The Cocky Thief (Stolen Hearts #1)(7)

Mel once again smiled, but this time Jennifer knew it wasn’t sincere. “I’ll get her current one this weekend. Besides, this is a happy occasion. We can let all the past roll away and just enjoy ourselves, right?”

Jennifer nodded, but she couldn’t help but feel that was the exact opposite of what this week was going to be. Because if Jennifer was right, Isobel wasn’t planning to have a happy wedding.

Isobel was planning her biggest heist yet.





Austin stepped out of the limo and made sure he was the first person to help unload the luggage. Mainly so he could make sure that he was the only one who was in contact with the bag he’d nabbed from the airport.

“Jennifer!” shouted a voice from the house. A woman emerged, and he guessed this was the famous Isobel. Even though all three women were related, they were each different. Jennifer was sleek and sexy, but he was admittedly biased about that fact. Melody wore hardly any makeup and a simple jeans and t-shirt, but she was stunning in her own way. She was too curvy and short to ever be considered a supermodel, but her face was the kind that they put on the cover of catalogs and makeup ads.

And Isobel was...rich bohemian was the best word he could think of. Her outfit was all white, fitting for a future bride. The white was a sharp contrast to her unnaturally red hair. The oversized see-through white shirt had long sleeves that could probably fit her torso if she wanted and she had flowy pants that looked like a skirt when she stood still.

She was the reason he was here and there was something related to her wedding that Hart wanted him to steal. He glanced around at the grounds.

The vineyard mansion didn’t disappoint on curb appeal. From where he stood, it was hard to tell where the place ended. It would be an easy place to get lost, which would be good cover if anyone caught him snooping. Also, because the place was so big, there might be some good write-ups about it online, which would give him a better idea of the layout.

If he’d been planning this on his own, he would’ve already memorized the blueprints, but Hart really didn’t want to give him any breaks.

“Hi Mom!” Jennifer ran out of the limo and hugged Isobel. Melody came out and stood awkwardly by. She glanced over to him and he looked away. He had a feeling that girl had enough problems without having to deal with strangers getting a look at her personal life.

“And my Melody! The song that makes my heart sing! Come here, baby!”

Austin did glance over just in time to see Melody roll her eyes, but she did give her mother a hug. Right as he finished helping the driver pull out the mounds of Jennifer’s luggage and the one bag that apparently belonged to Melody, the owner of the large property walked out.

Greg Stranger. Austin once again pulled up everything he’d found out about the man. Stranger was the banker to the billionaires. He was known in proper society as a wizard with money, but respectable folks didn’t know the real reason he got that nickname. It wasn’t because he was a master at investing.

It was because he could take anyone’s dirty money and run it through all the right Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts to make it appear clean on even the most intense IRS audits. Only after he took his healthy share of the profits, of course.

No. This entire mansion was bought with dirty money and, judging from the way that Jennifer Murray glared at him as if he were a snake about to swallow her family whole, she was all too aware of this.

Melody kept her guard up, but that wasn’t unusual from the little he knew about her.

Isobel appeared as happy as could be as her fiancé joined her on the driveway. “Gregory! Come here! I need you to meet my girls! Oh, I can’t believe you all haven’t met yet. Greg, this is my eldest Jennifer, and my Melody.”

Austin remembered that Jennifer had introduced Melody as a middle sister, which meant there was at least one more Murray sibling running around. Time would tell whether she was going to show up eventually.

Stranger smiled as he went in for a hug with the two girls. Austin could tell that a hug was the last thing Jennifer wanted, but she seemed to go along with it. Melody gave him a quick squeeze and then the sisters both huddled together.

Stranger went back to Isobel and set a hand over her shoulders, oblivious of the discomfort he’d caused. “Don’t worry about the luggage,” he said to Austin and the driver. “I’ll have my people take care of it. Thanks for your services.”

Austin took his bag and moved away from the car. He didn’t want to be mistaken for a driver on his first meeting with his mark. “I’m actually here on behalf of Luther, Kent and Lang. I have the paperwork you requested.”

Stranger gave him a quick discerning look. “Chris Luther couldn’t make it?”

And this was what Hart was supposed to prevent. “I thought you’d been informed. Luther had a bad stomach bug. We’d hate to get all the guests at the event of the decade sick.”

Stranger nodded slowly. “I appreciate the thought.” He disengaged his arm from Isobel. “Let’s go over a few things.”

Austin knew that if he left his bag, someone would make sure it got to his room, but he wasn’t about to take the chance. So he collected his briefcase and tilted the roller bag to trail behind him as he followed Stranger inside.

The inside was as elaborate as the outside. The kind of place that wasn’t supposed to look good, but was made to look rich. It was a house that was never lived in, but purely existed so Stranger could show off his status.