“OK. We have burgers. We have fish, and we have chips,” Kristian said as they burst in the door. He set our food on the tiny table and Abbot plonked down on the couch, pulling out his before passing out drinks. The smell of hot potato and batter filled my nose, and my stomach growled. I couldn’t wait to dig in.
“So, how does this work now? We did our part and got the cars—what’s next? We’re the getaway drivers?” I asked, pulling apart a piece of fish with my fingers, watching the steam billow out of the white flakes.
Kristian nodded. “Once we know exactly where the safe is and how to secure it, Nate, Abs, and I will go in there and get it. You’ll keep a lookout with Toby and be our getaway drivers.”
“What about Sam and Alesha?”
“They’re our inside people, so they’ll meet us and take us to the safe and help get the thing disconnected.”
“They’re also responsible for drugging the whole compound,” Abbot added. “Sleeping marks are easy marks.”
“Smart,” I said. “How much do you reckon they have in that safe?”
“Ten mill?” Kristian shrugged and looked at his brother for confirmation. Abbot nodded. “People are sellin’ their houses and shit to join up. They ask for a minimum of two-hundred K per person to join.”
“Sounds like the path to enlightenment is a costly one,” I said.
“Two-hundred grand to give up technology and live off the land? You could go bush and do that for free,” Abbot said. “Don’t need no fancy bloody commune to do that shit. I can’t believe people get sucked in that bad. Serves them right getting hit.”
“All the more profit for us,” Kristian said, popping a tomato sauce-coated chip into his mouth. “If there weren’t any suckers in the world, we wouldn’t get to live like kings.”
Abbot looked around the cramped motel room. “Sure, fucking kings we are.”
I smiled. This room mightn’t have been much, but I’d been in worse. “So we’re here a week minimum, right?” I asked, making sure I had all the details straight in my head. They both nodded so I went on. “Sam and Alesha are going up there tomorrow. They have to go through the whole interview protocol before officially joining, but they’re going to be scoping out the place to find the safe and get a look at security. Once they know what’s what, they get in contact with us and we’ll all go in?”
“That the gist of it,” Abbot said.
“Nervous?” Kristian grinned.
“Fuck yeah,” I said with a gasp. This was the most in-depth operation I’d ever been a part of.
“Relax, doll. You’re gonna do great.”
“I’m glad you’ve got faith in me.”
Abbot spoke around a mouthful of burger. “You did a great job getting the Land Rover when you weren’t expecting it, so don’t sweat it. We plan well and improvise where needed. It always gets us by. Go with your gut. You were born to do this.”
After the eight o’clock meeting, Abbot and I stood outside and had a cigarette together. I’d barely spent any one-on-one time with him since I joined their lives almost three weeks ago. Of course, that was primarily because he’d made it clear he wanted me to fuck off. Although, it had crossed my mind that perhaps he felt his twin was pulling away from their relationship when I entered the picture. It made sense. They’d been a pair forever, and I was sure it didn’t feel good being the lost sock.
But ever since they’d come back to the house together on the day the dolphins had played, things had been a lot better. Well, he wasn’t openly hating on me, so that was progress in my mind.
“I want to tell you I’m gonna quit being an arse toward you,” Abbot said, leaning on the railing as he blew smoke out of his nose.
“Is that something you’re capable of?” I asked, teasing. “I mean, weren’t you born like that?”
Watching him try not to laugh made me smile when I was trying to play serious. “Maybe you should be the one telling me that you’re not gonna be an arse,” he said.
“I would never promise something like that,” I said, inhaling a drag as I pressed my back against the railing, looking up to watch the clouds disappear behind the building.
“I get why Kris likes you,” he said, flicking ash into the car park below. “You’re cool.“
“That’s probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me—who wasn’t also trying to fuck me,” I said as I finished up the smoke and flicked the butt into distance.
He shook his head and chuckled. As Kristian said, Cartwrights don’t apologise. And Abbot hadn’t. But he had offered me an olive branch, and internally I’d grabbed that with both hands. I didn’t think it would be easy for a twin so close to his brother to watch a woman enter their shared realm. I understood that I was the intruder, so, I smiled. And then downplayed my inner happy dance.
“Thanks for the hit of nicotine,” I said, sliding my hands into my back pockets. “I should get back to Kristian.”
He nodded. “Why do you keep calling him that?”
“Calling him what?”
“Kristian instead of Kris like everybody else?” Because only those he loved called him Kris.
The thought came so quickly that the intensity surprised me. It was just a nickname at the end of the day, but this family was extremely loyal and fierce of its own. Somehow, offering a nickname seemed to mean more, and despite the marriage proposal, I wasn’t entirely sure Kristian would ever offer me more.
I shrugged. “Because he hasn’t asked me to.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Criminals Are Like Cockroaches
The thing they leave out in heist movies is the incessant waiting around. When you’re a highly organised group like the Cartwrights, every move is meticulously planned before it’s carried out. Before we arrived in Katoomba, Sam and Alesha had been in contact with the commune’s recruiters, emailing back and forth and doing Skype interviews before they were finally invited to spend a few days to see if they were a good fit for the lifestyle. I thought leaving a digital thumbprint like that was a risky move, but I was assured that Toby was some tech-savvy genius who made it look like they were calling from a different location. I had no clue about any of that stuff, so I had to trust he could do as they said. Especially after the way he tracked me to Dazza and Maree’s. Which reminded me—he could listen through my phone. I probably needed to make sure it was turned off in the bedroom.
“So, say the safe has like, ten million in it. How long is it going to be before we need to pull off another multi-million-dollar job to keep up with the payments for Conway?” I asked, my feet on the dashboard as Kristian and I took a surveillance shift not far from the commune’s boundary. I had a set of binoculars, but there wasn’t a lot to see. Mostly, there were a fuck load of trees around, a multitude of squawking birds, and shrieking insects.
“About five months,” he said, leaning forward and playing with the leather bracelet he’d given me. I’d transferred it from my wrist to my ankle, and he slid it around in a circle.
“Five months? Is that all? Fuck. We could relocate to Mexico or the Bahamas or something for less than that. We’d never have to worry again.”
“Cartwrights don’t run, doll. We stay and we fight for what’s ours.”
“Even though what’s yours was stolen to begin with?”
He smiled then nodded. “Finders keepers.”
I looked over and met his eyes. “Hey, I get it. Losers weepers.”
“That’s why we really need this plan of yours to work. Once Conway gets his hands on all that product, we should be off the hook for good. No more hunting down cash when cash is so fucking hard to come by these days.”
“He won’t let you wire the money offshore?”
“Nope. All cash.”
“Huh. We should rob him next.”
“Reckon he’d figure it was us.”
I shrugged. “You know, I’m actually starting to think that growing poppies isn’t such a bad plan after all. Seems there’s a lot of money
in it.”
“Far too much risk involved in that kind of thing. We’d all said no to it, but Nate had gone ahead and done it without us. Made him rich, but look at the mess we’re in now. They don’t let you retire from that.”
A walkie-talkie was on the dashboard, emitting a constant static hum. When it crackled, we both sucked in a breath and stared at it. We were essentially sitting there like a teenage girl, hoping the boy she was crushing on would call.
“When was the last time they checked in?” I asked.
Kristian checked the logbook. “Four fifteen yesterday afternoon,” he said. “Seems to be around that time each day. They know where the money’s being held. Just not how to get to it.“
Looking at the time on the dash’s clock, it was only two. I tilted my head toward the back seat. “You know, we’ve got a couple of hours of waiting around. I can think of something…a lot more fun to do.” I grinned, moving my knees so they opened and closed.
His eyes immediately darkened as his mind joined mine in the gutter. “Doll, we really shouldn’t on a job.”
I placed my hands on my chest and squeezed my breasts, using a breathy voice to speak. “I’m just so hot, Kristian. I need to take off this shirt. It’s sticking to my skin.” I sat forward and pulled my T-shirt free from my cut-offs, lifting it up while he watched with great interest.
“Keep it goin’, doll. You know I like what I’m seeing.”
“But we’re working,” I said, lowering the shirt back down and pouting his way. “If only I wasn’t so hot.”
“You’re a tease,” he said with a laugh.
“Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?”
“Tell you to get the fuck out of the car and put your hands on the bonnet.”
“For real?”
“For real.”
Excitement trilled through my veins. “Please tell me you’re planning on frisking me?”
Leaning a little closer, he lowered his voice to a sexy rumble and ran a finger down my cleavage. “Thoroughly.”
I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough, my body humming with desire as I placed my hands on front of the Land Rover. “Do you want me to climb up a little? I’m not exactly bent over here,” I said as he came up behind me and pressed his lips to my neck, sucking lightly. My fingers went into his hair as I arched back into him.
“Like this is just fine,” he said, gripping my hips and pressing his erection into my butt.
I moaned.
“Guys?”
We froze as the walkie-talkie came to life. “Terrible timing,” I groaned, standing back up.
Kristian adjusted himself in his jeans. “You’re telling me.”
“Are you there?”
Kristian jogged around to the driver’s door and leaned in through the window. “Yeah, we’re here,” he said, snatching up the walkie and holding it to his mouth. “Anything to report?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, his voice crackling a little. “We’re good to go.”
“You can get us to the safe?”
“Yeah. Leesh got herself on cooking duty tonight, so she’ll add the magic potion to the lentil stew.”
“Lentil stew? That sounds disgusting.”
“You’re telling me. Reckon I could knock them all out with a well-timed fart at the moment. All peace, love and mung beans, baby. I can’t wait to eat a nice juicy steak once we’re out of here. This vegan stuff is killin’ me.”
Kristian chuckled and picked up the pen. “OK, brother, give me the details, and we’ll get you that steak for breakfast in the morning.”
Sam rattled off GPS coordinates and explained how the others needed to proceed once inside. Kristian wrote furiously and told him we’d mark a path through the bush to make our exit faster. It was actually a pretty cool idea. We were going to mark trees with iridescent paint so they could use black light torches to find the way. It didn’t give off anywhere near as much light as a regular torch.
“I should get back. They don’t like us being alone for long. See you tonight?”
“Sure, give Leesh our love.”
“Will do.”
“Time to go?” I asked, about to get back in the car.
Kristian looked at me with a devilish grin and shook his head. “Lose the pants,” he commanded. “I’m not done frisking you yet.”
“Drinks, snacks, and extra condoms. Gotcha,” Kristian said as he kissed my cheek then strode into the petrol station. The Land Rover guzzled diesel like an eighteen-year-old drinking during schoolies week, and we needed to fill up. I stood against it as the meter ticked over.
Once it was full, I got back inside, checking my appearance in the rear-view mirror while I waited for Kristian to come back from paying. Just as I fluffed my hair, I noticed a blue and white sedan pull up and an officer in uniform get out.
“Oh shit,” I said under my breath as I watched him stop and say something into his radio, looking my way.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Grabbing my phone out of my pocket, I pulled up Kristian’s number and dialled while I slid from the passenger side to the driver’s.
“You read my mind. I’m already getting pies,” he said as soon as we connected. If I wasn’t so panicked, I would have smiled.
“Don’t react,” I replied, keeping my eye on the approaching officer.
“What’s going on?”
“I need you to leave quietly and meet me back at the hotel.”
“What?” There was a pause then he lowered his voice. “Oh. Shit. Is that a—”
“Cop. Yeah. But, it’s OK. I’ve got this.”
“Ronnie!” The sound of my name faded as I pulled the phone away from my ear and disconnected the call. “I’ve got this,” I whispered to myself, hoping to hell I did.
Angling my knee so you couldn’t see the slide hammer in the ignition, I kept my eyes ahead even though I really wanted to look for Kristian and make sure he wasn’t trying to intervene. I didn’t need us both getting collared over this.
Straightening the rear-view mirror, I took a steadying breath, sliding my sunglasses on my face. “You got this.”
“Afternoon, miss,” the officer said as he approached.
I pushed out my chest and flashed him my brightest smile. “Oh hi, Officer. Do you need the pump?” I tried to sound light and airy.
“I actually need you to step out of the vehicle, please.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“Just step out of the car please, miss.” The radio pinned to his chest announced that the Land Rover with our specific number plate was the car they were looking for.
I smiled and tried to stay calm. It wasn’t the first time I’d been caught in a stolen car. And it probably wouldn’t be my last. “Sure. I can do that for you.”
He stepped back as I made like I was about to comply, then I quickly turned the ignition and slammed my foot on the accelerator while I threw it into gear. My biggest worry was the car stalling, but when the wheels spun and the Land Rover lurched sideways, I said a silent prayer of thanks. At the same time, I hurtled forward, fishtailing onto the main road, leaving a cloud of stinky burnt rubber behind me.
“Oh, I’ve still got it,” I said, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I accelerated down the highway at top speed.
Sirens blared behind me, but I was yet to see the flashing lights. I had a slight head start, but not enough that I could remain on the highway without them catching up or blocking my way. Fuck. I needed to get off the main road and get rid of this car. Fast.
Seeing a residential turn off coming up, I veered to my left, my exit speed causing the old beast to tilt and slide. Thankful for my misspent teenage years joyriding and hooning around, I turned the wheel, shifted my weight then righted myself, downshifting as I took the next right, the next left. Then I pulled into an empty driveway, wiped every surface as fast as I could while shoving everything into my bag. Then I bolted.
We plan well and improvise where needed. It al
ways gets us by. Go with your gut. You were born to do this.
Knowing it was stupid to stay in the same street as the Land Rover, I jumped a fence and ran through a few backyards before the bark of a big dog sent me heading for the next street. Ideally, I needed a new vehicle. But with the sirens drawing closer, weaving through the streets, I didn’t have the time.
I need somewhere to hide.
Running down the path, I spotted a house with no cars in front of it and sprinted towards it, my chest burning as the sirens suddenly stopped. They’ve probably found the Land Rover already. Fuck. I forced myself to slow to a fast walk. Running looked guilty, and people would be looking out their windows after all that commotion.
“That noise for you?” a male voice asked as I crossed a driveway.
Startled, I turned and saw a guy who appeared to be in his late twenties working on a motorbike, ratchet in hand. I didn’t answer and kept going.
“You can hide in here if you like.”
That made me stop.
“Better hurry and make a choice. They’re moving again.”
I turned and saw flashing lights between houses in the next street over. Shit.
Rushing towards him, I hoped to God he wasn’t some kind of serial killer who liked to collect women in trouble then make lamps out of their skins.
“In you go,” he said, holding up a fabric tarp that was covering another bike. I got under it and curled up against the body of the Harley Davidson, holding my breath as my heart bashed against my ears. Calm down, I coached myself. You’re OK. Everything is going to be OK.
God, I hoped Kristian got away. I’d hate it if I took off and they got him instead of me. They needed to be able to finish the job. It was too important to give up all that effort. I needed to talk to him.
I can text!
Pulling the Blackberry from my pocket, I hit the home button to activate the screen.
Nothing.
“What the hell?” I muttered under my breath, hitting it again. Nothing. “Just work.” I hit it again, spamming the damn thing with my thumb in frustration until finally, the screen turned on.
Foolish Games: Cartwright Brothers, book 3 Page 18