“You’re a… acriminal?” I shout. I always knew it was possible this is what he’d amount to, but there was a point in time I hoped for more.
He frowns. “That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
“No!” My voice is little more than a squeak. “You’re here to steal something. Therefore, criminal! How did you get in?”
He purses his lips, his eyes briefly darting from mine. “If I tell you that, itwillsound criminal.”
My breathing speeds up, and I pace two feet to the right, then the left.
I need to call the cops.
And then I need to call the EMTs, because something is wrong with my heart. It keeps beating fast, then slow, then not at all. As if this man hasn’t tried to break me once before.
“I can’t believe you.” I want to chuck something at him. Out of revenge? Most definitely. I never got to take out my anger on him back then; it’s overdue. “It’s been eight years. Eight!” I grab something off the desk. I’m not sure what I throw at him until he catches the small golden globe with one hand inches from his face. “I was doing fine, by the way, and now you’re here to screw up my life once again.”
“Do you really think I came all this way to mess with you?” He tosses the globe back and forth in his hands as if he’s enjoying my struggle. It only makes me angrier.
“Which begs the question,whyare you here?” he asks.
“I’m the nanny!” I yell before I can stop myself.Ibelong here. He does not.
“No, you aren’t.”
I clench the painting tighter. “I think I know my job title.”
“Really? Because last I checked, the nanny was Penny Miller. That’snotyou.”
I grimace, but before I can answer, a more pressing thought seems to afflict him.
“Wait, if you’re here, that means the kid is…”
I swallow and nod.
He curses.
Chapter 5
Soren
Thisisnothappening.I repeat. Not. Happening.
Maya Perry is not here in this penthouse, current nanny to the child I’m trying to rob.
No, I’m not robbing a child; I’m robbing her parents. Huge difference, which feels microscopic right now.
There is a child here—a child Rosie confirmed leaving this penthouse not four hours ago.
“She was gone.” I state it as a fact.
“She came back,” Maya says.
My brain still isn’t processing this giant problem. “She’s gone. We watched her leave.” The words spill out before I can take them back.
Maya’s eyebrows fly up. “Thanks for admitting you’ve been staking out the penthouse and stalking a child. Mind saying that one more time so I can prove it to the police?” Her phone appears in her hand, but I snatch it away, sticking it in my back pocket.
“That’s mine!” She tries to round me with the extremely rare and valuable painting, but I keep her at a distance before she accidentally destroys it.
Maya. I feel like I could rub my eyes and they’d bring me a different picture. They’d have to, because there’s no way she should be here. How did I fail to recognize her? Even in the dark, I should have recognized her voice. But the hair she used to highlight with blonde is now pitch black, and her ponytail is so long it nearly touches her waist. Even her eyebrows are thicker than they used to be. But as much as I want to study her appearance in depth, I don’t have time.
