To Have and to Heist(73)

I felt an ache in my throat and wrapped my arms around his bent shoulders. “It’s not your fault. You were just a kid.”

Jack shook me off and returned to his digging. “I found out later the man who loaned her the money was a shady real estate developer,” he continued. “He’d started the loan business for the sole purpose of doing what he did to my grandmother so he could acquire the huge blocks of land he needed for his developments at a low cost. She wasn’t the only person on the block who lost her home, but she was the only one who died.”

My heart went out to the boy he’d been and the burden of guilt he’d been carrying all these years. “Did you tell the police?”

“A neighbor called them when she saw my grandmother lying on the ground. The two men told the paramedics it was an accident and she’d fallen down the stairs. No one believed me when I said she’d been pushed. I’m pretty sure the developer paid someone off to make it all go away. He had a lot of power and was owed a lot of favors.” He ran his hand through his hair, leaving a little streak of dirt on his forehead. “The last time I visited her grave was fifteen years ago. I made her a promise then that I would avenge her, and I still intend to make that happen.”

“What happened to you after she died?” I asked. “Where were your parents?”

“I lost them when I was eight years old, which is why I was staying with her. I had no other family, so it was foster care for me, and when that didn’t work out, I wound up on the street.”

“She’s why you know Oliver Twist,” I said, putting the pieces together.

“I went to the library every day after school to wait until she finished work. She thought it was better if I was surrounded in books than sitting at home alone in front of the TV.”

“She sounds like a wonderful person,” I said. “She must have loved you very much.”

Jack picked up his bags and looked around the garden. “I won’t have time to save them all. I’ve taken pictures to re-create her design, but it won’t be the same.”

“How about this one?” I pointed to a graceful, feathery vine with small, delicate, star-shaped red blooms.

“That’s a cypress vine,” he said. “Ipomoea quamoclit. It’s an escapee and not native to her garden. People think it’s an annual, but with a little help from nature, its self-seeding ability means it can pop up in new places year after year and thrive far away from its original home.”

Something niggled at the back of my mind. If the vine could escape and start over again somewhere new, why couldn’t a person? If Jack’s grandmother’s plants were strong enough to survive neglect, why couldn’t I? Maybe there was a way to save both Bella and Chloe. Maybe the heist wasn’t over after all.

Jack put an arm around me, and we walked to his bike. “Now you know more about me than anyone else.”

“Now you’re just semi-mysterious and a little bit human.”

“Little?” He lifted an eyebrow. “That’s not what you said earlier when you were being a wicked girl.”

Wicked. I liked it. Much better than “good.”

“Take me back to your hotel and I’ll show you wicked.” I grabbed my helmet and yanked it over my head.

“I like this new you,” Jack said.

I liked this new me, too. I didn’t give up and I didn’t give in. I was a fighter. I was in control. When bad things happened, I found a way around them. And now I had a plan.

I just had to find a way to convince the crew to steal a $25 million necklace from the mob and kidnap a mob boss’s daughter.

Twenty-One

Here’s a helpful tip. If you’re planning a heist involving the Mafia, make sure you find a crew who are heavily in debt.

“How much was the reward?” Emma asked after I’d shared the big reveal—Mafia, forced marriage, sadistic groom—and my new plan—steal the necklace and help Bella escape—over beer and wings in Rose’s garage the next night.

“That would be $833,333.33 each,” Anil said. “We were also offered $250,000 to plan the wedding divided by six, which is another $41,666.67 each, for a grand total of $875,000 per person.”

“You scare me when you do that math-in-your-head thing,” Emma said. “It’s not natural.”

“I totally understand if anyone wants to drop out,” I said. “The Mafia aspect adds another level of danger, and helping Bella escape raises it up another notch. I still don’t have a concrete plan for Bella, but I’m thinking of fake kidnapping her during the wedding.” I hesitated, waiting for the thunder of feet as everyone ran for the door. When that didn’t happen, I said, “I’m still willing to go ahead and so is Jack but—”

“I’m in,” Chloe said. “You started this for me, and now we’re going to help Bella, too. I can’t believe it’s even a question.”

“What about Olivia?” I countered. “You’ve seen the movies, read the news. These guys go after families when they’re pissed off. I don’t think you should take the risk.”

“If I don’t take the risk, I might wind up in jail,” she said. “If I don’t wind up in jail, we might wind up on the street. Some days I try to breathe, and I can’t get the air in. I’m almost thirty, and I’m still in the place I was when I earned minimum wage. At the very worst, I know Kyle’s parents would look after her, or even my mom if it doesn’t work out with them, but this is a chance at a better life for us. I have to take it.”