Chapter One
Arianna
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ONCE THE SNORING STARTED, I knew I could begin.
I eased myself off the bed and leaned over to the man beside me. He was sprawled out on the covers of the ridiculously expensive hotel sheets he had already paid for. I lifted my hand, and waved it in front of his eyes – nothing. Snapping my fingers a couple of times, I waited for a response. Still nothing. I nudged him with one fluffy, mule-clad foot, and his leg flopped back.
He was out for the count.
Which meant I could get down to business. The first few times I did this, I had felt a little guilty for drugging them, watching them knocked out for the count on the bed as I went through their shit, but I had long-since grown out of that. Guilt was a hangover from having a conscience, and I wasn’t sure I could lay claim to mine anymore.
Besides, I reasoned as I went to grab his phone, I had practically done this guy a favor. Jacob – it was Jacob, wasn’t it? - had huge, dark rings under his eyes, and could probably use the ten to fifteen hours of sleep the heavy sedatives I had slipped into his champagne would give him. By the time he woke up, he’d be feeling downright refreshed. Until he checked his wallet, of course.
Over drinks downstairs, I had seen him unlocking his phone with his fingerprint, so when I clicked on the screen, I knew what I needed to do. I took his large hand and guided his index finger towards the button, holding it down for a second until I heard the click that told me I had gotten what I wanted.
I planted myself on the edge of the bed, not in any kind of rush. In fact, if I rushed this, I was far more likely to leave behind some sort of signature that would tie back to me, and there was no way I would allow something that stupid to happen. Sam Beam, the man who had taught me all of this, had always told me to take my time. Better to have to sweet-talk a cleaning lady you didn’t expect to bump into than accidentally drop some sort of identifying information at the scene, that was for sure.
I fiddled around on his phone, looking for the banking app. I had seen him paying downstairs at the bar with one earlier, so I knew it was here. And I knew he had plenty of cash in it, too, to be able to so quickly agree to book us the penthouse suite when I had suggested we go somewhere more comfortable.
And damn, it was a gorgeous suite, too. I wished I could sneak into the bathroom to take a dip in the vintage clawfoot tub before I got out of there, but I knew it would be too much of a risk. Sometimes, they woke up before you expected – I had learned that the hard way – and I didn’t want to chance being around if that happened.
Though, maybe I could go grab a robe or something. I was a little chilly, sitting here in the lingerie I’d slipped into to convince him to let his guard down. It never took long, once I showed them a little flash of stocking and garter and lacy bra. It didn’t take much, especially if I had already been laying it on heavy with the flirting all evening – just a quick flutter of the lashes, and they would be willing to do pretty much anything I wanted them to.
That was the good thing about going into this as a girl. Men were always arrogant enough to think they were the ones in charge, even when that was nowhere near the truth. They never thought someone like me could get the better of them. And they truly believed the reason I was hanging onto their every word and listening to each dull-ass story that came out of their mouths was because I really wanted them, not because I knew I could get what I needed from them.
Aha! Finally, I spotted it, the banking app tucked discreetly away on the last page of his apps. I opened it, grabbed his hand again to unlock it, and let out a low whistle when I saw how much was there. Plenty enough for me to pay for the trip to France when all of this was over. I had been planning it for a while, getting the heck out of dodge before anyone put together all the pieces and worked out I was the one causing trouble for these guys. After I pulled a few scams in a row, I had to put some space between me and my hunting ground, let the heat die down a little. Let the other girls in the gam for themselves, too.
I transferred a good chunk of the money to my small account in the Caymans – I had opened it up on Sam’s suggestion, since he had worked with this particular company for a while now. They rolled the cash through a few different venues and split it across a couple of accounts I had access to, so it was harder to bring it all back to me.
I made the exchange, and then returned the phone to the spot on the bedside table. Hopefully, it would take him a while to work out what had happened, and he would be a while away before it clicked that his money was missing. He might not even think to connect it back to me; I hoped that, when he woke up, he would think he’d just had a little too much to drink and I’d left after he’d passed out.
Most of the time, they were too embarrassed to report what had happened, certain they’d be laughed out of the cop shop for trying to tell them a girl had robbed them blind. Another upside to working this industry as a woman; even when the marks did work out you were the reason for all their troubles, they rarely bothered to follow up on it. No guy wanted to admit he’d been stupid enough to fall for a scam as old as the books themselves, and they all really thought they stood a chance with me.
I almost smirked at the thought. Sure, I’d led him on, but did he really imagine I was just falling over myself to get him into bed? Didn’t he question why I was out alone at a bar, anyway? All the signs were there, but as soon as I laid eyes on him, I’d known there was no way he was going to spot even one red flag. I had my little bag with me and spun this sob story about how I’d been kicked out of my hotel after my card had bounced and was looking for a place to stay, threw in some detail about my boyfriend dumping me when we were meant to be on a trip together. I hoped it would explain the inordinate amount of lingerie I had in my bag.
And he bought it, and now, I was several tens of thousands of dollars richer. And I was sure I could find a little more in the way of cash in this room before I left, too. I had spotted him drop his wallet near the door, and it was a pretty damn fat one too. I made my way over to it, popped it open, and grinned. I was right – there was at least another thousand in here. I pulled it out, leaving ten dollars so he could at least get himself a taxi to the airport, and then tucked it into my money belt. I had left my bag by the door in case the pills I crushed into his drink didn’t work and I needed to make a quick getaway, but I had been lucky this time around.
He was still snoring on the bed as I made my way around the room, seeing if there was anything else I could grab to make this little excursion more worth my while. I could have snatched some of the fancy art or something from the walls, but I wanted to give myself as much time as possible to get out of there when this was over and if I drew attention to myself like that, it would cause trouble. The hotel was more likely to come after me than the idiot on the bed was, and I had no intention of inviting that kind of trouble onto my head.
Besides, by this time tomorrow, I would be in France. It was a well-deserved break, if I said so myself, as I had been working hard the last couple of months. Some people would have balked at calling it work, but they had no clue. Keeping my game face on while I listened to boring old guys drone on about their work or their wives or their families was work, and I was the best in the business.
Sometimes, I wondered if I should feel bad about what I was doing to them. But I would always push that thought down and ignore it. Most, if not all, of them had made their money through some nefarious means, and there was no way I was going to sit around and feel sorry for taking a little of it for myself. Some people would have called me heartless, but at least I was only heartless for the few hours it took to pull something like this. Those guys, who made this kind of money, they had to be all kinds of heartless to keep it trickling in, and they would go right back to it once they’d noticed I cleaned them out.
I was providing them with some form of therapy, too, at least before they noticed all the cash missing from their accounts. They would tell me things they would never have come out with in real life, and I was doing them a favor listening to it all. I had no doubt their wives were already bored of hearing their stories, if they even bothered to listen in the first place, and the amount I was taking from them just paid their therapy bills. My rates were high.
Finding nothing else in the suite worth stealing, I went to my bag and grabbed some of my outside clothes to get dressed. This lingerie was scratching at my skin, the cheap lace nipping into my thighs and my breasts. I had picked out this cheap stuff way back when I first started out, and I hadn’t replaced it since – no need, since it wasn’t like any of them got their hands on me in it, anyway.
I caught sight of myself in the mirror opposite the bathroom as I went to get dressed. Sometimes, it took me a moment to recognize myself when I was in full flow. My hair, dark and curled carefully over my shoulders, tumbled down to my breasts, my lips glossed with a deep red, my eyes made up with a dramatic smokey look and false lashes that nearly touched my perfectly-preened eyebrows. I always spent a good amount of time before I launched on a set of these scams to make sure I looked expensive; if I came across like I didn’t need the money, none of them would guess I was there to steal it from them.
And it had worked again perfectly tonight. This was the last one of the month, and I was off out of the country to relax for a few weeks. Hell, I could hardly wait. I pulled on a pair of boxers and a sports bra, tossed a set of jeans and a light tee over them, and grinned at myself in the mirror. It wasn’t long until I could leave this girl behind for a while, and pick her up again when I needed her.
I made my way downstairs, walking with purpose and keeping my eyes forward. Nobody was going to stop me if I looked like I belonged, even though it was the middle of the night. Jacob, for his part, would wake up in a few hours with a pounding headache and a whole lot less money in his account, but I would be long gone by the time he worked it out.
I followed the path out to the shuttles that would take me to the airport. I had the flight to France booked already, and I could almost taste the fancy bottle of wine I was going to treat myself to as soon as I landed. Hmm, and maybe some pastries too. Well, I would work it out when I got there, and either way, it would all be on Jacob’s dime. I would raise a glass to him while I was out there, along with the rest of the guys I had conned out of their cash.