Zero, based on the passenger window sliding down. She dragged her feet back to the car and lowered herself to lean on the door.
“Forget something?”
“No. I’m running to the corner to get some cash. I owe my roommate rent.”
“Should you be running anywhere in this neighborhood alone?”
“I live here. I’ll be fine. Have a good night.” She tapped the door and stood.
“How much do you need?”
She bent again and looked in the car. He held out a stack of crisp hundred-dollar bills.
“I don’t need your money,” she lied.
“And I don’t need my asset getting hurt running around out here. Take it.”
She snagged the bills, counted out three, and returned the rest. With a smirk, she added, “You know, this isn’t usually how it works. You get me off and then pay me for the pleasure.”
“I have every intention of recouping my losses. And I don’t mean the money. Sleep well.”
She stepped back on the curb. He rolled the window up but didn’t pull away. Lowering the window partway again, he said, “Go inside, Data.”
She rolled her eyes even though he couldn’t see it, turned, and went in. It had been so long since anyone cared about her, it caught her off guard.
He’s just protecting his investment.
She was okay with that.
Chapter Eleven
The following day was a welcome break from all things Randall Scott and the break-in. Mia secured a location but thought it would be better to do the trial at night. The simulation would be more realistic and fewer people would be around to witness unusual activity.
So Jared spent the day dealing with clients and wrapping up a few jobs he’d been neglecting while babysitting Nikki. A local contractor was getting screwed over by politicians, the usual Chicago dealings. But they held no interest for him. Other things were occupying his mind these days and it didn’t bode well for his business. He texted Data with the address and asked if she needed a ride, but she declined.
He hoped things wouldn’t get weird between them. He didn’t want to hear Mia’s nagging. They were all adults and could act as such. If Data didn’t want any more than what they’d done, he could back off. He didn’t want to, but he would.
After the sun had set and night had fallen, he drove to the warehouse building Mia directed them to.
He stood in front of the door and checked his watch. For a second, he had a flash of his dad telling him to always wear a watch. Every idiot had a phone, but a man of means wore a watch.
“Fancy meeting you here,” a voice called from behind him.
Forgetting about his watch and his father, he turned to see Data coming up the walk.
“Did you have a good night?” Data asked.
“If you must know, I didn’t sleep well.”
“Too bad. I slept like a baby. Soooo relaxed.” She stretched her arms over her head.
She was toying with him. And he liked it.
Lowering himself to her ear, he said, “You’ll pay for that.”
“Will I? Sounds like a threat.”
“More like a promise. Because you’d only push and tease like that if you wanted me to push back.”
* * *
The door in front of them opened, and a woman in paint-splattered jeans asked, “Are you Ms. Green’s friends?”
“Yes.”
“I’m London. Down the hall. 1C. They’re waiting for you.”
London led them down the hall, which was mostly silent. She opened a huge metal door to a loft littered with art supplies. “Everyone’s here. Do you need anything else?”
“No, thank you,” Mia said.
“Do you mind if I stay to watch?”
Mia glanced at Jared. He shrugged. What did he care if she stayed?
Nikki came from around a corner dressed all in black, her long dark hair tucked inside a knit cap, and no shoes. Instead, she wore black toe socks that looked like they were rubber.
She bent and stretched, as if doing a rapid-fire yoga class.
Data stood beside him, watching Nikki. She nudged him with her elbow. “Don’t get your hopes up. I’m not that flexible.”
He swallowed a chuckle.
“Are we ready?” Mia asked. Without waiting for a response, she continued, “The frame with a blank canvas is hanging on the wall in the hallway upstairs.”
Data stepped forward. “If you come in through the window in the den on the first floor, you can take the stairs up, like we originally thought. The motion sensors will be disabled during the reboot. Take the painting and leave the way you came while I trip the alarms for the front and back doors simultaneously.”
“You said two minutes from your go until the system reboots?”
“At least two. I’ll do what I can to stretch it. You might have up to five.”
“Two it is.” She picked up a rope and looped it tightly around her waist.
“I have questions,” he said. “One, aren’t you going to put on shoes?”
Nikki kicked up a leg. “Shoes make noise. With these, I’m silent.”
“Two, what’s with the rope?”
“If I have to leave from a different exit, say a second-floor window, I like to be prepared.”
“How are you going to climb down a rope from a second-story window without leaving evidence?”
She flashed a grappling hook at him. “It’s quick release. I drop down, and then press this button. They’ll just think they left a window open.”
It looked like they had all their bases covered. Nikki took another blank canvas, rolled it up, and tucked it in with the rope at her back.
“Ready? Go.” Data pressed the stopwatch on her phone.
He blinked and Nikki was through the room and up the stairs in silence. The whole group of them followed her at a distance.
London gasped. “You can’t do that.”
“What?” Nikki froze with a knife in her hand.
London rushed forward. “First, if you cut the painting, you’ll lose important identifying marks. Mathis is one of the artists who always marked the edges of the canvas. Second, how are you getting the new painting in?”
Nikki’s jaw dropped.
They hadn’t figured out everything. Damn it.
Mia pushed through the crowd, pointing a finger at Nikki and then at Data. “You said you had a plan. You knew what you were doing.”
“I’m getting her in,” Data said. “That’s my job. What she does once in there has nothing to do with me.”
“And I told you I usually go in and take what I want. I don’t leave gifts.”
Exasperated, Mia threw her hands in the air. To him, she asked, “Well?”
“Calm down.”
Mia’s eyes flashed. He knew it was a mistake to say those words to any woman, but his cousin, in particular, deplored them.
He took a deep breath and hoped Mia would follow suit. “London, this is your area of expertise. How should she do it?”
London looked at Mia. “I made this one to your specifications. Without seeing how the original is framed, I’m guessing.”
“My specifications are exact. I’ve seen it.”
“Well, your owner is a freak. Artwork typically isn’t framed like this anymore. We use metal clips to hold the canvas in place. This is more complicated.” She moved across the room and held the frame. “Nikki needs to take the frame from the wall, take out the spline, which is basically a rope that provides tension to give the canvas a tight fit, and then remove the corner pieces, pop out the canvas and replace it with the new one.” She pointed to the rolled canvas at Nikki’s back. “Unless you know how to stretch a canvas, that needs to be on a frame already—which the forgery is.”
“Fuck.” Nikki threw the
canvas on the floor.
“We’re screwed,” Mia concurred.
“No, we’re not. We have time to figure this out,” Jared said. “We have some of the best minds I’ve ever come across standing right here. Data didn’t think she could bypass the security system and she figured it out. We have someone who created a perfect duplicate. And we have a master thief. We can do this.”
Mia didn’t look convinced. Nikki took the frame off the wall and flipped the painting over. She banged the edge.
“What are you doing?” London asked.
“I thought maybe I could pop it out and then pop in the new one.”
With a small sigh, London said, “This isn’t a movie.”
“I got it!” Data yelled.
Everyone turned to look at her.
* * *
It was a little unnerving to have four people stare at her, but Audrey pushed forward. “I know the movie Nikki’s thinking of. The Thomas Crown Affair.”
They returned blank looks, except, of course, Nikki. Didn’t these people watch movies?
“The thief runs through the museum, grabs the painting, pops it out of the frame and puts it in a briefcase. But in the bonus content, the director talked about how they cut the scene that showed how the frame was partially broken, allowing the painting to be folded.”
Nikki nodded. “Explains a lot. I always had a problem with that scene.”
London took the frame from Nikki and within minutes had the canvas out. She ran her fingers over the edges of the wood.
“Can it be done?” Audrey asked.
“Maybe. It’s soft wood.” She turned to Nikki. “Give me your knife.”
Jay and Ms. Green stood in silence while London worked. Suddenly Nikki jumped in.
“I get it. Like a hinge. It’ll make it half the size. Still a little big for me to carry, but I can make it work.” She stared at the empty spot on the wall. “What about the original?”
London continued to saw at the wood and then folded the canvas over itself. It did look hinged.
Jay chuckled. Audrey liked the sound far too much. He tapped Ms. Green’s shoulder. “I told you. Give them a few more minutes and I bet they’ll have it figured out.”
He looked at Audrey over the top of the other woman’s head and winked.
“Why don’t we leave them to it?” he said.
Audrey mouthed thank you to him. Ms. Green rubbed her the wrong way every time she was around. She made it hard for Audrey to think. How she and Jay could be related, Audrey couldn’t quite wrap her head around. They both came from money, but Jay fit in with the rest of them better. Not perfectly, and mostly Audrey believed he excelled at faking it.
Ms. Green didn’t even try to fake it. She let everyone know she thought she was better than them.
Once the Greens left, Audrey asked, “So how do we do this?”
“Let’s pre-cut a frame and then you can re-stretch it, right?” Nikki asked London.
The woman nodded. London’s wide, pale crystal blue eyes and her long, shiny light brown hair was the opposite of everything about Audrey.
“So all we have to do is figure out what to do with the original.”
“How long do you think it would take to cut the wood to do this?” Audrey asked.
Nikki shrugged. “Even if it was easy, I still have to take time to pry it out of the frame.”
They stood in silence for a minute.
“This needs alcohol,” London said. “Come on. I have wine. The cheap stuff.”
“I think I like you,” Nikki said.
They all went to the living room—or what passed as one since it was mostly just a big, open space. London went behind the staircase to a refrigerator. She was tall with a willowy frame, looking like a demure, innocent woman, but it was deceiving because she had hefted the painting and flipped it around like it weighed nothing.
“Why are you helping us?” Audrey asked.
Nikki smacked her. “You really don’t know how to keep your mouth shut and just accept a good thing, do you?”
“Ms. Green paid me well.” London grabbed three mismatched coffee mugs and poured wine. “If I help you, she’ll hire me again. With the money she’s offering, I can have enough within the year to have my own gallery.”
Audrey nodded. She remembered what it was like to have goals. Vaguely. Now her one and only goal was to keep her head above water and get Gram the best care possible.
London pointed to a couch. “Let’s brainstorm.”
Nikki yanked off her hat and weird shoe things. She sat in one corner of the couch and pulled her feet up. “Before we get to that, let’s gossip.”
“We don’t have time,” Audrey said as she sat in the other corner.
London sat between them.
Nikki rolled her eyes and turned to London. “Data here wants to avoid talking about the Greens because she thinks it’s some secret that she’s screwing around with Jay.”
“Nikki!”
“I didn’t need her to point that out. It was obvious when I walked in with the two of you.”
“Great.” Audrey didn’t think anything was obvious.
“So are you like, the mistress?”
Nikki snorted and choked on her wine.
“The Greens are not a couple. They’re family.”
“Hmm,” London said, narrowing her eyes. “Not siblings.”
“No.”
“As busy as you’ve been with other things, I’m surprised you had time to find that out,” Nikki poked. “Is he good?”
Audrey’s entire body flushed.
“He’s hot,” London said. “All that tan skin with the dark hair and eyes. I bet he turns rich brown in the sun. Mmm-mmm. What a palette. I wouldn’t mind painting him.”
“Whatever floats your boat.” Audrey hoped she conveyed the nonchalance she aimed for.
“Then you don’t care if London does a series of nudes?”
Audrey lifted a shoulder. “It’s a free world.”
She hoped that would be the end of it, but both women were still staring at her. “Look, Jay and I are attracted to each other. We’ve messed around a little. And yes, it was good.”
Nikki thrust her fist forward for a bump. Audrey complied.
“But it’s not going anywhere. You know as well as I do, the Greens are not part of our world. They’re taking this trip on the wild side, but they’re not staying. And I won’t ever belong in theirs.”
“So you’re taking a good time while you can. Good for you,” Nikki said.
“Wait, what do you mean, they’re not part of your world?” London looked at each of them.
Audrey opened her mouth but was at a loss to explain, so she pointed at Nikki.
“Let’s start with this, how much do you know about what we’re doing?”
“Very little. Ms. Green commissioned me to make a replica Mathis painting. Based on what I’ve seen tonight, you’re going to steal the original and replace it with my forgery.”
“Bingo. I’m a thief. Data is a hacker. We live in the world of grays.”
Audrey coughed.
“Okay, maybe we lean toward black, but we’re not exactly evil. When you compare us to murderers and pedophiles, we’re definitely gray.”
“And you don’t think they’re criminals,” London said with a hint of question in her voice.
Audrey listened to Nikki’s explanation and wondered. Jay definitely felt darker gray than she did. He was a fixer after all. Everything she’d ever done for him leaned more gunmetal gray than ash gray, but she doubted he got his hands dirty. “I wouldn’t say they’re exactly white.”
“No, definitely not,” London agreed. “But Ms. Green does strike me as the kind of woman who’s more likely to shop for a piece of art than to steal it.”
; “I don’t like her,” Audrey admitted.
“She does have a stick up her ass,” Nikki said.
“I can deal with that. Uptight people don’t bother me. It’s that she acts like she’s better than us. As if she’s above criminal activity, but she’s the one orchestrating all of this,” Audrey explained.
“I agree with Nikki. Uptight, yes, but she didn’t make me feel like she’s better than me.”
“Maybe it’s just me then.” She drained her mug of wine and refilled it. “Enough talk about the Greens. Let’s figure this shit out.”
For the next three hours, they tossed ideas at each other, drew pictures, destroyed canvases and frames. Some of the destruction was probably due to the two bottles of wine they consumed, but they finally came up with a workable plan that would hopefully make the Greens happy and garner them all piles of cash.
Chapter Twelve
Two nights later Jared stood in London’s loft again, watching Nikki do her thing. Carving a hinge on the forgery worked so Nikki could carry it on her back. This time it was a success.
Nikki bounced back down the stairs.
“Pretty brilliant, right?” London asked.
“Still taking too long,” Nikki muttered.
With a wave of her hand, Data said, “That’s practice. You’ll get the time down. Look how far we’ve come in two days.”
Nikki shook her head and paced. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“I’ll head back to the apartment and work on slowing down the reboot. That’ll buy you time.”
Jared watched the women’s interaction. Whatever Mia thought about creating a team, this was good. They worked together seamlessly. They bolstered each other when necessary. Mia would be able to have the role she’d wanted all along—hands off.
“Do you need anything else?” he asked.
“More time to prep,” Nikki said.
Data shoved her gently. “Go have a drink. I’ll text you when I have something figured out.”
She grabbed her stuff and headed toward the door.
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