Page 52 of Conning the Billionaire
“I assure you, staying alive is at the top of my priority list.”
“Then you’re trying to steal art. I am not a thief. I told you I would not steal anything, especially from Salvatore Grande.”
“We’re not going to steal it. We’ll ask him to give it to us very nicely.”
“You can’t con a Mob boss.”
“No, you can’t con an honest person. Mafia members are, by definition, not honest.”
“I didn’t mean that Mafia bosses can’t be conned. I meant that you can’t. I mean that you’ll end up dead. They aren’t stupid, you know.”
“People don’t get conned because they’re stupid. People get conned because they’re human. Cons prey on fear, greed, or altruism.”
“Don’t con-splain me, Micah. I know all about it. I am not going to be a part of conning Salvatore Grande. If I die the same way my father did, he will have died for nothing.”
Micah was watching her very closely. “I couldn’t find anything about your father’s death, Kylie.”
“Yeah, that’s because he was murdered. No one came to his funeral, either.”
Micah blinked and looked at the floor, a horrified flinch.
Yeah, well, Micah hadn’t seen what it looked like, and it hadn’t been his father. He could flinch all he damn well wanted.
After a beat to recover his delicate non-connected sensibilities, Micah sighed, and he strolled over to stand between her and the bedroom door again. “And yet you work for a guy with Mafia connections.”
“I don’t work for him,” Kylie snapped. “Mr. Grande takes a cut, and we don’t get hassled by the police.”
Micah smiled at her. “How would you like to not have to deal with Salvatore Grande ever again?”
That warm smile that reached his teal-glittering eyes and seemed to shine calming light through the room sent shivers down Kylie’s spine. She could smile like that, too, when a mark was ready for the big ask.
She said, “You keep saying stuff like that, and yet you’ve told me no details about what you want me to do.”
“You don’t need to—”
“The hell, I don’t need to know.”
“It’s better if you only—”
Kylie snatched up her bag from the floor. “I’m outta here.”
“No, no.” Micah held his hands in front of him as if that would stop a determined Jersey girl. “Stay. I’ll explain as much as I can.”
Kylie dropped her bag on the floor and sat on the end of the bed, crossing her arms and legs around herself. “Start explaining.”
“The piece of art that is beside Salvatore Grande’s name on the spreadsheet—”
“Annunciation by Lorenzo di Credi,” Kylie reminded him. “Di Credi was an Old Master and a student in the same workshop as Leonardo da Vinci. And then, when their master, Andrea del Verrocchio, was going to die, he thought di Credi was the best artist out of the bunch and tapped him to take over the workshop.”
Micah narrowed his eyes at her. “That’s some specific knowledge for someone who says they aren’t an art thief.”
Kylie shrugged. “I’m an Italian Catholic girl. I know a lot about Italy.”
“Have you ever been to Italy?”
She laughed. “I’ve never been out of the United States. Have you?”
“I’ve traveled. Anyway, it is believed that Salvatore Grande received the Old Master painting Annunciation by Lorenzo di Credi as payment for services rendered in the garbage business.”
