Page 41 of The San Marco Heist

“I’ll find out,” said Rav over the comms. He was doing his own recon today, meeting with some old friends he’d served with on overseas deployments who were now in private security. If one of them was working the party on Saturday, they’d be a significant asset. “Signing off now.”

“They’re sitting down for brunch.” Declan was following the Albrechts, who were attending a wedding party brunch in the city center. That gave us at least an hour and a half to get in, survey the house, and get out. “I’ll be on mute, but I’ve got the video feed on my phone.”

“Speaking of which—Brie, Will, keep the chatter down today, okay?” I was used to carrying on multiple conversations at a time, listening to them in my ear while having a full discussion with the person in front of me.

Malcolm, not so much. And even though he pissed me off, he’d shown he was an asset, and I had to swallow my feelings and help ensure his success as part of the team.

As we neared the front door, Malcolm and Jayce fell into step behind me. Her job was to scout for ingress points and identify any areas the drone may have missed. His was to stay with me, stay quiet, and flutter his eyelashes when needed.

Pale Cotswold stone covered the house. The front door, facing south, was flanked by two Corinthian fluted columns on each side, echoing the columns which stood at the corners of the building. Tall windows with decorative stone arches over them lined every wall.

Two of the third-floor rooms, built into the mansard roof, had balconies with stone balustrades, which resembled the columns at the front and corners. From those balconies, there was access to a narrow walkway around the home’s perimeter, except for the space over the pediment at the front. If there would be any security personnel up there, they wouldn’t have a full circuit around the house. They’d have to start at one side of the pediment, trace the walkway around the full perimeter, then turn around and retrace their route.

As we took the last few steps to the front door, I put the final touch on my costume:Panic mode. I tightened my muscles, drew up my shoulders, and widened my eyes before rapping on the immense door. “I hope someone’s home.”

“I can’t believe you did this,” hissed Jayce.

I knocked again, harder. “Please be home, please be—”

The door opened to reveal a young woman with her long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. Cleaning gloves and white sneakers.

Bingo.

“I’m sorry, but—”

“Oh my god!” I flung my hands out in front of me, nearly sending the clipboard in my hands flying. “I’m so happy you’re here! We need to get in to do our estimate.”

The woman’s brows furrowed and she looked blankly at me. She started again, “I’m sorry, but—”

“We’re with the Blue Luxe clean-up crew.” Irritation wafted off Jayce as she stepped forward, arms folded. “We were supposed to be here with the rest of the team yesterday to do our estimates, butsomeonegot the schedule wrong.”

“Stop,” I said from the corner of my mouth.

“I’m sorry,” said the cleaning woman, “but the homeowners aren’t here right now.”

“That’s okay.” I shook my free hand, telegraphing my stress to her. “If you could just let us in, we’ll be so quiet you won’t know we’re here.”

She shook her head, giving me a rueful smile. “I’m not allowed to let anyone in.”

“Shit,” I muttered, putting a hand to my head.

Jayce snorted. “You are so fired.”

Malcolm stepped forward, inching his way in front of me. Let the eyelash fluttering begin.

“I, um…” The cleaning woman looked up at him, obviously holding back a smile.

He dipped his head toward her while Jayce made a quiet sound of disgust. He lowered his voice—not to a whisper, but to make it seem like they were having a private moment. “We were supposed to be here yesterday with the rest of our team, but we had a scheduling mix-up. My colleague is right though. If it gets back to our boss that we either didn’t get our estimate done or even that we were a day late, at least one of us is going to be looking for a new job. Is there any way you can help us out?”

She glanced inside the house, chewing on her bottom lip. She was thinking. That was something we could work with.

I took a half step forward, coming into contact with Malcolm’s arm. To display a little more anxiety, I gripped his bicep as if it were the only thing stopping me from shaking all over. “We just need to see the areas where the party is going to be. We’ll evaluate the rooms, I’ll skip the measurements and eyeball it, but we just need to see the space we’ll be cleaning up after the party.”

The lip worrying ended abruptly. “You’ll be cleaning up after the party?”

I nodded quickly. “Full-service event planning.”

Her shoulders relaxed, and she smiled at Malcolm. “It took me two days to clean up after their last party. It’s a relief they’re having someone do it for me this time.”

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