drizzle had morphed into a thick fog. I had the advantage because they were carrying a light. I saw the beam and the two dark figures disappear down the rocks in front of the lighthouse. Seemed like a dumb move in the dark. I waited up top, near the lighthouse, to see if they had any luck. Maybe I could just sweep in and grab the coins if they found them. Something had brought them to the lighthouse.

There was plenty of cussing floating up from the rocks below. Occasionally, the light beam would arc through the fog and then disappear again. I figured they wouldn’t see me staring down at them from the ledge, and even if they did, the wet, jagged rocks would give me plenty of time to get back to my bike. Not that I was worried about them. They’d proven themselves to be oversized idiots. I just wasn’t in the mood to get into another physical fight.

I walked to the edge. It was a steeper and more treacherous climb than I imagined. They were about halfway down and seemed to be stuck there, unsure how to get farther down or back up.

“Leo, I told you this was a waste of time. There’s no way that box of coins is sitting out on these rocks. It’d just take one good storm surge to wash them away.” The man talking was the one I’d hit with the frying pan. I was relieved to see I hadn’t done any permanent damage.

“Look, Barrett told us to look in rocks, and this is the biggest patch on this side of the cove.” Suddenly, he yelled out in pain, and the flashlight flew out of his hand. It bounced and hopped and broke into several pieces as it headed toward a burial at sea. “Ace,” Leo grunted. “Give me a hand, will ya?” He was talking between gritted teeth. “My ankle. It’s twisted.”

Ace was a good ten feet away, and his movements were hampered by the foggy darkness around him. “I told you this was a bad idea. And now we don’t have a proper light.”

“Just get over here.”

There was just enough moonlight cutting through the fog to glint occasionally off the watch on Leo’s wrist and the white skull on Ace’s coat.

A phone rang. The sound rolled out to sea along with the flashlight. Leo grunted in pain as he pulled the phone out. The light lit up the rocks, helping Ace to move faster. “Yeah,” Leo answered angrily. “We’re out on rocks right now, but this is not happening. If you want those coins, find them yourself. Ace and I are out.”

“Wait a minute,” Ace protested. The phone lit up both their faces.

Leo wore a look of pure misery as he looked over at Ace. “Ace is still with ya, but I’m out. I just twisted my ankle like a pretzel. Yeah, well, that’s fine with me. Needle in a haystack, if you ask me.” He shoved his phone in his pocket, and his face turned up toward the top edge.

He held up his hand. “Hold on, Ace. Someone’s watching us.”

“Just me,” I said. “Looks like you’ve got yourself in a predicament.”

“Help us out, eh?” Leo said. “You heard that call. I’m out. I’m leaving this damn cove as soon as I get back to the truck.”

“Tell me who you were talking to and everything else you know, and I’ll give you a hand up,” I said.

“No way,” Ace said. “I’ve got a bump the size of a basketball because of you.”

“You held a knife in my back,” I reminded him.

“We don’t know his name. He contacted us and promised us each ten grand if we found the coins.” Leo was in enough pain to let the information flow.

“How much did he tell you about the location?” I asked.

“Leo, just shut up,” Ace said. “They’ll come after us for sure.”

“So, it’s athey?” I asked.

Leo shook his head. “Listen, just get me up from these rocks, and I’ll tell you everything.” He leaned down to rub his ankle.

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