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CHAPTER THREE

ALEX

A lex took a breath, held it for four seconds, and let it out.

It had been a while since she’d broken in anywhere, and breaking into the Met, on the edge of Central Park in New York City, was definitely a challenge.

But she trusted Leo. He’d given her some of the intel, and she’d figured out the rest with Dani’s help.

She glanced at her watch.

It was go-time.

She touched her earbud and spoke quietly, “Dani, are we good?”

“Yes, the cameras are on a loop.”

“Thanks.”

Creeping out of the trees, Alex headed toward the staircase at the back of the Met.

She was damn thankful to whoever decided to build the museum in New York’s famous park.

The trees really helped with cover. The stairs were close to the southwest corner, and they led down to the maintenance area.

She held her breath as she descended the staircase to the door, and her lock picks clutched in her left hand.

It had been a while since she’d done any serious lock picking, but surprisingly, muscle memory kicked in and breaking in was easy.

Then again, she was entering through the maintenance area.

They didn’t exactly install Fort Knox-level security back here, which was a good thing.

They relied on the cameras, the locks, but she knew on the inside, there were more serious electronic locks.

She opened the door, slid inside, and closed the door gently behind her, pausing to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting.

The door on the right was the one that she had to go through, and this had more serious security.

According to Dani, the camera above it was on a loop which Alex believed, and appreciated wholeheartedly.

The lock on the door itself was a biometric lock.

Only certain people could access this area.

Luckily, Alex had known this ahead of time and managed to get a whole handprint from one of the guards by getting him to hold a can of beer while she flirted with him.

That was a whole hour of her life she would never get back, but this was a favor for Leo, and she owed him.

An hour of her time was the least she could do.

She pulled out a glove that she’d made of the guard’s handprint and smoothed it on. Setting her hand on the bio scanner, she held her breath until the lock clicked. Letting out a relieved breath, she opened the door.

The hallway was empty, as it was supposed to be. Slowly, she made her way along the hall. She mentally brought up the map of the museum in her head and made the appropriate turns

The good thing was she was heading to one of the storage areas—and not even a good one. This was where they stored the rejects. Things people donated as part of a bigger collection that nobody wanted to see. Items with no real value. Treasures simply not suitable for display.

Part of her wanted to sneak upstairs and wander through the museum just to see if she could do it, but the rest of her knew that doing that was the quickest way to get caught. There was no need to prove herself to anyone, least of all herself.

She made one final turn and counted doorways as she walked forward. One. Two. Three . She stopped and pulled out her tools again. The lock didn’t take long to pick. Again, this was stuff nobody really cared about, so they didn’t worry so much.

Alex took a breath, opened the door, and slid into the room. Again, dimly lit. A couple of exit signs and scattered lights illuminated the huge space. Overall, it was much bigger than she’d anticipated.

She stood motionless for a long breath, just taking in the room.

Stuff was jumbled everywhere, reminding her of a garage sale, or an estate sale, where some poor wretch’s belongings were just cast onto tables with no rhyme or reason other than to sell them off fast. A massive table down the middle had pieces on it—things people must’ve been working on sorting them—and everything else was stacked on shelves.

The shelving ran floor to ceiling, and there was stuff covering every available inch.

Just glancing at the stuff she could see, she wasn’t surprised that there wasn’t a lot of security on the door.

The museum people would probably be thrilled if this stuff was stolen.

A painting that were a variation of dogs playing poker.

A statue of a naked woman with four breasts that look as if it had melted.

A bowl that looked handmade by a toddler.

Yeah, this stuff was junk. No wonder the statue of the fat garden gnome was in here. It fit right in.

There were five aisles of shelves on each side of the room.

Alex went to the right and traveled along the back wall.

To her, the items on the shelves looked like they were placed at random.

She was sure there was some kind of organization to it, but she just wasn’t sure what.

Leo had given her a number for the item, but there weren’t any numbers visible on the shelves.

Just flipping great. She had to dig through it.

She picked up a statue of…she had no idea what…

and looked at it. There was a number on the bottom.

She put it back and picked up a small painting on the next shelf and found the number on the back.

At least the numbers did go in order. And she was still far from her target.

She made her way up the row to the end, checking the numbers on the last set of shelves—and then she heard it.

A soft footfall. She glanced at her watch.

No way. The guard wasn’t supposed to be here.

Not yet. By her reckoning, she still had twelve minutes.

She stayed frozen and listened. Nothing.

She was about to move when she heard it again. A quiet scrape of a shoe.

Quickly, she crouched down and glanced around the end of the shelves.

Nothing. She waited. There it was again.

It was coming from the opposite side of the room.

By her calculations, it was on the side of the room, where she needed to be to find the ugly gnome statue, which meant she was going to have to cross the room to find out what was going on.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to do that. It was risky.

The best thing to do was just keep quiet, stay silent, and wait until the danger was gone.

She glanced at her watch. She’d already wasted three minutes.

She needed to find the gnome. Leo was counting on her.

Maybe she could get the item and escape without being seen.

And maybe not. But she owed it to Leo to try.

She ducked low and slipped into the last aisle. Only one set of shelves stood between her and the massive table in the center. At the end of the aisle, she peeked around the edge. The center of the room was empty. No more footfalls. Maybe she was hearing things.

But then… more scraping.

Her heart hammered in her chest. She either had to make a break for it or go get the gnome. Time was running short.

Screw it. Figuring the item she needed was closer to the far wall, she crouched low and moved quietly across the open space.

At the first aisle, she glanced down it.

Nothing. She quickly picked up another cast off and glanced at the number.

Yes. She was right. Two aisles over. Looking around, she moved to the next aisle.

Again, empty. She picked up a couple more items. Verified.

She needed to be in the next one over. Then she heard another scrape.

It was definitely coming from this side.

It wasn’t the first two aisles, which meant it could only be the last three, and her quest took her to one of them.

She glanced at her watch again. She knew how long it would take her to get out.

She had six minutes left. Two minutes to get back down the hallway, out the door, and into the park.

She waited. The sound stopped again. It was now or never.

She peeked around the end of the aisle—and almost screamed. She was face to face with?—

She blinked. “Gage? What the hell are you doing?”

He was startled, too. He looked up from under his black ball cap and then bolted, bumping her shoulder as he rushed past her, and flew out the door.

“Gage!” she called after him. But nothing.

He was gone.

“Dani, can you hear me?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Dani replied after Alex touched her earpiece.

“What was Gage doing in here?”

“Gage? He’s in the park. I have him stationed as a look-out and as backup. He and Mitch are at either end of the museum.”

“What? But he was just here. Are you sure?” Alex asked. It had been Gage, hadn’t it? She was almost positive it was.

“I’m sure, girl. Wait, did you just see someone? Get the hell out of there! They might call the cops!”

Alex grunted. “I don’t think so. He was dressed all in black, and he was carrying a backpack. I think he was stealing something, too.”

“I don’t like this. You should get out of there. You don’t have much time. Do you have the item?”

“No. I’m getting it now.”

“Hurry,” Dani said.

Alex gave herself a mental shake—whatever—and quickly went along the shelves, picking up items. Finally, she came to the shelf where her item should be. She looked all around. There was a hole right in the middle. A space where the crappy gnome should be.

Damn.

Somebody had gotten there before her. Quite possibly the man she’d run into. She searched all around, just in case, but she was right. The gnome was gone.

“Alex, you gotta get out of there. Get out now,” Dani said. “I told Gage and Mitch to be on the lookout for trouble, just in case.”

“On my way,” Alex said as she rushed to the door. She opened it quickly and glanced around. No guards. Retracing her steps to the back door, she slid out quietly, hopped the fence, and ran off into the park.

“Did you get it?” Dani asked.

“No. It wasn’t there.”

There was a long pause. “It wasn’t there?”