Chloe leaned over the seat. “Simi says—”
“I heard her.” Jack sighed. “I had to get out of town and couldn’t risk any communication.”
“Christ,” Gage muttered. “Are we going to have to deal with your lovers’ squabble for the entire heist?”
“We aren’t lovers,” I spat out. “We aren’t friends. We’re temporary coworkers. As soon as this is done, I hope never to see him again.”
“But first he’s going to pay,” Chloe said. “I bought zip ties, a bucket, a hunting knife, pliers, bleach, and a mop this morning. No one hurts my girl—emotionally or physically—and gets away with it.”
“Bleach?” Gage pushed himself up on one elbow, his forehead creased in a frown.
“It’s multipurpose,” Chloe said. “It can clean, sanitize, take out stains, blind you, and it’s toxic if consumed.”
“You two scare me.” Gage lay down again. “Remind me never to piss you off.”
“You won’t need a reminder,” I said. “You can remember the sound of Jack’s screams and see his shriveled corpse before I bury him in a shallow grave.” I looked over at Chloe. “We’ll need a shovel.”
“I decided to get Prime since we’re going to be rich,” she said. “We’ll have it tomorrow.”
“I have a rule about getting involved with coworkers,” Emma said. “Too many complications. I was the utility person in a NASCAR pit crew a few years back. We went for drinks after a big race. One thing led to another and there I was in bed with four race car drivers. That led to a lot of drama on race day. Fights broke out. Someone lost a leg. You know how it goes.”
“How does it go?” Anil asked. “Was it a super king or California king? Or did you all fit in a normal king-size bed? That wouldn’t work for me because I’m an active sleeper. Last week my mom came to wake me for work and my pillows were on the floor and I was sleeping upside down.”
“Bats sleep upside down,” Gage said. “So do sloths and manatees.”
“Gage watches a lot of Animal Planet,” Chloe said, her eyes going soft.
Jack shifted beside me. “I’m interested in Emma’s orgy.”
“The point wasn’t the sex,” Emma said. “It was the bladder infection I got the next day. I was pissing fire. I had to go to the hospital, and I couldn’t be there to take the protective film off the windshield, and the driver spun out and crashed. Dude suffered a temporary loss of hearing, so I didn’t bother apologizing when I went to see him in the hospital. I mean, what was the point? It’s not like he could read lips with his eyes all bandaged from the burns. And really, he should have been apologizing to me. Someone didn’t wash their junk before playing monkeys in the bed and I was pretty sure it was him. That’s what we call karma.”
“I learn so much from you,” Anil said. “I’ve made a mental note to shower before having relations with my future wife.”
“The guards are gone.” Emma looked back at Chloe. “Can you use your fancy setup to see where they are?”
“I’ve piggybacked on to the outdoor camera feed,” Chloe said. “They’re around the back of the house starting their circuit. It’s go time.”
We scrambled to transfer vehicles. Only moments after Gage had closed the van door, I heard Emma call out, “Hello, everyone. Don’t you all look lovely tonight.”
“Damn,” Gage said. “That was close.”
Our serial killer wedding van had no windows in the back, but still my heart pounded until doors had slammed, the limo engine had roared, and the crunch of wheels on gravel had faded into the distance.
“Breathe,” Jack murmured beside me. “They’re gone.”
“Chloe, tell this dude that any communication with me should be limited solely to heist operations.”
“Don’t speak to Simi about anything other than the heist.” Chloe pushed to sit and opened the laptop on her knees. “One guard is walking the perimeter. The other one is still near the house. Rose is on her way to the restaurant to set up the phone-stealing trivia game. She’ll be ready to go when everyone arrives.”
Rose had practiced the trivia party game several times with a group of friends. She figured we would only have about twenty minutes to find the safe before people got bored and started asking for their phones.
“Since we have some time, can we talk about what happened the other night?” Jack asked.
“No.” I would have preferred not to talk to him directly, but I didn’t want to distract Chloe from her work.
“I knew they wouldn’t hurt you,” he said. “They’re professionals.”
I didn’t want to ask, but curiosity is an insatiable beast. “Professional what? Enforcers? Bellhops? I think one of them had a name tag that said concierge. I didn’t know debt collection was part of the job description. Or holding an innocent person at gunpoint.”
He had the good grace to look somewhat discomfited. “Gage was on his way. I texted him from the bathroom. You weren’t unprotected.”
“Gage.” I spat out the name. “Not you.” Desperate for a distraction from Jack and his sexy cowardly weasel voice, I turned to Anil. “Do you have the replica?”
“Right here.” Anil patted the canvas bag he’d slung over his shoulder. “I researched the real necklace after our practice heist. Did you know it has no published provenance, but the Indian government claims it was a gift to a queen from her lover and stolen from a temple in Rajasthan? It’s been off the grid since it was bought at auction.”
We spent the rest of our time in the van listening to Anil recount the story of the young queen who had fallen in love with her bodyguard but had been forced into a political marriage to save her realm. It made me even more determined to save Bella from the same fate.
My phone finally dinged with a message from Rose. “She’s got the phones,” I said to Chloe. “Everyone put on your gloves and masks. It’s heist time.”
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
?“I read all about safes and how to hide them in preparation for our venture. We should check the office and the master bedroom first.” Anil followed me up the front steps, chattering away. I could barely hear him over the pounding of my heart. It just felt wrong to brazenly walk through the front door even though Chloe had deactivated the cameras and the alarm. I would have been more comfortable crawling in a window.
We took off our masks once we were inside. Gage went to make sure no one was in the house, while Jack searched the lower floor. Anil and I headed upstairs and went straight to the master bedroom. Unlike the rest of the house, which was light and bright and decorated in white and cream, the master was all dark wood and heavy fabrics in shades of navy and gold.
“Safes are usually hidden behind paintings, mirrors, air vents, and in floors—places easily accessible to owners, but also hidden from view,” Anil said. “You can also build a secret room in your house behind a bookshelf. I saw a YouTube video about it. When I get my money, I’m going to buy a house and install a secret room like that.”