Thief Read Online Free Page A

towards the seaport and his waiting plane. The police band radio blared loudly in the tiny cabin, but he heard no reference to either the Lotus or the angel. They must truly have been oblivious this night, something for which he felt truly grateful. Normally they weren’t so unobservant. Which was why he’d planned on having plenty of time to make his getaway.
     
    Twenty minutes into the drive, having listened to the scanner intently, he could finally accept that they were in the clear. A huge weight began lifting from his shoulders. For what seemed like the first time in many long hours, he relaxed his muscles and started breathing again. Finally things were back on track. Mikel activated the controls that would warm the plane’s engines, and radioed in his pre flight plans. No point in leaving these things for the last minute. Especially this day.
     
    It was a long drive, though at least no longer a scary one, as the immediate danger had passed, and all other risks had hopefully been prepared for. If not he’d deal with the problems as they arose. As he always had. But as the danger passed, and the pleasure at the success of his latest mission came and then passed, his mind kept returning to the angel like a magnet. And no matter how many times he tried to concentrate on anything else, his thoughts always zeroed back on the woman, the angel beside him.
     
    It was lust of course, simple lust. What drew him back, was the sight of her, now lying on her side squeezed into the seat beside him. Her wings enveloped her in the most luxurious feathery blanket imaginable. In the cramped cabin he couldn’t help but brush them every time he changed gear, the feathers so divinely soft and smooth he had to restrain himself from petting them like a bird’s. Then there were her clothes, layers upon layers of gossamer thin silk, almost transparent and showing off the sensual curves of her body to perfection. She was undeniably gorgeous, demure and innocent yet strong and sensual. In short she was a platinum blond bombshell, and then some. 
     
    “I thought angels weren’t supposed to be sexy.” From where the words came he wasn’t sure, but he turned red even as he uttered them, and it was all he could do not to cross himself. He turned redder still when he felt her response, pleasure that he should think her so. It became difficult to drive about then and he forcefully had to exert some more self control or risk ending his career as the most successful thief the world had ever known in a routine highway accident.
     
    “I live. I strive. I win.”
     
    He spoke out loud the three short sentences of his personal mantra, ignoring her gaze, determined to regain control of his errant thoughts. Long ago he’d begun studying the martial arts, honing his mind and body to razor keenness. Developing his own mantra had been one of the most useful parts of all those long years. The mantra had once allowed him to walk for miles on a broken leg. He’d regularly used it to push his body and conscious beyond their normal endurance, and to allow his mind free reign over seemingly insoluble problems. Used properly it could help him achieve the seemingly impossible. But never once had he thought he’d need it to overcome simple lust.
     
    Repeating the words over and over again, focusing on them, he quickly reasserted his control, and allowed his mind to start wandering free of his body’s desires. More accurately it allowed him to recognize them, and set them aside so he could concentrate on other matters, such as the other cars on the road.
     
    Questions, too long unasked began to pepper him. Who was she? Why was she here? What did she want with him? And above all else why was she so powerfully attractive to him? Was it simple lust? – Or was it something more sinister? The word ‘trap’ started running through his thoughts, years of paranoia finally coming back to the fore.
     
    Then there was the question of how she’d found him,