“Well, where is it?” Father asks. The toothpick in the corner of his mouth jumps with his words.

Gone are the placating smiles and soft voices.

I’ve ushered them even farther down the long hallway, near a rear exit and away from the bathroom doors. Can’t risk being overheard by anyone.

“I don’t have anything.”

“Lies,” Mother hisses. “You were there all night and this morning. You had plenty of opportunity.”

“I tried. I was in his office and he interrupted me before I could get what you want. He’s going to get suspicious. I just need more time.”

“We don’t have all the time in the world,” Father says. “Eventually, Ruby will be returning. If she comes back before we get what’s ours, you’ll be going down. And what do you think will happen to your sister then?”

“We still have almost a month. Give me a couple weeks.”

I know they’ll never agree, but I have to aim high to get them to settle for something in the middle. I just need more time to figure out what to do, which means stalling them.

“No,” Father says. “That’s way too long.”

“Why do you need Jared’s information right now? You’re already running a scam with this whole charity thing. And I thought you weren’t skimming his funds until after the charity con had run its course. How many times have you said that doubling a con gets you triple the time?”

“The charity thing is child’s play,” Mother says with a wave of her hand. “Barely enough to live on. We have no choice. We need money to eat, don’t we? Since we obviously can’t count on you to help us.” Her voice brims with harsh disapproval.

We stand in the hall in silence. I’m not sure what to say. I can’t give them what they want, even though I have it. Hell, I couldn’t even use it for myself. How can I hand it over to them?

“We’ll give you two days.”

I have to work to mask my surprise. That was easy. Too easy. They never capitulate that quickly.

Father makes a disgusted sound, like he wants to argue, but Mother puts a hand on his arm and continues. “If you don’t get the account information, we’ll expose you and take Paige. This is your last chance.”

And with that, they head back down the hall and into the bar to schmooze more with my friends.

I stand there, in the shadowed corner, thinking.

At least I have two more days. That was the only good thing to come out of our conversation.

But why? She gave in way easier than I thought she would. There’s no reason they couldn’t just take Paige now and run. Why didn’t they already? The only explanation is they need this money. Badly. And for that, they need me. Maybe I have more leverage than I realized.

Another thought filters through my head, making more and more sense the more I think on it. They’ve got to be planning something else. They wouldn’t just ask about some account numbers and then let me and Paige go—this whole thing is too easy.

There’s more up their sleeves than what they’re showing.

There always is. Maybe I can find out what it is and turn this blackmail around on them.

But how can I find out what they’re truly after and why?

 

 

 

~*~

 

 

 

“We should spy on them,” Paige says. “Even when we lived with them, it wasn’t too difficult. I tailed them all the time.”

The morning after the parents’ surprise visit at Ben’s, Paige and I are in the kitchen eating breakfast and discussing our ruination. I don’t want to worry her or involve her at all, but she’s the only one I can talk to about everything.

And she makes a good point. Since the passive surveillance efforts aren’t working, it’s time to up my game. Of course, they’ll be on their guard this time.

“I can follow them,” Paige offers when I don’t respond quickly enough.

I choke on my juice. “No way. Too dangerous.” If they catch her on their tail, they’ll grab her—and there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to talk them into giving her back a second time.

She rolls her eyes and sticks a forkful of waffle in her mouth.

Once upon a time, when they weren’t rushing a double con and blackmailing their daughter into helping, they had a brush with the FBI. For a while, they got fanatical about security, only discussing jobs outdoors, in crowded or noisy places impossible to bug. When they found out they were on the FBI’s watch list, they were both annoyed and flattered to be under such scrutiny. Of course, that was a while ago and I think the feds have lost interest since. Bigger fish to fry and not enough in the budget. But still, the parents developed a few paranoid habits Paige used to take advantage of.

Every night, they would disappear for a few hours and take a walk. Then they’d discuss all the details for a job they hadn’t wanted Paige and me to know about. Or they’d meet co-conspirators or their fence to exchange goods. They made it quite the habit, actually. Do they still? Humans are creatures of habits, even con artists whose job it is to understand and take advantage of said habits. They’re not afraid of bugged buildings anymore if they’re blabbing at Ruby’s. But maybe they’re still night owls.

“You’re right,” I say. “I’ll just have to follow them at night.”

“How are you going to manage that without them knowing? You’re not the one with experience tailing them.”

If this were a cartoon, a light would click on over my head. “I need a tracker.”

Paige’s eyebrows lift. “How are you going to find something like that? We only have the cameras, and they’re not GPS enabled.”

It means more deception, more of using Jared to achieve my own ends, but . . . is there any other choice? “I have an idea.” And I only have two days to do it.