by Parker, Ali
Clearly, however, Valerie was done with the waiting. Her hazel eyes were dark and brimming with concern. “I don’t want to push you, so if you want me to fuck off, you can just say so. I’m only asking because I want to know if there’s anything I can do to help you, or if you wanted to talk about it that you knew I was here to listen.”
“I know.” I smiled my thanks, sipping my tea while I considered where to start. “I think I’m going to stick with the decision I made on the beach the other night.”
“Olive didn’t tell me anything about your talk.” Valerie wasn’t upset about it. She was simply stating a fact.
As close as the three of us were, we also valued and respected one another’s privacy. Sometimes, we’d talk to one person and at other times, to the other. Eventually, we all got together to talk about everything anyway, but until then, we had a rule that there was no gossiping about us among the group.
“Will’s brother is bad news. I don’t know how bad, but definitely bad.”
Val rocked her head back and forth, considering before she shrugged. “To a lot of people outside of our little trio, I’m bad news too. While you know I’m not really, not everyone does. Could this be the same?”
My teeth sank into my lower lip before I grudgingly shook my head. “I’d have liked to say it might be the same, but I don’t think it is. I’m not saying he’s not a good guy or whatever, I don’t know him at all, but I’m pretty sure he’s involved in some bad stuff.”
Val nodded. There was no judgment in her eyes, she just wanted to understand. “Okay, let’s say he is a bad guy, where does that leave Will?”
“That’s the thing.” I took another sip of tea, faintly hoping that the leaves infused in it would pass off their wisdom and I’d suddenly find myself knowing the answer, but since I didn’t live in a fantasy novel, of course it didn’t happen. “Rayce is a bad guy. Shit, Will may even be a bad guy for all I know. I didn’t use to think so, but now I’m not so sure.”
“What are you saying?” She cocked her head, running her fingers through her short black hair.
“I want to have a life with Will, whether he’s a bad guy or not. I don’t think he’s inherently bad. In fact, I think he has the best heart. I’m just not sure what he’s been involved with.”
“You’re saying it doesn’t matter to you if he’s done some bad stuff in the past?” There was still not a single hint of judgment in her tone.
I appreciated that about both my friends more than they could ever know. “Yeah, I think that’s what I’m saying. I know him well enough to know that he’s good, no matter what he’s done. I want a life with that guy, the one I’ve gotten to know.”
“He seems like he has a good job,” she told me, feeding into my train of thought now that she knew what it was. If she disagreed with me, she would have told me, so I knew she was being honest. “A good job is as good a place as any to start. He may not be rich, but he’s good for you. I’ve seen how good he is for you firsthand, and that’s all that I want. Someone who is good for and to you.”
“Will is good to me,” I agreed, my hand absently drifting toward my belly. It was strange. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d touched my stomach but since receiving the news, it seemed to keep happening on its own. He’ll be good to you too.
I didn’t know how I knew that, or even why I was suddenly having conversations with the baby in my own head. I guessed it felt like it was okay because he or she was living in my body currently, so it felt like just maybe they could hear me.
Will hadn’t given me any reason to believe he would be a good father, but somehow I didn’t think I had lied when I had mentally spoken to the baby. Maybe it was naive optimism, maybe it was unwarranted hope, or maybe it was sheer stupidity, but in that moment, I truly believed Will would be good for both of us.
Before I knew if I was right, though, I’d have to actually tell him the news. I’d tried him a few times since I’d run off on him, but he hadn’t taken any of my calls.
More than a few times I wondered if I’d scared him off for good. Or if perhaps he was so offended by what I’d said that he’d simply decided he was done with me. It was also possible that he was just busy.
Whatever it was, I knew now that I owed it to him to tell him the truth. He hadn’t done a thing to have deserved my wrath or my sudden burst of extreme judgment the other night. If anything, he’d been trying to do something nice that he knew I wanted, because he’d clearly been able to see I was upset.
Since I’d had some time to think over everything and to consider what Olive had said the other night, I’d realized that both Will and the baby deserved for me to be honest with him under the circumstances. As a girl-with-a-crush, I’d been offended when he’d said he didn’t want a child right away.
The stupid, selfish little girl inside had screamed at me that he’d meant he didn’t want a child with me. When I thought about it, though, I realized that wasn’t what he’d said at all.
Even if he had, I wasn’t only a girl-with-a-crush anymore. I was now a mother-to-be, too, as fucking surreal as that thought still was. What that meant was that I had to look beyond myself and what I wanted.
If Will had meant that he didn’t want a baby with me, he could change his mind about wanting to know the child anyway when it came. Even if he didn’t want me.
The thought that he might not want a future with me and still be part of my future indefinitely was another tough one to process, and I wasn’t sure I had yet, but Olive and Val had been right. It was still his choice to make.
As protective as I was already starting to feel about a thing that was—according to the internet—probably about as big as a seed at that point, I couldn’t take the choice away from Will. It had taken both of us to create the little seed of mine, and he deserved to know about it at the very least.
If he chose to abandon both of us, that would suck. More than I could even possibly allow myself to imagine. But it still would have been his choice.
Despite what he’d said about wanting a baby right now, it was still his baby and as such, his decision whether he wanted to be involved at all or not. If the answer ended up being “or not,” I would have to deal with it from there.
“Val!” The owner’s voice interrupted my chain of thought and brought me back to the present. “Your first table has been seated.”
My friend sighed, pushed her empty cup of tea away, and stood up. “I’m so damn curious to know where your mind went just then, but I guess I’ll have to wait until later to find out. Let me know if you need any help today, okay?”
I nodded, because I knew I might just have to take her up on it. As of Sunday night, I wasn’t feeling quite as sick, but I knew it could come back at any time. Val and Olive had agreed to cover for me if I suddenly disappeared at work. “Thanks, I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“Luckily for you, you’ll never have to find out.” She delivered the clichéd line flawlessly, winked, and then hurried to her table.
Glancing down at my watch, I saw that my first table would be coming in at any time too. Having decided that I still wanted to talk to Will about what was going on, there was this strange urgency in my gut demanding that I get it done.
My phone was suddenly heavy in my pocket, burning a hole through the material. Extracting it almost without even having to think about it, I tapped into my recent call list and hit Will’s number. Again.
When it started ringing, I half expected him not to answer. Focusing my attention on the clear blue water and the soft sand on the beach just across the sidewalk from me, I jumped a little when I heard his voice.
“Heidi. Hey. I’ve been meaning to call you.” He sounded sincere, which I was happy about. Even if he had decided he was done with me, he was at least planning on calling to let me know. At some point. “I’m sorry I’ve missed your calls.”
“That’s okay.” A multitude of emotions slammed into me out of nowhere, wrapping themselve
s around my throat so tight that my voice came out strained and thick. “I’ve been calling because I need to talk to you.”
“I know.” He sighed heavily, making my breath catch in my lungs. Was this it? Whatever had made him sigh like that it couldn’t have been good. “That’s why I haven’t been taking your calls. There was some shit I needed to work out.”
“Before you say anything else, I—”
“I’m going to make this right for you and our child, babe.” His words caught me so off guard that I actually felt a little light-headed. Swaying on my wrought iron chair, I was glad I was still sitting down. “I promise. I’m going to take care of both of you.”
“How do you know about the baby?” The fingers on my hand that wasn’t holding the phone lifted up to grip the solid table I was sitting behind, my knuckles white from the force of it. “What do you mean take care of us?”
My voice was only a fraction of a decibel above a whisper, but Will heard me. “I came after you the other night. I heard your friends asking you whether you’d told me through the open windows. And I mean, I’m going to take care of you two. Whatever you need from me, I’m there. I’m going to provide for you.”
“All I want is you, Will.” At some point while I’d been listening to him, tears had begun to stream down my cheeks. I didn’t notice until I tasted the salty moisture on my lips. “We can figure out everything else together. I just want to know I have you.”
“You do,” he said, as firmly and confidently as I ever could have wished for him to sound. “I’ll come see you on Wednesday and we can talk, okay?”
Swiping them away with the back of my hand, I closed my eyes and tried to stem the flow of the tears. “It’s only Monday. I’d really like to talk to you about this.”
“There’s something I need to take care of tomorrow. I promise. I’ll see you on Wednesday, okay?”
I didn’t like the sound of that. It was too reminiscent of every victim in a teen slasher film. The ones who said they’d be back, or they’d be somewhere at a preordained time always ended up being the next one killed by the psychopath in the woods.
“Okay, just be careful and come back to me, Will. Promise me you’ll come back to me.”
“I promise. I’ll see you on Wednesday. Take care of yourself until then, babe. And take care of our baby for me, please?”
“I will.” The tears were streaming even though my eyes were still closed, coming down hot and fast. While I had no idea what this thing was that Will had to take care of before he came to talk to me, I had a bad feeling about it.
It lodged itself in the pit of my stomach and no matter what I tried to do, it refused to leave. Something was about to happen, and I doubted it was going to be good.
Chapter 33
Will
The van was parked exactly where Rayce told me it would be. We were in an alley a couple of blocks away from the bank Rayce had chosen as our next target.
He had spent the last few weeks casing the place, and he had assured me that there were no extra security measures around. There had been no increased security or police presence in the area and everything looked good, which was why he’d decided to go forward with the heist after all.
Grinning when he saw me walk up to the van, he dragged a hand through his hair and handed me a duffel bag with my clothes in it with the other. “You ready for the last job you’ll ever pull, brother?”
“Ready as I’ve ever been.” Rayce always emitted an excited kind of energy before a job, and that time was no different. What was different was that I felt it now too.
Lightly bouncing on the balls of his feet, his eyes were alive and alert. He seemed bigger when he was like that, taller and broader. I felt the same way that day, like I was on top of the fucking world.
For the first time, I really understood the rush Rayce got from the job, but for me, it wasn’t coming from the job. It was coming from knowing that this would be the last time.
Come hell or high fucking water, I was done after today. Rayce knew it, too, which made it all the more final for me.
He’d already tried to talk me out of the job. I knew he wouldn’t try and pull me in again after today and even if he did, any attempts would be futile. I was doing this job for one reason and one reason only, and that was to get the money I needed to secure a future for my family.
After that was done, I was gone. If there was one thing I knew how to do, it was how to save and work with money. I’d already done my research into smart saving and investment plans that wouldn’t draw any attention, and I’d chosen the options I would start taking in a few months’ time—once the buzz surrounding this job had died down.
Reaching for the bag Rayce held out to me, I couldn’t help but to return his grin. “Everything good?”
“The plan is in place.” He opened the driver’s door and slid inside. Once I was buckled in beside him, he waited for New Guy to join us, then his gaze bounced between us. “Remember, boys, we get in and we get out. No lingering, no going off script. You do exactly as I say when I say it. Understood?”
“Understood.” Reaching for the duffel bag lying at my feet, I rummaged through until I found the black sweater, mask, and gloves inside. There were a few other odds and ends, but I didn’t need them. I hoped like hell I never would.
“Understood,” New Guy echoed as we both pulled on the disguises we would only ever wear this one time.
Rayce waited until we were ready, since he always managed to be ready for action first, and then gunned it in the direction of our target.
At first, everything was as Rayce had promised it would be: perfect. There wasn’t even much traffic on our way to the bank, and we managed to snag a legitimate parking spot right outside.
I did a quick sweep of my own for any new hired guns, but there were none visible outside the building. A steady trickle of people came in and out of the building, but not more than we could handle.
A wide smile spread on my lips underneath the mask. We’re really going to get away with all this.
We entered the bank with Rayce’s gun blazing … as always. Clients dropped to the floor and the bank employees froze … also as always. Even New Guy managed to keep his temper from flaring out of control, gathering phones from people without smacking anyone in the head with his gun.
Making my way to the front of the building steadily while I helped to cable-tie hands, collect phones, and generally intimidate without actually being violent, I reached Rayce and opened the duffel bag I had carried in with me.
We always used the same duffel bags that had initially hauled our supplies to carry the cash out. There was less of a paper trail that way, less equipment purchased for each job, and most importantly, fewer things for us to get rid of later.
In the bottom of my duffel, there was also that emergency stash. It consisted of a navy blue T-shirt, a dark-green ball cap, and a few other things in case we needed to make a sudden escape. The colors were all muted so as not to draw any unnecessary attention, but also because people were more likely to remember if they had seen someone wearing bright colors in the line with them.
It was when my duffel was filled and I was about to zip it up that the heist went bad. All hell broke loose behind me, bangs and puffs of smoke suddenly filling the air. There was also loud shouting from the outside once we heard the glass windows shatter.
Rayce and I turned to look at each other when we heard a voice coming through a loudspeaker from somewhere. “This is the FBI. We’ve got you surrounded. Come out with your hands in the air.”
I froze, blinking stupidly. “Do they really fucking say that? I thought that was only in the movies.”
Rayce shrugged, flashed me a quick smile but then grew serious. Both of his hands flew to my shoulders, where he secured the strap of one of the duffel bags. “Remember when you promised to do what I said when I said to do it?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He took a deep breath, his eyes locked on mine.
“Get the fuck out of here, now.”
“What about you?” Despite the promise I’d made, I couldn’t leave him there. “I’m not going anywhere without you, bro, let’s go.”
“You’re leaving right now and you’re doing it without me. I’m not getting out, Will. I always knew I’d end up here, but you don’t have to. You never should have. If I hadn’t kept pushing, you wouldn’t even have been here. This is the only way I was ever going to stop.”
“You can come with me. We can get out together.”
His head swiveled sharply from side to side once. “You have a life with a child waiting for you. Don’t let your kid grow up like us, Will. He or she needs you, and I’ll be damned if I take you away from them. Now get the fuck out, and that’s an order.”
Shoving my shoulder so hard that I stumbled, he turned and raced right into the pandemonium that had exploded behind us. I had no doubt that he was going to try and fight his way out, but I had seen the look in his eyes when he’d told me he wasn’t getting out.
There was no faking that. He had accepted that this was his fate, already accepted that he had been caught. It wouldn’t stop him from trying, but he wasn’t expecting it to work.
For one short moment, I considered my options. I turned toward Rayce and New Guy, fucking hating Rayce for ordering me to leave them behind. But then I pictured Heidi’s face. I thought back to the promise I’d made her that I’d see her tomorrow, and I thought about the promise I’d made Rayce that I’d listen to him.
And then I made my decision. I slipped behind the nearest wall, shedding my sweater, mask, and gloves as I went. Stuffing them back in the duffel, I pulled out the spare clothes from underneath the money and put them on.
After that, I followed the escape route Rayce and I had meticulously gone through that very morning. If I was caught, I was fucked. But I already knew I wouldn’t be caught.