Chapter 17

SEVENTEEN

T he man sat in the dark, waiting. Emma had done exactly what he’d expected—reached out to one of the only free members of the Alice in Wonderland Gang.

Member might be too strong a term. Gani “The Spider” Crenshaw had been a stand-in a few times over the years. She was better at pickpocketing than heists, but Catherine had a soft spot for the woman that he’d never understood.

Now, Gunn and Grant were getting closer.

He’d followed Gani to the park and saw her take something from a garbage can. The blue strip of tape Gunn had left on the side was a dead giveaway—the boy needed new material.

And I need to get back to my retirement .

Kids. He’d enjoyed using them to infiltrate SIS, but they were all three becoming a problem. More loose ends he had to clean up.

One more job. The diamonds had been calling his name for years. They were an item on his bucket list. The assignment Catherine had refused to do because of her husband's position at the museum.

She was still alive, and that was a problem, but right now, he had to deal with The Spider. He had the diamonds and the man he needed to guarantee he got the highest price for them—he could mark them off his bucket list, but that didn't pay the bills. More money was always better, and they would fetch a high enough price to guarantee he could disappear forever and live the life of his dreams.

Costa Rica seemed a good place to start.

But only if he got rid of the loose ends and kept Gunn from discovering his identity.

When Gani entered her bedroom, it was dark. She turned on the nightstand light, but was so distracted by her interaction with Emma, she didn't even notice him sitting in the corner.

She tossed the phone from the garbage can onto the bed, wheeled around, and went to the bathroom. He heard the shower come on and imagined her under the water.

It almost got him hard, but without his pills, that was a lost cause these days.

He snatched up the cell and checked the history. A single outgoing call that had lasted eight minutes. He pocketed it in his jacket, wishing he could see Emma’s face right now. How scared she had to be. How worried about her mother. How upset about her missing father.

That did more to send blood rushing to his cock than the image of the well-endowed naked woman in the other room.

If only Emma had been a good little girl and hadn’t attended that reception last night. If only she’d gotten his message to meet up.

Like most people, relationships were her greatest weakness and he’d planned to use that against her. Dangle the life of her father in front of her to get her to come to him. Father and daughter would have a grand reunion, then die together, a bag of diamonds nearly identical to the Bradshaw collection left behind. Even if the Feds eventually discovered they weren’t the originals, who would care? The Bradshaw family was gone, the museum would choose to keep the truth hidden in order to profit from the display, and the case would fall to the bottom of the towering piles of more important investigations.

Meanwhile, he already had a buyer willing to pay top dollar. With a bit of creativity, he could push the price up with an auction.

Especially once Emma and Charlie took the blame for the heist.

Peering through the living room curtains, he scanned the streets in both directions. Gani had taken a roundabout way to return home, hoping to shake off anyone tailing her. She’d failed that test, but he’d arrived ahead of her in plenty of time.

When she’d pulled into the lot, he’d noticed a car fifty yards away ease in behind a minivan and park. It was still there.

Resuming his seat in the bedroom as the shower shut off, he crossed one leg over the other and considered what he had yet to do. He wanted to stop by the hospital at shift change to make sure Catherine never came out of her medically induced coma, but this situation had to be dealt with first.

Quickly and quietly so as not to alert his favorite East End boy down the street.

He palmed the statue from her dresser of an Indian goddess. It was heavy and should do the trick.

The bathroom door opened and Gani walked out in a cotton sleep shirt, drying her hair on a towel. She wore a large opal ring on her index finger. Her gaze went to the bed and she stopped short, noticing the phone was gone.

Fight or flight was instinctual for all animals. She wasn’t a fighter and chose instead to scream.

So much for quiet.

He managed to trip her before she made it to the bedroom door. She threw the towel at him and he batted it away before bringing the statue down on her temple.

The blow didn’t do more than stun her.

But it was enough. She gasped and blinked and tried to crawl away. He straddled her, keeping his shoes out of the blood trickling from the gash the goddess had inflicted. Flipping her over, he knelt on one knee and covered her mouth with his gloved hand.

Underneath him, she kicked and fought. Messy, messy, messy. He had to shut this down, and now.

Releasing her mouth, he brought the statue down on her face, the sound of her nose splintering and teeth busting an ugly yet satisfying one.

Her eyes rolled up in her head and she went limp.

Wiping blood splatter from his face, he frowned at the spots on his wool jacket. His gloves were ruined, too.

He preferred things clean and neat. He was getting too old for this shit.

Stepping over the body, he checked the window again. No movement from the Audi. He removed a bag of uncut gemstones from his pocket and forced them into Gani's mouth.

No matter the ruined clothes, he’d taken care of this loose string. Murder wasn’t his stock trade, but he wasn’t one to split hairs. What needed to be done, needed to be done, and all that.

At the same time, the gemstones sent a message to anyone who might think of betraying him.

Slipping down the fire escape, he snuck inside the abandoned nail salon below Gani’s to watch for any movement down the street. After ten minutes, he left his hideout and started whistling softly as he blended into the shadows.

Time to handle the next loose end.