Free The Lady Is a Thief by Heather Long

eggs—eggs over
hard, bacon crisp and, if you have them, hash browns extra crispy.”
          “Toast?” The
waitress wrote it down.
          “Hmm—whole wheat with some jam as well.”
          “You got it.”
          Kit didn't have to worry about the waitress
paying attention to her, the woman's gaze skipped twice to her watch in the
time she wrote down the order. She just wanted to go home, which meant she'd
deliver the food and coffee and leave her be.
          Glancing at her watch, Kit flipped the book
open to the dog-eared page and settled in to wait for her bus.
          But the words blurred against the page. Jarod isn't a banker. She'd never seen
him before that meeting and he was right about one thing—she did notice people.
She knew every employee she'd ever met, on sight if not by name. She could
always tell when she'd met someone before and didn't recognize them—that spark
in their eyes, that friendly surprise and ease in their expressions. She knew
and reacted accordingly.
          He demonstrated none of those qualities.
          But he
knew me. I wasn't that great a mystery to him…and he appeared really worried
about what Miles told me on the phone.
          So either he ran a con on Miles…
          …or he found out about the Raphael. The
Raphael she'd seen in Miles' collection six months before and knew didn't
belong there. At the time, she said nothing. After all, it took a thief to know
a thief.
          And she was an exceptionally talented thief.
          This
is all supposition. Maybe he just saw me as a potential bankroll for his
business efforts. That thought didn't live very long, because he sure as
hell didn't kiss like he wanted her money.
          He wanted her.
          The waitress returned with the coffee and
the breakfast. She added some sugar and cream and stirred it up. Maybe she owed
Jarod the benefit of the doubt. He could just like her. She wasn't that
unattractive a woman. His reasons for following the plane, for getting on
board—hell, even his actions at the airport could all have a plausible
explanation.
          Or he
could just want the Buddha—like everyone else.
          A shiver raced up her spine, and she wasn't
afraid to admit, a wave of disappointment followed. If all Jarod wanted was the
artifact, he would be sorely disappointed. Her appetite waned at the thought.
The door opened at the front of the diner. She watched a couple of construction
workers padding in, yawning. They took seats at the front counter.
          She cut into her eggs and ignored the doubts
niggling in the back of her mind. She had forty-eight hours to finish this and
then it would be over and done with. Three years of hunting, globe hopping and
flirting with danger and she could finally put the entire matter of The Fortunate
Buddha to rest.
          Focusing on that, and not
the fact that she already missed Jarod's company, helped her finish her
breakfast. She watched the door every time it opened. She didn't need
Jarod or Louis finding her right now. Once she got on that bus, she'd
disappear.
          This is what she wanted. Unfortunately,
every time the door did open and it wasn't Jarod, her stomach sank.
          Stop
it. She picked up the book and forced herself to read. At least the
seventeenth century spy novel's heroine got to sleep with the man she stole her
information from—all well and good until he found out what she was up to and then
the chase ensued.
          He'd just caught up to the dangerous Duchess
and it didn't take much to imagine these two in the throes of angry sex. I wonder if Jarod thinks that's what he'll
get when he catches up to Georgia?
          That made her smile.
     

Chapter Five
           
          T he
moment the redhead exited the sedan and sashayed into the coffee shop, he knew
it wasn't Kit. Biting back a curse, Jarod backed his car into a parking space,
locked it up and followed the woman