“No bikinis. No tropical getaway.” I folded my arms across my chest, hoping Cristian didn’t get the wrong message from my “stern teacher” pose. “It will look suspicious if we all suddenly disappear. Also, I can’t do that to Bella. The wedding goes ahead as planned two days later on Saturday.”
“And DJ Ka-Poor is ready to rock!” Anil pulled a stack of business cards from his pocket. “I thought I should have a name and proper brand so people who love my musical stylings know who to call for their weddings.” He handed the cards around. “There’s a hyphen between Ka and Poor so when you say it, leave a pause. Ka Poor.”
“Jesus Christ.” Gage stared at the card with DJ Ka-Poor written in gold script on a background of colorful music notes.
“I’ve got the playlist all ready to go.” Anil was not put off in the least by Gage’s muttering. “Lots of highs and upbeat tunes, but then every ten to twelve songs, I’ll throw in a slower one to keep the flow going. People want them . . . just not as much as the fast ones. I’m starting with ‘Yeah!’ by Usher, then ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ by The Weeknd, ‘Shut Up and Dance’ by Walk the Moon—”
“Are earplugs part of our heist comp package?” Gage asked.
“Gage.” Chloe put a gentle warning hand on his arm. “We’re lucky to have Anil. He sacrificed his drone to get some amazing surveillance pictures. He’s risking his job to get us a replica necklace, and he’s putting in a lot of effort to make sure Bella is going to have a great wedding. I think a little support and gratitude are warranted.”
Gage stared at Chloe’s hand. She flushed and moved to pull it away, but he covered it with his own, holding it in place. I made a mental note to have a serious conversation with her about former priests who carried guns and hid in the shadows.
“What’s Jack doing in all this?” Rose asked. She’d been so quiet, I’d almost forgotten she was there.
“Having a good time,” he said from the doorway.
“How long have you been there?” I’d been so caught up in the plan, I hadn’t even noticed he’d arrived.
“Long enough,” he said. “I’m your man for opening the safe and picking locks. I also know a guy who can get the equipment you need to hack the security system. He might also be able to find us a place for a dry run to make sure there are no problems with the plan.”
“My plan is solid.” I gave an affronted sniff. “Chloe and I have run through it dozens of times.”
“You should probably take him up on the offer,” Rose said. “In the movies, the crew always practices before the big day. It’s the most important part of the heist.”
I looked to Chloe, and she gave an apologetic shrug. “It can’t hurt.”
“Fine. We’ll do the run-through. Meeting dismissed.” I crossed the room to join Chloe by the table of snacks. I didn’t want to talk to Jack, not after my conversation with Garcia. I would have to ask him if he knew anything about Simone’s necklace, and I didn’t know if I wanted the answer.
“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—”