Page 2 of Filthy Little Lies

I bet he can kiss, like really kiss a woman. The sort of kiss that makes her toes curl and panties spontaneously combust.

It’s been so long since anyone’s kissed me, I’m starting to fantasize about strangers. Dangerous-looking strangers. Maybe I should slow down on the dirty books.

“I’ll be in the back,” he finally says and pushes through another door.

The shop worker goes back to his search, pulls out what he was looking for and comes back to the counter with me. A tester.

Dammit.

I was hoping the shop was small enough they wouldn’t have one. This is why I usually do more research before trying something like this. Spend at least a day or two scouting the store, watching the employees to see which is the least experienced, but I wasn’t given the time this time.

Twenty-four hours is all I have, and I’m already staring down the ticking clock at three more hours to go. And then boom.

My life will completely implode.

He picks up one gem and places the top of the testing pen to it. My stomach tightens. I curl my hands into fists at my sides as I try to nonchalantly look for the model of the pen.

Diamonds move heat away from the source. So if the heat the pen puts to the gem moves quickly, the pen should light up and beep. The lower the quality of the diamonds, the slower the reaction. And these are pretty low on the grading scale.

Nothing is happening. I should cut and run, but I’m frozen. I need to take them with me. There’s another shop a few miles down that looked more run down than this one. I can try there.

Tick-tock.

“Did you let it warm up?” I lean over the counter to take a look at the pen. “Sometimes, especially with older models, they need like thirty seconds to warm up.”

He jerks his gaze up to me.

“That’s what the guy at the last shop said anyway.” I quickly add. “But he was really creepy, staring at my chest and kept trying to get touchy with me. Maybe he was just trying to stall? I left before I found out.” I push on an innocent smile. “He gave me the creeps.”

He frowns. “There’s a lot of assholes out there. Which shop was it?”

Yeah, Savvy, which shop was it? Ugh, I am off my game today. I’m sure it has nothing to do with my entire life depending on how this transaction goes.

“I don’t remember, The Fawn Pawn or something like that? It’s on the other side of town, near the warehouse district.” I open my bag. “If it helps, I have an appraisal sheet and a letter of authenticity. The diamonds were my grandmother’s. She died last month.”

“Sorry to hear that.” He puts the pen down and takes the sheets from me, glancing at the authenticity letter and focusing on the appraisal.

“Thanks. I really hate to lose these. They’ve been passed down from my grandmother, sort of a family jewels situation. But between the cost of her funeral, and the repairs needed to get her house in order to sell, I can use the cash now.” I take a beat, talking over him as he inspects the gems. “She didn’t have any life insurance.”

He picks up the paperwork again, reading the grading report. Getting the letterhead from the Gemological Institute of America hadn’t been hard, but the seal at the bottom of the report took some time. Time I didn’t have, so it’s not my best work. Hopefully, he won’t spend too much time verifying anything.

“We do loans, you know.” He puts the papers down. “These certificates give a three-hundred-thousand-dollar value to the diamonds, we can do a loan up to a hundred-fifty. You’d get them back after the loan is paid.”

“What about an outright purchase?” I ask.

“We can do that, too, but I’ll need to send these out for verification before we finalize anything.”

“But I have the certificates.” I tap the forgeries. We need to finish this before his boss comes out here and pokes around.

“If it’s an outright buy, I need outside verification. If you want to do a loan, we can do that today. Up to you.” He shrugs like he couldn’t care less either way.

I need the hundred thousand today, immediately. Doing a loan buys me more time, and I’ll get the diamonds back at the end. Though not having them will make pulling this scam on another shop harder. The last two I have at home won’t pull in as much money.

I won’t have these gems, but I will have time.

And time is life at the moment.

“Let’s do the loan. That way, I’ll get to keep grandma’s diamonds once I sell her house. What are the terms of the loan?”