Idiot. What are you going to do, flap your arms and fly away?
He reached the edge and jumped. Shay blinked and slowed. The man sailed through the air and landed on the next roof over without even a grunt and rolled back to his feet in seconds.
“Okay, that was impressive, but now it’s on, asshole.” The whole thing reminded her of something she’d seen Lily do a hundred times at least. Lily or one of the teenagers from beneath the ground. She put it out of her head and focused.
Shay backed up and charged the edge of the roof and pushed off. Unlike the other man she didn’t manage a roll, causing the full force of her leap to rocket up her legs.
She hissed as the cat burglar sped away.
“Not getting away that easily.” Shay pumped her legs and sprinted after the man.
The milder height differences between the next few roofs helped reduce the impact, but the slippery bastard in front of her maintained his distance.
A few roofs later he jumped out, arms first, legs down.
Shay stopped at the edge, convinced he was about to break both his legs. He fell at an angle and grabbed the edge of a window before pushing off and hitting the wall of the first building with his legs. The thief maintained his momentum and continued bouncing between the walls until he was on the ground.
The tomb raider jumped and grabbed a nearby drainpipe. She shinnied down the pipe as the thief sat grinning like it was the most entertaining sight in the world.
I’m so going to put my foot up his ass.
Two rusty screws pulled out of the top, and the pipe ripped away from the wall.
“Shit!”
Shay dropped to the ground with a grunt. The man was already running. The tomb raider gritted her teeth and sprinted after him, her heart thundering and her lungs burning.
The thief grabbed the handrail on a metal staircase and vaulted onto the stairs. A series of similar movements on the rails on the other side had him halfway up before Shay even got to the bottom. She tried to replicate his move and almost sent herself over the edge.
Shay had stamina, as well as grip and muscle strength. She trained every day in Warehouse One when she was in LA, but she could barely keep up with this asshole master of momentum.
A loud groan ripped from her mouth as she crested the stairs and saw the man jump to a flagpole, swinging around a few times before sliding down. It finally dawned on her what she was dealing with.
Parkour, French-invented mobility training. Half-sport, half-non-combat martial art.
“Damn it.”
Shay hurried to the edge of the building and leapt for the flagpole. She didn’t manage the smooth connection of the parkour master and slid halfway before arresting her fall with her feet and the crook of her arm.
She dropped off the pole. At least they were both on the ground now.
The tomb raider burst into a sprint, ignoring the ache building in her legs and her ragged breathing. This wasn’t about scaring the man away from Warehouse Four anymore. This was about proving to herself that some random asshole who had hopped onto her roof wasn’t better than her.
I’m the best. I’m gonna tackle his ass, tie him up, stick that necklace on his neck, and call the cops on him.
The thief ran straight up a car and leapt from the roof to the hood of the next one. Shay closed on him and stomped over the same car.
Hope you have insurance for those dents.
The pair passed over a half-dozen cars parked in a line on the street. She’d gained a yard on him, but he was still out of reach. Several people along the street stopped and watched them.
A tall metal fence blocked the path ahead and Shay picked up her pace, hoping to close before the man made it over.
He hopped into the air and pushed with his arms. His body twisted, and he vaulted over the fence, spinning a few times before landing.
Shay didn’t even bother to try and replicate the move. She scrambled up the fence in a far less elegant manner, losing valuable seconds as the man continued running.
Sweat poured down her face as she pushed her heart and lungs to her limit. So close. So damned close. She would win. She had to win.
The thief changed directions and ran straight toward a park bench. The move confused Shay since there were an alley and stairs in the opposite direction.
Shay allowed herself a grin. The man had finally made a mistake.
He reached the bench and used it to launch himself into the air toward a busy street. He landed atop a metro bus zooming down the street, then sat up and saluted Shay, a shit-eating grin on his face.
Shay stood there watching as the bus pulled away, the driver oblivious to the cat burglar now riding for free.
“Damn it!” she screamed into the night.
All her training, all her experience, and she’d been beaten. She’d never even gotten close to the guy.
She huffed and wiped the sweat off her face. The man’s face as he rode away remained etched in her mind. He didn’t even look that winded.
“Next time, asshole. Next time.”
Shay dropped onto the park bench the man had used for his final escape. “Maybe I need to learn a little parkour.”
She sighed.
First, though, she had a little more dry-ass reading to finish.
Chapter Fourteen
“Ah, good afternoon, Miz Carson,” answered the cheerful voice of Smite-Williams over the phone. “It’s rare that you contact me instead of the other way around.”
“I need to meet with Correk.”
“He doesn’t offer general assignments.”
Shay sucked in a breath. After her little fun episode with the cat burglar, she’d thought it’d be even harder to return to research, but a chance passage in her first book had led to her spending hours reading others. She now had a good idea of Correk’s true identity, and she
