She bit her lip as she tried to figure out the most tactful way to word how she was feeling. “I would think my silence on the topic this morning would’ve answered that for you.” It wasn’t just silence this morning. As soon as everyone had left last night, she’d crawled back into bed and attempted to sleep her shame away. She was hoping she and Gage could be adults about this and just pretend the whole thing never happened. Maybe that was the juvenile way to face it. Nonetheless, it was her preferred way.
“Aren’t women supposed to want to talk about their feelings?”
Oh Lord, kill her now. If the sky suddenly opened up and a lightning bolt shot through her chest, she didn’t think she’d be mad. Probably just grateful. “I don’t think now is a good time to talk about this.”
“Well then, when is a good time?”
“I don’t know. When this thing’s off my neck.”
“All right. It’s a date.”
She shook her head frantically. “No. Not a date. Nothing close to a date.”
Gage let out a laugh and took a drink of his coffee. “You’re cute when you’re flustered, you know that?”
“You think I’ll still be cute when I’m throwing my plate at your face?”
“You’re also cute when you’re violent. I like violence in a woman.”
She started really considering throwing that plate. “Don’t you have a girlfriend you’re supposed to worry about? Shouldn’t you be feeling overrun with guilt right about now?”
“Oh, yeah. I broke up with her.”
Melissa stared at him in shock, trying to blink away her surprise. “You what?”
“After the whole thing in Michigan, I gave her a call and we figured things weren’t working out.”
“You son of a bitch.”
“Funny. I thought me not sleeping around on my girlfriend would make me not a son of a bitch. Please tell me why you’re mad at me now.”
“I’m mad because the entire reason I was so embarrassed and ashamed back in Michigan was because I made a move on you while you had a girlfriend the whole time. And now it’s something you can shrug off? No.” She shook her head. “You made it such a big deal. Literally, a deal breaker. What happened?”
“Well, back then I didn’t think we should be together. I was no good for you and you’re too good for me. But now I find myself unable to keep my hands off you and suddenly I don’t care anymore.”
He said the words as if they were a joke and didn’t matter. It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t as if she were irresistible. Of course he could keep his hands off her. Melissa found herself unable to come up with the right way to get out of this conversation, and she went back silently eating her omelet. Damn delicious thing.
“So you never told me—what did Peter say last night?”
Well, this topic wasn’t much better. She shrugged. “Oh, you know. The usual judgmental slut shaming.”
Gage let out a little laugh. “Was he shaming you or me?”
“Both of us. But then I shamed him for not caring about my life enough. There was shame all around. It was really a fantastic time. If only you could’ve been there.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
She shrugged again and tried to play it off as though it wasn’t a big deal. “It’s fine. Who is he to judge me anyway? Especially after being gone all that time. Then he had the nerve to say that I was punishing him by sleeping with you. Jerk.”
“I feel for him. I’m not exactly the guy everyone dreams about their little sister going out with.”
“And yet you’re the guy every little sister dreams about going out with. Funny how that works.”
Gage smiled, and she suddenly regretted the remark. Professional. She was trying to be professional with all this.
“Why, Ms. Slade. Are you flirting with me?”
“Everything with you is flirting.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
She shrugged. “I don’t even know anymore. Everything with you is like... foreplay. Everything is sexual. Everything has some kind of dirty connotation. I don’t know if I could talk to you in a way that wasn’t flirting.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Well, it definitely ain’t an insult.”
Gage smiled, and Melissa really wished he didn’t look so charming. Before they could continue their banter, she felt a shadow fall over her.
“Ms. Slade?” asked the hotel employee.
Please be a message from Toni, she thought. Please be a message from Toni.... Melissa took the white envelope from the waiter and turned it over in her hands. Sealed with a wax seal. How fancy.
“Whoever sent it wants to make sure no one else opened it,” said Gage.
She was half surprised he didn’t reach over and take it from her. Sure, it was addressed to her, but Gage had a tendency to take over.
Sliding her finger under the seal, she broke it open. Inside, there was a stack of hundred-dollar bills and a single eight-by-eleven-inch piece of paper. Raising a brow, she handed the envelope of money to Gage as she unfolded the paper.
I made you reservations for dinner at my favorite restaurant at my favorite table. Please have a romantic dinner on me! And don’t forget, the only thing better than one is two. Make it happen.
Melissa read it and re-read it.
“What does it say?” asked Gage.
She shook her head, handing it to him. “I don’t even know.”
“I guess it means we’re going to dinner tonight,” he said as he read it before tipping it over a few times to make sure there were no hidden messages.
“It can’t just be a dinner, though, right? I don’t get the feeling that Courtney Vance is overwhelmed with gratefulness.”
“You’re right. There’s going to be a catch. She’s paranoid about having any connection to us, so she wouldn't put in anything specific or something that can be traced to her.”
Melissa ran the words over in her mind, looking at each one for a hidden meaning. “So it has to be something about making it two, right? That’s the only thing that doesn’t make sense.”
“Not in the context that is in that letter. But in the context of us....”
He had a point. Leaning forward on her elbows, Melissa thought about their current context.
“She wants us to do illegal things for her. You’re known for your computer skills and I’m known for my ability to die.”
“Keep it positive, babe.”
“I’m not your babe,” she muttered. “Assuming you’re the one who has the most work to do, what can you make two of over dinner?”
“I bet it’s a cell phone.”
“You can make a phone over dinner?”
“No, not make a phone. But I can clone one. So we can see all the calls and texts that someone is getting on their phone.”
“Great. So we know the job. Now we need to get it done. Do you just need any old cell phone to finish it?”
Gage shook his head. “We’ll need to pick up a few things.”
“Do we have enough money for all this and dinner?”
“If we need more, I can message Toni to get us more.”
“Wait, we can message her? I didn’t realize we could. I thought we were sitting on our thumbs and waiting for them to give us some signal that things are okay.”
“In case of emergency, we can communicate. So I know what I need. What about you?”
“I’ll have to check out the clothes in the closet. Not sure if I have anything appropriate for something this nice.”
“Sounds like a plan. We’ll go shopping to get supplies for today, and while we’re out, I’ll get in touch with Toni.”
That did sound like a plan. And maybe while they were out, Toni would find a way to get this thing off her neck and get her out of here. Cheers to that.
Gage let his head fall back against the wall. He felt like a caged animal. As though he were trapped and needed to force himself out at any cost.
“I’m great. You take your time.”
She balanced the armful of clothes in her hand and glanced around the bright-white waiting room outside the women’s dressing room in the upscale department store. “See, your mouth says you’re okay, but your skin color says you’re about to throw up.”
He rolled his eyes even as his hands gripped the arms of the chair that much tighter. “You’ve picked up at least some of Hart’s observation skills, haven’t you?”
“I don’t have to be a master thief to notice you’re uncomfortable.”
“You stuck it out while I went to five different places for what I need.”
“Three of which weren’t needed,” she pointed out. She might not know a router from a modem, but apparently she’d picked up enough of the little parts of his conversations that sounded like English to know he was purchasing up a few extras.
“The less we talk, the faster this will go. Try on your overpriced things and pick out whichever one makes you look more like a socialite and let’s get the hell out of here.” She started to offer him another out, but he said, “And while you’re in there, I’ll get in touch with Toni and work on our plan for tonight.”
Her eyes lit up at the mention of Toni. Funny, he’d think that he’d done enough to keep her safe, but she acted as though Toni were her knight in shining armor. If he didn’t know his every move was being monitored and if he made a wrong move Melissa would lose her head, he’d be able to figure out how to get that stupid bomb off her neck too.
He shoved off his annoyance and picked up one of the burner phones he’d purchased earlier that day.
Toni answered on the third ring. “If this is a telemarketer, you better save yourself the hassle and hang up now.”
“Lay down your weapons. It’s just me.”
“Oh, hey, Gage. You’re marginally better than a telemarketer.”
He bit back a groan. “I don’t have time for you to pretend to hate me right now. I need to know what you have.”
“All right. You know Peter hasn’t let me take a break from this all day, right? It’s not like I’m sitting on my hands here. I’ve been studying the photos of the collar Melissa has on. I’ve built my own prototype, not explosive obviously, and I’m working on ways to unhook it and not set it off.”
“Great. What does that?”
“Nothing so far. I’ve been trying to isolate it from the radio signal and clone it, but it still gets triggered.”
“So you’re telling me it’s hopeless?”
“No. I’m telling you it’s not an easy solution. I know you think you could do this better than me—”
“I know I could do it better than you. I’m more motivated.”
“Why? You think I don’t care about Melissa?”
“She’s nothing but a tool to you.”
“And what exactly is she to you?”
Gage had walked right into this and now he was stuck. Great. “She’s more than a tool,” he said evasively.
“I’m not sure what you think my relationship with Melissa is, but I can assure you she’s not just some employee. I wouldn’t keep her around if I didn’t genuinely like her. And as the only civilian in our operation, I’m especially protective of her. Which is why finding you two in such a compromising position last night was especially... concerning.”
“If you thought I was so dangerous, why would you even have me work for you?”
“You’re not dangerous physically. But you know why I’m concerned. Please don’t pretend to be naïve here.”
She wasn’t saying anything he didn’t already know. Anything he hadn’t already thought of a thousand times. But somehow it made it worse that he wasn’t the only one thinking it. It validated his worst fears. “I’m not planning on hurting her,” he said weakly.
“The best laid plans,” muttered Toni. “Either way, we need to find somewhere else safe for you to go. The Plaza is nice and all, but it’s Courtney’s home territory. If we want to sway the fight in our favor, we need to move onto our territory. I’m sure I can make reservations at another hotel cloaked under an alias for an alias, but I am thinking about calling in some favors. I know a few New Yorkers who would be willing to take you in.”
“Don’t worry about it. I know somewhere we can go.”
“You do?” she asked, the surprise evident in her voice.
“Yes. Believe it or not, I do have friends.”
“Friends you have or have not slept with? I don’t want things getting more complicated between you and Melissa.”
“Look at it this way, meeting an ex of mine might convince her to stay away from me.”
“Damn it, Gage. I was kidding about the ex thing. You’re not seriously considering taking Melissa to some ex-girlfriend’s, are you?”
“I trust her. I trust this woman more than I trust someone I’ve never met before.”
“So you’re not going to take my word that you can trust someone.”
“I’m not going to learn to do that with Melissa’s life on the line.”
“All right. If you’re convinced you’re going to keep her safe, I’ll let you take the ball on this one. As long as you know and accept she might not be as forgiving.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“What risk?” asked Melissa.
Gage immediately hung up the phone and straightened to look up at the woman in front of him. “Where’s the rest of it?” he asked abruptly.
The dress Melissa had picked to model for him wasn’t what he expected at all. Melissa was... basically the girl next door. She was his boss’s little sister, who, sure, had worn some short shorts and tight T-shirts around him, and he’d always used the best and darkest corners of his imagination to guess what she looked like under those clothes. But now that he had an exact visual of how delicious she looked, and she was in front of him in a dress like that, he found it particularly hard to focus.
The dress was a basic black, a staple in every woman’s closet from what he understood, that was deceptively revealing. The sleeves were wide and billowy and probably had more material in one of them than all of the rest of the dress. The deep v and short hemline showed more than enough skin to make up for how lose the dress was. “You really want to wear that?” he asked.
She blinked in shock and stepped back, looking down at it. “I thought it was nice. I mean, it’s comfortable and I can hide things in it if needed. Maybe a phone for you or something? And I can run if we need to make a break for it. Besides, my bomb matches it perfectly.” She pointed to the choker around her neck for emphasis.
Gage’s jaw tightened, and he pushed himself out of the chair. “It looks great, Mel. Let’s wrap it up and get out of here.”
He started to leave when she said in a small voice, “Well, I don’t want to wear it all night if you’re going to be thinking I look like an idiot the entire time.”
Gage turned back to her and took her in his arms, one hand gripping the back of her neck and the other wrapping around her waist. “I hate that dress because I’m going to spend every second of tonight imagining ripping it off your body when I should be trying to keep you safe. You’re literally too sexy for your own good, Melissa. Got it?” His forehead pressed against hers, and it would be so simple to move his face just an inch until they were kissing. And once he was kissing her....
“I’ll be by the register. Meet me there when you’re ready.” He had to get out of there before he started making that pristine dressing room a little less pristine.
Melissa ran her hand over her skirt as though she would somehow make it longer. A futile effort. She couldn’t magically conjure more material by rubbing it more. The skirt was perfectly respectable—well, almost respectable—when she was standing, but sitting, it slid sky-high and made the entire idea of the skirt seem rather pointless.
To make it worse, Gage was looking at her a
s if.... Well, he was looking as if he wanted to do the exact opposite of conjuring more material. He looked as if he wanted to snap his fingers and make her dress magically disappear.
Just thinking about it had heat creeping up her neck. God, she’d wanted Gage like this for so long, and now that she had him, she expected it to be less... everything. She wanted to want him less and to think about him less and her heart to beat less while he was around. And, for some reason, he didn’t seem to want her any less either. If anything, he seemed to be more into her than ever. Before, she imagined and wished his glances were lingering. That he’d stay in the room a little bit too long when he didn’t need to. It all seemed like a figment of her imagination, but now it wasn’t just a theory anymore.
It was one hundred percent certain, for sure actuality, that Gage liked her back. He didn’t just like her. He craved her. Thought about her, imagined doing dirty things to her. How was a girl supposed to manage that much attention?
Just then, the cab stopped outside the restaurant and Gage reached over, setting a hand on her leg. “Ready for this?”
She nodded but didn’t say anything, not wanting to be suspicious in front of the cabdriver. She did feel ready for this. After the embarrassing coffee incident the last time she and Gage had to get into the Vance Tower, she felt much more prepared. She would barely have to embarrass herself at all if things went right.
They would only need a few minutes to clone the phone to a burner that Gage had purchased earlier. So there would be a chance that she would have to embarrass herself again for the sake of getting Gage a few minutes alone with the phone, but at least there would be less of an audience than in the lobby of the Vance Tower.
But they weren’t breaking and entering. They weren’t stealing anything. She didn’t know whether anyone would even assume that they were doing anything more than snooping if they were caught, so the stakes seemed low.
Well, the stakes for her were still high, considering her neckwear. But with both Gage and Toni on her side, it seemed as if it were only a matter of time before she was out of this mess.
Or maybe the sex was just relaxing. Who knew?
The Arrogant Thief Page 9