The Cocky Thief

Chapter 11

"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."

Jennifer wondered whether Isobel knew that calling herself a shark wasn't actually a good thing, but didn't say anything about it. Isobel was just about ready for her rehearsal dinner and, as normal, she looked fabulous. They'd decided that since Austin was poking around, they would move up the plans and make their grab tonight. The art of the con was having the mark hand over what you wanted, but sometimes the art of succeeding meant stealing the damn thing while you still had the chance.

Isobel wore a white body-contouring dress that stopped right above the knee. The white was broken up with large bright-red flowers that guaranteed she'd be the center of attention. Which was good, because she was in charge of making sure Jennifer got out of the dinner unnoticed. Melody and Jennifer were both in more subdued black dresses. Jennifer's was tight and short, allowing her room to sneak and hide, while Melody's was tight in the waist and then flared out to a big pleated skirt.

It was horrible for any sort of job, but it wasn't as if either of them had packed thinking this was how the week was going to go.

"Is transportation for after the wedding arranged?" Because they still weren't sure whether they were being listened to, they were now referring to the job as "the wedding" because it was fun to make the whole thing as confusing as possible.

"I think I can get Gregory to lend us the keys to an SUV." Isobel pointed to her jewelry box.

Jennifer walked over to the box and saw that there were three sets of keys in the top drawer. One for each of them. Isobel always liked to be prepared. Jennifer picked up two of the keys, each complete with a note attached with a small piece of string. Jennifer would have to wait to read the note, but she put her and Mel's keys in the small black clutch, keeping the keys covered by her hand so if there were cameras they wouldn't see what she was doing.

"This might be hard for you." Isobel approached from behind. "You know I'd take your place if I could."

"And I'd let you, but we've done this before, Mom." The con had certain requirements, and Isobel would need to be the center of attention. Jennifer shut the jewelry box and turned to look at her mother. "Don't worry. Today is going to go off without a hitch." Truthfully she had her doubts, but hesitations got people killed. She needed to be sure of herself and her team. One more of the lessons ingrained into her thanks to Isobel.

Her mother regarded her with a critical eye and out of habit, Jennifer straightened. "You look nice," she said finally.

Good. The dress was more intense than she'd like if her mother was actually about to get married. It was a tight black bandage dress with a plunging v-neck and a magical bra that made her cleavage look twice as big as normal. Even though the skirt wasn't indecently short, it still stopped well above the knee. The heels were reasonable. She couldn't run in them, but they would do for sneaking around the halls. If she hadn't been suspicious of her mother's motives, she never would've packed the dress in the first place.

Melody put on another coat of her drugstore lipstick and Jennifer kept herself from offering her a nicer tube. But Melody didn't need to look distracting or fade into the background. She needed to look innocent and she was doing a great job of that so far. Her hair was its natural reddish-brown and twisted into a braid that cascaded over her shoulder. But Mel didn't need any hair dye to make her look prettier. Her beauty was natural. Special.

"All right. I need to go make sure everything is going as planned. Rehearsal starts in half an hour and I expect you girls to both be on time." Isobel gave Jennifer an air kiss on her forehead before she left the room in a flourish.

Once she was gone, Mel continued to put on her makeup in silence for a few moments.

"Are you going to be okay tonight?" asked Jennifer.

Melody shrugged as she started to fill in her brows. "It's just a rehearsal dinner. Nothing I haven't done before."

Jennifer was sick and tired of all these double meanings. Just a few more hours, she told herself. Then she and her family would be away from this house and all of Isobel's scheming and Stranger's oversight.

"Do you want to talk about Ben?"

The brow pencil fell out of Mel's hand and clattered onto the floor. Well, apparently Mel wasn't completely over the divorce yet. Jennifer knelt and picked up the pencil for her. "Listen, whatever Ben did, you can tell me."

Mel snatched the brow pencil from her and slammed it on the table. "Do you really think now is the time to go into this?"

"No time like the present. I hate seeing you in pain and I—"

Mel turned to stare down Jennifer. "I'm not in pain, Jen. I'm not angry and I'm not sad. I don't want to talk about it."

"You used to tell me everything," reminded Jennifer. "I'm not saying you have to spill your soul all the sudden, but you need to know that I'm here whenever you need me."

Mel quickly pushed all of her essentials into her own clutch before she turned to Jennifer. "You had something for me?"

Jennifer subtly took the key out of her bag and handed it to Mel. "I guess I'll see you down there then."

She was just about to touch the handle on the door before Mel said, "I'm not lying. I don't feel pain."

Jennifer remained silent as she turned around.

"Theproblem," continued Mel, "is that I feel nothing. I haven't for a long time.And that's a whole different kind of pain."