The world blurred to a standstill. The people dancing, the music, the lights swirling around me went into slow motion as I became keenly aware of Alex’s hand on my waist, of his smell - pine cones and leather, of the words leaving his lips and scarring my heart.
Alex was a thief, a liar, a con artist. I had wondered yesterday if he was even capable of lying so plausibly to my face. Now I was being told that not only could he lie, but that he did it for a living. Every word, every action, every moment we spent together could have been a sham and I would never even know it. It was the work of a professional. I was speechless, truly speechless in a way I’d read about in books, but never understood until that moment.
More of his words rang through my bleary world. “I understand this is not what you wanted to hear. It’s not something I wanted to say. Not even so much for my own miserable self-preservation, but because I didn’t want to betray you. But I did and that’s not something I can take back. I can only say that it was all before I met you. I didn’t think I could ever fall in love again, but the minute I saw you outside the office, I was hooked. I didn’t know it at first, but that was the moment I stopped caring about the Crown, about the entire lousy job. I love you and if this has to end, I’d rather it end with myself in prison and knowing I did everything I could to keep you than walking away and leaving you in the dark.”
I heard his words, but I needed to process them. I couldn’t here, not with the noise and lights and the suffocating clutch of the antique dress around me. I let go of his hands and ran. I vaguely could hear his voice calling my name, but I didn’t turn. I ran out of the ballroom and through the entry hall like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight, desperate to escape just for a moment to stop the world moving so quickly around me.
It all made sense. His inexplicable ability to pop up anywhere in the house. The obviously manufactured backstory. His cat-like touch and silent feet. The way he could lie right to my face and not even flinch.
I collapsed in the grand parlor. Tears pricked at my eyes, but I angrily wiped them away before they could fall. I would not cry over Alex. I laughed and it sounded strange to my devastated mind. It was my own fault. He’d warned me it was bad and I wanted to believe we could work through it.
His words echoed in my mind. They sounded so sincere, but how could I trust him? He’d been after the Crown this entire time. I remembered that night I watched him in the chapel. Was that what he was doing? Scoping out the scene of his crime? And I’d helped him! I’d saved him from Scott.
Scott! I needed to warn Scott. What if Alex got angry at my rejection and went after the Crown anyway to get back at me? I stood up and moved to go back to the great hall.
But then I noticed something strange.
I was in the grand parlor and directly behind the far door was the chapel where the Crown lay, charioted there after its display in the ballroom. The door that was normally flanked by guards was empty. I was alone in the room. Something wasn’t right. I could feel it under my skin and suddenly Alex was erased from my mind because there was sound on the other side of the door and it couldn’t be Alex. He was behind me, in the ballroom or more likely fleeing before I called Scott to arrest him. What had he said? A rival. Another thief vying for the Crown.
Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just the guards on the other side of the door. Maybe my imagination was overreacting due to the emotional upheavals of the ball.
I should have turned and ran, gone to find someone else, someone I trusted to back me up. That’s what I should have done. Instead, I pushed open the chapel door and peered inside.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Alex
I almost ran.
When Cora fled from the ballroom as fast as that constricting dress would allow her to, every honed instinct in my body screamed at me to get the hell out of there before the cops were all over the place. But even as memories of prison flashed through my mind, I found myself tearing after her, out into the great hall and taking the spiraling stairs two at a time, following her to her bedroom.
I had just bared my ugly secrets to Cora, and she’d reacted exactly as I should have expected her to. I couldn’t fault her for that, but that also didn’t mean I had to accept defeat. Was it insane to believe that our connection could withstand this? Was I stupid for thinking that I just needed to explain further, to make her understand that it wasn’t all a ruse?
You’re kidding yourself! My primal instincts screamed in my ear as I walked down the second floor hall to her door. She knows the truth now. She’s horrified, disgusted. There’s no coming back from this.
Maybe that was true. But I needed to try. When I’d walked into that ballroom, I’d known that I would only leave the manor in one of two ways: in handcuffs or with her hand in mine. There wasn’t a third option and I would fight to the last minute for the second to work.
I knocked on her door and there was no response.
“Cora,” I said, and my voice echoed down the empty hall. Far below I could hear the band playing, the guests utterly unaware that my world was falling apart.
“Cora, please just talk to me. Let me explain.” I knocked again, and at the continued silence, I listened against the door for signs of life. Nothing. I tried the door, found it unlocked, and pushed it open. The room was empty.
Shit. Where was she?
Then it hit me. She’d gone to check on the Crown. To make sure it was safe and so she could warn the guards about me. I’d seen them leaving the ballroom soon before I made my entrance, heading back to the chapel, flanked by Scott.
Scott. Midas. Shit.
She was running right into his arms. And if I was correct in thinking that tonight would be the night he stole the Crown, she might catch him right in the act. I’d put her in danger, right into the middle of a feud I didn’t even care about anymore. The only thing I could stand to loose here was Cora and I sent her straight into harm’s way.
I ran back down the hall, falling down the steps in my hast. The period clothes I’d found in the city earlier were very constricting, not made for this level of activity. The top hat fell off my head and I let it lie where it fell. I ran through all three sitting rooms and burst into the chapel, no plan at all for what happened if I found musclebound, militaristic Scott backed into a corner.
I needn't have worried. The chapel was empty. Of Scott, of Cora, and of the Crown. He’d already gotten here, and I’d been too late. All I could hope was that Cora hadn’t gotten caught up in the middle of it, that she’d run outside instead, or to another room in the manor. I had to find her and make sure she was okay.
I turned in the door and ran right into Scott’s barrel chest. He was so solid, I stumbled and almost fell to the ground while he didn’t even stagger.
I righted myself and glared at him.
“You!” I said. “Where is she?”
Scott appraised me with an unflinching gaze. “She sent me to check on the guard booth, but I had a funny feeling...” He glanced around the empty chapel. “I thought the Athea guards were here, not you.” His eyes fixed on the altar. “Where’s the Crown?” Now his expression changed. He stepped back, wary, hand reaching to his side where his baton was fixed.
I stepped back myself as his hand found his weapon, wishing again I wasn’t in these clothes. “What are you talking about?” I asked. “It’s you.”
“What’s me?” He looked genuinely confused.
“You’re-” I stopped, saw the oddity of the situation. Why would Midas come back to the scene of the crime? If Scott had stolen the Crown, why was he standing there staring at me suspiciously like he expected to see it clutched in my other hand?
And that’s when I realized that I’d been wrong. It wasn’t Scott. He was just a tough, asshole security guard that didn’t like me because, let’s face it, I can be highly unlikeable to people who take their jobs seriously.
But if Scott wasn’t Midas, than who…
The answer was so obvious, I couldn’t bel
ieve it’d taken me this long to realize it. It’d been staring me right in the face from the beginning. Who else had unlimited access to the house, no questions asked? Who else seemed, like me, a little shoddy at a job they were supposed to be the best at? Who else was hired right before I was and who else had I caught sneaking around the mansion at night, dropping hints that she knew Cora and I could never work together?
Goddammit, it was Jackie.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Cora
It was Jackie. And she might have gotten away with it, if I hadn’t walked into the chapel just as she’d put one foot into the passageway. A bag was over her shoulder like the quintessential bandit. She might as well have had a black mask over her eyes. Instead, she just wore simple shoes and loose pants, all black, top half covered by a black coat, cut just right and tied tightly around her. Even in crime, Jackie was stylish.
We stood there, the two of us, me in the doorway and her half in the wall.
“Why aren’t you at the party, Cora?” she asked. She was trying to keep that flippant, peppy tone, but my presence had obviously shaken her.
“What’s in the bag, Jackie?” I asked. “Where are the guards? And the Crown? And where are you going?”
Jackie’s face worked as she struggled to answer even one of my questions. I’d caught her red-handed, and she wasn’t going to be able to smooth talk her way out of it.
“I’m waiting,” I demanded. “What the hell is going on here?”
Jackie squeezed her eyes tightly together and I got the impression she was sending a mental prayer for strength. It wouldn’t help her.
She stepped out of the wall. “Okay, fine Cora. You want to be involved in this? Now you are. Happy?” The acid tone was very un-Jackie-like and made me pause. Maybe this had been a bad idea, barging in and acting like the police when who knew what Jackie was capable of. Ten minutes ago, I’d have sworn I could take the prancing, idiotic attendant of Mother’s, but now? The facade had faded and Jackie was looking like a completely different person, one who was capable of much more than biting remarks.
I vaguely recalled Alex’s words in the ballroom, something about a rival also vying for the Crown. Was that Jackie? Was she a professional thief too? What the hell was wrong with my mother’s vetting process? Half the people I’d lived with for the past two weeks were dangerous criminals and I was none the wiser.
I stepped back toward the door, but Jackie crossed the floor in three quick steps and pulled an object out of her pocket, pointing it at me. It looked vaguely like a gun and my heart stopped beating for a solid three seconds.
“Don’t worry,” she said, red lips curling at the expression on my face. “I’m not going to kill you. But this is a taser and - well, it might be a cliche, but I’m not afraid to use it.” She checked her watch and shook her head. “And now I’m running late.” She motioned for me to come closer. “Come on, we don’t have all night.”
“I’m not coming with you,” I said. I might technically be a spoiled princess, but I refused to be a damsel in distress.
Jackie rolled her eyes. “Not the best time to play the tough card, Princess. Here are your options - one, you come with me and I leave you in the attic while I escape so nobody finds you until I’m far away. Or, two, I stun the shit out of you and leave you here unconscious and twitching until someone stumbles on your body or you regain control of your motor functions, whichever comes first.”
That wasn’t a tricky question. “Fine,” I spat.
Jackie motioned for me to go ahead into the passage and I did, reluctantly.
“Trust me, this isn’t ideal for me either. But since you insist on butting your nose into things that don’t concern you, it’s your own fault.”
Nice, blame me while you’re kidnapping and robbing me. Jackie was starting to sound even more like my mother with every sentence.
She escorted me down the passage and up the stairs, toward the servants’ quarters and my old living room. I tried to think of how I might be able to stop Jackie, but I was still in the pretty confining period dress and who knew what kind of skills she might have in addition to the taser. But I also couldn’t let her just waltz out of my home with my family’s most prized possession in her clutches.
We exited the passage into the living room, made unrecognizable by all the crap the staff had hauled up here to store out of the way of my mother’s critical eye. She motioned for me to sit on the couch and I did so, thinking hard. She’d leave out the window any moment and then the Crown would be gone forever.
She crossed to the other side of the room, but instead of pulling up the sash, she pressed her phone to her ear and whispered into the receiver. I didn’t know what she was doing, but that gave me a bit of time. In a last desperate attempt, I tried bargaining with her.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
Jackie watched me from the corner of the room. “The usual reasons,” she finally said. “Money, mostly.”
“Is money really worth it?” I asked.
“Not that you’d know anything about that, Princess,” she scoffed. “But I think you’re underestimating just how much money we’re talking here. Besides, there are other reasons.”
“Like Alex,” I stated.
Jackie laughed sharply. “Are you serious?” she asked. “Let me guess, he told you about it, didn’t he?”
My silence was enough of an answer. She laughed again. Loudly. It made me angry.
“And what’s so funny about it?” I asked.
She wiped a tear from her eye, smiling at the thought of Alex’s confession. “Nothing, nothing. It’s just… Alex. He’s always been so easy to fool. Did he give you some spiel about being ‘the best’?” she asked, mockingly.
“No,” I said.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll get around to it. But I’ll tell you what, Cora. I’m the best. Alex has always just been playing at my feet. And that was before this job. God, the minute he saw you, the whole thing stopped being fun.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. The words were familiar, but I hadn’t believed Alex at all when they’d come from his mouth. Jackie, on the other hand, had absolutely zero reason to lie to me and for that reason they finally held weight.
“Alex hasn’t been at the top of his game in a while, but the minute he fell in love, he was done.”
“So he does love me,” I asked.
Jackie rolled her eyes. “Is that the only thing you can think about? Yeah, fine. He was devastated when you left him standing at the top of the stairs in favor of Prince- what’s his name? Mallard?”
“Malik.”
“Whatever. But if he thinks he’s sad now, it’s going to be nothing compared to what’s coming.” The ominous words made me stiffen.
“What are you going to do to him?” I asked.
A very familiar voice sounded from the top of the stairs. “Nothing he wasn’t already doing to himself, darling.”
I whipped around, already knowing who I’d see and wondering why the hell I hadn’t seen this coming. Of course Mother was involved in this. Nothing went on around her that she hadn’t orchestrated to a tee.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked. “Are you fucking serious? You knew about all of this?”
Mother glided into the room, hat still perched atop her head like a bird in flight, and sat properly in a chair across from me. “You really weren’t supposed to find out about all this, Cora. And I wish you wouldn’t swear in front of me.”
For the second time in less than a half hour I was at a complete loss for words.
Mother must have sensed this. “Listen, dear, I told you earlier. The country hasn’t been doing very well lately. Your inheritance just wasn’t enough to dig us out of the hole. And then I had to borrow money to cover our expenses and now I need money to pay back the loans.” She paused. “I did keep trying to tell you that this was a very important trip,” she reminded me.
The casual way she was talking strained to excuse this en
tire situation as normal, logical even. I had to call her out on the obvious.
“So this is just an insurance scam?” I asked, amazed to the depths my mother apparently would stoop.
“More or less. Although insurance scams are harder to pull off properly than the movies make it seem. The companies really don’t want to shell out money, even less for the amount the Crown is insured for. They would have gone over the whole incident with a fine tooth comb, pointing fingers and eventually one of them would have landed on me.”
I struggled to understand what she was saying. “So you hired Jackie to steal it?”
Mother shook her head. “Yes and no. I hired Jackie to steal it, but more importantly, she promised to pull in a patsy. Someone I could blame it on so the companies wouldn’t sniff around too much. She’d be paid in the Crown and I’d be paid in the cash out.”
Then it clicked for me. “But Alex would take the fall,” I finished for her. “You’d expose the thief hiding in your house and it wouldn’t matter if he actually had the Crown in his possession. They’d just assume he stashed it somewhere.”
Suddenly a whole lot of questions I had were starting to make sense. Why Mother had insisted on me having a bodyguard, yet didn’t use him as access into my personal life or even expect him to be around once she got here. How she’d given me his file, knowing that there would be discrepancies between his stories. The very fact that she’d hired a random nobody and not gone through an agency or just send one of her own people. There was only one question I didn’t have an answer to, one I had to ask lest it eat away at me forever.
“Did you know I’d fall in love with him?” I asked. “Was that part of the plan?”
Mother waved a dismissive hand. “No! Of course not. I had no idea. Not that it really mattered. If anything it worked to our benefit. He’s been so distracted, Jackie’s barely had to do any work at all.” Jackie’s face made a sour expression, but she didn’t comment. “But I was worried for you. You had no idea what was going on. I didn’t want you taken advantage of.”
The Professional Page 21
