“I wasn’t scared,” I interjected. “They were idiots. They didn’t take my phone. I could have called 911 at any time.”
“I stand corrected,” Jack said. “Not scared, but helpless and alone, and I—”
“I wasn’t helpless, either,” I cut in. “I grabbed a rotten floorboard. It had nails in it. I could have caused them some serious damage, and as you know, I also have mad fight skills. I can take care of myself, but sometimes I would like someone to have my back.”
“Of course.” Jack nodded. “Not scared or helpless, but alone.”
“Very alone.” I gave him a stern look. “Abandoned.”
“I never meant to make you feel that way,” he said. “I’ll do what it takes to prove that to you in the hopes one day you will forgive me.”
“I forgave you when you said ‘sorry,’ but I enjoyed hearing you grovel.” I leaned over for a kiss. He was most obliging.
“You told me to listen to my heart,” I said. “My heart says I want more kisses. I want to live my life outside four cement walls. I want Olivia to have her mom and Chloe to have her freedom and Bella to marry the man she loves. I want us all to have a chance to really live our lives without struggling to keep our heads above water. I want to take risks. I want to be wild. And I want to be wicked . . . with you.”
His lips tipped up at the corners. “Sounds like you need a plan.”
“We know the necklace is in the safe,” I mused. “The safe is in the office. Chloe said the office has no cameras . . .” I was on a roll now. With the mental block down that had been holding me back, I could finally see a world of possibilities open up before me. “Only Mr. Angelini uses the office. He won’t be there during the wedding ceremony or afterward during dinner. I have to be at the ceremony, but at dinner, I’ll just be walking around making sure everything is okay.” I wrapped my hands around his neck and pulled him down for another kiss. “I think I have a plan.”
“Glad to hear it, and so will the three cars waiting behind us. Which way?”
“Right,” I said. “I need to talk to Chloe. And then we’ve got a meeting to get to. We’re going to save Bella, steal the necklace, and have our happy ending after all.”
Twenty-Four
Plan B. We’re going to steal the necklace during the wedding dinner.”
I steadied the whiteboard in Rose’s garage and looked over the sea of smiling faces. I hadn’t shared the details of my meeting with Mr. Angelini except to divvy up the ten thousand dollars among the crew. Cash always made people smile.
“$1,666.66 each,” Anil had said when I fanned it out on the table. “But since there’s no change, we’ll round down, and you can have the extra four dollars as danger pay.”
I forced a laugh, but after my meeting with Mr. Angelini, I knew that the danger was all too real.
“She had a plan all along,” Chloe said. “She just needed time.”
“Thanks, babe.” Chloe and I had worked through the details at her place. She’d assured me nothing had changed between us. She was and would always be my ride or die and no man would get between us. I’d given myself a mental kick in the ass for letting my fears and insecurity affect our friendship. I was worth being loved and I wasn’t going to be afraid to ask for what I wanted.
“Although the lower floor of the house will be open for guests, everyone will be in the tent for dinner,” I said. “The outdoor sensors and drone Bees will be turned off, but the indoor cameras will still be on. We can’t risk jamming the system again, so we’re going to put helium balloon arrangements in front of the cameras.”
“Simple but elegant,” Gage said. “Why hack a system when you can just use balloons?”
“If you need them in animal shapes, just let me know. I have lots left over from my last clown gig.” Emma pulled a balloon from her pocket and blew it into a long, thin tube. She quickly twisted it into the shape of an elephant and placed it on the table.
“Why an elephant?” Anil asked.
“Because if we can get an elephant for a wedding, there is nothing we can’t do.”
“We’re assuming the office door will be locked,” I said, my heart even lighter than it had been since I walked in. “Rose will be supervising the caterers in the kitchen, so she can watch the hallway while Jack picks the lock. Chloe will liaise with the servers to make sure Mr. Angelini’s drinks are always topped up so he is less inclined to leave the tent, and she’ll try to intervene if he does look like he’s making a move.
“I’ll only need ten, maybe fifteen seconds to pick the lock,” Jack said. “Getting into the office won’t be the problem, but getting into the safe . . .”
“The safe I saw was exactly the same as the one upstairs so we already know it will have a three-digit code,” I said. “That means . . .”
“One hundred sixty-two possible combinations,” Anil offered, biting into an apple. “But if I were you, I’d try the same combination as the safe upstairs. I follow a professional safecracker on YouTube. He said people don’t like to remember lots of numbers, so they use the same passwords and the same combinations for everything.”
“Don’t tell me you have a different password for every app and website you use, or I might have to throw up,” Emma said. “I have one password and it’s password1234. Makes things simple.”
Anil reached down for the wastepaper basket he’d been using for his apple cores and held it out to Emma. Laughter bubbled in my chest at the burn. Anil wasn’t quite so innocent anymore and he’d developed a wicked sense of humor.
“I have a different twelve-digit password made up of a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols for every site I use and they are all committed to memory,” he said. “I don’t know why people think it’s so hard.”
Gage and Emma shared a look and snickered in the corner. Some things changed; others stayed the same.
“We should have a two-and-a-half-hour window to open the safe,” I continued. “The meal is fourteen courses and then there are the speeches, first dance, and the cake cutting ceremony. I can’t imagine Mr. Angelini is going to run to his office when it’s all done with all his friends and family around. I personally would not be able to move after eating fourteen courses and Bella mentioned he’s a heavy drinker.”
“We could put something in his drink to knock him out,” Gage said. “Then we’d have as much time as we needed.”
“No drugs.” I waggled my finger at him. “No guns. No fights. This might be a fake wedding, but I won’t have it ruined with a big spectacle. I want everyone to have a great time. This might be our only wedding event, but I want people to remember our name.”
“Assuming you get the necklace,” Emma said. “What happens next?”
“I hand it out the window to Anil. He hands it off to Chloe. She takes it to the van. I’ll buy a mini safe and she can put it in there and hide it in the ice cooler.”