by S. M. Butler
Table of Contents
Title Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Epilogue
Author’s Afterword
About the Author
Other Books by S.M. Butler
Copyright
HIS LAST HEIST
A Reapers Strike Force Novel
S.M. BUTLER
1
Penny tugged on the rubber band holding her thick, chestnut strands, but instead of it sliding out, it snapped. The end of it slapped against the back of her hand. With a grumble, she threw the offending, useless piece of elastic onto the dresser just as her cell phone rang.
She picked it up and groaned. She briefly entertained the idea of letting the call from her older sister go to voicemail. The last time she’d called, they’d ended up shouting at each other and Penny was just not interested in another screaming match. But Tessa Lawson didn’t call unless it was necessary.
She closed her eyes and lifted the phone to her ear as she pressed the green button on the screen. “Hello, Tess.”
“Hey,” Tessa’s voice was quiet but clear.
Awkward silence filled the line between them. No doubt Tessa was remembering their last conversation as well. Penny pinched the bridge of her nose. “Is everything okay, Tessa?”
There was a long breath on the phone. “Yeah, everything is fine. I just…” her sister trailed off. Penny waited, the heavy weight of tension weighing down her stomach. “Look, I just wanted to know if you were going to come home for Christmas this year.”
Penny hit the speaker button and set the phone down on the dresser softly. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to smooth out the kink from having her hair up all day, just to give herself something to do. Home for Christmas? Was she? It would have been too hard last year, only mere months since her mother died. But she didn’t have that excuse this year.
“Penny?”
But she really wasn’t anxious to see her sister up close and personal. If she had issues with her over the phone, she couldn’t imagine what was going to happen when she went home. Ever since she quit school, the arguments were constant and relentless.
“I don’t know,” she said, finally.
Tessa let out a disappointed breath. “You didn’t come last year.”
“I was working,” she shot back, trying to hold back the bitterness in her voice. “Besides, it’s like you really wanted me to come.”
“That’s not true,” Tessa said, but Penny could hear the hesitation in her voice. “Last year was just… hard. It was only a few months after Mom…”
As she trailed off, Penny felt the prick of tears in her eyes. No. She’d done enough crying. Mom was gone, and there was nothing either of them could do about it. But the fact that Tessa was calling meant something, right? Maybe she actually missed Penny… Maybe she wanted to finally try…
It was too much to handle.
“I don’t want to fight with you, Tessa,” Penny whispered.
“Then come home for Christmas,” she said, “please.”
Penny frowned. Tessa was pushing this more than Penny would expect. Had something happened that she didn’t want to talk about over the phone? “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Tessa said, after a brief moment of silence. “Just come home, will you?”
Just as she was about to answer, there was a knock at her front door and her friend, Josey, announced herself. She leaned out her bedroom door and made a phone call gesture and came back to her phone.
“Penny?”
“I’m here,” she said, sitting back down at the dresser.
“We’ve been at each other’s throats for months. I’m just… tired of it. That’s all.”
Penny wanted to be angry, she wanted to stay distant. But the truth was… she was tired, too. She missed her sister. Before their mother died, she’d always looked up to her big sister.
“Penny?”
“Okay, Tessa. I’ll come home.”
“I’ll call the airline—”
“I’ll drive,” Penny said quickly. There was no way she was going home to tiny little Jubilee, three hours from anywhere hospitable, without her own escape route. “I’ll let you know when I’m coming after I talk to my boss about time off.”
Shit. Penny winced just as Josey chose that moment to walk into the room. The job was the big divide, and she’d just thrown it out there like a slap to the face.
“Oh…” the voice on the phone turned frigid. Penny didn’t want to do this now, not on her own birthday, with her best friend sitting on her bed, only a few feet away.
“I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know,” Penny amended her words.
“Okay,” Tessa said, but it was clear that she wasn’t happy.
A year ago, not long after their mother died, Penny had gotten this job and dropped out of school the semester before she was due to start veterinary school. Because she’d wanted to immerse herself in art and culture and… that wasn’t what someone from tiny little Jubilee, Texas was supposed to do. Ranching or ranching adjacent. That was supposed to be what she did.
She said awkward goodbyes with her sister and ended the call. She stared at the thing like it might blow up in her face. Had she really agreed to go home? Why would she do that to herself? Not only was she going to have to see her sister, she’d have to face the town, all of which probably still expected her to be training to be a vet. She doubted Tessa had corrected anyone.
“Pen?” Josey’s voice was quiet, like she was afraid to set off the bomb with the sound of her voice.
Penny turned toward her friend and cursed at the look on her face. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Still not dealing with the fam well, huh?” Josey stood up and walked over to the dresser.
“No,” Penny said. Josey grabbed the brush from Penny’s hand and started running it through the soft chestnut waves.
Josey looked like she wanted to say something, but then cursed and huffed out a “Whatever. Your life. You want your hair up or down?”
“Up,” Penny said, without hesitation. The frizz and the kinkiness from being up all day was getting on her nerves already.
“You always wear it up,” Josey replied. She draped the long chestnut locks over Penny’s shoulders. “I love the waves of your hair.”
It did have this weird wavy quality to it. But that part where the hair band had held it up all day was annoying. But this was where Josey excelled. She grabbed the spray bottle and got to work on Penny’s hair and in a few minutes, she had it tamed. The waves were more pronounced now, less frizzy.
“You’re some kind of hair genius,” Penny said, staring at it.
Josey laughed. “You needed something special for tonight. How many times does a girl turn twenty-one anyway?”
“Thankfully, just once.”
Josey shook her head, rolling her eyes. Then she surveyed her own handiwork. “How about contacts?”
“How about not?” Penny said. “I hate sticking my finger in my eye.”
Josey let out a dramatic sigh. “Fine. I can work with glasses.”
As Josey strong-armed Penny’s hair into submission and did her makeup, she let herself forget
about the conversation with her sister. This was her twenty-first birthday. It was supposed to be special. And her sister hadn’t even acknowledged it when she called. Which only made Penny’s chest burn with anger.
Once the makeup and hair were done, Josey tossed a turquoise dress with simple spaghetti straps at her, and then added a white sweater and matching wedges. As soon as Penny got a look at herself in the mirror, she stilled. Damn, Josey did good work. She looked amazing and it wasn’t even over the top. It was perfect.
An hour later, Penny was sufficiently transformed for a night out and feeling good. As they headed for the car Josey had called, she grabbed the keycard Reilly told her never to let out of her sight and shoved it into her purse.
“Really, Penny?” Josey’s eyebrow rose as she caught what Penny did. “You’re not working tonight, are you?”
“No. It’s just… Senator Reilly said never leave it laying around. He was very specific, including the subsequent firing that would happen if I did.” The keycard accessed the back rooms of the gallery she worked at, including the vault where the really priceless paintings were kept before being displayed or sold.
“It’s weird if you ask me.” Josey rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Let’s go, birthday girl.”
~*~*~
The night was clear and warm as Jordan watched the two women load themselves into a car. He followed them as they headed toward downtown, staying a decent distance away. He wasn’t sure how involved in Reilly’s mechanisms Penelope Lawson might have been, but there was no reason to get sloppy and get caught. Reilly might be watching her, too, if she was in fact, one of the only people who had access to the vault at the gallery.
He glanced at the picture on his dash. Lawson usually only wore business suits, most of which seemed designed to hide her femininity. But when she’d stepped out of the apartment building with her friend, he’d nearly hit his head on the roof of his car. That turquoise dress she wore hugged every curve those stuffy suits had hidden, accentuated hips he hadn’t realized the woman had. When the wind kicked up and lifted the white sweater around her, revealing the low cut and the smooth golden skin around her neck and chest, his body tightened, his skin too taut to house his insides.
Normally, the whole intellectual mouse wasn’t his type. He preferred the quick and dirty airheads, only because it was easier to let them down later. Smart girls either passed him over or wanted more than one night. It was easier to avoid any entanglements.
This was something he’d learned from his father, naturally. The guy had been an expert on wooing rich women, giving them what they wanted while he stole them blind behind their backs. This mission would have been a piece of cake for that man, and he’d have relished the challenge in a woman that might not usually be susceptible to his normal charming style.
Get close, copy the key, and get out. He repeated that to himself a couple more times as he drove. He was not his father and fucking hell, he didn’t want to ruin that poor woman. His father would have loved to watch her spiral down. Jordan just wanted to finish this mission and get gone.
As the two women exited the car they’d rode, they linked arms and headed into a club, one he’d been to a few times in the past when he’d wanted to find someone to pull into the bathroom for a quickie. But that wasn’t his purpose tonight, was it? He waited until they’d gone in to find his own parking spot, and then followed the two into the den of madness.
Inside, the lights strobed. Around him, bodies gyrated to the deep beat as he made his way through the crowded scene toward the bar. He scanned the place quickly, looking for his target. Had he lost them already? He’d been sure they’d come in, so surely, they wouldn’t leave so soon.
Finally, he found them sitting at the bar. The bartender smiled at her and frowned at her friend. Then pushed two drinks toward them. As the two toasted, he tilted his head. A celebration? Of what? He pulled out his phone, the blue glow of the screen illuminating him far more than he’d like. He pulled up the file Bridget had sent him.
Ah. Her birthday. How had he missed that little detail before? His little intellectual mouse had just turned twenty-one, and look, she was out to party.
He’d considered breaking into her apartment while she was gone, but he’d seen several men hanging around that place. Obviously, Reilly had his little assistant well looked after. And she didn’t give him much opportunity to run into her. She didn’t work out at a gym; she didn’t go to coffee shops or libraries or any other places that little mice went to for fun. This was his one shot to get to her.
He walked closer to them, the voices starting to coalesce around him.
“Yeah, well, she couldn’t get away from me this time. It’s her birthday!” The woman next to her said.
“Are we finally old enough to drink legally?”
The girl smiled brightly. Actually, her whole face almost seemed to shine as she pulled her ID out and showed it to him. “Yep. Officially twenty-one and everything.”
“Congrats,” he said. Then the bartender poured her a shot and slid it across the counter to her. “That one is on me. Happy birthday, Penny.”
Penny? She was a Penny? The nickname wasn’t in Sierra’s database. Honestly, it was quite sparse on the personal details. It was why he hadn’t gone the angle of old friends or something along those lines. The nickname made her seem less like a homely bookworm.
Whatever. There was nothing homely about her. Those curves were definitely doing something for him. He’d been at semi-hard since he’d seen her walk out of her apartment building.
The bartender poured another and scowled at her friend. “That’s four bucks for you.”
The other woman narrowed her eyes at the bartender and huffed. “Whatever.” She shoved a five-dollar bill across the counter and picked up her glass. “Come on, Penny. Let’s get closer to the floor.”
“Closer?” Penny shook her head. “I’m good right here.”
If they went out to the dance floor, he’d have the opportunity to dance with her, to feel those curves up close and personal. But there was always the chance that there would only be the one dance and then she’d be whisked away. He wanted the chance to slide his hands down her body, over those luscious hips, up that thin waist to those twin peaks so mercilessly restrained inside that dress.
God, he was getting carried away with his.
Find out where the damn key card was, make the damn copy and get the fuck out. That’s all he had to do.
Guilt rocked him worse than the damn beat from the speakers. Whatever Bridget Muldoon wanted with this key card, he was sure it wasn’t going to be a good thing for Penelope Lawson. He’d have laid serious odds that she was destined to take one for the team she never even knew existed.
The woman next to his target rolled her eyes. “Fine. To my best friend on her birthday. May she find a sexy man to fuck tonight.”
As they clinked glasses and took their shots, Jordan smiled. Now that would be perfect. At least, for him. He was so tight lately that he’d have loved to unwind for a few hours with that dress of hers up around that waist and her hands on the wall while he fucked her from behind.
“You’re incorrigible,” his little mouse said, a dusty pink coloring her cheeks.
Before he knew what he was doing, his feet were carrying him forward, to the bar. He slid into the seat next to her, on her right, and focused on the bartender. “One more, please.” He set his empty beer bottle on the surface of the bar.
2
The bar was packed. Music blared over speakers set all around the room. There was no live band tonight, but it was the middle of the week. The lights flashed around them, full of purples and blues and reds. In the middle of the dance floor, dozens of bodies swayed and rocked in time with the beat.
Penny couldn’t believe she’d let Josey and Cody talk her into this adventure. Yes, she wanted to do something special for her birthday, but this was… utterly ridiculous. So many people. So much heat. The smell of sweat and sex permea
ted her nostrils, making her dizzy. She was way out of her element.
Cody poured her another shot and slid it to her as a guy sat down on the bar stool next to hers. “Bottoms up, Penny.”
She glared at him, but she dutifully took the shot, gasping as the liquor burned down her throat. Her vision spun almost immediately, and she was glad they’d called an Uber to get there instead of driving. She set the glass back on the bar and Cody swept it away.
“One more, please,” a deep baritone voice said beside her.
Penny glanced to her side as Cody nodded and turned to grab a beer from the cooler. Her breath whooshed out of her in a rush as she got a good look at her new neighbor. The guy had a jaw chiseled out of granite, a light layer of stubble covered the strong jawline. He had high cheekbones, and a mouth that looked about ready to turn up into a mischievous smirk, but it was his eyes that caught her attention. They were bluer than the ocean in the tropics, yet they stormed inside like a caged hurricane. He wore a ridiculously loud light blue shirt covered in birds, but somehow, he managed to make that the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.
She blinked a couple of times, like maybe she imagined him, but he didn’t vanish. He was real. And he was sitting next to her. He didn’t look at her directly, but she caught the flutter of his attention for one brief second. Even that brief moment turned her insides to liquid.
Cody set down a green bottle, popped the top, and slid it to the guy. “Five twenty-five, bud.”
A large hand slid a five- and two-dollar bills across the bar. “Keep the change.”
“Thanks,” Cody replied as he whisked away the cash, then focused his attention on Penny. “Let me know if you need another shot, Penny. Happy birthday.”
“Thanks, Cody,” she said.
“Your birthday?” The man had a mix of something in it. Irish, maybe?
“Yes, it’s her birthday,” Josey said. She elbowed Penny in the back, pitching her forward just a little. “I’m Josey. This is Penny.”
The man turned his torso toward her, resting one meaty arm on the bar and the other on the back of the bar stool. “Well, hello, there, birthday girl.”
