The Cocky Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 1)

by Mallory Crowe

  All three of the girls—Jennifer, Toni, and Melody—stood together. It was a funeral, but funny enough, most of the people there were dressed more casually than he’d seen them before.

  Toni wore black tattered jeans and a t-shirt. Melody was in a simple black knit dress and Jennifer was in black slacks and a silk black blouse.

  James Weston was off to the side, wearing black cargo pants and a black hooded sweatshirt. Hart stood a bit farther back from Weston, in dark jeans and a black sports jacket.

  The six of them were the only ones there, but Austin wasn’t surprised. Isobel was the type of person who had acquaintances in all corners of the globe, but not many friends. Everyone in his line of work signed on for this. A life full of adrenaline, adventure and, hopefully, money. But you were also always moving and looking over your shoulder; it didn’t leave room for a lot of friends and big funerals. Instead, you were laid to rest quickly and quietly and the world moved on. All you had were the whispers of your reputation and, in Isobel’s case, three women who were all formidable in their own right.

  Not too shabby, in his opinion.

  He looked over to Jennifer and for the briefest second, their eyes met before she looked away. She’d been avoiding him for days. Ever since the job.

  When they’d walked out of the building and seen Melody and Toni, Jennifer had known immediately that she was never going to see Isobel again. When she’d turned to him, he hadn’t hesitated to hold her as she let out her own sobs of grief and loss. And for a brief, selfish moment, he’d been happy.

  Not about Isobel, of course. But the idea that she’d turn to him. She would lean on him for comfort that he was more than happy to provide.

  But quickly it became apparent that Jennifer had very different ideas. She’d gone out with her sisters that night to discuss everything that had happened and never came back to the hotel room. He’d only known about the funeral because Hart had told him.

  Now that the casket was about to be lowered into the ground, this was his last chance to talk to her before she disappeared forever. And he might be a dick, but not even he was going to beg her to give him a chance at her mother’s funeral.

  He kept looking at her, willing her to make the first move. Willing her to do something to acknowledge him.

  Instead, Toni was the one who stared at him inquisitively.

  He narrowed his eyes, daring her to come over and tell him to leave her sister alone, but instead, she leaned over and whispered something into Jennifer’s ear. And then, both of the sisters stared at him.

  They exchanged a few words, each appearing more agitated by the second before Jennifer finally turned from her sister and walked across the grass of the cemetery toward him.

  Shit. Even though this was what he wanted, he wasn’t totally prepared for what he was going to say either. He straightened and gave her a half-smile as she approached. “Hey stranger.”

  She stopped a few feet away and for a few moments, she didn’t say anything. She just stared at him as though she was waiting to see what his next move was. Then she broke the awkward silence. “When’s the next funeral?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Word on the street is that Austin Miles is dead. There’s an army of computer nerds who have avenged his death by draining the bank accounts of Stranger’s most lucrative clients.”

  “According to the recent deposit into my checking account—my private checking account, by the way—I think your sister was a part of that.” And based off the size of the deposit, he was willing to bet that all of Stranger’s clients were dead broke by now.

  Her expression was still cold and unchanging. “Why did you do it?”

  “Stranger is a dick. I wanted to hurt him, so I told Toni to pull the trigger.”

  She shook her head. “No. If you wanted to hurt him, there are a thousand ways you could’ve done it. Now you don’t have anything. Your name, your reputation—it’s all done.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, Jen. I didn’t like the guy. I wanted him to suffer.”

  “I just— I don’t want you to have done it for me.”

  “What?”

  “You spent years and probably risked your life countless times to build your name. Now you have to give it all up and I don’t want that to be my fault.”

  Austin rubbed at the bridge of his nose and then ran his hand through his hair. “Stranger brought this all on himself. None of this is your fault.”

  “Tell me then. Tell me you didn’t do this for me. I can’t leave you thinking I screwed up your entire life.”

  “Thinking you... No. You didn’t screw up my life.”

  Jennifer’s brow was so furrowed much that her head had to be pounding, so Austin finally decided to cut the bullshit. She was about to leave forever. Why not tell her exactly what he was thinking? “Hell yes, I did it for you. If it would make you happy, I’d go after presidents, dictators, and emperors. From now on, anyone who causes you even a stress headache is going to be on my shit list. So when we found out what happened to Isobel and you leaned on me for comfort, yes—from that moment, I knew that Stranger was going down. And if you don’t want to leave me thinking you screwed up my life then, for the love of God, don’t leave me.” Austin waited for her to laugh, slap him, or tell him how impossible it would be for them to have anything together.

  But all he got was more silence.

  “Jennifer, I—”

  “What would we even do?”

  “What?”

  “Together. If we gave this a chance... Would we go on dates? Long walks on the beach? Maybe the two of us are just too strange for a relationship.”

  For the first time that day, he seemed to let go of the weight that had been pressing down on him ever since they took down Stranger and let out a loud and long laugh. “Oh, Jen. I know exactly what we would do.”

  (Sometime in the not too distant future)

  “We’re not having this conversation right now,” snapped Jennifer into the phone as she paced in front of the doorway at the edge of the lavish ballroom.

  Her heels clacked against the floor as she paced. She was well aware of the eyes that darted to her as her voice became more and more elevated. “I told you that it doesn’t matter how much you beg. We’re over and nothing is ever going to change that! And if you ever call me again—”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the door behind her pop open and she gave one more, “This is over and it’s never going to start again,” before she slipped through the open door.

  “We have sixty seconds before the cameras are back on.” Austin took her hand and they both ran through the hall until they reached the service elevator.

  She turned and looked for any sign of someone following them, but so far the coast was clear. “You were able to plant the bug in the security cameras?”

  “Yeah, about that...” Austin crouched down as he pulled the wiring for the access pad on the service elevator. He went silent as his hands deftly used a wire stripper to expose some of the copper; he touched it to another wire, allowing the elevator doors to open.

  “About that?” repeated Jennifer, trying to get the whole story.

  “The EMP didn’t work. I had to improvise.”

  “How did you improvise to shut down the cameras?”

  “I unplugged them,” he said with a half-smile as the elevator started to climb up.

  “You unplugged them?” she asked skeptically.

  “The dime-a-dozen security guys were all too distracted with the crazy lady on her cell phone.” He winked.

  “The son of a bitch left exactly two sips of milk in the carton. Did he expect me to take that lying down?”

  “I love that you get into character, but I told you a hundred times that I was sorry about that. And you were arguing with a dead phone.”

  “Hell hath no fury like a woman who suddenly had to eat dry cereal for breakfast.”

  Austin turned on her and ad
vanced, pushing Jennifer into the back corner. “If memory serves, I made it up to you later that morning.” He leaned in closer. “Twice.”

  Jennifer’s lips curled up and she had to remind herself that they were on a job. “Well, if I’d talked about that, I’d get an entirely different kind of attention, wouldn’t I?”

  The doors dinged open and Austin and Jennifer both separated as they started down the hall quickly.

  “The cameras will be back on by now,” he pointed out as he reached over to hold her hand, “but the digital storage software they have takes a bit to catch up. The guards downstairs are seeing us but they won’t be able to pull up any of the footage.”

  “So we’re supposed to play the happy couple?” Jennifer wrapped her free hand around Austin’s tie and pulled him down for a kiss.

  They kept moving down the hall, but now they were stumbling along, more interested in each other than anything around them. Austin let go of her hand and instead ran his palm down the small of her back and over the curve of her ass.

  Jennifer was breathless by the time Austin pulled away. “We’re here,” he whispered.

  She didn’t normally wish jobs would take longer, but sometimes Austin messed with her judgment.

  She reached into her cleavage and pulled out the hotel room key from where she’d stashed it in her bra. “Let’s get this over with then.” When she turned to insert the key, Austin ran his nose along her neck and pressed a quick kiss to her shoulder.

  “And here I thought you liked it when I take things slow.”

  She scoffed as she inserted the keycard she’d picked off their mark downstairs. “You’re insatiable.”

  The light turned green and they were in. As frisky as Austin had been in the hall, he snapped right into business once they entered the room. “The safe is going to be in the closet.”

  He pulled on a pair of latex gloves and handed her a pair as well. She’d made sure not to leave a print on the handle, but pretty much any print on the outside of a door was useless in court. However, once inside the room, that was a different story.

  She opened the closet and pushed aside the hanging clothes to reveal the small room safe. Luckily the current tenant was relatively neat. One of the joys of being a thief was that when you invaded someone’s privacy, they didn’t normally clean up for you. “Do you think it’s here?” She pulled out the safe and moved it to the bed.

  “We saw him make the exchange downstairs and you made sure he didn’t keep it with him.”

  She shuddered as she thought of the dance she’d shared with the mark. “He was doing his damn best to make sure I wasn’t hiding any diamonds on me either.”

  Austin’s lips tightened. “Which is going to make this all the more sweet.”

  He reached for the safe but she pulled it toward her. “Please, I can do this in my sleep. I had to dance with the guy.” She reached for the dial and turned it counterclockwise until the pin clicked free.

  Austin took the safe from her and tipped it on its side before he gave it a sound smack with his hand. “And I was the one who made sure none of this was going to be caught on camera, thereby keeping our asses safe.”

  She moved over and used her hips to push him aside as she got the safe back. She turned the dial clockwise this time and the pin, knocked loose from his hit, fell right into place. The safe popped open. “Never gets old.” She smiled.

  “You owe me for that one.” Austin reached in and pulled out the black felt bag. After loosening the strings, he tipped it over and the ring popped out.

  Jennifer sucked in a breath. “I knew it was pretty, but this is next level.”

  Austin held it up to the light and the thirty-three carat Asscher-cut Krupp diamond sparkled even in the dim lighting of the room. “This doesn’t look right...” muttered Austin.

  “It looks perfect.” Jennifer reached for it.

  Austin caught her hand in his before he slid the ring over her ring finger. “There. Now it looks perfect.”

  “What happened to returning this to its rightful owner?” She stared in wonder at the giant diamond on her hand. As pretty as it was, she could never imagine wearing it every day. It would make way too much noise while climbing around in an air vent.

  “Oh, this will get back where it needs to go.” The small museum that housed the historic ring had been broken into three weeks before, and when Austin and Jennifer found out the sale was going down, they couldn’t resist the urge to get it back.

  Thanks to the money Toni had nabbed for them on that fateful night, along with the proceeds of the Dragon Heart, Jennifer and Austin never needed to work another job again. But Jennifer had never been a quitter...

  “But I do like the look of a ring on your finger.”

  She bit her lip as she looked up at him. “Austin, you’re not allowed to propose to me on a job.”

  “This isn’t a job. This is a date.”

  She couldn’t help her smile. She wanted to play it cool and calm, but there was no question that if this was a real proposal, there was only one answer. So instead of playing it cool, she stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips against his. “I have a feeling that on our next date, we’ll find a ring that works much better.”

  ~~~THE END~~~

  THE BEAUTIFUL THIEF

  Coming in March 14th, 2017

  Melody was the one that got away. The one time Adam couldn't finish the job. The one time his conscious got the better of him.

  Now she's back and Adam has two options: Kill her or help her get the revenge she deserves.

  No matter how convincing her arguments may be or how distracting he finds her, he was raised on one staunch principle that has kept him alive so far. Never trust a pretty face.

  One Click Today!

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  To be notified when THE BEAUTIFUL THIEF is released, sign up for Mallory's Mailing list at: mallorycrowe.com/free/

  (A sneak peek at the second book in The Stolen Hearts series)

  Copyright 2017 Mallory Crowe

  Melody led the oversized lunk to the bed. He wasn't super tall, just over six feet, but the man was all muscle. A trait that had terrified her back in San Francisco when he'd been one of the only things between her and freedom.

  She wanted to gently place him on the mattress, but he fell in an ungraceful lump, groaning as he landed. A brief moment of shock filled her as she realized that Blondie really was there. In her bed and at her mercy...

  She took a deep breath and backed away. He looked like he was going to pass out any minute now and she couldn't let him go unconscious until she got what she needed from him. There wasn't much she knew about interrogations, but she was aware that intimidation wasn't her strong suit.

  Could she pull off being a "good cop"? She backed away and took in the scene. The bed took up most of the hotel room, and Blondie seemed to fill it completely up even though it was a king. His eyes were open but they didn't seem to be seeing anything. He groaned once more and she ran to the sink right outside the bathroom and filled one of the small glasses with water before setting it next to him on the nightstand. Okay, there. Now she was nice. Now she could try to get him to tell her what she needed to know.

  There were no guests that could walk in on them at any moment. There were no thugs that could come back to finish the job they'd started on Blondie. It was just her and him and she wasn't giving him a break until he told her what she needed to know. "Tell me your name," she ordered.

  Blondie winced before he met her eyes. His irises were such a pale blue they almost appeared grey. His jaw was showing the beginning signs of swelling and she was sure that by tomorrow he'd look almost unrecognizable.

  He was dressed in the standard henchman outfit of a black suit, white shirt and black tie. It didn't look natural on him. This was a guy meant for jeans and hard labor, not thousand dollar suits. It probably didn't help that this particular suit probably came off the bargain rack somewhere.

&nbs
p; The rough blonde stubble along his jaw just added to the disheveled image. She had a sudden memory of the last time she'd seen him. When he'd caught her in the basement and Isobel had appeared. He'd tried to keep her quiet so her mother wouldn't know she was there. That stubble had rubbed against her neck as he'd warned her what happened if she screamed.

  But it hadn't mattered.

  "Hey." She grabbed his probably sore jaw between her thumb and other four fingers and turned his head to face hers. "Tell me your name."

  Those cold grey eyes met hers. "I told you not to come back."

  So he could talk. Her free hand reached inside her clutch and pulled out the handgun. "I already proved I'm not afraid to use this. I need your name and Baldie's name now."

  He opened his mouth to say something, but started to cough instead, little drops of blood shooting out. Melody jumped away, narrowly missing the small red projectiles. He was going to ruin the bedspread. She ran to the bathroom once more and pulled all the towels off the rack hanging above the toilet and when she went back to the bed, she set the towels around the man.

  Now that she thought about it, she could afford any damage fees they charged her and it wasn't like Blondie was going to report her to the cops, but instincts were hard to push away. In her old life, one tried their best to keep blood off of the bed sheets.

  One more reminder of how much things had changed.

  He started to cough again, and she held the water out to him. "This is the last time I ask nice. Tell me the name of the man you worked with."

  He pushed the water away. "I don't know what's in that."

  She rolled her eyes. Really, if she wanted to cause him harm, she didn't need to poison him. She brought the glass to her lips and tilted her head back as she downed half the contents in a few deep gulps.

  She held the glass out to him once more and to her surprise, Blondie pushed himself up, taking the glass away from her and setting it on the nightstand. Right as the realization that he wasn't nearly as injured as she thought hit her, so did the dizziness.