Page 102 of The San Marco Heist

The water bus slowed at its stop on the side of the island. “I’ll let you know what I see when I get there. Hopefully, I’m overreacting.”

Rav huffed out a breath. “Be careful. But be extra careful with her. I’ll kill you myself and bury you on that island if anything happens to her.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less.” I hopped off at the stop and ducked through the gate, keeping to the shadows. The island was small, and I had her location on my phone. Finding her would be easy—with the steadily growing worry pounding through me, going slow enough to not get caught would be more difficult.

I wove my way along the grass at the edge of the paths, staying in the shadows of the tall pines. Raised voices carried on the light wind, in the same direction I’d been traveling.

Please let that be you carrying your phone, Scarlett. Please be alright.

Lights came into view, and I slowed. I had to judge the threat before leaping in. At a cross between two of the main paths through the southern cemetery, two figures stood atop a raised grave with a tall statue. Noah and Scarlett. A third voice joined their conversation, but I could only see the two people. A spray of dirt flew out of a hole by their feet.

I neared them, slowly, heading for the ten-foot-high crypt directly in front of me. The moon provided light for me to see them, but also provided shadows at the side of the crypt. Their lamps would ruin their night vision, so I’d be nearly impossible to see.

As I crept closer, Scarlett said, “What would have happened to Emmett if I’d given your thug the ring?”

“What’s she talking about, Noah?” asked another man. His voice was familiar. Like a man whose cheek I’d smashed my fist into for trying to steal Scarlett from me. How was Thomas Maguire here? And what were they doing?

I settled into my hiding spot, barely twenty feet away from them.

Noah held one of the lanterns at his side. “We would have released Emmett, exactly as he’d said.”

“Explain, Noah. Were you trying to sneak the ring out of London without telling me?” Thomas’s voice dropped an octave, the grating quality of it magnified. “I think the more important question is, what would have happened to my treasure if the bitch had handed over the ring?”

They were working together. Thomas was the inside source. That made so much sense. He’d given us the location of every security camera in the Maguire mansion, plus the code for the Codex’s drawer.

I hauled out the phone and texted Rav.Noah and Thomas Maguire are with her, along with at least one other guy I can’t see. It doesn’t look good.

He replied almost immediately.I’m calling the police. Get her out of there.

The man in the hole straightened, so I could see the top of his head. “I hit metal.”

Another man stood up in the hole, roughly the same height as the first. How was I going to rescue her? How fast could the diggers get out of the hole? Could I just show up and claim I wanted a cut? If Noah was the blue-haired clown, was Thomas one of them?

Were they armed?

What I would have given to have a Reynolds earpiece in my ear right now, so I could let Scarlett know the cavalry were on their way.

“Answer me!” shouted Thomas, who pulled a gun from his waist and pointed it at Noah. Fuck. That answered that question.

Chapter 41

Scarlett

Thomasthrustthegunin Noah’s direction, locking his elbows in the most unnatural position I’d ever seen.

Noah’s eyes refocused, and he shook his head. “Put that thing away before you hurt yourself. Have you ever even fired a gun? You are quite literally pointing over my shoulder.”

Thomas sneered. “You backstabbing—”

“Calm down. Our working relationship is almost at an end. You fire that gun and it’s going to echo around the entire lagoon and bring the cops down on us. Use your brain.”

That was exactly what I was trying to do—use my brain. I’d played right into Noah’s hands. All the men around me wanted to win. But I’d done the same thing. I wanted answers, wanted to believe that I knew best, that I was strongest. Now I was in a cemetery on an island in the middle of the Venetian lagoon, with a couple of madmen and two thugs who could snap my neck without a thought.

If you don’t make plans, people die, right, Scar? Right.

Noah’s supposed death two years ago had planted that fear in my brain. And now here he was, standing next to me. And because I was good at planning, the lunatic wanted me to work with him.

Coming to the island had been a stupid choice. I already knew enough about what happened to Noah the moment I saw him. If he hadn’t gotten in touch with me, and he still knew who I was, it had been his choice. It didn’t matter if it was because of my mother—if that was even true. He made a choice. He picked himself over me and didn’t have the balls to break up with me like a normal person.

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