Perfect Scoundrels

Then she heard her name echo through the lobby.

“Kat!” Natalie called. “Oh my gosh. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Yeah,” Kat said, her mind whirling. “Fancy that. What are you doing here?”

“Funny.” Nat gave her a smile. “I was about to ask you the same thing.” Then she shifted her attention onto Bobby. “Who’s your friend?”

“Robert Bishop.” Bobby extended his hand. “I’m Kat’s father.”

“Natalie Garrett,” Natalie told him, then gave the slight swoon that Kat had become accustomed to women giving in her father’s presence. Natalie eyed his dark suit and power tie and said, “What kind of business are you in, Mr. Bishop? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Acquisitions,” Bobby said.

“How fascinating,” Natalie said with a bat of her eyes.

“It has its moments,” Bobby said. “Okay, girls, I’ll leave the two of you alone.”

“You’re leaving?” Kat asked.

“Yeah, sweetheart. I really should get back to work.”

“But…”

“I’m going to go find a way around,” he told her, then planted a kiss on her cheek. “Love you,” he said and walked toward the doors without a single glance back.

“So, your dad’s hot.”

“Thanks. He was that way when I met him, so I can’t really take credit.”

“That’s too bad.” Natalie popped a piece of chewing gum into her mouth, offered the pack to Kat, and said, “So is he the one who stuck you in Knightsbury?”

Over Natalie’s shoulder, the service entrance opened and two guards came out, changing shifts. Kat noted the time: four-fifteen.

“Hello,” Natalie said, annoyed. “Earth to Kat.”

“Colgan,” Kat said, distracted. “First, I went to Colgan.”

“So you met Scooter there?”

“Uh…no,” Kat said. “He was already gone before I showed up. And got kicked out.”

Natalie laughed. “No! Really? You got kicked out of Colgan?”

“Sure did.”

“Cool,” Natalie said, finally impressed. She blew a big bubble then popped it with her finger. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was there something you needed to do?”

“No. I just came in for some cash,” Kat said, pointing at the ATM.

“Oh. Cool.”

Walking with Natalie, out the front doors of the bank and onto the busy sidewalk, Kat felt especially alone.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around, Kat.”

“Yeah, Nat,” Kat told her. “See you around.”

Hale said they weren’t supposed to use her—that she had no place in what they had to do. And maybe he was right. Maybe it was a coincidence, seeing her in the very place Garrett had stashed the prototype—the bank that Kat and her crew needed to rob. But Kat had learned at a very young age not to believe in coincidences. She watched Nat walk away, gave a little wave when the girl glanced back.

She was still staring after her when a dark shadow fell over Kat’s shoulder, and she felt Hamish and Angus beside her.

“Don’t let her out of your sight,” she told them.

“Yes, ma’am,” they said, and together they started down the sidewalk, dissolving into the crowds.

Chapter 39

For the rest of the day, Kat couldn’t stop pacing. She bit her nails and twisted her hair, anything to keep moving, thinking, breathing in and out. Anything to fight the feeling that something was wrong.

“Kat, you’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” Simon told her. “And I really like this lab.”

Silas was still at work on the prototype, but Simon’s office had morphed into a not-exactly-to-scale replica of the bank, and Kat totally didn’t like what she saw. Lasers and cameras and guards, a vault door that would require a nuclear bomb to blast through, and a maze of safety deposit boxes in a deep, dark room, any one of which could have been the box they needed.

“Don’t worry, Kat.” Simon must have read her mind, because he placed a hand awkwardly on her back and patted. “It’ll work out.”

But Kat didn’t feel so sure.

Something felt off about the job or the day or maybe both. She couldn’t quite name it, and the not-knowing was the worst feeling of all.

“How was the scouting trip?” Simon asked.

“Weird,” Kat said.

“Was it the motion detectors? Because I think I have a way around—”

“Natalie.” The word was a whisper, and yet it made Simon stop cold.

“What about her?”

“She was there.”

“Why?” Simon asked.

Kat bit her nails. “That’s what I really want to know. The Bagshaws are tailing her now. There’s just something about that girl I don’t trust. Gab would say I’m acting jealous, but—”

“Are you?” Simon asked.

Kat shrugged. “Maybe. But I still don’t like it. She’s always around and a little too accommodating. She reminds me of…me.”

“Then clearly she can’t be trusted.”

“Exactly!”

“Kat!” Angus’s voice boomed through the lab. “Simon, I’m home.”

“I thought you said they were tailing Natalie?” Simon asked.

“I thought they were.”

A moment later, Angus came pushing through the office door.

“Never to worry, love,” he said before Kat could scold him for abandoning his post. “She’s just popped into Daddy’s office. Hamish is waiting for her outside, but I thought I’d—”

“Simon, call up the feed to Garrett’s office.”

“He’s not doing anything interesting. He never does anything interesting. Except for that one meeting, the office bug hasn’t given us—”

“Just call it up. I want to see what the two of them are talking about.”

Simon didn’t have to be asked again. Soon, a familiar image filled the screen, but something about it was off.

“Where’s Natalie?” Kat asked.

“I dunno,” Angus said. “Maybe she’s already gone.”

Kat reached for a phone and dialed. “Hey, Hamish, what’s Natalie’s location?”

“She’s in the Hale Building,” Hamish’s scratchy voice answered through the speakerphone. “Probably talking to her dad.”

“No.” Kat kept her eyes glued to the screen, at where Nat’s father sat stoically at his desk, talking to no one. “She’s not.”

“Maybe she went to see someone else? It is a big building,” Simon guessed, but another thought had occurred to Kat. She saw the way Garrett sat at his desk—so still. No sudden movements.

“The bug Gabrielle put on his watch at the gala. Is that still active?”

“I don’t know,” Simon said. “Probably.”

“Turn it on. Now.”

As soon as Simon punched the keys, the image on the screen stayed the same, but the voices were new.

“Hello, Father. Nice of you to see me. It’s not so nice to keep me waiting.”

“What do you want, Natalie?”

“We have trouble.”

“I’m busy.”

“Well, I’ve been busy too. Trying to lose the doofus Kat Bishop had following me, for starters.”

“Clearly that girl is talking about Hamish,” Angus said, but Kat didn’t have time for bruised egos. She was too busy studying the picture that absolutely did not match the sound.

“And the highlight of my afternoon was a trip to the bank.” Natalie talked on, but she was still nowhere to be seen. It was almost like the video they were watching had been faked. Staged.

“They looped our feed.” Kat’s voice was full of disbelief. “We’ve been looped.”

It was exactly what Kat would have done—what she had done on a number of occasions—and she felt the sting that comes from knowing that turnabout is absolutely not fair play.

“They must have found the cameras.” Simon looked like someone had just killed his puppy, but Kat closed her eyes, absorbed by every word.

“What are you talking about?” Garrett asked his daughter.

“I just met Bobby Bishop. He’s more handsome than he looks in his mug shot. Charming, too.”

“Natalie, I don’t have time for this,” Garrett said, but there was a slamming sound, like a hand on the desk.

“They’re going to rob the bank.” Natalie enunciated each word so clearly there could be no mistaking what she’d said.

“Don’t be silly. We chose that bank because it has never been robbed,” her father said.

“No. I chose that bank. And I was the one watching it this afternoon. And I am telling you that Scooter and his merry band of thieves are casing the joint. My guess is we have a day or two at the most.”

“That’s ridiculous. They’re kids.”

“News flash, Dad. I’m a kid! Do not underestimate them.” Her voice broke, and Kat thought she could just as easily have been saying Do not underestimate me.

“If you think Scooter and his friends are just kids, Dad, you’re delusional. Besides, the girl’s father isn’t a kid. Neither is her uncle. I’m telling you, we’ve got to move up the meeting with the buyer.”

“We don’t have to do anything,” Garrett shot back.

“Listen to me.”

“No, you listen! You’re not in charge here. I am. I’m the one who’s taking all the risks. I’m the one who changed the old woman’s will. The family would still be huddled around Hazel’s bedside if it weren’t for me, so don’t get high and mighty,” he huffed.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m the one who forged the Do Not Resuscitate order,” he said. “So don’t act all innocent. This was your idea, as you love to point out.”

“Are we recording this?” Kat asked.

“Not that feed,” Simon said, eyes wide, and Kat felt her heart plummet.

“I never said anything about a DNR.” Natalie’s voice cracked. “I never said…I never wanted…Hazel was good to me.”

“Hazel was a Hale. You don’t know them like I do.” Kat could hear him shoving papers around, tidying up for the night. “She was dying, Natalie. I just made sure it happened before she could fire me and ruin everything.”

“You killed her.”

“I did her a favor!”

It was like it wasn’t really happening—like Kat was listening to an old-time radio show about deceit and betrayal, and she sat waiting for the scene to end.

“Don’t worry, Natalie. I’ll leave an anonymous tip with the FBI. No one is going to rob that bank this week.” The door opened. “Are you coming?” he asked as if they had never fought at all.

The silence that came next was the longest Kat had ever heard. No one moved. No one breathed. No one did a thing until a voice came from the back of the room, asking, “That was Natalie?”