“Take a breath, Emery.”
It didn’t matter how softly he said it, that only made me more upset. “You take a breath! It could take me days to get it open, and how the fuck am I going to get all my equipment inside? I think people will notice when I show up with a duffle bag.”
I despised how I was losing control of my emotions, but everything was breaking down.
Everything . . . except Vance. “Do you know anything about the new safe?”
“Yeah.” Bitterness leeched from my words. “It’s a fucking Lagerfield.”
He paused, maybe expecting me to elaborate. “And that’s bad?”
“For us? Yeah, that’s bad. In addition to being notoriously hard to drill, it has countermeasures to protect against that. There’s a chance if I drill in the wrong place and crack the plate, I’ll activate the relocker system. Then everyone is locked out completely, and if Lambert wants his shit, he’ll have to destroy the safe and hope the contents survive.”
“That’s not going to happen.” He sounded certain, and it was the reassurance I desperately needed. I pictured him secluded in his fancy office, wearing a suit and a look of determination. “I know how bad you want this, and I’m telling you, we can do it. The party is a month away, so we have time.” He was intent on solving the problem. “Let’s not worry about anything else right now and start with the safe. What do you need to get inside?”
I tried to compartmentalize my fear and focus. “It’d be easier if I knew exactly what I was going up against. Like, something to practice on. But, Vance,” I swallowed a breath, “a Lagerfield is over a hundred thousand dollars.”
“Okay.” There was no hesitation, because money was no object, and it was win at all costs. “How many do you want me to buy?”
The next morning, I had an email sitting in my inbox, informing me that a Lagerfield had been ordered for the Hale estate. After I’d calmed down during our phone call, I’d asked Vance about the dress, but he didn’t know anything about it.
It was tailored to me and there was no label inside, confirming my suspicion.
This dress was from Jillian, a message she was alive.
I’d spent every available minute researching attack strategies while waiting for the safe to be delivered. When I posed the hypothetical question, my group of fellow master safecrackers arrived at the opinion I should manipulate the lock, but this scared the shit out of me. I was more comfortable with my drill and my borescope than going meticulously number by number on the dial to find the low spots.
I promised myself I wouldn’t make any decisions until I was face-to-face with the beast.
A week later, it was delivered and installed in the room Vance referred to as the office, although he said it was only staged that way. No work was done in there—the room hadn’t been used in years.
The Hale home office mimicked a two-story tall library. There was a spiral staircase on one side that led to the balcony with a reading area in front of the shelves full of books. On the other side stretched an enormous fireplace that had to be original to the house. It was decorated with an ornate, wood carved mantel that was absolutely gorgeous.
Calling the Lagerfield a beast was somewhat misleading. It wasn’t a vault. Usually, safes were placed out of the way or concealed entirely, but this one was set out from the wall, near the center of the room.
Vance stared at it skeptically. “It’s smaller than I expected.”
It wasn’t as tall or deep as the space saving refrigerator in my apartment in Port Cove, but it was close. The door was dark silver and had a faceted texture to it, making it look like art. The four-spoke handle on the left had a perfect symmetry with the black dial on the right. I opened the door, peeking inside at the different drawers and the spot at the bottom to store larger items.
“It’s beautiful,” I said.
And intimidating. Not just with how difficult it’d be to penetrate, but I didn’t want to accidentally destroy it and waste so much of Vance’s money.
“It is,” he agreed. “But he’s going to hide it in the floor?”
“No. The install paperwork said it was to be placed upright in the same room as the safe they removed. He might hide it behind something, though.”
I finished my examination, and my heart sank.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’m going to have to manipulate the open.”
“Meaning?”
I put my hand on the dial, turning it slowly to feel the tension. “It’s a process where I use touch and sound to figure out the combination.” I watched the numbers as they ticked by. “The good news is it won’t damage the safe. Lambert will never know we opened it, and I’ll only need to bring one piece of equipment—an amplifier.”