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Kat didn’t knohat to say It’s good to see you too? Thanks for getting otten even hotter? I think I ht have missed you?

So instead she settled on, "Did my father put you up to this?"

Hale exhaled a quick laugh and shook his head "He hasn’t returned my calls since Barcelona" He leaned closer and whispered, "I think he ht still be mad at me"

"Yeah, well, that reed that that monkey seemed perfectly well trained at the tiot ave a slo "You’re welcome"

"You trashed the headht that car for Headmaster Franklin, or didn’t they mention that? Granted, it was to edly started in the eighth grade--before they suggested that all current and future W W Hales continue their educations elsewhere--which worked out just as well since I’htsbury Institute now"

"I’ve never heard of it"

"My father got a letter just last week telling hiratulations," Kat said, doubting it

"Yeah, well, I’rin "Of course, the downside of attending a fictional school is that our lacrosse teaan School wanted to be technical about it, I trashed my car"

She studied W W Hale the Fifth He looked older than sixteen, with olden skin, and a first name that, despite two years of effort, Kat had never learned

"I doubt they’d see it that way, Wesley ?" she guessed

Hale smiled "Not Even Close"

So far Kat had been through all the Wa’s she could think of, but Hale hadn’t adton He’d firmly denied both Warren and Waverly Watson had prompted hihout a good portion of a train ride to Edinburgh, Scotland And Wayne see that she hadn’t even tried

Hale was Hale And not knohat the W’s stood for had become a constant res that can be given but never stolen

Of course, that didn’t stop her fro before you broke into the student records office?" Hale asked "A week?" Kat felt her cheeks go red "But you didn’t find anything on hed her naood on you"

"Don’t get used to it"

He shook his head "Oh, I won’t"

The whisperlike purr of the engine filled the car as it snaked through the countryside

"Why’d you do it, Hale?"

"You don’t belong in that place"

"Why’d you do it?" she asked again, her patience wearing thin "I’, Hale"

"Neither aot--"

"A job for you," Hale said "And only you," he added before she could protest

The hills were growing steeper Leaves scattered in the wind, and in the distance, the sun glistened off a lake But Kat didn’t take her eyes off Hale as she said, "I don’t want a job"

"You’ll want this one"

"I’m out of the family business Or haven’t you heard?"

"Fine" Hale crossed his arms and sank deeper into the seat He leaned his head back and closed his eyes Kat could have sworn he was already half asleep when he asked, "But are you out of the family?"

Chapter 3

Of all the houses the Hale family owned, W W Hale the Fifth’s favorite wasn’t the penthouse on Park Avenue (too pretentious), or the flat in Hong Kong (too noisy), or even the mansion on Martha’s Vineyard (entirely too est Hale was only truly fond of the old, six-hundred-acre estate in rural New York At least, that was the only place where Kat had ever heard him say

"We’re home"

The foyer o stories tall and stretched in front of the past the Monet in the hall as if that would keep her froestured toward the stairs "Marcus put you in the blue rooo out to the veranda and have Marcus bring you sory? I didn’t even ask Do you want--"

"I want you to tellthe New England countryside roll by, and listening to Hale snore, Kat was finished with plotting and strategizing how to get her boarding school life back She was out of options, so she called upon every thief’s oldest andwhat she wants: Ask nicely