Read Thieves Till We Die for Free Online Page B

northern New Mexico set in five hundred acres of wild terrain. Jonah stood on the veranda as the sun slowly set, listening to the gentle rush of the Tierra Amarilla river flowing carelessly through the grounds, just as he had before they’d flown out to Guatemala.
    The black speck of a helicopter whirred quietly through the darkening sky, and Jonah wondered where it was going. Growing up, he’d had a thing about planes and their destinations – always wishing he was on board, flying out of his miserable home-life. Now, to his amazement, he was actually glad his feet were on the ground. He’d already made a start on getting the computers up and running. Structurally, everything was in place, so he’d cabled up the patch panels and tonight he’d start on –
    â€˜Nice, huh?’ Tye had come to join him with a couple of beers.
    â€˜Yep, they’re the best beers I ever saw.’
    It was a lame joke, but he was pleased to see she smiled anyway. ‘You can’t help but lose yourself in a sunset like that,’ she said.
    â€˜Er, right.’
That and the joys of network hubs
. ‘Cheers.’ He took a long swig from one of the bottles. ‘So, does Coldhardt’s getting this little holiday home mean he’ll be losing one of his others?’
    â€˜Maybe,’ said Tye. ‘He had a base in Bucharest he sold off last year when he bought the
castello
in Siena. The main base in Geneva is his only real home, I guess. The others he just buys and sells as and when it’s convenient.’
    Jonah shook his head, bemused. ‘I’ll bet that if his car ran out of petrol he’d leave it at the roadside and buy another.’
    â€˜Uh-uh. I’m his driver. I carry a petrol can in the back.’ She necked her beer. ‘There is something about this place though. Found it while I was looking around. Something I haven’t seen in any of Coldhardt’s other homes.’
    â€˜The mysterious act would work better if you didn’t have beer froth on your nose,’ Jonah teased her.
    â€˜Want to see?’
    â€˜See what?’
    â€˜Follow me.’ She took him by the hand and led him back into the spacious living room. The swift clomping of her low-heeled shoes on the hardwood floor was a close match for his heart. He wanted to squeeze her fingers, or grip her hand more firmly, but what if she snatched it away? What if she just stared at him, or laughed in his face – or landed a punch there instead? Tye kickboxed, she was not someone you wanted to mess with …
    He tried to stay unflustered as she went on towing him through to the dining room, into the hall and down some stairs to the wine cellar, her fingers soft and warm around his sweaty hand. She led him towards the rear of the room, then, to his surprise, squeezed between two large dusty racks of vintage red and drew him up close beside her.
    He looked at her in the dim light, confused, excited, silently urging himself to just lean in and kiss her. Surely she would be OK with that if she had led him –
    â€˜It’s here,’ she whispered, then turned away from him to face the wall. Her fingers twitched at a black covering there, pulling at it to reveal a chunky slab of metal. It took Jonah a couple of seconds to process what he was seeing: a door, formidable-looking like it belonged in a bank vault. It gleamed dully in the low light.
    Jonah pushed his hands in his pockets, as if trying to stuff his disappointment down there. ‘I, er … I guess this wasn’t something left behind by the lastowners. Sneaky old Motti, huh, coming up with this on the quiet.’
    â€˜If it
was
Motti.’ Tye looked at him. ‘You heard the way he was bitching about being overworked trying to secure the grounds before we left. He never once mentioned this.’
    â€˜Maybe it’s a secret.’
    â€˜If he was keeping something back, I’d know.’ Tye looked