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“But I can get through the wards.”
He nodded. “That you can. But you can’t just stroll in and take it and expect to get out alive without a plan. To get you in and out with the spear, we’ll only have one opportunity. On the winter solstice, the Men of Valor are throwing a party inside the leader’s residence. The doors will open, and hundreds will flock inside. That’s when we strike.”
Kierse blinked at him as she realized that he was actually serious. “The winter solstice?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Will that be a problem?”
“It’s only a few weeks away.”
“So, you won’t do it?” he asked flatly.
Graves’s gaze roamed her face, as if he was waiting for her to reject him. She would be up against the worst sort of monsters in their own stronghold with a ticking clock. But she hadn’t thought she was stealing from just anyone. Not with ten million at stake.
“Oh, I’ll fucking do it,” she said simply. “There’s too much riding on it to not do it, but I sure hope that your training is good enough to get me out of this alive.”
“You’ll do it, knowing that you could die?”
“I knew I could die when I walked into your house,” she said. “I would do anything for my family. Anything to keep them safe.”
Something flashed across his face that she couldn’t quite place. Remorse or pain. But neither seemed to fit with Graves.
She couldn’t resist raising her glass. “To the winter solstice, then.”
Finally, he smiled slow and genuine, raising his glass to clink against hers. “To the winter solstice.”
Chapter Fifteen
Now that Kierse knew they only had mere weeks to do the most impossible heist of her entire life, she needed to put some of her own contingencies in place.
She had agreed not to see her friends, and she would hold to that. Even though it killed her on the inside. Graves had suggested she call Nate, but the things she needed to tell him couldn’t be said over the phone. Let alone one Graves likely had access to.
But she had one other place to go before her meeting with Nate.
She changed out of her cocktail dress and back into the sleek workout clothes, then snuck out of the brownstone with her hood up against the chill and backpack tight against her. She hated the subway at night, but her time was limited. After paying the troll standing guard at the subway entrance off 8th Avenue, she slunk through the shadows, ignoring the catcalls from the goblins around a small trashcan fire and the similar catcalls from the human men who were just as slimy. She kept her backpack angled away from any of the other unsavory travelers when she stepped on the B train. A gun was cocked in her pocket, the new grip a reassurance in her palm. The other gun was in a holster under her jacket. It didn’t even look bulky against her close-fit clothing.
Thankfully, there was no trouble when she hopped off a stop before her usual exit. She’d been tracked from Graves’s place before. She didn’t want to encounter any Druids tonight. She’d recognized one guy who she had evaded easily leaving Graves’s place. And there were currently two patrols around Colette’s. Not close enough to rub up against the Roulettes, but not far enough away to be anything but a patrol. Luckily, she’d lived in the brothel house for years. She knew every in and out on the property and all the surrounding streets like the back of her hand.
Bypassing the patrols was a cakewalk. She slipped in a side entrance to Colette’s brothel. No alarms went up. No one burst in after her. No one had even seen. Kierse inwardly smiled. Lorcan’s men had gotten the jump on her, but they weren’t better than her. They’d had the element of surprise. That was all. Maybe the infamous Lorcan was of a higher caliber, but not his crew.
Kierse stalked through the backside of the house. It was still quiet within. She could hear the kitchens firing up for the girls and footsteps overhead as they prepared for the evening work. Business would pick up after dinner, which meant that she didn’t have long. She swept through her home, taking the back way into Colette’s chambers. The house had been built to have serving quarters and a network to allow servants to go about unseen. It was helpful now. Kierse headed up the back staircase and into Colette’s bedroom.
A figure shifted near the window. “If you’re here to kill me, then you will have to try harder than that.”
Kierse found Colette with a pistol hanging lazily from her hand. A tingle went up Kierse’s spine but not from Colette’s appearance. She sensed the man before he reached for her. Kierse darted out of the way, dodging the first attack and blocking the second.
