To Love a Thief (Steel Hawk) Read Free Page A

cannot.”
    “But you must; otherwise, it will be stolen.”
    “Rubbish. The lock is unbreakable.” But even as he denied the boy’s assertion, disquiet soured in his gut. The theft of the diamond would be a disaster of immense proportions.
    Nathan lowered his tone to a menacing warning. “If you’re trying to plot something…” He made a grab for the lad, but again the boy dodged capture and scooted beneath Nathan’s outstretched arm.
    He pivoted to face Nathan, the door at his back. He rested his hands on his hips, head held high, violet eyes darkening. “I’m not plotting anything. I’m warning you. Take it out. You have to, or someone else will.”

Chapter Two
    Head down, one hand holding her cap to her head to prevent her hair from falling loose, the other clasping her father’s far too large jacket to her chest, Rose Valetta ran as if the devil were at her heels.
    She had failed.
    She could not tell them the real reason why she wanted the Pasha Star taken out of the exhibition.
    Born in Zarrenburg, her father, Alex, had escaped under a cloud of secrecy before Rose was born. That was all she knew of her father’s past life. A secret.
    Once settled in England, he’d met Charlotte and married her, and had quickly integrated into the English way of life. He was English now, was all he would say. His life in Zarrenburg was over.
    And then those men had turned up, threatening to destroy everything. The past had caught up with her father.
    But why had they wanted him to replicate the diamond?
    Despite sweat pouring down her face, she shivered. She clutched the threadbare jacket even closer as she jumped down the last few steps of the hotel’s rear stairway and came to a grinding halt at the exit to the back alley.
    Bending double, she sucked in lungsful of oxygen, desperate to slow her racing heart and clear her brain.
    What now?
    Where to?
    Home?
    Her father hadn’t known she’d been going to beg help from the Steel Hawk owners. Little helper, he’d called her after she’d begun to look after him when her mother had died. She had her father. He had her.
    That was how it was. How it would always be…but…but now she’d failed.
    Rose yanked open the door to the alley, grateful for the fresh air. That surely would clear her brain of hopes and dreams and what-ifs that wouldn’t happen. She needed to concentrate on how to protect her father, not on some whimsical dream.
    Peering left and right along the dank alley, all she saw were the piles of empty boxes waiting to be carted away and a few crates overloaded with wasted food.
    She shook her head. Didn’t they know people could make meals out of those leftovers?
    A cat sauntered past, grazing alongside one of the bins, purring loudly. It swished its tail back and forth, and then snagged the remains of a fish, hooking it with its claw, then shooting off with the carcass clasped in its jaw.
    Down the alley and back out onto the main thoroughfare, Rose melded into the now-crowded street. London had come alive, even more so with the commencement of Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition less than twenty-four hours away.
    Twenty-four hours, and it would be too late to do anything about the diamond.
    Frustrated she’d failed and having no idea what to do, Rose slowly made her way home. Home was a few small rooms above her father’s workshop where Alex Valetta used his superb skills to craft paste jewelry for the wealthy.
    There was just the two of them now, though a long time ago there had been an apprentice. Nathaniel. She’d only been twelve the day he’d arrived. He’d been sixteen. She’d never let on, but she’d mooned over him, a girl crush it was, though the stupid boy never noticed her, calling her squirt just to annoy her, which he’d done on far too many occasions.
    And then after working with her father for four years, he’d disappeared, never to return, and the sixteen-year-old young woman she’d been had realized that love was rather