Page 3 of Room One Hundred and Six

He reaches for the elevator button with a gloved hand and offers a bow as I step inside.

“You’ll be taken up one floor where you can explore the club’s offerings at your leisure, ma’am. Enjoy your stay at Club Sin.”

“Thank you.” The second the doors close my lips are moving. “Okay, I’m in.” I pretend to pat the corners of my lips with a tissue in hand so it doesn’t look like I'm talking to myself in case the doorman is watching me through the security feed.

There’s a crackle in my ear before a familiar voice with the dial set to a permanent sultry feeds through. “Good. Now get a feel for the layout. Know the exits and how many security men they have working the floor. Then we can have a little fun.”

Ivy Hills, the leader of a gang of rising thieves, isn’t best friend material by any stretch of the imagination. The self-proclaimed femme fatale has ambitions of putting aside her killer reputation for a more gentle lifestyle. According to her, the blonde beauty is done with putting bodies in the ground and rather fill her hidden Swiss bank accounts with millions from pilfered treasures.

From assassin for hire to high stakes thief. Admirable. If she can morph her life into something different, then so can I.

But she can’t do it alone and neither can I. She’s out to fill the ranks of her new crew and make a name for the Belladonnas among the people of Seattle and beyond. Like I said, she has ambitions that rival the size of mine. And I plan on using her influence to ride to the top.

Black market buyers, corrupt museum curators and fences. It takes an entire army of shady individuals to keep a guild of thieves in business. And it all starts with the marks. The elite of Seattle’s wealthy society will feel the light touch of Ivy’s motley crew of seductive and dangerous beauties. But only after we’re long gone with our lifted loot.

And that is where I come in. Me and six other women have made it to the final interview and tonight it is my turn to audition for my place among the hopeful Belladonnas.

The elevator glides to a stop and the doors open, but I stay in place.

Ivy scored the blueprints for the six floors that make up Club Sin in Seattle’s Centennial skyscraper, but what I see before me now is nothing like what was on those papers.

I’m sure the base layout is the same. Exits can’t move nor can the elevator shafts, but shifting glass walls make the inner layout of the club look nothing like what I studied. There are walls where I thought there would be none and open space where I was sure offices would be turned into rooms.

I bend to fix the ankle strap on my stiletto. “Four security men by my count so far. The first floor is one large open space on one side and the other is an enclosed ballroom. It’s nothing like the plans you dug up.”

“Interesting. It shouldn’t be a problem. You are a quick study. You have five other floors to move through and we don’t have all night.” Her playful tone is misleading. She’s waiting for me to fuck up and would take great pleasure in ripping me a new one in front of the other ladies before she cuts me loose. My last name comes with a lot of tacked on expectations because of who my father was to many people in the business. He lined the coffers of a lot of powerful people with the items he moved on the black market. He was a fence for some of the most dangerous criminals. They lifted items they wanted from all over the world and he turned them into cash. It didn’t matter how hot an item was, he always found a buyer and the law never could nail him down. It’s why everyone trusted his work.

He also moonlighted as a jewel thief and died for his greed.

But to me he was a man I admired and loved. He loathed the idea of me getting in on the business and did everything in his power to make sure I never had the skill set to take over the family business.

I guess all his efforts were for nothing because here I am doing exactly what he feared.

“Wanna give me a name or am I supposed to guess who my mark is?”

I’ve noticed Ivy likes to keep things interesting and never tell you who the mark is until the last minute. I don’t mind the games, but there’s an undercurrent of unease that won’t release its hold on my insides.

“Don’t be in too much of a hurry. That is when you make mistakes. Be patient or you’ll kill your chances of winning our little game. Or are you wanting to tap out early?”

Her sultry laugh infuses me with self doubt but my competitive streak smothers the fear of failing.

“You want to be a Belladonna, Moone, prove you belong among my elite crew. Show me you are worth my investment.”

I lick my parched lips and force myself to focus. I press a hand over my quivering insides and hope my shaky voice doesn’t give away my nervousness. “Just make sure you have my fifty thousand dollars and my place on the crew secured.”

“Oh, baby. All that confidence. Tonight should be fun.”

With that kind of money, my sister will receive the treatment she needs and I can finally stop driving myself into an early grave with double twelve-hour shifts and the mounds of worry I’ve lived trapped under for nearly two years.

This is for you, Stella. I send up a silent prayer and hope I’m doing the right thing. Our parents are rolling over in their early graves right now, but when you have no options and your sister needs help, the lines of right and wrong fade. At least, they do for me. Frankly, I never had them to begin with.

You do what is necessary for the family. No questions.

My father’s words wrap around my heart. They provide little comfort at the moment, but I don’t need a warm hug right now, anyway. I need a mark and money. Lots of it. I know there is no miracle cure, but my sister has a fighting chance at beating her cancer diagnosis. The lack of funds will not be what ends her.

“Let’s see with the legendary Mason Moone’s daughter can live up to her father’s notorious reputation of being the best jewel thief of the twenty-first century.”

My inner voice of reason wants to speak up and tell me this is a big mistake and that there are more legit ways of getting money for my sister, but I know the truth. No one is going to just hand me fifty grand a month for her bills for nothing and I can’t just let her die. Not when I could help her.

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