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The boy raced ahead and blocked her way onto the landing “Tell me anyway”

“Why?”

“So I can go with you”

The girl pushed past and started back the way she’d come “No thanks”

“I could help”

“I’m sure you’d try” She reached for the , but his hand landed on top of her own, and right then the glass beneath her palirl felt her face flush even against the chill

He raised an eyebrow “Of course, I could yell”

She tried to sense whether or not he was bluffing He had tousled hair and sleepy eyes, and even though he couldn’t have been more than fourteen, there was a weariness about him He seemed thin and pale, and she wondered for a moment if he were seriously ill, like in an old movie where the rich boy is kept locked away froood

“No dice” The girl started to open the“A Monet I’ to steal, sure But the heir apparent to the Hale empire? No thank you”

“They won’t miss me”

“Oh” She laughed again “I bet they would”

“You don’t want to make that bet”

“Why?” the girl asked

In the ht, a shadow seemed to cross his face as he whispered, “You’d lose” Then he moved the hand that had been on top of hers, held it toward her “I’m W W Hale the Fifth, by the way It’s nice to meet you”

He looked serious He sounded serious But the girl just eyed the outstretched hand as if itcontact would trigger some silent alarm

“What do the W’s stand for?” she asked

“Take me with you and maybe you’ll find out” He stared down into her eyes and whispered, “I go or I screairl It’s your call”

She was a sirl, or so everyone always said Her whole life she had been taught to be cautious, wise, and most of all, decisive And yet she stood there in the cold air of the drafty , completely uncertain what to do After all, she’d stolen a lot of things in her short life, but she’d never, ever stolen someone

But then again, the girl thought, there is a first ti

So she pushed open theand climbed out onto the trellis A , all that the security footage shoo shadows disappearing into the deep black of the night

Chapter 2

There are few things quite as lovely as autuentina, Bobby Bishop had often said And Bobby Bishop was in the business of beautiful things That hy he had taught his daughter, Kat, how to spot a forgery and scale a fence It was his voice that was in her ear every time she had to find the blind spots of a surveillance ca herself that claustrophobia is for sissies

So it was alh her father’s eyes Where would he go? What would he do? And, as the case may be, where would he eat?

“Are you sure your dad’s not here?” Hale asked as they stepped into the elevator and he pushed the button for the eighty-seventh floor

“I’m sure,” Kat said

“Because going to a ro to be seriously aard if her dad is here”

“First, aria I think” Kat furrowed her brow and pondered for amatters “Secondly…” she started, then seemed to think better of it

In the past six weeks, she had spent a lot of tirids, Kat could handle But there was a special sort of danger that could lie inside a word like girlfriend, so Kat looked at their reflection on the wall of the glossy elevator compartment and tried to steady her voice

“Secondly, I’ry”

Kat hadn’t been nervous at all during the planning stages of that particular evening—not when they’d chosen the restaurant or even when her cousin, Gabrielle, had carefully selected Kat’s dress and shoes But as soon as the elevator doors slid open, she heard the music—sultry and low, accordions and violins—and suddenly, Kat was terrified

In the restaurant, tangoing couples circled past, and the look in Hale’s eyes was especially ht me here so you can have your ith me on the dance floor”

“No” Kat pointed past the dancing couples to the solid wall of s that wrapped around the rooht you here for the view”

Over fifteen million people live in Buenos Aires, and there, on the top floor of the city’s tallest building, Kat felt like she could see them all The restaurant sat on a platforhts and skyscrapers, old historic buildings and illuminated squares Kat kneould take exactly one hour for the restaurant to make a full revolution An hour to talk An hour to eat An hour (rin) to dance

“Co her close “Humor me”

All around theether with Velcro, each absorbed in their own little world,like they didn’t share the dance floor with a dozen other people