The Cunning Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 5)

by Mallory Crowe

  She looked down at her phone. At least there was good reception. Could she get Uber here...?

  Thankfully by the time she was halfway down the driveway, she heard footsteps behind her. She hadn’t realized how nervous she’d been until she heard those steps. She turned around to see Tristan approaching.

  “You’re an idiot,” he said by way of greeting.

  “You steal for a living. Don’t accuse me of being an idiot. At least my work is legal.”

  “Legal will be the least of your concerns if you go through with this. You know Scott’s practically salivating to have you put yourself in danger.”

  She held her hands out. “Then let me go in the line of danger. I’m smart. I’m reactive. I might not be some world-class criminal, but I think I can handle myself, especially if I have someone like you backing me up.”

  “I don’t want to back you up in a situation like that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want you to get hurt,” he blurted. “Now come on,” he said with a jerk of his head. “If you do this, we have to plan it right.”

  A grin spread across Shae’s face. “If we do this? You mean you agree? You’ll actually let me help?”

  “I’m not agreeing to anything. This is a team, and not a democracy. Apparently you’re more convincing than I am, so pat yourself on the back. That doesn’t happen often. At least now when you get yourself killed, you can be proud when they bury you.”

  “They’re not going to bury me,” she muttered, wishing she sounded more convincing.

  “Just get your ass in the house. If you’re going to do this, you need to get washed up and Toni is working on getting you a change of clothes. And you better not die. Because if you do, I’m just going to have to kill you again.”

  Shae smiled at the lightweight threat. She was a mix of terrified and elated that she wasn’t going to be stuck in the corner. Then, as she approached the house, she started to wonder.... Why exactly was Tristan so reluctant to have her go out? Did he really care about her?

  The idea of him caring about her gave her a little thrill. It shouldn’t. They’d had this conversation last night, and it had made a lot of sense. They just met. He didn’t care about her. He just wanted to find out more information on Blackthorne.

  But as she walked to the house, she couldn’t help the little smile that remained on her face.

  As excited as she’d been when they allowed her to be part of the plan, the excitement quickly turned to boredom as the day wore on. She didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t sitting around and twiddling her thumbs. Apparently getting in touch with Damask was easier said than done. Toni was trying to track him down, and all the guys had gone off to their corners of the house and ignored her.

  The only company she had was the equally out of place Melissa Slade. However, this gave her a great chance to pump Melissa for information. Not that Melissa knew all that much. Apparently her brother was like one of these guys: tough, scary, and not exactly a fountain of information. “I’m really not one of them,” insisted Melissa. “I just do busywork. Office kind of stuff.”

  “What kind of office work do people like this have? Is there, like, an accounts payable and human resources department?”

  Melissa laughed. “Nothing like that. I mostly check emails. If somebody needs to get a hold of Hart Securities, they contact one main email address. I screen the emails and, if I see something that seems worth following up, I forward it to Toni.”

  “That seems pretty important.”

  She snorted. “I mostly screen out the penis-related emails. Besides that, it’s a lot of calling people, fact checking, running references. Better than what I was doing before.”

  “What were you doing before?”

  “Well.... Nothing, I guess. I was helping to raise my nephew and waitressing to get by. Now with Slade back in the picture.... Waitressing isn’t as much fun when you’re just doing it for yourself. When I had Josh, I did everything for him. I would’ve waitressed for the rest of my life if it meant I could’ve given Josh new clothes and proper school supplies.”

  Although Melissa hadn’t said all that much about her nephew, Shae noticed that her voice would go up just the tiniest bit every time she mentioned him. From the very brief recap she’d gotten, she found out that Melissa helped raise her brother’s son for about ten years when she thought her brother was dead. But, as she was finding out more and more, not everything was as it seemed. Slade was in fact alive, and off doing who knew what for ten years. Now he was back, and suddenly he was raising a son and not Melissa. Whatever happened, Melissa didn’t seem all that angry about it. Or bitter. Just... hurt. “And you like it? Working for these guys?”

  “I mean.... Yes. I like it better than waitressing. I feel like, you know, I’m helping people. It’s not really a career. I can’t put it on a resume in five years. I keep on tossing back and forth the idea of going back to school. Toni and Scott are paying me way more money than I deserve, and I’ve been putting most of it in savings. I just need to figure out what to do with it.”

  “If you ever want to get into real estate, let me know. I could hook you up.”

  “Yeah, somehow I can’t see myself doing construction work. Last time I had to hammer anything, I ended up with a broken thumb.”

  “Everyone has to start somewhere. When I told my dad I wanted to do this for a living, he flipped out. In fact, he did everything he could to make sure I didn’t succeed. Sometimes it’s about trying again and again. Remember, you never fail at anything until you give up.”

  Melissa shuddered. Apparently the idea of construction work was that bad to her. She shook her head. “Enough about me. Tell me everything about you and Tristan.”

  Shae’s eyes widened. “What about me and Tristan? I mean, there is nothing. I mean, he’s not—” Shae started to realize exactly how bad everything she was saying sounded.

  “I know you two slept in the same room last night. Toni thinks there’s something, but Toni can be close-minded at times. I just want to hear it from the source.”

  Somehow the idea of Toni gossiping about her and Tristan didn’t make her feel any better. She and Tristan were not gossip. They weren’t anything. As of right now, they were purely platonic coworkers. At least that’s what she kept on telling herself. “Tristan and I are just friends.” The lie tasted dirty coming out of her mouth. Especially after the friends talk she and Tristan had just had. Neither of them really had friends.... “What do you think about Tristan?”

  Melissa raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I barely met the guy. He’s nice, though. Charming. Like, the definition of charming. He’s not annoying like Gage.”

  It was Shae’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Gage is annoying?”

  “Oh my gosh, you haven’t noticed? He’s the worst. He follows you around without telling you, he’s always where you don’t want him to be, and he never stops talking.”

  Shae tried to remember the last thing Gage had said to her. “I think you and I have had vastly different experiences.”

  “I don’t know, maybe. We met under weird circumstances. And he and my brother are oddly close at times. But give it time. He’ll get on your nerves too.”

  Shae followed Toni until they reached one of the empty bedrooms. Well, not empty. It still had all of the furniture covered with dusty sheets. But on top of one of them was a brand-new shopping bag.

  Toni pointed to it. “There’s your stuff for tonight. There’s a change of clothes, some makeup, an earpiece, a microphone so we can hear what they say to you, and a few other odds and ends. When you’re done, meet me in the living room.”

  Without another word, Toni turned and left her alone. Shae had a feeling she was trying to prove a point. Toni probably didn’t like being forced into doing anything, and Shae’s little stunt had definitely put pressure on her to change her plans. Shae could relate, but that didn’t mean she felt bad for the woman.

  She decided it would be
best not to dawdle, and she leaned over to glance in the bag. Like Toni said, there was a little bundle of wires that she would somehow have to navigate through, and a change of clothes. She quickly changed out of the sundress she had been wearing for far too long and put on the sleek business suit that had been provided. Shae glanced at the label, and her eyes widened. Toni wasn’t kidding around. This wasn’t some discount, hand-me-down suit. It probably cost around a thousand dollars. Was it really that important that she fit in? The entire point was for Damask to recognize her and get freaked out.

  These were questions for later. She finished getting dressed and looked questioningly at the wires. The microphone seemed easy enough. It had a clip and she’d just have to find somewhere to put it. The earpiece, however.... She stuck it into her pocket, figuring she’d put it in closer to the meeting. She couldn’t imagine it would be comfortable to wear all day. It was only when she went to leave that she discovered the door was locked.

  “All right,” said Toni. “This is how it’s going to go. I expect everyone,” she made eye contact with Tristan, “to follow my instructions this time. There is a civilian involved, and her safety needs to come before anything.”

  “Then why are you letting her come?” asked Tristan.

  “We’re letting her go because it’s easier to keep her safe if we have eyes and ears on her rather than to just let her walk out the front door.”

  “So the plan is just to let her go piss off Damask and hope he doesn’t shoot her on sight?”

  “No, that’s a stupid plan,” said Hart. “The plan is to distract Damask with Shae. We’ll have Hunter on her at all times to make sure she’s safe while Gage clones his cell phone. Once we have access to his phone, we’ll have access to everything. Where he’s living, where he’s working. And then we can really hit him where it hurts.”

  “This is stupid,” said Tristan. “We have two people here who won’t shut up about how great you are with the internet, but we still have to pick up his phone? We’re supposed be better than this.”

  “We’re only as good as the information we have. All we have is a first name. Maybe a last name. It’s kind of a stupid name. He’s basically a ghost, and I can’t track ghosts on the internet. I can, however, track real-life people. If we find out who he is, and what he’s about, then I can use my talents. Until then, we’re shit out of luck. So if you don’t have a better plan, this is what we’re doing.”

  “Shae isn’t going to like being a distraction.”

  “Then don’t tell Shae she’s a distraction. She’s part of the plan, just like she wanted. I don’t see a problem with this. I sent all of you an email with directions. From the little I could gather from a few emails I was able to get off the guys we’ve identified before, a lot of the bigwigs are supposed to be there. Hopefully Damask. Shae is in charge of identifying him, and you guys know where to take it from there. Is this okay with everyone?”

  Nothing about this was okay to Tristan. He had about fifteen different objections, but he also didn’t want to get in the way of getting the job done. Nor did he want Shae going off on her own again. “I don’t want Hunter with Shae,” he said finally. “She’s my responsibility. I’ll make sure she doesn’t get in trouble.”

  “I agree,” said Hart. “But I also think they know what you look like. You’ve been compromised.”

  “A couple of guys saw me. And besides, the point is that you want Damask to recognize Shae anyway. So he’ll recognize her and me.”

  Toni eyed him warily. “Are you sure? You seemed like you didn’t want a lot to do with her last night.”

  Tristan could tell everyone in the room was looking at him a little bit differently after that, but he didn’t owe them an explanation for anything. “I’m sure. I’m half the reason she’s in this mess. I’ll take care of her.”

  Toni shrugged. “She’s all yours, buddy. But fair warning, I just locked her in the green room, so she might be a little feisty when you see her.”

  Tristan made his way to the green room. It wasn’t called the green room because it was filled with plants. Instead, it was because the outside of the door was, for whatever reason, painted green. Nothing inside the room was green, and no other doors in the house were any color besides wood grain brown, but this door happened to be green. They all had different theories for the painted door. Gage thought something was hidden in it. Something special that had to be signaled out somehow. Tristan, however, figured it was a kid who used to live here. Some kid who lived in the stark, sterile existence of the rich and wanted to stand out in some way.

  Whatever happened, they might never know. He undid the lock and opened the door to see Shae sitting innocently on the sheet-covered sofa. She raised a brow at him as he entered. She didn’t seem upset like he thought she’d be, but she sure as hell seemed calculating.

  “So you’re the one they sent to collect me?”

  “At least I’m collecting you. If it were up to me, you’d stay locked in this room until the whole thing is over.”

  “That’s an interesting insight into your personality, Tristan.”

  “Careful there. That’s a scary place to be.”

  “Your personality?”

  “Inside my mind,” he clarified. “Are you ready?”

  Her lips tightened just the slightest bit. “Not really. I think I have the microphone right, but I’ve never exactly used anything like this before.” She fiddled with the lapel on her suit jacket to give him a better view of what she was working with. The problem was, she barely had to move it before he saw the mic.

  Tristan shook his head. “Here, let me.” Before he even knew what he was doing, he was reaching for her jacket and flicking the two buttons open. He heard her catch her breath as he parted the fabric, revealing the silky white blouse beneath. Even before he touched her, he could feel the heat of her body. He tried to keep his cool, but took a quick swallow as he plucked the microphone from the lapel. “Ummm, the trick is to hide it as much as possible. You see, in movies and police operations, they might tape the wire to the skin so it’s less conspicuous. We’re going to keep you as far away for as long as possible, so we’re not going to go through all that.”

  As he spoke, he moved the microphone down until he reached the hem of that silk blouse and tucked the head under the fabric. “We do want to try to hide it, though....” As he pushed the microphone up with one hand, he reached between the valley of her breasts to meet the microphone on the other end before he lifted it up and connected it to one of the sleeves on the blouse. “I think that’s good enough. Don’t you?”

  Shae was noticeably breathing deeper as she looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “I don’t think that was necessary, Tristan,” she whispered.

  “Then next time you should stop me,” he said without offering her an apology. He barely ever apologized for things he actually felt bad for. He wasn’t about to apologize for touching her. “Let’s get going. There’s a bit of a drive still.”

  Tristan had not been kidding about the drive. It was almost an hour and a half until they got to the posh garden district just outside of Tampa. In the car with her and Tristan were Gage and Hunter. Shae had remained largely silent as Gage and Hunter had taken up most of the conversation. She had to admit, they were both oddly talented at small talk. They went back and forth about the latest movies and pop culture news. For a while, they went on about 3D printers and how they were revolutionizing the thieving industry. Tristan was silent most of the time. She wasn’t sure whether he was normally this quiet, or whether she was making him uncomfortable. Well, he was sure as hell making her uncomfortable. As much as she tried to forget about it, she kept imagining his hands on her shirt. Hell, in her shirt. How small she looked compared to those hands. Long, strong fingers that she wanted to wrap around her....

  Nope. She was not thinking about this again. She had self-control, and she was adult enough to move on from this lying thief.

  Apparently they were goin
g to some sort of day party. The reception was being held at Wixom Gardens. Shae had never heard of it, but the exterior was decorated by lush greenery and various exotic flowers. The border of the place was surrounded by a wrought-iron gate that was filled with an intricate network of vines sprouting out lush green leaves. Definitely seemed like a fancy place to have a party. She looked over her outfit once more. The black suit with a delicate pink pinstripe and the barely there white blouse beneath it all seemed so... structured. Nothing like her normal outfit of jeans and whatever shirt she had laying around. It seemed too much like her old life. Who she was supposed to be. She rolled her shoulders to get herself in the game. Hunter parked the car and turned around to look at them. “All right, you’re up. Shae, Tristan, you’re going to go in first. If you get eyes on Damask, let us know as soon as possible.”

  “What do you do once I let you know? Aren’t I questioning him?”

  “You are, but we want to make sure we’re in place for backup.”

  “We got it,” assured Tristan. “Let’s get this over with.” He got out of the car, and she followed. For a moment, she froze. Did she just head inside? Did she follow Tristan’s lead? This had to be an invitation-only thing, right? Why had no one talked about how they were going to get in?

  She didn’t have to think too long about it. Tristan appeared in front of the car and motioned with a jerk of his neck for her to follow. He headed confidently toward the front entrance, and she tried to match that confidence but had her doubts that she was pulling it off. When they walked inside, the hostess gave them a polite smile. “Hello, how can I help you?”

  “We’re here for the Blackthorne party.”

  “All right. Just follow me,” the hostess said cheerfully.

  Shae couldn’t believe it. How did they just get in that easily? She hung back a few steps, making sure she and Tristan were out of earshot, before she softly said, “How did you do that?”