Love Against the Law

by Justine Klavon

  Since Sammi could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel for her police career, she, Howard, and Kodi started meeting up twice a week to go over ideas and work toward getting their connection back as a team. Sammi was the only one to humor the idea of involving Eli, especially when they discussed the possibility of needing some muscle for a job.

  “Sammi, you’re more than enough muscle,” Kodi joked as they all sat around the living room in her apartment one Saturday. Sammi made a face like she’d never been more insulted in her entire life before bursting into laughter.

  “I am kind of a badass, huh?” Sammi asked, still laughing as she flexed both of her biceps. She wore a grey tank top, so it was clear as day that she didn’t have much muscle to show off.

  “Well, you’re the scariest one here, that’s for sure,” Howard teased and Sammi’s jaw dropped.

  Sammi took the pillow from behind her on Kodi’s couch and smacked Howard in the face with it. Howard laughed as he took the pillow from her and weakly tossed it back at her. Both girls giggled at his unfortunate show of strength.

  “So, what are you going to tell Doctor Charming when you start disappearing for weeks at a time?” Sammi asked Kodi, leaning back casually on the couch.

  “I’ll just make stuff up as we go,” Kodi told her. “But if he ends up sticking around, I’m going to have to tell him the truth.”

  “I have a feeling he’ll handle it better than Mack,” Sammi replied. “And Mack knew I was thief when he met me.”

  Kodi shrugged, knowing Sammi was probably right. She, Sammi, and Howard spent the rest of the afternoon pretty much just goofing off until Sammi left to make her hour-long drive home.

  *

  When Mack and Sammi got to work the following Monday, there was a buzz about the entire precinct with rumors that Hobbs would be announcing the new Captain that day. Mack immediately got excited and just a little bit cocky as Sammi held onto his right arm with both of her hands, showing her love and support for her handsome husband. Sammi, other than beaming with pride for the man she had married, suddenly felt like a weight had been lifted and she could breathe so much easier knowing she’d be off the force by the end of the month.

  As the couple entered the squad room, Mazzeline exited the Captain’s office with Hobbs right behind him. Mazzeline and Sammi made eye contact as Mazzeline crossed the room to his desk, and he shook his head with a disappointed look on his face. Sammi assumed he had just been told he wasn’t getting the Captain’s position, but she wondered why he would’ve expected anything different. Hobbs called Sammi into the office next and closed the door behind them.

  “Well, this is a tad uncomfortable,” Hobbs said, frowning at Sammi as he leaned only slightly against the edge of his desk.

  “Aw, no hard feelings, Hobbs,” Sammi replied with a smile as she reached over to pat him on the shoulder.

  “Sammi, you got the promotion,” Hobbs told her sternly.

  “I might just miss you after all–wait, what?” Sammi’s heart stopped for a second and she had to put her hand on the back of the chair next to her to keep herself standing.

  “I pulled every string I could to try and get Mack promoted, but every single letter of recommendation was glowing with support for you, except for your own.”

  “That can’t be true. Mack recommended Mazzeline.”

  “I don’t know what he told you, but his letter was all about how you’re a better cop than anyone in the precinct, even when you don’t even want to be here.”

  “I don’t want this,” Sammi whispered, more to herself than to Hobbs, as she felt all of the color drain out of her face. “Mack is never going to forgive me for this.”

  The room started spinning as Sammi’s strength drained with the rest of her color. Her hand slid off the back of the chair she had been holding onto and she fainted to the floor with a soft thump.

  Part Three

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The Time of My Life

  “Sammi, come on, the guys are waiting,” Kodi said, poking her head into the motel room.

  “I’ll be right out,” Sammi told her, zipping up her black ankle boots on the edge of her bed. “I still have ten minutes.”

  Kodi huffed her disapproval before pulling her head out of the room and closing the door. Sammi waited to hear the door latch before snatching her cellphone off her bedside table and dialing Mack’s number with a disheartened sigh. Mack didn’t answer; Mack hadn’t answered once in the two months Sammi had been gone.

  “Mack, I’m just going to keep calling until you talk to me,” Sammi informed Mack’s voicemail. “Whether you like it or not, there is something that we have to talk about.”

  Sammi ended the call and put the phone back on the nightstand. As she looked down at her beautiful engagement ring and matching wedding band on her left ring finger, she couldn’t help but wonder if Mack still wore his own ring back in New York. Just as she placed the tips of her fingers around the rings to slip them off, a car horn echoed from the parking lot blaring through Sammi’s thoughts. Leaving her sense of commitment in place on her elegant finger, Sammi sprinted outside and into the backseat of the waiting black Tahoe.

  “It’s so nice of you to join us,” Eli said playfully, turning around to look at Sammi from the front passenger seat.

  “Obviously, our mastermind gets to do whatever she wants,” Kodi replied smartly from beside her in the backseat. Sammi stuck her tongue out at her while Howard stayed out of it as he drove them a few towns over to the largest bank in Wisconsin.

  After clearing a couple hundred thousand dollars out of the bank’s vault and loading it into the Tahoe, the team headed back to the motel to grab their things and move on to the next state. They had planned on staying another night, but their adrenaline was still high and they couldn’t have slept even if they tried. Once they crossed into Minnesota, Howard pulled the car down a secluded path and Eli hopped out to change the license plates. They were all New York plates and they were all technically legitimate, being that they all belonged to the Tahoe, but Howard had rigged the system to get them multiple plates so they wouldn’t be as easy to track from state to state across the country.

  When they got to the next motel, which they had already picked out well in advance, the boys and the girls separated into neighboring rooms. Kodi and Sammi took some time to make themselves comfortable in the new room, with Kodi taking the bed closer to the door as she had in every other motel room on this trip. Sammi had assumed she just liked having the bed with the window view and didn’t realize that her best friend was subconsciously being overprotective of her after living through almost losing her twice already.

  Sammi threw her backpack of clothes and personal items onto the floor beside her bed and dropped her cellphone onto the nightstand. She still hadn’t heard from Mack, but she was used to it by now. Her adrenaline had crashed so she slipped her boots off and climbed into bed while Kodi organized their entire bathroom for them, still abuzz with energy.

  “Have you heard from Mack?” Kodi suddenly asked as she came out of the bathroom, holding a tube of toothpaste.

  “Huh?” Sammi replied groggily, jolting out of her half-sleep.

  “What is up with you?” Kodi sounded kind of annoyed. “You’ve been kind of distant since we left New York.”

  “You know that I didn’t leave on good terms with Mack,” Sammi reminded her as she sat up in her bed. “I’m scared he’s never going to talk to me again.”

  “Sammi, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Kodi told her best friend with sincerity. “It’s not like you weaseled your way in to take the Captain promotion from him. If he won’t talk to you, that’s on him. You deserve better than that.”

  Nodding silently, Sammi looked down at her rings again. She couldn’t understand why she felt so terrible when she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. The only thing she could think of was that she would feel better if Mack knew what it was that she needed to tell him. But he had to
talk to her in order for that to happen.

  Kodi was still humming with energy so Sammi let her finish what she was doing and settled herself back into bed. Sammi fell asleep listening to Kodi flutter about the room and woke up a few short hours later after Kodi had finally gone to bed herself.

  It was early in the morning, just before sunrise, and Sammi wasn’t surprised that she woke up feeling nauseous. She turned her bedside lamp on and glanced over at Kodi to make sure she was still asleep before slipping into the bathroom and closing the door. Trying to be as quiet as possible, Sammi knelt in front of the toilet and vomited until she felt better. As she brushed her teeth afterward, thankful that Kodi had set their bathroom up, she remembered she hadn’t taken her vitamins the day before.

  Exiting the bathroom, Sammi hoped she still had a water bottle in her backpack. She sat on the edge of her bed, facing the bathroom, and picked her bag up off the floor. After finding a nearly full bottle of water right away, she dug through everything else to find her pill bottle, but it wasn’t there.

  “Looking for these?” Kodi asked, shaking the pill bottle from her bed behind Sammi.

  “What–why are you going through my stuff?!” Sammi replied angrily, turning to face

  Kodi after tossing her bag to the floor.

  “When were you going to tell me?” Kodi snapped back, matching Sammi’s rage.

  “Not until I told Mack!” Sammi yelled as she walked around her bed to where Kodi sat and held her hand out for the bottle.

  “Mack doesn’t know?” Kodi quieted down as she placed the bottle in her friend’s hand.

  “I knew before I left, but he was too mad,” Sammi explained. “And now he won’t talk to me.”

  Sammi turned away from Kodi and walked back over to the other side of her own bed to grab her water bottle and take her prenatal vitamins. Still annoyed with Kodi for going through her belongings, Sammi kept her back to her and sat on the edge of the bed. She tried to calm down as she checked her cellphone, but the lack of messages from Mack only upset her further. After Sammi put her phone down and put everything back in her bag, Kodi came over from the other side of the room and took a seat next to Sammi.

  “I’m really sorry, Sam. I shouldn’t have snooped,” Kodi said quietly, resting her head on Sammi’s shoulder to ask for forgiveness.

  “I wanted to tell you, Kodi,” Sammi replied, calmer now, “but Mack was supposed to be the first to know.”

  “You know I can’t let you go on any more jobs with us now, right?”

  “Kode, we’ll be finished and in California within two months and I’ll hardly even be five months along by then. I will be fine.”

  Not wanting to argue with her best friend again, Kodi didn’t say anything else on the subject. She knew that all she had to do if she wanted to keep Sammi off a job was tell the boys and get them involved. It also crossed her mind to try and reach out to Mack on Sammi’s behalf, but nothing had ever felt more like it wasn’t her place to tell.

  *

  Nevada was the team’s last stop before ending their forty-eight-state stealing spree across the country in California. The team had been more efficient than they’d planned and had made the rest of the trip in a month and a half as opposed to the intended two months. Sammi still hadn’t been able to get in touch with Mack, but Kodi had been able to keep her secret from Eli and Howard.

  Eli had surprised everyone on the team by being an incredible friend to Sammi on the trip without trying to make a move on her. He had been nothing but respectful toward her while she pined for her husband. Howard and Kodi had both expected differently and had been almost positive that Eli would have replaced Mack by the end of the trip. In fact, they had even made bets on it.

  The plan for Nevada was similar to the team’s last forty-six bank robberies, but as they went to check into the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas to treat themselves, Sammi’s brain went wild with ideas. Before Howard made it to the reception counter, Sammi pulled him aside with the others.

  “We’re robbing this place,” Sammi announced in hushed tones as the team of four stood to the side under the trees of the colorful and elegantly ornamental lobby.

  “But we’ve never done a casino,” Kodi argued, frustrated with her best friend.

  “I know, but this just came to me,” Sammi explained. “Let’s grab lunch and talk about it.”

  “I think we should hear her out,” Eli said, to nobody’s surprise, as he shrugged his shoulders and followed Sammi out of the lobby. Kodi gave Howard a worried look before the two of them hurried to catch up with the other half of their team.

  While the band of thieves sat in the back corner of a well-lit, average chain restaurant, Eli, Howard, and Kodi listened to Sammi’s new plan. She wanted Eli and Kodi to pretend to be getting married at the hotel with Kodi acting as a wealthy socialite so the staff would be consumed with keeping her happy. When they decided it was the right time, Kodi would become a total bridezilla and suffer a very public meltdown while Howard helped Sammi hack into the casino’s vault. They still needed to do some research on the casino and its security system, and Howard needed time to create aliases for the fake couple.

  “I like it,” Eli said with a smug grin after Sammi finished sharing her idea.

  “Fine,” Kodi replied and turned toward Sammi, “but you’re playing the socialite. You and Eli are the only two who can pass as a red-carpet couple.”

  Kodi meant what she said, but she also cared more about keeping Sammi safe by keeping her away from the actual theft. Sammi couldn’t argue with her logic so she groaned and agreed to pretend to be Eli’s girlfriend once again. Then the team took the next few days to perfect the plan before heading back to the Wynn Hotel.

  Eli and Sammi checked into the hotel separately from Howard and Kodi. As the two pairs headed up to their rooms, they kept in character and chatted lightly as if they all hadn’t known each other for years. But as they reached their two separate rooms, Kodi looked up and down the hallway to make sure the coast was clear before stopping Eli in his doorway. Sammi had already disappeared into the room, so Kodi grabbed Eli’s arm and pulled him down the hallway and into a quiet but echoing stairwell.

  “What is wrong?” Eli asked, flustered as he fixed the sleeve of his grey collared shirt.

  “I can’t protect Sammi on this job, so I need you to step up and do that for me,” Kodi explained, looking him directly in the eyes.

  “You know I’d kill for that girl,” Eli replied with a cocky smirk.

  “Eli, I’m serious,” Kodi said with a stern look on her face.

  “Okay, jeez,” Eli responded like a scolded child, shaking his long hair out of his face. “Is there something going on that I don’t know about?”

  “Yeah. Sammi’s pregnant.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, Kodi left Eli to suffer in solitude. Eli felt like he had just been shot in the heart as he backed into the wall behind him and slid down it to the floor. He stared at the floor in silence, wishing he really had just been shot so he could die in peace in that empty stairwell.

  When Eli had gathered himself and finally met Sammi in their hotel room, he decided to keep Sammi’s secret and not let on that he knew about it. He had an opportunity to pretend he was with the woman he loved again, and he intended to enjoy every second of this job. But he remained respectful and gave Sammi her space in the room, making sure she had the bed to herself while he slept on the couch.

  It took the team four days to get Kodi into the hotel casino’s vault and she and Howard made a run for California. Eli and Sammi laid low for an extra day at the hotel to avoid suspicion before Sammi dramatically called off the wedding, screaming at Eli and crying in front of dozens of staff and guests. Having made off with ten million dollars from the casino, they had gone well above their goal and were in agreement to vacation in California rather than work another job. So Sammi and Eli rented a car and left Vegas to meet up with Kodi and Howard in a five-star hotel in Pasadena.


  *

  Kodi and Howard were waiting outside in front of the magnificent Langham Hotel as Eli and Sammi pulled up in a rented silver Corvette Stingray. Eli stopped the car in front of the palatial building and got out, handing the key to the valet. Sammi leapt out of the passenger seat and immediately threw her arms around Kodi in a hug.

  “Always gotta make a scene,” Howard said, laughing as he patted Eli on his shoulder.

  “I couldn’t show up to a joint like this in something like my Honda,” Eli told him, grinning proudly.

  The team made their way inside where their two rooms had already been checked into. Kodi led Sammi up to their room so she could drop her bag off before they decided how they wanted to spend their day. Being that they were ahead of schedule and ahead of their income goals, they had about three weeks to just leisure about in California. Sammi had always dreamed of one day seeing the City of Angels for herself and she couldn’t wait to get out there and see the sights.

  “Ready?” Sammi asked, throwing her backpack on the bed and turning back toward the door.

  “Hold on,” Kodi said, laughing at her friend’s eagerness. “I gotta call Anthony quick.”

  “Oh, my apologies,” Sammi replied and made goofy fake kissing faces.

  Kodi laughed again and took her cellphone out onto the balcony to call her boyfriend who was still back in New York. Sammi took a minute to check out the rest of the hotel room and stopped to look in the full-length mirror in the bathroom. Her long, straight hair was just slightly wind-whipped from Eli driving fast with the windows down in the Corvette. She ran Kodi’s brush through the soft, blonde strands until every last one fell into its proper place.

  As Sammi reached over to put the hairbrush back on the bathroom counter, her tight baby blue tee lifted up a little on her abdomen and she caught a gasp in her throat. Her perfect flat stomach now had a slight round shape to it, which was easily hidden by her shirt. Sammi suddenly felt dizzy and left the bathroom to sit on the bed and dig her cellphone out of her bag.