Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Something about that had Miko’s brow lifting ever so slightly. “And where did you find those ashes?” he asked.
Damn, he was perceptive.
I liked that more than I should have.
It was one thing to be hot and skate by on your good looks. It was another to actually have a brain in that pretty head, too.
“His ex’s basement.”
“I’m assuming she didn’t open the door and invite you in to fetch them, did she?”
“She was knocked off on two sleeping pills and a bottle and a half of wine. As she was every night.”
“So, you’re a courier in that you bring something from point A to point B. But in that in-between…”
“I’m a thief, I guess,” I admitted.
“That makes a lot more sense. How the hell’d you get into that?”
“It was actually happenstance. I was going through a phase when I was trying to go legit. Stop stealing the wallets of finance bros and rich assholes. I got a part-time job catering parties.
“One day, a woman came in who I’d done a party for a few months before.”
She was a tall, leggy, icy blonde, with a face showing some of those first signs of aging. She zeroed in on me, pulling me away from the salad prep I was working on, and taking me outside where she’d lit a cigarette, exhaling it on a sigh.
“I missed these,” she’d admitted. “Used to be the key to staying thin. But when I got married, I was worried they might create those little lines on my upper lip, so I gave them up.”
I didn’t know what she wanted, so I said nothing, just waited for her to get to the point before I got in trouble for slacking off work.
“You catered my anniversary party a few months back,” she’d continued.
“Yes.”
“I spotted you immediately. That hungry look in your eyes. I saw a younger version of myself in you. Made me keep an extra close eye on you all night.”
“I didn’t take anything.” I’d sure as hell thought about it, but I hadn’t.
“I know. But you debated it. And I think you would have gotten away with it too. That’s why I’m here,” she’d gone on, blowing more smoke before fully turning to me. “You have another party coming up. Same place. My husband’s sixtieth birthday party.”
“Yeah, that rings a bell.”
“I guess it is more appropriate to say it is my soon-to-be ex-husband,” she said with a deep sigh, her pretty blue eyes going hard. Like she couldn’t imagine how her life had gone so sideways. “He’s going to marry his slut secretary he impregnated. Twenty-three. How the fuck could I compare?”
I wanted to tell her that she was gorgeous. Because she was. She was probably one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen up close. But I knew what she meant. Men, especially the rich and powerful ones, liked new and shiny things—like she’d once been but was no longer.
“Anyway,” she said, biting off the words. “He is going through with the party I planned for him, but I am not invited. In fact, I am banned from the penthouse.”
That, clearly, pissed her off even more than being replaced. And why shouldn’t it? She was, no doubt, the one who had put the labor of love into it: paint, fabrics, the china in the cabinets, the impressive stock of every kind of liquor glass, from rocks to coupes and highballs. It was a slap in the face not to let her back into her own home because he went and followed his dick to greener pastures.
“Asshole,” I’d said, unable to help myself.
“Indeed, he is,” she’d agreed, flicking her cigarette to the ground and crushing it under her red-soled shoe. “That is where you come in. I was escorted out before I could do more than pack a single outfit.”
“You want me to steal something for you.”
“I want you to steal my entire jewelry collection for me. I am not going to let that cheating bastard give it to her.”
“I’m not a thief,” I’d insisted, but I’d watched the way her brow lifted and her lips twitched. “Anymore,” I’d conceded.
“In exchange for it, I will give you ten grand.”
“Ten grand was more money than I’d ever seen at one time,” I told Miko.
“So you agreed to do it.”
Of course I had.
I already knew the apartment from the last party. And thanks to the wife, I had an exact location as well as a code to get into the safe where she kept her finest jewelry.
From there, it wasn’t hard work. I would slip away from work and into a nice dress. I would put a wig on my hair and some heavy eye makeup, so my coworkers didn’t recognize me right away. A little superglue on my fingers to disguise my fingerprints.
Then it was just a little sidestep into the primary bedroom, into one of the walk-in closets, past tons of designer clothing, and toward the back wall where the safe was hidden behind a painting.