“Well, damn,” she said with awe. “What’s the lucky girl’s name?”
“Margo. We’ve been dating for a few months now.”
She nodded. “I . . . hope it works out, Bruce.”
“It will. It has to.” He’d probably die if it didn’t
****
BAAM had laughed and cheered as they counted the money from the heist in the old cafeteria at the sewing factory. They had two counting machines. They were usually kept at Bobbi’s condo or on Aaron’s yacht. Aaron had them last, and he had brought them to the factory for this particular job.
“Whew, not bad for a last-minute score,” Anthony said, and he stuffed his and Morris’s cut into his gym duffle bag.
“Yeah, we got plenty of money to pay your informant,” Margo said to Aaron. That’s what she had been concerned with.
“Aaron, while I’m in town, I’m going to move some of my stuff here,” Bobbi said. “The realtor has found a buyer for my condo, and he wants to move in a week before Christmas.
“That’s fine. I had the offices downstairs cleaned. Just pick one. They’re close to the locker rooms and showers,” Aaron said.
“Great. Margo, how is the house sale coming along?” Bobbi asked.
“Well, I thought I had three interested parties, but I haven’t heard from them. I hope I don’t have to abandon the place. I’d like to get some of my money out of it,” Margo said.
****
It was five fifteen p.m., and Bruce was still at the office. It was going to be tough to catch the SunBeam Bank Robbers. They had shot the cameras at the Dodge Dealership. The only thing they had on tape was a masked figure. They couldn’t even determine what race the guy was because he had moved and shot the cameras so fast that he was a blur in still frame. The IT guys were working on the footage from the bank, but they had made it clear that it was a long shot that they could do anything with it. Whoever had broken into the system was a master hacker.
His cell phone rang. It was Margo. His mood improved just by looking at her name. “Hello, beautiful.”
She giggled. “Hey, are you still at work?”
“Yeah, I’ll be here for another thirty minutes probably and then head home. I would come to your place so I can fall asleep in your arms, but I’m exhausted.”
“I’m sure you are. You woke up at six a.m. and left here at seven. Did you solve the bank crime?”
“No, honey. It looks like this is one that will take six to twelve months. These guys weren’t dummies. But they’ll make a mistake eventually. They usually do. When that happens, we’ll get em’.”
“Hmm. I saw it on the afternoon news. Don’t work too hard. I don’t want you to get lines under those sexy eyes.”
He chuckled.
Someone tapped on the door. He covered the receiver and told them to come in. It was Alec. Bruce put his finger up to let him know he would be with him in a second.
Alec closed the door and sat down in a chair across from his desk.
“Well, I’ll miss you tonight, but I need my rest too. I’m meeting with the same client that I told you about yesterday.”
“Did you get the contract?”
“He wants to meet with me one more time. He is between choosing me and another programmer.”
“I’m sure you will get it. Just give him that sparkling smile of yours. Just don’t give him anything else because the rest of your goods are mine,” he teased.
Alec’s eyebrows rose.
Margo giggled. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“I have to go, honey. I’ll call you tomorrow,” Bruce said.
“All right. Kiss-kiss,” she said and hung up the phone.
He loved it when she said goodbye like that. He clicked off.
“Geez, look at that goofy grin,” Alec joked.
Bruce shrugged. “Oh well, I guess that’s the affect she has on me.”
Chapter 19
It was December fourteenth, and Margo had done it. She had created a virus that could do everything they needed it to do, and it would lay dormant until December thirty-first. Plus, she had sold her house. The new owners had responded to the discrete ad she had placed in the paper last month. They wanted to move in after the New Year, and the best thing was they could pay cash. No fuss with a bank about a loan. Margo had given away some of her clothes to charity. She had to travel light after the Federal Reserve hit.
Margo got off the elevator in Bruce’s apartment building. The poor thing had been working overtime for weeks, trying to figure out who robbed SunBeam Savings and Loan. He and Alec were also working on two other cases. Bruce couldn’t tell her too much about them because they were classified. But from what she gathered, the FBI was still stumped concerning the bank robbery.
Guilt had pained her concerning the bank heist. Normally, she didn’t feel guilty when BAAM took a score. The way she saw it, banks were the true thieves – charging elaborate interest rates for loans and credit cards like legalized loan sharks. It was because of Bruce. She had a whole other life, and she was hiding it and lying to him about it. In her own way, she was going to make it up to him this evening. This was the first time in weeks he had been able to make it home before four o’clock.
She knocked on his apartment door. It took a moment before he opened it.
“Hey, this is a surprise,” he said with a smile. All he had on was a pair of loose, blue shorts that stopped above his knee.
“May I come in?” she said seductively.
“Please do,” Bruce replied as he stepped aside.
She held the collar of her trench coat closed as she crossed the threshold.
“Is it about to rain?” he asked as he closed the door.
“Not outside,” she answered sultrily. She pulled the sash on her coat and opened it up to expose the Santa lingerie she was wearing. The bra and panties were red satin with white fluff around the trims. Her red pumps had white Christmas fur on top of them.
“Wow. Christmas came early for me this year,” Bruce said as he admired her.
“It sure has, so come unwrap your gift.”
Bruce stepped to her and placed his hands on her exposed waist. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
They kissed. His lips lapped at hers with gentle ease. Then he slowly ended the kiss. Before she knew it, he scooped her in his arms like she was light as a feather and carried her to his bedroom.
He had a king-sized bed donned in a blue cotton comforter. There was a contraption set up on the side of the room. What looked like a black sack with small holes, hung on three silver poles by its straps. Bruce sat her down next to it.
“What’s this?” she asked with a hint of confusion.
“A little item I thought both of us would enjoy. I was going to call you over this weekend to try it out, but since you’re here now . . .” He trailed off with a smirk. “Great minds think alike.”
Margo tilted her head, examining the odd-looking device.
“It’s a sex swing,” he stated.
“Oh,” she said. She had heard of them, but she had never seen one.
Bruce pulled her into his arms. “You want to try it out?”
“Sure,” she said with a small smile.
Bruce started kissing her neck, and then swiftly moved down to the space between her neck and shoulder. He sucked the spot hard and harsh, making her gasp with pleasure as her head swung back. His hands smoothed to her bottom and cupped both cheeks with aggression.
Margo moaned her approval as her hands massaged his shoulders. She pulled back a little to lay soft kisses over his muscle-bound chest. Sliding her hands down, she kissed her way to the waistband of his shorts. Pushing them down with rigor to expose his glory, she got on her knees. Then she took his partially hard cock and placed it in her mouth. Margo used her other hand to massage the heavy sacks below. Bruce became harder in her mouth. She continued to handle his testicles as she began a long and hard motion with her head. She tightened her lips around his rod.
>
He groaned out curses as his hands moved into the curls of her hair. His fingers lightly massaged her scalp as she continued to please him.
“If you keep doing that, we won’t be able to . . . ah . . . use the swing,” he chopped out in a deep voice.
She let go of his balls and slowly eased her head back, letting his manhood plop out of her mouth. “Well, that would be a shame,” she murmured seductively. She rose to her feet.
They walked closer to the device. She watched him step into the big holes of the sack.
“Now straddle me,” he instructed.
Margo caught onto the idea. She climbed in and maneuvered her legs in the large holes that made her legs hang behind him. Her heels touched the floor just like Bruce’s bare feet. The poles bent to their weight. They maneuvered and worked together to connect. Once they were, Bruce started bouncing them, the silver poles bent and retracted with his will.
She didn’t think sex with Bruce could be any better until this evening. They both moaned with ecstasy with each move. He unhooked her bra and started rubbing her back. His hands grazed her long hair as he did. Then he started suckling her neck. Her fingers entered his thick hair. Bruce quickened the pace. She helped by moving her knees in time with his.
Margo started breathing heavy, letting out high-pitched noises that similar to gunfire bursts. Her hips and legs trembled as her body warmed against his. Bruce groaned against her neck as he wrapped his big arms around her. They shouted as they tightened their embrace during their shared orgasm. Shallow breathing escaped from both of them as they descended from their high. Bruce gently rocked her
An hour later, Margo was draped over Bruce’s naked body in his bed. He caressed her back with his fingers as they lay in silence together.
Bruce cleared his throat. “Spend the night,” he said.
She smiled against his chest and then raised her head to look at him. “I can’t. I have to leave tonight.”
His head shot up from the pillow to look down at her. “Where are you going?” he asked. His facial expression almost made her tear up. He looked so hurt.
“I have to go to Dallas. It’s last minute, but I have to go.”
“For a client?”
“Yeah, um, my new client has a factory here and in Dallas. I have to do some setup work at his location there.”
He stared at her for a moment. “How long will you be gone?”
“Late Sunday, early Monday at the latest. It shouldn’t take long.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “I see. You’ve been doing a lot of work for this guy lately. How long will this project last?”
She cleared her throat. “Until January.” She glanced down at his chest.
“Okay,” he mumbled. “Margo, is there something about this job that you need to tell me about?”
Her eyes widened at the question as she looked back up at him. “No. Why do you ask that?”
“The last couple of times that I’ve asked you about this project . . . it’s like your demeanor changes. It’s like . . . you’re holding back on something.”
She swallowed. Shit. She didn’t realize she was giving off signals that she was full of it. “Oh, no, it’s just that this job is more difficult than I first anticipated,” she whispered.
“Well, I don’t want you to stress yourself out over this thing. You’re too special for that,” he said with a crooked grin.
“I’ll be all right,” she mumbled and put her head back down on his chest.
Chapter 20
Friday morning, Bruce was sitting in Alec’s office as he was talking about the cases they were working on.
“Bruce!” Alec yelled.
He jumped in the chair. “Huh! What?”
“You haven’t heard a fucking word I said,” Alec said with a hint of anger.
“I . . . I’m sorry, man,” Bruce stuttered as he wiped his face with his hand.
“What the hell is the matter with you this morning? I know we’ve been working a lot of overtime, and we’re both tired, but you gotta stay with me here.”
He shook his head. “It isn’t necessarily exhaustion. I just got a lot on my mind.”
“Like what?”
“No, you’ll laugh or think I’m being paranoid,” he stated.
“Whatever it is, you can’t get your mind off of it, and I need you at your best. Spit it out. Maybe I can help,” Alec said with concern.
After a bit of hemming and hawing, Bruce finally broke down and told his best friend what was on his mind. “Margo is out of town for the weekend again.”
Alec smiled. “You don’t like her being too far away, do you?”
“No, but that’s not my main issue. My bullshit detector keeps going off about Margo’s new client.”
Alec looked at him for a moment. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know. She doesn’t ever tell me the names of her clients – or what she programs for them. I’ve refrained from asking because I thought she had to keep a client and contractor confidentiality.”
“Hmm,” Alec mused. “How does she act when she talks about this client?”
“Weird like . . . she’s holding back from telling me something or . . . she’s hiding something concerning him.”
Alec cleared his throat. “You don’t think this client is sexually harassing her in some way and she’s afraid to tell you about it, do you?”
Bruce’s loins flared at the question. “If he is, I’d break his neck,” he snarled.
“Let’s not go off half-cocked,” Alec soothed. “I was just thinking out loud. I’m sorry that I even suggested it.”
“No, it could be it. Then again . . . I can’t see her putting up with that. If anything, she would take care of it herself and tell the bastard to find another programmer.”
“Now that you said that, I see that you’re right. There’s no way a woman like her would rollover for some sleaze that can’t take no for an answer. Perhaps it has something to do with her ex-husbands.”
Bruce shrugged. “I don’t know. She hardly mentions them. I don’t even know their names.”
“If it’s bothering you that much, do some digging,” Alec said nonchalantly.
His eyebrows furrowed. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not? We do background checks on people all the time.”
“Well, for one thing, she’s not a case like your lady love was.”
“Blanchette isn’t going to say anything, and it’s not like you hadn’t peeked around someone else’s background before.”
“That is different. I would feel like I’m going behind Margo’s back.”
“You’re right. This is different. Something is going on with your girlfriend, and she’s afraid to tell you what it is.”
Bruce slowly nodded. “I’ll think about your suggestion, Alec.”
****
Because of the drugs and the sensitive flash drive, Anthony and Margo drove to Texas. It was a seventeen-hour drive, but with them alternating between the passenger and driver’s seats, they made it late Friday afternoon.
Margo wanted to be in Dallas when Bobbi inserted the flash drive into the mainframe just in case something went wrong. Anthony insisted on tagging along. He didn’t think it would be wise for Margo to drive all the way there by herself.
When they had arrived at Bobbi’s apartment building, they got the key she had left with the front desk clerk, gone upstairs, and gotten some sleep.
Bobbi had come home from work and packed her things before she had woken Anthony and Margo. They went over the plan and loaded up.
Bobbi had a late-night rendezvous with the director of security at one a.m. There would only be two people at the Dallas Federal Reserve during that time of night, a security guard and the director of security.
Anthony drove the rented black Jeep Cherokee to the front of the building. Bobbi grabbed her bag and got out of the vehicle. Then Anthony drove across the street, circled to the back of the parking garage, and entered that way so th
e outside Federal Reserve cameras wouldn’t pick up an SUV lingering outside of their building.
The plan was for Bobbi to give the guard at the front desk a sample of her special chocolate chip cookies laced with Anthony’s concoction. Margo and Bobbi didn’t know what was in it, but Anthony said that it would make anyone pass out for hours, and it would show up in a tox screen as cocaine. Then she would get the director to eat one or two cookies. Once he passed out, Bobbi would put on the mask that made her face look like the director that her Hollywood costume artist friend created for her, dress up in the padding and clothes to imitate the director’s build, and put on a ball cap with a hidden camera in it.
Margo fired up her laptop and got it ready for when Bobbi cut her camera on.
Anthony put his Bluetooth in his ear. “You still seeing the super cop with the hard-on?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Margo replied.
“I take it Bobbi still doesn’t know.”
“No.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“No reason to. After New Year’s, I won’t be seeing him again,” Margo said as nonchalantly as she could.
“Chicken shit,” he teased.
“Asshole.”
Anthony snickered. “It’s for the best. It’s not like you can tell dude–”
“I know.”
They patiently waited for twenty minutes before their burner phones rang. Margo put in her Bluetooth and answered the call. They accepted Bobbi’s conference call from her burner. The window view came alive on Margo’s laptop.
“Hey, I’m heading down the hall now,” Bobbi said.
“We have a visual,” Margo replied.
Most security cameras didn’t pick up sound, so they weren’t worried about someone listening to their conversation.
They watched Bobbi get on the elevator and her black gloved hand pressed the button to the basement.
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Anthony asked.
“Most definitely.”
Thanks to Aaron buying the control room plans from the former disgruntled employee of the independent tech contractor, Margo was able to show Bobbi what the mainframe looked like and where to stick in the flash drive. Nevertheless, Margo wanted a clear view of the room and the hardware as a precaution. The Dallas FRB could have had a new mainframe installed without the prior company’s knowledge.
Love, Money, and Lies Page 9