To Catch a Thief--A High Stakes Romantic Suspense

by Sloane Steele

  “You enjoy them.” She glanced at her phone. “The car is ten minutes away, so I should go wait outside.”

  “I’ll wait with you.” They walked out of the restaurant and stood to the left of the door, between the entrance and the parking garage. “Can I see you again?”

  “That would be nice. This was by far the least painful first date I’ve had in years.”

  “Okay. That’s just not going to do. ‘Least painful’ isn’t even a compliment. I can do better.”

  “How do you propose to do that? The date is over in...five minutes when my car arrives.”

  “Challenge accepted.” He stepped closer and she backed up until she was against the brick wall behind her. Her eyes widened and she sucked in a gasp. “I’m going to kiss you, unless you say you don’t want me to.”

  * * *

  Holy hell. What had she gotten herself into? Logan had literally backed her into a corner. She could tell him no and he would pull back, but she suddenly realized that she didn’t want him to. He lowered his frame so his mouth was mere inches from hers.

  “Mia?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, her lungs frozen.

  “Is that a yes I should kiss you?”

  She slowly nodded, her hair sticking to the brick behind her.

  Logan’s right hand came up and cradled her jaw. He closed the distance between them without breaking eye contact. He stared into her as his lips brushed hers. His thumb caressed her cheek and he tilted his head to interlock lips, soft but sure. His eyes closed and his tongue tipped out, gentle but seeking.

  Mia fisted her hands at her sides to keep from grabbing him. But she allowed her eyes to flutter closed and pretended that this was a normal first date and Logan was a regular man who just wanted to be with her. Once she did that, she also began true participation in the kiss, meeting his tongue and pressing her body slightly closer, just enough to feel the heat from him.

  Her phone buzzed and she tore away. “My car is here,” she said breathlessly.

  He stepped back and she edged around him to get to the car. As she opened the door, he asked, “Well?”

  She looked back at him. He was damn good looking.

  “Did I at least get bumped up from ‘not painful’?”

  She pressed her lips together to stop the smile, but the movement conjured the feel of his lips on hers. “I’d say you got up to adequately pleasant.”

  She slid into the car.

  “You’re killing me here, Mia,” he yelled. “But there’s always next time.”

  She closed the door and waved goodbye to him. As soon as the driver pulled from the curb, she texted Nikki and Audrey to let them know she was on her way back to the apartment. At the moment she was grateful she’d had the sense to remove the comm in her office. If Logan had seen it in her ear, she’d have had no explanation. She wasn’t about to put the comm back in now; she wasn’t prepared to hear Nikki and Audrey’s questions.

  The trip to the apartment was only a few miles, but even with sticking to streets, the car hit rush-hour traffic. The slower pace allowed Mia to replay her date with Logan. Nikki had told her to steer the conversation to figure out what he knew, but he chose to talk about the forgeries. She hadn’t needed to prompt anything. Did that mean she wasn’t suspected of anything? His asking her out was a coincidence? Or was he suspicious and was gauging her reactions?

  But the forgeries weren’t all they’d discussed. It had very much felt like an actual date. If he thought she was behind the thefts, would he have acted that way? Would he have kissed her?

  Mia’s head spun and she didn’t like it. Her life was well-ordered and controlled. She did more than steer a conversation—she drove the whole damn plan. Logan should be nothing more than a pothole to be filled. She was a problem-solver and as long as she continued to view him as a problem, she’d be fine.

  All of that was predicated on her forgetting that kiss ever happened.

  That was by far the more difficult issue for her to tackle. She closed her eyes and considered the conversation she’d had with Logan. It felt personal, but if he were undercover, he would take on a new persona, have a backstory.

  His great-grandfather’s painting. If she asked about it and he couldn’t give her the details, that would certainly be a red flag. Of course, that would require another date.

  No, not date. It would require her to talk to him, maybe see him again. It wouldn’t have to be a date.

  But you want it to be.

  She shut that thought down along with the memory of their kiss. As the car neared the apartment, Mia braced herself for Nikki. Audrey she could handle. The hacker was more reserved, but Nikki was in-your-face, loud, and open, ignoring most acceptable boundaries. She left the car and let herself into the apartment.

  Both Nikki and Audrey were hunched over the table looking at prints and plans. When she closed the door, they both became quiet and stared at her.

  “Hell of a date, huh?” Nikki said.

  “It was interesting,” Mia replied.

  Audrey snickered. “We might have lost comms to hear what was going on, but the silent movie we watched from the camera in the locket was pretty fucking hot.” She waved her hand as if fanning herself.

  “Oh, yeah. That man gives eye fucking a whole new name.” Nikki propped her chin on her hand. “How was the kiss? Please tell me it was good. I might cry if a hot-ass man like that kisses like a dog.”

  Mia swallowed the laugh that the image conjured. “How do you know he kissed me?”

  “For a good two minutes we saw nothing but the knot of his tie.”

  She should have removed the necklace when she took the comm out. “The kiss was fine. I figured turning him down might be detrimental to the plan. If I turn him away, it would be hard to get information from him.”

  Liar. You wanted that kiss.

  Nikki narrowed her eyes as if she could hear that quiet voice that whispered in the recesses of Mia’s long-neglected libido.

  “Good job. Let’s talk about what you learned.” Nikki kicked out a chair between the two of them.

  Mia looked at the chair. Instead of sitting, she set her purse down and leaned against the back of the couch. “I’m afraid I didn’t learn much. I didn’t have to do much steering of the conversation. He wanted to talk about the forgeries.”

  “Oh...that’s bad,” Nikki said. “He wants to trip you up.”

  “Or,” Audrey interrupted, “he wants to talk to her as an expert.”

  Over the weeks, Mia had learned that Audrey usually looked for the good in people and situations. But it didn’t mean she was wrong. “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the latter. He doesn’t know art as well as he should for the position he has.”

  “Which would make sense if he’s a cop,” Nikki pointed out. “Lull you into a sense of security.”

  “If he’s law enforcement, why interact with me and risk tipping his hand? This is real life, not purposefully placed drama for the screen.”

  “Because you’re not a criminal, and he knows it. Only stupid, greedy, or inexperienced criminals get caught. While you’re not stupid or greedy, you are inexperienced. If he can crack you without a warrant, it makes his life easier.”

  Mia rubbed her forehead. “So what do I do?”

  Nikki smiled and rubbed her hands together. “We teach you the art of the con.”

  Chapter Seven

  Nikki had tried to explain to Mia the nuances of being a con artist, and after two long hours of frustration, they’d called it a night. But Mia had agreed to come back to the apartment tonight after work for another session. Nikki was sure this would be the only way to figure out what Logan knew without giving away anything. To Mia’s mind, a con artist was just an excellent liar.

  Like her father.

  She’d usually made sure she did nothing to i
mitate him, but in this moment, she needed to channel his energy. She understood it, but she had no idea how.

  She let herself into the apartment and found Nikki on the couch making out with her boyfriend, Wade. When Mia closed the door, they slowly separated and turned their attention to her. “This is not an hourly motel, so please keep your extracurriculars at home.”

  Nikki snorted and rolled her eyes. “Wade, you remember Mia.”

  He stood and extended a hand. His blond hair was mussed from Nikki’s hands, but his clothes were still in place. His blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “Nice to see you again, Mia.”

  Although she shook his hand—she wasn’t rude—she said, “Why exactly are you here?”

  Nikki popped to her knees on the couch. “I hate running a con, so I brought in reinforcements. Not only is Wade an excellent con man, but he has the ability to teach.”

  Mia shot her a look.

  “I know I’m not a good teacher,” Nikki said with her hands raised.

  That was an understatement. By the time Mia had huffed out last night, the two of them had been ready to come to blows. Sometimes Mia thought they were more alike than she wanted to admit.

  “Okay, Wade, teach away.” Mia placed her purse on the table and crossed her arms, waiting for instruction.

  “When I say ‘con artist,’ what do you think?”

  “Liar, cheat, thief.”

  “She ain’t wrong,” Nikki said as she sank back down on the couch.

  “You’re not wrong, but there is a whole lot more to it. First lesson, a con artist’s best—most important—tool is her brain. A good con artist is smart, so we have that going for us. Other things in our favor are that you already have authority and social proof because of your degrees and job. You’re respected in your field.”

  Nikki twisted and let her arms dangle off the back of the couch as she faced them. “You know your shit, so he’s going to listen to you.”

  “As Wade pointed out, I am intelligent; therefore, I don’t need your running commentary.”

  “So sorry for trying to be helpful.” Nikki rolled away and lay on the couch.

  “I’m good at what I do,” Mia said to Wade. “How does that help me be a con artist?”

  Wade pulled out two chairs at the table and gestured for her to sit. “Let me explain how cons work.”

  Mia sat, feeling stiff and out of place, even though she had chosen this apartment as their base of operations. Only a few weeks ago Wade had been their rival in stealing the famed Devereaux. His arrival had caused chaos. Not that he was at fault for the second forgery being found out—they’d planned all along for the forgeries to be discovered. They just hadn’t planned on it happening in such a quick succession.

  “The number one thing to remember about running a con is that you need to play to the mark’s emotions, not his intelligence.”

  Nikki’s arm shot up in the air. “You might need to teach her how to do emotion. There are rumors she’s a robot.”

  “Shut up, Nikki,” both Mia and Wade said.

  Nikki simply devolved into laughter.

  “Nikki filled me in a bit about this guy—Logan?—and she said you went out with him last night. Tell me about your date.” Wade leaned forward, all his focus on her every word.

  Mia recounted as much of the conversation as she could. It wasn’t quite verbatim, but it was close.

  When she finished, Wade leaned back. “For a novice, you accomplished a lot. You might be a natural.”

  “How does anything I told you help us?”

  “It doesn’t help your case—yet. Part of the reason, actually most of the reason, Nikki doesn’t like running a con is because it takes time and patience. You’re in the beginning stages, laying the groundwork and the trust. Your date put you in a good position.”

  “I don’t understand. It just felt like a date.”

  “Good. That means you pulled it off.”

  “He directed the conversation and asked most of the questions. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back now, I can see that. Nikki said I should steer the conversation.”

  Wade tilted his head to the side. “In a perfect world, yes, but since you didn’t have a direction, you did pretty good. You were an excellent listener, which is something else a good artist needs to be. It felt like a date because you were swapping personal stories. He could connect to you because from the beginning, you allowed yourself to be vulnerable with him.”

  Mia stiffened. She didn’t show vulnerability; she couldn’t afford to.

  “I don’t mean to imply that you fell apart and needed him to take care of you. Women like you and Nikki, you’d rather die than allow that.” Wade smiled as he spoke Nikki’s name. “But by bringing up the realities of your life with your struggles because of your father, it was enough for him to empathize.”

  “Still don’t see how that helps.”

  “And I’m seeing that you are about as patient as Nikki. So let’s keep it simple. Rule one: be confident. It’s the name of the game. If you’re confident, you’re more believable.”

  “No problem there,” Nikki called.

  “No comments needed from the peanut gallery.” Mia couldn’t believe she was getting another list of rules. “Go on.”

  “Rule two: use the mark’s name when you talk to him. It helps forge a connection, makes it personal. Rule three: mimic his body language. If he leans in, so do you. If he tilts his head to the side, you mirror it. We like to see ourselves reflected in others.”

  “That’s it? Imitation?”

  “That’s the beginning. It’s about building trust and rapport. Then you can exert your influence. It gets a little harder there. Rule four: let the mark win. In your case, you’ll have to give him something—an idea, a tip, something useful, so he’s successful. Then he’ll be more likely to come back for more. Rule five: start small and build up. Ask for a small favor, nothing of consequence. Next time something a little more, but still not needy. You’re building a pattern of him giving and getting used to giving.”

  “I think I can do that. I also think I have a way to trip him up. That painting he mentioned of his grandfather’s. If I ask about that, it would be in character for me. But if he can’t tell me the artist or what it looks like or anything, that chips away at his character, doesn’t it?”

  Wade crossed his arms. “Possibly. It depends on how well his persona was put together by the cops and whether there’s any truth to the story.”

  “Don’t forget to tell him about the kiss,” Nikki blurted.

  Wade stared at Mia.

  “Logan kissed me at the end of our ‘date.’ I quipped about the date being the least painful one I’d been on recently. He felt the need to bring it up a notch.”

  “And did he?”

  Oh my Lord, yes. “Yes.”

  “Okay, let me add an addendum to the rules. If you fall for the mark, you’re sunk.”

  “You have no worries there. But I find it amusing that the two of you are going to caution me about falling for the enemy.” She looked back and forth between Wade and where Nikki still lay hidden by the back of the couch.

  Nikki shot up. “Yes, my dear, learn from our mistakes,” she said sweetly and batted her lashes.

  “I can handle a bit of attraction. I have excellent self-control.”

  “So you admit there’s attraction.”

  “Well, I’m not blind.”

  Nikki burst out laughing. “Yeah, I guess you’d have to be to not want to tap that.”

  “Hey,” Wade said.

  “Pheromones and physical attraction do not necessarily lead to falling for anyone.” Mia stood. “I’m going home to develop a list of questions and favors to ask Logan. Tomorrow I have a meeting to gather that other information you and Audrey need.” She didn’t know how much Nikki rev
ealed to Wade about their ongoing jobs, so Mia wasn’t about to spill that she was going to the auction house.

  Nikki saluted her.

  Mia turned back to Wade. “Thank you for the lessons. Much more helpful than the so-called advice Nikki spouted yesterday.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said and stood. Turning to Nikki he said, “Ready to go home?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  To Mia, he said, “Good luck.”

  I’ll need it.

  * * *

  Logan spent the entire day trying to keep images of Mia Benson flushed from his kiss out of his mind. The task was monumental because he’d been surrounded by files from Atlas Insurance. The company had finally forwarded the policies related to all local art. Logan enlisted the help of Agent Stokes to go through the files to look for connections.

  The forged paintings had been authenticated by different men, so that was another dead end. It didn’t appear to be an inside job.

  “What if we bring a forgery to them and have each of their guys authenticate it? If one’s crooked, we can bribe him,” Stokes said.

  Logan leaned back in his chair. “In theory, maybe, but art appraisal isn’t an exact science. At least not without running expensive tests. Most people rely on the appraisal, but you can easily have people disagree—especially if it’s not in their area of expertise.”

  “Are you sure there’s a connection? Other than these guys being friends.”

  “I’m sure. I just have to figure out what it is. I already know Scott and Ingram purchased within a couple weeks of each other and both planned to sell soon.”

  “Maybe they’re riding the market. I assume the market for art fluctuates like the stock market. I’m way out of my depth here.”

  “What if the timing has something to do with it?”

  Stokes shrugged. “Let’s dig in and see how many new artifacts Atlas insured that month.”

  They printed reports and spread them out on a conference table. They created a timeline of art purchased five years ago. Thirty pieces consisting of paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and books.