Take the Sub and Run (Club Alibi #2)

Chapter 1

One

This museum heist wasn’t going well.

Sofie didn’t know for sure, since it was her first time robbing a museum, but her partner in crime had just been captured by Interpol.

That seemed bad.

Or maybe it was an opportunity. The perfect distraction. Her partner’s arrest providing cover so Sofie could slide in and liberate the priceless pearl necklace they were here to steal.

Except, Sofie didn’t actually know how to rob a museum.

Duplicate a painting until it was indistinguishable from the original? Sure.

Steal the original? No. That wasn’t in her skill set, which is why she’d been so excited to participate in the theft tonight. Learning to be a thief was part of her long range plan, but more importantly, Sofie so rarely (never) got invited to go out on a girls’ night, heist or no heist.

Sofie paused, glass halfway to her lips as she listened to her co-conspirator through the tiny earpiece. Colette Beaumont was a world-class thief and one of Sofie’s closest friends. This job was supposed to be low risk and simple, which Sofie knew was the only reason she got invited. Interpol was not supposed to show up and catch them.

A smart person would run, but Sofie had no intention of leaving. She was plenty smart, but right now, she cared less about being smart than she did about having an adventure. Doing something.

For once, she was the one cat burgling and swashbuckling. No, wait. Swashbuckling was for piracy, and she wasn’t robbing someone on the high seas. The point was, she was out of her studio, wearing a fancy dress, her blood sparkling with a mix of adrenaline and champagne.

All that was already wonderful in Sofie’s estimation, but added to that, Colette was having a deliciously dramatic conversation, and Sofie got to listen to it all, live, via the earpiece she wore.

“Why do you assume I’m here to steal something?” Colette’s voice was crystal clear in Sofie’s ear.

The man’s voice was fainter, but for Sofie to be able to hear him at all meant he was very, very close to Colette.

“Did you miss me?” Landon Malik asked. He was an Interpol agent. No, wait, he had been an Interpol agent. He’d just told Colette he quit.

“Yes, you did miss him!” Sofie said out loud in her excitement. She bounced on her toes, wobbling a little when her weight hit her heels. She was usually barefoot or in slip-on clogs, and rarely wore high heels like she had on now.

Colette made an odd sound, and Sofie frowned.

“What is he doing? What is that sound?” she demanded.

Colette hadn’t yet responded to anything Sofie said—not that Sofie had expected her to. This was more like talking back to an audiobook, which Sofie did have a habit of doing.

Which is why when Colette did speak directly to her, Sofie was so startled she almost dropped her glass.

“Run, Sofie,” Colette said.

Run?

Sofie looked around wildly, not really seeing anything as for a moment, panic gripped her.

It didn’t last, especially once she slid around a corner and out of the crowds in the main gallery. She could, should, follow Colette’s orders and run.

Or…

Maybe if she saved the day and completed the heist, Colette would bring her on more jobs.

Assuming Colette wasn’t about to be arrested. Landon couldn’t arrest her personally if he was no longer with Interpol, but the local authorities might be here. Or maybe Landon had come to find Colette, prove his love, and sweep her off her feet.

Sofie sighed wistfully at the idea, even if she was mildly embarrassed for herself. But art was romantic, so she excused herself for the flight of fancy.

The kind of love she was imagining was for art. Aspirational, but not real. Even the most accurate still life was a work of fiction, and paintings or artworks about love were even more unrealistic than an improbably pretty bowl of fruit.

But adventure? That was real. Sofie looked around again, considering and dismissing several options for how she could salvage this job and prove herself a worthy partner in crime.

Dramatically rescue Colette from Landon? Improbable. Sofie looked him up when Colette mentioned him, and he was a big man. Too large for her to take down without both a weapon and the element of surprise. She might manage surprise, but she didn’t have a weapon.

Steal the necklace herself? That was her first idea, and seemed like the best one. Sofie knew how it was supposed to happen. Colette had walked her through it. Ideally, Landon would bend Colette over his arm and dramatically kiss her like he just returned from war. Everyone around them would sigh and clap like it was a movie. The whole thing would be the perfect distraction.

But tonight’s heist was a swap job. They weren’t supposed to just take the one-of-a-kind priceless pearl necklace. They were supposed to replace it with a fake.

Just taking something was so…pedestrian. There was no art, no effort, to simply stealing something. Sofie knew she was biased, since her own livelihood depended on people like Colette needing forgery copies of the world’s most valuable paintings.

There were several problems with that, first of which was that swaps were harder than straight thefts and, again, this was Sofie’s first heist. Second, Colette had the replica. It was hidden in a brooch on her dress.

Rescue wasn’t an option, nor was doing the heist herself. That left…what?

Create a distraction.

Yes, she could do that. Then Colette could either run or complete the job in the resulting chaos.

For a second, she hesitated, the sparkling, excited feeling that had filled her, now sharper with anxiety and fear.

Right now, no one was looking for her. No one knew she who she was.

No one was ever looking for her. She was a world-class forger, and for the handful of people who knew who she was, she was considered a rare talent.

Which is why those same handful of people worked so hard to protect her. To make sure no one ever came looking for her or knew who she was.

There was still time to be smart and run. Go back to her studio and wait. Wait for Colette to contact her and tell her what happened. Wait for a client to show up and demand a Rembrandt or Monet.

Wait.

Always waiting for something to happen. Waiting for life to come to her.

No.

Not tonight.

Not anymore.

Sofie was done waiting. She was ready for adventure.