Page 26 of The San Marco Heist

Jayce’s nose wrinkled. “What’s so special about that ring? It looks like something we could easily reproduce. It’s just dull gold and—”

Brie tapped her tablet and the image shifted to a closeup of some markings—crosses and letters. “We haven’t tracked down any history or provenance for the ring, but Will suggested he might visit a couple of museums to get their thoughts on it.”

Scarlett leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. “This isn’t one of our normal jobs. There won’t be any payment, and we’re not even going to spend the time to find out who the ring really belongs to. Whether we’re stealing it from the rightful owner or not, this is about Emmett. Not my conscience. I understand if any of you choose not to participate, for whatever reason.”

Evelyn snorted. “Iwon’t understand.”

“On top of all that, we’re going in without all the information. I don’t like how much of a risk this is, but I’ll go by myself if I have to.”

“You’ll have me,” I said.

Rav’s eyes settled on me, his earlier threat repeated silently. “So I definitely need to go.”

“And me.” Jayce took a cookie from the box she hadn’t shared. “I was just saying yesterday morning I wanted to go back to London.”

Declan waggled his long fingers. “And no offense to Jayce, but if there’s a possibility they have something more complex than she can open, you’ll need me. This isn’t like last weekend, when you could fly me in with a week to spare. I’m coming, too.”

The photo on the big screen shifted to a manor house of—if I had to guess—thirty thousand square feet. Covered in pale stone with Corinthian columns and rows of tall windows.

“This is our location. They’re holding their daughter’s wedding reception in one week’s time with over two hundred attendees. There’s a chance we can get in before that, using the chaos of final preparations as cover, but it’s just as likely one or more of us will be attending. Go home and pack. Standard equipment plus black-tie wedding attire. Anything you don’t have can be sourced once we’re on the ground in London.” Scarlett tapped the television with a knuckle, and the image switched to one of Emmett from the video.

Jayce and Declan tensed. This must have been the first time they’d seen it.

Evelyn didn’t flinch. That was her son with the bloody, swollen face. This was a strange family, and my curiosity just kept growing stronger.

“This is our goal,” said Scarlett, scanning the team. Her eyes paused on me, a flicker of doubt disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. “The jet is wheels up in one hour. So pack fast.”

Chapter 11

Scarlett

Ouroverpricedcompanyjetsat up to sixteen in plush leather seats and could sleep seven in fully flat beds. Split into three small cabins with one private suite at the back, purchasing it was a battle I’d fought Mum on for months. At long-range, she could fly us from home to anywhere but Australia and New Zealand direct—high-speed flight cut out parts of Southeastern Asia and Africa. Given the range and the sleeping arrangements, I’d eventually conceded.

Malcolm and I sat across from each other in the aft cabin. Four seats on our side, another two across the aisle, and a folding table which could cross the width of the plane. Said table was covered in printouts from the original dark web proposal for the Chalcis Ring recovery, which matched the information from the clowns perfectly. They must have been behind the dark web request.

There were a lot of starting points, but everything lacked detail. We had the name of the Albrecht’s architect, but no floor plans other than a hand-drawn sketch of the main floor. The name of the event planning company, but no guest list.

Brie and Will fed information to our tablets as they found it, but it wasn’t coming fast enough.

I’d been right to decline the job when Mum brought it up.

After the first hour of flight, Jayce and Declan had converted the seats in the forward cabin into two single beds and were sleeping. Rav was setting up the divan in the VIP cabin as well. Strange. He wasn’t normally one to sleep during travel, beyond leaning a chair back and closing his eyes.

Malcolm yawned, flipping between documents on his tablet, which was flat on the table. “We should try their insurance company. Even if the ring isn’t legal and off their books, we could find some details about their security measures. Alarm discounts, notes about jewelry in safes—”

“No, we already decided.” I matched his yawn. Get more coffee or not? We still had four hours on the plane. “Architect first. We need the floor plans.”

“Will can get the insurance information while Brie’s pulling up the other details.” He was on my last nerve. Beyond my last nerve. Every suggestion I made, he countered. Every reasonable decision, he thought he could shoot it down.

“You work alone, don’t you?”

He leaned on the table and dropped his head into a hand, blinking those stormy blue eyes at me. “The way you say it almost sounds like an insult.”

“I’m in charge of this team. The sooner you accept that, the smoother everything goes.”

“You don’t like being challenged.”

“No, I’m tired.”

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