Chapter 11
Sable didn’t cross paths with any other thieves as she made her way to the Precieux Exhibit.
The gala was barely underway, which meant guests weren’t intoxicated yet.
The other competitors would undoubtedly wait until the partygoers were drunk and less observant.
It would make their job easier, which was why she had decided to steal the egg so early.
It would make her task harder but less crowded, and if she didn’t get out of this museum soon, she’d be sick.
She hated her actions, but she didn’t see any other option. She loved Cash. He had to live.
Reaching her target vent, Sable unscrewed its cover and anchored her harness to the ceiling.
With agile grace, she floated down until she hovered over the pressure plates hidden in the tiles.
Her legs swung like a dancer, building the speed she readied to make the long jump.
With a flying leap and a dose of delusional bravery, she detached her harness at the last second and soared over the floor to miss the sensors.
She landed with an elegant roll, the momentum thrusting her into the Fae magic, and holding her breath, she walked through the barrier.
And nothing happened.
No alarm. No flashing lights. No charging guards.
The film on her lips had worked, and the tightness in her chest loosened slightly.
At first, she had worried that Cash’s DNA would condemn him as a traitor, but she’d added a small precaution to save him some humiliation.
The Merveille De L’art couldn’t be hacked, but throughout her attempted break-ins, she’d placed disrupters around the museum.
Peter had designed them, and while they weren’t strong enough to disrupt the Fae tech, they were relatively effective on human-constructed surveillance.
She’d turned them on as she dropped through the ceiling, but she occasionally flickered their strength when she was strategically turned away from certain cameras.
Shots of her back would flash through the recorded static, but it was enough to prove she’d acted alone without Cash’s help.
The guards were Fae. It wouldn’t take them long to figure out that she’d used his DNA without his knowledge, and Cash would undoubtedly recognize her even from the rear.
But hiding her face wasn’t about keeping him in the dark about her betrayal.
It was to prevent live footage of The Rabbit’s Foot from leaking to the world.
People knew her name. Few knew her face, and she planned to keep it that way.
Sable pulled her tools from her belt and immediately went to work on the sensor below the egg.
She was so close to winning. Just a few more minutes, and this would be over.
Maybe she should take all those zeroes and move to Europe.
Use them to drown her sorrow at betraying her soulmate.
Or maybe she would set up an anonymous college fund for Clover.
If she was going to destroy his life, the least she could do was make sure he became unexpectedly wealthy when he turned eighteen.
If she kept the money’s origin a mystery, he might accept—
The main door to the exhibit flew open, and stifling a shriek, Sable dove for the nearest display table.
It was a joke of a hiding place. It held a few of Baptiste Precieux’s antique tools, and it barely hid her from view.
If anyone came close, they would see her crouched below it, but she had no choice.
It was the only place she could hide from her intruders.
Praying it was a guard doing a routine check, she watched as a man stepped into the exhibit. A very tall, very handsome, familiar man.
Cash.
Only he wasn’t alone. A beautiful woman entered with him, and for a split second, a jealous rage bloomed in Sable’s chest until she saw the gun the stranger had pressed into Cash’s spine.
Sable slapped a hand over her mouth to stop her scream.
Everything within her shouted for her to run to his aid, to save him from that gun.
But before her hysterics made her act rashly, Cash’s face caught her attention.
He wasn’t afraid… not of the gun, at least. He was ex-special forces.
If she could beat a well-trained thief in his driveway, then he could undoubtedly snap this woman’s wrist and steal her gun without breaking a sweat. So why wasn’t he?
Sable turned her terrified curiosity on the woman shoving Cash through the room.
Clearly under her control, Cash swiped his badge on the sensor, and the pressure plates under the tiles disengaged to allow them passage.
Sable recoiled further under the table and prayed they didn’t look down.
They aimed for the egg, coming dangerously close to her hiding spot, but as long as they kept their eyes on the prize, she should be safe.
She wanted to flee, to climb back into the ceiling and disappear, but her escape route was blocked, so she studied the beautiful woman instead of her beloved Cash.
She couldn’t bear to look at him. She wasn’t the one holding the gun, but she might as well be.
Her actions were no more honorable than this thief’s.
The stranger was tall and elegant, with her black outfit and matching hair.
Her eyes were void of color, as ominous as night in the white sea of her sclera, and her elongated ears peaked from her luxurious locks.
Fae. This thief was Fae, and Sable had the sudden urge to vomit.
The harsh eyes. The dark hair. The black aura.
This woman reminded her of a shadow… of THE Shadow.
This was The Ombra. She’d come for the egg, and as promised, she’d set her violence on Cash.
Sable tightened her grip on her tools as The Ombra shoved Cash through the genetic scanner. The Ombra could have the egg, but she couldn’t have Cash’s life, and Sable coiled her legs below her, readying to strike if the dark woman so much as twitched in the wrong direction.
Cash stepped to the display and scanned his badge to disable the sensors.
Sable watched him with confusion as he reached out and plucked the priceless gold from its resting place.
The Ombra was Fae, but she was significantly smaller than him, so why was he helping her?
Had they been working together this entire time?
She might believe that if Cash didn’t look as if he was three seconds away from vomiting.
He hated what he was doing, yet he wasn’t fighting her.
Why? He could end this with a flick of his wrist, so she obviously had more than the gun to his back. But what could she possibly have on—
Sable gagged at her horrifying realization as Cash handed the egg to The Ombra. The text he’d gotten while they were dancing. It couldn’t be… Dear God, please. Anything but that.
“You have your egg,” Cash spat, his voice so cruel that Sable’s skin flushed with icy gooseflesh. “Now give me back my son.”
Tears fell uncontrollably from Sable’s eyes as he confirmed her worst fear. The Ombra had Clover. That’s why Cash wasn’t resisting. It’s why he willingly helped this woman steal the gold. She had his son.
“Thank you, dear. I couldn’t have done this without you,” The Ombra said as she turned to leave. “But on second thought, no. You can’t have your son.”
“You fucking bitch!” Cashed lunged for her, but the thief raised her gun and aimed it between his eyes.
“Careful, Cash,” she warned, and Sable hated how she said his name. Too much familiarity colored her tone. “I warned you. If you don’t behave, Clover pays the price.”
“But you promised,” Cash growled. “You said if I helped you remove the egg from the museum, you would return my son to me.”
“No, I said I wouldn’t hurt him,” The Ombra corrected. “I specifically said if you helped me, I wouldn’t harm Clover. I can’t help if you were stupid enough to misinterpret my words.”
“Give him back, or so help me, God!”
“Or what, dear?” she said placatingly. “You going to strangle me? Turn me over to the authorities? Clover is with associates of mine. If something happens to me, they’ll kill him, so there’s nothing you can do to me.
I’m a woman of my word, though. You helped me, so I won’t harm the boy.
I’m merely keeping him as insurance. No one knows I’m the Ombra, and I intend to keep it that way.
You know who I am now, so I need a guarantee you’ll stay silent.
If your mouth remains shut and you make sure the police never learn who stole the egg or my identity, Clover will be fine.
I am extremely wealthy. He’ll have nice things and go to Ivy League schools.
He probably won’t even miss you in a few years.
As long as you keep my secret, your son will live a better life than you could give him. ”
“If you think I won’t fight to get him back, then you don’t know me at all,” Cash said, and again, the familiarity in their tones caused Sable’s skin to prick. “Clover is my boy. Mine! Do you hear me? You had your chance, but you threw it away. That child is mine, and you can’t have him.”
“Then I’ll hurt him every time you come after us and tell him his pain was because of you,” The Ombra spat.
“Because you refused to obey the rules. He will grow to hate you. He’ll blame his suffering on your stubbornness, so even if you find him, he’ll want to stay with me. Children need their mother, after all.”
Mother.
The Ombra was Cash’s ex. The Shadow was Clover’s mother.
Sable thought she was going to be sick, and she shoved her hand further against her mouth to stop herself from vomiting.
The Ombra—the very thief who had placed a price on Cash’s head—was the woman who’d so carelessly abandoned her infant. What kind of monster was she?