Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
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.”