Gullible
by
Rosemary Kubli
Genre: Suspense
Even the most cunning femme fatale has her weakness
Siena Ricci is shrewd, seductive, and an expert in the art of deception. Masking her identity behind the guise of Marie Lacroix, a specialist in antiques and objets d'art, she swindles her employer's wealthy clients out of their valuable possessions. She hasn't yet met the man she can't manipulate, but then the con she's playing on Jonathan Woodward has only just begun.
Jonathan proves to be an easy mark, but he's also enticingly irresistible. As their relationship heats up, her plot to steal his multi-million-dollar antique trinkets begins to unravel. Noticing a subtle change in Jonathan's demeanor, Marie questions whether she's still in control of the con or if she's blindly become the gullible victim of her own scheme.
When Marie was certain Jonathan had fallen asleep, she disentangled her body from his and inched away, making sure the Somerset Necklace she was still wearing didn’t catch on the bedding. As Jonathan mumbled something unintelligible and rolled onto his side, she slipped out from under the covers and slinked across the bedroom. She opened the dressing room door just wide enough to squeeze through the opening. Her movement activated the overhead lights.
Lifting the lid of her suitcase, she opened the same concealed compartment where she’d hidden the Bird Pistol yesterday afternoon. Removing a soft cloth bag, she unfastened the drawstring, held the bag up by its bottom end, and shook out the fake necklace Gus had so expertly crafted. Setting those items on top of the dresser, she attempted to blindly unhook the Somerset Necklace.
The clasp proved to be more difficult to negotiate than she’d anticipated. Its old-fashioned design was tricky and one she wasn’t accustomed to handling. She hurried to the full-length mirror affixed to the wall and twisted the necklace around so she could determine how the mechanism worked. After a few failed attempts, the clasp at last released. Tiptoeing back to her suitcase, Marie was unexpectedly consumed with guilt. She’d fretted for weeks over not being able to obtain the necklace. Now that it was in her hands, she questioned whether she could go through with the job.
A month ago, when she and Gus concocted their scheme, she hadn’t anticipated falling in love with her target. Since meeting Jonathan, she’d shed the hard-hearted, deceitful persona she hid behind in order to perform the deeds required of an expert con artist. Jonathan had awakened her conscience and made her realize it was time to right her wrongs.
So, what are you going to do? Follow your heart and sacrifice the job in deference to the man you love, or stick with the plan out of loyalty to Gus?
Marie had lingered in the dressing room long enough for her absence to be noticed.
“Marie? Are you all right?” Jonathan’s groggy voice called out.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she replied. Time had run out and she had to make a choice.
Rosemary Kubli writes the type of books she loves to read - intrigue and suspense mixed with a pinch of romance and a clever plot twist or two. Her professional experiences run the gamut from Human Resources and training to accounting and banking, with publishing being her most recent endeavor. Aside from the seven years she lived in southern California, she has always called the northeast corner of Ohio her home. Rosemary and her husband of 45 years enjoy traveling - on land to visit family and friends and on sea to any destination a cruise ship will take them. When not working on her next novel, she can be found discussing the latest in literary fare with her book club, playing a rousing game of Bunco with some of her oldest and dearest friends, researching her ancestry, volunteering in her community, burying her nose in a book, or obsessing over the latest binge-worthy TV series.
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