The Cocky Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 1)

by Mallory Crowe

  Paranoid types like Stranger liked to have cameras and mics in every room of the house. If they were all on a local network, there would be wires crawling all over the place. A wireless system was much easier to maintain and set up, but it was just as easy to take down with one flick of a switch.

  Or in this case, one push of a button on a signal jammer powered by a car battery. There would be at least three minutes before they figured out what was happening and then another ten before they could find it.

  That would have to be enough.

  He used his knuckle to hit the button and didn’t wait a second before he started across the front lawn. The window to the room in question was locked, but he could get past that. He just needed to work fast.

  A few windows down was his pillowcase full of supplies. This required him to get in and out of the room without the guards posted in the hallway realizing.

  He’d had most of the morning to himself and had raided the supply closets for anything he needed. He even wandered into one of the guard’s rooms and picked up some additional fun toys, though ones he hoped he didn’t have to use.

  Once he reached the door where the necklace was being held, he quickly got to it. He needed to break the glass without making a sound, so he started by laying down a quick layer of duct tape. The first time he’d done this it had taken over five minutes, but now that he’d practiced the technique on a few jobs, he had the window coated in sixty seconds. Then he set the throw pillow he’d borrowed over the glass and gave a firm hit with a hammer.

  The tape held the glass together and after a few hits in the right places, the glass all fell out in one piece. Austin set the glass down before he pulled himself into the room. No guards checking in yet, so that was a good sign.

  He looked through the darkness of the room, guessing where the necklace would be, but it wasn’t a hard guess. There was an armoire in a room that was obviously not a bedroom. He pulled open a cabinet door and there the safe was, just waiting for him.

  But before he could even get a crack at it, he noticed something off. He cocked his head as he reached for the door, which was already open. He pulled at the heavy steel and the door just swung open.

  Before he could question it, he reached inside for the black velvet box and, after flipping it open, confirmed the necklace was in fact there. The necklace was called the Dragon Heart because of its fiery red color. The impressive four hundred and seven carat diamond was cut in an oval shape and even in the dim light seemed to shine in the box. The chain was adorned with hundreds of smaller diamonds, but none of them had anything on the massive pendant. He held it up to the light streaming in from the window. It looked real enough to him.

  He pulled it from the box, gently slipped it into a velvet bag and then into his pocket. The safe had a few straps of cash and some other items. He was just taking whatever he could fit in his pockets when the door creaked open. Austin jumped up and reached for the gun tucked in his waistband, one of the toys he’d borrowed from the guards, as he turned around. To his surprise, Jennifer stood in the open doorway, looking at him disapprovingly.

  “Not cool, Lawyer,” she said in a cool voice as she walked inside the room and kicked the door shut. “My mother goes through all the trouble of opening that door and you think you can take what we’ve been setting up?”

  Austin looked around the room but there was nothing there to help him make sense of what he was hearing. “You set this up?”

  “Yes. In ten seconds, those guards are going to be back and I’d better have that necklace by then.” Austin narrowed his eyes as he started to replay all of his interactions with Jennifer and her family through his mind, but she didn’t give him a chance. “Please.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ve been lying to me since the second we met, so please don’t get all righteous with me. Now hand over the necklace.”

  Austin held up the gun. “I think you’re forgetting which of us is armed.”

  “In order to be afraid of that, I’d have to actually believe you’d shoot me. Now are you really that cold-hearted?”

  The door opened and Austin swung the gun around to see Melody there. “You two are seriously still here? They’re coming back right now.” Without waiting, Melody opened her mouth and let out a scream that would’ve woken the dead.

  Austin fell back. “You guys are crazy.” He turned and jumped out the window.

  “Hey!” called Jennifer.

  He turned to see her also crawling out the window.

  “Are you going to help me or not?” she asked right as she pushed herself out. On reflex, Austin reached out for her and caught her as she came down. “I think it’s time to run.”

  He took her hand in his and they ran for the darkness of the vineyard as he heard the guards come into the room. He didn’t hear anyone chasing after them, so he figured they got out before anyone noticed which direction they went.

  “This way.” Jennifer led the way through the vines, leading him farther and farther from the house. He’d wanted to pick off a car on his way out, but it looked as if that plan was shit now.

  He stopped and faced down Jennifer. “What the hell was that?” he demanded.

  He could just make out her questioning brow in the moonlight. “That was you committing armed robbery.”

  “You knew. You planned this whole thing.”

  “We arranged for the necklace to be here, we unlocked the safe and all we needed to do was pick up the package when you came in and profited off all of our hard work after seducing a vulnerable woman.”

  “Vulnerable? I don’t remember you protesting.”

  “Right. And you really followed me last night because you were that overcome by passion. You used me, Austin, or whatever the hell your name is. You lied to me and I don’t forgive easily.”

  “We weren’t exactly a couple,” he pointed out.

  “But that didn’t stop me from trusting you.”

  Logically, he knew it was her own fault for getting too close to fast, but he couldn’t help the shame that hit him. No. She’d been lying to him too. “Don’t play the innocent act with me. Acting like you’re just here for your mom’s wedding and introducing your innocent sister. Let me guess, she’s telling everyone right now that it was me who stole that necklace?”

  “Technically, you did.”

  “You set me up.”

  She scoffed. “You set yourself up. I was just there for the ride.”

  “Why are you?”

  “Excuse me?”

  He stared her down. “You’re here right now bickering with me when you should be putting on the waterworks back with your sister. Why?”

  She straightened. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “No. It’s very much not obvious.”

  “I’m here because I want to know how much of it was a lie. Every word?” She took a step closer. “Every kiss?” Closer. “Every touch? Exactly how badly were you playing me?”

  “I wasn’t,” he said softly. “What we had was just...fringe benefits.”

  “Fringe benefits?” She slammed her palms into his chest, but Austin braced for the blow and didn’t step back. So she curled her hand into a fist and took a swing at him, but Austin caught her wrist and the momentum of the punch had her falling right into him.

  The second her body was against his, her lips were on his mouth. He blinked in confusion before his eyes drifted shut and he kissed her back. He might never see her after this; he might as well enjoy the feel of her body in that tight-as-hell dress pressing up against him one last time. He thought back to those sexy legs he’d seen as he approached his seat in the plane, her husky laugh as they’d talked, her hooded gaze as she’d met his eyes across the table last night at dinner.

  As of right now, all that was over. He pulled away from her and fell back, his knees actually shaking from the mixture of adrenaline and desire. But as soon as the confusion from the kiss washed away, he had clarity. Austin pulled his gun back out and aimed it righ
t at Jennifer’s heart. “Give me back the necklace.”

  She smiled, but didn’t seem concerned at all as she pulled the velvet bag out from behind her back and dumped it upside down. The necklace fell into her palm and the jewels glittered in the moonlight. “It really is something, isn’t it? The feature diamond is four hundred and seven carats.” She ran her fingers over it before she met Austin’s gaze. “I bet I’d look pretty good in this and nothing else, don’t you think?”

  Hard to argue with that, but he wasn’t just another one of her marks. “You’re all out of distractions and I’m out of patience. Now hand it over.”

  Car headlights flashed on their faces. They’d definitely run out of time.

  “Fine,” she said petulantly as she dropped the necklace back in the bag and immediately threw it up in the air. Austin stepped forward to catch it as Jennifer started to run for the road. He barely caught the bag and started to run after her, but it was too late. The car came to a screeching halt and the back door flew open, allowing Jennifer to jump inside. “Better luck next time!” she called as the car drove off, leaving him alone and being hunted with no way out.

  “Fuck,” he muttered as he started to run for the wall. The stone wall was too high for him to climb and there was no way the front guard would let him walk out. How Jennifer’s getaway car was going to wander out now that the alarms were going off, he didn’t know, but that wasn’t his problem.

  As he ran, he pulled out his phone and managed to bring up Hart’s number. The phone connected, which was good and bad. Good because he could get a hold of Hart; bad because it meant they’d found and deactivated the signal jammer.

  “I need a ride,” he said as he kept on running. The wall was only a short ways up but if he didn’t have a way to get over it, he was screwed.

  “I’m on my way. Keep this call connected and I’ll track you.”

  He heard voices behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see beams of light dancing through the vines. “I’m going to need that sooner rather than later,” he said breathlessly into the phone. He had a head start, but they had quantity and a pissed-as-hell boss who wouldn’t be calling the cops if they found him. Austin would end up as fertilizer for next year’s crops if they caught up with him.

  “I’ve got you. Make it fifty yards up.”

  Fifty yards. He could do that. Dropping the phone in his pocket, he pumped his legs faster as the beams of light got closer. The lights just hit his legs as he saw the rope that was thrown over the wall. Now or never...

  He jumped mid-stride and used his momentum to propel himself up and grabbed the rope. The stone wall scraped his fingers, but he didn’t stop as he pulled himself up. Whoever was on the other side must’ve known he was there because they started to pull from their end. Between the two of them, he was rolling over the top by the time the shots started to hit the wall. The wall was meant to keep criminals out, but it also kept the bullets in, thank God.

  When he rolled over, he didn’t have a chance to check where he was falling, but he was able to tuck in all his limbs so at least he didn’t break anything. Though judging how hard he hit the dirt, he was going to guess his ribs had some bruises to show for the hassle.

  “No time for beauty rest.” Hart helped him up. “Let’s get going.”

  He felt his pockets to make sure the bag was there and groaned as he got back to vertical and fell into the SUV.

  And then Hart was flooring it and he finally got a chance to catch his breath. There were a few tense moments of silence as Hart drove through the dark streets without any headlights as they put distance between them and Stranger’s guys.

  “You got it?” asked Hart once they were far enough away to turn on his headlights.

  “I got it.” Austin took off his now ruined jacket and took the velvet bag out of his pocket.

  “Good. I was worried things didn’t go like planned when I heard the shots.”

  “Not as planned...that’s one way to put it.” More like things had blown up right in his face.

  “At least we have the necklace.” Hart reached behind him from the driver’s seat. “Let me see it.”

  Austin opened the bag and his blood ran cold. “Son of a bitch...”

  “Son of a bitch what? What’s wrong?”

  “She stole it from me. She actually stole it from me.”

  Greg Stranger threw his glass into the fire and the flames shot higher as the alcohol fueled it. “What do you mean they got away? There are twenty of you! How the fuck many of you do I need to keep one goddamn necklace safe?”

  The head of his security team, Oliver Welling, clenched his jaw. “This was a planned heist. We were right behind the guy as he hit the wall, but he had someone on the other side.”

  “Oh, it was planned? Of course, it was planned! I pay you to make sure these plans don’t happen!”

  “And I entrusted that your people would see to it.”

  Pain shot to Greg’s temples as the cool, calm voice cut through his anger. “Mr. Sterling. I’m so sorry about this. I’m going to get the Dragon Heart back, I swear. Isobel and I won’t rest until—”

  “Isobel is gone,” said Welling. “So are the two daughters. We think they’re in on it.”

  Greg snapped and he grabbed Welling’s lapels and pushed him back against the wall. “Don’t talk about my fiancée like that!”

  The hand on his shoulder reminded him that he wasn’t alone. “Let the man breathe,” ordered Sterling. “Why do you think they were a part of it?”

  Greg stepped back and Welling rolled his shoulders. Probably wasn’t used to being touched by other guys, but with what Greg paid him, he could fucking get used to it.

  “Besides the fact that they’re gone? Isobel Murray was the last person to see the necklace and she’s the one who put it back in the safe. She could’ve given the lawyer all the information he needed to break in.”

  “The lawyer who wasn’t a lawyer?” asked Sterling.

  Greg shook as the anger threatened to take over. This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go. It was his big night. His celebration with the love of his life. Not this...abomination. Sterling couldn’t see him lose it, though. Sterling couldn’t know the panic right under the surface. “The law firm vouched for him,” he said weakly.

  Sterling nodded as he walked across the room, his shoes on the hardwood the only sound as everyone waited to see what he would do.

  But Sterling couldn’t hurt him. He knew where too many of his skeletons were buried. Knew the twisted knot that was Sterling’s finances. No. Jonathan Sterling needed him.

  The man in question poured himself a drink before he turned back to Greg. “So, what are you going to do?”

  Plan. He needed a plan and it needed to work. “They couldn’t have gotten far. Whoever has the necklace will have to get out of town first. And then they’ll have to find someone stupid enough to buy the thing. They wouldn’t risk having it chopped up to be sold.”

  Sterling nodded before he took a drink. “I see you’re on top of it. Good. I’d hate to have this black mark on our relationship.”

  Greg nodded. “Of course, I—”

  “Give me a gun,” Sterling interrupted.

  “Why do—”

  “You just lost a necklace of mine worth thirty million dollars, so I don’t think you’re the one who should be asking questions.”

  Greg took a step back even as he looked to Oliver. “Give the man a gun.”

  His head of security flipped back his suit coat to reveal the shoulder holster and pulled out the Beretta. This guy had been a Navy SEAL and had seen shit Greg couldn’t even imagine but even he hesitated before he handed the gun over to Sterling.

  And a second later, Sterling shot Oliver right through the forehead. Greg flinched at the shot and stood unmoving for a few long moments, just staring at the blood splatter on his formerly pristine wall.

  Sterling set the gun on the table, completely confident Greg wasn’t going to go fo
r it. “In case it wasn’t clear, my money is important to me. My assets are important to me. My image is important to me. If any of your staff question my devotion to those things, I suggest you have them discuss it with our dearly departed friend here. I want a status report tomorrow morning.”

  Greg jerked out a nod and Sterling smiled, unconcerned with the body in the room.

  “It’s so pretty!” Isobel ran her fingers over the massive stone now resting right under her collarbone.

  “It’s definitely your color,” said Mel.

  Jennifer had to agree. The bright-red stone matched Isobel’s fresh red manicure and dark red lipstick.

  “It’s almost a shame it’s red. So many people will think it’s a ruby. They should all know just how special this piece is...”

  Jennifer didn’t think that would be a problem. She glanced out the curtains of the cheap motel they’d checked into, but didn’t see any chance of them being followed. That didn’t mean they weren’t. “It’s not going to matter, Mom. No one is going to see you wearing the necklace.” She let the curtains fall closed and looked over at Isobel. “You said you had a buyer lined up, right?”

  Isobel rolled her eyes, apparently upset with Jennifer’s lack of enthusiasm. But Jennifer knew her mother too well. Isobel was just as freaked out; she just refused to show it. None of them would feel safe until they were on a different continent and the necklace wasn’t in their possession any longer.

  Mel came out of the bathroom and ran a hand through her hair. The tenth time she’d done it since they got to the motel room a few minutes ago. “Why did we stop?” she asked. “We’re way too close to the vineyard. We need to be putting as much distance between us and them as possible.”

  Isobel sighed. “Ye of little faith.” She crossed over to the worn-looking armchair in the corner of the room and gave a good shove to the top corner until the chair fell over. Mel and Jennifer exchanged a look, but neither asked. Isobel did have a flair for the dramatic.