by Parker, Ali
Will turned, his mouth pulling into a half smile as his eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second. “Do you?”
Somehow, it seemed he knew that I didn’t understand. Although, it wasn’t that difficult to figure it out I supposed. I had just told him that all you had to do was pack, quit, and leave. Presumably, anyone with a family would know it wouldn’t be quite that simple.
Putting it together that I obviously hadn’t been held back by family wasn’t rocket science. While I had no intention of telling this sexy stranger that I was practically all alone in the world, I could admit that he was at least partially correct.
“Maybe it’s different for me personally, but I do understand why other people might feel like their families were holding them back.” There. That was vague enough not to let some stranger know that my family wouldn’t be calling the police if I suddenly disappeared.
While I still sensed that this man didn’t pose a danger to me, I couldn’t deny that he did have that edge about him that spoke of darkness in his soul. Will stepped away from the wall and dropped something back into his tool kit before picking it up from the floor.
“You should be good to go now. There were just a couple of old components in your connections. I’ve fixed them up, but call me if you need anything else okay?”
He shoved his hand into the pocket of his jeans, pulled out his wallet, and thumbed through it before holding out a slightly rumpled business card to me. I took it, amused that he still carried the antiquated things.
“Sure. I’ll call you if we need any recommendations for good ice cream places too.” I smiled, tucking the card into my bra. It was the only place I could keep it where it wouldn’t get lost immediately while we were unpacking. I’d fix it to the fridge with a magnet later.
Will’s eyes had followed my movements as my fingers disappeared into my shirt and withdrew again, without the card. There was the briefest flash of heat in them before he made his way to the front door.
“If you want the really awesome ice cream, you’ll have to drive a couple of miles.” He grinned, wrapping a large, tanned hand around the doorjamb and letting himself out. Standing on the porch, he turned to face me. “My company has your contact details. They’ll be sending over an invoice.”
“We’ll be on the lookout for it.” We would also have to be on the lookout for jobs to pay said invoice, but Will didn’t seem to be worried about payment.
His blue eyes roamed the exterior of the house and the street we were on briefly before he nodded. “I’ll be seeing you around, Heidi.”
Jogging down the stairs without another backward glance, he climbed into a gleaming red truck and drove away. I stood at the top of the steps and sighed, staring at the truck until it disappeared around the corner.
If that was the way they built them in Florida, things were sure to get interesting here. I could hardly wait.
The girls got back a couple of minutes after Will left. Olive went to the breaker box immediately, as if she could actually see what he had done. “Is it fixed?”
“Yeah. The dude said the stuff inside was just a little old. It didn’t sound like he was worried about there being any bigger problems.”
Olive’s chest rose a quiet, relieved sigh as her eyelids fluttered closed. No doubt she had been expecting the worst. Valerie leaned against the couch, smirking as she dipped a plastic spoon into a near-empty cup.
“How was the electrician? Was he some old guy that had his ass crack handing out while he talked about his ‘almost professional football career’?”
“Quite the opposite actually.” Smiling at the shocked expression on their faces, I mentally fist-bumped myself for having lost the bet, when to my mind, I had turned out to be the real winner. “He was fucking hot and kind of nice.”
I quickly filled them in on all things Will before realizing they hadn’t given me any ice cream yet. “Did you bring me anything?”
“Of course.” Olive flushed and walked to a plastic packet she had dropped just inside the door, handing over a mostly melted tub of ice cream. “So he left you his number, huh? You going to call him?”
“Maybe.”
Valerie shook her head, mumbling under her breath before lifting her eyes to mine and smiling. “Hot, nice, and left you his number? You must be in love.”
I stuck out my tongue at her teasing tone, knowing she was just feeling sorry for herself about having missed the eye candy. “Far from it, but let me tell you, ladies, we’re going to have some real fun in this town if that’s how they breed them down here.”
Chapter 7
Will
The living room in my run-down apartment was tiny, not even a third the size of the living room of that Heidi girl’s house. I had tried to make the place a little homier when I moved in, fixed the basics up and made it livable, but I wasn’t spending a chunk of cash on renovations at a place I was only renting.
Two faded brown couches the place had come with sat against two of the walls, my flat-screen TV mounted against the third. The room opened to the kitchen, the small dining area, and the door leading to my bedroom and bathroom, and that was it. The entirety of my apartment.
I wasn’t complaining about it, though. It was somewhere I could sleep without keeping one eye open—a luxury I’d learned to appreciate and never take for granted.
The paint might be flaking in places, but chips of paint didn’t do shit to you while you slept. With seven locks on my door and two guns in my dresser, I was as safe here as I’d ever been.
A sharp knock sounded, knuckles rapping in a quick beat that told me exactly who was at the door. I opened it without checking the peephole, then walked into my kitchen and extracted two beers from the fridge as I heard the door close.
“Brought your cut,” Rayce said, dropping a black duffel bag on my coffee table with a heavy thump. “Two fifty this time. Quarter of a million dollars isn’t bad for a Tuesday afternoon.”
“Yeah, guess not.” I handed Rayce a beer and twisted the top off my own, putting it on the counter. “Thanks for bringing it over.”
After opening his own beer, he unzipped the bag and started placing my cut in neat piles on the table. I sighed, running my hand through my hair. “I’ve told you before, you don’t need to count it for me.”
Rayce looked up at me, shaking his head. “I’ve told you before, trust no one when it comes to money. Not even me. We’re counting it.”
I flopped onto the couch beside him and went through the usual drill with him while we sipped our drinks. When Rayce was satisfied my cut was all there, he sat back and cast a critical eye around my apartment.
“A couple more jobs like this and we can move out of these shitholes we call homes and into mansions.” Unlike me, Rayce wasn’t satisfied with simply being safe. He’d been out of foster care for eight years longer than I had, but that life stuck with him like a fucking parasite.
It stuck to me too. It never really let anyone go, but Rayce was determined to break the hold. The way he intended on going about it was by attaining the kind of life kids like us didn’t even dare to dream about.
There were a lot of kids who came out of the system and achieved heights we’d never even thought possible, but in the line of work Rayce was making a living out of, it was just too dangerous.
“We can’t do that, man. We’d be prime suspects for the FBI if we did. You don’t even have a fake legitimate job, and my tax returns sure as hell don’t reflect the kind of money that would allow me to afford a mansion.”
“We’ll get it sorted out.” His voice oozed confidence, making me wonder if he already had a plan or two in motion. “We should go on another run soon. We’re on a roll at the moment. Gotta keep going while we’re doing the right thing at the right time.”
Rayce was always thinking about the next run, the next score. If it wasn’t for me, we’d never have any downtime to lie low and wait for the heat to pass. “It’s too soon, Ray.”
“You read that arti
cle I showed you this morning. They have no fucking leads.” He sipped his beer, eyeing the money on the coffee table like a starving man might look at a double cheeseburger.
There was no chance he’d ever take any of it from me, but I knew if I kept it out, it would just remind him of the millions of reasons we needed to get right back out there. Dragging the discarded duffel closer, I swept the cash back into it.
“They don’t have any leads yet, but the FBI is crawling all over this shit right now. I saw a late headline on the news earlier showing two agents coming out of that last bank.”
“I saw. Calling in the big guns for us?” Rayce smirked, pride bleeding into his tone. “That’s fucking awesome.”
“Only if you want to get caught.” I leveled him with a glare, finishing my beer and setting the glass bottle down. “No way we can run another job with those guys sniffing around town. The banks are probably also keeping a much closer eye on things.”
“I heard an interview with the bank manager of that last job earlier.” Rayce drained the last of his beer, his gaze focused on the muted news playing on my television. “He said they were installing new security systems and urged people to trust that their money was still safe with them.”
I snorted, letting my head fall back on the couch. “If they’re installing new systems, we’ll need to figure shit out before the next job anyway. They won’t be the only ones.”
“Course not.” He scoffed. “Maybe you’re right. We should lie low for a while.”
“Good thinking.” It worried me that he’d even suggested pulling another job so soon, considering he’d known about the FBI and the new security systems. Resolving to keep a closer eye on him, I found myself thinking about what he’d said about us being able to afford a mansion someday soon. “If you could buy a mansion someday, where would you buy?”
“Somewhere far, far away from here.” His voice was tight and far away, his mind likely off to whatever exotic location he had in mind. “Why?”
“Do you remember that neighborhood where you used to take me to learn on the easy marks?” It had been a long time since I had been back there. I didn’t even know if Rayce would make the connection to the area I’d been to today.
He grinned, fond memories softening his eyes. “Of course, the rich ass motherfuckers who don’t see shit coming.”
“Yeah.” How fucked up was it that we both looked back fondly on those days? It wasn’t because we’d both had dreams of becoming what we were now, but because while we were there, we were the ones in control.
We went from being constantly hunted in one way or another to being the hunters. The helpless prey to the ruthless predators. It was incredible what that could do for you when you had nothing else. “I had a job out there today.”
“Did you case the house?” Rayce scratched his chin thoughtfully. “We might not be able to hit up any banks for the time being, but there are lots of empty houses around there.”
“Don’t even joke about shit like that.” My voice was firm. Whatever fucked-up shit we’d done in our lives, home invasion wasn’t a notch I wanted on my belt.
The thought that we could be breaking into places like the one where Heidi lived with her friends—and possibly end up having to restrain or even injure the inhabitants to get away—sent a shudder through me.
The girl was smoking hot and she’d been on my mind since I left her place, which was the only reason I was even bringing up that neighborhood. “How much do you think the places out there cost?”
Rayce rocked his head from side to side, shrugging. “Two, maybe three more jobs like the last one. Why? Also, you never answered my question. Did you see anything in the house that might make it worth a trip back?”
“No.” It wasn’t true. The house was old, but there was art on the walls and fancy trinkets that would probably fetch more than a little from the right buyers. It was the way Heidi had looked at me, quietly assessing before she decided I wasn’t the type to rob her that kept me from being entirely honest with Rayce. For some reason, I wanted her to be right about me.
Usually, I wouldn’t be worried about Rayce, but if the banks really were off the table for now, there was no telling what he would resort to in order to keep himself busy. His drive to be planning the next score was too powerful to ignore.
There was a wild look in his eyes, a dangerous gleam I needed to shut down. “There are only some girls maybe a little younger than us living there, so just forget about it, okay?”
His eyes widened a little at the sharpness in my tone, then he huffed out a sigh and folded his arms. “Relax, man. It was just an idea.”
“Just…” I tried to find the right way to say what needed to be said. “Just no, okay, bro? We’re not going there. If you do, I’m out. For good. I mean it.”
He rolled his eyes but nodded anyway. When he flicked his gaze over to mine again, some of the wildness had receded and I felt the knot of tension in my stomach loosening. Rayce wasn’t a bad guy, but he needed someone to bring him back down to earth sometimes.
“Why did you ask about the houses there?” His voice was back to normal, casual and relaxed. “Don’t tell me you want to live there.”
“Nah, man. I was just wondering.” I’d honestly thought I’d never be able to afford a place there, but if Rayce was right and I would be able to after another couple of jobs, maybe I would learn firsthand why it was important never to say never.
Rayce linked his fingers together behind his neck, propping his feet up on the coffee table. “So, what are you going to do with your cut?”
“Same thing I always do.” I got up to grab more beers, handing Rayce another as I sat down again and noticed him still waiting on a real answer. “I’ll hide it until it’s safe.”
“The old rainy-day fund, huh?” Rayce grinned, obviously proud that I’d remembered one of the first lessons he’d taught me. “Don’t flash it while it’s hot and always make sure you have enough left over for when shit gets real.”
“Exactly.” Eventually, people would forget about this string of robberies. They would go down in history as unsolved and the FBI would move on. Once that happened, I would start enjoying the rewards for the risks I was taking now. Maybe. It was undecided really.
Rayce grabbed the remote and changed the channel, finding a comedian he liked and staying until the act was done. After he left, I picked up the duffel bag with the cash and carried it to my bedroom.
One of the things I loved about my apartment was the wall safe behind the bookshelf in my bedroom. I had no idea who had installed it or why, but it served me well and I didn’t really care about other illegitimate earnings it had kept in the past.
Spinning the combination on the lock, I opened it and just blinked at the amount of cash I already had in there. I only ever opened this door after a job and only for as long as it took me to stash the latest cut.
The money was almost overflowing at this point, and yet I was adding more. There was enough money in there for me to disappear, to do what I had told Heidi I’d always wanted to do: up and leave.
One day, I would do just that. I would get out of this game for good and for real. Today, however, wasn’t that day.
Chapter 8
Heidi
Will’s mouth was hot and insistent on mine, his kiss setting me on fire. As I had expected, the man knew what he was doing in bed. This kiss alone proved it.
It was dominant and controlling, but it was also slow and sensual. Not a combination many men could pull off, but Will did more than pull it off. He fucking owned it.
My first clue that it wasn’t really happening, and that I was only dreaming, was in the fact that we were on the beach, but I wasn’t getting sand all up in my business. The sun was pleasantly warm on my naked skin, but not too hot. I wasn’t even sweating, which was awesome.
Everything was just too perfect to be real, but that hardly mattered to me right now. Wrapped up as I was in the heat of the moment and Will’s strong,
hard body, I couldn’t bring myself to try to wake up.
Will was lying on top of me, kissing me deeply as he ground his hips against mine. He was wearing a pair of swimming trunks and nothing else, his hard nipples scraping against my bare flesh.
The fiery whisper of his hands moving over my body was mesmerizing, turning me all the way on to create a desperate ache between my thighs. Will broke our kiss to look into my eyes. The gorgeous half smirk I saw earlier tugged at the corners of his lips as his heavily lidded eyes betrayed that he wasn’t as cool or as calm as the smirk might suggest.
“What are we doing here, Heidi?” He lowered his mouth to my neck, his lips fluttering over my heated skin and making me shiver. Dream-Will noticed and made a sound in the back of his throat, which I swore I felt in my core, and dug back in, pressing kisses to every bit of my exposed skin.
I gasped, my fingers curling around his broad shoulders. “Whatever we want.”
“I like the sound of that.” He practically growled at the base of my neck, the hard bulge in his thin trunks pressing into me with just enough pressure to make me moan loudly. Another plus about being a dream was that I could be as loud as I wanted to, and no one else would ever know.
Living in the kinds of buildings I had lived in all my life, I’d never been able to just scream out in pleasure. To be fair, I’d also never felt the need to.
Although this was a dream, I could tell that was about to change. The sensation of the rough sand sliding under my back combined with Will’s hot body on top of me, doing everything exactly right, was already sending me into that place of blissful torture you only ever see just before you’re about to come hard.
Will’s eyes, the exact color of the shallower parts of the ocean where the waves crested toward the shore, suddenly popped into my field of vision. “Stop thinking, Heidi. Just feel. Be here with me.”
“I’m here,” I whispered, running my hands down the muscled length of his back and hooking my ankles behind his ass. Just as I was wishing that he or I would’ve taken his stupid trunks off, they disappeared. Sexy dreams for the win!