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On the screen were pictures of each of my brothers with their greatest hits detailed underneath. Cal’s work with an assassin group credited with taking out several high-profile political targets that would have created totalitarian and oppressive regimes if they’d been allowed to come to power, his name credited for making the kill shots. Quin’s art gallery and the backroom deals he did passing stolen art through the gallery as a fence while making sure other items quietly made their way back to museums. Julius’s Robin Hood-ing, robbing from the rich to give to the poor with a few careful hacks while shutting down money-laundering schemes and predatory financial practices.
And there I was.
For the last decade, I’d stayed out of the world my grandmother had trained me to be part of. She had the greatest cover of all time, but I didn’t fit into that world. I wasn’t smart enough, and I sure as fuck wasn’t refined enough. I was betterat the smash and grab than stealing antiquities from people with too much money to know what they had in their collections.
So I’d gone straight. And yo ho ho, it had been the bounty-hunting life for me since. I still used the skills I’d learned at her side, just in a different way.
I couldn’t say I liked seeing the evidence of my crimes displayed in black and white. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure how Felix had found out about any of it. Julius had promised it was all buried.
Which meant if we thought Julius was good, Felix was better.
He looked at me, but I didn’t move, and he closed a few of the windows, revealing two more.
My parents and my grandmother.
Fuck.
“You told me your parents died on an archeological dig.”
I shrugged and still said nothing.
“They were thieves, weren’t they?”
Still nothing.
“And your grandmother. She’s an art thief.”
“Was.” The word slipped out before I could think about it. “She’s retired. And mostly we?—”
“We?”
I pointed at the screen. “I know you saw what I’ve done.”
He smirked, looking a little smug, no doubt because he’d hacked into Julius’s cache of information without breaking a sweat.
My heart was hammering in my chest, and I ran a hand over my face. What if I told the truth and Felix left? It was a damn good thing I hadn’t claimed him with a bite earlier because it would suck plenty if he walked away now. If I had bitten him, it might kill me. “We only stole things that belonged in museums from private collectors who acquired them through the blackmarket. My parents stole from dig sites before black market dealers had a chance.”
“Still, if this list is accurate, your grandmother is responsible for some of the biggest heists in recent history, even if they went unreported outside certain circles.” There was awe in his voice, and I felt like the earth was tipping under my feet.
“You’re not pissed you’re staying in a house with a bunch of criminals from a long line of criminals?”
Felix shrugged and gestured to himself. “Hacker, remember? I can color outside the lines. Plus, it seems like a solid eighty-five percent of what you guys do is for the good guys. And that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
I raised an eyebrow, not sure where this was going.
“So Cal got fired today, right?”
“Yes.”
“And Julius and Quin already kind of do their own thing?”
“Mmmhmm.”
“And I noticed when I was poking around that you have a PI license.”
“I do. I don’t really use it.”
“But that’s what I’m saying. You could.”
