“How old are these guys?” I asked, watching a few of them roll around on the floor together. Then, my heart started to hammer as one of them jumped up onto the ottoman next to Emma and started to paw at her hair.

  “Penelope!” Emma said, sitting up and pulling the cat to her. Even as a baby, it barely fit in her lap, and the way it was wriggling around, I was worried she was going to lose a finger.

  Or an eye.

  “Not the hair!” she said giggling. Then she turned to me again. “Penelope here is the oldest. She’s about five months old.”

  I flinched in surprise.

  I’m pretty sure Michaela had said that tigers started to get dangerous to handle around three months? And this one was nearly twice that.

  As I wrapped my head around this, Penelope let out a little growl, until Emma turned her over and tickled her belly. The cat began to mouth Emma’s hands until she pulled her hand away abruptly.

  “Gentle!” Emma scolded. She stood up from the ottoman and brought her wound up to her mouth. “Ow.”

  “Maybe it’s time these kitties graduated to a bigger cage?” I suggested, slowly backing away from the two tigers who’d been wrestling earlier but now seemed interested in me.

  “Eh, they’re fine,” Emma said, waving her hand in the air. “They’d never hurt their mommy.”

  “Okay,” I said, silently disagreeing. “So, answer me this: Why did you get into the whole exotic trade industry?”

  “Off the record?” Emma asked, raising her eyebrow doubtfully.

  “Of course,” I said. “All of this is off the record. I don’t want to get caught either, you know.”

  “Right,” Emma answered. “Well, it started when Sam and I were heading over to Africa for a quick vacation, and one of my heiress friends asked us to bring her back a monkey. At first I thought she was crazy, but then I made a few calls and discovered it was supes easy to buy an exotic animal. There are no laws about it, and they charge next to nothing over there.”

  Correction, there are laws. They just don’t always apply to rich people.

  “When we delivered the hairy thing to my friend, she paid us a finder’s fee of ten grand. And that got us thinking,” Emma said, slinking back over to the snake tank. “Our grandfather was getting ready to update his will—something he does every four years, or whenever one of us messes up—and he’d been riding us about finding our own ways to contribute to the family fortune. So, we figured, sure, we’ll sell animals to our friends. And it’s proven to be very lucrative.”

  “But a little in the gray area as far as your government goes, no?” I asked. “I imagine you keep these business dealings—along with the profits you’ve made—how you say…to yourselves?”

  I wanted to lead her into talking about the fortune they’d no doubt accrued since they’d begun trafficking animals for a living. Over the years of robbing the rich, I’d learned that wealthy people kept their clean money in banks. But their real money, the stuff made by shadier means, was kept somewhere the IRS couldn’t get to it.

  I wanted that money.

  The dirty money. Because if given to the right people, I might just be made clean again.

  Emma tapped the side of her nose, the universal symbol for being right about something.

  “Yet another thing our family is good at—hiding money,” Emma said, oddly proud.

  “Well, color me intrigued,” I said, feeding her ego. I could tell she wanted to brag about how clever she and her brother were. “Maybe I could learn something from you. I’ve just been using off-shore accounts to hide my more…indelicate dealings. Do you have a better idea?”

  Emma looked like she was considering telling me everything.

  But then a voice asked from the entrance to the room, “You think she can keep a secret?”

  Both of us turned quickly to see Sam standing there, leaning up against the door frame.

  I had no idea how long he’d been there.

  Was this going to be a problem now?

  “Still not sure. I mean, she wants to do business with us. Help us expand into the international market,” Emma said, seeming to scrutinize me. Suddenly she threw her hands in the air and yelled out, “What the heck. I have a good feeling about you, Brigeet. And my gut’s never wrong.”

  Until now.

  “What about…insurance?” Sam reminded his sister.

  “Right!” Emma smacked her head. “Duh. Okay, come on over here, partner.”

  Emma grabbed my hand—yes, the injured one—and pulled me across the room, calling for the cats to come. They obliged and soon there were five not-so-little tigers surrounding us. She picked up the smallest one and handed it to me.

  The animal was so heavy, I nearly dropped it. Luckily, the cat dug its claws into my arms and stayed upright.

  “What is happening?” I asked, managing to keep my accent going.

  “We like to get a little…collateral just in case people think about getting chatty,” she said, putting her arm around me. “Say cheese.”

  “Cheese,” I said robotically, still not quite knowing why we were taking a picture.

  “Got it,” Sam said, nodding at the photo he’d taken of us on his phone.

  “And we took the picture because…,” I started.

  “Because we want you to know that if we go down, so do you,” Sam explained. “And this picture’s all the proof we need.”

  Too bad all they had was a picture of a fictional French magazine editor.

  “Right,” I said, not bothering to argue. “So, tell me all your secrets.”

  “Well, you have to do a lot more to earn all of them,” Emma said. “But here’s a little something for you.”

  Emma motioned for me to join her back over by the anaconda cage. I did not want to go. But I did anyway.

  When I got there, she put her arm around my shoulder like we were going into a huddle.

  “Grandfather taught us that the best place to hide your money is in a place nobody wants to go. I won’t give away his hiding spot, but I’ll let you in on ours,” she said, pointing inside the cage and then turning on a little spotlight so we could see better.

  “Holy diamonds!” I exclaimed before I could stop myself.

  They were everywhere. Gems and jewels of all sizes, shapes, and colors. Just thrown around the cage amongst the snake poop. Emma was right. Nobody was going in there to steal their stuff anytime soon.

  “I know!” Emma exclaimed. “Isn’t it wild? It’s like really expensive glitter!”

  “Most of them are conflict diamonds, gifted to us by our grandfather so we obviously can’t sell them. Well, in stores anyway,” Sam explained. “And the larger ones, well, our girl likes those the best. She uses them as pillows.”

  My jaw had fallen open at some point, and I forced it closed before the twins realized how gobsmacked I was.

  “There has to be millions of dollars in there,” I breathed.

  “And there’s more,” Emma said excitedly.

  “Are you going to tell me the leaves are made out of hundred dollar bills next?”

  “Ha!” Sam let out a loud guffaw and pointed at me. “You’re funny.”

  I nodded kindly.

  “So, the real treasure’s…” I let my words drift off, hoping one of them would answer.

  And after a brief pause, Emma did.

  “Right there,” she said, pointing to something in the back of the cage.

  I squinted through the glass, trying not to be distracted by the giant snake and hundreds of diamonds littering the ground. It wasn’t easy, but finally I saw it.

  There, inside the snake enclosure and behind the two-hundred-pound anaconda, was a safe.

  “All our real valuables are in there,” she whispered in my ear, before leaving me gaping behind her as she walked away.

  Entry Thirty

  I’ve heard of guard dogs, but guard snakes?

  This was definitely a first for me—and I’d been to a lot of secret hiding spots.

  By the time we made our way back outside, I was itching to tell Ollie what the twins had just revealed. He might actually die. Like fall down dead. He wouldn’t go near the boa constrictor when we were at The Farm, no way was he going to even begin to approach a twelve-foot-long anaconda.

  Even for a million dollars.

  There’s a chance he wouldn’t even go inside the house again, knowing it was there.

  As soon as I walked out the door, I immediately scanned the area for him. But just as I did, Emma called me back.

  “Oh, Brigeet!” she said all singsongy.

  I sighed, my back to her, before plastering on a big smile and turning around.

  “Oui?” I said.

  Sam had come up behind Emma and threw his arms around his sister’s neck, placing his head near hers. Was it a twin thing that made them that close?

  It was always like they were attached at the hip. I didn’t get it. Weren’t siblings supposed to hate each other most of the time?

  I wondered how they’d cope when they were separated by jail cells.

  “We’re having a dinner party on Saturday night,” Emma said. “Some of our clients will be attending. Might be a good opportunity for you to meet everyone.”

  “That sounds splendid,” I said. “Count me in.”

  Before I could turn around, Sam had closed the distance between us and leaned in close to me. “These are very important clients, Brigeet. One is Geo Ford, the eccentric billionaire, who has requested eight adult tigers and a few other animals, so that he can throw a hunting party on his property later this month.”

  “Wait, he’s buying them just to hunt them?” I asked incredulously.

  Sam nodded.

  “One of the others is supermodel turned designer, Thoya Vanderhook,” he continued.

  “Please tell me she doesn’t want to make them into furs?” I pleaded. I was joking at first but then I saw his face and felt mine fall.

  “Hey, I try not to judge,” Sam said, holding his hands up in the air defensively. “That’s not going to be a problem for you, is it?”

  Um, yeah.

  “Not at all,” I said, trying to seem cool about it. “I just like to know what I’m dealing with.”

  “Great! There are a few others, too, but we haven’t finalized the guest list yet,” he said, starting to walk back toward Emma. “This is gonna be a big night, Brigeet. Be sure to bring your A-game!”

  Oh, I’ll bring it.

  I nodded and walked away as quickly as I could.

  When I finally caught up with Ollie, he was still engaged in an intense conversation with a few of the TV crew guys.

  I caught his eye when he was just about to say something to one of the guys wearing a headset and carrying a walkie. I gave him an imperceptible nod and began to walk in the direction of our cart.

  Ollie clapped the guy on the back and said his goodbyes before hurrying over to catch up with me.

  “You were gone awhile,” he said, a little bit winded from the run. “Everything okay?”

  “Not even a little bit,” I said, and then regaled him with stories of the Jungle Room, the baby tigers, the anaconda, and the money.

  When I told him that the twins’ fortune was hidden inside the snake tank, he practically turned white.

  “Wait, why am I tripping?” he asked out loud a few seconds later. “It’s not like I’m going into the cage. That’s all you, girl. Good luck with that.”

  I rolled my eyes at him.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said as we got into the golf cart.

  “How are you gonna do it?” he asked, curiously.

  I shook my head. “No clue,” I said. “I’m prepared for the lasers, the keypad, a safe—that’s normal thief stuff. But sneaking past a giant snake? That’s new territory for me. I’ve gotta reach deep for this one. Feel free to make any suggestions, though.”

  Ollie rubbed his chin as if he were thinking.

  “I’ll give it some thought and get back to you,” he answered.

  “You do that.”

  I steered us in the direction of the secret zoo on the property. Now that everything was out in the open with the twins and their exotic dealings, we needed to get a closer look at exactly what we’d be stealing.

  We had the plan, now we just had to work out the details.

  I could feel my adrenaline start to rev back up as we got closer.

  It seemed too soon to be going back into a situation with wild animals, but unfortunately, we didn’t have the luxury of time.

  We were going to be pulling this heist the night of the dinner party.

  When I’d told Ollie that we would be putting our plan into motion in a few short days, he’d just nodded.

  “Of course we are,” he’d said, not bothering to fight me on it. “Because, why wait?”

  By now, he was used to me giving him a short turnaround on things with no explanation. I think he’d actually even started to expect it.

  But this time there was an actual reason for keeping things speedy: part of my plan was time sensitive. And it was integral to pulling everything off.

  “Did you get all the info we needed from the construction crew?” I asked Ollie, talking just loudly enough to be heard over the wind in our ears from driving.

  Ollie nodded while holding his wig down.

  “The crew enters through the back of the property. There’s a larger maintenance entrance just past the zoo,” he explained. “That’s how they bring in the equipment and building materials. There’s only one guy working back there, and apparently he spends most of his time on his phone, so it should be an easy access point.”

  “Great,” I said. Then I glanced sideways at him as I pulled into the cover of the trees. “Looked like you were getting pretty social back there. Making friends with the TV crew now, are we?”

  “Don’t worry, you’re still my number one,” Ollie joked. “But, yeah, those guys had a lot of…interesting things to say about the twins,” Ollie disclosed.

  “Like?”

  “Like, they keep forgetting that they’re mic’d and the sound guys are getting some pretty nutso stuff behind the scenes,” he said.

  My eyes grew big.

  “They haven’t heard any of our conversations, have they?” I asked, suddenly worried. I may have been in disguise and taken on a pretty foolproof accent, but it was never a good idea to leave behind concrete evidence like that.

  Ollie shook his head.

  “So far, Emma curses like a sailor when she’s alone and talks to Lady Godiva all the time. Full-on conversations with the dog,” he said. “And Sam…well, let’s just say he’s already made friends with several girls on both crews. And none of them know about each other. They say his ability to woo is unreal.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Geez,” I muttered. “Okay, so I need to be more aware of their mics from here on out.”

  “Probably a good idea,” Ollie agreed as the cages took shape in front of us.

  This time I was ready for what we saw.

  I parked the cart and took a deep breath before stepping down into the dirt.

  “Let’s try not to get mauled on this visit?” Ollie said. It should’ve been a joke, but it came out deadly serious.

  “Agreed,” I answered, walking over to the sloth’s cage first.

  Its eyes had turned our way as we drove up and they hadn’t moved since. Neither had his body. The little guy was like a furry statue being kept behind bars.

  “Hey there, friend,” I said, going over to the cage and placing my hand on one of the bars out of his reach. He was cute, but not so cute that I was going to risk losing my arm by sticking it in his cage to pet him.

  The sloth uncurled its hand from the bar one excruciatingly slow finger at a time, until it was finally free and he slowly outstretched his arm to where I was standing.

  “I know,” I said, feeling like we were able to communicate despite not speaking the same language. “You’re not gonna be stuck here forever, little guy. Just hang tight a little longer.”

  “You know you’re talking to a sloth,” Ollie called out, leaving the safety of our cart but not going too far.

  “And?” I challenged.

  “And nothing,” he said with a shrug. “Just making sure you recognized that.”

  “Noted,” I said and stood back up before turning to look at the tiger that would’ve eaten me the other day if given the chance. “And then there’s you.”

  The big cat roared at me as if confirming my thoughts.

  “Don’t worry,” I said to it. “We’re breaking you out, too.”

  I stepped closer to the enclosure, while making sure to remain way out of the danger zone. I had to get a closer look at the cage.

  I took out my camera and zoomed in, taking a few dozen pictures of the lock and hinges, and then stepped back again.

  “There are no bars on the ground,” I observed. “I’m shocked none of the animals have dug their ways out.”

  “A few have tried,” a man’s gruff voice interjected.

  I heard the telltale shuffle before I saw him.

  “You two again?” Cap’n Bob said, showing up again as if out of nowhere. “I thought I’d scared ye off last time.”

  How did he manage to sneak up on people when he was such a loud walker?

  “We were hoping to get a proper tour this time,” I said, like this was a normal request.

  Cap’n Bob eyed us suspiciously, before walking slowly over to me, sliding his bad leg along behind him.

 

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