{"id":3633,"date":"2026-01-03T23:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/war-of-thieves-trilogy-box-set-edition-an-adriana-villa-thriller-dempsey-ernest\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T23:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:37:26","slug":"war-of-thieves-trilogy-box-set-edition-an-adriana-villa-thriller-dempsey-ernest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/war-of-thieves-trilogy-box-set-edition-an-adriana-villa-thriller-dempsey-ernest\/","title":{"rendered":"War of Thieves Trilogy Box Set Edition: An Adriana Villa Thriller – Dempsey, Ernest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Book Preview<\/h3>\n
\n

\n
1<\/span><\/p>\n

Beirut, Lebanon<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adriana ran harder than she ever had before. While her peripheral vision took note of the other cars and obstacles in the parking lot, her eyes never left her target: three men in windbreakers and ski masks ushering a fourth person toward a white, windowless van. They all carried Heckler & Koch submachine guns. The hostage\u2019s head was covered with a pillowcase. She didn\u2019t need to see the face to know who it was, though. That knowledge forced her to twitch her leg muscles to maximum speed. <\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019d drawn her pistol but didn\u2019t have a clear shot. The group was moving fast, dragging the prisoner along with his hands bound behind his back. They were still fifty yards away, and only fifteen from their goal. As if reminding her of that, the driver\u2019s side door slid ope<\/span>n,<\/span> and another masked man popped his head out, ready to receive the cargo. <\/span><\/p>\n

Adriana rounded the last car in the row and tilted her body forward to increase her velocity. Forty yards and closing. They were still ten from the van. It was going to be clos<\/span>e,<\/span> but she couldn\u2019t ignore the reality. She wasn\u2019t going to make it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thirty yards. As the man in the van reached out to seize the prisoner, he saw Adriana sprinting down the straightaway toward them with a pistol in her hand. He pointed and yelled something to the others. The last man of the three carrying the hostage spun around and swung his gun from behind his back. He opened fire from the hip, sending a barrage of hot metal across the breadth of the parking lot. <\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019d learned a long time ago not to zigzag when running at a gunman, especially someone who wasn\u2019t a good marksman; the threat of a fearless target running straight at the shooter caused inaccuracy to increase. Running back and forth would slow her down and increase the likelihood of a random round catching her. <\/span><\/p>\n

One bullet whizzed by her head, sailing safely past to strike an old Toyota compact ten yards behind her. <\/span><\/p>\n

The other two men threw the prisoner into the van, pulling him to the back and out of view. She pointed her weapon at the shooter, aiming low so as not to accidentally strike the van. The hollow points in her 9mm could easily pierce the vehicle\u2019s thin siding and seriously injure someone on the inside. <\/span><\/p>\n

Adriana squeezed the trigger, still moving at a rapid pace and only twenty yards from the van. The gun\u2019s barrel burst over and over again. Several rounds missed, striking the concrete with orange flashes of spark. One found the gunman in the thigh, another in his abdomen, and a third in the shoulder. He doubled over and then toppled onto his back. She ignored the dying man, jumping by him in full stride. <\/span><\/p>\n

The van\u2019s door close<\/span>d,<\/span> and the tires squealed, spewing out a pungent white smoke. Adriana took aim and fired her last bullets at the tires. It wobbled left then turned right, out of the parking lot and onto the vacant street. She\u2019d missed. <\/span><\/p>\n

She stood for a moment in the searing Lebanese sunlight. Her shoulders and chest heaved as she gasped. She holstered her weapon, turned, and walked back over to the twitching body on the concrete. Adriana removed a dagger from her belt as she neared the man. His hands were covered in blood; the right still clung to the wound in his abdome<\/span>n,<\/span> but it couldn\u2019t stop the red liquid from seeping out. <\/span><\/p>\n

She bent down and grabbed his chest, putting the knife close to his neck. \u201cWho are you? Where have they taken him?\u201d She tried English first. She yanked the mask off the man and noted Slavic features to his face: pale, broad, striking, with a thick nose and strong forehead. \u201cWho are you? What do you want with him?\u201d she asked again. <\/span><\/p>\n

The man winced in pain. A bullet to the gut was an excruciating thing; at least she\u2019d heard it was. There wasn\u2019t much else she could do to torture the man into a confession. She needed information\u2014and fast. He would probably be dead within fifteen to twenty minutes. <\/span><\/p>\n

Adriana wasn\u2019t too concerned about the police. In a town that had seen its fair share of strife over the decades, a few gunshots in this part of the city would probably go unnoticed. <\/span><\/p>\n

Blood had started to pool underneath the gunman\u2019s lower back. She realized she was running out of time. If the bullet had nicked the artery, he\u2019d be dead much sooner. He coughed and his body shuddered, but he said nothing. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnswer me,\u201d she said in French then repeated the order in Spanish and German. Still no response. <\/span><\/p>\n

He suddenly began to shake violently. His strained breath quickene<\/span>d,<\/span> and his muscles tensed. The man\u2019s eyes widened as if a train was speeding toward him. Then he went limp. The eyes stayed fixed on a spot in the sky, somewhere beyond Adriana\u2019s head. <\/span><\/p>\n

She let go of the collar and let the dead man\u2019s head hit the pavement. She stood up straight and looked around. Other than the odd assortment of bea<\/span>t-<\/span>up old cars, the lot was vacant. <\/span><\/p>\n

For the moment, Adriana stemmed her frustration and grabbed the man\u2019s collar again. While the local authorities might not respond to the sounds of a few guns going off, they would certainly take an interest in a dead body lying in a parking lot. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dragging the body off to the side of the lot took a great deal of effort, and while it only required ten minutes, it seemed like an hour. Her eyes flashed back and forth, scanning the area to make sure no one was watching. When she reached a concrete barrier on the side, she yanked the corpse behind a few empty cardboard boxes, effectively concealing it for the time being. By the time it was found, she\u2019d be long gone, without a trace. <\/span><\/p>\n

She sifted through the man\u2019s pockets and found a wad of cash, a passport, and a hotel key. She recognized the hotel; it wasn\u2019t far from her location. First things first, though. Adriana stuffed the man\u2019s belongings into her back pocket and headed for the side entrance to the dilapidated, tan brick building. <\/span><\/p>\n

When she reached the door, she found the area around the lock had been incinerated. Black scarring wrapped around a one-foot radius on the door. Whoever had done this knew they would probably be unable to crack the ke<\/span>y-<\/span>coded locking mechanism. <\/span><\/p>\n

She looked around for any trace of explosives or wiring, anything that could give her an insight as to who the men were, but there was nothing but charred and melted scraps. She put the tip of her dagger into the door\u2019s burne<\/span>d-<\/span>out crater and swung it open. One of the hinges creaked. Inside, a long hallway stretched a hundred feet to the left. Another door waited at the other end. From the looks of it, the intruders had given it the same treatment. It hung wide ope<\/span>n,<\/span> and sunlight poured through onto the polished concrete floor. <\/span><\/p>\n

Overhead, cool air pumped into the open space from exposed air ducts that ran from one end of the room to the other, disappearing in a sharp right turn into the next part of the safe house. <\/span><\/p>\n

She scoffed at the phrase now. <\/span>Safe house. <\/span>It hadn\u2019t been safe enough. They\u2019d picked Beirut because of the obscurity and, in no small part, because disappearing there was fairly easy to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the buildings were still bombe<\/span>d-<\/span>out husks of their former selves, remnants of the conflicts that had raged through the better part of the last few decades. Even with intermittent periods of peace, strife always seemed to lurk right around the corner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adriana remembered walking into this abandoned building three years before and paying cash for it on the spot. She owned the entire structure, even the empty floors above. The front doors on the main street were barricaded to keep out any curious passersby or the occasional vagrant. Local rumors among the younger populace kept any other curious eyes from taking too much interest in the property. <\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019d put security measures in place, measures that would keep out some of the top thieves in the world\u2014and she knew of several. But this wasn\u2019t a thievery operation that had gone down; it was something else. Looking at the burn marks on the second door, whoever had broken in knew what to do, how to take out the alarm system along with the backup, and get in and out in a short amount of time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Her heart pounded in her chest. Not from the physical exertion of the firefight outside but from the realization that the person she was trying to protect was gone. She scanned the space, a studio apartment with a kitchen, bedroom, and office all in one place. The only separate quarters in the immediate area was the bathroom. Of course, there was more below. Adriana wondered if the villains who\u2019d broken in had made their way to the more secure lower levels. Her pace quickened as she neared the corner. Once she\u2019d rounded it, Adriana saw that the door to the armory and information hub in the basement was still intact, completely unmolested. <\/span><\/p>\n

She frowned despite being slightly relieved. <\/span>If they weren\u2019t here for guns and top secret information, what else could they have wanted? <\/span><\/p>\n

The thought escaped her when she turned and stared at the tidy little workstation on the side. It was tucked against the outside wall. A sheet of paper rested on the glass top, along with something small, slender, and black. Her eyes narrowe<\/span>d,<\/span> and she stepped with renewed vigor, striding across the distance until she reached the desk. <\/span><\/p>\n

The note was written in sloppy print. A black Sharpie, apparently the writing tool of choice for the intruder<\/span>s,<\/span> lay nearby, next to the wireless keyboard. Resting beside the computer was a note with a black flash drive sitting on top of it. The message simply read, <\/span>Watch the video on the disk<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

She tossed the paper aside and plugged the drive into the side of the enormous flatscreen computer. A couple seconds later, the device icon appeared on the monito<\/span>r,<\/span>and she clicked it. There was only one file listed, an MP4 video. She clicked the vide<\/span>o,<\/span> and the file expanded into a larger window. The still image featured a white background with a dark silhouette of a man. Adriana clicked the play arrow and sat down in the desk chair, watching and listening intently. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHello, Adriana. Since you are watching this, you know what has happened. You do not know who I a<\/span>m,<\/span> and I intend it to stay that way.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The man\u2019s voice had been slightly altered. Even so, the accent was bizarre. She thought French, Dutch, maybe Belgian. But with the voice modification software, she couldn\u2019t be sure. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have need of your services,\u201d the man continued. \u201cI collect extremely rare pieces of art. You find and recover the same sorts of items. There are three works that I am desperately in need of adding to my collection. If you do as instructed and are successful, you will be paid ten million dollars in U.S. currency for each piece. In addition, the prisoner will be returned to you safely, but only upon delivery of all three paintings. Of course, if you fail, the prisoner will be executed.\u201d This sent a chill through her body, raising the hair on the back of her skull. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI realize that we are dealing with items that quite possibly may have been destroyed decades ago. If that is the case, I will need to see proof. However, we have enough information to believe that the three works are still in existence somewhere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A lump caught in her throat. Whoever this guy was, he was ready to pay a ridiculous amount of money for three paintings, which meant his worth was probably in the high hundreds of millions. More likely, billions. Her mind involuntarily started filtering through Europe\u2019s elite who fit that bill. There were more billionaires now than ever before, but it was still a small group. Her own assets were nearing half a billion, which gave her access to social functions and networks commoners couldn\u2019t have. Still, there were too many faces to consider. For now, she needed to focus on what this guy wanted. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first piece you are to retrieve is a Bellini, known as <\/span>Madonna and Child<\/span>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Adriana frowned upon hearing this. <\/span>Setting the bar low, huh? <\/span>The sarcastic thought flitted through her head. That painting was one she\u2019d researched before but only found a few cold leads. <\/span><\/p>\n

The video continued. \u201cThe only name we have to get you started is Sonya Zaragova. She\u2019s an old woman who lives in Moscow. Rumor has it, her father was one of the Russian soldiers who took the painting. It disappeared near the end of World War II.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She shook off the distracting thoughts and tuned back in to the shadowy figur<\/span>e.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter you bring in the Bellini, we will fill you in on the details of the second painting. As you may or may not know, the <\/span>Madonna and Child<\/span> disappeared, we believe, into Russian hands in the final days of the war. It was reportedly seen being held by Russian soldiers in a tower outside Berlin. However, finding any sort of helpful information as to its whereabouts has been difficult.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah. That\u2019s because it\u2019s a stolen piece of priceless art. <\/span><\/p>\n

The man went on. \u201cIn addition to your search, you\u2019ll have one additional hurdle. Another collector is after the same three pieces of art. He has employed one of your contemporaries, a thief known as the Chameleon. I wish I knew more about this perso<\/span>n,<\/span>but unfortunately, details are thin at best. Just be aware that at any moment you could potentially run into this other thief. It is highly likely that they also know about you. Good luck. I sincerely hope you succeed. There is a screenshot of the dro<\/span>p-<\/span>off point on the last screen of this video. I\u2019m sure I don\u2019t need to remind you of the price for failure. Again, I wish you luck.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The screen blipped for a second and then froze on an address in Marseille. A few other details had been typed out below the address as to how she was to deliver the painting. <\/span><\/p>\n

Adriana clenched her teeth, staring at the monitor. The image of the man in the video was burned into her memory. He asked the impossible. The Bellini he wanted had been missing for over half a century. She remembered giving up on the same quest a few years ago, opting instead to follow a promising lead with a Monet that disappeared at the onset of the war. <\/span><\/p>\n

No<\/span>w,<\/span> giving up wasn\u2019t an option. Her father\u2019s life hung in the balance. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Read the full book by downloading it below.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD EPUB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Preview 1 Beirut, Lebanon \u00a0 Adriana ran harder than she ever had before. While her peripheral vision took note of the other cars and obstacles in the parking lot, her eyes never left her target: three men in windbreakers and ski masks ushering a fourth person toward a white, windowless van. They all carried … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[198],"class_list":["post-3633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ernest-dempsey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}