Page 51 of The San Marco Heist

Scarlett joined me, placing a hand on my back. “Holy shit. There’s a room above it.”

“How do you get into it?” Jayce wedged herself in between Scarlett and me. “I ran up the stairs and came out where that room would be. There wasn’t a door there.”

Brie was already skimming ahead in the video and paused again at the moment Jayce had exited the stairwell on the second floor.

Declan clicked his tongue. “Nothing but a huge bookcase. Well done.”

Scarlett turned to look at him, eyebrow raised.

“A huge bookcase tall enough to conceal a door,” I said.

“Good job, wonder boy,” drawled Evelyn. “Maybe we’ll keep you around for a day or two.”

They needed me, at least for another day, to be Scarlett’s husband.

We gathered around the model, and Will placed the roof layer on top.

“Perfect.” Jayce traced a finger from one side of the house to the other. “We scale the east wall, which is mostly concealed by the bushes around their tennis courts and trees. We cross the roof, make our way to the skylight at the top of that stairwell, pop it open or up or something.”

Declan’s nose wrinkled. “You know I’m coming with you on this, right?”

“Yup.” She moved the roof model and continued following her path on the printed floor plan I’d sandwiched between levels of the 3D model. “We descend into the stairwell, figure out how to open the bookcase, and we’re in.”

Everyone was following Jayce’s path on the plans, except for Scarlett, who gave me a smile. The real one. One that made me think that taunting her hadn’t been fair. She wasn’t the ice princess. She was a woman who was scared she’d lose her brother. She’d told me as much.

I smiled back, a strange warmth spreading through me. If nothing else, I wanted to help her prove to her mother that she was the strong, capable woman everyone around this table knew she was.

As quickly as the moment had started, Scarlett pushed the smile down and got back to work. “Alright, people. That’s half our Plan A. Let’s figure out how you’re going to get out, and then we’ll review every way this can go wrong.”

Chapter 21

Scarlett

Fridayevening,weallstrolled into the Lion’s Head Pub together, down the road from our hotel. I’d been riding the team all week. Our plans were made. We reviewed and re-reviewed until they started getting punchy with each other, and we all needed a break. A little dinner out and then early to bed was the right call.

The two trips to Harrods, shopping for a suit and then a tux with Malcolm, helped me take a few breaths. A side trip into the women’s luxury accessories section to pick up a crystal-encrusted Judith Leiber clutch for the party gave me even more breath.

But then we’d returned to the team, clothes and accessories for the party ready, and I couldn’t calm their nerves. That’s all it was. The bickering, the arguments about precise timing, the way Will and Brie kept their heads down to work on the programs and bypasses we might need.

There were too many variables. Too many unknowns. This wasn’t how I ran my team, but there was no choice.

Just like there was no choice about finally going out for a bite to eat away from the hotel and Will’s mother’s house.

Before our butts hit the seats in the pub, Jayce snapped her fingers and pointed at Malcolm. “New guy pays for the first round.”

I lifted a finger. I shouldn’t have had to. “New guy buys the only round we’re having tonight. Everyone needs to be at the top of their game tomorrow, so I’m enforcing a one drink maximum.”

Jayce rolled her head back and flung her arms out in overdramatic fashion. “Fine. The new guy buys the one and only round, plus the food. Get me fish and chips and make mine a double.”

“Do I need to make a list?” Malcolm chuckled and pulled out his phone.

Rav, Will, Dec, and I put in our orders, and Malcolm headed off without another word.

I took a seat on the booth side, on an old wooden high-backed bench that felt so worn it must’ve been at least sixty years old.

Jayce poked Rav in the chest. For anyone who didn’t know them, it would’ve been a comical sight. He was nearly a foot taller than her, and probably twice as wide, but she cowered before no man. “I hereby challenge you to a game of darts while I wait for my food.”

Will nudged her. “I’m the one you should be challenging. I’m the European champion.”

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