Chapter Four

Ajob. There was the cost.

The last thing in the world she wanted to do was work for him. She hated the puffed-up, insipid billionaires she stole for, but they were predictable. They wanted knickknacks and baubles and artwork and other useless things. They paid her handsomely for them, though. So she worked for crime bosses and madams and anyone else who had the means to pay her to do the thing she enjoyed.

But with Graves, she knew, she just knew that getting involved with him would be the death of her. Anything he'd ask her to steal would be an entirely different kind of danger. Already he spoke of magic. So impossible and yet somehow... real. She had learned an important lesson growing up on the streets—what was and wasn't worth dying for.

Still, she pursed her lips and waited for the offer. This should be interesting.

"What kind of job?" she asked evenly.

"The kind you're clearly good at. I need you to steal something for me."

She eyed him up and down. Looked through the cool exterior he portrayed. He'd gone from wanting to kill her to offering her a job a little too fast. This was something he wanted badly. Something he'd cough up a lot of money for. She could read that on her mark already.

The part she didn't understand was why her and what was in it for her. Because money wasn't enough on a job like this. Even the security she so desperately wanted for her friends wasn't worth certain death.

She let her eyes go round, revealing the doe-eyed look that made men underestimate her. "Why would you need me?"

He smiled slowly. "Because I can't get everything I want myself, obviously."

So, she was valuable, then? Well, that gave her leverage.

If he couldn't get this item himself and another thief wouldn't do, then did that make her the only person he could work with? She wished she could read more off of him, but he was a closed book. Only revealing enough information to get her interested in the offer. Clever. It was her own favorite tactic.

"I can pay you handsomely," Graves said when she didn't respond. "I can make your life very, very comfortable."

"What? You think I need the money?" Her voice lowered to a rasp.

He dragged his gaze up and down her figure clad in black. Her clothes were enough to get by. Nothing fancy, but they worked. But she knew what he saw when he looked at her. He saw exactly what she wanted him to see. A torn collar from his roughhousing, scuffed boots, and gross overconfidence.

His smirk grew. "Come now. It's plain you need money. This bauble here," he said, extracting the ring. "It can probably fetch you several thousand. Enough to get by for a couple of months in this city."

She blatantly winced, giving him the impression that she had no idea how much a diamond of that size was actually worth.

"Not even that much?" he asked, noting her expression, walking right into her trap. "Pity."

Even though she'd been reaching for it, she still hated the word. Pity was a death kiss. When she'd been running in the slums, she'd despised the pitying looks. The stares that said she'd never amount to anything.

The looks from Jason's other protégés. At first envious that she was singled out and then... the torment for being his favorite. Worse, the pity when they found the bruises he tried so carefully to hide on her body.

But they all realized eventually what Graves soon would when she fleeced him out of everything.

"I don't need your pity," she snarled defensively.

"Fine. I can pay and pay well. Just say yes. Let me give you all that you desire."

Warning bells rang in her mind. He was too eager, and it felt wrong on him. As if he'd never really asked for something he wanted before. He just took it. And so far she had not been receptive to taking.

"You haven't even told me what the job is and who I'm stealing from."

"You didn't seem to care when you were stealing from me," he said coolly. The easy sidestep of someone who didn't want to give too much away before she agreed.

That was so far from the truth that he was on a different planet. She'd cared. She'd just needed the money to get through the month's rent with Colette. So, she'd walked inside the house without knowing if a monster lay in wait. She'd gambled, and she'd lost. She wouldn't lose this negotiation.

"No," she said simply just to see what he'd do.

He stared back at her in confusion as if she had just moved a chess piece that hadn't been on the board. "No?" he asked incredulously.

"I choose my jobs, and right now, I'm not choosing yours. So, if we're done here, I've answered all your questions and want to leave."

Something sparked in those dark eyes. "You can leave if you choose, but this is the adventure of a lifetime. An object so rare, so valuable, and so difficult to acquire, it will make breaking into vaults seem like child's play."

Breaking into vaults was child's play. Well, her childhood at least.

"What kind of object? The Holy Grail?" she asked with a mocking laugh.

But she shouldn't have shown interest, because he latched on to it. As if money didn't matter but the thrill of it all interested her. Perked up her ears.

"Of a sort. You could be the one to break it out of where it's kept deep under the city, guarded by an unbreakable security system and hidden by the vilest of monsters." He arched an eyebrow in her direction. "If you're good enough."

She narrowed her eyes. It was enticing. Stupidly so.

Jason had chosen her as a youth because she didn't pick pockets out of necessity. It had been clear on her little urchin face how much she enjoyed it. She shouldn't have. She'd learned over the years to hide her zeal. To mask the chase as something other. Normal people didn't feel like this. It terrified them that she enjoyed flouting the law so overtly. And yet, growing up on the streets had taught her that the law was a trifling thing meant to be bent and circumvented. Because of course, it was only against the law... if she were caught.

He leaned his hip into the table and reached for his drink, switching back into his aloof demeanor. All eagerness gone. His eyes tracked her all the while. Judging and weighing the calculations going through her mind.

"So, are we going to work together?"

She hesitated. It was enticing. It was meant to entice her. He offered what she really wanted now that he'd landed on it—adventure and ever-increasing stakes. A job that no one else could do. These were things much harder to find than money in this godforsaken city.

In fact, he'd offered things that he had no idea she wanted even more than adventure and money and security. If she was stealing from vile monsters under the city, she had an inkling of exactly what that meant. She'd seen firsthand what happened when you messed with the wrong monsters. The city opened its mouth and swallowed you whole. Any reason to hit back at those monsters was a win in her ledger.

And still... she hesitated. Not because she didn't want to say yes. She did. But she needed to get her ducks in a row before this one.

"Give me twenty-four hours," she said after a minute. "Then I'll have your answer."

He weighed her reply and then nodded. "Agreed. One last thing before you leave."

He produced a small leather book out of a drawer in the table. He flipped it open to a page near the middle and offered her a pen. She took it automatically, curiosity getting the better of her. It was a signature page. Four names ran across the top. Two of them were completely indistinguishable. Just chicken scratch on the page. The other two read Uma Matthewson and Mateo Parrish. She recognized neither of them.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Sign it."

"Why?"

He looked at her wryly. "Everyone signs it. If you want to leave, you'll add your signature."

"What does it do?"

"If my suspicions about you are correct, Miss McKenna," he said with a tilt of his head, "absolutely nothing."

Another game. She picked up the pen with her left hand and scrawled out her name. She dropped the book back on the table. "Are we through?"

Graves slid the book back into its drawer and then swept his hand toward the door. "After you."

He tugged his gloves back on as he escorted her out. It felt surreal that he was actually allowing her to leave, let alone escorting her out like a guest instead of an intruder. They left the library and headed down the massive staircase together. He clasped his hands behind his back as they walked in silence.

Unease bit into her, as if at any second, the rug would be pulled out. The police would show up to whisk her away to a place that couldn't keep her. Or something far worse.

But nothing happened. He just opened the front door.

Snow fell like a blanket over the front steps and sidewalk, transforming the landscape into a winter wonderland. Tomorrow it would all be a slushy mess, but right now it was breathtaking.

"I'll expect you promptly tomorrow," Graves said.

She tilted her chin up to look into those incredible gray eyes. They hadn't been this close, and she'd been so focused on retrieving the ring that she hadn't considered quite how tall he was. He towered over her frame. His heat burned through her like a brand. As if he could sear a piece of him onto her existence. Burn straight through her hardened exterior and reveal what could have been had she not been abandoned and used and abused.

She shuddered under that scrutiny. Seeing things in herself she'd rather keep hidden. "I keep my promises."

"If you don't, I'll come for your answer."

She didn't much like that idea.

"Fine," she said and then trotted down the snow-strewn steps.

"Miss McKenna," he called before she got too far away.

She whirled around, anticipating the catch. It had been too easy to just walk out. But instead, Graves tossed the giant ring toward her. She plucked it out of the air. Surprise hit her features as she looked at the robin's egg–size diamond. Why would he give this to her? He'd done everything he could to keep it.

"A show of good faith," he said.

Oh, he was going to be difficult to work with.

In that moment, she saw that he had as many tricks up his tailored sleeves as she did and more time and experience. She was going to have to be careful to survive him. Because standing there on the threshold of his mansion, holding the very thing she'd come for, with his handsome face half hidden in shadow, it was very hard to even think of anything in his presence.

And that scared her most of all.