Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society #3)(66)

“No.” She pushed his hand away.

“Come on. You’re going to need your strength tomorrow.”

But before Kat could protest, there was a knock on the door.

“That’s probably the boys,” Hale said, but he was wrong.

Kat knew as much as soon as she heard Natalie’s voice say, “Hey, Scoot.”

“Go away.” He tried to slam the door in her face, but Kat caught the edge, held it there, and glared at the girl on the stoop.

“What do you want?” Kat didn’t want to look the girl in the eyes, but she had to.

“I heard about what happened and… Are you okay, Kat?” Natalie asked.

“What do you want?” Kat said again.

“I’m so sorry, Kat. And Hale, I never thought my dad would forge a DNR. You’ve got to believe me.”

She reached for Hale’s hand, but he pulled it out of her grasp.

“I don’t have to do anything,” he said, and for a moment, Kat thought he might hit her. “But you have to leave.”

“No, Hale. Listen. I know…I know I did a terrible thing, but I never dreamed my father would hurt Hazel.”

“Really?” Hale was shouting, and Kat doubted he even knew it. “What did you think he would do?”

“I don’t know.” Natalie bit her lip. Her voice was barely a whisper. “I just… He’s not a strong man. He’s angry and bitter and… You don’t know what it’s like—being near you. All of you. The Hales. You’re larger than life, you know that, right? With your houses and your jets. You have everything.”

Hale stood trembling, and Kat thought about the boy in the Superman pajamas. He’d had nothing.

But Natalie talked on. “Then my dad told me about the prototype.” She shrugged as if she wasn’t sure who or what to believe anymore. “He was so desperate to get out from under your family’s shadow, so I said that if he felt the Hales owed him so much, he should do something about it.”

“But Hazel fired him,” Kat said. She thought about the carbon copy of the letter that she’d found in Hazel’s desk.

“Yeah.” Natalie nodded. She looked impressed that Kat knew. “He was just going to take the prototype and sell it and…no one was supposed to get hurt. No one was ever supposed to die.”

“That’s the thing about being a criminal,” Kat told her. “Nothing ever goes according to plan.”

“What do you want, Natalie?” Hale was deflating. It was like the fight was leaving his body, and all that was left was an empty, hollow shell.

“I’m sorry. And I just want to make it right.”

“You think you can say you’re sorry?” Hale yelled, and Kat knew that it must have felt good. Like crying. He must have wanted to purge all the excess emotion from his body, because he yelled louder. “You think that makes it okay?”

Natalie shook her head. Tears streamed down her face. “No. No. Of course not. I just—”

“What?” Hale yelled. “Tell me why I shouldn’t spend the rest of my life trying to destroy you.”

“The prototype,” Natalie blurted.

“I don’t care about the prototype.” Hale’s voice was flat and cold and even.

“You can still save the company,” Natalie said. “You can still do what Hazel would have wanted.”

“Don’t say her name,” Hale snapped. “You don’t have the right to say her name.”

“I know.” Natalie looked at the ground. “But if you want it, then you should know that my dad is meeting with a new buyer. In Switzerland. After…what happened…he knew he was going to have to disappear, so he decided to sell it. Now. Tomorrow. If you hurry, you can catch him.”

“Where is he?” Kat asked.

“Zurich. He’s meeting his buyer on the twelve-ten to Geneva. They’ll be in the last car on the train.”

Hale pushed away from the door and rushed down the hall. Kat couldn’t tell if he had calls to make or if he just couldn’t stand to be in Natalie’s presence one second longer. It didn’t matter. For a moment, Kat was alone with the girl from Hale’s past, the girl who had been there long before Kat had climbed through his window. Part of her wondered about what might have happened if she had never come and he had never left. Nat might have been perfect for him. For Scooter. But Scooter was gone. And despite everything, Kat felt sorry for Natalie. After all, most girls don’t get to choose their families.

“I really am sorry, Kat,” Natalie tried one last time, but Kat said nothing. She wasn’t in the mood to make peace. “If he ever decides to forgive me…”

“He won’t,” Kat said, and closed the door.





When the man in the hat boarded the train, he looked like just another businessman, a banker perhaps. No one would have noticed him at all had it not been for the woman he was meeting. She was the kind of woman people couldn’t help but notice.

When she gripped his hand, people glimpsed her perfect nails and long, elegant fingers. When she said, “I’m so happy you called,” everyone in the first-class car listened to the light trill of the syllables that drifted up and down, as gentle as the jostling of the train.