“Oh, I know Hale. Once upon a time I was Hale.” He studied her, then smiled. “I bet your Uncle Eddie is over the moon about this. He just loves it when his nieces bring boys home.” He sounded as if at least a little part of Kat’s new romantic status was giving him some pleasure. But not much.
“Dad…”
“And I should help my daughter’s boyfriend because…”
“Technically, you still owe him for Taipei.”
“Taipei was an exception. Taipei has no business being brought up in relation to—”
“He needs me, Dad.” Kat let her gaze drift across the square. Her voice was soft as she finished, “He needs…us.”
“What’s wrong, Kat?” Bobby asked. He’d seen through her, past her own personal guards and walls to the frightened girl who lived inside the seasoned thief’s tough exterior.
“He’s…different. Hale’s different.”
“He’s a boy, Kat. I hate to break it to you, but we are fundamentally different.”
“That’s not it,” she said. “It’s like…I can feel him slipping away. Like the other night when he got drunk at the launch and—”
“Hale was drunk on the job? I’ll kill him.”
“I don’t want him dead, Dad. I want him back.”
“I thought you two were…together.” The words sounded like they pained him, but Bobby said them anyway.
“We are. It’s just…he’s so sad. And so alone. It’s like…I think he feels like I felt when we lost Mom.”
“Then we’ll get him back.” Her father pulled her tightly toward him, placed a kiss on the top of her head. “We’ll steal him if we have to.”
“So you’ll help me run my Big Store?” she asked, voice breaking, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Deal.” Her father’s arm fell gently around her shoulders.
“Oh.” Kat stopped suddenly short. “There is one other thing.”
“What?” Her father gave her that wide, easy smile—the one he never gave to marks and women, the one he saved just for her.
“After we set up the Big Store, I’m going to need you to help me rob the Superior Bank of Manhattan.”
Bobby’s jaw dropped. The cathedral bells chimed. Kat’s father squeezed her shoulder tighter, and the two of them continued across the square.
“Oh, sweetheart, you are your mother’s daughter.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“Yeah. But you’re going to owe me.”
There was a sidewalk café, and Kat stopped. “Fine. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.”
He laughed. “Save your money, kiddo.”
Kat pulled out a credit card that Hale had given her once for emergencies. “Then Hale can buy you a cup of coffee.”
“Deal.”
And in that moment, everything was okay. It was going to be fine, Kat thought as her father took his coffee, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, and said, “See you in New York.”
She watched him walk away, lost in thought. Planning. The pieces were right on the board in front of her. All she had to do was see what play Garrett was going to try next.