The Thief and the White Knight - 8

“Pia, I have another job for you,” her contact said. “Come by the office so that I can give you the details and you can fill out the requisite forms.”

"I'll be there in an hour," she told him before hanging up.

Tito, who was sprawled on her sofa going over the notes she'd given him about her two stalkers, looking over with a raised eyebrow. "He keeps you busy."

"Not usually this busy," she replied pensively as she moved his feet out of her lap so she could get up.

"So this isn't normal?"

"Not really. It must be something special, or a rush job."

"Pia," Tito said, sitting up. "My opinion, this stinks of a set-up."

She paused to think about that and nodded. "I agree, though he wouldn't do that. He would however take a job and hand it over to me if it was big enough and profitable enough." She started pacing as she thought it through. "The men were at the last job when I left, either by luck or plan."

"You're presuming it's the same ones."

"Of course. So either they think I have something they want, as we said earlier on, something they think I kept from some job, or," she tapped a finger on her lips, "I'm being herded, enticed into doing the job because—"

"They want you to think that by taking it you could find out who's behind all this and why," Tito said, finishing her thought.

"Exactly."

Tito smiled. "Which means that you're going to take the job no matter what."

"You bet I am.

"And you're going to have back-up when you do."

She shot him a look of surprise, and then shook her head. "Not happening, amico, I work alone."

"Cosi dice la picolla signora. Not this time, Pia. You helped me out a while ago, I owe you and this is how I can repay my debt. So far those two men have done nothing more than be around where you can see them. Yeah, they may have been trying to jack you after that last job, but it's more likely they were just letting you know they know exactly who you are and what you do."

"So what are you thinking?"

"That their plan is that you take this new job and then they step in once you have the goods and—oh hell!"

"What?"

"Maybe there are two different groups, Pia. First," Tito held up one finger, "we have the one who hires you to steal whatever it is. It must be a hell of a prize. So well secured that they know you're probably the only one that could get to it. Following me so far?" Pia nodded and he held up a second finger. "Then we have the person those two men work for. He wants the item too and doesn't know where it is, but he's thinking the same thing, that you're the only one who can get to it. He has his men keep an eye on you until you go after it and then they jack you for it. I suspect, if we're right about what we were thinking before, that they are being obvious about their surveillance so that you won't turn down the job."

"Tito, that's one hell of a scenario."

"But possible, right?"

She nodded slowly. "But possible, yes."

* * * *

In another part of the city

"And?"

"And she's taken the job."

"She's going to be well protected?" the first man asked.

"Yes, and a friend of hers is going to be with her as well. He'll be a good witness."

"What kind of friend?" the first man growled.

"Does it matter? A man she grew up with. He was at her place when her contact called her about the job. They talked about it and, interestingly enough, he pretty much figured out what's going on, though he was only half right."

"I don't like it. I know what I'm doing, how do we know if he does? We should have played this differently."

"In what way, Kerry? Your job was to make sure she knew she was being watched. We needed to be certain she took the job."

"By pissing her off enough that she'd accept it in order to find out who is behind those men, yeah I know."

The man nodded. "It was a stroke of luck that she got hired to hit Rothem's place. Having them follow her away from there added fuel to the fire."

"Yeah, that worked just fine," he replied bitterly. "So it's all coming together just as you planned and better."

"It is. We know that Demarco will be there to take possession of the papers the moment she gets her hands on them."

"He's not going to want to leave her alive afterwards. Can this friend of hers protect her? Because for it's for damned sure if we'd been up front with her in the first place I would have been the one watching her back to keep her from getting hurt."

"Damn it, Kerry, we went all over this when we made our plans. She's a thief. Getting her to work for us would have been iffy at best and she might have gone straight to Demarco to warn him. No, this was the best way to do it. We'll have men there, well hidden but there."

"If anything goes wrong—" Kerry muttered.

"It won't, but she needs to hand the papers over to Demarco. If they don't go straight from the safe into his hot little hands we won't have confirmation that he's the one who hired her, that he's the one behind the gang that took over Nasato's territory. He made damned good and sure that her contact doesn't know who he is, or even what it is she's really stealing. He told him they were very valuable, historical papers. Her contact played along just like we told him to."

Running his hands through his hair, Kerry sighed unhappily. "She's going to kill me when she finds out I'm a cop and that I helped play her."

"How the hell will she find out? As soon as this is over you go back home. She'll think you were just another actor who got an offer of a better job and took it." The man looked at him and then shook his head. "Don't tell me you've fallen for her, Kerry."

"No," Kerry said adamantly before sighing. "Yeah, big time, the first time I saw her. I never believed in that crap until then."

The man smiled in commiseration, patting his shoulder. "It happens."

"Shit happens," Kerry muttered. "Who else but me would fall for someone I'd have to arrest if the circumstances were different?"