Page 1 of The Verdict

Prologue

Merritt

Barcelona

“Let’s see what you think, sweetheart. If you like it, it’s yours.” Mercury smiled at me, his Texan drawl as fake as the damn cowboy hat on his head. What wasn’t fake was the leer in his muddy brown eyes or the smugness pooled in his hollow cheekbones.

“I sure hope I do. You promised me something pretty for being away so long.” I pouted and angled my body toward the desk just outside the vault, my white crop top low enough to show off most of my chest, but it was the fake diamond necklace around my throat that made sure everyone’s attention was drawn there.

Mercury’s. The diamond cutter’s. And the security guard’s.

All part of the plan.

“Oh, it’s pretty darlin’, don’t you worry.” I smiled and batted my mascara-thick eyelashes, trying not to think about how his hand sat a little too high on my thigh—and how I wasready to punch him if it moved any higher. “It’ll be even prettier when I tell him exactly how I want it all. Cut. Up.”

His finger traces lines across my thigh.Swipe. Swipe. Swipe.Like he was cutting me up.Dios mío. Psychopath.I gritted my teeth, wondering what Jupiter would do if we blew the heist because Mercury decided to take advantage of the one time he could put his hands on me.

“We’ll see,” I said with my chin lifted, forcing my breathing to steady.

Mercury was the worst of them. Brash, entitled, and vicious.It was why Saturn was supposed to be the one with me right now—that and his American accent was perfect.I swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat. But Saturn wasn’t here. Mercury was the next best with a Texan drawl, and I was the only female. So, Jupiter chose us to play the parts.

And we played it well.

The quintessential Texan billionaire trying to impress his Spanish mistress. Mercury in his cowboy hat and boots, his large belt buckle catching the light just as much as my necklace did. And me, my hair curled in big waves rolling down my back. My makeup layered on so thick it might as well have been a mask. And then there was my outfit. When he’d handed it to me, I’d asked Jupiter if Dolly Parton had chosen the outfit—the tight pink pants, knee-high white boots, and damn crop top—squeezing me into a figure made to give a good show.

“Women,” Mercury scoffed and gave the diamond cutter a conspiratorially sexist wink, and the man and his portly security guard chuckled in return. “Please, gentlemen, help me prove my worth to this little lady.”His hand moved up my thigh, and my fingers itched to gouge his eyes out.

“Of course, señor.” The diamond cutter nodded and went into the safe, the guard standing firm by the door so we wouldn’tfollow.

My pulse started to pound. Faster. Heavier. Soon, I couldn’t even hear the older man’s footsteps over its loud beat in my chest.

This was the plan. Not to rob a jewelry store. No. That was too risky. Too many cameras and security measures and guards. But to rob a diamond cutter… the man who received the diamonds in the rough… to steal the gems in an unrecognizable form and then shape them into something that was seen as salable rather than stolen, that was genius, but after three months with the Cosmos Gang, I didn’t expect anything less from Jupiter.

The older man returned with a velvet pouch, loosened the strings, and let an almost ten-carat chunk of pink diamond roll out into his hand. Rare. Vivid.Even uncut.And worth a cool eighteen million dollars.

Until that moment, it hadn’t felt real—what we were about to do. Months of planning. Of Jupiter, the leader of the gang, drilling the steps into our heads over and over again. Of Neptune configuring routes and times and statistics. Of Mars coordinating the escape route. Of Mercury… leering.And of Saturn…I shuddered. No real names. No real identities. It was better for everyone that way. And it had felt like a game. A puzzle. Until now… when I finally set my eyes on the diamond we were about to steal.

It was going to be okay. I could do this. I had to do this.For Saturn. For Saba.

“Well, sweetheart, don’t keep me hanging.” Mercury inched his hand closer to my crotch, and I jerked back to the moment.

Whether he’d done it on purpose because he knew it would ignite my rage—and fuel the next part of the plan—or because he just wanted to see how damn close he could get, I would figure it out later.

“Pink?” I sucked in an offended breath. “You bastard,” I spat, and I shoved his hand off my leg, my lip curling angrily. “How dare you?” I stood, my chair scraping on the tile floor.

“Now, hold on a second, darlin’.” Mercury rose, too, reaching one hand for me and the other raised in apology to the other men. “I’m so sorry, gentlemen?—”

“You apologize to them?” I charged, letting him grab my arm before I began to struggle. “To them, but not to me? For trying to buy me a gift that is thatwhore’sfavorite color!”

I flailed like a wild animal. Mercury’s fingers dug into the flesh of my arms harder than he needed to, but the glint in his eyes told me he was enjoying it.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb!” I yelled. “I know you were with her! I know that’s why you were gone—you were with your secretary even after I told you I wanted her gone!”

In my periphery, the other men’s eyes widened and they looked at each other, unsure and afraid of what to do.

“This is about Camilla? Oh, darlin’, you can’t think?—”

---