The Reluctant Thief (The Stolen Hearts #4)

by Mallory Crowe

  “Are we doing this again?” she asked.

  Slade rolled his neck, not seeming to be concerned in the slightest. “I’m waiting on you.”

  Great. She was just going to have to get this over with. Without letting herself chicken out, she ran for Slade and tried to take him by surprise by twisting around and shoving her elbow into his gut. And she was going to guess he wasn’t taken by surprise because before she ever made contact, his hand slammed into her upper back with so much force that she went slamming into the floor and, for a second, just lay there.

  She was debating never getting up again when she heard the low growl behind her. By the time she lifted her head to see what was happening, Scott was charging Slade, his shoulder going right into the man’s gut as they each went sprawling on the ground.

  Her own aches and pains suddenly forgotten, Toni jumped up. At the same time, Tristan and Hunter ran over from where they’d been working out, and the three of them crowded around Scott and Slade. The fight was close and intimate. They rolled as the upper hand seemed to switch. Slade landed a blow to Scott’s face, and even though Toni was sure Scott was about to pass out from the hit, he somehow managed to wrap an arm around Slade’s neck and, holding onto his wrist to make the grip secure, he squeezed his arm tightly, the crook of his elbow right at Slade’s throat and cutting off pressure.

  But Slade wasn’t going to fall gently into unconsciousness. He reached behind him and used his legs as leverage to throw Scott off balance.

  “Do something!” called Toni to the other guys as she moved in closer to Scott. The three of them moved in at the same time. Tristan and Hunter took hold of Slade while Toni pulled Scott away. Slade pulled toward Scott still, but Toni was just able to get Scott out of Slade’s reach.

  “Calm down,” said Tristan carefully.

  Slade pulled out of their grip but luckily didn’t go after Scott again. “This isn’t a fucking summer camp, Hart.”

  “She is new to this. She just ran for the first time in who knows how long and now you want to use her as your punching bag!”

  Toni really wanted to defend herself, but her obviously poor performance was speaking for itself.

  “I’m so sorry,” said Slade sarcastically. “Next time we’re doing a job and end up under hostile fire, I’ll ask them to give your girlfriend a break because she’s tired.”

  Great. Now she was a liability. “If we get into that situation, I’ll worry about myself.”

  “I’m not worried about them killing you. I’m worried about them not killing you.” Slade looked her over. “You know you’re worth more alive. Otherwise I would’ve ended you a long time ago.”

  Toni took a deep gulp and for once words failed her. She couldn’t defend her lack of defensive capability, but she couldn’t promise nothing bad would happen either.

  “Touch her again, and you’re going to have to deal with someone your own size.” Scott took a step closer to Slade.

  Slade tensed and leaned forward, obviously more than happy to continue their fight and find out once and for all which of them would win.

  Toni put a hand on Scott’s arm and pulled him aside. “Come on.”

  Slade still looked as though he was about to pounce, but he stayed put as Toni and Scott left the building.

  Once they were outside and clear from prying ears, Toni laid into him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “You were getting your ass kicked by him. What the fuck was I supposed to do?”

  “You were supposed to let me handle it. I’m a big girl.”

  “You’re a big girl who had the wind knocked out of her. I’m not the kind of guy to just sit back while that happens.”

  “Slade wasn’t going to hurt me seriously.” She was almost impressed with how convincing that sounded as it came out of her mouth.

  “You’re my responsibility while you’re here,” bit out Scott.

  Toni couldn’t even believe what she was hearing. “I’m not your responsibility, Scott. I’m not Catherine.”

  He looked as if she’d hit him harder than Slade ever had, and he fell back from her.

  “Scott,” she said carefully.

  But he waved her away and went into the house. Toni glanced around herself at the empty lawn. The sun was bright and cheery, and it seemed to be mocking her. She didn’t want to follow Scott inside, but she didn’t want to go back to the gym and she couldn’t really take a peaceful walk around the property.

  So she reluctantly followed Scott inside and went upstairs. She would change into something less sweaty and disgusting and then she’d figure out where the computers were so she could get back into her comfort zone.

  She approached the bedroom door carefully, listening for any sign of Scott as she approached. A second later, she heard the sound of running water and was happy that he would be distracted for the moment. Just long enough for her to change clothes.

  She opened the door and made her way to her bag, where she found a pair of jeans and one of her many t-shirts, this one from a fundraiser for women’s health that had a catty phrase on it.

  Toni was just pulling off her shirt when she heard footsteps behind her. She twisted around to see Scott walking out, with only a towel around his waist, and eying her as though she were some parasite that needed to be eradicated.

  Of course she would walk in on him mostly naked and he would just be annoyed by her presence. If she could just get control of this stupid, out-of-control crush.... “I’m just changing. I’ll be out of your hair in a second.” Without turning away, she threw her gross shirt on the ground and reached for the clean one, sliding it over herself. Then she made quick work of her pants too. “There. Now I’m leaving.”

  She started for the door, but Scott moved. He didn’t move in front of her or reach out to stop her. But the few inches of him shifting his weight was enough for him to signal that he wanted to say something.

  “What?” she asked, her exasperation getting the best of her. “Do you want to yell at me? Do you want to protect me? Do you want to keep on driving me crazy? Please tell me what you want.”

  “I don’t think you’re Catherine,” he finally said.

  She averted her gaze down and tightened her lips. Of course he didn’t think she was his perfect, tragic wife. She was more than aware of that. “I’m nothing like her,” she said finally.

  “I’m aware.”

  “I don’t do the whole good girl thing. When I want something, I take it. I don’t follow rules or laws or societal norms. I do what I want, when I want to, no matter who gets hurt.”

  That had him drawing his brows together in confusion. “That’s not true.”

  She opened her mouth and then she realized he was right. She wasn’t the badass she wanted to be. If anything, he was the evidence of that. Because the one thing she wanted more than anything was the one thing she’d kept her distance from as much as possible.

  “Then it’s time to make it true.” With that, Toni closed the distance between them and pressed her lips to Scott’s.

  Scott held his breath as Toni kissed him. He didn’t know why. The shock maybe? Because he wasn’t sure what she could possibly be doing. Because he wasn’t sure what she was going to do next.

  But he stayed stock-still as her lips brushed against his. Being kissed by Toni was a wholly unusual experience. It wasn’t calm or relaxing like things had been with Catherine. He kind of felt as though he were defusing a bomb. If it went right, it could be amazing, but one wrong move and they’d both be destroyed.

  A second later, she pulled away and looked up at him. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything. He didn’t know what she wanted from him.

  Comfort? Toni wasn’t exactly the kind of woman who needed comfort from a man. With the rare exception of her cuddling up to him that morning, she wasn’t the kind of person who needed anything from anyone. But why was she kissing him? To prove a point? To prove that she didn’t care what people thought of her or the consequen
ces of her actions?

  “There,” she said simply. “Now you can go shower and wipe off any trace that I ever touched your perfect skin.” She emphasized the words by reaching up to brush her thumb along his bottom lip.

  He reached out to grab her wrist. “What does that mean?”

  She took a nervous gulp and tried to pull her hand away from him, but he held her tighter. “Nothing.”

  “No. You said it because you mean it. Why would I wash you off me?” No more mind games. He wasn’t going to try to read her complex mind. She was going to tell him exactly what she was thinking for once in her life.

  “I just.... You’re so perfect and I’m so... I’m a criminal. So you go and clean up and you can pretend I never tarnished you.” She pursed her lips and looked up at him, but even though her chin jutted out confidently, he could see the uncertainty in her eyes.

  He blinked a few times, not sure how he could ever respond to something so crazy. But when she tried to pull away from him once more, he took a page from her book. Instead of overthinking or analyzing, he acted purely on instinct and he kissed her.

  But when he kissed her, he put everything into it. One of his arms went around her waist to pull her in close as his hand released her wrist to cup the back of her neck.

  The kiss was hard and hot, and for a few minutes, Scott forgot where he was. He forgot what the mission was and he forgot every reason this was a bad idea. He was fucking tired, his head hurt from where Slade had gotten him, and right now, having Toni in his arms was the first time he’d felt good about anything in so damn long.

  And, to his surprise, Toni seemed to combust in his arms. He’d compared her to a bomb earlier, and now it felt as if the wrong wire had been snipped and he’d set off a chain reaction. Her nails bit into his shoulders, holding him so tight that it almost hurt. But all it made him want to do was press harder against her. And when his towel fell off, there was very little standing in the way of him pressing exactly where he wanted to be.

  Scott pushed her back until she collided with the nearest solid surface, the dresser, and he reluctantly released her to hook his hands under her thighs and lift her up, so he could move right into place. If she were wearing anything other than jeans, he’d probably be grinding as hard as he could against her core, but he was going to have to distract himself with other parts of her body. He quickly removed her t-shirt, tossing it onto the floor so he could run his hands along her waist. He stood back for the briefest second to take a look at his prize. It wasn’t as if he’d never seen Toni before. But seeing her like this, panting, flushed, and looking up at him under hooded eyes while her breasts rose and fell with each breath....

  He was raging hard and at that second would give anything to get those jeans off her and slide into her in one warm, wet, tight stroke.

  He was just reaching for the button of her jeans when someone started to turn the handle of the door. She must’ve heard it at the same time because she reached for him as he moved to cover her with his body. A second later, Tristan poked his head in the door. The second he saw the compromising position they were in, a wicked smile covered his face, but he didn’t make any motion to leave. “You two lovebirds should get dressed. We have word of a job.”

  Scott felt Toni’s nails bite into him, and he knew she was uncomfortable at being discovered. “Got it,” he said tersely, trying to let Tristan know just how much he wanted him to get the fuck away from them.

  Of course, Toni clinging so closely to him while she was still topless made his still demanding erection more than evident. But they were each going with the “ignore it” option.

  “I’m leaving,” said Tristan, who was decidedly not leaving. “But seriously, we’re rolling out in five minutes. So don’t finish what you’re doing. Just get dressed.”

  He finally left, but Toni didn’t jump away from him as he expected. Instead, she stayed holding on to him for a minute. Scott leaned his head in close to her but didn’t really know what he could say to make this better. He shouldn’t have kissed her. He shouldn’t have taken her up on her bluff. This was all a distraction he didn’t need. Not when Sterling was so close he could taste it.

  Of course, at the moment, he could still taste Toni, and it tasted a hell of a lot better than it ever should’ve.

  Toni ran a hand over his shoulder and down the ridges of his bicep before she removed her hand almost reluctantly. “So... there,” she said finally. “I guess I showed you.”

  Toni wasn’t sure whether to be scared or relieved that she was in a separate car from Scott. He was kind of her only ally in this strange mission they were on, but right now whenever she thought of him, she just wanted to stick her head under the sand and stay there for the rest of her life.

  But, in terms of how her first kiss with Scott could go, it wasn’t all that bad. For one, he hadn’t pushed her away and laughed in her face. He’d kissed her back. He’d kissed her back a lot. As in, if they hadn’t been interrupted, things would’ve gone a lot further than a simple kiss. Unless he had come to his senses ahead of time, she was ready and willing to do whatever he wanted her to do.

  As for what he was thinking.... She would go insane if she kept on trying to figure out where his mind was. Was it a kiss as friends? Had he always felt something more for her? No. She was a good enough judge of character to know that he had never thought of her as anything more than an annoyance. She’d seen the way her sisters had found love. When Adam Smith or Austin Miles (or Benedict now that he’d changed his name) looked at Melody and Jennifer, they looked as if they would burn down heaven and earth if it meant being with the woman they loved.

  When Scott looked at her, she saw... she didn’t know. But not that same burning passion. Even last night when she’d been playing cards with the three strange guys, Scott had showed almost no interest in her. So what had happened today? Had that been a fluke?

  “I need your head in the game.”

  Toni somehow didn’t jump at the startling words from Slade, who was driving the big, white, nondescript van. “I’m here,” she said unconvincingly, wondering whether he had any idea about the thoughts running through her head.

  “This is going to be a quick and easy job, so it should go well, but we’ve never worked together. So this is going to be your first test.”

  He didn’t say it, but his tone implied that the cost of failure was a lot worse than a failing grade. She got Sterling to drop the charges against Scott and stop going after her family in exchange for her services. Which meant that if she didn’t serve him, he was going to resume his campaign against everyone she cared about.

  “I want to be all useful and everything, but I can’t help if I don’t know what I’m doing. I usually need days to prepare for this kind of thing. Whatever kind of thing this is.”

  “You’ll be fine,” said Gage from the back of the van.

  “So you know what we’re doing?” She turned around to look at him.

  “No. I’m just trying to be comforting.” He plugged away at his own laptop.

  “Well, you suck at it.” She turned back around. They drove in silence for a few miles, but she kept seeing Slade look at her out of the corner of his eye. “What?”

  “How are you doing after this morning?”

  “I’m not the one who ended up in a schoolroom brawl,” she pointed out.

  “Hart had it coming,” he said gruffly and a tad too defensively.

  “So did you.”

  Slade didn’t say anything but his hands tightened on the wheel.

  “Seriously, they just point you in a direction and say ‘go here and be my henchmen’?” said Toni, still trying to make sense of the strange work structure.

  “After a while, you learn to stop asking questions.” He studied the road intently.

  “Because they never give you answers?”

  “Because the answers all suck,” said Gage. “The less you know, the easier it is to sleep at night.”

  She swallowed a
t that. What kind of things were they going to do? If this was a test, that meant it would be something bad. Something that would make Toni want to balk. Sterling was going to try to make her change her mind. Because he knew she wanted him dead and he knew she was more than capable of doing it if she got the chance.

  And if she did something beyond the pale, then he’d have her under his thumb forever. Because it wouldn’t just be her family and friends she was protecting, but herself as well. Which made her wonder what dirt he had on the other guys in the house.

  “Why are you here?” she asked bluntly.

  “None of your damn business,” he shot back.

  She’d assumed he wouldn’t tell her, but it seemed stupid to not even try to ask. Toni twisted around to look at Gage. “What about you? Why are you here?”

  He raised a brow and looked at her. “None of your damn business.”

  Fair enough.

  “Have you checked your bank account?” asked Slade.

  “I’ve been a little distracted. Besides, someone hasn’t given me the Wi-Fi password yet.” She glared at Gage.

  “Gotta earn it first,” he said unapologetically.

  Maybe after she passed this test, she’d earn it. It killed her to not have Internet. There was a good chance she could run a software program that would eventually figure out the code, but it would take over a day to run and she was still trying to stay on the team’s good side.

  Once they got farther into downtown Chicago, Slade and Gage both seemed to tense up. Slade drove to a spot right in front of one of the skyscrapers and Gage jumped out. Toni stayed where she was as he ran to a bench and pulled a manila envelope that had been taped to the bottom of the bench before he made his way back to the van.

  “Really? An envelope taped to the bottom of a bench? This is the super villain I’ve been chasing for the past year?”