Free A Brilliant Deception by Kim Foster

male. All-powerful male. And that was fascinating. The next photograph was of the grave in Yorkshire, where they had found the remains and the ring.
    I searched the files and found some information about Robin Hood, the man. Or, Robin of the Hode, as he was called in some original sources. There were newspaper clippings about the feud, the dispute between Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. This was the heart of the thing—the reason I’d been hired in the first place.
    At times, the feud had spurred some terrible violence. I sipped my wine and flipped to another article, a report of the suspicious death of a Yorkshire man who had been researching the history of Robin Hood.
    I shivered. Yes, this was a far cry from the charming bedtime stories of a band of merry men. I had entered something much more serious, much more dangerous.
    But there was no backing out now.

Chapter Nine
    Kenya
     
    E than sat in the passenger’s seat of the Jeep as Gary maneuvered and bumped the vehicle around potholes in the packed dirt road. They were headed toward a small village, the back of the truck filled with fresh supplies for the local villagers, including water, medication, and food stores. It was part of their regular routine, their weekly rounds. Neither man was speaking. Ethan squinted out over the dusty, sun-baked road ahead of them. They both knew they wouldn’t be doing this much longer. Global Life would soon be shutting down.
    “So where are you going to go after we’re done here?” Gary asked.
    Ethan shrugged. “No idea. You?”
    “I guess I’ll find another NGO. Or maybe I’ll go home. Haven’t been back for a while.”
    Ethan watched the passing scenery. The savannah with its rolling grassy hills, punctuated by spreading acacia trees, overlooked by the mountains in the background. A small cluster of giraffes paraded near the acacia trees, walking in slow motion, a majestic gait. A flock of larks rose up, taking to the African skies. The roar of the Jeep’s engine drowned out the sounds of wildlife.
    But although Ethan was seeing the dusty plains of Kenya, his mind was far away, mulling over the offer that had been presented to him yesterday.
    “It’ll be a doddle for you, Jones,” Templeton had said in the Global Life field tent as he sipped his Earl Grey tea. “A very straightforward job. And do I need to repeat the amount of money they’re offering?”
    It was a lot of money, for him to fly to England and do what he did best. And the job itself sounded tempting. The legendary Lionheart Ring. Richard the Lionheart. And the connection to Robin Hood—it was difficult not to feel inspired by that.
    It was a little outside his area of specialization, however. Ethan was an art thief. But it would be a mere week or two of work. Like Templeton had said, it sounded like an easy job. An easy buck. But there was one big problem. It would involve working side by side with Cat Montgomery. Something he swore he wouldn’t do again.
    The Jeep bumped through divots and ruts in the dirt road, pulling Ethan’s attention back to the moment. The village came into view on the horizon.
    Gary took a swig of water from his bottle, then shifted gears. “It’s such a load of crap that they’re shutting us down,” he said.
    Ethan grunted his agreement.
    “I’m still holding out hope, though,” Gary said.
    “Hope for what?”
    “A benefactor. A donation. Something like that.”
    Ethan turned to look at Gary, shielding his eyes against the sun. “How likely is that?”
    “Not very. That’s why I call it hope.”
    Ethan squinted ahead. A small ember of an idea began to flicker in his mind. “What’s going to happen when we stop coming?”
    Gary shrugged. “I guess they’ll have to find some way to survive. Or not.”
    They arrived at the village. It was little more than a cluster of circular mud huts topped with pointed thatched roofs. It was the way these proud, strong people had been living for centuries: simply, and