Blue had been the thief in the Paris apartment. The one walking away, up the hill in Paris. Just like she’d walked away that foggy night in Amsterdam.
He’d been so stupid not to see it.
Stupid. A word Darius would never throw at him. No matter what.
Blue was a monster. Taunting them. Taunting Jules.
Still playing the poor little girl? Even in your fancy town house with the pool?
March bolted up.
The pool.
Blue knew Alfie’s apartment. She’d been there. But she hadn’t been there since they’d bought the building. Since they’d put in that stupid lap pool they hardly ever used.
The safe house. Blue had said she’d found them a safe house. That’s where they’d stash Darius.
And he knew right where he’d be.
Home.
March stole through the streets like mist. He knew how to hide from the moonlight. He made his way down the dark streets, hoping with every passing block that he was right.
Right to come alone. He would scope out the building. If he was wrong, he’d be back in Brooklyn before dawn.
If he was right … well, he’d make that decision when he came to it.
He turned the corner of his block and slid from shadow to shadow. Stood across the street, away from the streetlamp.
Nothing. Not a flicker of light or movement. The gates to the alley were closed. He waited another moment, then sprinted across the street and clambered over the gate. At the top he looked down and saw a black SUV. Tinted windows and the same license plate as the one that had chased them. His heart hammering, he dropped over to the other side.
He was right. Rage made his brain a swarm of angry bees. He took deep breaths, steadying himself. What to do. What to do. Text Izzy and Jules?
Put them in danger the way he’d done with Darius?
Afraid to leave, afraid to go. It was so close to dawn. Anything could happen tomorrow. He only had now.
If Darius was here he needed to know. It was past need; it was hunger and anger and compulsion. His friend, his brother, could be in there. He couldn’t walk away.
Carefully he balanced on the trash can. He moved the metal shim, placed the key in the lock. He pushed open the window. Waited, listening. Trying to hear over the thundering of his heart.
He slipped inside and landed noiselessly. He started for the service stairs. They would bring him to the back corridor of the bedroom floor, or upstairs into the kitchen. March thought fast. The bedroom level first.
He climbed quickly. When he got to the bedroom level, he eased open the door. The corridor was dark. He moved soundlessly past a storage room, past the bedrooms, to peer around the wall to the common area.
The Top Cats had furnished the room with a few pieces. A table crowded with empty cans and takeout containers, a sofa, a couple of folding chairs. Not much.
Snoring.
A dark shape on the couch. An outflung arm. One of the goons from the roof.
March let out a shaky breath. Where was Darius? There were at least four goons in the house. Probably Dimmy — Dmitri — was here, too. They would take the best rooms. And they would shove Darius anywhere.
March’s brain lit up. The storage room. The small room near the stairs that Jules had told them was planned as a maid’s room. They’d laughed about that. Imagine having a maid! It wasn’t long before they wished they had a maid. They had always meant to make a chore list. Never had.
They’d crammed their sports equipment and old computer parts and broken stuff in there. March tried the door. It was locked, a good sign. He leaned over with his lockpicking equipment.
Quietly, he spun the pick, listening, feeling for the tumbler. Open.
He pushed open the door an inch, then another.
Darius lay on the floor.
His heart stopped. Then Darius settled himself in his sleep. He was alive.
March wanted to fall to his knees and sob like a kid.
One wrist was handcuffed to the pipe that ran a few inches above the floor. But Darius was here. Darius was alive.
He put a hand on Darius’s shoulder and another over his mouth. Darius’s eyes widened when he saw March.
“Dude, I’m so glad to see you,” March whispered.
“I think I’ve got you beat.”
March clasped his shoulder and squeezed. He bent over with his pick as Darius held up his wrist.
“Dimmy got me,” Darius said. “I knew the guy was bad news, but I had no clue … He’s a Top Cat! The boss!”
“I know. And Blue is with the gang.”
“I know,” Darius said. “I heard her talking to Dimmy.”
“Is she here?”
“Nah, she’s still stringing along her pop star, blaming the heist on you — good going, by the way. Hey, how’s my girl Izzy?”
“I’d fill you in on everything, but can it wait? We have less than an hour until dawn. They could wake up anytime.”
Darius reached for his shoes and shoved his feet into them. He started to tie his laces. “Ransome is the buyer. I don’t know where, but a deal is going down. They got two sapphires.”
“Yeah. We have the other one. Trading it for you.”
“Appreciate it.”
“You’re almost worth it.”
They started toward the door, but Darius stopped.
“They’re not going to give up, you know,” he said. “I’ve spent a day and a night with these guys, and I want to tell you, they are serious.”
March remembered his terror on the roof. “Yeah.”
“We double-cross them now, they’ll come after us. And the fact that we’re kids? Doesn’t make any diff.”
“I got that.”
“We’ve always meant nothing,” Darius said. “I learned that quick from being in the system. Never got a decent foster situation going. When I complained about stuff, I was shut down. Didn’t have a voice. Look at Izzy. It took her years to say anything, and she’s just about the smartest human on the planet.”
March shifted restlessly. “D, we’ve really gotta move.”
“I’m just saying, we cross them now, we won’t be able to run fast enough or far enough. And we’ll be back where we started.”
“Then we start out with nothing all over again. We did okay.”
“Got a question. How are you getting me out? I don’t fit through that window.”
“I figured we’d go out the front door.”
“There are guards on the exits. And they won’t be sleeping.”
“Then we give them the Morning Star and walk out.”
“That isn’t going to work, Marco. These guys are bad dudes. The worst. We’ll never make it through that door. I’ve seen all their faces, heard their names. The stone is all the leverage we got.”
“Then we make a run for it.”
“We’ll never make it and you know it. “Darius shook his head. “Plus Mikki can ID Dmitri. Knows stuff about him. He found her going through his computer. I’m guessing she was looking for girlfriends, a wife. Doesn’t matter. He doesn’t know if she knows something that could bring him down, something that she’ll only put together now that she knows who he is. He told me to scare me.” Darius’s gaze was hunted. “It did.”
March leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Fear had drained him of everything. “I don’t know anything anymore. What should we do?”
Darius smiled his slow, easy smile. “You know what? That’s the first time you ever asked me that. You’re the one with the ideas, Professor.”
“Well, I’m all out,” March said. “I don’t think we can beat this.”
“That’s not like you.”
“I don’t know what I am,” March admitted. “I’m not my dad, that’s for sure. Because the only thing I’m caring about right now is family.” March struggled to get the words out. “I’m sorry about … everything. I wasn’t fair. I make mistakes all the time. I’m sorry I called you stupid. You’re annoying,
but you’re not stupid.”
“I’m sorry I fell for the sting,” Darius said. “I should have seen it a mile off.” He rubbed his forehead. “I just wanted to contribute, you know? Jules — she’s got the moves. You’ve got the brains. Izzy’s got the hack. What do I have?”
“You’ve got the courage,” March said.
There was a small silence that March was not tempted to fill. A little space for them to come together without saying a word.
Darius gave a heavy sigh. “We’ve got to do this, bro.”
“What?”
“I stay. You go.”
March’s mouth dropped open. “Are you crazy?”
“Listen. It’s our only shot. I can’t fit through that window, and no way can we get past those guys at the front. Besides, I can’t leave, knowing they’ll go after Mikki. You and Izzy and Jules, too. We’ve got to find a way to get them in jail, or deported.”
“How? I told you, I don’t know what to do.” March’s voice cracked with exhaustion and despair.
“You do.” Darius laid a heavy hand on his shoulder. “What do you always say? ‘Break it down.’ You got a fractured group, brother against brother. Zef doesn’t trust Blue, he’s mad at Dmitri for bringing her in. So. You got greed and suspicion. You got a federal agent trying to make his career. You got Blue pretending she’s a pop star. You got a greedy billionaire who doesn’t care who gets him what he wants, as long as he gets it. And I got this.” Darius pointed to a heating vent. “Do you remember that time we were in the kitchen, planning Jules’s birthday party? She was in here, heard about the pony, came storming upstairs, and called us idiots.”
“Like I could forget.”
“I can hear them,” Darius said. “The brothers fight like junkyard dogs. Sometimes they speak English, especially if Blue is here. Think about it. Dukey wants to bust them wide open. What if we could give him the key?”
For a long moment, March stared at Darius while options clicked in his head. “We’d have to control the transfer.”
“You’ve got what everyone wants. You set the rules.”
“But they can’t know it’s me. Ransome — we can tell him where the deal needs to go down. He’ll listen because he needs the last stone.”
“Blue’s the contact. She’s running the deal. Ransome doesn’t even know about the Top Cats.”
“Even better. That means they’d have to bring you close to the deal, so Blue can get the last stone from me and get to Ransome in time. If Dukey was in the mix somehow …”
Darius nodded. “You got more than you think, is my point. Now give me your phone. They already searched me, they won’t do it again. If I’m lucky — and I am Mr. Lucky, Marcello — I’ll hear what’s going down, and I’ll text you.”
Slowly March shook his head. “I’m not going to leave you.”
Darius ignored him. “If for some reason I can’t text you, Izzy can hack in and track where I am. Look, if you have to give up the sapphire, you can still do that. But if you can think of a way to get it all, it’s worth the risk.”
“You’re not getting this! Nothing is worth this risk!”
“We are. You’re the one who really knows it, too. You know without enough money, we’re just grifter kids with no hope. You know we need cash to live on the lam. That’s why you were so mad at what I did, that’s why you’re so scared.” Darius sat down and took off his shoes. “You got to, Marcello. The only way we’ll stay together is if the Cats are out of the United States for good.”
March swallowed against the fear.
“There is no way I’m leaving you here,” he said again.
“We’re out of options. And you know I’m right.” The worried look left Darius’s face as he flashed a grin. “Izzy’s gonna punch you.”
“Why?”
Darius reached out and snapped his handcuff onto the pipe. He banged it with the metal and yelled, “Hey! I gotta pee!”
“What are you doing?” March whispered furiously.
“You’ve got about a minute before a goon comes down that hall,” Darius said. “Go. But toss me your pick.”
March tossed him the pick and the phone.
“I have faith in you, brother,” Darius said simply, and March felt his heart seize up as he turned and ran out the door.
The tears started when he made it out to the street and hit West Broadway. The sobs came so violently they hurt his chest. When had he last cried like this?
When he’d lost Alfie.
How could he have left Darius? How could he have not persuaded him? Should he go back?
His friend, his brother. He’d failed him.
He leaned over, hands on his thighs, trying to stop.
He had to find the courage that Darius had. He had to get control and make this work.
He headed south toward the Brooklyn Bridge. The streets were grayer now. Taxis rumbled by. Sleek dark chauffeured cars slid through the intersections like sharks, maybe carrying finance guys and lawyers heading to work so they could make an extra million on a Sunday. Alfie would say, It’s all the same game. Except we’re honest.
Sometimes needing his father was something so big it blocked out the sky.
Get rid of the fear first. That’s the only way you can break it down, bud.
Okay, Pop.
Darius believed in him. And he’d given him something to work with. He had to get the plan straight, or he’d never be able to face Izzy and Jules. He had to do it for Darius.
The sun was rising as March hit the Brooklyn Bridge. He went through it all in his head from the beginning.
If you can’t figure the con, think about the players.
Blue, Dmitri, Zef.
Dukey.
Ransome.
Thinking about every word they said. Thinking about what each of them felt. What each of them wanted most. The sun splashed the river with gold. What did Alfie used to say?
Another day to get it right.
He crossed the bridge and kept on walking.
The cobblestones were wet with morning as he pushed open the door to Joey’s garage. Izzy and Jules were up, pacing, tense and angry.
“Where were you?”
He dropped, exhausted, on the floor.
“We’re going to need a bigger con,” he said.
Izzy pounded on him with her fists. “You left him there!”
“I had to! He wouldn’t come!”
“But you just left him!”
“I had to! There was no way to get him out!”
“I don’t care!”
“Ow! Iz, stop punching me! Darius said you’d do this!”
“I’m going to punch him, too! And then I’m going to kill him!”
March caught her wrists gently. “We’re going to get him back.”
Izzy’s adorable face crumpled. “You promise?”
“I promise. I told you the plan. It just has a few holes. If we’re lucky, Darius can fill them.”
“We can pull this off. I know it,” Jules told Izzy.
“Fact: Blue is scared of the Top Cats,” March said. “I saw her face on that roof. Fact: Zef has been working on Dmitri not to trust her. Fact: Dukey’s career would get a huge boost if he kept the Top Cats out of the country. Fact: We’ve got the sapphire. That gives us power. The Top Cats don’t like loose ends? We’re going to tie everything up in a nice neat bow for them.”
March let out a breath. This was the biggest risk he’d taken since Alfie had died, and that was saying something.
“We only have a little time, and we’ve got to make it count. We’re going to get Darius back, and we’re going to get rid of the Top Cats and Blue,” March said. “We’re going to make it so they leave us alone forever. And we have to go straight. For good this time.”
“We do?” Izzy asked. “I don’t know if Darius will like it.”
“He will. He’s not Mikki. He’s not his dad. And, Jules, you’re not Blue.”
Jules’s eyes filled with tears. She bru
shed them away, almost angry.
But not at him.
“I know.”
He turned to Izzy. “Your parents aren’t coming back.”
She bit her lip. “I know.”
“And I’m not Alfie,” he said. “I can stop.”
SHOPPING LIST:
THREE YELLOW MINI COOPERS
Dukey had agreed to meet them in a place of their choosing, and to come alone. He’d agreed to not wear a wire. He’d agreed to every condition, but how did they know he didn’t have a net of agents ready to close around them?
They didn’t.
They took the subway to West Eighty-First Street. When they got out, they took a moment to gaze at the grand entrance to the American Museum of Natural History. It had been the first heist that March had planned and executed on his own, and everything had gone wrong, but they’d still made it out with the jewel they’d come for. If his luck would just hold, one more time.
He kept going over the plan in his head. This morning he and Jules had studied maps of Prospect Park, then taken the subway there and walked the route. Discussing every possible thing that could go wrong. Then they were so shaky they had to eat a bag of cookies.
Meanwhile Izzy tracked Darius on GPS. Still at the house. She couldn’t text him, but she waited for any texts he might send.
Dukey was the crucial piece. Hamish was waiting, ready to go to Ransome.
“Is it too early for a hot dog?” Izzy asked.
“Yes.”
Her phone buzzed. “Darius!”
They all crowded around.
Ask Dukey abt Agent Chernoff. She’s on his team. Taking payoffs from TCs.
“Excellent,” March said. “That will clinch the deal.”
Izzy split off, heading south. She would make slow circles around the area, looking for cops. Only when she gave the all clear would March and Jules move in.
March and Jules sat on the steps of the museum. They waited until the text from Izzy came through. Then they crossed the street and headed south. They crossed into Strawberry Fields and made their way through the tourists snapping photos of the John Lennon memorial. They stood for a moment, pretending to admire IMAGINE spelled out in mosaic.