Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society #3)(21)

“I’m not sure you do.”

“Okay. Hale owes you. I’ll take good care of them for—”

Kat reached for the tube, but Nick pulled the blueprints out of her grasp. “Not so fast. I’m coming with them.”

He flashed a boarding pass of his own, Brussels to London one-way.

“You don’t have to do that, Nick. I know you’ve got school and stuff,” Kat said. “We’ll be fine without—”

“Oh, I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this so that these never have a chance to get back to your uncle. Or your father. I’m sentimental, Kat, not suicidal.” He eyed her. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“I have problems, Nick. But you aren’t one of them.” She headed for the plane and yelled over her shoulder, “Come on.”





“Does anyone have any questions?”

Kat sat at the front of the room, the complete blueprints of the Henley taped to the windows, standing between her and that million-dollar view. The lights of London bled through the thin paper, and it was like the documents were on fire. Kat only wished they didn’t feel quite so radioactive.

“Are you sure we can’t take those off your hands when we’re finished, Nick my boy?” Hamish asked with a nod.

Nick crossed his arms. “I’m sure.”

“But—” Angus started, but Kat cut him off.

“Guys, Nick didn’t have to do this. For us. Or for Hale.” She thought for a second about the animosity that had always coursed between the two of them, but didn’t linger on the question of why Nick had come. She was simply glad he had.

“In short,” she went on, “we owe him.”

“Hear, hear.” Hamish raised a glass of something they had found in Carlos’s refrigerator. “To Nick! And his very hot mum!”

“Thanks,” Nick said, but he didn’t sound like he meant it.

“So if there aren’t any questions…” Kat let the words draw out. She scanned the room, looking at the eager faces staring back at her. They would have done anything—gone anywhere—for her or for Hale. She felt a little dizzy with the knowledge that so much was riding on her not making any mistakes.

“Okay. Then I guess we’re good.”

They all got up to go, but Kat didn’t move. She just sat, staring.

“What’s the matter, Kitty?” Gabrielle threw open the door to the big Sub-Zero fridge and peered inside. “Cat got your tongue?”

Kat didn’t say a thing.

“If you’re worried about the timing…”

“Are we doing the right thing, Gabrielle?” Kat blurted, finally finding the words she hadn’t had the courage to say.

“Personally, I think the Wind in the Willows is a little dated, but if Simon says the cameras are—”

“Not the job. Is this…are we doing the right thing?”

“You’ve got to tell him.” Gabrielle’s tone was pointed, and Kat didn’t ask who “he” was. She didn’t have to.

She just looked down at the hardwood floor and said, “I know.”

“It’s his family, and he has the right to know.”

“I know,” Kat said again.

“So why haven’t you told him?”

“I don’t know, okay? The reading of the will was so crazy, and then I was going to… I was,” she said again, stronger, when Gabrielle gave her a skeptical look. “But what if Marcus is wrong?”

“He’s not,” Gabrielle said, certain.

“What if he is, Gabrielle? You didn’t see Hale. You didn’t hear him. His grandmother is the only person in his family he has ever cared about, and now she’s gone, but he’s got her company. So it’s like he’s got a piece of her. If we’re right about this… If we’re right, it’s going to be like losing her all over again.”

“So it’s better to let him go into this—whatever it is—blind? It’s better to let him be somebody’s mark?”

Kat knew it was her turn to speak—to say something to prove her cousin wrong. But the words didn’t come, and Kat just sat there.

“He deserves to know,” Gabrielle said again.

“You’re right. He does. But something about this…scares me.”

Gabrielle stepped back and crossed her arms, surveyed her cousin carefully. “Are you scared, or are you angry?”

“Why would I be angry?”

“Come on, Kitty Kat…” Gabrielle cocked her head. “You’re Hale’s secret girlfriend.”

“His what?”

“You know, the girl he likes just as long as no one knows it.”

“Everyone knows it.”

“No.” Gabrielle spun on her. “Everyone you know knows it. But I’m willing to bet he conveniently forgot to mention the G-word when you met his mother. What about his dad?” Gabrielle added. “And Little Miss Redhead? What’s her name?”

“Natalie,” Kat said.

“Yeah.” Gabrielle huffed. “I’m sure he was all lovey-dovey in front of her?”

Kat said nothing, and her cousin talked on.