The Wrong Turn

by Annika Martin

  “The Giraffes aren’t anybody’s friends,” Zeus growled.

  “Did they try to recruit you?” Thor asked.

  I said, “Not like I’m going to join them.”

  Odin slammed down his glass. Scotch splashed over the rim. “Those bitches tried to poach you?”

  “Who cares?” I said.

  “We care,” Odin said. “It’s an insult.”

  “It’s not like I’m going to join them!”

  “What else did they say?” Zeus asked.

  “They think you’re on a death sprint. That you’re going down.” I waited. I wanted to hear what they said to that.

  Zeus spoke up. “Do you think we’re going down?”

  “No, I don’t think that.”

  But Zeus heard the hesitation, and a shadow crossed his face. “We aren’t going down. And if we were, we sure the hell wouldn’t drag you along with us.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you?” he demanded.

  “I’m telling you what they said.”

  “You don’t know,” Zeus said. “And they don’t know. We have training nobody else here has. We have skills they couldn’t even begin to imagine. You think we wouldn’t know if we were going down?” He sat up. “It’s because of what happened at your bank, right? Taking you as hostage and getting caught in that jam?”

  “I don’t think you’re going down,” I said.

  Zeus exchanged looks with Odin. “That kind of thing never happens to us, Isis.”

  “That was a fluke,” Odin said.

  I nodded. It’s what I needed to hear.

  “I can’t believe they tried to poach you,” Odin said. “They gave you a card? That shit doesn’t stand.”

  I snatched the card off the table and put it into my clutch. “You need to trust me a little more,” I said to Odin. “They can try to poach all they want. It doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere. They don’t say where I go. I do.”

  “Ice,” Zeus said. “Hey.” Something in his voice pulled on my heart and I looked over to see that vulnerability still there. A kind of pain. “You are always free to leave us if you feel we’re going down. You have options. We can set you up somewhere ZOX can’t find you.” It cost him to say it. It was why he hadn’t wanted me to join up in the first place, hadn’t wanted us to get attached to each other. Because of the idea they might get attached to me, and then I might leave.

  “This is where I want to be,” I said. “Did I not just this morning get a painful tattoo to prove it?”

  “And they give her a goddamn business card,” Odin grumbled. “I changed my mind. We’re hitting the Prime Royale. And I am going to personally grab the Liz Taylor jewels, and I am going to wear them around here and watch those bitches stew. I’m going to wear them with something really fucked up. A clown suit.”

  Thor laughed. “God, it would almost be worth it, just to see that.” He turned to me. “The giraffes have always wanted the Liz Taylor diamonds.”

  “No, an oily, grimy mechanic’s jumpsuit. And these sunglasses. That’s what I’ll wear them with.” Odin smashed the mirrored purple sunglasses further onto his face. “That’s what I’ll wear the Liz Taylor jewels with for those bitches to see. See how they like being poached.”

  Odin seemed unhealthily into this idea. Did he honestly want to rob the Prime Royale now? It seemed so.

  “They liked your tattoo work,” I said.

  Thor’s eyes sparkled. “They like Odin. They like him very much.”

  “Oh yeah?” I turned to Odin, feeling a pang of jealousy. They like him? What did that mean?

  “Not like that, goddess,” Odin said, brushing my hair from my eyes. “Never like that. We’re a couple, right? The four of us.”

  “We can do any bank in our sleep,” Zeus said. “Only the Prime Royale is equal to our talents. Every other bank is a cake walk.” Zeus sat up suddenly. “The only way for her to see it is to see it. You’re in, Ice. Come in with us on First West.”

  “She is in. She’s the driver,” Thor said.

  “No, she comes in the bank,” Zeus said. “We ran without a driver for years. We’re hitting it tomorrow.”

  “Wait what?” I said. “I’m in the bank? And we’re going tomorrow?”

  “It’s the only way you’ll understand,” Zeus said. “And I have this energy for it right now. We’ve been watching it all week.” He turned to Odin. “How drunk are you?”

  “Not very,” Odin said. “Tomorrow’s good for me.”

  “We’ll hit it when it opens,” Zeus said.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The four of us huddled by the back door of the Army surplus store under the pale dawn sky, watching Odin pick the lock.

  I sipped my coffee, though really I didn't need it; adrenaline surged through me like crazy. A robbery before the robbery.

  “I can’t believe we’re going to just do it,” I said.

  Thor put a hand over my shoulder. His devilish smile told me he knew exactly how I was feeling. Wired. Alive. A little bit wild. We were going to rob a bank in just a couple hours. I felt scared to be in, but once Zeus floated the idea, this feeling of need started building inside me. It was like staring at sheer rock face just knowing you have to climb it.

  Thor squeezed. He felt the same way. He was a thrill junkie, too.

  The door swung open, and Odin strolled right in, heading toward the alarm box. He yanked off the housing and pulled and twisted the wires, connecting a little box with a keypad.

  We walked in after him. The place was hushed and dark and smelled like musty cedar. Silent rows of racks held clothes from every kind of military unit. Vintage suits and dresses were on the other side. The walls were adorned with displays, some involving helmets and fatigues, others showing colorful robes and fabrics.

  “We’ll be back here in thirty minutes, at exactly eight,” Zeus said. “No fucking around. Put together something good. Something that allows freedom of movement and plenty of storage. They probably have Halloween masks in the back if they’re not out yet. Make sure we can see out of them, though.” They walked out, leaving Thor and me alone.

  Thor smiled and came to me, stroking his hands up and down over my bare arms, moving his body in close.

  Shivers went over me as his chest hit mine. I could feel the steel of his cock through the linen of his slacks. It was hot, us in this forbidden place.

  Crap! I couldn’t let myself get turned on. We had a job to do! But the adrenalin was such an aphrodisiac, and Thor damn well knew it.

  “What if they open early?” I asked.

  “They won’t open early.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because this is the kind of information criminals like to have.”

  I heard a certain something in his voice that I had heard once before—a slight bitterness in how he said criminals. He had such a thorny relationship with what they’d become. He nearly spit out the word.

  “You’re more than criminals,” I said.

  “Actually, we’re less,” he said. “It’s not what any of us ever dreamed, not even what we trained for. We’re like goddamn ghosts. We add nothing.”

  “Stop it, Thor.”

  “Ghosts of vengeance or something.” He pushed my sleeves partway off my shoulders.

  “Thor, I don’t want to mess this job up.”

  “Do you know what it was like, in the restaurant basement tonight? Watching you with them?”

  “We only have half an hour to pick out the costumes. And they said no fucking around.”

  Thor’s voice turned gravelly. “I know what they said.”

  “They’re counting on us.”

  “Don’t worry so much.” He pressed to me closer, until I could feel the heat of his breath on my nose. The electric pulse of excitement between us intensified. “Robbing banks with Zeus and Odin is like a grade school football team having two pro football players on it. The other players can do anything and the team still wins.” He pushed me gently toward a
square pillar covered with mirrors and kissed me. He felt so warm and good against me. “They’re the ultimate pros.”

  I smiled into the kiss. “And you’re the doctor.”

  “Was,” he whispered into my ear.

  Was? This startled me. Didn’t he feel like a doctor anymore? Like he wasn’t worthwhile, wasn’t a healer? “You still are. You saved both Zeus and my lives. What is that, a big zilch? Because it’s not a zilch to me. You care. You help people. That doesn’t change.”

  “Shhhh.”

  The mirror felt cool and smooth on my back, and Thor’s kisses were tender and warm.

  He said, “I prescribe fucking off a little of this adrenaline. It will help us concentrate.”

  I pushed him away. “Our job is to get costumes, okay?”

  He gave me a dark look. Saw I was serious. Then he smiled, like putting on costumes was a good new sexy idea. “Let’s get some costumes on, then.”

  “Yeah.”

  I turned to a rack and pulled off a flack jacket. Thor wasn’t giving himself enough credit. He was a good doctor and a good man who’d cared enough to speak up when it was hard, when he saw people being hurt and killed, even though it got him into trouble with dangerous people—the dangerous people that Odin and Zeus had once worked for. He was a good robber, too; I’d seen him in action, after all, back when the gang robbed the bank I worked at.

  Thor rolled up a shopping cart and parked it. He came up behind me and circled his arms around my waist. “All those pockets in that vest are good. We’ll go in really military.”

  I pointed up at a display on the wall. “Gas masks would be scary.”

  “They cut off your vision too much.”

  “I think military is obvious, anyway. Also, I think it could jinx things because of Odin and Zeus’s history. The military wasn’t good to them.”

  “They weren’t specifically military,” Thor said, smoothing his hands up toward my breasts.

  “Whatever. Intelligence ops. Still.” I pulled away and walked down a dark aisle. Military boots lined the wall in the footwear section. There were also oddball shoes. I found a rack of wooden clogs. From the Netherlands? I held them up. Thor shook his head. Instead, we picked out tall lace-up black boots and tried them on. Comfortable. Thor picked out sizes for Zeus and Odin and put them in the cart. I also found red ski masks. Very classic. They all went in the cart.

  “We usually go for more theatrical,” Thor said. “Like Halloween masks. It distracts people.”

  “But if we’re covered in black from head to toe and wearing red ski masks, we would be theatrical.”

  “We don’t want to look like a mime troupe.”

  Ignoring him, I grabbed a black long-sleeved shirt and a ragged black military vest with lots of pockets. “Put these on.”

  Thor pulled off his dinner jacket, slowly, and threw it aside. He unbuttoned his shirt slowly, giving me a sexy glower, doing a kind of strip tease.

  My mouth went dry. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  Don’t be so sexy, I thought.

  He threw the shirt and unbuttoned his fly, watching me.

  I couldn’t look away, and he knew it. I felt like a crazily coiled-up spring, what with the bank robbery in an hour, and here he was, deliciously dangerous, cock straining against the fabric of his black boxer briefs, irresistibly hot and fuckable.

  He gave me one of his wicked smiles. “Come here.”

  “We have a job.” I threw him the rough, black, pockety vest and long-sleeved shirt. He put them both on over his black boxers. My resistance was eroding.

  “We need pants,” he said. “You have one minute to pick out pants.”

  My pulse raced. If I picked out pants in the next minute, we would have time to fuck. Zeus and Odin didn’t need to know. But they’d said not to!

  Stay strong! I told myself.

  I walked deeper into the store, vibrating with excitement, passing silk Japanese robes, trench coats, camouflage fatigues. I was thinking wool pants would be cool. Tucked into the boots. I felt proud of myself for resisting so well.

  And then I came to the kilts.

  Thor came up behind me. “No way.”

  I pulled one off the rack. A brown and black plaid. “Do you know how distracting kilts would be?” And hot. I picked out sizes for Zeus and Odin.

  “They won’t be into kilts.”

  “It’ll be so cool. I’m begging you, Thor. Put it on.”

  He came close, chest brushing mine. “What will you do for me?”

  “Anything,” I whispered, pulse racing.

  His eyes darkened. “You already do anything.”

  “Now. Right now. If we rob the bank in kilts. If you put it on, I’ll forget they told us not to fuck around.”

  “I shouldn’t make this deal.” He crossed his arms. “I don’t see us pulling a job in kilts.”

  “Let me at least model it for you,” I said.

  Thor looked wary. Of all the bandits, Thor was the most sensitive to fashion, and I was about to exploit that knowledge. I just needed this kilt thing to happen; it was a deep, deep need I couldn’t quite explain. Except that we were about to walk into a very dangerous situation, and if I ended up shot or in jail, I wanted to have my bank robbers in kilts just once. And to fuck Thor while he wore a kilt…it would complete my life. Okay, maybe that was just my libido talking. I pulled off my dress and put on the black boots, so that I was wearing only the boots and a thong. Two could play at this game.

  Thor licked his lips.

  I shook my head and added the black shirt and vest. And then the kilt, in my size. And then slowly, I reached under my kilt and took off the thong and threw it into the cart. “You’re not supposed to wear underwear with kilts.”

  “Jesus.” He came to me, kissed me, grabbed my hair. “You have to let me bend you over that crate and fuck you right now,” he panted. “I can’t believe how hot you are in this thing. You have to let me do that.”

  My heart raced. “They said no fucking around. Unless you’ve changed your mind about the kilts.”

  He slid a hand up my bare thigh, under my kilt, and pushed between my legs to finger my wet seam. My very wet seam.

  I sighed theatrically.

  He seemed almost to tremble as he stroked me—I could feel it in his fingers.

  The adrenaline of the upcoming job heightened everything.

  “Put it on,” I whispered. “I’m begging you.”

  Like he was suddenly possessed by a force beyond him, Thor lurched away and pulled down his boxer briefs, letting his giant golden cock spring free. He pulled on the kilt. With his shaggy blonde hair, those massive black boots, the black top, and battle-worn vest, he looked gorgeous and dangerous. Like a post-apocalyptic Scottish ruffian.

  Like a god.

  I swallowed.

  He let me get my fill of him; Thor was diabolical in that way. Then he came toward me to claim me, locking his hands on my hips. He lifted me onto a tall crate in one fluid motion, and then he kissed me. “I am going to devour you.”

  “So we’re pulling the heist in kilts?” I asked, reaching under the heavy woolen fabric to find his warm, steely cock. I grabbed onto it and let him push into my grip, fucking my hand as I stroked him. I wanted to suck him and fuck him both at the same time.

  With feverish motions, he pushed up my kilt. I wiggled to let him get it all the way off my ass, even though the crate was slightly rough. I’d never been one to mind a bit of rough.

  “Is that a yes?” I asked.

  “Yes, dammit. Wait.” He turned away and grabbed his old pants from the shopping cart and pulled a condom out of the pocket. “Take off your top.”

  I complied as he rolled the condom onto his cock. Then he grabbed my knees and pushed apart my legs, watching my eyes as he pressed his cock along my slit.

  “Thor,” I said, taking ahold of his massive girth, guiding him as he entered me slowly and fully, all the way to the hilt in one strong, s
olid motion.

  “Damn,” he said, pulling out and thrusting in again.

  I felt dizzy and breathless from the exciting and slightly uncomfortable fullness of him.

  We panted almost in unison, fucking slow and steady, building up a head of steam. He changed his angle, fucking me new, hitting me in the sensitive nub.

  I gasped, consumed with the mounting pleasure of it.

  He suckled and bit one of my breasts as he fucked me, and I gasped some more. It seemed so surreal, fucking in kilts right there in a closed store, about to rob a bank. The whole world fell away. There was only his cock pounding into me, his tongue in my ear, on my breast, my hands in his hair.

  And the kilt.

  “God, Isis,” he breathed. “I just want to fuck you forever. This is worth the wrath of Odin and Zeus.”

  A deep voice behind us. “That’s good.”

  Zeus.

  Thor froze, mid-thrust.

  “Convenient,” Zeus continued, standing behind him, “considering that’s exactly what you’ve earned.”

  “Thor,” Zeus growled.

  I peered over Thor’s shoulder. Odin was there in the darkness, too.

  Thor didn’t look behind him. He didn’t have to. He just tipped his forehead to my chest, breathing heavily. “You have to let us finish.”

  “Go out to the car and get my box,” Odin said. “Now.”

  The box?

  Thor looked a little wild as he pulled out of me. He turned and left.

  I smoothed my kilt back down and closed my eyes, listening to his boot steps recede, feeling bereft. Odin’s box? The paddle? Weren’t we on a timetable now?

  “What the fuck are you two wearing?” Zeus asked.

  “Kilts,” I said.

  “This is what you’ve chosen for us to do the job in?” Zeus grabbed one of the kilts from the cart. Was he actually angry? Sometimes he only pretended to be angry. “This?”

  “Yes,” I whispered, feeling all screwed up—like a bottle of rocket fuel energized enough to rocket to the moon. But with no rocket. And no moon. “It would mean so much to me.”

  Odin snorted. “To do the job in skirts?”

  “They’re kilts. Scottish warriors fought whole battles in them,” I protested. “Thor promised.”