Bared to the Billionaire: Book 1 by Pierce Sylvia

Author:Pierce, Sylvia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“To say that I’m disappointed is an understatement, Arianne. Really.” Davidson drained his martini and set the glass hard on the patio table.

Ari shrunk, hoping no one else in the restaurant’s small outdoor seating area was listening in.

“I know. I’m… I’m sorry.” She cringed at the scared sound of her voice. It didn’t matter that she’d learned how to crack a safe by the time she was fifteen, or that she could spot a fake Dutch Master at a hundred yards, or that she’d amassed more knowledge of art history than most PhDs and museum curators twice her age. Davidson and the others on the crew—Lilah, Will, Trick, Keens—had watched her grow from a wobbly toddler into the woman she was today, but in Davidson’s presence, Ari would always feel like a silly little girl getting underfoot while the adults planned their next big heist.

She was also Arianne Holbrook, daughter of the man who’d supposedly betrayed his whole crew and gotten himself killed. And that, more than anything, made Ari a prime target for Davidson’s rage. Especially when she turned up at their meetings with bad news.

Through a cool, gentle voice that belied the anger flashing in his eyes, Davidson said, “You understand that your last several outings have been… less than informative.”

Ari swallowed the knot in her throat, willing herself not to cry. “How is that my fault?”

Davidson slammed his fist on the table, making her jump. The people eating at the table behind them looked over.

Great. The last thing she wanted was another scene at Beyoglu. Just a ten block walk from home, the Turkish café used to be one of her favorite lunch spots on the Upper East Side, but ever since Davidson had declared it their “usual” place, she hadn’t been back on her own. He’d embarrassed her in front of the staff too many times for that. Now, whenever they arrived together, the hostess always sat them outside.

“I’d advise you not to take that adolescent tone with me,” he said, which Ari found ironic, considering he’d never really stopped treating her like an adolescent. His voice was eerily calm, but anger rippled from his body in waves.

Ari was on dangerous ground. Pulling off a successful heist wasn’t like the movies, where everything came together seamlessly over a pack of cigarettes, a few cartons of Chinese takeout, and a music montage. It took weeks—even months—of careful, tedious preparation involving blueprints and public records searches, background checks on the property owners, surveillance, onsite intelligence gathering, payoffs of household employees and security technicians, identity theft, document forging, route planning, in-case-of-injury planning, contingency planning, and yes—lots and lots of Chinese takeout.

Lately, Davidson had been relegating Ari to fact-finding missions at private auctions and events, bringing her in later, cutting her out earlier, sharing fewer secrets. Sometimes she wondered if he believed that she was involved in the infamous double-cross. That maybe betrayal ran in the Holbrook family.

Ari stifled a shiver. If she didn’t do something to regain his trust soon…

Don’t think like that.

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