But there would be no mess tonight. This job was going to be clean, and on the other side of it, my freedom.
Inside, the main hall dripped luxury out of every pore. The string quartet in the corner, the black tie waitstaff circulating with trays of champagne and single-bite appetizers. The glittering baubles on all the wrists and throats just begging to be nicked. I’d been in rooms of such wealth before, and the desire twitching my fingers never faded.
“Not until we get what we came for,” Melanie appeared at my side and said.
I turned to her, startled, and saw a knowing glint in her eye. How she could read me so well, I didn’t know, but clearly, she knew I was itching to get my hands dirty. She nodded at the front of the room, and when I followed her gaze, there it was.
The diamond.
My breath hitched. Even from across the room, I could see the glittering rainbows shooting off it. The transparent piece of ice I’d held in my hands as a teenager, which set the next decade in motion. It wasrightthere.
The desire to sprint to it, punch my fist through the glass case, and hold it in my bloodied hand just out of pure spitethrummed through my body like I’d been hit by lightning. The source of all my problems—literally. The same as when I’d seen my father, I wasn’t sure what mix of emotions to expect upon seeing it. The cocktail landed somewhere between hope, rage, and … amusement?
A laugh, of all things, burst from my throat.
“What’s funny?” Jana said in my ear. Melanie looked at me with the same question lifting her brows.
I didn’t have an answer for them. I wasn’t sure why I was laughing. Maybe because everything had come full circle. The job that was supposed to set me free ten years ago—stealing this damned stone—was the key once more. And was I any closer? I’d literally had it in my hand ten years ago, and everything fell apart. Even with a team of pros at my side tonight, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t fall apart again, despite our best planning.
“I think I need a drink,” I said and stepped to the side to grab a champagne flute off a passing tray.
“She’s not going rogue on us, is she?” Jana said into our ears.
“No,” Melanie said with a certainty like she knew that wouldn’t happen.
I wasn’t going to go rogue; I had no plans for that. It was more a matter of what plans fate had for us. What wrench might be thrown our way and land me in prison—maybe literally—for another decade.
“Just give her time,” Melanie said as I sipped bubbles. They went down like a smooth, golden ribbon.
“Well, we don’t have a ton of it,” Jana said. “Security shift change is in ten minutes, and you’ll need to be in position.” An electronic barrier protected the case holding the diamond. With it engaged, the glass was unbreakable, and getting too close would set off an alarm. Jana was going to cut electricity to the whole room, killing the lights and the case so I could grabthe diamond. Turned out, behind her stroller-pushing picnic-playdate façade, she was a bona fide hacker. Apparently, she’d double majored in computer sciences, and met someone through a company her husband’s firm had invested in who’d showed her the dark side of the web and helped sharpen her skills.
“We will be,” Melanie said in a tone that silenced Jana. She stepped in the opposite direction from me and reached for her own champagne flute. Sandra had sat at one of the tables trussed up with towering floral centerpieces and requested a class of sparkling water from a waiter.
Mingling was part of the plan anyway. Jana had the place scoped digitally what with the maps, and had already tapped into the security feed, but we needed to see the room live in person before we made any moves. In case of a change in plans on the museum’s part. In case they put the diamond in view of camera B instead of A or rotated security every ten minutes instead of twenty. So far, everything was on track.
Until I felt a warm hand close around my upper arm.
I turned to see the stone-gray eyes of the man I’d accidentally fallen for. If there was any doubt how I felt about him, the hot rush of blood that sent my heart leaping at the sight of him erased it.
“Bray? What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice hardly more than a breath. He wore a tux, which fit like it had been laser-cut for his body. His hair was neatly gelled and, God damn it, he looked like a bona fide secret agent.
“I had to see you,” he said and stepped closer. His hand slid down my arm until our palms touched. He gripped my hand, which had broken out in a clammy sweat.
Common sense told me to pull away from him. To resist and keep my head in the game, but he was looking at me with the same bedroom eyes he’d looked at me with in Houston. The plea in them sunk a hook straight into my heart.
“How’d you know I was here?” I managed, feeling like therest of the room had disappeared, and only semi-aware the moms could hear everything we were saying.
“Agent Yang,” Bray said. “I bribed her to keep tabs on you because I couldn’t stand not knowing what was going on. When she told me you were still reporting to your job at Melanie’s, I knew you were up to something with the moms, so I followed you.”
I huffed a dark laugh, realizing the DSA was corrupt to its core, even if the man in front of me had the noblest of intentions.
“What’s happening right now?” Jana said in my ear. “I don’t have eyes on her.”
“There seems to be an unexpected interference,” Melanie said. I’d lost sight of her but assumed she wasn’t nearby seeing as she wasn’t digging her fingers into my arm and dragging me away from Bray. “That agent is here.”
“Huh-uh. Nope. Secret agent accomplice isnotpart of this plan. Get rid of him, Erin,” Jana said. “Three minutes until security shift change, and if we miss this one, dinner will start, and it’ll be too obvious with people sitting down.Get. Rid. Of. Him.”
Jana’s harsh hiss in my ear snapped me back to reality. I shook myself from the heady grip of Bray’s gaze and slipped my hand from his. “You still didn’t tell them my cover was blown.”
