Read Online Always a Thief by Kay Hooper - Free Book Online

reason enough? Name any major city in the Western world, and the cops there want me behind bars at the very least. And there are a couple of places in the Far East as well. That won't change, no matter how this turns out. I'm too effective to go public, and Interpol knows it. They've got me by the—short hairs.” He laughed, honest amusement in the sound. “I can't complain. I had a hell of a dance, and now I have to pay the band.”
    “Extend the metaphor.” She smiled faintly. “The music hasn't stopped, the tune's just changed. You enjoy the dance, Alex. And Interpol knows that. So they changed the music for you.”
    “And made sure I'd dance for them?” He laughed again. “Probably.” His voice and face became abruptly expressionless. “The point is that . . . I'm never going to be respectable, Morgana. I don't want to be. You're right; I
enjoy
this dance. I don't feel a bit of regret about my past.”
    “But they caught you,” she murmured.
    He nodded. “They caught me. They could have locked me up; instead, they gave me a choice. And I chose. I'll keep my bargain with them. I'll dance to their tune. As you said—only the music's changed; the dance is just as much fun.”
    “You won't be able to steal for yourself anymore,” she noted, watching him with an expression of mild interest.
    He shrugged carelessly. “The proceeds of my past will see me through even a long future in style, sweet.”
    In a thoughtful tone, she said, “I would have expected them to demand you return those proceeds.”
    “They tried.” He smiled sardonically. “I told them I'd forget how to dance.”
    “You are a complete villain, aren't you?”
    Quinn eyed her a bit warily. “I don't know why on earth it's so,” he commented, “but I have the most insane urge to insist that I am, in fact, just that.”
    “And selfish and egotistical and reckless. Without morals, scruples, compassion, or shame. Lawless, heartless, wicked, and rebellious. How am I doing?”
    “Just fine,” he answered with a suggestion of gritted teeth.
    She nodded seriously. “Let's see . . . you're a thief of world renown, there's no doubt of that. You've quite cheerfully broken a number of the laws of God and man. Without, according to you, one iota of remorse. And you're on the right side of the law now only because it was infinitely preferable to spending the remainder of your life in a prison cell.”
    “All true,” he said grimly.
    “Do you also kick puppies and steal candy from children?”
    Quinn drew a deep breath. “Only on odd Thursdays.”
    She smiled a little. “You know . . . I'd have a much easier time believing all these rotten things about you if you didn't try so hard to make me believe them.”
    With a glint of despair in his vivid eyes, he said, “Morgan, get it through your head—I'm not a nice person.”
    “I never said you were.”
    Quinn blinked but recovered quickly. “I get it. You're a danger junkie, that's why you brazenly invited me to be your lover.”
    “A danger junkie. Well, maybe. I would never have guessed I'd turn into one, mind you, but anything's possible. Meet a world-infamous cat burglar in a dark museum one night and all kinds of doors are suddenly before you.” Morgan's tone remained thoughtful. “It's a new path. A less-traveled path. All the best journeys in life are the unexpected ones. So why not?”
    “Why are you talking like a fortune cookie?”
    Morgan hadn't enjoyed herself so much in years, and it took everything she had to keep from laughing out loud. Instead, she said gravely, “All kinds of doors. I'll say this for you, Alex. They're interesting doors. Very interesting doors. And the one thing I know for sure is that I really do want to find out what's behind those doors.”
    “Tigers,” he warned.
    “Somehow I doubt that. But not handsome princes either. You're not that magnanimous. Adventure, I'd say. Maybe danger. Changes, for sure. I think my life is ready for