The Cocky Thief (Stolen Hearts #1)(16)

Okay. So if she was going to start, where would she go? She turned around and stared down Austin’s door. The normal part of her wanted to move on and respect his privacy.

But she wasn’t his girlfriend. Hell, they weren’t even friends. She was here to get what she wanted—or what Isobel wanted, actually—and she couldn’t let petty things like emotions or morals get in the way.

Lesson number one of the con: morals got people killed. If you wanted to go down this path, you needed to get shit done. Isobel had never been the best with motherly advice, but there were some things she knew better than anyone.

Without letting herself overthink anything, she crossed to Austin’s door and turned the knob.

His room was smaller than hers. Instead of a queen-size bed, it was a full and the comforter was a rich navy blue. The baby-blue walls let her know this was definitely designed for male guests and the look was completed with a few rather ostentatious paintings on the wall. But she wasn’t here to look at decorating ideas.

She looked out the window but didn’t see anything that could help her. This was the second story and there were no balconies or pipes on this side to climb down if necessary. She did a quick scan of the room and tapped on the walls in a few places. A house this old, especially one with these sorts of secrets, might have secret passageways. Unlikely, but not impossible.

Once she ruled out that possibility, there was nothing else to stick around for. Except for the suitcase at the foot of his bed. The suitcase she had absolutely no reason to look inside.

Screw it. She’d already checked her morals. Why stop now?

Jennifer knelt and unzipped the small suitcase. In the quiet room, the zipper seemed especially loud. Once it was open, she flipped it open to reveal the neatly folded clothes. She wasn’t there to rummage through his underwear, though. She looked in the smaller pockets, but there were no books or music or anything to give her an idea of who the lawyer really was.

She flipped the bag closed and cursed herself for even looking. One more way that Austin was getting in the way of her process. She zipped it shut and pushed it back next to the bed where it had been sitting, but the frontloaded bag promptly tipped over. Jennifer froze and waited to hear whether anyone was running to check out the sudden sound. When the coast appeared clear, she went to grab the bag, but one more interesting detail stuck out to her. The little leather slip where the identification tag was located. Let’s see exactly where Austin Raye lived...

Except when she pulled out the tag, it didn’t have Austin’s name on it. Jennifer frowned. Did that mean he borrowed a suitcase? Why would a successful lawyer who traveled as much as Austin did not have his own suitcase? It could be nothing, but the hairs on the back of her neck were up and her senses told her it was something more.

She followed the hunch and started to go through the dresser drawers until she found the one he put his briefcase in. It was strange enough that someone put a briefcase in a drawer. Was he trying to hide it from the staff? Or maybe prying eyes like hers? It didn’t have a lock on it so maybe it wasn’t all that important.

Jennifer popped it open and started to look through the stack of papers. Some were articles and there were other emails and interoffice memos. But everything single document had something in common. Nothing had Austin’s name on it. Not one single thing.

Jennifer was suddenly certain of one thing: Austin had stolen this briefcase. But why would he do that?

Lights out the window caught her attention and Jennifer quickly put the briefcase back where she found it. She crossed to the window and saw that an entire envoy of black SUVs had arrived. As men started to pour out, Jennifer realized exactly what they were carrying. The Dragon Heart had arrived.

She ran out of the room and down the hall, but forced her steps to slow as she descended the staircase. The group of men had moved past the entryway and turned down the hall on the right. The opposite direction from the dining room and a section of the house she’d never been to before.

It was too risky to follow them any farther, so Jennifer stayed next to the stairs and listened intently for any indication of how far they’d gone.

Once she heard a door shut, Jennifer decided to take a risk and she nonchalantly walked toward the back of the house. Once she passed the hall, she gave a casual glance. She couldn’t tell exactly what door the two men were standing guard outside of, but she got a good idea. That was all she needed.

She was about to continue onto the back, as though she were going to take a relaxing stroll by the vineyards, when something told her she wasn’t alone any longer.

She glanced over her shoulder and there was Austin. But he wasn’t looking at her. His gaze was firmly on the hallway in question.

So that solved one mystery of the night. The stolen luggage, the briefcase that didn’t belong to him. It turned out her lawyer friend wasn’t a lawyer at all.

He was there for the Dragon Heart too.





“You’re sure?” said Isobel as she finished putting in her earrings.

“I’m sure, Mom. You should’ve seen the way he was looking at those guys last night. He was practically drooling and I don’t think it’s because he’s into dudes. He knew exactly what they were locking up.”

Isobel shook her head. “I should’ve known. With a score this big, there’s bound to be more than one shark in the water.”