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Then she heard her nah the lobby

"Kat!" Natalie called "Ohyou here"

"Yeah," Kat said, herhere?"

"Funny" Nat gave her a s" Then she shifted her attention onto Bobby "Who’s your friend?"

"Robert Bishop" Bobby extended his hand "I’m Kat’s father"

"Natalie Garrett," Natalie told hiht swoon that Kat had beco in her father’s presence Natalie eyed his dark suit and power tie and said, "What kind of business are you in, Mr Bishop? If you don’t "

"Acquisitions," Bobby said

"How fascinating," Natalie said with a bat of her eyes

"It has its irls, I’ll leave the two of you alone"

"You’re leaving?" Kat asked

"Yeah, sweetheart I really should get back to work"

"But…"

"I’o find a way around," he told her, then planted a kiss on her cheek "Love you," he said and walked toward the doors without a single glance back

"So, your dad’s hot"

"Thanks He was that hen I met him, so I can’t really take credit"

"That’s too bad" Natalie popped a piece of chewing gum into her mouth, offered the pack to Kat, and said, "So is he the one who stuck you in Knightsbury?"

Over Natalie’s shoulder, the service entrance opened and two guards ca shifts Kat noted the time: four-fifteen

"Hello," Natalie said, annoyed "Earth to Kat"

"Colgan," Kat said, distracted "First, I went to Colgan"

"So you met Scooter there?"

"Uh…no," Kat said "He was already gone before I showed up And got kicked out"

Natalie laughed "No! Really? You got kicked out of Colgan?"

"Sure did"

"Cool," Natalie said, finally ier "Oh, I’ you needed to do?"

"No I just ca at the ATM

"Oh Cool"

Walking with Natalie, out the front doors of the bank and onto the busy sidewalk, Kat felt especially alone

"Well, I guess I’ll see you around, Kat"

"Yeah, Nat," Kat told her "See you around"

Hale said they weren’t supposed to use her--that she had no place in what they had to do Andher in the very place Garrett had stashed the prototype--the bank that Kat and her crew needed to rob But Kat had learned at a very young age not to believe in coincidences She watched Nat walk away, gave a little hen the girl glanced back

She was still staring after her when a dark shadow fell over Kat’s shoulder, and she felt Haus beside her

"Don’t let her out of your sight," she told theether they started down the sidewalk, dissolving into the crowds

Chapter 39

For the rest of the day, Kat couldn’t stop pacing She bit her nails and twisted her hair, anything to keep ht the feeling that so to wear a hole in the floor," Simon told her "And I really like this lab"

Silas was still at work on the prototype, but Simon’s office had morphed into a not-exactly-to-scale replica of the bank, and Kat totally didn’t like what she saw Lasers and cauards, a vault door that would require a nuclear boh, and a maze of safety deposit boxes in a deep, dark room, any one of which could have been the box they needed

"Don’t worry, Kat" Simon must have read her mind, because he placed a hand aardly on her back and patted "It’ll work out"

But Kat didn’t feel so sure

So felt off about the job or the day orwas the worst feeling of all

"Hoas the scouting trip?" Simon asked

"Weird," Kat said

"Was it the motion detectors? Because I think I have a way around--"

"Natalie" The as a whisper, and yet it made Simon stop cold

"What about her?"

"She was there"

"Why?" Simon asked

Kat bit her nails "That’s what I really want to know The Bagshaws are tailing her now There’s just soirl I don’t trust Gab would say I’ jealous, but--"