52 pages • 1-hour read
Thieves' Gambit
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Chapters 37-47Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, illness or death, and cursing.
Chapter 37 Summary
At Cairo International Airport, Ross uses a stolen access card to enter a lounge. Devroe arrives and apologizes for being “useless” at the auction and anything he said while drugged. He states that he wants to win the Gambit for his mother, who is emotionally unstable. He admits he has never had a meaningful relationship and his past relationships felt fake because no one knew the real him. Devroe continues, admitting that his relationship with her “feels real” and confesses he hired Kyung-soon to push Ross toward him. Devroe’s vulnerability shakes Ross, who wants to trust him but worries Devroe’s affection is a manipulation. Overwhelmed, she admits that her family’s insistence that no one can be trusted leaves her feeling painfully lonely. Ross asks Devroe to promise he is not out to get her and repeat it often. Still wrestling with trust, Ross initiates a hug and a kiss just as Kyung-soon texts that their flight is boarding. They pull apart and Devroe’s smile fades, but he refuses to answer when Ross asks him what is wrong.
Chapter 38 Summary
On a private resort patio, Ross’s team waits for the results of Phase Two. Devroe vents that Ross cut him out of the sarcophagus switch at the auction. Team Noelia arrives just before the deadline, looking disheveled. The Count appears and announces that Ross and Noelia will advance to the final phase. She explains that the Gambit judges individual performance, praises Ross’s strategy, and credits Noelia’s play. The competitors are shocked, believing that the winning team would move on. The Count adds a twist: Ross and Noelia must each choose only one person from their teams to continue.
Chapter 39 Summary
Noelia immediately chooses Taiyō. Her other teammates, Lucus and Adra, protest before armed servers escort them away. Pressed by the Count, Ross reluctantly names Devroe, partly out of strategy and partly out of a desire she does not want to examine. Mylo and Kyung-soon part with Ross on good terms, surprisingly supportive, though disappointed. Kyung-soon insists Ross keep her sun hat. The Count outlines the final phase: Each of the four competitors must kidnap and deliver a human target alive within three days. Ross receives a photo of Noelia’s younger brother, Nicholi, and reacts with horror.
Chapter 40 Summary
In a resort cabana, Ross struggles with the morality of kidnapping and tells Devroe about her mother’s ransom. Panicked about her family members, Ross insists Devroe show her his assignment. He reluctantly shows her: Taiyō’s brother. Ross calls her mother, who responds coldly and urges her to abduct Nicholi, revealing she did the same to win her own Gambit. Hearing Rhiannon’s ruthless detachment, Ross reflects that she does not want to imitate her mother’s methods. Recognizing a possible manipulation, Ross intercepts Noelia, reveals Nicholi is her target, and learns Noelia must seize Ross’s aunt, Jaya. Ross gives Noelia her aunt’s exact location to build trust and proposes an alliance. Noelia agrees.
Chapter 41 Summary
Ross, Devroe, and a disguised Noelia board a private jet to Switzerland. To avoid surveillance from the organizers, Ross and Devroe secretly coordinate via a shared notebook and stash their phones near the jet’s engines to muffle any potential bugs. In flight, Noelia explains that Nicholi studies at Hauser boarding school while gathering blackmail on a prime minister’s son, revealing that the Boscherts trust him with a long-term assignment that could destroy a politician’s career. Ross realizes that Nicholi’s knowledge and connections could make him valuable leverage against the organization itself. Ross and Noelia compare memories of the childhood ski camp where their friendship ended. Noelia opens up about the brutal expectations of becoming head of the Boschert family, including her father’s constant “tests” and threats of being replaced by her cousins. Noelia recognizes Ross’s mother, Rhiannon, from a photo and explains that Rhiannon worked on the ski camp staff and forged notes between the girls, ultimately sabotaging their friendship. Ross struggles with the realization that Rhiannon regularly interfered with Ross’s relationships to keep Ross bound to her. Ross absorbs the revelation.
Chapter 42 Summary
In Switzerland, Ross infiltrates Hauser boarding school posing as a student, guided by Noelia and Devroe via an analog communication system. In a dormitory hallway, she becomes certain she spots Taiyō. Before she can check, Nicholi appears. Ross steps close and passes him a coded note from Noelia, using the code word “Marlow” to confirm her alignment. Nicholi understands. Ross looks back, but the boy resembling Taiyō is gone.
Chapter 43 Summary
Back at their rented house, Ross insists she saw Taiyō. Devroe doubts her and warns her not to get distracted. Noelia reports she cannot reach Taiyō, which supports Ross’s sighting. Worried for Nicholi’s safety, Ross asks a reluctant Devroe to act as his bodyguard for their rendezvous that night. After Devroe leaves, Noelia warns Ross to be careful with him. Ross begins to question Devroe’s loyalty.
Chapter 44 Summary
That night, Ross meets Nicholi in a closed café. He gives her a thumb drive with blackmail material on powerful families. Using a secure chat, Ross works with Noelia and Kyung-soon to analyze the data, finding damaging information on many figures, including the Count’s family. Ross calls the Count, emails her a sample of the data, and threatens to release it unless she wires $1 billion to an offshore account within 10 minutes. The Count agrees.
Chapter 45 Summary
Immediately after the call, Ross watches as Taiyō ambushes Nicholi and drags him into a sedan, confirming Devroe failed to protect him. Ross gives chase. She takes a shortcut, gets ahead, and flashes a pre-arranged signal. Nicholi jumps from the moving car into her vehicle. Taiyō pursues them. Knowing her car’s steel frame can handle the impact, Ross slams the brakes. Taiyō’s car rams into hers and crumples. Ross calls an ambulance for Taiyō and flees with Nicholi.
Chapter 46 Summary
Ross and Nicholi return to the ransacked rental house and find Noelia bound and gagged in a locked bathroom. Ross frees her, and Noelia says Devroe attacked her and stole the address for Ross’s aunt. Ross concludes Devroe’s true target was her aunt all along. She re-examines Devroe’s phone data and discovers he knew his mother’s location and had lied. Devroe sends an apologetic text. Ross tries to call her aunt, but the line is cut. She calls the Count and learns someone erased the leverage data. Desperate, Ross asks Kyung-soon and Mylo to fly to the Bahamas to save her aunt.
Chapter 47 Summary
Ross lands in Nassau and learns the Count grounded Mylo and Kyung-soon’s plane. The organizers summon her to an unfinished hotel, where they declare Devroe the winner. On a video feed, Ross sees her mother held captive and recognizes the kidnapping was a lie orchestrated by Rhiannon to manipulate Ross into staying. Devroe explains he joined the Gambit seeking revenge after his mother lost her Gambit to Rhiannon years ago, thus losing the wish she planned to use to save Devroe’s father. The Count offers Devroe a wish, expecting him to wish for Rhiannon’s death or the deaths of the entire Quest family. Devroe spares them and keeps his wish. To secure her aunt’s release, Ross accepts a one-year contract with the organization, agreeing to work alongside Devroe.
Chapters 37-47 Analysis
The novel’s final act culminates its exploration of The Paradox of Trust in a World of Deception. Ross makes careful choices about whom to trust, and each decision leads to a different outcome. Her decision to trust Devroe when she is especially vulnerable, represents her most significant departure from the Quest family code. This trust is built on his seemingly sincere confessions and her own desire for connection. However, Devroe’s ultimate betrayal reveals this connection as the final move in his long-con revenge plot. This manipulation of Ross’s growing trust serves as the narrative’s starkest illustration of its dangers. In contrast, Ross forms a new alliance with Noelia based on shared desperation and a mutual exchange of information, rather than personal feelings. This practical form of trust succeeds where the emotional trust fails. The ultimate betrayal comes from Rhiannon, the source of the “trust no one” mantra. When Ross calls seeking advice, her mother responds with cold practicality, betraying the kind of support Ross needs and expects. Rhiannon’s advice that “[i]t’s not that difficult to steal a person” (306), reveals a shared, ruthless history within the Gambit, shattering Ross’s perception of her mother as a protector and exposing her as a manipulator.
These chapters deconstruct the theme of Navigating the Weight of Family Legacy, illustrating that family inheritances can sometimes feel more like a trap than a support. Ross’s entire motivation in the Gambit is to save her mother, an act of duty she believes will purchase Rhiannon’s freedom. The revelation that her mother orchestrated her own kidnapping transforms this duty into a trap. Rhiannon’s legacy is one of manipulation and control, as shown when she ruined Ross’s childhood friendship with Noelia to enforce the Quest isolationist mantra. Noelia’s relationship with her family provides a strong contrast; while Ross seeks to escape her legacy, Noelia is desperate to secure her place as the head of the Boschert dynasty. Her fear of losing this inheritance highlights the immense pressure that comes with being the heir to a criminal empire. Devroe’s character is likewise defined by his family’s past, entering the Gambit to avenge his father’s death and rectify his mother’s loss. In the end, Ross cannot escape her legacy and is forced into a contract with the organization, proving that in this world, family legacy is a debt no one can avoid.
Instead of offering a resolution, these chapters explore The Illusory Promise of Freedom, as every path Ross takes toward independence becomes another form of control over her. The final phase of the Gambit forces the competitors to kidnap another person to win. This choice creates a moral crisis for Ross, illustrating that gaining her freedom only comes at someone else’s expense. Ross’s horrified reaction and her refusal to participate position her as a moral outlier in the group. Her subsequent blackmail scheme, leveraging Nicholi’s intelligence, is an attempt to carve out a “secret exit,” a recurring motif representing her search for escape. She attempts to seize freedom on her own terms, breaking the game’s rules. Yet, this victory is fleeting. The ending illustrates that real freedom is nearly impossible to achieve. Just as Ross believes she has secured her mother’s release, she is ensnared in a new form of captivity. Her escape from her mother’s control leads directly to a year-long contract with the organization, forcing her to work alongside her betrayer. The unfinished hotel ballroom symbolizes this condition, a space promising escape but is, in reality, a hollow trap.
The final chapters question the corruption of governing systems and the moral boundaries of strategic conflict. The shift in the final phase from stealing objects to kidnapping a person fundamentally alters the Gambit. It is no longer a test of skill but a violation of human rights. Ross’s declaration, “I don’t want to do this” (301), marks her attempt to reject the game’s escalating brutality. Her blackmail plot is a strategic counter-game where she seizes control from the organizers. However, the final confrontation reveals that the organizers are not impartial referees but manipulative players. This alters the entire story from a competition to prove who is the best, young thief to a carefully staged show to entertain the rich and powerful. Devroe’s victory and subsequent wish are the game’s final, chilling moves. His decision to save his wish rather than use it for immediate revenge is a powerful way to play with Ross and her family. By leaving the threat active, he ensures the game never truly ends. The unspent wish becomes a perpetual checkmate hanging over Ross’s future, a constant reminder of his ultimate power in a competition that was rigged from the start.
Lewis crafts the final act to create an intense and confusing emotional climax that mirrors Ross’s emotional state. The pacing accelerates dramatically, moving from the success of Ross’s blackmail scheme to the shocking betrayals by Devroe and Rhiannon in rapid succession. This deliberate choice denies both Ross and the reader any moment of relief, illustrating the instability of her world. The novel withholds key information strategically until the final moments, mirroring the constant deception Ross must navigate. The final scene in the ballroom initially acts like a resolution, but breaks the readers’ expectations by revealing truths, but not resolving anything. Instead of closure, it establishes a new “normal” where Ross must deal with conflict and obedience. Devroe’s explanation that his mother lost while “wishing for the organization to do everything in their power to save [his father]” provides a logical foundation for his character but offers no emotional release (361). By denying a clean resolution and instead leaving Ross trapped, the narrative reinforces its core argument that in this world, there are no final victories and no true escapes.
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