The Cocky Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 1)

by Mallory Crowe

  Every once in a while, Eileen, whose laughter got higher and more shrill with each drink, would let out a loud laugh and Jennifer would glance over his way. She was just out of reach for casual conversation, but every time those gray eyes glanced in his direction, it was as though a tractor beam was directed right at him. Impossible to ignore.

  Once the table was cleared and the dessert course was about to be served, Stranger stood and held up his glass. “I know we’re going to get sick of these soon, but I’d like to make a toast.”

  Everyone immediately fell silent and turned to the end of the table Stranger sat at, with Isobel directly to his right. She beamed up at him and held up her own glass. “Sweetheart, you didn’t have to do this.”

  “Don’t be silly. It’s our wedding. Everyone needs to know exactly how madly in love I am.”

  She held a hand over her heart and mouthed the words “I love you” back to him.

  “So before the house becomes overrun with people whom I barely know, I wanted to get a toast in for our close friends and family.” He glanced to Austin. “And the lawyer,” which was received with a chuckle all around.

  “The day Isobel came into my life, I knew things would never be the same. The second I first laid eyes on her... I’ve been trying to put into words what love at first sight feels like, but nothing can do it justice. Ever since Isobel came into my life, I’ve felt whole. Complete. So I’d like to raise a glass to the truly special woman who has utterly changed my life.”

  The women all swooned and Isobel was still beaming up at Stranger as they all clicked their glasses and took a drink. Once the dessert, a strawberry cheesecake, was set in front of him, he looked up and noticed that Jennifer was gone. This might be the best time for him to slip out. With her eyes on him all evening, he hadn’t felt a good time to make an excuse to wander the halls.

  He didn’t say anything to Eileen or Phillip. No use making up a lie when he didn’t have to. He was sure they’d assume he went to find a restroom. As he did one more quick glance around the table, he noticed one more strange thing about the Murray women. Each of them had a completely full glass of white wine. One person not drinking was barely noticeable, but three in a row?

  He filed it away, but didn’t think too much of it. Right now, he needed to keep his eyes and ears open. He was looking for rooms that would hold a safe. Not just any safe, but a good one.

  Hiding was one thing, but when storing a necklace like the Dragon Heart, size mattered. Something that couldn’t be carried out of a room and a crowbar couldn’t get through. A safe like that would be at least three feet tall and two feet deep. So closets and nooks were the best bet.

  He didn’t waste any time before he slipped into the first door on his right, leaving the door ever so slightly cracked behind him. Partly because closing doors made noise. Also because when he left the room, he’d need to make sure no one was around before he walked out.

  He did a quick walk around, but quickly crossed out the small office space as a possibility to store the Dragon Heart. Before he left the room, he pulled the inspection mirror out of his pocket and extended it to its full twenty-eight inches. The mirror itself was only two inches in diameter, so it took some getting used to, but knowing what he was walking into was priceless in his line of work.

  Once he had the all clear, he left the room and went onto the next one. This appeared to be a sitting room, with bookshelves all around. Not a great place for a safe because rooms like this could have guests wandering in and out.

  He continued down the hall and after three more rooms, he was still striking out. After he cleared the hallway with his inspection mirror once more, he walked out of the room to clear the rest and at the same moment, Jennifer stepped out of one of the doors on the other side of the hall. They both froze in place as their eyes met and the seconds ticked by while neither said anything.

  “What are you doing?” Jennifer’s gaze scoured his body as though looking for clues.

  Well, hell. He’d wanted to make this easy for her, but he had a part to play. So he went full in. Crossing the hall in two long strides, he set his hands on her hips and pulled her close before he crushed his mouth against hers. She was still frozen in place for a few moments, but soon enough she tilted her head and met his kiss.

  When she finally pulled away, he knew he had to act fast. Before she could ask any more questions he didn’t want to answer, he blurted, “I saw you wandered off and I figured this would be a good time to join you.” He leaned in and kissed her again; one of his hands moved to the small of her back to hold her closer as she wrapped her fingers in the collar of his jacket. He only intended to kiss her briefly and head off, but when she pulled him in closer, he didn’t even try to fight it.

  He pushed her against the wall—the painting hanging next to them shook at the abrupt motion—but he barely noticed as Jennifer opened her mouth and he plunged his tongue inside. The normally erotic act became exponentially hotter when she sucked on him in just the right way.

  Christ... He hooked a hand under her thigh and brought her leg up to wrap around his waist, pressing his now raging hard-on right into her core. The only thing keeping him from getting what he really wanted was the clothing between them.

  The click-clacking of heels on the stone tile brought a much too abrupt stop and they both pulled away at the same time. Jennifer covered her mouth with a hand while Austin pushed his now shaking hands through his hair as they each gasped for breath. Whoever they’d heard never materialized, so they must’ve turned off already. Whether they were seen... It wasn’t as if they were doing anything wrong. They were two consenting adults without dates.

  Besides, if people thought he was fucking the daughter of the bride on the side, that would be another good excuse to be wandering around the halls.

  He needed to say something smart and seamless to Jennifer but there was nothing seamless to say after that. The only logical thing would be to drag her right up to his room to finish the job. No. Not logical. He couldn’t have a temporary girlfriend while he was on the job. But how could he kiss someone like that and just walk away?

  He didn’t know how, but he somehow managed. Without a word and one foot in front of the other, Austin left Jennifer standing alone in the hallway.

  Jennifer fell against the wall and watched Austin’s retreating form. That was... Bad? Good? She didn’t even know anymore. She supposed she should be grateful that he didn’t start to interrogate her about what she was doing wandering around the house when she should be eating cheesecake.

  She was still reeling from the kiss. Kiss seemed like too simple of a word. They’d been moments away from ripping off the rest of their clothes and finishing what they’d started in the limo.

  As soon as the fog in her mind had cleared, she pushed away from the wall and continued down the hall. The boots she wore had soft soles that made no noise on the tile. She was supposed to be memorizing the layout of the house, but she could barely think straight.

  This was a prime example of why hooking up on the job was never a good idea. Distractions got you caught and with the people she’d ripped off, getting caught didn’t get you arrested. It got you dead.

  Especially if the Killion Group was involved.

  It had taken her the rest of the day to wrap her head around Isobel’s crazy plan and she still didn’t know what had gotten into Isobel’s head. To take on someone this powerful and then pull Jennifer and Mel in without even asking. Did Isobel need the money? After all the jobs they’d worked together when Jennifer was younger, she thought Isobel would be set for life. So why the gamble?

  She glanced in all the rooms and stopped when she reached the window. There was a lock, but it was easy to flick open. A member of the staff could close it again at any moment, but for now it was nice to know it was open.

  She wanted to spend more time opening windows and familiarizing herself with the area, but one of the staff members started down the hallway and she knew her
time was up. Time she could’ve put to good use if Austin hadn’t interrupted her.

  Without thinking, her fingers touched her lips and the memory of the kiss came back to her. He’d seemed totally fine when she’d seen him in the hallway outside her room. What on earth had possessed him to follow her for that?

  Maybe Isobel was right. If he was watching her and tracking her movements, he could end up being a problem. But if she told him off, it could come with its own set of issues. What was worse? An infatuated man following her around or an angry man following her around?

  Then there was the problem that Austin wasn’t a fool. If she told him she wasn’t interested, he’d be confused as hell because she hadn’t even thought about stopping him a few minutes ago. She liked to think that she had the backbone to keep her hormones in check, but Austin was a different animal than she’d ever encountered. She honestly had no idea what she’d do if he kissed her again.

  She made it back to the dinner party and Austin was back in his seat, laughing politely at something Eileen Stranger said to him. Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look.

  She repeated the mantra to herself as she took her seat next to Mel.

  “I saved your cheesecake.” Mel pushed the plate over to her.

  Jennifer smiled. There were some benefits to working in a team. All the other dessert plates were gone, signaling that the servers had cleared everything. Mel had what looked like a fresh cup of coffee in front of her and Jennifer was willing to bet that any minute now all the menfolk would dismiss themselves to go smoke and have their boy talk. Funny how houses like this still seemed to live in the past.

  Jennifer somehow managed to keep her eyes firmly focused on her cheesecake until Austin left the room with Stranger and Phillip. As soon as they were gone, Jennifer set her fork down. “I’m not feeling well,” she lied to Mel. “I’ll see you back upstairs.”

  Isobel gave her a questioning look, but didn’t say anything as Jennifer left. She was going to simply go back to her room and regroup and refocus. She hadn’t come here in the headspace for a job, let alone a job this big. She needed to be on her game and if this whole mess with Austin proved anything, it was that she wasn’t on her game. She just reached her door when the booming laughter of Stranger reached her. Apparently, he’d had a few too many drinks tonight. Maybe she shouldn’t take the night off. If he was this distracted, she could cover more ground. Right now, this was a three-man job and only one of them actually knew the layout well enough.

  Okay. So if she was going to start, where would she go? She turned around and stared down Austin’s door. The normal part of her wanted to move on and respect his privacy.

  But she wasn’t his girlfriend. Hell, they weren’t even friends. She was here to get what she wanted—or what Isobel wanted, actually—and she couldn’t let petty things like emotions or morals get in the way.

  Lesson number one of the con: morals got people killed. If you wanted to go down this path, you needed to get shit done. Isobel had never been the best with motherly advice, but there were some things she knew better than anyone.

  Without letting herself overthink anything, she crossed to Austin’s door and turned the knob.

  His room was smaller than hers. Instead of a queen-size bed, it was a full and the comforter was a rich navy blue. The baby-blue walls let her know this was definitely designed for male guests and the look was completed with a few rather ostentatious paintings on the wall. But she wasn’t here to look at decorating ideas.

  She looked out the window but didn’t see anything that could help her. This was the second story and there were no balconies or pipes on this side to climb down if necessary. She did a quick scan of the room and tapped on the walls in a few places. A house this old, especially one with these sorts of secrets, might have secret passageways. Unlikely, but not impossible.

  Once she ruled out that possibility, there was nothing else to stick around for. Except for the suitcase at the foot of his bed. The suitcase she had absolutely no reason to look inside.

  Screw it. She’d already checked her morals. Why stop now?

  Jennifer knelt and unzipped the small suitcase. In the quiet room, the zipper seemed especially loud. Once it was open, she flipped it open to reveal the neatly folded clothes. She wasn’t there to rummage through his underwear, though. She looked in the smaller pockets, but there were no books or music or anything to give her an idea of who the lawyer really was.

  She flipped the bag closed and cursed herself for even looking. One more way that Austin was getting in the way of her process. She zipped it shut and pushed it back next to the bed where it had been sitting, but the frontloaded bag promptly tipped over. Jennifer froze and waited to hear whether anyone was running to check out the sudden sound. When the coast appeared clear, she went to grab the bag, but one more interesting detail stuck out to her. The little leather slip where the identification tag was located. Let’s see exactly where Austin Raye lived...

  Except when she pulled out the tag, it didn’t have Austin’s name on it. Jennifer frowned. Did that mean he borrowed a suitcase? Why would a successful lawyer who traveled as much as Austin did not have his own suitcase? It could be nothing, but the hairs on the back of her neck were up and her senses told her it was something more.

  She followed the hunch and started to go through the dresser drawers until she found the one he put his briefcase in. It was strange enough that someone put a briefcase in a drawer. Was he trying to hide it from the staff? Or maybe prying eyes like hers? It didn’t have a lock on it so maybe it wasn’t all that important.

  Jennifer popped it open and started to look through the stack of papers. Some were articles and there were other emails and interoffice memos. But everything single document had something in common. Nothing had Austin’s name on it. Not one single thing.

  Jennifer was suddenly certain of one thing: Austin had stolen this briefcase. But why would he do that?

  Lights out the window caught her attention and Jennifer quickly put the briefcase back where she found it. She crossed to the window and saw that an entire envoy of black SUVs had arrived. As men started to pour out, Jennifer realized exactly what they were carrying. The Dragon Heart had arrived.

  She ran out of the room and down the hall, but forced her steps to slow as she descended the staircase. The group of men had moved past the entryway and turned down the hall on the right. The opposite direction from the dining room and a section of the house she’d never been to before.

  It was too risky to follow them any farther, so Jennifer stayed next to the stairs and listened intently for any indication of how far they’d gone.

  Once she heard a door shut, Jennifer decided to take a risk and she nonchalantly walked toward the back of the house. Once she passed the hall, she gave a casual glance. She couldn’t tell exactly what door the two men were standing guard outside of, but she got a good idea. That was all she needed.

  She was about to continue onto the back, as though she were going to take a relaxing stroll by the vineyards, when something told her she wasn’t alone any longer.

  She glanced over her shoulder and there was Austin. But he wasn’t looking at her. His gaze was firmly on the hallway in question.

  So that solved one mystery of the night. The stolen luggage, the briefcase that didn’t belong to him. It turned out her lawyer friend wasn’t a lawyer at all.

  He was there for the Dragon Heart too.

  “You’re sure?” said Isobel as she finished putting in her earrings.

  “I’m sure, Mom. You should’ve seen the way he was looking at those guys last night. He was practically drooling and I don’t think it’s because he’s into dudes. He knew exactly what they were locking up.”

  Isobel shook her head. “I should’ve known. With a score this big, there’s bound to be more than one shark in the water.”

  Jennifer wondered whether Isobel knew that calling herself a shark wasn’t actually a good thing, but didn’t say anyt
hing about it. Isobel was just about ready for her rehearsal dinner and, as normal, she looked fabulous. They’d decided that since Austin was poking around, they would move up the plans and make their grab tonight. The art of the con was having the mark hand over what you wanted, but sometimes the art of succeeding meant stealing the damn thing while you still had the chance.

  Isobel wore a white body-contouring dress that stopped right above the knee. The white was broken up with large bright-red flowers that guaranteed she’d be the center of attention. Which was good, because she was in charge of making sure Jennifer got out of the dinner unnoticed. Melody and Jennifer were both in more subdued black dresses. Jennifer’s was tight and short, allowing her room to sneak and hide, while Melody’s was tight in the waist and then flared out to a big pleated skirt.

  It was horrible for any sort of job, but it wasn’t as if either of them had packed thinking this was how the week was going to go.

  “Is transportation for after the wedding arranged?” Because they still weren’t sure whether they were being listened to, they were now referring to the job as “the wedding” because it was fun to make the whole thing as confusing as possible.

  “I think I can get Gregory to lend us the keys to an SUV.” Isobel pointed to her jewelry box.

  Jennifer walked over to the box and saw that there were three sets of keys in the top drawer. One for each of them. Isobel always liked to be prepared. Jennifer picked up two of the keys, each complete with a note attached with a small piece of string. Jennifer would have to wait to read the note, but she put her and Mel’s keys in the small black clutch, keeping the keys covered by her hand so if there were cameras they wouldn’t see what she was doing.