Page 70 of The San Marco Heist

“I think…” I was not saying this. I wasn’t giving up on my brother. “I think we need to abort and regroup.”

There had to be options other than a bomb threat.

Malcolm ran his hand over my cheek, and I nestled my face against it.

I just needed a minute. Maybe two. I needed to think. There had to be a way out of this.

“Thomas Maguire’s in the pool area, on the other side, talking to someone. He’s still watching you.”

“Calling in a bomb threat is not an option.”

Malcolm’s brows drew down. “What?”

Rav’s voice rose above all the others in my earpiece. “I can do that.”

“I can trigger an alarm from inside the house,” said Brie. “Fire, police, whatever you need.”

As though Malcolm were in my head, he said, “No, that’ll just ensure the security personnel clear every room and we wouldn’t have any time alone in here.”

“Unless you hide?” suggested Will.

Two men strolled into the lounge from the car-ogling area.

“Can’t believe Hugo pulled that off,” said the taller one. “I told him there was no way he’d find someone willing to sell, but—”

“The man’s a genius.” His companion raised his glass full of amber liquid and the two joined the women. “What’s Camilla brought out tonight?”

There were now eight people in the lounge with us, two men in the car gallery, and I didn’t want to check how many around the pool. If Thomas Maguire caught my eye, he might make his way over. If he wasn’t already.

I cupped the back of Malcolm’s neck and pulled him close, so I could keep my mouth hidden from the pool deck. “Brie, keep an eye on Maguire. Let us know if he moves in our direction.”

“Got it, but I have a lot going on here right now.”

“Fuck,” I breathed. “Call Ash and tell her she’s got a job once she’s no longer working for the US government.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously.” I needed more high-level analysts on the team. And if Ash’s boyfriend were doing his job and accompanying us on this mission, she would have been keeping the same hours Brie was to bring us home safe. “Now I need ideas.”

Malcolm pulled back to look at me. “There’s only two people left with the cars. We should go in there. More privacy.”

“But it’ll be too quiet.” I could nearly talk at full volume in the lounge, since there were so many people around us. “Talking’s easier here.”

“We look suspicious just standing together.” His gaze moved past me, to the wall of shelves.

“I can see you on the camera,” said Brie. “You look like you’re having a quiet conversation and are giving off total give-us-privacy vibes.”

“We can work with that.” Malcolm ran a hand over my cheek, letting it drag down my neck. If the adrenaline wasn’t spiking so hard through both of us, it might have been tender. “Brie or Will, can you get into anything beyond their security system? Personal computers? Network? Cloud access to files? Maybe the blueprints?”

“No,” said Will. “We tried.”

Malcolm’s hand trailed down my arm, which kept up the privacy vibes very well. “What about the glass over the ring? Thick? How does it open? If we’ve got control of the security feeds and we can pop it open, we just need to keep everyone’s eyes off what we’re doing.”

“I didn’t see a—” I started.

Brie cursed under her breath. “The security program also lists every alarm contact. Front door, back door, numbered windows—”

My stomach dropped before the words were out of her mouth.

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