But this time, she ignored the fluttering sensations it brought about and instead turned and looked him dead in the eye.

  “Who are you really, huh? What’s all this? How do you know so much about me?” Suddenly she couldn’t stop all the questions that still scrambled her head. She didn’t trust him or any of what was happening around her. But she was trapped, forced to let him help her so she could free Ben.

  “You know who I am, Jorja, and I told you, we both want the same thing. I want the painting back where it belongs in Gabrielle’s family, and you need it to free Ben. I gave you my word. I’ll help you when the time comes to free your friend if, in exchange, you help me return the painting.”

  “We both need the painting, Pascale, so this arrangement can’t possibly work. Especially if you’re planning to kill someone over it. In which case, I want even less to do with this. I’m leaving. Let the best man, or woman win.”

  She spun around to leave but he grabbed hold of her arm and held her back, taking her eyes captive with his.

  “I already have it all worked out, Jorja, and it won’t involve anyone getting killed, I assure you. We will both get what we want. You have my word. Trust me. This job is too big for you to handle on your own and you know it.”

  Emotions raged inside her but, as much as she didn’t want to admit it, he was right. This was a job she couldn’t risk failing at, and the sooner they got it done, the sooner she’d have Ben and her life back. Who cared who he was or what he knew—or how she came alive when he as much as looked at her. He’s a player, and a crooked one at that, and she would never see him again once the heist was over. Still, she needed to protect herself. She needed to stay in control, and if it meant placing her trust in him, she’d have no option but to do so.

  “Let me make it clear, Pascale. I’ll play ball, and when it comes to carrying out the heist, your team had better be on point. I have the final say, or I walk and you can cross swords with me to get your hands on the painting. And when this is all done, the file is sealed and we never see each other again. Understood?”

  “Deal,” he said far too quickly for her liking, as if he knew something she didn’t.

  By the time they got back to the meeting, the team had settled down and, what could have only been Nikki’s doing, individually rendered their apologies. A nod from Pascale sent Nikki a signal that he had diffused the situation and that they were back in business. He cued for her to take over the rest of the briefing, to which she promptly responded.

  “Right, let’s move on and formally introduce you to the team, shall we? Kalihm is our guy on the ground. Born and raised here, he knows every building, back alley, supply chain, resident, and their grandmother back to front. Whatever you need, he’ll deliver. It goes without saying that he is also in charge of our getaway. This here is Harry. It’s not his real name, but as you might have spotted already, he looks a lot like a certain royal prince from your neck of the woods. At only twenty-two, he is also the youngest on our team. But don’t let that deceive you. He minds our cyber intelligence hub and there’s not a computer system anywhere in the world this guy can’t hack. He’s a genius when it comes to security and all things tech. And last, but not least, we have Mo. Ex U.S. Special Forces, he is obsessed with demolition and anything that causes a disruption…or distraction, as he might like to justify it. Don’t let his harsh exterior and tattoos scare you, though. He’s a teddy bear on the inside.” She winked at him with the same flirtatious manner used on Pascale earlier which had him instantly blush with embarrassment.

  “And what would your area of expertise be?” Jorja asked her.

  “Aside from keeping these boys in check, I am your eyes and ears. Your wingman, if you need one. Basically, anywhere you might need an extra pair of hands.”

  Pascale noticed the doubt that had settled in Jorja’s eyes. “Nikki’s expertise comes from her love for jewelry.” Pascale said, his eyes smiling at her. “Ever heard of the Millennium Dome Raid?”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, Veronique here, was the notorious thief who very nearly got away with the Millennium Star. Estimated at the time to have been worth upward of two-hundred-and-five million pounds, it remains the most famous jewelry heist of all time. And, she would have gotten away with it too had it not been for the imbecile she recruited as getaway who had the police on his tail for car theft.”

  “Something you won’t ever let me forget. Thank you for the reminder, which is precisely why I now take extra care who I put behind the wheel of the getaway car. It was a lesson that almost cost me everything.”

  They shared a suspicious silent exchange.

  Pascale was quick to deflect attention away from them. “Yes, and that’s why our team is the best. We get the job done. Everytime.”

  Jorja, who’d been silently observing the team, was both impressed and somewhat set at ease with the information she now learned.

  “We have forty-eight-hours to get the painting back to Geneva,” Nikki reminded quickly. “The clock is ticking.”

  “Then let’s do this,” Jorja said.

  “Excellent, so, now that we’re all on the same page and playing nicely, I believe you have the secret ingredient to getting this party started.” Nikki looked at Jorja.

  “Yes, of course.”

  * * *

  Though still not fully convinced that she could truly trust them or that they were on the same side, Jorja reached across to the notepad and pen that lay in the middle of the table. As she wrote down the address she had stolen from Franz’s files, she silently pleaded with God that Pascale and his team were being truthful and that she wasn’t making a colossal mistake by teaming up with them.

  But, come what may, she knew she was ready and she passed the details to Nikki, her hands trembling as she did so. There was no stopping it now. All she could do was trust God and execute the best robbery she had ever pulled. And as she watched the team scatter into action, she found Pascale’s warm eyes suddenly upon her. What she saw behind them was nothing she’d expected or seen before. Instead, she saw a deep sense of gratitude, as if what she was doing, meant more to him than life itself. Perhaps it was motivated by the love for his wife, or something else her instincts had not yet fully revealed to her.

  Or perhaps she was imagining that he needed her because she’d finally gotten the chance to do again what she’d been yearning for since she first went into hiding all those years ago.

  But, as guilt-ridden as she was over being forced into wrongdoing, whatever it was had unexpectedly lit her up on the inside and made her flash a small smile in reply.

  * * *

  The night drew on and, for the most part, the team worked in perfect silence as each did their part to gather the necessary information they required to execute the heist. Pascale had suspiciously disappeared less than an hour after they started, leaving Jorja on edge all over again. He had said he needed to meet up with someone and it was as if his team found nothing untoward about it. But when she asked Nikki who he was meeting, she clammed up like a shell, playing it off as if it was nothing out of the ordinary for Pascale to do whenever he was in town.

  “Don’t you think he should be here with us, though?” Jorja had asked, to which Nikki shrugged her shoulders, pouted her red lips, and confidently assured her that he was probably just catching up with an old friend.

  “Have you known each other long?” Jorja had asked her again where they pored over fresh information Kalihm had gathered.

  “Long enough. Now, let’s get to work on these blueprints, shall we?” She turned her attention to Harry.

  “Anything on the security system yet?”

  “Nada, and by the looks of it, we might need to get inside for a full recon to know what we’re up against.”

  “Can you work your magic with a way in?”

  Kalihm answered instead. “The man has a thing for baguettes. So much so that he insists a daily fresh batch gets delivered all the way from a bakery in Dubai.”

  “I can intercept the delivery van,” Mo volunteered.

  “No explosives, Mo. We don’t need to draw any attention to us before we’ve even started. Besides, we’re going to need the van, and be gentle with the delivery guy,” she warned.

  Mo gestured a salute in response, after which he got up and started scratching around in a black duffle bag he had on a table in the far corner.

  “I’ll get onto the clothes. I can almost guarantee the driver has to wear an overall or an apron or something.” Kalihm jumped in and moved toward the door.

  “You up for a delivery, Jorja?” Nikki smiled.

  “Sounds good.”

  “What does?” Pascale suddenly said behind them.

  “Delivering fresh baguettes,” Harry sneered. “Our target is obsessed with them.”

  “Interesting,” Pascale said as he set down a batch of fresh coffee and rigag—a traditional sweetened crepe-like bread—on the table. “Tell me what you know while it’s hot.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Nikki was quick to respond with an update of their preliminary reconnaissance. “The address Jorja gave us traces to Sheikh Zuhalil Bin Nasr, loosely translated to Saturn Eagle. He has three wives and five daughters, one of whom, the eldest, is engaged to a Dubai prince. A fourth-generation oil magnate who made most of his new money in cars and real estate, he’s quite the big spender. By the looks of things, our eagle enjoys everything to the extreme. Which brings us to the real juicy stuff: his not-so-humble abode. It’s located on the edge of the city and backs up to the desert. From our initial external imagery, it looks to be somewhat of a fortress.”

  “Security?” Pascale asked.

  “Unconfirmed at this stage, Boss,” Harry shouted from behind his three large computer monitors. “His security system is military grade. I can’t access it externally.”

  “We’re working on getting inside,” Nikki continued.

  “The baguette delivery,” Pascale stated.

  “Exactly. There’s a daily delivery. With Mo’s help, we’ll intercept the truck.”

  “And it will work?” Pascale queried.

  “Yep, we’re good,” Harry yelled out. “I just hacked the baker’s system. Our next delivery is scheduled at five a.m. I’ve already copied the designated driver’s identification pass from his mobile and transferred it to this one. It’s a simple QR code and it is ready to go.” He slid a mobile device into one corner of his desk.

  “I’ll drive, you hide in the back. Once we get through the gates, I’ll distract and delay while you sneak in,” Nikki said to Jorja, to which she nodded in agreement.

  “They’ll be able to gain access into the property via the service entrance, which takes them to the kitchen at the rear of the house. From there, they’re on their own. As soon as Jorja locks into the wifi address, it will ping back to me. Once I have that, I’ll be able to hack into their servers, surveillance, and anything else that will tell us where he’s keeping the painting.”

  “Good job, everyone. We have a little over two hours until the delivery so let’s get it going,” Pascale announced.

  But, shortly after the team had made their final preparations to execute the infiltration, Kalihm burst through the door in full theatrical display.

  “Houston, we have a problem. The baguette delivery is a no-go. I repeat, the baguette delivery—”

  “Yes, okay, we get it, Buzz Lightyear. Get on with it,” Mo said, annoyed.

  “You’re such a party pooper,” Kalihm said before he continued. “As I said, the delivery is a big fat negative. Word on the ground is the target called it off due to the wedding.”

  “What wedding?” Nikki asked.

  “His daughter’s getting married to the prince later today and, apparently, he’s throwing the biggest feast the Emirates has ever seen tonight. Rumor has it that he invited around five hundred guests.”

  “Great, there goes that,” Mo groaned.

  “Not necessarily,” Jorja said.

  “We’re listening?” Pascale prompted.

  “It’s the perfect opportunity to steal the painting.”

  “You want to pull this job today? Impossible. We’re not ready,” Nikki said as her hands settled onto her hips.

  “I know, but hear me out. Everyone is there for the wedding, right? No one is going to be expecting a burglary. It’s the perfect distraction. Even if he had a full security team at every entrance, watching so many guests is going to be a challenge, even for the best of them. I say we do it at the wedding. It might be our only chance,” Jorja announced.

  The room fell silent and she watched as the team looked to Pascale for feedback.

  “Don’t look at me. She knows what she’s talking about. I trust her.”

  Nikki cocked her head at Pascale, frowning with disbelief at his bold statement. “There is no way we can carry out a recon and prep in under twelve hours. It’s too risky.”

  Again, Pascale looked to Jorja. “You sure about this, Jorja?”

  Jorja wasn’t. In truth, her stomach was tied in knots and anxiety grew in her chest, but she had no intentions of letting them know.

  “If there is one thing I’ve learned in this job, it is to be ready to improvise. Nothing ever goes as planned in any event, so I’m confident with the cumulative experience we all have, we can do it.” She turned to face Kalihm. “We’re going to need sufficient transport that will get us through the desert, fast. The way I see it, it’s our best getaway route. With that many guests, the entrance to the property will be congested with cars. We’ll do it Prince of Persia style, over the south wall.”

  Mo was quick to respond. “I can detonate a distraction remotely, to lure security’s attention to the north side of the property, the exit is to the West, which means they will all make their way out the front. I’ll make sure we have ropes ready.”

  “The walls are too high to climb,” Harry said.

  “Then I’ll use the tactical grappling launchers. It’s silent, shoots a distance of one-hundred-and-fifteen feet, and I’ll have it ready by the time you make it to the wall. Consider it done,” Mo assured them.

  “That will work. Kalihm, can you be ready on the other side with our getaway transport?” Jorja asked.

  “Your wish is my command. Leave it to me.”

  “Hello? Have you guys lost your minds? It’s all dandy that you’ve got our getaway route planned, but have you stopped to consider how we’re meant to pull off the actual job first? We don’t know anything about the security system or, most importantly, where he’s keeping the painting. Not to mention how we’re planning on getting away with hundreds of people attending his daughter’s wedding! This is suicide. It will never work. We need more time.”

  “We don’t have any more time, Nikki,” Pascale said.

  “Why, because she has a deadline? We don’t, so I fail to understand why we’re risking our lives for her.”

  Her outburst instantly turned Pascale’s eyes dark with warning.

  “She knows?” Jorja queried. “I can’t believe you told her. You were the one who asked for my help, remember? I told you, I can do this on my own.”

  “Knows what?” Mo asked on behalf of the rest of the team who now looked equally suspicious.

  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. Forget it, we’ll figure something out.” Nikki quickly tried to remedy her mistake.

  “If there’s something that puts us all at risk then we have the right to know,” Mo challenged. “We’re trusting you as much as you are trusting us, Jorja,” he continued.

  “You can trust me,” Pascale said, his voice as assertive as his sudden commanding presence. “We’re doing it tonight. Last I checked, you were the best at what we do, so stay focused and let’s get it done. Harry, speak to me.”

  “Copy that, Boss. Getting Jorja on the guest list is the easy part. She’ll need a male plus one, of course, and no offense, Mo, but your facial tats won’t pass you as a distinguished guest.” He raised one ginger eyebrow in Pascale’s direction.

  “No problem. What else?” Pascale agreed to the obscured suggestion that was cast his way.

  “I’ve installed the grabber on your phone. They will no doubt deploy extra protocols in their security to monitor mobile activity, so we will have a very small window to grab the wifi network address before they lock your phone from their IP sequence. I would need you to activate the app the moment you step through the entrance. You’re going to need to hover in the same spot as close to the threshold as possible. I’d say about ten seconds, before your mobile’s signal switches over to theirs. Once I’m in, we’ll have to move quickly. Unfortunately, since I won’t have any time to recon their system and test their capabilities, I don’t know what we’re up against yet and literally anything can go wrong at any point. Improvisation and quick thinking will be vital. I’ll have to work quickly from there, figuring it out as we go along.”

  “Let’s prepare for every eventuality and pull all tech we have access to,” Pascale instructed as he looked over Jorja’s shoulder where she was studying the blueprints. “Any guesses?” he said, referring to where the painting might be hidden.

  “It could be anywhere, really, but I recall Ana saying Jürgen had mentioned that it was behind a wall. The actual painting is only twenty-six by seventeen-and-a-half inches in size, but it would be foolish to assume that it’s the only item he has hidden. In my experience, someone who has held onto an item of this value for this amount of time will no doubt have stocked up on other items that carry less collateral value.”

  “Holding back his trump card then,” Nikki spoke again for the first time.

  “Precisely.”

  “So, we just won’t know until we’re inside to assess where security is the tightest,” Nikki stated, looking concerned.

  Pascale’s eyes narrowed where he’d been watching Jorja work. He had seen something in her behavior that piqued his curiosity.