"What?" She darkened. "You never got over that? Get real! People die all the time, especially in this business. Jay was unlucky. But you survived, which proves you're lucky. And it made you a better grifter."

As if I wanted to be a better grifter. She never understood that I'd grown to hate that life. Sure, when we were young, energetic, and misinformed, we stole with glee. It had been fun back then, especially when the cons went well. But once Jay was gone, none of it was fun anymore. Our lifestyle, combined with a terrible mistake on my part, killed my brother. I never really got over it.

"I learned to be more careful, but I also learned that I wanted to get out."

"So you robbed me? Ran off with all the money from that last con? That was pretty low-didn't I teach you anything?"

"Oh, you mean honor among thieves?" I laughed. "I thought there wasn't any."

"Damn straight!" She grinned. "We take what we can get in this business. And you. . ." She regarded me with what seemed like pride. "You actually swindled me. I was impressed."

A compliment! From my own foster mother. She was smiling at me as if I'd just earned an entire bag of chocolate bars. Perhaps she was having a bad day yesterday, but my presence and the panda's bounty had somehow mellowed her out. In any case, this was turning out to be a pretty good visit, after all. I basked in the warmth of my foster mother's pride.

Until I felt the burn. Her smile hardened, and the shine disappeared from her eyes. "So, you're helping me with my next con." I guess this shouldn't have surprised me. My memories were correct: she never took any breaks between jobs. Here she was, ready to launch into the next one.

"Now look, Beatrix. . ." She flinched at the name, then glared harder. "I agreed to come here because I wanted to help Uncle Carl. Maybe even get to know you better. I didn't do it to help you with your panda swindle. And there's no way that I'm going to start conning again. I've got a legitimate business in New York, and I'm doing fine."

"Legitimate?" She coughed up a laugh. "You've got to be kidding. Your business is the biggest con ever. Painting cheap hunks of pottery and pretending they're art." She blew out another laugh from a twisted mouth. "I've been watching you, little girl, and it seems to me that you've become a bigger grifter than ever. So don't give me any crap about being too good to work with me. That's all about to change."




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