The Warwicks were often in the gossip rags or paparazzi websites. Usually, it was the youngest son, London, that caused the intense stir. The hottie with a body had recently been tamed by an heiress. The Warwicks’ presence in the media had died down somewhat since then, but Josie could understand why Johanna would be a bit paranoid as to who she let into her life.
It made Josie feel like shit that she would have to use Johanna, and Professor Betancourt, to get Milo Steiner off her back. If there had been any other way, Josie would have found it.
As it was, stealing from the Warwicks was the only way she could protect her best friend, her Gammy, her family, and her life.
“You must wonder why I’ve called you here to meet with me,” Johanna said as she settled on the large gray sectional.
The suite was nothing short of palatial. Josie’s apartment could have fit in the space three times over with room spared to have a shoe closet.
“I mean, it’s not every day you get a call from Johanna Warwick.”
Johanna waved a hand dismissively at her with a sly smile. “I’m not as important as all that.”
Josie could have swallowed her tongue. “So,” she coughed, trying to appear calm and collected. “What can I do for you, Mrs. Warwick?”
“Johanna, please. I insist. Let’s not stand on formalities if I’m going to be hiring you to go through my family’s affairs.”
“Oh?” Josie was as curious as a cat, and she leaned in.
“My family has a lot of antiques. Loads of things that have been accumulated over the years. No one has ever taken the time to log all of it. It needs to be done for our insurance adjuster, especially now that I am renovating a few of our properties. I’ve never taken time to do it, and now the task has gotten away from me. It’s much too enormous for me to undertake with everything else I’ve got to do.”
“Okay…” Josie still wasn’t sure what this had to do with her.
“I need someone with an eye for antiques to catalog our possessions. You’ll be given full access to our brownstone to log all of the furniture and knickknacks that have been accumulated over the years before I even choose what to do with the property. It needs to be purged. It’s much too busy. Somewhere along the way, the house just became a place where we sent things we no longer wanted in the other properties. My sons are the biggest culprits of this. Does this sound like a task you could do?”
“I can do that,” Josie answered on autopilot.
As much as Josie hated that her two worlds were converging, she couldn't deny that this was lucky. If she had an in with the Warwicks, it would make the heist Steiner was forcing her to do that much easier.
“That’s not all,” Johanna said. “The same has to be done with some of our safes. I’m sure you’ve heard of Warwick Bank? Well, we have a few family safes in the Wall Street location that will have to be organized to make room for the stuff I no longer want around in the brownstone. Jewels, small effects, and the like.
All Josie could do was blink.
How?
Just how had this job fallen into her lap? Was it a prank? A cruel joke? Was fate fucking with her this badly?
The job Johanna was offering her was one in a million. She would be able to write on her resume that she had logged and curated the Warwick family estate. It meant great things for her career.
But.
And this was a big fucking but. It was the size of an old Buick.
She had to do this all the while planning a heist on the same family that was hiring her. Could she do it? Her heart and mind shouted no, but the image of Gammy and Mia filled her mind.
Josie had already lost so much, she couldn’t lose everything else.
She would have to try to take on both jobs and try as best as she could to keep them separate. If she pulled it off, she would have a significant career boost, and she would have Milo off her tail.
If she didn’t get caught.
It would one-hundred percent suck when Josie would have to steal from the Warwick vaults. She knew she could tell Johanna, that maybe the Warwick matriarch had enough connections and pull to make Josie’s issues with Milo Steiner disappear.
But there was also a chance that Johanna would call the police.
Then Josie wouldn’t just see her reputation ruined, and her loved ones killed, but she would be jailed for countless amounts of thefts she had committed. Most of the crimes sheds been involved with were federal. The statute of limitations for that was five years.
Josie had stolen a lot in the past five years.
Like, a lot, a lot.
There had been the Winthrop tiara in London.
Then there had been the Cartier heist in Paris.
Those were international. Interpol had her on a nice little list of the world’s most wanted criminals. Not that they had her name or even a picture of her face. She was merely dubbed The Jeweled Lady.
Because she was a chick and stole jewelry. Obviously, the name was chosen by the most creative Interpol agent ever.
Not.
“What do you say, would you be interested?” Johanna asked, pulling Josie away from her thoughts.
She gulped and raised her chin with all of the fake confidence of a caged animal.
“Yup. When do I start?”
Chapter Four
York
York slammed the laptop closed with slightly too much force. He quickly flipped the screen back up to make sure his strength hadn’t cracked the damn thing. He had already lost one computer that way this month alone. He didn’t have the time to set up another one.
Thankfully, the screen was free of any cracks, unlike his patience, which was about as thin as a sheet of wet paper.
The so-called family dinner the previous night hadn’t gone over so well.
Johanna had ambushed him with more talk of second chances at love. No matter what argument York had thrown at her, Johanna had been adamant that he, at the very least, be open to the possibility.
York was still rattled.
He was not open to the possibility that he could ever find another mate. Annalise had been his whole heart. Her illness, that dreadful time she had slowly slipped away from him, was still fresh in his mind. When Annalise had died, she had taken with her his ability to love. York knew that to be accurate, even if his mother stubbornly refused to acknowledge his sentiments on the matter.
Johanna was infuriating, but she meant well, York understood that. She acted with her mother’s heart and the sorrow of a widow. His father had died a very long time ago, and Johanna had been devastated by the loss. She had been lonely at times, but she filled her time with charities and all sorts of other things, her two most important hobbies being traveling and meddling.
How his workaholic ways were any different, York wasn’t sure.
Johanna had said it was different because she had friends, people she let into her life, whereas York was a souring old man who pushed away anyone who dared to get close. His mother had even used his unfortunate habit of burning through assistants as proof that he didn’t even know how to hold professional relationships anymore.
She was worried about him.
Well, York was positive there was nothing to be worried about. He was happy enough, working twenty hours a day. It filled his time. That’s all life was now. One moment being chased by another.