Read Online Confidence Tricks by Tamara Morgan - Free Book Online

you to ask us for help. But we’re a set of judgmental pricks who only look out for ourselves. By the way, your case files were really interesting. Would you like to murder me while I sleep?’”
    Graff studied him intently. “Fine. How about this—why don’t we just offer her the twenty thousand dollars for the necklace and cut the strings? Everyone knows that paying a blackmailer is worse than giving in to terrorists, but I don’t see what other choice we have.”
    “You do realize you just compared a perfectly nice woman to international extremists.”
    “Just do it.”
    Asprey stared at his brother for a full minute, waiting for a break in that rough exterior. It didn’t come.
    “If you insist. But I’m going to do a little recon my way first. And I reserve the right to withhold payment if I find anything that might end up working in our favor.”
    “You have a way?”
    “Yes, Graff,” Asprey explained with a smile. “It’s called the Not Being an Asshole method. You should try it sometime.”
     
     
     
    Poppy might not have ever noticed the man on the corner if not for Jenny’s newfound love of squirrels.
    “I swear, if Mike the Slumlord doesn’t come fix the locks on these windows soon, I’m going to call the city and have them come condemn these buildings.” Bea pulled her daughter away from the family of fluffy-tailed rodents that lived on their second-story stoop—as well as the rickety window that opened out onto said stoop at the slightest toddler touch.
    Bea blew a raspberry on Jenny’s little stomach, which protruded over the top of the cutest ruffly pink shorts ever, and both mother and daughter squealed in delight. “And you know I can. Remember the time I got them to shut down that Irish pub for twenty-four hours so we could convince that skeezy bartender he wanted to come away with us for the weekend instead?”
    Poppy remembered. They’d taken him for almost a thousand dollars—guys who had a habit of slipping roofies into female patrons’ drinks at closing time were an easy mark for the threesome scam. Set the scene with the tale of a friend’s Jacuzzi condo free for the weekend. Add two parts willing females. Let it set just long enough to firm—pun intended—before asking for money to buy party supplies like cocaine and ecstasy. Take the money and run.
    It wasn’t their best work, but it did the trick.
    “Do you miss it?” Poppy heard herself ask, the words slipping out before she could stop them. “The planning, the adrenaline high…”
    “Me?” Bea’s glance was shrewd. “No. We had some good times, but the cost was too high. You know that better than I do. Why? Do you miss it?”
    Poppy shrugged and returned her attention to the window—more specifically, to the dark figure on the corner, a long trench coat and fedora obscuring him from view even though it was the middle of the day. It seemed safer to focus on the creepy predator outside than to admit to Bea that being in the middle of a heart-thumping, quick-thinking con was the only time Poppy felt truly alive.
    She’d rather manipulate people than forge actual human bonds. What kind of a person did that make her?
    “I’m going for a walk,” she announced, pushing to her feet.
    “You want company?” Bea asked, although it looked like she already knew the answer to that question.
    “No thanks.” Poppy made a beeline for the door. “There’s a ton of duct tape in the junk drawer, though. That should hold the window for a while.”
    At least long enough for Poppy to get the Kennick job done, cash in hand. Her first goal was to move Bea and Jenny somewhere safer, somewhere gunshots didn’t ring in the night like the chiming of the church’s bells. Then she would see about that whole fresh-start thing.
    A life of respectability worked for everyone else—surely they’d still have room for her after all this was done?
     
     
    “I was wrong when I said you suck at crime. You’re even worse at