Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society #3)(48)

On the stage, Hale’s father said, “But that would make you…”

“Junior,” Eddie said with a scowl, “you got old.”

“It’s Senior now,” Hale’s father spat. “Now I demand to know the meaning of this! My uncle Reginald is dead, and you’re nothing but an imposter. Get out of my building.”

“Actually, I’m not an imposter.” A thought seemed to occur to Uncle Eddie. “Which, I believe, makes this my building.” He gave a hearty laugh.

“I don’t believe it,” Senior said. “It can’t be. You cannot be—”

“Reginald?” Marianne’s voice was shaking. “Reginald, is that you?”

She looked beautiful, Kat couldn’t help but think. She wore a long black gown, and her gray hair was piled elegantly onto the top of her head. But it wasn’t just her clothing that had changed. There was a confidence, a grace about her as she said, “Reginald, it is you.”

The words were breathless, hopeful. She didn’t look like someone who had a seen a ghost. She sounded like someone lost in a dream.

“Hello, Marianne.” Eddie lingered on the word, then kissed her cheek. “You’re looking well, my dear.”

He gave her a sly wink, and when he pinched the maid’s bottom, Kat heard Hale’s aunt tell her husband, “Well, he certainly acts like Reginald.”

Then Eddie turned his attention to Hale. “So, I assume that you’re the young man who inherited Hazel’s half of the company.”

Only Garrett was able to speak. “Her…half?”

But Eddie didn’t bother to respond. He just kept studying Hale.

“Looks like you need to learn to hold your liquor.” Then he gave Hale a hard slap on the back and let out a loud, raucous laugh. “Who better to help you with that than me?”

“I don’t believe it.” Hale’s father was shaking his head. “I don’t believe you. Where have you been for fifty years? If you’re Reginald Hale, where did you go?”

Uncle Eddie smiled. There was a sparkle in his eyes, a glimmer. “Oh, that’s easy, Junior. I went crazy.”

For a groundbreaking piece of technology, Genesis was easily forgotten. Reporters yelled their questions for the old man, the new toy still covered with its cloth, shrouded in secrecy until another day. The catastrophe was averted and the spotlight had shifted, and Kat tried to savor the moment.

But then her cousin bumped her shoulder.

“Congratulations, Kat,” Gabrielle said. “He’s in. Of course, you know what this means.…”

“We’re going to need a Big Store,” Kat guessed.

Gabrielle nodded slowly. “We’re going to need a Big Store.”

Who had used the phrase Big Store first, Kat had to wonder as she walked toward Hale Industries’ back doors, looking forward to the short cab ride home. It didn’t really matter. In her head, lists were forming, phone numbers were swirling, and above it all, a clock was ticking down, second by second, toward Genesis’s imminent sale.

Two weeks. But maybe less. Maybe the Hong Kong buyer would back out now that the Hale demo had been upstaged. Maybe Garrett would give Ms. Montenegro a call and shift the time frame altogether. But Kat wasn’t a girl who was used to banking on maybes. There was a date on the calendar and it was circled in red, and Kat knew that eventually she was going to have to retrieve the prototype from the bank across the street.

When she reached the back doors she’d first used with Silas, Kat stopped and stared through the narrow windows at the bank, just fifteen feet away. Even without looking, she would have known what was there.

Steel and iron and the best cameras and guards that money could buy. A vault five stories beneath one of the most crowded streets on earth, in a place where nothing ever went unnoticed.

But Kat was going to get that prototype. Either she was going to steal it or Silas was going to remake it. She didn’t know how, but she knew she would get her hands on it eventually. She had to.

“Did you have fun tonight, Miss Bishop?”

Kat turned at the sound of the voice. Garrett was walking toward her. He kept his hands in his pockets, and his gaze locked on hers.

“It was lovely,” Kat said.

“That was quite a surprise, wasn’t it?” He ambled closer. Kat felt the cool glass of the window against her back. “Your boyfriend’s long-lost great-uncle showing up like that…”

“Yes.” Kat forced a little laugh. “I figured they probably needed some family time, so I was just going to—”

“But you know all about great-uncles, don’t you, Katarina?”

“I—”

“No lies, Kat.” Garrett’s chest rose and fell too quickly. Kat thought for a moment he might collapse, that maybe his heart was giving out. “Show me at least a little respect.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Kat said.

“Oh, I think you do, because, you see, I know who you are.” His breath was acrid and hot on her cheek. He brushed a finger down the side of her face until his hand rested on her throat. He squeezed gently at first. Then harder. “And I know what you are.”

“Let me go.” Kat’s voice quivered. The party was still in full swing at the end of the hall, and Kat grappled for options. “I’ll yell. I’ll tell security.”