The Stars Over Paris by Carolyn Smith

My father died.
My mother remarried.
The guy was a creep.

So I fled to the City of Love -- that's right, Paris. I had no money, no identification, and no marketable skills. That’s the short story of how I find myself in my current situation. Alone, in the dark, in an upstairs bedroom, about to steal one hundred grand worth of jewels from one of the richest investment bankers in France. The lady of the house has taken the kids to Madrid to visit her parents for the week, and her multi-millionaire husband is having sex in the room below me with his mistress. He is so wrapped up in their lovemaking that I can hear the headboard banging against the wall from up here. That’s one of the benefits of being a thief. You get to peek inside the underbelly of people’s lives and take what they don't even know is missing.

But thievery is a challenge, I'd like to get out before I get too old. Too slow. And that's where he comes in...Roger Toussaint. It's not actually him really, it's his watch. His Patek Philippe is a six-million-dollar treasure that will get me out of the game for good. I'll be at his Gala tomorrow in the South of France. I plan to take the watch, sell it for cash on the black market, and finally be free...