She didn’t want to think about the fact that seeing a gun calmed her down, but at least it was something. She held her breath as the footsteps got closer. Right as she was sure Scott had waited too long, he aimed the gun downward and took a shot.
The bullet went right through the man’s foot; he let out a scream as he fell to the ground. From the second the shot was fired, Toni knew the seconds were ticking down. Neighbors and whoever else was surrounding the house would be coming here now. Scott rushed out from the bushes and tackled the injured man—one solid blow to his face, enough to daze him into submission.
Scott reached into the man’s pockets, removing a handgun, phone, and wallet. Isobel would’ve been proud. Toni wasn’t sure she would’ve ever thought to get the wallet. Considering neither of them had any money or ID cards at the moment, they needed anything they could get.
They each took off running to the back of the fence. Knowing they were right out in the open had Toni pumping her legs faster than she ever had before. She held the laptop close to her stomach, making sure it didn’t dislodge. Scott made it to the fence and leaped over, with one hand on the rail, in a lithe and graceful move. But because she was protecting her computer, she had to stop and hook her foot in the chain link to get leverage.
Because she couldn’t slow down, she couldn’t look behind her, but Scott aimed his gun at a point over her shoulder and let off two shots. Shit. She used all of her strength to get over the fence and reached for the other gun Scott had picked up. Before she could fire anything, which probably would’ve been a complete waste of bullets considering her aim, she and Scott took off running. This yard had more trees, which gave them enough coverage to avoid any bullets. They turned right as soon as they made it to the street.
Toni was already thinking of places they should hide, but Scott ran to the street where a car was passing by. He waved one arm, holding the gun behind his back. The poor guy driving the older model Sable stopped the car and she ran to the backseat while Scott ran to the driver’s side.
If the kid hadn’t grown up in such a nice neighborhood, he probably would’ve known to lock his doors, but he never had a chance. Scott pointed the gun and the kid immediately scrambled into the passenger seat while Toni climbed in behind the kid. “Go, go, go!” she called, which was unnecessary because Scott was already slamming on the gas.
“You have a phone, kid?” Scott turned left so hard that all three of them swung with the momentum of the car.
“Y-y-yes,” he stuttered out, his lip piercing quivering.
“Call the police. Tell them where we are and tell them you’ve been carjacked.” Scott’s tone was so authoritative that Toni had a feeling the kid would’ve done whatever he said even if there wasn’t a gun in his hand.
Without saying a word, the kid picked up the phone and started to dial.
“What are you doing?” Toni twisted around, looking out all the windows for any sign they were still being chased.
“People are shooting at us,” he pointed out. “We need to report that.”
“The cops are probably the ones who called the people who were shooting at us!”
“You can’t open fire when surrounded by civilians and not get the police involved. We need to at least tell our side of the story.”
“You better not be taking us to the damn police station. I’m going to jump out of this damn car right now!”
Scott slammed on the brakes, and for a second, she thought he was going to tell her to get out. But instead, he turned to the kid. “Tell the police exactly what happened. We were running for our lives and asked you for a ride. You didn’t see what direction we went. You didn’t feel threatened. Don’t drive anywhere. Those guys, the ones chasing us, saw your car. They saw your plates. Until you have talked to the police, you’re in danger as long as you drive this car. Do you understand?”
The kid wordlessly nodded, the terror still evident on his face. Toni couldn’t take any time to make him feel better. He’d just had the best possible carjacking he could’ve hoped for.
Scott was on the sidewalk and glancing around for any sign of trouble. “We need to get moving.” He stepped away from the plain view of the sidewalk and toward the house behind them.
“Can we find a house to bunker down in? This time of day, not a lot of people will be home.”
“If the cops are looking for an active shooter, they’re not going to need warrants to get into a house. We need to get a car. One that Sterling’s guys haven’t seen already.”
Toni held out a hand to Scott. “Give me the phone.”
Without questioning her, he handed over the phone he’d lifted off the attacker outside. She turned on the screen and smiled in victory when she saw that he didn’t require a pass code to access it.
“Boom.” She found the apps she wanted. “The cops might have lights and sirens, but this Uber driver is half a mile away.”
Scott shook his head. “You’re kidding.”
“Just booked it.” She started to walk in the direction the Uber driver would be coming from. “And better yet, we’re not going to be the ones who have to cover the cost!”
Scott had just finished the second cup of coffee when Jennifer entered the coffee house. He jumped up a tad too fast thanks to all the caffeine in his system, and he heard Toni shutting her laptop and packing up to leave.
Finally. He felt too exposed here. After Broussard turned him in, he was looking at everyone as if they were watching him. All it would take was one person in Sterling’s network and he and Toni would be dead.
The guys who had attacked Broussard’s had been bad, but their aim had been shit and they didn’t think critically enough to get anything right. If the unit they’d been staying with—Slade, Hunter, Tristan, and Gage—had attacked, Scott knew he and Toni wouldn’t have stood a chance.
As soon as Jennifer made eye contact with him, she turned around and went outside to the black SUV that would’ve been illegally parked if there weren’t a driver inside. Once Toni was ready, Scott stayed by her side as they left, and he opened the backseat door for her.
Austin Miles tsked his tongue as he saw both of them. “You look like shit,” he said without preamble.
“Thanks,” muttered Toni.
“No, you look nearly as good as your sister. It’s the cop who looks like the world just took a giant shit on him.”
Now that he was armed again, the urge to shoot Austin was overwhelming. “Drive, Miles,” he said with all the authority he could muster without tipping over into outright rage.
“It’s Benedict now. Austin Miles is dead, remember?”
“Austin, drive,” said Jennifer.
“Your wish, my command.” He put the SUV into gear and merged into the traffic without even seeming to look.
As soon as they were on the road, Scott glanced around them to make sure they weren’t being followed. After the cluster fuck of that morning, he didn’t want to take any chances. He and Toni had been going full stop for so long now that he didn’t think he’d ever be able to relax again.
Something warm touched his hand and he looked down to see Toni’s finger resting on top of his. Her nails were short from what looked like a biting habit, but her fingers were long and delicate and feminine, a stark contrast to his big hand that had been long since callused from the gym ever since his high school football days.
He looked to her and she gave him a small smile. “We’re going to be okay,” she said so softly, almost as if she’d mouthed the words.
He turned his hand over so his fingers could intertwine with hers. He didn’t know why he did it. Was he letting her comfort him or was he trying to give her comfort?
It was the first time he’d held someone’s hand, really held someone’s hand, since Catherine, and strangely enough, it didn’t feel bad. It felt right.
Toni looked away from him and out the window, but she didn’t pull away from his grasp. When Scott looked up, he saw that Austin looked at him throu
gh the rearview mirror.
Scott just glared back at him, not saying anything. He didn’t need to defend himself in any way.
“So...” said Jennifer finally. “Want to fill us in?”
“Toni gave herself over to Sterling, hoping she could infiltrate his empire and take him down from the inside,” said Scott. “It didn’t go as planned.”
She scoffed at his oversimplified explanation. “It didn’t go as planned because you showed up at the mercenaries’ doorstep and then threw everything into jeopardy.”
“Someone needed to protect you from yourself.”
“Someone needs to save me from your protection.”
“I don’t need to hear a lover’s squabble,” said Austin.
“We’re not lovers,” they both said in unison and a tad too quickly to be convincing.
Austin didn’t seem to care, though. “Sterling. What’s the plan?”
“I was able to put a spyware program in his system while I was there,” said Toni. “But I’ve had pretty much no time to actually see what I have. If we have a location on where he’s staying, I say we don’t wait anymore. Where’s Melody?”
“She and Adam are at a safe house right outside the city,” said Jennifer. “They wanted to be close by if we need them.”
“Fine. If we locate Sterling and we’re all here, this is it. We should go after Sterling and end this now. Before he has a chance to find us again. He’s more than proved that he’s not waiting around. We got under his skin and he’s in pure damage control mode.”
“You know I want him dead more than anyone, but we’ve been taking our time for a reason. If we rush into this, we’re all going to end up dead,” pointed out Scott.
“I want you to replay the last twelve hours in your head, Scott. We’re already dead men, and crazy hot women, walking. If we want to beat the Grim Reaper, we’re going to have to bump up the timeline.”
“We’ll talk about it later. But for right now, can we agree that we need to get some rest?” Even though he felt wired enough to take on an army, logically he knew that the adrenaline and caffeine going through his system would wear off sooner rather than later.
“Yes,” said Jennifer. “Toni, you can’t keep going full steam. A tired thief is a dead thief.”
“Don’t start,” said Toni in a low voice.
He had a feeling he was hearing an example of the motherly advice that Isobel had given her girls.
“There’s a house we’ve been staying at,” said Austin. “It’s a foreclosure, but Jen worked some of her magic to get the power and cable turned back on.”
Scott didn’t even want to know how Jennifer had managed that. He was just grateful that for a little bit they would have somewhere to take a break. “Sounds good.” He leaned back in his seat.
For the first time since Slade had woken him up that morning, he allowed himself to relax. But even as he rested his head back, he didn’t let go of Toni’s hand.
Toni clicked through email after email. She was close. She knew she was close. All she had to do was.... There. An email from Sterling himself. And from the looks of it, it wasn’t a protected email either. For someone so smart, it was a stupid mistake. She glanced at the date of the email and her heart sunk in her chest.
It was the day after Isobel had been killed. Right after they’d stolen the necklace from him. When they’d taken out Stranger and dealt their first blow to Sterling.
He’d been rattled. He made a mistake and sent an email to Slade and his guys from a personal address. Isobel’s one last gift to them.
And now that she had that email address.... Well, now it was just a matter of time. There were billions of billions of possible passwords for the email, but it was a well-known domain name, so as soon as she got the right software program running, she’d be able to work around the safeguards and get the password without him ever knowing he’d been hacked.
Her fingers moved faster than they ever had before as she got everything set and then... that was it. Soon enough she'd have him exactly where she wanted him.
Toni let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She got up and looked out the window. This neighborhood was older, richer. She should’ve known that Austin wouldn’t have settled for just any foreclosure. He had to go for a million-dollar home. But it was plenty of room for the four of them to spread out.
She knew she was supposed to be using this time to rest, but she couldn’t even think about going to sleep right now. She was still too wound up from her crazy day, and as long as she was so close to busting Sterling’s closely guarded network wide open, she couldn’t just walk away for eight hours.
Instead, she walked out of the plain bedroom she’d been given and decided to drown her sorrow in food. Jennifer was a bit more of a health freak than her, but she would hold out hope that the kitchen would have some sort of chocolate for her to binge on. She was halfway there when she heard the familiar footsteps coming toward her in the dark hallway. “Hey,” she said, alerting Scott to her presence so she wouldn’t scare him. Considering he had a gun now and was probably as jumpy as her, it was better safe than sorry.
“We need some damn lights,” he muttered, his mood obviously not better since they’d met with Austin and Jennifer.
“It’s a foreclosure,” she reminded him. “Lights alert neighbors that the house isn’t empty anymore.”
“I know.” He stopped a few feet in front of her. Through the shadows, she could only make out the outline of his form. She wished she could get a read on his face, but she didn’t need to see him to realize he was in a bad mood.
“You should be sleeping,” she pointed out, apparently not tired of stating the obvious.
“You too.”
She couldn’t argue with that, and an awkward silence stretched out between them. She winced and was suddenly grateful for the darkness. She couldn’t get a read on him, but he couldn’t see the blush that crept up her cheeks. Her stupid confession to him had been pushed to the backburner, but now that no one was trying to kill them and they had room to breathe, the memory of those stupid three words she’d blurted out to him were at the forefront of her mind. Should she tell him she was wrong? That it was just a stressful day and she hadn’t been aware of the words coming out of her mouth?
It was a lie, but a lie was a small price to pay to get her dignity back. “Scott, about this afternoon.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said quickly.
Easy for him to say. He wasn’t the one who made an ass out of himself. “I wanted to say—”
“Toni, I told you to forget it.”
“No. I’m not going to forget it. Because it was a mistake and—”
He took a step closer, his outline becoming slightly bigger as he moved in, and she found herself catching her breath and holding it as his heat just barely reached her. “Don’t,” he said once more.
“Why?” she choked out, not sure she could manage more than one-word sentences right now.
“Because I don’t want to think it’s a mistake.”
She winced, trying to make sense of all the mixed signals she was getting from him. “If you don’t want it to be a mistake, then do you want....” She couldn’t finish. She was too afraid to hear his answer. Once again, she thanked the darkness for giving her some measure of protection.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Those were three words she never really thought she’d hear him say. Scott always seemed so sure about everything. His mind worked in ways that even she didn’t understand, and he was always three steps ahead of everything. But she managed to stump him? She wasn’t sure whether she should be flattered by that or not.
“You might need to figure it out,” she said weakly. The awkwardness took over and she couldn’t help her default cockiness from rising up. “Because I happen to know that I’m a catch. And people like me tend to get swooped up pretty damn fast when we’re free agents on the market.”
“I know,”
he said, not seeming amused or upset by the words. “A guy would have to be stupid to not fall for you.”
She took a deep gulp. Dangerous territory here. “An utter moron,” she said softly. “Funny, I never took you for a moron.” She held her breath as she waited to see what he would say. Would he say anything? Would he just turn and walk away from her? Would he kiss her? Oh, God, please let him kiss her....
Scott, as usual, didn’t do a thing she expected. He shifted forward just enough to close the distance between them and rested his forehead against hers. She sucked in a breath at his nearness and tried not to freak out.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he breathed.
Funny, because she wanted him to hurt her. In fact, all she wanted in the world right now was for him to hurt her. “I’m a big girl. I can take it.”
“I’m not as good as you think I am,” he warned.
She had to let out a laugh at this. He was normally so damn smart, but he was wrong about that. “Yes you are,” she breathed, her lips so close to his she could practically taste him.
“And you’re too good for me.”
She couldn’t find the right words to tell him how wrong he was, so she decided to change topics. “Kiss me, Scott.”
And for once, she wasn’t conflicted at all. She knew without a doubt that he was going to do exactly what she told him to.
Before his lips touched hers, his big hands cupped her neck and held her in place. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as he angled his face over hers and closed the distance. It wasn’t the first time they’d kissed, but it was the first time that it seemed real. Not a result of adrenaline or a fluke. Scott knew exactly how she felt about him and he was kissing her and this time she wasn’t going to let him stop until they were as close as two people could possibly be.
She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him back with everything in her. She fisted her fingers in his shirt and savored his warmth and strength.
After just a few seconds, he broke away and she was on the verge of heartbreak at the thought that he’d changed his mind. Then he took her hand in his and pulled her along the hall until they reached his room. As soon as they were inside, he kicked the door shut and she was back in his arms.
The Reluctant Thief (The Stolen Hearts #4) Page 12
