Page 20 of The San Marco Heist

She was mistrustful—evident by the fact that she kept a loaded gun by her front door, let alone how quickly she’d pulled it on me and rushed her friends out of the house. She was cautious—she used the cuffs and secured me to the vehicle. And she was calculating—it was all questions and trying to figure me out.

Emmett was nothing like her. He was loud and brash, not to mention a risk-taker. He liked everyone and everyone liked him. She was definitely the oldest.

I sat in the chair and folded my arms to mirror her, attempting to gain some psychological connection. “You claim you don’t know about the Codex, but I’m betting you do. Emmett told them as much. But if you won’t hand it over, that either means your brother’s life isn’t worth much to you…”

Brie’s face pinched. Emmett’s lifewasworth a lot to them. She was more emotional than anyone else in the room, and she knew it. She also telegraphed it by the way she kept her head down.

“Either that or you don’t have it.”

Scarlett undid her folded arms and clasped her fingers instead. Interesting. Was she intentionally moving out of the position I’d shared with her? “Go on.”

“Your next play would be to offer them money.”

“No.”

I waited a beat, but she didn’t explain. What was she doing?

Of course.

She wanted me to go through suggested actions, in case I slipped up somewhere and revealed that I knew everything. That’s why she’d shifted her arms into a different position than mine—she was trying to unbalance me.

“Alright, your next option would be to contact the police. You’re hoping I know where they’re keeping Emmett, or maybe you’re even thinking that you can trace their call. Then you alert the authorities.”

Brie looked at Scarlett from the corner of her eye. “Good plan.”

I stood and paced the length of the table. Movement gave me power—maybe that would work with her. “No, it’s not a good plan. Three masked gunmen with more information than they should have. If you call the authorities, the next question is how long would a standoff last? Would they be able to save Emmett? Is there a chance he gets shot in the process?” No, if she was as smart as I suspected she was, that option was off the table. “You’re not going to call the authorities. Your next choice is money. How much was the Codex worth?”

“Three point four million.”

“And you say you don’t have it. So, do you have the money?”

The corner of Brie’s mouth slid up for a fraction of a breath before she contained it.

I had to pay more attention to her while I talked to Scarlett. “I’ll assume money’s not an issue for you. So, if the authorities aren’t an option and you have the money available, go with money.”

Scarlett leaned over to peer at Brie’s tablet. “Who invited you to the poker game?”

No indication if I was right at all? Why go through the whole exercise? “I don’t reveal my sources.”

Her gaze shifted to me, just as impassive as the last hour. “Money isn’t the next step. You told me those gunmen came into the game and targeted Emmettandyou. It wasn’t a coincidence. They took both of you for a reason. The first step in finding out that reason is tracking down whoever invited you. Because the odds are that person invited my brother, they’re tied in with the clowns, and no matter how this plays out with Emmett, it will not end well for them.”

I flipped my watch over and tapped the face a few times. “They’re going to call within the next five minutes. We can talk about that after. I want to know the plan, so I don’t sound like an idiot.”

Brie’s shoulders bounced in quiet laughter, and Will—giant head on the television—couldn’t hide that he’d bit down on his lip.

Scarlett though?

Nothing.

“What if they ask you to steal the Codex back?”

“We didn’t steal it.”

“Fine. What if they ask you to do a different job?”

“When you say job, what does that mean to you?” Scarlett gave me so little to go on. Open-ended questions, eyebrow raises, and not a flicker of emotion. As a man whose entire livelihood was about understanding what made people tick, this enigma was steadily becoming my nemesis. Or the sexiest fucking thing I’d ever encountered.

I scanned all three faces in the room. They did all work together, right? Was the setup in the office with all the professional-looking desks just for show? Or were Brie and Will part of a legitimate business, while Scarlett and Emmett—plus whoever hit me on the head with the elephant—part of the covert element? The illicit element? “Emmett said the company is called Reynolds Recoveries. He said you recover stolen goods. So byjob, obviously I mean recover something else that was stolen, other than the Codex.”

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