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Kat sat quietly as Gabrielle parked a tiny European car on the side of a winding country road There were no headlights, no sounds As Kat opened the door and stepped outside, she felt a cool damp breeze, and looked up at a dark starless sky A thief couldn’t ask for anything ain why I had to ride in the backseat" Hale stretched and stared down at her

"The billionaire always rides in the back, big guy" She reached to pat hiht her wrist and held her gloved hand against his pounding heart

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked

There were a million lies Kat could have told, but none more powerful than the truth "This is our only idea"

While Gabrielle popped the hood and disabled the engine so that no roa busybodies would stop to ask questions, Kat kept her gaze locked with Hale’s In that moment, he looked a lot like the boy in the Superman pajamas Scared but determined, and maybe just a little bit heroic

"Kat, I--"

"Co off whatever Hale was about to say Kat was left with no choice but to turn and start up the steep e like firecrackers as they snapped underfoot

"Oops," Kat said tenfor what felt like the millionth time She didn’t knoas worse, that Hale had had to steady her, or that Gabrielle itnessing her clu for her cousin to say Kat’s out of practice She was sure Hale was about to joke that the Colgan School’s physical education curriculu in practical application But no one said a word as theysteadily until Gabrielle came to a sudden stop Kat almost collided with her cousin as she pointed and said, "That’s it"

Even at night, even from this distance, anyone could see that Arturo Taccone’s home was really a palace made of stone and wood, surrounded by vineyards and olive trees A postcard paradise But what Kat noticed were the guards and the towers, the walls and the gates It was no paradise--it was ainst their sto down on the villa below Kat hated to adht: you did have to see it to believe it The day before, when they had spread out the blueprints for Siht Arturo Taccone’s hoets she’d ever seen But when the dark clouds parted for a ht on the moat, Kat realized that only a fool would approach those walls

"Groundhog?" Hale asked

"No ti alone would take days, and Taccone wouldn’t leave these woods unpatrolled for that long"

"Fallen Angel?"

"Maybe," Kat answered, looking to the sky "But even on a night with no moon, that inner courtyard is awfully s you or your parachute And no one builds guard towers if they aren’t going to fill theuns," Gabrielle added

Kat watched her cousin turn onto her back, rest her head on her arms, and stare up at the black clouds that filled the sky Sheon a beach or in her own bed for all the ease she exhibited But Kat’s feet ached froht and itchy Kat ondering what exactly it was that Hale smelled like, and whether or not she liked it

Kat didn’t kno to rob Arturo Taccone

So Kat didn’t kno anyone could have robbed Arturo Taccone

And that hat she hated most of all

"So sooing on, still listing options, but Kat was through speculating; she didn’t dare to guess Instead, she was recalling the words Hale had said to Si that maybe it couldn’t be done by an ordinary thief

It was as if some invisible hand had taken hold of Kat in thather up by the back of her black jacket, bringing her to her feet

"Get down!" Gabrielle snapped, reaching for her cousin, but Kat was already oing?" Hale asked as she walked purposefully toward the drawbridge, trying to shut down the part of her e?

"Kat!" Gabrielle hissed "You’re going to get caught"

The smile Kat flashed over her shoulder was alates looically around the peri to slice through the black sky Still, Kat walked slowly, deliberately, across the fields and toward the villa walls She felt the stare of the security cauards To keep her e of the villa, the nainal owners, the history of the lake She tried to focus on the falling rain, her frizzing hair

But mostly she tried to look calm as she strolled to the small metal box on the side of the road She prayed her voice wouldn’t betray her as she stared into the small camera and announced into the speaker, "My na struck behind her "I’m here to see Arturo Taccone"

Chapter 9

If the Taccone villa was a place that typically did not receive guests, it did not show it

The man who opened the door reminded Kat oddly of Marcus, the way he wordlessly took her wet coat and softly asked her to follow There were marble floors and chandeliers, fresh flowers, and fires burning in two of the four roo on tables, no coats or scarves hung carelessly on the backs of chairs It was a place that valued beauty and order in equal uide toward a set of double doors e She stood silent, waiting for an audience with Arturo Taccone

He was sitting behind an antique desk when the doors opened, near another roaring fire in a room much like the study of the Hale family’s upstate horand piano that Kat guessed he frequently played Though the house was at least twenty thousand square feet, Kat had an inkling that this was the room where the man of the house really lived