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ForEmma, always and forever

For ht, it means I've written myself into a corner and need him to bail me outand does it anyway

For the authors and readers I'vethe ho have become dear friends, especially Jordan and Joanna I can't possibly express ness to tell me like it is

For Sabrina’s Sirens You are the best and I am so thankful for your tireless efforts!

And, of course, for all of my readers When I wrote my first novel, I had no idea anyone would read it, let alone that I would write five novels! It's because of your support and kindness that I'

Thank you

And, after all, what is a lie? Tis but

The truth in masquerade

~ Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XI

Tonight, I' to steal half a million dollars

Well, let ht - but tonight is when the ic happens It's when I seal the deal And steal isn't really the right word for it Theto ioing to give it toto insist I take it from him

He's going to thankhis money

And then I' to walk away

My creill take a cut frooes to the person who actually deserves it - this scuas - separately, of course I've been here for a et restless I've always been a wanderer

You have to be when you do what I do, when you were raised the way I was raised

I'rifter A con artist

A hustler A thief

It sounds worse than it is

People think they knohat being a grifter rifters con little old ladies out of their life savings and take hard-working folks' retireer or black ,until they die to collect

People couldn't beabout me

They don't know my story Not at all

I'uys - the actual cons - are the bankers, the dirty hedge fund ers, the fat cat CEOs who play with their eet me started on the politicians, the leaders of countries, the ones who ood people based on whose lobby has the reatest influence

They make what I do look like child's play

Me? I'irls

I'm like Robin Hood I take from the assholes, the people who deserve to be cheated - and I redistribute to the people who deserve it, the ones who have been victimized

I believe in karma - retribution for past misdeeds

But, soht direction

I give it that nudge

And nudging kar here now

Sometimes time itself slon, coiant pause button on the entire universe It usually happens at the is like that

And times like now

I sat in the back roo at the concrete floor splotched ho kno ularly shaped patches Everything faded into the background - the athering crowd outside, the ones ere bloodthirsty, waiting for a fight

I'd always been good at blocking shit out, detaching

It's how I survived my childhood

That, and I fought Even when I was a kid It's in your nature, my mother used to say You kicked your way out of the womb

This fight, thoughthis was different This was fucking personal

"Yo, Saint" The voice shook ?"

Trigg squatted down in front of hters I'd knohen I was on the circuit here in Vegas, before I'd gone back to West Bend "Where's your fucking head?" he asked

Trigg thought I was distracted by what had happened with Abel But that’s not as on my mind

I wasn't supposed to fight tonight Abel was He'd called me when I was out in Hollyith Elias and River, and asked a favor It was an easy favor; it should have been no big deal He wanted ht I had been outside the circuit for the past few one doith me and Coker, the shit that sent me back to West Bend a few months back, he knew I'd be there in a heartbeat

I was supposed to be in Abel’s position tonight, in his corner, supporting hi mowed down in a hit and run

The bullshit part of it was that I kneho had done it Hell, we all kneas responsible We ht not knoho the driver himself was, but we damn well kneho had hired him It was Roy Coker, uy he was, the lengths he would go to in order to hters won

Or lost, depending on what bets were being run and what the odds were

Coker had tried to get me to take a dive before, so I knew firsthand ould happen when you were in his hen you didn’t do what you were told

In reat

Of course, I’d never been good at doing what I was told, either

"Yeah, ht where it needs to be"

Trigg squatted do and ot this," he said "Rush is a fucking beast But you're better"

I was better, I alht out of ht anyway, since Coker sabotaged o

When I'd gotten beaten so badly I nearly died

I wasn't in good shape when I went back to West Bend, even though by then I was out of the hospital and relatively healed, at least on the outside My , but it was just the fact that I was still recovering fro I'd taken I'd told Elias I'd come back to West Bend because I'd torn my ACL - he didn't need to be involved in the clusterfuck that wason in West Bend already I was going to take care of everything myself