9
“Your driver is about to drop me off at the Abernathy manor. I’ll go inside and make sure Stefan really is here, then leave a message in your cache to let you know to call the police.” Though Tam could see Breck’s face clearly on the screen of her palmtop, she glanced away often. It hurt to look at him now. They hadn’t spoken in the days since the party at his penthouse. She’d uplinked the encrypted information he would need about the couple who’d take Sophie.
“If you insist.” The look he gave her was blank and removed, not at all the warm, animated lover she’d known.
She swallowed, squeezing words past her suddenly tight throat. “Thank you for doing this, Breck. I know it wouldn’t be what you’d choose.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw, and he reached toward his screen to cut the call. “Good-bye, Tam.”
Agony seared her chest, but a broken heart would do that, wouldn’t it? She’d lost Breck, and she was soon to lose Sophie, too. That was for the best. But what was best sometimes hurt. She pressed together lips that quivered, tucking her palmtop into her handbag. Breck’s words rang through her mind on an endless loop, and they had for days. You want us near so bad you can taste it, but you’re so certain you’ll ruin us by being yourself that you’re not even willing to try.
Staying in their lives would ruin them, but he’d made it sound so ugly. She was trying to do the right thing, to be good for the first time since she was ten years old, and he’d slapped her in the face with it. Righteous anger flooded her, and she welcomed it. Better than the depression that had swamped her since she’d last seen him. She’d done her best to hide it from Sophie, but losing them was a wound that would never heal.
The transport rocked to a gentle stop, and the door swished open. An Abernathy footman gave her a hand out, and she smoothed her long gown, lifted her chin, and walked into the manor as if she belonged there. The place was posh, the decorations tasteful, but clearly priceless. While standing in the receiving line, she greeted a few people who’d been at Breck’s party or the Duke’s post-race celebration. She made her curtsy to the Abernathys, wished Drusilla a happy birthday, and gave them Breck’s excuses for not coming with her. A holo chandelier floated above the ballroom, casting light on the polyglass ceiling that lit the enormous room in an amber glow. That had set the Abernathys back a load of creds.
She smelled him as soon as she entered the room. Stefan. Her stomach clenched, but she kept her expression pleasant as she smiled at passing guests. She plucked out her palmtop and keyed in the message to Breck that would be the beginning of the end of this thing.
Stefan is here.
And there he was, standing across the room, decked out in the kind of fancy tuxedo that disguised the villain he really was. She snorted. Not long ago, she’d thought the same thing about her fancy dresses disguising what she really was underneath.
That hit her right between the eyes. Deus, is that what she really thought? That she was the same as someone like Stefan? Someone who’d murdered people for fun, kidnapped and threatened his own child, abused Tam when she was a child. Someone who wanted Sophie and Tam dead because they happened to look like their mother. That was how she saw herself, deep down?
She rocked back on her heels, felt the blood rush out of her face. Deus, Breck was right. About her. About everything. All these years, this picture she had of herself in her mind had been building, insidious and ugly. She was what Stefan had made her. No better than him. Criminal. Immoral. Degenerate. A pathetic excuse for a human being.
Not worth anything. Not worthy of raising a child she loved. Certainly not worthy of a good man for a mate.
The realization slammed into her with the subtle force of a biobomb. Deus, what was she doing? Did she really hate herself so much that she was willing to let Stefan kill her or get her thrown in jail for the rest of her life? She’d told herself she was being noble, sacrificing herself so Sophie and Breck could have good lives without her, but who was she fooling? This was a suicide mission. She couldn’t beat Stefan alone.
Glancing in his direction again, she saw him staring at her. His lips twisted up in a cruel smile and he toasted her with his whiskey glass. He knew she was here, and he wasn’t going to let her get out of here unharmed. But Breck was saving Sophie, so he wasn’t going to rescue Tam. She was on her own.
Hoisted by her own petard.
No. She would not let the weasel win. She wouldn’t let him hurt Sophie, but now she realized that she deserved better than that, too. She didn’t deserve how he’d treated her. It wasn’t her fault he’d become obsessed with her mother and killed her father, and it wasn’t her fault that he’d thought her cheetah speed was useful. It wasn’t her fault. And she would not lie down and take it from him anymore. She would not let her fear of him steal her life. Damn it, no. She would not be his victim anymore.
She stepped behind a large potted plant and lifted her palmtop, keying in the code to make a call she’d never have thought she’d make.
The connection picked up on the other end, and Tam made herself breathe normally when she wanted to hyperventilate. “How would you like to steal the Queen’s Jewels? The real ones this time? That is what they paid you for, isn’t it?”
On the small screen, Delilah’s eyebrows arched, and a perfectly wicked grin curled her lips. “When and where?”
“Right now.” She smiled back, though the muscles in her face felt unnatural and stiff. “You’ll want to accept that invitation to Lady Abernathy’s birthday ball. And bring the fake jewels with you.”
The lynx-shifter tilted her head, her green eyes going narrow. “Why are you doing this?”
For once, Tam could answer in perfect honesty. “I want to make sure they end up exactly where they’re supposed to.”
Delilah nodded slowly. “Is this the problem your sister got tangled up in? She’s a little young, but . . . I started young, too.”
“So did I.” Understatement of the millennium, but since the lynx had grown up in the Vermilion, Tam figured Delilah would understand. Her circumstances would have been no better. Tam sighed. “She’s not involved. Her safe return is my payment for services rendered on this job.”
Delilah leaned closer to the screen. “Who’s holding her?”
“Her father,” Tam ground the words out. “A slimy little weasel of a man. My mother had terrible taste in men.”
“My mother was a whore. My sister and I can’t even be certain who our fathers were.” The lynx snorted. “I can relate.”
“So you can.” Tam dipped her chin in a nod. “Breck is taking care of my sister. With your help, I can make certain her father doesn’t get the Queen’s Jewels.”
Delilah hummed, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “And if anyone asks, I’ll say you were working with me and not with him. Since I have a legitimate reason to be stealing them.”
“Exactly. I want my sister, Breck, and me to get out of this alive and not end up in jail.” More than anything else in the world, she wanted that. She didn’t know how things would go with Breck, but if she had the chance to find out, she wouldn’t waste it.
Delilah nodded. “All right, I’ll help you. If for no other reason than I don’t like it when men hurt little girls, and I don’t like to see assholes win.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you.” Delilah’s grin was back in full force. “I have to admit it chapped my ass that they didn’t let me swipe the real jewels. Getting my hands on them anyway is going to be fun. They’re shiny and pretty and I want to try them all on before I give them back.” She rubbed her hands together. “I’ll be there as soon as I throw on a ball gown and find my biggest handbag to carry my usual equipment.”
“Hurry.” Faster was better. She could do some mingling in the meantime, make sure she was seen as a regular guest before she disappeared into the bowels of the manor.
The view bobbled as if the lynx-shifter carried her palmtop as she was moving around. “You have a plan in place?”
“Of course.” She’d spent day and night trying to get a plan together since Stefan had let her know what the real job was. Something like this should have been months in the works, but it was one more obstacle Stefan had thrown in her path.
By now she knew the exact layout of the manor, the guard rotation, the type of security system they had in place, where each vidmonitor was located, and the backgrounds of every employee they had working for them. Every waking hour she’d had in the last couple of days had been spent preparing for the job. She’d downlinked every piece of information she could get her hands on about the Helax 1600 model of safe. She knew the specs, she knew when it had been installed in the Abernathy manor, she knew who’d done the installing. A few discreet inquiries to colleagues had turned up some valuable information on cracking it, but there were no guarantees there. Getting caught during a failed attempt was yet another reason to bring in Delilah, who’d be able to excuse herself as doing the job she’d been paid for.
Relief swam through Tam. There was a chance she might actually see the other side of this. Of course, she might not. It could still all go terribly wrong, and she could still wind up dead.
But for the first time in as long as she could remember, she had hope that there might be something better for her in life. She might actually have a chance at one of those fairy-tale endings. If she managed that, she’d spend the rest of her days proving that she’d gotten what she deserved.
A life that was of her own choosing.