The Deeper Game (Taken Hostage by Hunky Bank Robbers Book 3)

by Annika Martin

  “A puppet?” Zeus said, voice all scary calm.

  Gulp.

  “Yeah, like a puppet,” Matteo said. “As in you’re not in control of your actions, and that has the potential to jam up our job with the Prime. So maybe we should postpone it so you can put your attention on this thing.”

  “The HVAC project will be over with if we wait,” Odin said. “Zeus won’t be on the inside anymore. We lose our advantage if we postpone.”

  “We make a new plan,” Matteo said. “We still have the codes. And not to be insensitive, but…” He looked over at me. “You’re the driver. We can’t be inside there relying on you if there’s a potential of somebody chasing you off or…”

  “Raping and killing me?” I asked. “Because that would totally mess the job up.”

  “Not to be fucking-g insensitive,” Odin bit out, offended.

  Matteo shrugged. I liked that he was being forthright. And yes, I’d be alone out there. The guys would all be in the ducts.

  I looked over at Zeus. “It’s not a bad point,” I said.

  Zeus grunted. “That’s why we’ll nab this guy before the job.”

  Matteo gazed across the bar. “I don’t want to postpone, either. But I want it to go right.”

  I followed his gaze over to a tall black woman in a silver gown who was glaring at Matteo.

  Black Gigi, also known as BeeGee. She was flanked by White Gigi and Brown Gigi. The girl jewel thief gang.

  She pushed off the bar and headed our way, followed by her friends in a formation like three fighter jets.

  Brown Gigi wore a yellow party dress with a tiara—she always seemed to go for tiaras. White Gigi had on a stripper dress. Practically poured onto her.

  “Oh, God,” Matteo mumbled under his breath.

  I sat up with the sudden sensation that I was in high school and the cool girls were coming. Even the way they walked was cool.

  The Gigis had asked me to join up with them some time ago, when they had been down a driver. It had enraged my guys to no end, but I’d been flattered as hell. I didn’t want to join their gang, but I sort of wanted to be friends with them.

  “I hear you found trouble, Isis,” BeeGee said to me. “Some asshole leaving a bloody feather for you.”

  “Bloody feather and a creepy note,” I said.

  She shook her head. “That’s fucked.”

  She looked at Zeus. Then Odin. Then me. BeeGee was looking at everybody except for Matteo. “You all rustle up any leads?”

  “We’re pursuing several good avenues,” Zeus said.

  She snorted. “You sound like a cop.” Finally she eyed Matteo. “You all look pretty cozy.”

  Matteo shrugged.

  “Up to something?”

  “You know we can’t divulge that, baby,” Matteo said.

  “Don’t call me baby,” BeeGee snapped. “You lost that privilege.”

  “I’ll stop saying it out loud, then,” Matteo said, “but I won’t stop saying it in my mind. Because you’re always going to be my baby. And every time I see you, I’ll be thinking, ‘Here’s the woman I love.’ And I fucked up, and I get that I’m in the doghouse now, but you won’t stop me from feeling how I do.”

  “Could you not make a scene?” BeeGee said. “I’m just here to offer Ice some assistance.”

  “I’m not making a scene,” Matteo said. “But fine, if it makes you feel better for me to posture and pretend, I can do that. Because I hear what you’re asking of me, and I’m going to honor that. I’ll sit here like a hard guy. You want that? For me to be a liar with my eyes? I’ll be a liar with my eyes, fine.” He crossed his arms and got a hard look in his eyes.

  Brown Gigi said, “Too little, too late.”

  “I was never a liar,” Matteo said.

  “Just stop.” BeeGee threw up her hand and addressed me again. “If you need an assist in catching this creep, we’re all over it. Look, White Gigi had a stalker, and we put that guy down. This is a man’s game out here, or at least, a lot of guys think it is. I know you God Pack guys are cool, but—”

  “We got it handled,” Zeus said. “But if you hear anything, or if anybody has been buzzing about Isis, we’re interested.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I really appreciate that.”

  “Sure,” BeeGee said. “It’s not White Gigi’s guy, I’ll tell you that.”

  Brown Gigi snorted.

  Matteo grinned. “It was a motherfucking thing of beauty to behold. When they caught White’s stalker?”

  BeeGee glared at him. “What happened to hard guy?”

  “You know what happened to hard guy,” Matteo said.

  Brown Gigi looked around the table. “You’re coming up on a job,” she said. “I can feel it.”

  Thor strolled up behind them. “Sorry, ladies, you’ll have to read about it in the paper with everyone else.”

  BeeGee rolled her eyes as Thor shoved in between them and sat on the other side of Zeus. Then she turned, and the three of them walked off, fighter jet style.

  I narrowed my eyes at Matteo. “What happened with you and BeeGee?”

  “He slept with another woman,” Odin said.

  “Eeks,” I said.

  “Don’t say it like that,” Matteo said. “It wasn’t my fault.”

  “Not your fault?”

  “No. We were gearing up to hit this mansion in Malibu, and I got an in as a cable guy, and the lady of the house, she wanted a go with me. I wasn’t going to fuck her. I was just acting into her, but when you’re acting into somebody? When you’re a guy? Sometimes biology just takes over.”

  “That’s your excuse?” Odin asked, incredulous. “Biology took over? Is that what you told BeeGee?”

  “Yeah that’s what I told BeeGee,” Matteo said.

  “That’s your problem,” Odin said. “You’re not taking responsibility.”

  “I’m not saying I didn’t do it. It was me,” Matteo said. “I did it, but it was biology. I wasn’t into her.”

  Thor grinned. “Yet you were.”

  “Biology,” I said, “didn’t fuck the woman.”

  “This job’ll let me show her how I feel. That’s what giving her the Liz Taylor diamonds is.” He turned to me. “The Prime Royale was the pie in the sky bank for BeeGee and me because of the Liz Taylor diamonds. We planned it a bunch of times, but we never had an edge. Now with Zeus inside, that’s a major edge.”

  “Are you sure she won’t be mad you’re robbing your pie-in-the-sky bank with somebody else?” I asked.

  Zeus shot me a warning glance.

  “Not when I lay that treasure at her feet,” Matteo said. “She’s wanted those diamonds since she was a little girl.”

  “That’s nice,” I said. “But she also needs to know that you’re taking responsibility, like Odin said.”

  “I don’t see how I can take more responsibility than putting myself in danger to get her the prize of the century.”

  “If I were her, I’d be more interested that the fucking won’t happen again,” I said. “How does she know biology won’t take you over again?”

  Matteo frowned.

  “It’s like the parole board,” Odin said. “They don’t give a shit about excuses. They need to see you have insight into how you fucked up and that you have control over your own actions going forward.”

  “But sometimes it really does happen like that,” Matteo said. “You can’t help it.”

  “Then why should she go back with you?” I asked.

  “I won’t put myself in that situation again, that’s why,” Matteo said.

  Odin rolled his eyes. “It’s not the situation that fucked the other woman.”

  I added, “What if you get into that situation accidentally? Why should she trust you?”

  Odin pointed at him. “You need to fucking-g ponder that decision-making-g process with the woman you cheated with. You need to look at yourself and why you want to pretend your biology controls your dick, because you know what? It doesn�
�t. You have a worldview that says you’re sometimes not responsible for your own actions. But you are, Matteo. You need to look inside yourself and ask, ‘What do I get out of that worldview? What does it mean if I’m responsible for my actions? What do I fear if I accept that as truth?’“

  I watched Odin, stunned. Impressed.

  “Jesus Christ!” Matteo said. “Seriously?”

  “What do you lose if you accept that you alone control your own actions?” Odin pressed. “You ponder that.”

  “God,” Matteo said, “it’s not enough to be in mortal danger robbing the Prime? Because I don’t know how to do this other shit.”

  “Everybody knows how to do it,” Odin said. “You don’t want to.”

  My smartphone buzzed just then. Which was totally weird, because everybody who had that number was with me. I pulled it out and looked at the screen. Unavailable.

  “Somebody’s calling me,” I said stupidly. You weren’t supposed to have phones in Guvvey’s, but everybody was breaking that rule these days. Including me.

  Zeus grabbed it. “Answer it normally. A simple hello.” He put it on speaker and set it in front of me and then took out his own phone.

  “Hello?” I said.

  My guys all bent in.

  A distorted male voice. “I’m coming for you, Isis.”

  I felt sick.

  Odin and Zeus flew up from the table, looking all around the bar.

  Thor slid closer and swirled the air with his finger. Talk more.

  “Who is this? What do you want?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

  “You know what I want,” the voice said. “It’s only a matter of time ‘til I get it.”

  I looked up into Thor’s blue eyes, uncharacteristically grim now. “Who is this?” I asked.

  “Bring your lipstick,” the voice said.

  The line went dead. I didn’t even want to touch the thing.

  “Christ,” Matteo said.

  Thor took a deep breath and moved in closer to me. “You’re okay.”

  Zeus and Odin were out of sight. “Where’d they go?” I asked.

  “The thinking is always that this kind of stalker gets his jollies out of seeing you react, seeing us react,” Thor said. “So they’re looking for people acting suspiciously. People watching us, people hurrying away. Just taking in the crowd. Everybody here is now a suspect.”

  “And they’ll be taking photos,” Matteo said.

  “They’ve been doing that all night,” Thor said. “You just didn’t notice.”

  Matteo snorted. “Such a mindfuck to see those two acting like cops.”

  “It’s weird for me, too.” Thor turned his gaze to his soda, half gone, in the highball glass. “Bring your lipstick,” he repeated.

  “What?” I asked, feeling all shaky. I drained my drink.

  He furrowed his brow. “Well, you do wear lipstick, I guess.”

  “Yeah.” I actually wore lipstick a lot, and I reapplied it a lot. When I went from redhead to blonde, it gave me a whole new class of makeup to use, including frosty pink, something you couldn’t pull off as a redhead.

  I swallowed, thinking I really was visible and notable these days, what with the bright colors I favored and being a woman with three men. I felt almost ashamed for the first time. I’d clawed my way into this life I loved, but maybe I had taken too much from life.

  Thor had a faraway look in his eyes.

  “What?” But right then, I remembered. Venus, the woman who’d been with them before, had written her suicide note in lipstick.

  “It’s probably nothing,” he said.

  Zeus was back. “Fucker’s watching. He’s got to be.” He picked up my phone and smashed it into a brick pillar to the side of the table. His crazy intensity made me feel worried, but also like an army was on my side. A tornado army.

  “We’re okay,” Thor said to me. He slung his arm around my shoulders.

  I sucked in a breath, heart pounding. Of all the threats we’d encountered, this one was the scariest because it felt like it was coming from our people. I thought about the cozy sheep farm I’d left behind, the place I could never return to. Nothing ever happened there, but it was safe. And I thought about the sun-drenched hotel on the Tunisian island. I rested my head on his shoulder.

  “Stop looking scared, baby,” Zeus said. He slid in on the other side of me and put an arm around me. “You’re giving whoever it is what he wants.”

  “But I am scared,” I said.

  “And you’re looking pissed,” Matteo pointed out to Zeus.

  Zeus looked more than pissed. He was so powerful in this world he’d created with Odin and Thor, but I could see he felt the difference in this threat, too. “Somebody dies,” he growled. “And, the lipstick? What the fuck was that?”

  So he’d caught the lipstick reference, too.

  “Everybody knows about that part,” Matteo said. “It’s common knowledge.”

  “It’s a taunt,” Zeus growled. “Somebody dies. I’m telling you.”

  “Can you get something from the phone carrier?” Matteo asked. “A trace or some such? On the number that called?”

  “They went from a burner. No way would they be so stupid not to,” Zeus said. “Fuck! How’d they get her number?”

  “We’re hitting the Prime Royale in six days,” Matteo said.

  Zeus turned to him. “We’re not rethinking that.”

  “We don’t have to hit the Prime,” I said.

  “Yes, we do,” Zeus barked. “Nobody fucks with our own. Cancelling this job, it’s like giving in to a terrorist. We don’t give into ZOX, and we don’t give into stalkers.”

  Odin strolled up with a fierce expression, all hot and dusky in his black suit. “That SIM card had better be intact.”

  “They called from a burner,” Zeus said.

  “I’d like to look all the same,” Odin said. “Let’s press our contacts a little harder.”

  Zeus grunted.

  I’d seen this before—Odin sometimes stepped up when Zeus got emotional. Zeus lacked a certain amount of impulse control. Or maybe he let himself lack it, knowing Odin was there. So much of our group was symbiotic, I sometimes didn’t know where one of us started and the other ended.

  “They could’ve triangulated it from our numbers. It’s not hard,” Zeus said.

  “Oh, is that how?” Odin said. “Too bad the phone’s in pieces.”

  “You guys,” I said. “We’re going to be okay. I have total faith.”

  A waitperson appeared with a broom and dustpan.

  Odin took the implements from him. “Bring me a baggy, okay?” He grabbed a cocktail napkin and started cleaning off the dust pan.

  Zeus swore under his breath. “Don’t you worry, Ice.”

  I fit my hands around him, holding him from the side. “I don’t feel worried,” I whispered. I didn’t have a word for how I felt at the moment. Except maybe kaleidoscopic. I snuggled in more tightly.

  He grabbed my hair and gave me a deep kiss, plying my lips open, pulling me hard against him. “Nobody fucks with you.”

  “Except you,” I said.

  “I want to fuck you right now,” he said. “I feel fucking crazy, goddamnit. But…” He grabbed my knees and pulled me onto his lap so that my legs were completely around him. “We’ve got a motherfucking stalker to catch. He pulled out his phone and punched in a number so hard that I almost couldn’t believe he didn’t break the screen.

  I kissed his neck. When I shifted, I could feel his cock, rock hard in his pants. He launched into an intense, mumbled conversation. Pressuring somebody about the fingerprints.

  Odin finished gathering up the phone pieces into the baggie.

  “Just a little more time,” Thor said quietly to Matteo. “Let’s see where we are tomorrow with all this.”

  So Thor was open to putting the Prime Royale on the back burner. That was a relief.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Whatever Zeus had done to sp
eed up the fingerprint processing had worked, because an hour later, the four of us were speeding down a highway toward Tivendale Heights, a suburb an hour northeast of LA, after a quick stop to change out of our clubbing clothes and get more weaponry.

  The lights blurred by and the rain streaked sideways across the windows in spite of the wipers working double time.

  They’d gotten a hit on one of the sets of fingerprints—a guy named Ingvey. He had a sexual assault arrest record.

  Perfect, Zeus had said. One way to look at it.

  Odin sat in the front next to Zeus, as usual. He was noodling around on his smartphone, digging into Ingvey’s history.

  “It’s all fucking-g foot stuff with this Ingvey,” Odin said.

  I had my head on Thor’s shoulder in the back, legs curled sideways. Thor’s face was lit blue by the screen of his iPad. He was emailing back and forth with Mexico, which was never a good sign. I could feel his tension building. I sat up and tucked his hair behind his ear. Thor hadn’t shaved for a while, and the blond scruff on his face made him more exotic in a kind of Scandinavian way, like you could imagine him traipsing through the moonlit snow in badass fur boots.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “Lupe, my risky breach, is stressing,” Thor said.

  “You can’t leave,” Odin barked from the front.

  “I won’t. She has at least three weeks. Unless she goes early…but she won’t.”

  Silence in the SUV. It would be bad to leave before the Prime, but in spite of what Odin had said, we all knew Thor needed to do this. Thor tended to unravel when he wasn’t able to be his doctor self. Also, we all felt a special bond with Lupe due to her fugitive status. She was like our adopted sister.

  “This makes zero fucking-g sense,” Odin bit out. “Ingvey’s a foot fetishist. What self-respecting foot fetishist would target Isis?”

  “Excuse me?” I protested.

  “Not that you don’t have attractive feet, Isis, but you’re not what I’d imagine as the object of a foot fetishist.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Odin twisted around in the front seat to give me one of his smoldery looks. “That you dishonor our gang cloud tattoo with your chipped pink toenail polish.” He turned back to the screen. “Stalking and threatening. It doesn’t feel like the work of a foot fetishist. The feather, the note. The feet, the way such a man operates…” He trailed off, consumed with these psychological variables. “And I look at what Ingvey has posted on boards,” he added.