The Cunning Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 5)

by Mallory Crowe

  She had very few nice clothes. Considering how often she was sweaty and covered in dirt and dust and glue, nice clothes didn’t really make sense. But it was Florida, so she found the nicest-looking summer dress she had. It was blue, with some large orange flowers in the pattern. The bright-red lipstick brought out the bright orange in the dress and it almost looked as if she’d planned this. The dress was very, very light. It was long enough normally, but in a breeze it would go dangerously high. If she were going on a date, this would be the perfect dress. Flirty, but not too tight and high enough in the front to not be too revealing. Sexy without trying too hard. She looked herself over in the mirror. Pretty good for—she checked her watch—seven minutes. She smiled and practically skipped down the hall. She didn’t know what had her in such a good mood. Well, she did know. It was rather obvious. The date with the handsome, mysterious stranger, with the promise of some good food. She never realized how easy she was to please until now.

  She came out of the house to find Tristan waiting for her on her back porch. She smiled at him—a genuine, authentic smile. She really was excited about spending the night with him.

  He didn’t smile at her. In fact, his face was utterly serious as he looked her up and down. “Well damn,” he said quietly. “I might be in over my head here.”

  Tristan hadn’t been lying for once. He really did think he might be in over his head. The thought kept on hitting him every time he looked over at Shae and saw how gorgeous she looked in that dress.

  He had no illusions. He’d known she was a pretty girl; he just hadn’t realized she was an utter knockout. She worked on houses for a living, which explained why her body was so toned. She didn’t even have to go to the gym to look like that. It was just a byproduct of what she did for a living. Even though she hadn’t put on much makeup, this was the first time he was appreciating her features. Her eyes were dark brown, almost the same color as the pupil. It gave an almost ethereal effect that went along with her dark-brown curls. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but there was still one strand of wavy hair that framed her face. She kept pushing it back, but the stubborn strand would continuously fall right back onto her cheek. He had to keep his grip on the steering wheel tight to stop himself from reaching over and adjusting it himself. But he knew he had to be smart about this. She wasn’t just anybody. She was obviously relatively reserved, and the only way he got her to agree to go out with him was because he’d staged a fire and waited until she was exhausted from the workday. If he started touching her right away, her walls would go all the way up.

  Once they got to the restaurant, they were shown to their seats immediately. It was the type of place that normally had a massive wait, but because it was going on ten o’clock, it wasn’t hard to get a table.

  Toni probably could’ve gotten him a table anywhere, but he didn’t want Shae to get suspicious. He was still trying to pretend to be Joe Schmoe.

  He wanted to be all charming and hold out the chair for her, but the host did that before Tristan could get there. He glared at the host, who had technically done nothing wrong, as he took his own seat. Shae immediately picked up the menu and started to peruse the options. He waited a few seconds to see whether she said anything, but she remained silent. He could tell she wasn’t super comfortable in social situations, which kind of shocked him. Usually people as pretty as her blended right in wherever they went. But Shae didn’t seem to be all that normal....

  And it wasn’t for lack of confidence. When he was rendered almost speechless at the sight of her as she came out, a little smile had curved her lips. She knew exactly how good she looked, and she was happy with it. “So.... Have you ever been here before?” he asked.

  Shae let out a little laugh. “Oh no. The foods I’ve been eating lately are about fifty percent preservative and fifty percent carb.”

  “You live in a place that nice and you eat that badly?”

  “I live in a place that nice because I eat so badly. I’m really good at budgeting, which unfortunately means I tend to eat as cheap as possible.”

  “Well, you need to find someone to take you to nicer places.”

  Her face fell, and he knew he’d said the wrong thing. She started looking at the menu again. Before he could apologize, a waiter came up and asked them for their drink orders and asked whether they’d looked at the wine menu.

  “Oh, I couldn’t,” said Shae softly in a way that told him she really did want wine.

  Tristan quickly ordered two glasses of his favorite red wine. He looked at Shae questioningly, hoping he wasn’t out of bounds by ordering her drink, but she didn’t fight him.

  Once the waiter was gone, she leaned forward. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she said softly.

  “Order wine?”

  “That wine,” she said pointedly. “One glass cost more than I usually spend on an entire dinner out.”

  Well, that was interesting. She was utterly cheap when it came to eating, but she knew the prices of wines off the top of her head. He had a feeling there were more layers to Shae than he realized. “Nope. You saved my life. You get the best wine.”

  “You can’t use that excuse for everything.”

  “All right.” He looked at his watch, then back up at her. “I say for the next twenty-four hours, I can use that excuse for anything I want. You saved my life, therefore you deserve all the things.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t save your life. I’m sure you would have gotten out of the house in time.”

  “Well, I’m very grateful to you for saving the house. Therefore you get wine. Now I’m done arguing about this. Tell me something about yourself.” He found himself ever more curious to know all the secrets she was hiding.

  She narrowed her eyes but didn’t continue the pointless wine fight. She sighed and started looking back at the menu. “What do you want to know?” she asked without looking at him.

  “Well, that’s the fun part about asking such an ambiguous question. You get to decide what I should know.”

  Sometimes what people didn’t say told him more than what they did. Before she had a chance to say anything, the waiter came back to pour the wine in an overly long display before asking for their orders. Shae ordered a rare steak, one of the cheaper ones on the menu. She really wasn’t a fan of having suitors pick up the tab, from what he could tell. Tristan didn’t pressure her about it this time and ordered one of the more expensive cuts for himself before collecting both the menus and handing them over. As soon as the waiter was gone, Tristan stood. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back.”

  He made his way to the bathroom and pulled out his cell phone as he moved. He could always ask Shae information about her past, but he had a much more effective way of getting details. He dialed Toni’s number.

  After only one ring, she picked up. “Everything okay?”

  “Pretty boring here,” he said. “I’m out to dinner was Shae Grant. I’m working to find out anything useful that I can, but I was hoping you could give me a rundown beforehand.”

  “A rundown? What exactly do you want to know?”

  Tristan knew Toni was fucking with him. Usually before a mission, she would tell him more random facts and trivia about the people and places involved than he ever wanted to know. But now she was playing dumb? “Come on, Toni. I know you know something.”

  “Okay, fine. I know a few things, but I thought this would be a better operation for you to run dry.”

  “Well, I not so respectfully disagree. Now tell me what you know.”

  “Tell me what you know first.”

  “I don’t have time for this.” Shae would be expecting him back at the table soon.

  “Fine. Shae Grant is twenty-eight years old. She is a home flipper, and she works in various parts of Miami, Louisiana, and Georgia. From what I can tell, she’s on her tenth house. Each one has gotten slightly more expensive, which makes me think that she puts her entire life savings into every house that she’s working on. Ball
sy, but maybe not the smartest move.”

  Ballsy. Impulsive. Tristan thought back to how quickly Shae had run into the burning house and got to work putting it out. That sounded about right. That would also explain why she would run off to confront Blackthorne last night when any sane person would stay the hell away. “What about her history? Her family? I think she comes from money.”

  “You’re not wrong. Her dad, Manuel Grant, is a banking executive from Miami. A real big shot, from everything I can see. After looking through a few social media profiles, it doesn’t look like they’ve been in contact. I could be wrong, but I’m not usually.”

  Tristan was all too familiar with her propensity to be right. “Do you know what happened between her and her father?”

  “I’m not a psychic, Tristan. Also, what does this have to do with your mission?”

  It had nothing to do with his mission. Honestly, he was growing more and more curious about this woman. Unusual for him, but he supposed Shae was an unusual person. “Don’t worry about it. I can figure it out on my own.”

  “Hey, all this is just from my preliminary searches on her. I’ll let you know if I find anything else.”

  “Thanks,” he said hastily before he hung up the phone. He made his way back to the table, and Shae was scrolling through her phone. “Anything interesting?” He sat down.

  She abruptly put the phone down. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be rude. I just have a hard time sitting still. It’s a gift and a curse.”

  “I’d say it’s more a gift. I’ve never been one to enjoy sitting around much either.”

  She smiled at him. She looked grateful for his understanding. He thought back to what Toni had just told him about Shae. His idea about her coming from money had been proved correct. Toni had also said that she put her savings into every home she purchased. And she’d been working alone in the house all day, and during the drive had mentioned doing flooring. It wasn’t exactly a normal thing for a debutante to know how to install floors. He was guessing she wasn’t doing it purely for fun, but she also couldn’t afford a team to do it for her. Hell, with family money like that, she shouldn’t even need to work. He could see her maybe working on the homes for fun, but ten in a row wasn’t just fun. This was a job for her. So had Daddy cut her off? Had she left?

  She seemed so independent. Tristan was going to guess that she was the one who broke off the relationship. That had to take balls. As someone who had started dirt-poor and found his way into money, he couldn’t imagine going in the other direction.

  “So how long have you lived at Seaside Escape?” He figured he’d start with some easy questions and then work his way deeper to solve the mystery of Shae.

  “Not long. I think maybe three months now. I try to get my houses done in six months.”

  “You can’t put the same timeline on every house. Isn’t each project different?”

  “Oh yes. I had some go as quick as two months, and some that have taken a year. The first house I did almost destroyed me. Everything took two weeks longer than I was expecting it to. I was just so new, and naïve. I’m lucky I managed to turn a profit with it. I maxed out a lot of credit cards to get that house to where it was. But it turned out great and sold in less than a week.”

  The pride was evident in her voice. Tristan was half tempted to share the first job that he’d managed to pull off seamlessly but knew that little conversation would be off-limits. He smiled at her, happy that she seemed happy.

  “So tell me, Tristan, have you worked on any advertising campaigns that I might know about?”

  “A lot of the stuff I can’t talk about. You know how touchy these businesses are about confidentiality.”

  “Confidentiality and advertising? I thought you guys were all about bragging.”

  “That’s the hardest part. All I want to do is brag and try to impress you, but I know I can’t.”

  She let out a little laugh. “That’s so odd.”

  “What? That I want to impress you? Or that I want to brag?”

  “That you want to impress me. Why did you come over earlier today?”

  Tristan knew he had to tread carefully. “I didn’t know I needed a reason to talk to a beautiful woman.” A soft blush crept up her cheeks that was evident even through her makeup. As pretty as she was, he had a feeling she didn’t get flirted with much.

  “I mean, I was pretty far away when you started to come over. Could you even see me? And besides, I looked a mess. I barely got any sleep last night, and I’m certain the stress was showing.”

  This was his chance. “What are you stressed about?”

  She blinked rapidly, and he knew she was trying to think of ways to evade his question. “Just house stuff.”

  “What house stuff? I might have some connections that can help out.”

  “Nothing you can help with. It’s mainly... well... someone is trying to buy out the property and isn’t happy that I said no. I think he threw a brick through one of the windows yesterday, but I can’t prove it.”

  Jackpot. Tristan leaned forward and put on his concerned face. “A brick? That’s terrible. Did you go to the police?”

  Her gaze fell to the table. He knew she hadn’t gone to the police. She marched right to the source of the brick, ready to show them exactly who they were messing with. And he knew that hadn’t ended well for her. “I did talk to the police about it. They weren’t interested. It wasn’t like they were going to go all CSI on this small amount of property damage. I just have to let it go and hope it won’t happen again.”

  “But you are worried it could happen again,” he guessed.

  “Men like this.... They’re used to getting what they want. They’re not used to being told no, especially from a nobody like me. I doubt that one brick is where it’s going to stop.”

  Tristan thought back to what he knew of about Blackthorne. They were a development company. They operated by buying off high numbers of high-risk loans, and as soon as a payment was missed or even a day late, they started the foreclosure process. Sure, they acted as if they had all the steps necessary for the homeowners to get the property back, but a lot of the phone numbers never actually connected to anybody, and the paperwork would never get filed. Even if the homeowner could come up with all the money to pay off the loan, Blackthorne wouldn’t take it. There was too much red tape to get the property back, and the next thing the tenants knew, they were on the street. Blackthorne would then take down the old houses and put up new condos or townhouses or high-rises. The local government loved them, because they were making the cities look new and improved, not caring who got trampled in the process.

  But Shae didn’t fit this mold. Seaside Escape wasn’t a decrepit home. Sure, it needed some improvements, but it still wasn’t the normal MO. Also, as far as he knew, Blackthorne didn’t normally resort to petty vandalism. They worked behind red tape and paperwork. Not exactly a lot of blood on their hands.

  So once again, he was struck with a question that had led him to Shae in the first place. What made her so special?

  Shae shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’m here, at this beautiful restaurant, after a really good day of work, and about to eat some really good food with a handsome man. I just want to savor this moment.”

  Tristan smiled. “You think I’m handsome?”

  Shae’s eyes widened as she realized what she said. “No. I mean, yes, of course. But like, you know that, right? This isn’t a surprise to you.”

  He laughed and then reached out, taking her hand in his. “Relax. I want this to be nice for you. Enjoy dinner. Have fun.” And then, without even thinking about it, he started rubbing the pad of his thumb back and forth over her wrist.

  Shae looked down at where he was touching her. It seemed so unexpected. She didn’t know why. He’d been relatively flirty with her ever since they first met. Still, she couldn’t believe he was really interested in her. Not only interested, but touching her. And not just an innoc
ent hand-holding. The way his thumb moved back and forth on the most sensitive spot of her wrist sent a mixture of tickles and tingles up her arm. All she could do was stare wordlessly at the contact as she tried to get her bearings back.

  Before she could, the waiter came over and presented their beautiful dishes of food. She quickly pulled herself free of his grasp to make room for the plates. Once the waiter was gone, she finally raised her eyes to look at Tristan again. But he wasn’t looking at her; instead, he grabbed his fork and knife and started to cut the steak. Well, it apparently had been way too long since she’d been on a date. If some guy touching her hand was enough to spend her spiraling off the spectrum, she was doing something wrong.

  She wondered what he thought about it. Did he think she was crazy? Did he think she was way too inexperienced for him?

  They finished most of the dinner in silence, and she quickly passed on the waiter’s offer of dessert. It was way too late, and she found herself suddenly desperate to be alone again. She was used to being alone. Alone was her happy place. Alone was how she lived and got her work done. Alone was her normal. Tristan, on the other hand, was very much abnormal. She didn’t really know how to classify him, or what to do with him. She constantly felt as if he was a step ahead of her, and she was out of her league.

  As they walked out of the restaurant, Tristan set his hand at the small of her back, and she tensed. It was the second time he’d touched her that night. The rest of the date had been nothing but respectable.

  Wait. Date? It hadn’t started as a date. This started as a perfectly innocent thank-you dinner. When had things changed?