Page 48 of The San Marco Heist

I also shouldn’t have felt relief that the shared room was all part of the cover.

Rav folded his broad arms and frowned. “I have good news and I have bad news. Which do you want first?”

“Always the bad first, Rav, so we end on the upswing,” said Evelyn from her screen.

“I met with an old friend this morning who’s in private security. There’s going to be a lot of people worth a great deal of money there, so the Albrechts are hiring out. He confirmed there will be five men working the party. Unfortunately, two of them know me, but they aren’t the type I’d trust to stay quiet when they see me.”

“Use a disguise. We can—”

“Sorry, Scar, but I need to sit this one out.” He placed a hand on her arm and dropped his voice. “This isn’t a job where the risk is to a thing. This is about Emmett.”

She looked at Will. “Do you have a tux?”

Will’s eyes flew wide, and his hands darted up. “Hold on there. I don’t do—I mean—I’m support, Scar. I can’t—”

“Mingle?” The word sounded as dirty on Brie’s lips as it likely would have on Will’s.

Scarlett looked at me. If her mother hadn’t been there, how many swear words would have poured out of her mouth? “I guess we need to head back into town this afternoon for a tux.”

An almost sick level of pleasure pushed aside my earlier irritation. No longer relegated to driving. No longer the backup, but I’d be front-and-center. And I’d have her on my arm while I did it.

Not to mention I’d have her in my bed tomorrow night. “I’ll move my things into our room first thing tomorrow morning.”

Scarlett was quiet for a beat, not budging, barely breathing. “It’s a two-room suite.”

Chapter 20

Malcolm

Jaycemovedaroundtheteam, offering pastries to everyone. I declined and suggested she eat mine. Her eyes lit up and she grabbed a sugar-dusted scone with bits of red fruit popping out of it.

Scarlett passed on the food and turned back to Rav. “What’s the good news?”

“That same friend will be working the door. He didn’t have a guest list, but he gave me a copy of the invitation so we can produce two. Plus, he’ll ensure you get in without issue.” Rav took a bite of the croissant Jayce had given him.

“Evelyn.” Scarlett pointed at the screen. “Do you have any contacts in town who can replicate the invite?”

“I do.”

Rav continued. “It gets better. I told him we were on a rescue mission for a team member, and he offered whatever help he could provide. No one left behind.” He hesitated only long enough to glower at me. TheYou left Emmett behindglower. “He’s going to loan me his company’s armored Bentley. No rentals required, and I can drive you straight to the front door.”

“Thatisgood,” said Scarlett.

“Back to business?” Jayce licked some sugar off her fingers and gestured to the model. “The model’s handy, but we don’t know the value of the ring, so we don’t know if they’re more likely to store it in a small wall safe or a standing safe.”

Declan covered his mouth, chewing on a cheese Danish. “It’s a big, expensive house, but it’s not Fort Knox. It’s half the size of the Maguire mansion last week. There’s only so many places available to hide something.”

Jayce said, “If they’re even hiding it.”

“Let’s start at the beginning.” Scarlett gently lifted the roof level from the model and placed it to the side. “The kidnappers wanted the San Marco Codex, and when we couldn’t deliver that, they demanded the Chalcis Ring. There was barely any hesitation when they switched from one demand to the next. Could there be a link between them?”

My job last weekend had been to secure the Codex. No one had mentioned a ring to go with it, but my mystery employer had only brought me on for the one job. If we’d come away with the manuscript, maybe that small team—me, the woman on comms, and the inside source who’d provided us with the camera locations—would have moved on to the ring. Or maybe they’d already had a second team working on this.

If so, would that other team be at the reception?

I still couldn’t reveal any of that without Evelyn carrying out her threat. If Rav let me live long enough.

They wouldn’t actually kill me, would they? They didn’t mention carrying weapons other than the one Scarlett had pulled on me at her house, so these were empty threats.

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