Page 30 of The Twilight Theft

Jayce frowned, then scanned the windows facing the river. “What will the security be like on the doors?”

Gideon said, “Someone will be stationed at each one.”

“All the doors? Including the one to the kitchen?”

“Yes, and the security personnel assigned to this room will all be on the inside.”

Jayce nodded. “So they can monitor partygoers, staff, your sculpture, and each other?”

On our previous jobs, I’d witnessed Jayce switch into professional mode several times. It was the side of her that irritated me the least. I even had a grudging respect for it—when it was genuinely professional and not just an attempt to mask her hotheaded reactions.

Not moments when she went against the plans because she thought she knew better, as she had on the Harrington job.

It had been an anti-heist. Our goal? Return a high-value baseball card my young client had stolen during an alcohol-infused party. She and I had snuck into the owner’s house with her team’s support, but found one person awake who shouldn’t have been. We’d ended up staging a break-in and leaving the card on the floor.

I clenched my jaw at the memory. Alarm blaring. Running through the woods while house lights flicked on around us.

Up until when she’d smashed the glass doors, her skill had impressed me. But if I hadn’t been with her, she would have made a stupid choice and gotten caught.

“How big’s your sculpture?” asked Jayce. “Is it going to be easy to slip into a pocket?”

Liana’s gaze rose toward the ceiling and she let go of Jayce, her hands expanding above her head. Before she said anything, she pulled the arms back down and folded them. “It needs to be a surprise. A performance. Something worthy of Giddy’s amazing invention.”

Jayce walked the distance between the Xs and the closest door. “It’s hard to formulate a plan without specifics.”

“The last thing I need is for someone to ruin the event.” Liana was known for several things. First, as Gideon Tremaine’s wife. Second, for her charity work. And only third as an artist, primarily for work in resin and metal. The latter were almost exclusively larger-than-life junkyard pieces, which regularly took her a year to construct out of scrap. Despite her immense wealth, she was often quoted as saying she enjoyed working with materials anyone could access. She could have built everything out of gold but usually turned junk into beauty. “One slip of the tongue, one cowboy spouting off a rumor that’s too close to the truth, one reporter who digs too deep and asks the wrong questions... I have a vision of the event and that vision is how we raise so much money.”

“My tongue doesn’t slip,” I said. “And neither will Jayce’s.”

Liana turned to me. “People fly to my events from all over the world to find out what the big surprise is. I’m not risking millions of dollars to satisfy your curiosity.”

“It’s not curiosity. Your husband hired me to ensure no one steals his data chip. Not to ensure the amount you raise.”

Gideon put a hand on my shoulder. “Consider them both your job.”

Jayce had stopped listening. She walked the perimeter of the room with long, intentional steps. We had the floor plan, but she was measuring anyway. She studied the door frames, the windows, the floor, and the ceiling.

“All right,” I said. There were three other Xs on the floor in the banquet room. “You provided an inventory of the paintings and sculptures that will be up for sale, but what about the other items that won’t be? I assume the tape marks mean you’ll have four display items in total?”

Liana slipped her arm into mine this time and steered me toward one of the Xs. “Since our theme is the merging of art and technology, Giddy spoke to some of his friends and we have three items on loan. We’ll have the Obsidian Mirror, an ancient relic owned by a Welsh lord, which reflects light in a way that current science can’t explain.”

“More a baffling of science and technology than a merging of them?”

“Precisely!”

Jayce opened the door that led to the stairs for the bathrooms and vanished through it. Where was she going now? Upper floor again? Mezzanine? Out a window? This was always the problem with her. Lack of communication. Lack of coordination. When it didn’t matter, she’d talk endlessly, but when I needed to know what she was doing?

Maybe it was my fault for not setting the ground rules in the car. Or I should have grabbed her before she scaled the building.

We’d have to work on some hand signals before the event.

Or a tether. At least that way, if she climbed something, I could catch her if she fell.

“—from London.” Liana laughed.

I joined in the laughter, despite having missed everything she’d said after telling me about the mirror.What is wrong with you, Drew? Trust Jayce to do her job and you do yours.“Can you send the specs on those pieces?”Good cover.

“I’ll have my assistant email you.”

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