Someone To Steal Read Online Free PDF Page A

through her.
    “Charmed, I’m sure.”
    “I’ve always thought that job you pulled where you drilled through the outside wall of that museum in London was incredible,” she said, trying to remind herself to stop acting like a thirteen-year-old meeting the guys from One Direction.
    “It was simpler than getting the glass cutter to work in the near silence of a cathedral.”
    “The Rouen job. Also amazing. Do you still have the ruby cross?”
    “No, most of what I’ve done in the last few years has been on direct orders.”
    “The Sapphire Thief doesn’t work alone?”
    “The Sapphire Thief made one goddamned mistake nearly a decade ago and I’ve been paying for it ever since. I got cocky and tried some of that Mission: Impossible bullshit, trying to subvert a laser motion detector. The Ukrainians busted me. I spent a few days in the kind of hell only the Russian mob can create, and I came out of it much more cooperative.”
    “The scar on your side?”
    “Among other things. I was, at the end of a week, amenable to being the Ukrainian’s hired thief. I tried to get out after a couple of years. I wanted my freedom; didn’t like the way they do business, all that.”
              “So they offed your wife.”
    He looked away again, and Riley felt bad for stinging his feelings. If he was faking his grief, he was doing a superb job. Too superb to be fake, in fact. “Yes. It was, he said, a tragic accident. Intended only as a warning, to injure her to get my attention, but she was driving too fast when the brakes went. The crash was fatal instead of merely cautionary.”
    “How sweet of them, just trying to maim her.” Riley felt her fists clench, anger spiking in her blood. “This has been charming, but what exactly should I do about any of this?”
    “We’re just talking. You might as well know who you’re going to work for.”
    “Thanks, but once again, no. I’m not taking on any role in your master plan for vengeance. I’ve seen enough mob movies to know it’s always the girl who gets used as a pawn to control the hero and then gets blown away right at the end.”
    “Not vengeance. Escape. You couldn’t be used to control me, so they wouldn’t bother. The only thing you need to know about the Russians, besides that you should pray for death if they catch you, is that they hate the Italian Mafia. Too disorganized, ruled by emotions—the Ukrainian abhors the Italians. There’s a way I can exploit that to get out for good. Your particular skillset may be instrumental.”
    “You want my help because...”
    “You’re small and flexible, and your little acrobatic tricks may be exactly what I need to get my hands on the item in question.”
    “Which is?”
    “It’s better if you know as few details as possible. That way, if interrogated, you can respond honestly.”
    “Like I said, I have zero interest in being collateral damage in your Greek tragedy.”
    “Russian tragedy, more like.”
    “The Russians are even worse. I had a literature class. They were all angry and murderous, then suicidal. Not my kind of crowd. As far as keeping details from me for my own protection, I have two problems with that. One, it assumes I’ll be captured and tortured, which does not thrill me. Two, if interrogated with sufficient, uh, determination, anyone will say anything.”
    “Fair point, but what if I said you wouldn’t get caught?”
    “Is that based on your masculine authority?”
    “Well, I’m judging by your expertise. Are you in?”
    Riley glanced at the gun. “Given my choices, I’d have to say I’m in. I’ve never been in a criminal gang before. How does it work?”
    “I tell you what to do. You try not to screw it up.”
    “Also, I’m sorry I said that about your wife’s painting. Will you lower the gun now?”
    “Thanks.”
    “I mean, it is really ugly, but I’m sorry I said it.”
    “Let’s drop the subject.”
    “I said I’m in. But there’s a condition. Two,