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Maybe I should have.
Maybe, if redhead assistant lady hadn’t been at my back, with her hands keeping me in place, I would have. Or if I hadn’t already agreed to making the king ten million dollars lighter.
What did I care if the arrogant, too-rich, king whose voice did unspeakable things to my body lost control and took his anger out on a human or four?
I swallowed the nausea rising in me. The discomfort at having his glare on me for so long. “Be careful,” I managed.
I couldn’t be sure, not with his eyes full dark, but Julian seemed surprised by my words. It only lasted a moment though, before he nodded once and blurred away.
“This way, Eden. We have some catching up to do.” When I didn’t move, she put an arm across my shoulders and directed me deeper into the compound. “My name is Sunny, and I’m King Julian’s personal assistant. I’ll get you debriefed and filled in about the job as much as the king has authorized.”
Right. Why did I have the feeling that “as much as the king authorized” meant little to no filling in?
“The king wanted to test your skills at deception and infiltration,” she said as she guided me into a large conference room. She gestured to one of the leather swivel chairs pointed at a wall-mounted smart screen.
I sat down, and the screen glowed to life.
Oooh.Well, that explained…
A lot.
I gave the image a cursory scan. “I’d need at least a month to plan the entry point alone.”
Sunny glanced back at the blueprints projected on the screen, her coppery hair sliding over her shoulder to lie against the teal dress. “We’ve already planned the initial infiltration. You just need to get by the guards, into the inner sanctum, and to the safe.”
“Hang on. Back up a minute. You said the king was testing my skills, but I want to know how he found out about me in the first place. How did the king know I was going to take his diamond at all?’
The woman smiled at me, her perfect teeth gleaming in the light. “The king heard about a thief in Laurel Cove who was doing jobs humans wouldn’t dare.”
Okay, yeah, that tracked. Last month I pried twenty-seven diamond studs right off a bougie boutique sign. I mean, it was like they were asking me to take it. And, yeah, they had a camera pointed at the sign to make sure that didn’t happen, but I’d blurred in and back out before those outdated cameras with shit frame rates could even record I was there.
Sunny continued. “So, he started a rumor about a priceless diamond hoping to draw you to it.”
That he did. I’d heard about it from my tech guyandthe fence who wanted to move it for me.
“Once he programmed the safes with your birthdate, he figured you’d know it was a job interview of sorts and hand back the diamond.”
But I hadn’t. I’d declared it mine and busted out his window.
“That priceless diamond is the Tzarina’s Diamond. A one-of-a-kind jewel renowned for its fire and brilliance and the fact that it once belonged to a monarch of one of the greatest dynasties the world has ever seen.”
As hard as I tried to keep my expression neutral, my shoulders still fell.
I’d caught wind of a big diamond.
Not a big,famousdiamond.
“There isn’t a fence anywhere who’d touch it, let alone try to move it for me.”
Sunny nodded.
So that’s why the bastard let me have it. He knew it would be utterly worthless to me if I couldn’t move it. Damn. I mean, credit where credit was due, the king had made a solid plan and it worked exactly as he’d expected.
I just hated that I wasted months on a diamond that was essentially worthless to me. Bright side? It was still my entrée into a ten million dollar payday.
I surveyed the blueprint once again. “What’s the security set up like?”
“Top tier, state of the art. But again, you’ll already have access inside the building.”
