"Luck has nothing to do with it," the younger man replied, straightening his tie, pretending not to look at the woman in question.

"Right," the first man grinned. "Maybe she just likes tall, dark, and skinny."

Doug gave his friend a smug smile. The other man was in his early twenties, blond, shorter, and heavily built but not without a rugged charm so appealing to some women. However, tonight it wasn't about competition. Either way, they would win.

He finally cast a casual glance at the woman. Yes, she was definitely interested. Red hair, mid height, a few extra pounds in the wrong places, a few missing inches where she could use some, well into her thirties... Still, not bad overall. Did it really matter? It was purely business.

Noticing the attention, the woman raised an eyebrow and smiled at him. She also had beautiful eyes, well-shaped lips, and dimpled cheeks. He smiled in return. Well, perhaps, not just business, after all.

He rose and quietly put on his clothes. Then, under an impulse, he leaned back and kissed the satiated woman's neck. She stirred and mumbled something. He froze wondering if he'd made a mistake but she clutched her pillow and drifted back to sleep.

Carefully slipping into the adjacent dressing room, he looked around. The mahogany vanity table by the window had been the first thing to catch his attention earlier and, trusting his intuition, he started exploring the exquisite piece of furniture.

The flimsy lock didn't resist his agile fingers for more than a few seconds when the door sprung revealing several dark velvet boxes neatly stacked one on top of another. He opened the first and a string of diamonds glittered under the moonlight.

Something was wrong.

He set the box down and surveyed his surroundings. It was dark and quiet, nothing registered as unusual, but he'd always trusted his instincts and now they were telling him something was terribly wrong.

"Slipping, Harry, old boy," he thought and picked up the necklace again, this time for more careful inspection. The jewels sparkled in his hands as he slowly rotated the item, but his fears were in vain - every single diamond was real and well worth the trouble. He grinned. The woman looked like she could afford to replace a few missing trinkets - property in this part of town cost a small fortune and with the furniture to match it was evident no expense was spared. He'd only take what he needed.

Still, he wasn't about to continue until he knew what was wrong. His instincts had never failed him; a quality Daniel had always envied.

Suddenly he realized that he had called himself Harry - the name only his old mentor used. He hadn't called himself that since the two of them had parted their ways when he had decided to spread his wings and be on his own. In fact, he rarely used any name when referring to himself - what was the point? They all meant so little. So why Harry? Why here? Why now?

The necklace shimmered even more brightly. The woman had taste; he'd give her that. Taste, spirit, and a fine sense of humor that had made their few hours together much more enjoyable than he had expected. But he and his business acquaintances needed the money to finance a larger operation.

He sighed and laid the necklace back in its box. He had no compunctions about sleeping with a woman he was going to rob, but he couldn't rob a woman he'd just slept with. Putting the box back, he locked the vanity. On his way out, he paused by a huge vase filled with lilies and removed one. Returning to the bedroom, he placed the lily on the pillow by her head, giving her a gentle kiss on the corner of her mouth. Slowly he straightened and finally left.

It was time for him to move on. There were other ways to make money; new plans, new acquaintances, new vistas... Argentina, now that had possibilities.

The End