Page 1 of Innocent Salvation

Prologue

Holding her breath, Snow tried to stop the panic that rose in her throat, the memories hitting her, as a wave of grief cut through her belly like a scythe. Now wasn’t the time to relive that night, not when she was about to pull off the biggest job of her life so far. Yet even knowing what she was about to do didn’t give her the same rush as it had. Nothing was the same without him, and she’d have to live the rest of her life with that hollow ache in her chest.

What she could do was make him proud. Henri Goubert had been the best jewel thief in the world and had taught her everything he knew. From the moment she could walk he’d been training her.

Closing her eyes, she focused on the task at hand, which was lowering her body from the ventilation duct down to the main floor without tripping any of the laser alarms that crisscrossed the floor. The nickname had been given to her by her father because of her white-blonde hair he’d said looked like fresh snow.

Loosening the rope, she lowered herself slowly, each painful centimetre making the sweat bead on her brow, the mask over her head catching the droplets before they could set off the alarms and give the game away.

That’s what this had always been to her—a game of wits and wills to see who was better. It was how her father made it seem to her as a child but as she grew up and became an adult, she knew what they did was wrong. Henri had always insisted it was a victimless crime and that made it okay.

Her father had never killed anyone or harmed a single person in his life, and she respected him for that. Snow had never had a thirst for blood either, until that day six years ago when her world had been turned on its head and everything she knew had been thrown into question. Now death was on her mind all the time and this job would give her the finances she’d need to fund her campaign of terror against the person who’d taken everything she loved from her.

Lifting her leg, she arched it over her head and balanced like the finest ballerina on her toe as her foot hit the ground. Now all she needed to do was get to the panel and disable the alarm and she was almost home free. Being supple was a gift in this game, and her father had always said in another life she could’ve been a ballerina but that wasn’t her life and never would be, no matter how much she craved the freedom of it.

Sliding along the floor, taking care not to lift too high and set the laser off, Snow came to a stop beside the panel. Taking out her kit from her leg pocket she unscrewed the fixers and used the key she’d stolen to stop the alarm on the panel from erupting and alerting the whole of Rome—a place she’d spent a lot of time and loved.

The beauty, the food, the people, the places, and the ability to just get lost in the myriad of life going on around her. Also, the place with the biggest fine jewellers in all of Europe.

The alarm took longer than she expected but after a few minutes the light blinked out and she let out a small breath of relief. Now to get her haul and get out of there before she was caught. Jose had promised her he already had a buyer for this and once the sale was complete, she could get out of Rome and move on to London.

Walking across the main floor she took in the priceless jewels, diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, all twinkling, and wondered what it would be like to be a woman who wore them rather than one who stole them. Oh, she’d briefly felt the weight of a diamond necklace at her throat but only when she was in disguise as a guest at a function she and her father were robbing.

Dismissing the melancholy that had assailed her, she moved past the cases of jewels and headed for the back room where she knew the safe held the rarest of pink diamonds—the Rose Blossom. It would net her a cool six million dollars and was estimated to be worth almost fifty-eight million dollars. She didn’t feel bad, these people were insured and by taking only what she’d come for she was exposing a weakness in their security.

She slid off her black glove and using the latex fingerprint opened the first locked door. Putting her glove back on she moved to the next room, which held the final hurdle of the night yet was surprisingly the easiest to obtain. It was funny what men would do for a kiss or touch, what secrets they’d tell, and getting the code for this door was incredibly easy.

The manager had even bragged he could put the code on his social media, and it wouldn’t matter because nobody would get past his security system. Oh, wouldn’t he feel foolish in the morning, but it was a valuable lesson to never trust anyone, no matter how innocent they might look.

The lock clicked, and she slowly opened the safe, revealing the Rose Blossom in all its glory on a bed of black velvet. Snow closed her eyes for a second, taking in the scent of everything in the room, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up as she registered a scent that shouldn’t be there.

Clenching her fist, she palmed the knife she carried for protection, wishing she’d ignored her father and brought a gun. She was certainly competent with one now after six years of training day and night to fend off the nightmares of watching her father as he lay dying.

Luckily her hand-to-hand combat was good, more than good. Her body was her best weapon and, as agile and fit as she was, it worked in her favour, as well as her tiny size of barely five foot and half an inch, that half inch being very pertinent when you were so petite.

Sensing the stillness behind her, she tried to figure out where the threat was coming from but couldn’t place it. It was as if he or she was a ghost and, as she spun around and found nobody there, she wondered if it was indeed the spirit of her dead father watching over her.

Checking the room with a quick glance, Snow turned back to the safe, deciding it was time to get the hell out before her paranoia got the better of her. Tucking the diamond into her belt, she pushed the safe closed and walked out of the room, only to stop short when a man dressed in black stepped in front of her.

She couldn’t see his face as it was covered, as was hers, but she knew a predator when she was in the presence of one and he was the biggest predator she’d ever met. Lashing out with the blade in front of her she moved sideways. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to. Just let me leave and forget this night happened.”

The man who had to be way over six feet cocked his head as if in thought. He was big, muscular, and moved with a smoothness she’d only ever seen once before.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Snow.”

Her body locked up at the British accent saying her name. Fear ran down her spine, making her body tingle. Not wanting him to see how affected she was, she controlled her reaction. “You have me at a disadvantage. You know who I am, but I don’t know you.”

“All you need to know for now is that your father sent me.”

Pain was like a lance through her chest at the cruelty of the man insinuating her father could have sent him. “My father is dead.”

He cocked his head as if assessing the information before he spoke. “I know and I’m sorry for that, but I was sent in the event of his death. I’m here to help.”

“I don’t need your help.”

As if on cue, the man cocked his head again and the sounds of police sirens hit her ears.

“That’s the police, and they’re coming here to catch you. The man who gave you the code to the safe works for Interpol, and as you know, they’ve been wanting to catch you for years now.”