Diamonds (Den of Thieves Book 1) (5 page)

“Fine, I’ll go.”

“Great. Eight o’clock sound okay?” His face was lit up with a smile that was contagious.

“Eight is fine.” She found herself smiling back as he walked back towards his car.

Sebastian smiled as he got in his car. The plan had worked perfectly. He had found the common ground he was looking for. The proverbial chink in her armor.

It was definitely a sore spot with her. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for her in a way. She really didn’t have any idea what was going on in her world for all her outward appearances. She only knew what she had been taught and that wasn’t necessarily the truth of the matter.

He sighed. He wished he could tell her the truth. She had been lied to enough for a lifetime.

He knew that he had a job to do. He had to get to the necklace soon before their client. He didn’t have time to worry about feelings and hurting her.

If he didn’t start doing what he set out to do he would not be able to get to where he needed to be in order to get his hands on the prize.

He silenced his thoughts as he negotiated the winding road ahead of him. It would not do to have him slip off the road because his mind was elsewhere. He needed to get back to the office and update the team. And he needed to pick a few things up at the store for tonight’s drinks.

If there was one thing Sebastian knew, it was how to win over a woman once he had gotten his foot in the door.

He spent the rest of his drive back to the office planning his next move and making a mental list of what he was going to need.

Bo was waiting when he pulled into the office.

"So pretty boy I heard you struck out with the lady last night."

"Does everyone know about that?" Sebastian tried to keep the frustration and embarrassment out of his voice but it seeped in anyways.

"You know this business as well as anyone else here Seb. Word gets around no matter what we do. Besides its something of an oddity to have you fail to cozy up to your mark on the first try."

"Yeah well it is not something I want getting around - tarnish my image and all."

"More like bruising your ego," Cat said coming in from the back room.

"Don’t you have some sort of gun to clean?" Sebastian asked not wanting to get into it with Cat on top of everything else.

She was a smart cookie but could be very irritating when she was making an attempt to be funny.

"I do but this is far more entertaining." She smiled.

"Yes well I--" Sebastian started

"So how did it go this morning with our lovely young lady?" Jake had just walked in the door behind him

"I was just about to inform everyone that my balls are intact and that I am still capable of wooing a proper lady."

"Well go on don’t let me stop you by any means," Jake said sweeping a hand across the room and taking a seat at his desk.

"I was going to say I have a date tonight with the lovely young lady in question."

"Oh. She actually has changed her mind about you?" Cat asked.

"Well I am not sure about that so much as I am sure that she has figured out that I am persistent and that a simple no is not going to get me to go away any time soon."

"You didn’t badger the poor woman to death did you?" Cat gave Sebastian a look of mock horror.

Sebastian looked at Cat trying to decide if he should even bother responding to that or not.

"Then tell us how you did it, pretty boy," Bo said laughing at the stand off between Sebastian and Cat.

"I worked the mother angle," he replied shifting his glare off Cat and onto Bo.

"You didn’t tell her did you?" Jake asked suddenly looking concerned. "You know that our clients appreciate our sensitivity to --"

"Easy Jake. I didn’t say anything about anything. I just got her talking about her mother and that put her off balance." Sebastian was suddenly irritated with the whole feeling of being interrogated by his teammates.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to jump to conclusions. But I do know that some situations can put even the best of cons off balance and things can be said that would jeopardize the mission."

"Well I didn’t tell her about her mother. But seriously I do feel horrible for her."

"Why is that?" Jake asked an eyebrow rose in curiosity.

"Because she really has no idea, not a single inkling that her mother is still alive and well. She has been raised to think that her mother died not long after she was born."

"Things happen Sebastian. We can’t control the past for her, or anyone for that matter, and we certainly cant allow ourselves to get involved with the situations that we have been presented with. We have one job: retrieve the necklace from Daria’s father and return it to its rightful owner. Plain and simple."

"I know what the mission is Jake. You don’t have to remind me. I have been over every square inch of that file and I know it inside and out." He could feel the anger rising up in him.

"I know you--" Jake started before Sebastian cut him off

"Well then stop doubting me. You have known me almost all of my life and yet you still doubt I can pull this off."

"I only doubt because this girl seems to have somehow dug her hooks into you and you are not acting like yourself at all. Never once have I seen you fail on your first try. Never have I seen you so defensive when someone mentions the emotional hurt this woman would have to endure. Since when have you ever cared about the marks you are after? Never. But yet here you are, angry because we are questioning your ability to remain objective despite the circumstances."

Sebastian stopped for a moment and looked down. Jake had a point. He was very defensive about the situation and he had had the overwhelming urge to protect her from the information he knew about her. He did not want to see this woman hurt. Why was that? Had she really gotten her hooks into him like Jake said?

"What the hell did I just walk into here?" Rudy asked as he walked in the front door juggling a laptop, his laptop bag and a coffee.

When Sebastian looked up Jake, Bo and Cat were all staring at him, waiting for him to answer.

"Nothing Rudy. We were going over the plans for tonight and the things that need to get done to be able to accomplish the mission."

"Is that what we are calling it now?" Rudy asked walking back tot he back of the room where a bank of computer screens awaited him.

"What else would you call it?” Sebastian asked making eye contact at Jake, as Cat and Bo went back to what they had been doing before the conversation started.

“I don’t know what you would call it, but it certainly sounded an awful lot like Jake giving you a verbal smack upside the head,” Rudy replied switching on the screens as he spoke.

“I don’t need a smack upside the head. I know what I am doing.” Sebastian felt frustrated, but he wasn’t sure who he was more frustrated with. Daria for making him lose sight of the objective or for his friends pointing out that he was slowly straying off course.

“Well whatever way you want to slice it dude, you have to deal with it before you get in over your head. We can’t save you if you do that.

“Yeah I am not going to get in over my head. I have never in the past and I certainly don’t intend to start today.”

“Good to hear, because our client is coming in this afternoon and she is going to want an update on our progress,” Jake said flipping open the computer and going back to his work.

Chapter 4

The rest of the morning and first half of the afternoon passed uneventfully. Sebastian managed to get a good chunk of the prep work done before his date with Daria that night. He knew he had to tread carefully with her but what he couldn’t understand was why she had him all flipped around to the point where other people who knew him were able to notice it.

It was certainly a new situation for him. One he was going to have to step back out of before she could get too close to him. It would not do any good to have something getting in the way of his ultimate goal.

He was lost in thought when the front door swung open and a tall brunette, older woman in heels stormed into the room.

She stopped just short of Jake’s desk and crossed her arms.

“Good afternoon Mrs. Sotir---” Jake started rising to his feet and extending his hand to shake hands with her.

“Blakeman,” she huffed waving his hand away

“I am sorry, Mrs. Blakeman. I am--” holding his hand out for a moment before slowly lowering it.

Sebastian could see the blood start boiling just under the surface. Jake was an ex-police officer with the Lake City Police Department. He was not used to being treated with such a lack of respect.

“I don’t care what you are. I want to know how close we are to getting back my necklace.” She switched her weight to her other foot, her arms still crossed. Sebastian was surprised she hadn’t started tapping her foot.

“I understand ---” Jake started again as he stepped out from behind his desk.

“Look Jeff--”

“It’s Jake ma’am--”

“Jake, Jeff, whatever it is. I don’t have a whole lot of time to stand around talking about things that have no interest to me nor bearing on my life.” Weight switched again to the other foot.

“I know you are a busy woman, Mrs. Blakeman, but you have to understand we also have things to do as well and you are about an hour early for your appointment”

“Well I am here now.”

Sebastian watched as Jake took a deep breath. He could see that the other man was highly frustrated with being talked down to in the manner in which he found himself being spoken to.  

Grace chose that moment to come back from a late lunch and quickly surveyed the situation.

"Mrs Blakeman, if you will just come with me and I will seat you in the meeting room and allow the guys to have a moment to get their things together for you," Grace said leading the way into the meeting room off the one side of the main room.

Bonnie Blakeman followed although judging by the look on her face she was less than impressed with the way things were going.

“Can I get you anything while you wait?” Grace asked stepping back out of the meeting room.