Confidence Tricks Read Online Free PDF Page A

head and tossed the wallet on the ground before kicking it toward him. “It can be really hard for a family to make that kind of decision on their own.”
    “I’m going to fucking kill you, Asprey,” Graff growled. “You listed our secret hideaway as the place of residence on your driver’s license?”
    “It’s outside city limits,” Asprey explained. “The licensing process for the bike is easier out here.”
    Natalie laughed. It was strange—when she made a sound like that, all throaty and warm, it was hard to imagine her taking a blade to their throats or stealing all their worldly possessions.
    But he didn’t put it past her.
    “So what do you want?” Graff asked, his hands still up. “The necklace? Money?”
    “Both of those sound great,” she said. “But first, I think we should all sit down and have a little chat.”
    “I wouldn’t tell you anything even if you ripped off both of my brother’s—” Graff began.
    “Done,” Asprey intervened. He turned to Graff. “What? It’s easy for you to play fast and loose with my body parts. You’re not the one in desperate need of painkillers right now.”
    Natalie looked back and forth between the two of them, a bemused expression on her face. “You guys are for real. This isn’t some crazy joke. You’re this bad at it.”
    “You have no idea,” Tiffany muttered. She pulled the headphones up over her ears and turned to the computer. In any other hostage-like situation, this would have been a perfect opportunity to alert the authorities via email or send out a plea for help in Morse code or something. Not Tiffany. She was probably uploading viruses into the FBI website or, as she called it, a regular Tuesday afternoon.
    “Did you still want that tea?” Asprey asked, standing and brushing dust from his clothes. Like it or not, they were in this now.
    And he liked it. God help him, he liked her . He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun.
    “You don’t have anything stronger?”
    Asprey laughed. They could probably all use a drink right about now. “How do you feel about scotch?” He motioned at one of their tables of loot. “I’ve got a sixty-four-year-old Maccallan over there that recently sold at auction for about thirty grand.”
    Natalie’s jaw fell open. “That you stole?”
    Graff’s voice rumbled, but Asprey ignored him, striding over to the table of goods and grabbing the bottle with a flourish. “It’s single barrel.”
    “I was wrong,” she said, her face breaking out in a grin. There she was again, unassuming and almost benign. She grabbed the bottle and inspected it, taking off the top and giving it a tentative sniff. “I guess maybe you guys aren’t as bad at this as I thought.”

Chapter Three
    “This tastes like regular scotch.” Poppy frowned into her glass, swirling the amber liquid. “It should be illegal—the way those high-end companies try to pass this stuff off as something it’s not.”
    Asprey coughed heavily, not stopping until the youngish-looking woman, Tiffany, poured him some more of the alcohol. They’d pulled a few folding chairs and one hugely ornate yellow throne into a circle in the middle of the airport hangar, making it feel cavernous and informal at the same time. It was like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, except instead of drinking coffee and divulging life stories, they were swilling scotch that cost more than a kidney and sharing a mutual distrust that had her adrenaline pump set on high.
    It felt good . There were guns and stolen goods and one palpably angry man, and all Poppy could think was how happy she felt to be a part of it all.
    “Look—I’d love to sit here and chitchat all day,” the brother, Graff, drawled, looking full of neither love nor chitchat. “But can we get on with this?”
    It was clear they were all siblings, now that she could see them in the full light of day and no one hid behind a face mask. Graff was obviously the oldest and meanest of