Page 61 of Cozen

Even he didn’t know at the moment.

“Maybe I could give her one,” Jett murmured.

Sargon cleared his throat. “She’s looking for something.”

He couldn’t bring himself to say much else, really.

Jett drummed his fingertips to the table. “There’s nothing in this information that perks my suspicions, or draws concern, anyway. I will consider that a good thing.”

Or maybe you should dig deeper.

Sargon kept his mouth shut. He was already knee-deep into his own pile of shit where Cozen was concerned.

“I’ve been gone a while,” Jett added.

Sargon gave him a look. “Pardon?”

“From her—Cozen. I haven’t been around in a while. Business, you know.”

“Quite aware, yeah.”

Hence the reason Sargon was on babysitting duty.

“She seemed to take well to you, didn’t she?” Jett asked.

Sargon lifted a brow. “She didn’t run away screaming.”

To say the least …

“Good. I’ll be busy over the next little while. I think I will send a gift with you to take to her. Remind her I am still around, so to speak.”

Sargon’s throat tightened.

His chest felt heavy.

He nodded. “Whatever you want, boss.”

Cozen carefully balanced the silver serving tray on her palm as she weaved in and around tables filled with diners, and the other two servers working the floor. The Kingdom was a popular eatery, sure, but the place wasn’t usually this busy. Today, the servers had extra slack to pick up because one of the girls called in sick.

“Sorry, be with you in just a moment,” Cozen told a man who raised a hand to get her attention. “Just let me drop this order off—you’re next, sir, I promise.”

She kept her tone polite and sweet, but inside, she wanted to scream and run the hell away. Her life had afforded her certain luxuries. Things like a lot of money because she was a successful thief. A beautiful house on the beach. And even a vineyard gifted to her by her adoptive parents.

She could be walking through wine country, or resting on a beach right now. Instead, she was in cold New York City, working tables at a fucking Manhattan restaurant, wearing clothes she hated, and shoes that were cheap as hell despite how nice they looked. Oh, yeah, her toes could really feel the cheapness after a month working in them.

Sighing, Cozen shook her head to rid those thoughts. She wasn’t frustrated with the restaurant, or the job she took on for appearance’s sake, either. It was the job she was irritated with. The heist on Jett Griffin.

He’d all but up and disappeared on her for a good two weeks, or a little more. She was sure he had not been offended that she refused his offer to sleep with him after their date, but maybe she had been wrong.

It didn’t matter.

Cozen would give up a lot of things for a good heist, but her body was not one of them. It was possible that Jett’s life simply became too busy to be making his regular stops at the restaurant but she didn’t know how likely that was. Some of the girls suggested he did occasionally go a week or so at a time randomly without coming to eat when she had asked.

Whatever it was, when or if Jett came back in to her presence, Cozen was going to have to do whatever she could—short of fucking the man—to gain his trust, and get him close. Whatever it took to make him let her in to his personal life a bit more so that she could finally get this done.

She had goals to obtain here: get in, find the ring, and get the hell out. That was all that mattered at the end of the day.

And if she couldn’t steal the ring by means of getting close to Jett?