“You don’t believe me?”
They waited for the walk signal then headed across the street with an interesting array of characters. Though she’d seen the girl with the pink hair before, and those facial piercings were not part of any costume.
Would anybody recognize Laney? She scanned faces only to find smiles and laughter and a few chocolate smears.
“I haven’t known the new you long enough to believe you yet,” she finally responded.
“Fair enough.” Alex paused in front of the apartment complex and stepped back into the trees toward the river. “Nice place for an unemployed fellow with no inheritance.” He held out his phone.
“I’ll say.” She took the device, clicking his camera icon to the video feature before pressing record and turning it toward herself. “This is Laney Winters and Alex Pierce.” She flashed the camera over to film him. “We are breaking into Mitch Sterling’s penthouse to find the money he stole from my sting operation five years ago and prove neither Alex nor I are responsible for the theft or for Sterling’s gunshot wound.” She flashed the camera toward the building.
Goosebumps rose up under her long sleeves. She was really doing this.
Alex nodded and led the way toward the tower. She kept the film rolling as they headed through the lobby like they belonged there, smiling at the doorman and other costumed characters. Her heart slammed into her ribs with every gaze that turned their way, but nobody stopped them.
They took the stairs to the second floor and paused at the elevator, watching the numbers until the elevator reached the floor below them.
Alex scanned the area before sticking the drop key in the tiny hole at the top of the elevator doors—a tool often used by firefighters in emergency situations and loaned to them by Laney’s ex, Josh, who thought she was just going to use it in security demos for her business. He’d been happy to help her career and given lots of warnings about cutting power before attempting to enter the elevator shaft. Good thing he couldn’t see her now.
Alex flicked his wrist, releasing the locking mechanism on the doors to pull them open. Then he shot a cable with a powerful magnet up toward the top floor, attaching the other side to a harness he wore hidden under his cape.
“You really are Batman.”
Making jokes could help keep her from admitting to herself what she was actually doing. Which was using her experience in the security business to break into a home with a convicted felon as an accomplice. She knew how to avoid security cameras. She knew how to keep security guards from seeing an elevator stop on a floor it wasn’t supposed to. And Alex knew about cracking safes.
“I try.” Alex tugged on the cable to make sure it would hold him. “Come here.” He reached for her and pulled her to his chest.
Her breath caught. She’d known they were going up the elevator shaft, but she hadn’t known she’d be in his arms. She clung hesitantly, both loving and hating how strong his grip felt around her. Like she could easily be lulled into a false sense of security.
“You don’t have another one of these?” Would she even want to attempt the aerial maneuvers on her own? She looked up to gauge his reaction to the physical connection.
Blue eyes twinkled from behind his mask. “I might.”
She leaned away. He was just toying with her now. If he had another harness for her, there was no reason for him to hold her so intimately. Even if he did smell as inviting as firewood on the first crisp day of fall.
Voices echoed down the halls. Running feet. Small ones. Probably belonging to a harmless princess or little knight but would surely be followed by larger feet that would head directly to a phone to call the police if Alex and Laney were discovered breaking into an elevator.
“Hang on.”
She didn’t have time to argue anymore. They were dangling from a cable over a whole lot of nothing. She hugged Alex’s body closer, squeezing one hand around his cell phone and yanking her legs up to wrap around his waist. Her toes tingled and her stomach lurched when he swung to pull the elevator doors closed.
“I’ve got you.” He didn’t sound scared at all. Like he’d done this before. And he probably had.
The elevator below began to whir. She jerked her head to peer down. Sure enough, the car was headed their way.
“Look.” She let go of his neck long enough to point down. She should have stayed at the hotel and let Alex die by himself.
“No worries.” Alex tapped a button on his harness, and they zipped upwards, defying gravity and surely the laws of speed and velocity.
Her stomach reeled. If she puked, there would be a long pause before she heard a splat. Just like if she slipped.
The ceiling rushed down to meet her. She ducked, covering her cat ears with a gloved hand, but the pull of the cable slowed before they hit the top of the shaft.
“Whew!” Alex sounded more exhilarated than scared.
She closed her eyes to keep from looking down, but as Alex swung toward the elevator doors, her head began to spin again. She opened an eye just in time to see Alex grab the lock mechanism and release the doors to the penthouse. “On the third swing, you let go of me.”
“What? No.” She could already feel herself falling.
“You’ll land on the floor in the apartment. Look.” He pointed.
She peeked, but wished she hadn’t. Outside the window of the apartment was the view looking down on roofs and treetops. That’s how high they were?
“Laney, I know you don’t want to trust me, but that’s the only way you’re going to get out of this.”
“Help, Lord.” He was the only one she could trust.
“Perhaps God brought us together for a reason, Laney.”
She spun her head to face Alex. Too close, but she couldn’t push him away this time. “No. You’re the whole reason this mess started.”
“Hey, I didn’t shoot Sterling. I didn’t frame you. I didn’t hire hit men. I’m here to help.”
Laney stilled. Not just physically, but her heart as well. What if Alex was the answer to her prayers for truth? She never would have suspected Sterling, and here she was a few feet from proving him to be the dirty cop everyone thought she was.
Would she still have prayed for truth if she’d known this was going to be the result? Was the end of her story going to be worth all this?
Only if she kept moving forward. Only if she chose to trust Alex.
“All right, Batman. I’m letting go of you on the third swing.”
Her world shifted. She held her breath. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and…
Laney let go and dove for the parquet flooring just beyond the abyss. It welcomed her with a bruised knee and smashed nose. She rolled onto her back and spread her aching arms and legs wide to better appreciate the concept of being grounded.
Alex thudded down beside her then rolled away in a whirling cape. He rose and ripped off his mask in triumph. She grinned up at him and turned the camera to capture his messy-haired appeal. They did it. And they might look really funny, but they were still alive.
“You go crack the safe,” she ordered. “I’m not moving until I absolutely have to.”
“Deal.” Alex took off down the hall.
She must trust him more than she realized. She’d let him swing her around through midair. She’d let him go crack the safe alone even though part of her still wondered if he was going to take off with the money and leave her behind. It felt kind of good not to have to worry about everything for herself. She sighed and smiled softly.
**
Alex couldn’t help smiling, which was usually how he’d felt when breaking into a safe. This time it was from the fact Laney was letting him do it without breathing down his neck and aiming her gun at him like she’d threatened. Maybe swinging her into the apartment had been a test of trust for her. Maybe it would be the foundation on which they could actually build a relationship.
He made his way around the office, checking behind frames and paintings. Ste
rling sure seemed to have a thing for photos of himself. The one of him on a yacht swung sideways to reveal the safe Alex was looking for. Except it wasn’t the safe he was looking for.
“Blast!” He ran his gloved fingers over his hair. All that work for nothing.
Laney must have heard his frustration for she joined him a moment later, pulling off her own mask. “What?”
He hated to disappoint her after the trauma he’d just put her through. “This isn’t the kind of safe all the other apartments have installed. This is an electronic safe. I didn’t bring the right tools for it.”
Laney dropped back into the desk chair. “There’s nothing for this on your utility belt, Batman?”
He bit his tongue to keep from cursing. That was the old Alex. The new one didn’t do this for his own glory; he did it to help others. Though, still… “Not funny right now, Laney.”
“Well, there’s got to be another way.” She unstrapped the holster on her leg and pulled out her gun.
“Whoa.” He held up a hand. “That’s only going to trigger it to lock down.”
She holstered her weapon and moved forward to see if she could pry the thing out of the wall with her fingers. “Do you have a sledgehammer?”
Subtlety was not her strong suit. “Laney, the only way to get to the contents is going to be to guess the combination. We’ve got three tries before it locks down on us. Do you know Sterling’s birthday or any other number that might mean something to him?”
Laney stepped back and frowned. “His birthday…His birthday… He was about ten years older than me, so that would be 1974. And we usually celebrated around Memorial Day. Yeah. Five, thirty, seventy-four.”
Alex took a breath and punched in the numbers then pulled at the handle despite a couple beeps signaling failure. Only two more chances. Did Laney know Sterling enough to crack the code? She hadn’t seen him much after leaving the force.
She clapped her hands. “His badge number. That’s what I use for my voicemail password.”
That would be perfect. “Great. What is it?”
“Five-one-one-four.”
Alex set his jaw. If this didn’t work, they would have only one more try before they went home empty-handed.
He hit the numbers. The safe beeped, and it might as well been a monitor of how his heart rate flat-lined.
“Are you sure that was it, Laney?”
She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. “Yes. That was it. He wouldn’t have used my badge number, would he?”
Alex tilted his head. That would be kind of weird, but he wouldn’t rule it out.
“I know.” Her hands dropped. Her eyes lit up. “It’s twelve, twenty-five, oh-nine.”
He paused. What number was that? How could she be so sure?
She waved him toward the safe. “Punch it in. Punch it in.”
“Laney, this is our last chance.”
She nodded. “It’s all we need. That’s the day Mitch got disowned by his parents for wrecking their boat.”
Really? That was a bit of a stretch. Though…
He swung the photograph around for Laney to see. “This boat?”
“Probably.” She laughed. “It’s also the numbers I ran across in my investigation. It had been scribbled on a bank slip left behind when the money was stolen. I kept trying to connect it to you.”
Of course she had. But it didn’t matter anymore. She trusted him now. Her face glowed with it.
He stepped toward the safe. Toward her. “If this combination works, I’m kissing you, Laney.”
“Not if I kiss you first.”
Forget the safe. He reached for her. She’d been the treasure he didn’t think he would ever crack the code on. The woman he didn’t think would ever see him as safe.
He wrapped his arms around her and lowered his head. Her face peered up at him, so open, so free. Was this the beginning of something that would last the rest of their lives, or was she simply wrapped up in a moment she would later regret?
He didn’t have the answers to what she felt, but he knew he would only regret not kissing her—not taking the chance that maybe, just maybe, this woman could accept him despite his failures.
He breathed in her citrus scent and dropped his lips toward hers.
An elevator dinged. Footsteps and a cane clicked in the hallway.
Sterling was back, and he wasn’t alone.
Chapter Ten
Alex’s pulse pounded in his ears. He released Laney to punch the numbers into the safe and retrieve the money before they were caught. Praise the Lord, the handle turned. The door swung open to reveal stacks of cash. Now if the Almighty would just get them out of there alive.
He pulled open his bag and scooped money inside. Laney looked over her shoulder, pressing him out of the way so she could swing the safe shut and realign the picture frame to hide it. He shoved the money inside the duffle and zipped it closed.
Footsteps continued to grow louder. Voices. Sterling must have brought the gangsters with him.
Where would they hide? Laney had taught him it was best to put as much space between himself and a shooter rather than to hide within shooting range. They would have a better chance of survival if they got out of the room undiscovered rather than concealing themselves behind a drape or something.
She waved from beside an armoire next to the door. She was way ahead of him.
Alex ducked just as Sterling and his henchmen entered, their backs toward Alex and Laney.
Laney’s finger dug into his arm. She could probably feel the blood cruising through his veins.
“I can’t believe you expect me to pay you for a job you haven’t done yet,” Sterling roared.
If the gangsters turned, they could finish the job right then, but Alex wasn’t going to let that happen. He made eye contact with Laney and gestured for them to escape.
They moved in slow motion, keeping their steps silent.
“You didn’t tell us the target was going to be armed,” the shorter gangster bit back. “And we did blow up her boyfriend’s Corvette. That was pretty cool.”
“That’s made them harder to track, you idiot.”
“But it was cool.”
One more step and they’d be out of the room.
“How do I know you’re not going to kill me and take my money the minute I open the safe?”
“How do we know you won’t stiff us for the other half once we kill the girl? We already put our lives on the line last night.”
Alex didn’t want to stick around to find out who won the argument. Especially since there wasn’t going to be any money in the safe once Sterling opened it. He continued his quiet journey to the elevator with Laney.
“Hey, what’s that?” Sterling’s voice.
“Cat ears.” A gangster laughed. “Why do you have cat ears, Copper?”
Laney’s eyes grew wide. She patted the top of her head. She hadn’t...
“The safe is empty.”
They both took off at a run. Angry footsteps charged their way as Alex punched the elevator button.
The doors slid open with a ding. Shots rang out. He shoved Laney in against the side wall and shielded her with his body, jabbing at the buttons to close the doors and whisk them away.
Bullets lodged in the back wall of the elevator, bringing with them the sulfur smell of firecrackers. If the car didn’t close fast enough, those bullets would soon be lodged in his brain. He watched the doors inch toward each other. Footsteps grew louder.
Laney pulled her gun and reached past him to fire. The report echoed through the compartment as she pulled the trigger. The sound of footsteps was replaced by furniture scraping against the floor as gangsters dove for cover. Elevator doors finally connected.
Alex stared over his shoulder at Laney as the elevator began its descent. She’d saved him once again. What an incredible woman. He would totally kiss her now.
“Ha-ha!” He spun to face her, cupping her face in his hands. “We did it
.”
They made the perfect team. And now that she trusted him, their partnership didn’t ever have to end. He leaned his forehead against hers, giving her the chance to kiss him first, the way she’d claimed to want to upstairs.
**
Laney bit her lip to keep from screaming. Her arm throbbed with the sting of a bullet. The idiot thought she was going to kiss him after that? After he risked her life to steal the money? After she’d been shot?
The pulsing from the torn flesh of her bicep wasn’t the only pain she felt. No, it was the ache in her chest that made her want to knee Alex right between the legs again. For he wasn’t any better than her father had been when getting her mother killed.
They weren’t supposed to have been there for the money. They were there for the evidence, which she had on his phone as soon as he’d opened the safe. If he’d left the cash alone, nobody would have been after them. Sterling would have found his money and not worried so much about the cat ears she’d left behind.
Laney slammed the fist of her uninjured arm into the button for the next floor. The elevator jerked to a stop. She pulled away from Alex, cradling her left arm to her chest while aiming her gun on him and stepping backward into the hallway.
“Leave the money.”
A herd of children dressed like zoo animals shrieked when they saw her. Adults rushed them away.
“What are you doing? We’ve got to take the money to the police.” He looked at her arm then the blood dripping to the floor. “You’re hurt?”
He was good. He looked so genuine. But she’d thought that the first time she’d met him, as well. “Don’t pretend to care about me. Just put your precious money down. I have video footage of Sterling talking about the hit on my life. If you send the money back upstairs, the gangsters will be too busy fighting over it to come after us.”
Alex reached toward her, still holding onto the bag. “Laney, just get back on the elevator so we can get you to a hospital. I didn’t know you were hit. I thought you trusted me now.”
Her heart wrenched. She’d actually believed he wanted to be with her. But he’d used her just like she was afraid he would. Taking her to a hospital would be the perfect excuse for him to take off with the loot before she could stop him. She would have been better off drinking Sterling’s poison at the ball than working with Alex.
Team Love on the Run Box-Set #1 Page 9