His Last Heist

by S. M. Butler

  Jordan ran his palm over his mouth. “Pregnant. You’re pregnant. With a baby.”

  In any other situation, she’d have laughed at his reaction. The arrogant, confident Jordan brought to his knees by a possible pregnancy. She was being held against her will, he apparently had to retrieve something for her, and he was staring at her like she’d sprouted a second head.

  As the door behind Jordan opened, Alcott looked in, but his gaze missed her completely and went to Jordan. “Time to go.”

  “A minute, will ya?” Jordan snarled.

  “Thirty seconds,” Sam replied and shut the door back.

  As Jordan turned to her, his face was resolute. “I will fix this. I get you out. I promise you that.”

  She shook her head. “No, Jordan. You need to listen now. I don’t care what you’re into. Or from what dark corner of the world you come. Or what horrible deed you have to do. I don’t want anything from you. Nothing at all. You could disappear right now, and I won’t care.”

  “You’re carrying my child…”

  “And that won’t matter if I die here,” she said. “If I do get out of here, I don’t want to owe you a thing. Not. One. Fucking. Thing.”

  “It’s not like that, Penny,” he whispered. His hand lifted as if to reach for her, but he stopped. She was glad, because she wasn’t sure that she could have maintained the distance she needed for this conversation. He sighed. “Is that truly what you want? Would me walking out of here right now make you happy? Would it solve it all for you?”

  No. God, no. She didn’t want this. She wanted him. She wanted to wake up next to him every day, feel the warmth of his embrace. She wanted that day in the park back. She wanted the fairytale where he would save her from her life. She wanted not to be locked in a dark room with no one to help her but a lying piece of shit that she had fallen in love with.

  She steeled herself and stared him right in the eyes. “Yes, that’s what I want.”

  “All I want is for you to be happy.” Jordan’s voice was gruff, teeming with emotions she’d never seen from him before. Her heart pained her, and her throat closed up so hard she wasn’t sure she could speak.

  “Then do us both a favor,” she stuttered out between ragged breaths, holding back the tears that threatened to fall, “and get out.”

  He reared back like she’d slapped him. Then he clamped his jaw shut, the muscles flexing along his hairline and throat. His body shook with rage.

  He was a liar and a thief and a manipulator. A clean break. That’s what she needed. And then maybe once he was gone, she could convince her boss to give her another chance, to let her out of this fucking jail cell.

  He nodded roughly like he’d come to some kind of decision and his fingers found hers, gently tangling them together for a brief moment before he brought her hand to his lips and gently kissed the back of it. “Okay, then. I’ll go. But not before I make sure you’ll be safe. You can hate me forever, if you like, but I’m not giving up on you. At least you’ll have a forever.”

  He dropped her hand and stepped clear of her. Shivers ran up her spine as the corner of his mouth twitched up into a small knowing smoldering gaze. Then he turned from her and banged on the door. “Let me out, already.”

  As the door opened and he left, she barely registered the thing slamming shut again. For a long moment, she stood there, exhausted and drained. Honestly, she’d never thought he would take the out. She’d always thought he would fight for her. For them.

  That was what she wanted though, wasn’t it? Him gone. She hugged her arms around herself and groaned. What had he expected when he came here? For her to beg him to help her? That wasn’t who she was. She’d take care of herself, because that was what she’d always done. She didn’t know what he was supposed to bring to trade for her, but she damn well wasn’t going to be some bargaining chip for Reilly.

  She sure as fuck wouldn’t be bought by Jordan.

  25

  Jordan’s chest was both icy and numb as he stepped outside the building. Sunlight reflected off the glass of the building, making him squint, but he almost wished to be spontaneously combusted.

  Except he had to fix this first.

  Reilly’s right-hand stooge, Alcott, held out his hand to him. Jordan’s keys dangled from his fingers. “Told you I’d return the car to you.”

  Jordan stared at the man for a long moment, but the guy didn’t even flinch. His gaze was expressionless, controlled and shuttered. Like there nothing inside him. As Alcott gestured behind him, Jordan turned toward the curb. His car sat idling, completely unscathed.

  But why would they destroy it when they needed that serum from him?

  “Thanks, I think,” Jordan said. He was being released, but on a leash. Reilly had mentioned Muldoon in the office. That they’d tested him, tried to isolate the matrix in his blood. How much had Muldoon supplied them? What exactly had they held over the man? But if they could get Jordan to agree to do whatever they wanted for Penny, maybe it was the same for Scott. Was this how Scott had felt when Lewis had turned him? Like he had no choice? Was this terrible weight on his chest the connection Reilly had to keep him in line, knowing that Penny would be punished if he didn’t succeed?

  Clouds blocked the sun overhead, plunging them all into shade.

  He might have preferred the dark. Wasn’t that where he belonged? Not anywhere near a star like Penny. Her light had lit up his life but like everything in his life, he had destroyed it.

  “Mr. Reilly would remind you that the clock is ticking,” the guy beside him said. Jordan glanced at him. He didn’t look much like he wanted Jordan to hurry. Actually, he seemed a little bit like he wanted Jordan to fail. He recognized the guy from the files in Sierra’s database.

  Sam Alcott, the head of security.

  He faced the guy. “Sam, isn’t it?”

  Alcott’s mouth turned up into a smirk. “You’ve heard of me?”

  “I do my research.”

  “I’m flattered.”

  “Don’t be,” Jordan replied. He committed everything about the name, everything about his face, to memory. Another skill he had had drilled into him by his father. But at least this one was useful. He leaned in toward the man. “You tell Reilly he will get the fucking serum he wants. And I will tell you… If there is one extra scratch on that woman, one tiny new paper cut when I come back, anything to make me think she’s been mistreated, I will personally cut you to ribbons, starting with your tongue and your ears. All so you can keep your eyes and watch me do it without being able to scream.”

  He’d expected the man to bow up, to puff out that masculine chest and pound on it like a cave man. Instead, the guy rubbed his chest and smiled. “I look forward to you trying.”

  “Not. One. Scratch. Mother. Fucker.”

  Alcott simply stared at him with that ghostly smile. Then he turned his back on Jordan and walked away, his men trailing him, leaving Jordan standing on the curb next to his car.

  Why should he have any reason to see Jordan off? He knew Jordan was on a timetable. He had less than forty-eight hours to save Penny’s life… and maybe his child? He couldn’t even fathom that at the moment.

  He stepped around the car, his gaze casing over the outside of it as he did, looking for anything different. He didn’t see anything on the surface, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t left him a gift for later.

  He shut himself in the car. Alcott and his men had left, not even bothering to see him off. He pressed the gray panel beneath the steering wheel, letting it scan his palm.

  “Welcome back, Agent Levi,” Sierra purred.

  “Hello, Sierra,” he said. “Need a favor from ya, love.”

  “Anything for you,” she replied.

  “Two, actually. One, scan the gallery. Can you find the chip I left in there?” There was a long silence. Too long.

  Then Sierra’s clear voice broke that silence. “Yes. The tag is active.”

  “Good.” He couldn’t get Penny out now
, but he could make sure he knew where she was, no matter where they took her. “Keep tracking it.”

  “Your second favor?”

  He shook his head as he pulled the car out of the parking lot and onto the road. “I need a scan of this car. Anything foreign.”

  “Of course, Agent Levi,” Sierra replied cheerfully.

  “Disable anything not installed by the Company,” he added.

  There was a long pause as Sierra worked. Then her purring voice came over the speakers. “All foreign devices have been disabled.”

  “So, there were some?”

  “Yes. A small GPS chip on the bottom of the vehicle.”

  Of course, they would want to keep tabs on him. They didn’t trust him, not even with Penny in their hold. He swallowed hard.

  Focus on the mission.

  “Sierra, where is Nathan right now?” he asked.

  “I’m afraid I am not at liberty to divulge that information,” Sierra said, not sounding at all apologetic. But what did he expect? He was talking to a computer.

  “I need to know, Sierra. Please.”

  “My security subroutines prevent me from answering your query. I’m sorry, Agent Levi.”

  “What about Bridget Muldoon?”

  “I’m afraid I am not at liberty to divulge that information,” Sierra said again.

  He hit his palm against the steering wheel. “Damn it.”

  He didn’t know why he thought it would be any different. Nathan met with the Reapers on his time, not the other way around. The fucker was probably sipping mai-tais on the Company dime. Meanwhile, Penny was living with Jordan’s consequences.

  “Call Nathan,” Jordan said.

  “I’m afraid he’s unavailable at the moment.”

  “Fuck,” Jordan ground out between clenched teeth. The one time he needed the motherfucker and he wasn’t around. He swiped a hand down his face as he raced down the highway.

  He drew in a ragged breath. He had no idea where he’d been inducted. He’d been half-dead after the few weeks in Giroux hospitality. But Liam was going through his induction and training, and he did know where he was. Didn’t it make sense that where Liam was, wouldn’t they have the activator serum there as well? It was a big gamble, one that would waste time if he was wrong, but he didn’t have a choice. He had no other leads and no one else was going to help him with this.

  “Sierra, I need a ride. A fast one.”

  “Destination?”

  “Rose City,” he said, his throat feeling a bit like he was breathing with knives buried in it.

  “Of course, Agent Levi. Please hold as I download instructions into your vehicle.” A few seconds later, the GPS appeared on the center console screen. “Please proceed to that address. There will be a plane waiting for you.”

  As he drove, that bomb Penny had dropped slammed right back into his mind. A baby. His baby. A child. He’d decided a long time ago that he never wanted children, but he owed it to them both—if she was really pregnant—that they got a chance to live out their lives. Letting her go would tear him apart, but there was no way that she’d be safe with him, even if she didn’t hate him. Especially after Nathan found out about his betrayal.

  Fuck. Was this how Muldoon felt? Cornered, alone? Left without choices?

  Muldoon.

  He grabbed his phone as he raced down the highway, dialing quickly. It rang twice before someone answered. “I need your help.”

  “Well, isn’t that a switch?” Scott’s voice was gruff and somehow cocky as fuck.

  “I don’t have a choice,” he said.

  “What’s wrong?” Scott asked, the cockiness evaporating.

  “I need to save someone,” he said. Then he launched into the vaguely idiotic plan in his head, outlining exactly what he needed.

  Scott was silent for so long he was afraid that he might have hung up on him.

  “Scott?”

  “Why call me?”

  Jordan swallowed hard. He’d have closed his eyes if he weren’t driving ninety miles an hour down the highway. “Because you would understand.” Because the rest of the team would hate him for doing this once they found out, once Nathan buried him in some deep, dark hole in South America, like he’d done to Scott.

  “I’m not a geneticist. I’m a computer programmer. I can’t do what you want me to do,” he said. “I won’t.”

  “I just need to find it,” Jordan said. “I have to save Penny.”

  “The girl from the gallery,” Scott intoned.

  “Yes,” Jordan said. “It’s our fault. And…” he trailed off. No. He would not admit he loved her to Muldoon. He would give no one that power over him. “I just need the serum.”

  “All mentions of the process is restricted in Sierra’s systems,” Scott continued. “I wouldn’t even know where to start to get that info.”

  “Just get me into the facility where Liam is,” Jordan said. “If you can’t do that, then tell me now and I’ll find another way. I won’t fail her. I can’t afford to fail her.”

  “Why?”

  “Because this matters,” he spat out.

  Another excruciating silence.

  Then a long sigh. “Where are you?”

  “Car. Headed to the airport to catch a plane.”

  “Company plane?” Scott asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll meet you in Rose City,” Scott said.

  Jordan blinked. Scott already knew where Liam was. Hell, he was probably multi-tasking while he talked to Jordan.

  “There’s an underground bunker there, a lot like the one in Jubilee. But I’ll meet you at the airfield.”

  “The serum will be there?”

  “Your answers will be there,” Scott replied. “If you want to save that girl, this way is the best way to do it.”

  As Jordan rolled onto the private airfield, he sped across the large expanse of concrete to the hangar in the directions Sierra had downloaded to his car. He gripped the phone in his hand, long after he’d ended the call with Scott.

  Penny. His Penny. Who was strong enough and angry enough to stand toe-to-toe with him, to kick him out of her own jailcell. Who was in deep shit and knew it. She should have hit him, kicked him in the balls, something. But that quiet anger, where she hadn’t even lost her temper was chilling.

  It was better that Penny wanted him out of her life. What could he have done with a child anyway? Strapped the wee thing to his back while he repelled down a building? Paid a babysitter to sit with the child while he ran from police?

  No. He wasn’t father material. He never would be. Maybe he could have been, if he hadn’t had his shit of a father. Maybe if he’d been normal. Not a Reaper. Nathan had told him the Reaper matrix made him sterile. Shooting blanks. And still he’d been careful with Penny. God, what if there were more of his spawn out there? If he managed to get Penny pregnant, how many others might have been knocked up in his past and he didn’t know?

  As his thoughts spiraled down those dark pathways, he cursed and missed the turn into the hangar he needed. Shit. He could not dwell on this mess right now. First things first. Penny had to survive this. She had to live.

  Then? Well, Nathan could dump him into whatever hole Scott had been dumped into. That would keep him out of Penny’s life as she asked. He would never hurt ruin another person’s life again. But Penny would live, and so would her child.

  Penny used two more bathroom breaks to map out the floor she was on. On the third, she decided it was now or never. As Alcott led her down the hall again, she tried to ease her pounding heart. She wasn’t sure why it always had to be Alcott that took her out of the room. She knew he wasn’t the one standing outside her door, but every time she’d been taken out, he’d been her escort.

  He didn’t talk much, but that was basically who he was all the time. When she’d been around him before all this mess, he barely had even looked at her, let alone talked to her. Which had been par for the course with any guy. At least, until Jordan.<
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  That ache in her chest started again and she willed it away with everything she had. She couldn’t start feeling guilty for how she’d treated Jordan. He deserved every bit of censure. But it was possible that he was the one person who could have gotten her free and she’d sent him away. Like she had a death wish or something.

  Sam eyed her and then the bathroom. He stood in the doorway of the one-person capacity room and frowned. “You have two minutes. Make it quick.”

  He swept the door shut, giving her privacy. She looked around for something, anything, but what she got was a whole lot of bathroom supplies. Toilet paper. Toilet paper holder. Sink. Soap. Sanitizer. She snorted to herself as she used the bathroom. She might die down here, but at least her hands would be clean.

  As she finished and stood, she stared at the sanitizer. Then a slow smile crept up on her face. Yeah, that could work. She grabbed the bottle and squeezed a bunch in her hands just as the door opened wide.

  She moved quickly, knowing this was her one shot. She rushed Sam and pressed her sanitizer-soaked thumbs into his eyes. As he yelled, he reached blindly for her. She managed to dodge him, but he swept his foot as she tried to run past him and tripped her right off her feet.

  She hit the ground, the air whooshing out of her, but she flipped over and slammed her free foot right into his nose. He growled and fell back, holding his nose as blood gushed out of the thing and she took off running.

  She’d never been down on this level before, so she really didn’t know where she was going. But in her previous trips down the hall, she’d noticed the stairs that led up to the handprint scanner so that was out. The other direction seemed more likely, with a dozen doors like hers. She found another set of stairs that went down, and after a brief hesitation, she ran down them, the cold metal biting into her bare feet.

  Three flights later, she came across another door, and thankfully, this one didn’t come with snazzy handprint scanners. Or a lock at all, she amended as she thrust open the door. She stopped dead as it opened up into what looked like a warehouse. Stacks and stacks of boxes, metal ones. Containers of some kind.

  How did they get all this under the gallery without people seeing… and without her seeing? Was there another entrance, maybe? The containers were the size of train cars. As she heard the pound of heavy footsteps on the metal stairs, fear spiked up inside her chest.