To Have and to Heist(58)
“It’s all coming together.” She squeezed my hand as the room descended into chaos. “I can’t believe it’s actually going to happen.”
“I know. A few weeks ago, we were just living our normal lives, struggling to keep our heads above water, and now we’re planning a heist and a high-society wedding with our very own crew. The thought of sitting at another desk typing numbers into a spreadsheet gives me hives. I don’t think I could go back to my regular life. We’ve been arrested and shot at. We’ve done a surveillance mission and shopped for a dress on the top floor of Bloomingdale’s. I’ve been to a charity ball, hobnobbed with Chicago’s elite, and met a real estate magnate who oozes evil. Our dreams are finally in reach. I feel like someone has opened my eyes to a whole new exciting world of possibilities and interesting people. We’ve broken rules, Chloe. We’ve broken the law and it’s exhilarating.”
“Right back at you, babe.” She slid her arm around my waist, and we watched Cristian chase Emma around the room with an apple core while Anil tried to goad Gage into wrestling with him on the concrete floor. Only Jack was still. He leaned against the wall, his focus not on the mayhem around him but on me.
The intensity of his gaze sent a delicious shiver straight down my spine. A shiver that felt way too good. Everything faded away except the heat in his eyes, the thud of my heart, and the soul-deep certainty that I had finally been seen. Even if none of this worked out, even if I never saw Jack again, I knew in my bones, I would never be the same.
Sixteen
After the meeting, Jack took me to see his “guy who can get things.”
“It’s safer than ordering from Amazon,” he said after Chloe mentioned it was going to take five days to get an RF transceiver to hack the system because she didn’t have Prime.
I was excited to meet the kind of guy who sold stuff out of the back of his truck. I’d let a sheltered life in the suburbs. Even when I’d moved out in a big show of independence, I’d stayed in Evanston and rented a suite in a house with a responsible adult—at least that’s what I told my parents. As it turned out, between me and Rose, I was the responsible one.
“What do you think of our plan?” I asked after a full three minutes of silence in his black Toyota 4Runner. It had rental plates and a small tree-shaped air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror that filled the car with a fresh pine scent.
“It’s not bad.”
“Not bad could get us all thrown in jail,” I said. “It has to be perfect.”
“There is no perfect plan. Something always goes wrong.” He whipped around the Dempster Street cloverleaf and onto the expressway without putting his foot on the brake to slow to the recommended speed.
“What’s going to go wrong?”
“That’s the question you need to ask yourself about every step,” he said. “If it can go wrong, it will. You need to plan for contingencies. What if someone gets sick and doesn’t go to the dinner? What if Angelini doesn’t give up his phone? What if he sees the notification and sends his security guys to check it out? What if the jamming doesn’t work and you’re stuck inside with a bunch of cameras live-streaming your face to a shoot-first-ask-questions-later kind of dude?”
“Why didn’t you mention any of this at the meeting?” My plan suddenly seemed foolish and naive. With cold clarity, I could see at least a dozen things that could go wrong.
“You didn’t ask.”
“I didn’t ask? You weren’t there until the end.” I struggled against the urge to give him a smack. “Don’t you know what it’s like to be part of a team? You show up on time. You share your skills, experience, and knowledge and point out problems that may result in our team being tortured or killed. You support us, and in return, we support you. We have your back. You walk in the world knowing you aren’t alone. Your casual, laid-back, laissez-faire attitude to this heist isn’t going to cut it any longer. You’re a team player or you’re out. I covered for you at the ball and when Garcia came to my store, but—”
“Garcia?” His jaw tightened. “Is that the cop you’re seeing?”
“I’m not seeing him,” I said. “He keeps showing up looking for extra information. He said someone stole Simone’s necklace at the charity ball, and since I was already a suspected jewel thief, he thought it might be me. So now I’m the go-to gal every time there’s a crime.”
I thought he’d at least smile at the rhyme, but for the first time since I’d met him, he had nothing to say.
“Was it you?” I asked into the uncomfortable silence. “You were also at both crime scenes. I’m not accusing you, but—”
“You are accusing me.”
I thought back to the night at the museum, our meeting in the dark, the conversation that lit me up inside, and the curious sensation of feeling safe in a stranger’s arms. We had some kind of chemistry, a bond that told me not to delve any deeper. The irony of feeling ashamed that I’d accused him of theft wasn’t lost on me, but since he was driving and needed to keep his focus on the road, I let it go.
Ten minutes of awkward silence later, he stopped the car in a deserted parking lot in East Garfield, one of the most crime-ridden community areas in Chicago. Jack motioned me out of the vehicle and opened the hatch. I leaned against the bumper while he made a call.