A Beautiful Heist Read Online Free PDF Page B

I’d heard Jack mention. She must have been very green. “Do I need to be worried? What have we got on her?”
    “Nothing much yet. But the intel team is working on it.” His tone was vaguely dismissive.
    An uncomfortable prickle scaled my spine. If I was going to be doing bigger jobs, riskier jobs, I needed to know my adversary. I needed to know about the new FBI agent who could be hunting me down. It was a matter of survival.
    “I can help with that intel,” I said. I could probably find her photograph in the time it takes to order a pizza. “I could get to know her—”
    “Cat,” he said firmly, with a side order of irritation. “Stay away. They can handle it. You do what you’re good at. Besides, it really didn’t work out so well the last time you tangled with the FBI, did it?”
    This was a punch in the stomach. Jack.
    “That’s in the past. And clearly a mistake. I’ve learned from my mistakes.”
    “Yes, well, I don’t think we can take the chance of you getting personally involved again, can we? You need to stay far away from anyone involved with the FBI.” He paused, for emphasis, I assumed. “The last thing we need is you getting back together with Jack.”
    I knew Templeton hadn’t quite forgiven me for this yet. I was reminded every time it came up. And I got it, I really did. What had happened with Jack threatened everything. I could understand why Templeton didn’t want me getting close to anyone in the FBI. The thing was, he had nothing to worry about.
    “That is never going to happen, Templeton, because Jack and I will never be back together.” Somehow, it didn’t seem to matter how many times I’d said that exact phrase to myself. Whether lying in bed at night, alone, staring at streetlight shadows on the ceiling, or leaning against shower tiles as warm water streamed down the nape of my neck and hot tears sluiced down my face—saying the words out loud just never got any easier. My heart, just then, felt rather old and sore and tired.
    “Just stay out of it, Cat.”
    I said nothing.
    “I’m serious,” Templeton said. His voice carried the weight of warning. “If you get personally involved with the FBI again, you could put us all in jeopardy. I’m afraid the Agency would be forced to remove you from their roster. Permanently.”
    I nodded. “I understand, Templeton.” And I wasn’t specifically planning to go against his wishes. But a part of me was thinking I could easily do a little digging. It’s not like I would have to act on the information I gleaned, right?
    “I’ll be in touch with your next assignment. Remember, stay out of trouble.”
    With that, Templeton’s pew creaked and he slid off into the shadows, the diamond ring I stole tucked safely in his jacket pocket.
    I waited a few minutes, then I, too, slipped away into the darkness.

Chapter 3
    A thick mist curled around the discarded armchairs and rusted shopping carts that littered the dark city alley of Delridge neighborhood, not far from downtown Seattle. Jack Barlow walked among the shadows, fists clenching and unclenching within the pockets of his brown leather coat. Against instinct, he maintained an unhurried gait and schooled the muscles of his face. To an outsider he might have looked comfortable, unconcerned. Which is exactly the way an FBI agent ought to appear at any given moment.
    In reality Jack was anything but relaxed. His stomach muscles tightened. An FBI agent should not be on the way to the meeting he was. An FBI agent should not be meeting with criminals and underworld types. It would be different if it were to bust or trap them. But to collaborate with them? He had worked his whole life to capture people like this, and now he was going to rendezvous with them, because he needed their help, and they needed his.
    These thoughts made Jack’s insides crawl. These, and the fact that he was not carrying a gun. Firearms and other weapons were prohibited where he was going, to the very