Free Blood and Roses by Sylvia Day Page A

shopkeeper. Only another world-class thief and grifter would recognize her for what she really was.
    “I made a new pot of tea just before you arrived. Why don’t you sit and we’ll talk? It’s been so long since you’ve been home.”
    “We don’t have time to play this game.” Ana crossed her arms, her anger simmering. “Frankie’s life is in danger, Mom.”
    Like their parents, her brother Frank had the same need for the rush, the same fascination for the bright and shiny and illegal. Ana supposed it was in their blood. Inevitable, considering she was named after a famous identity con and Frank was named after an infamous con artist.
    “Is it?”
    What a question.
Her mother was good at pretending to be clueless. “I know he and Eric would’ve wanted to go into the heist with blanks, but their associate was using live rounds,” Ana said tersely. “Whoever he is, he’s a wild card.”
    “You were always so good at dramatizing things, dear.” Her mother sank into one of the mismatched chairs arranged in a circle near an unlit woodstove.
    Ana had to consciously relax her jaw to speak. “You know you’ll never be able to fence those diamonds. You knew it when you set this up. The Crown is too distinctive.”
    Tilly poured tea as if she hadn’t a care in the world. “The Crown of Roses.” She sighed. “So rare to find any diamond of that deep pink color, but an entire tiara’s worth? Has the piece been stolen?”
    “Cut the crap, Mom. Do you think I’ve forgotten how you talked about the ’94 Carlton heist in France? This job in Manhattan was textbook Tilly Miller... until the guard got shot.”
    Digging into her briefcase, Ana yanked out a tablet and tossed it on an empty chair beside her mom’s. “I bought that for you. Look at the newspaper apps on there and read the reports. Did you know that jewelry shop is a Cross Industries property? Gideon Cross has offered a quarter-million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of the thieves. I’ve been told that amount will increase to half a million if the guard dies.”
    Finally, Tilly paled. “Is he that bad off?”
    “He had body armor on, but he took two hits: one to the shoulder and another to the thigh. That second hit nicked his femoral artery.”
    “Dear god...” Her mother sucked in a shaky breath. “You know Frankie would never go along with anything like that. The guard... was it Terence Parker?”
    “Yes.” Ana gripped the back of an old wicker chair. “I already figured out Terence was your inside man. And it’s obvious the shooter wanted him out of the way. A three-way split is much more lucrative. But why not make it a two-way split? Or better yet, take it all. Frank, Eric, Terence, and someone else. Who’s the other guy, Mom?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I don’t believe you. You had this planned down to the second.” Tilly and Bill Miller were known to spend years planning a job that would take only seconds to pull off. Ana was afraid that since her dad had died, her mom had focused on the heist to bury her grief. And she’d dragged Frankie into it with her.
    Tilly looked at her with stricken eyes. “There was no fourth guy in the plan. Just Terence, Frankie, and Eric. You know it’s safer to keep the number of people involved to the bare minimum.”
    Ana knew neither Frankie nor Eric would’ve deviated. Tilly would’ve trained them better than that. Most likely Terence had brought in someone to guard his interests, someone he’d thought he could trust... and ended up paying for it.
    “Jesus, Mom. The shooter is going to turn on Frankie and Eric the first chance he gets, if he hasn’t already. I need to get to him before that happens.”
    Tilly picked up her teacup and saucer, the china rattling as her hands shook. “Are you here for the reward or the gems?”
    “You know why I’m here. You knew I’d come, because you knew who the insurer was before you went after the diamonds. That was part of the