I knew it was too soon to expect Arielle to let me into her home, considering she’d have to find some way to sneak me inside. And really, we didn’t know each other that well, and she was clearly not that gullible.

I got ahead of myself.

But I couldn’t help feeling disappointed because it meant I wouldn’t get to see her. It was just one night. I would live, but still. After the phone call, I’d spent time hanging around outside her house all day, casing the place, and secretly hoping she would come out. I stayed until close to dawn, before I gave up the wait.

“Don’t tell me you were out with your girlfriend again. Won’t she get sick of you?”

Dammit. The last thing I needed was for my brother to realize just how close I was getting to this girl, and to start teasing me about it.

When I didn’t respond to his teasing, he came back with more.

“Oh, come on, little brother. You can talk to me about these things, you know. I can’t believe you’re this hung up over a little girl.”

I snarled at him. “Don’t even go there, Leo, please. Arielle is a full-grown woman, and anyway, I didn’t get to see her at all yesterday, excuse you. I was hanging around her place to check out the security.”

His eyebrows arched as he gave me a disbelieving look. “Right, Alan,” he said, voice thick with sarcasm. “Haven’t you done that enough? I mean, you did it for days before you even got to meet this girl, didn’t you? Or were you not thorough then?”

No, my work had been incredibly thorough, because we both needed it to be. I hadn’t been careless then; if anything, I wasn’t being as careful now as I should be. I hadn’t thought much about letting Arielle onto my yacht, for example, but I was second guessing it now.

I clenched my jaw as I narrowed my eyes at my brother, thinking up a good excuse. Yeah, I had checked in on the security again while I was there, but my first priority had definitely been Arielle.

“I was wondering how she manages to get out of her place on her own and then sneak back in. She couldn’t possibly be doing it by herself, because I’ve seen her sneak in and out, and there’s just mysteriously no one around to catch her when she does it, despite the fact the house is heavily guarded at all other times.”

Leonard mulled this new information over. He hummed. “You think she has help from the inside?”

“It would make sense, wouldn’t it?”

Leonard considered that idea. Neither of us had added that into the equation, and I wondered how it would fit into me somehow sneaking into her place. Why anyone would help her was what really interested me. I also wondered just how much help she was getting.

I didn’t think it would be much use for me, unless she was onboard with it. And I doubted she would risk letting me in, keeping me in her room as we had a little “fun,” then letting me out again. Even if I did go that route, I wouldn’t get any chances to swipe the Heart, because it was stored in a different section of the mansion from Arielle’s room.

“That would actually be something good to know,” Leonard said. “You should ask her about it next time.”

I sighed. “It wouldn’t make for a workable plan though. Her sneaking me in doesn’t mean I could get to her father’s stash…”

“Probably not. And it’s not like you can just ask her without sounding suspicious. So we’ll stick to the original plan.” He frowned at me. “Remember not to get too attached. It would be bad for everyone involved. I know she’s your first girlfriend in a while, but you need to get ahold of yourself.”

“How about this?” I retorted, unable to help my annoyance. I was already irritated because I couldn’t see Arielle. I didn’t need shit from my brother on top of it. “You’re so good at all this tech stuff, right? Good enough to get me inside that house and to that safe, and out with the package?”

He looked guarded, like he knew where I was going. I waited to see if he would say anything, only getting angrier when he held his silence.

“Have you ever thought of trying to hack Gamble’s system and removing the security footage that old bastard is using to blackmail us? If you could manage that, we wouldn’t be in this situation. As far as I can see, it would be the simplest way out of this shit.”

Leonard was glaring at me, and I almost wilted under the look. He didn’t say anything, though, and after a moment, I realized he was actually considering it.

If it was possible, I would rather we fuck Gamble over instead of letting him boss us around as he pleased. And really, this thing was getting too complicated. It wasn’t the first time I’d gotten close to someone I intended to rob, but this was the first time I felt so bad about it. Hell, after my night with Arielle, I knew she’d been a virgin. I didn’t think another guy had even touched her before me. And that sheltered girl was going to have to live with the regret when I stole from her father and took off, never to be seen again.

No matter how good it had felt, a part of me regretted sleeping with her.

“That is a pretty good idea,” Leonard said at last. “If I could do that, we’d definitely be in the clear. It’s not like he’s giving us any cash for this deal, and I don’t exactly like him either.” He paused and looked up at me with a frown. “But I gotta ask. Does this mean you’re planning to double-cross Gamble? You realize that could be dangerous.”

I scoffed. “I just don’t like that we’re being used by some idiot.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it wasn’t entirely a lie, either. “A guy I would beat the hell out of on principle, if I could. How dare that pompous ass get us to do his dirty work, as if he can’t afford to pay someone to do it?”

“It wouldn’t exactly be easy, you know,” he warned. “I’ve tried to hack him before, Alan. It’s not easy. We can do this job because you’re going to have an in, but you know that Gamble doesn’t trust us. He’s probably waiting for us to do something like this.”

“Doesn’t matter. If we can find a way to get to that footage, I’m on board to delete it and run.”

We had better things to do than work for a guy like that. Yeah, none of those things were even close to honest work, but we never claimed to be good guys.

“Why don’t we talk about this more once you have entry into Dubois’s home? You know he only gave us a week to get the Heart.”

Yeah, a week before he ratted us out to the cops. He’d have some airtight excuse that absolved him of everything, so we’d be the only ones screwed over.

Like hell I was going to let him have his way.

I smiled at my brother and went to give Arielle a call.