Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society #3)(59)

“What about the Fiddler on the Roof?” her father asked. “We could always—”

“What, Dad? What could we possibly do that’s going to make this right?” She looked slowly around the building, her mind racing with the things she didn’t have to say.

Uncle Felix was reaching out to a source he had in the bank fraud division of the FBI, and the Bagshaws were convinced there was a way to tunnel in from an old subway station that hadn’t been used since World War II, but in her heart, Kat knew it was all useless.

“He’s a step ahead of us,” Kat told him. She could feel it in her bones, and she hated it. “He has been from the beginning, and now…”

“You know what you do when something’s in your way?” Bobby asked, testing her.

“Go around,” Kat said with a roll of her eyes.

“Exactly.” Bobby flashed a wide, bright grin.

He made it sound so easy. He always did. But it wasn’t easy, and Kat knew it. “It’s just…”

“What?” Bobby asked with a jerk of his head, as if trying to pull the question out.

“What if I can’t do it this time?” Kat admitted.

“The whole family’s working on it, kiddo. You’re not in this one alone.”

“What if it’s too late? I mean, the wrong plans are on file at the patent office. Even if we get the prototype, Hale Industries can’t use it without—”

“One job at a time, kiddo. One job at a time.”

Her father was right, and Kat knew it. But she was also a little mad that he’d broken off a perfectly good pity party with logic. Kat didn’t want a way to rob the Superior Bank of Manhattan. She wanted a way for it to be over. All of it. She just didn’t have a clue what that way might be.

Then she heard her name echo through the lobby.

“Kat!” Natalie called. “Oh my gosh. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Yeah,” Kat said, her mind whirling. “Fancy that. What are you doing here?”

“Funny.” Nat gave her a smile. “I was about to ask you the same thing.” Then she shifted her attention onto Bobby. “Who’s your friend?”

“Robert Bishop.” Bobby extended his hand. “I’m Kat’s father.”

“Natalie Garrett,” Natalie told him, then gave the slight swoon that Kat had become accustomed to women giving in her father’s presence. Natalie eyed his dark suit and power tie and said, “What kind of business are you in, Mr. Bishop? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Acquisitions,” Bobby said.

“How fascinating,” Natalie said with a bat of her eyes.

“It has its moments,” Bobby said. “Okay, girls, I’ll leave the two of you alone.”

“You’re leaving?” Kat asked.

“Yeah, sweetheart. I really should get back to work.”

“But…”

“I’m going to go find a way around,” he told her, then planted a kiss on her cheek. “Love you,” he said and walked toward the doors without a single glance back.

“So, your dad’s hot.”

“Thanks. He was that way when I met him, so I can’t really take credit.”

“That’s too bad.” Natalie popped a piece of chewing gum into her mouth, offered the pack to Kat, and said, “So is he the one who stuck you in Knightsbury?”

Over Natalie’s shoulder, the service entrance opened and two guards came out, changing shifts. Kat noted the time: four-fifteen.

“Hello,” Natalie said, annoyed. “Earth to Kat.”

“Colgan,” Kat said, distracted. “First, I went to Colgan.”

“So you met Scooter there?”

“Uh…no,” Kat said. “He was already gone before I showed up. And got kicked out.”

Natalie laughed. “No! Really? You got kicked out of Colgan?”

“Sure did.”

“Cool,” Natalie said, finally impressed. She blew a big bubble then popped it with her finger. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was there something you needed to do?”

“No. I just came in for some cash,” Kat said, pointing at the ATM.

“Oh. Cool.”

Walking with Natalie, out the front doors of the bank and onto the busy sidewalk, Kat felt especially alone.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around, Kat.”

“Yeah, Nat,” Kat told her. “See you around.”

Hale said they weren’t supposed to use her—that she had no place in what they had to do. And maybe he was right. Maybe it was a coincidence, seeing her in the very place Garrett had stashed the prototype—the bank that Kat and her crew needed to rob. But Kat had learned at a very young age not to believe in coincidences. She watched Nat walk away, gave a little wave when the girl glanced back.

She was still staring after her when a dark shadow fell over Kat’s shoulder, and she felt Hamish and Angus beside her.

“Don’t let her out of your sight,” she told them.

“Yes, ma’am,” they said, and together they started down the sidewalk, dissolving into the crowds.





For the rest of the day, Kat couldn’t stop pacing. She bit her nails and twisted her hair, anything to keep moving, thinking, breathing in and out. Anything to fight the feeling that something was wrong.