The Cocky Thief

Epilogue

(Sometime in the not too distant future)

"We're not having this conversation right now," snapped Jennifer into the phone as she paced in front of the doorway at the edge of the lavish ballroom.

Her heels clacked against the floor as she paced. She was well aware of the eyes that darted to her as her voice became more and more elevated. "I told you that it doesn't matter how much you beg. We're over and nothing is ever going to change that! And if you ever call me again—"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the door behind her pop open and she gave one more, "This is over and it's never going to start again," before she slipped through the open door.

"We have sixty seconds before the cameras are back on." Austin took her hand and they both ran through the hall until they reached the service elevator.

She turned and looked for any sign of someone following them, but so far the coast was clear. "You were able to plant the bug in the security cameras?"

"Yeah, about that..." Austin crouched down as he pulled the wiring for the access pad on the service elevator. He went silent as his hands deftly used a wire stripper to expose some of the copper; he touched it to another wire, allowing the elevator doors to open.

"About that?" repeated Jennifer, trying to get the whole story.

"The EMP didn't work. I had to improvise."

"How did you improvise to shut down the cameras?"

"I unplugged them," he said with a half-smile as the elevator started to climb up.

"You unplugged them?" she asked skeptically.

"The dime-a-dozen security guys were all too distracted with the crazy lady on her cell phone." He winked.

"The son of a bitch left exactly two sips of milk in the carton. Did he expect me to take that lying down?"

"I love that you get into character, but I told you a hundred times that I was sorry about that. And you were arguing with a dead phone."

"Hell hath no fury like a woman who suddenly had to eat dry cereal for breakfast."

Austin turned on her and advanced, pushing Jennifer into the back corner. "If memory serves, I made it up to you later that morning." He leaned in closer. "Twice."

Jennifer's lips curled up and she had to remind herself that they were on a job. "Well, if I'd talked about that, I'd get an entirely different kind of attention, wouldn't I?"

The doors dinged open and Austin and Jennifer both separated as they started down the hall quickly.

"The cameras will be back on by now," he pointed out as he reached over to hold her hand, "but the digital storage software they have takes a bit to catch up. The guards downstairs are seeing us but they won't be able to pull up any of the footage."

"So we're supposed to play the happy couple?" Jennifer wrapped her free hand around Austin's tie and pulled him down for a kiss.

They kept moving down the hall, but now they were stumbling along, more interested in each other than anything around them. Austin let go of her hand and instead ran his palm down the small of her back and over the curve of her ass.

Jennifer was breathless by the time Austin pulled away. "We're here," he whispered.

She didn't normally wish jobs would take longer, but sometimes Austin messed with her judgment.

She reached into her cleavage and pulled out the hotel room key from where she'd stashed it in her bra. "Let's get this over with then." When she turned to insert the key, Austin ran his nose along her neck and pressed a quick kiss to her shoulder.

"And here I thought you liked it when I take things slow."

She scoffed as she inserted the keycard she'd picked off their mark downstairs. "You're insatiable."

The light turned green and they were in. As frisky as Austin had been in the hall, he snapped right into business once they entered the room. "The safe is going to be in the closet."

He pulled on a pair of latex gloves and handed her a pair as well. She'd made sure not to leave a print on the handle, but pretty much any print on the outside of a door was useless in court. However, once inside the room, that was a different story.

She opened the closet and pushed aside the hanging clothes to reveal the small room safe. Luckily the current tenant was relatively neat. One of the joys of being a thief was that when you invaded someone's privacy, they didn't normally clean up for you. "Do you think it's here?" She pulled out the safe and moved it to the bed.

"We saw him make the exchange downstairs and you made sure he didn't keep it with him."

She shuddered as she thought of the dance she'd shared with the mark. "He was doing his damn best to make sure I wasn't hiding any diamonds on me either."

Austin's lips tightened. "Which is going to make this all the more sweet."

He reached for the safe but she pulled it toward her. "Please, I can do this in my sleep. I had to dance with the guy." She reached for the dial and turned it counterclockwise until the pin clicked free.

Austin took the safe from her and tipped it on its side before he gave it a sound smack with his hand. "And I was the one who made sure none of this was going to be caught on camera, thereby keeping our asses safe."

She moved over and used her hips to push him aside as she got the safe back. She turned the dial clockwise this time and the pin, knocked loose from his hit, fell right into place. The safe popped open. "Never gets old." She smiled.

"You owe me for that one." Austin reached in and pulled out the black felt bag. After loosening the strings, he tipped it over and the ring popped out.

Jennifer sucked in a breath. "I knew it was pretty, but this is next level."

Austin held it up to the light and the thirty-three carat Asscher-cut Krupp diamond sparkled even in the dim lighting of the room. "This doesn't look right..." muttered Austin.

"It looks perfect." Jennifer reached for it.

Austin caught her hand in his before he slid the ring over her ring finger. "There. Now it looks perfect."

"What happened to returning this to its rightful owner?" She stared in wonder at the giant diamond on her hand. As pretty as it was, she could never imagine wearing it every day. It would make way too much noise while climbing around in an air vent.

"Oh, this will get back where it needs to go." The small museum that housed the historic ring had been broken into three weeks before, and when Austin and Jennifer found out the sale was going down, they couldn't resist the urge to get it back.

Thanks to the money Toni had nabbed for them on that fateful night, along with the proceeds of the Dragon Heart, Jennifer and Austin never needed to work another job again. But Jennifer had never been a quitter...

"But I do like the look of a ring on your finger."

She bit her lip as she looked up at him. "Austin, you're not allowed to propose to me on a job."

"This isn't a job. This is a date."

She couldn't help her smile. She wanted to play it cool and calm, but there was no question that if this was a real proposal, there was only one answer. So instead of playing it cool, she stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips against his. "I have a feeling that on our next date, we'll find a ring that works much better."

was JT+