The Pursuit Read Free

counting?”
    “Your gang’s trademark is driving a vehicle, often an Audi, through a storefront. You’ve also used a FedEx truck, a bulldozer, an ice cream truck, a motorhome, a cement truck, and my personal favorite from your repertoire, a police car. Then you smash the display cases with pickaxes, grab the diamonds, and speed off. You’re in and out of the stores in four minutes and out of the country within two hours.” Nick pointed to the vault door. “But this is different. You can’t drive an Audi through that.”
    “That’s why you’re here,” Dragan said. “There’s at least five hundred million dollars’ worth of diamonds in that vault, and we’ve already got clients lined up, waiting impatiently for the stones. You’re the only one with the skills to get us inside. It’s taken us more than a year to find you, and we’re running out of time to pull off the job.”
    Things weren’t adding up for Nick. Why would Dragan be interested in a heist that he knew was beyond his team’s skill level? He had been doing the same routine for the past ten years. Why change now? Nick was about to pose the question when a fifth man limped onto the set. His face was covered with stitches, making him resemble a scarecrow stuffed into loose-fitting Versace sweats instead of burlap sacks. His flat eyes looked like they’d been ripped from a doll and glued onto his face. It was the guy who’d attacked Nick in Hawaii, and been tossed through the coffee table.
    The scarecrow made eye contact with Nick, did his best to ball his meaty hands into fists, and took a step forward. Dragan cut him off, placing a halting hand on his chest.
    “Easy, Zarko,” Dragan said. “You can’t blame a man for defending himself.”
    “I don’t blame,” Zarko said, staring at Nick. “I kill.”
    “How did you find me when the FBI, Interpol, and just about everybody else on earth with a badge hasn’t been able to?” Nick asked.
    “They would have much more success finding crooks if they were crooks themselves,” Dragan said.
    The deputy director of the FBI had come to the same conclusion. That was why Nick was now secretly teamed up with Kate.
    “We found the forger in Hong Kong who made the ‘Nick Sweet’ passport you’ve been using lately,” Dragan said. “He’s done a few of ours, too. He was an excellent craftsman.”
    “ ‘Was’?”
    “Sadly it took some persuasion to convince him to help us find you…persuasion which unfortunately left him incapable of forgery or tying his shoes again. However, in the end he was quite generous with his information.”
    Nick sighed and shook his head in disappointment. “I’m a thief. Instead of abducting me and threatening me, did it ever occur to you to just politely invite me to participate in one of the biggest diamond heists in history?”
    “I like leverage,” Dragan said.
    “Five hundred million dollars in diamonds is plenty of incentive for me,” Nick said.
    “That’s our money.”
    “Minus my fifteen percent commission as a creative consultant.”
    “I’m not used to negotiating,” Dragan said. “I’m used to taking what I want.”
    Nick turned to the blond woman. “I assume you’ve rented offices in the building, posing as a diamond merchant.”
    She smiled, like a child witnessing a magic trick. “How did you know that it was me occupying the office and not Borko, Dusko, or Vinko?” She gestured to the other men in the room besides Dragan and Zarko.
    “The Road Runners always use a beautiful, seemingly rich woman to case the jewelry stores that they’re planning to hit, often months in advance,” Nick said. “Why would it be any different now that the target is a vault?”
    Her smile widened. “You think I’m beautiful?”
    Dragan rolled his eyes. “Litija’s been a tenant in the building for nearly a year. She can go in and out as she pleases during business hours.”
    “I have an empty office where I do nothing but sit and watch
House