Partners (Fire & Lies - One)

by Lilliana Anderson

  “Tell me you’re not freaking out. You can still do this, right?”

  “I can. I just wish I didn’t have to.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chloe

  AIDEN SLEEPS peacefully beside me, his rhythmic breathing telling me that he’s fast asleep. I look over at him, drinking in his features and committing them to memory. The future for all of us is so uncertain right now. Each of us has our own role to play and we don’t all know exactly what that is.

  One thing is for sure, tomorrow will change everything. Tomorrow, we become bank robbers.

  It sounds so ridiculous to actually say those words. But they’re the truth.

  To get what we want.

  To clear my family name.

  To cover up exactly what we’re taking.

  We need to rob a bank, and we need to be indiscriminate and take everything we can get our hands on.

  Aiden rolls in his sleep, and I slide my arm around his middle, pressing my naked self up against the warmth of his back. I don’t want to let him go. I wish we didn’t have to do this.

  Sighing, I roll out of the bed and head to the bathroom, picking up my phone along the way. It’s while I’m in there that I message Leah and check that he’s all ready for tomorrow. We’ve been in this together since the beginning, and while the plan is slightly different from our original, the ending is still the same–do whatever it takes. Right or wrong. This must be done.

  All ready, girly. Sleep well. Tomorrow is what we wanted, he sends me.

  I hope so, I send back, before deleting our previous messages and setting my phone in my bag before returning to bed, snuggling up against Aiden as I wonder how the hell he’s managing to sleep so peacefully, when I’m a bundle of nerves beside him.

  Chapter Thirty

  PRESENT, the day of the job

  Aiden

  CHLOE SLEEPS soundly on the bed as I get up, squinting a little as the sun beams in through my window. Keeping an eye on her, I slide off the mattress and leave the room, ducking down to grab a pair of pants and swipe her phone from her bag as I pass.

  Walking toward the kitchen, I key in her code, learning it by surreptitiously watching her over the last few days. I know she was using it in the bathroom last night. She thought I was asleep but I wasn’t.

  I may be head over heels for the girl, but I’m not stupid. She’s a known liar and I can’t always trust the way she speaks and behaves. I need to read between the lines and work out what she isn’t telling me.

  When I go through her history, there’s nothing, she’s deleted it. Lucky for me, I have Jared.

  “Last activity,” I say after dialling him from my own phone.

  He knows exactly what I’m talking about. “Text messages. Nothing suspicious.” He reads the short conversation between Chloe and Leah to me. It was nothing and looked like a friend checking on a friend.

  I still felt like I was missing something.

  I move around the kitchen, preparing coffee as I listen to Jared, rattling off a few last minute details in my ear. We’re not stupid enough to talk blatantly, it’s all in the code that we use when organising recoveries.

  “See you soon,” I tell him as I sign off and disconnect the phone, downing my own coffee as I run through the timeline of the day in my mind.

  Every move needs to be precise. Every step needs to be followed. I feel confident we can do this, and have it be the best damn robbery this world has ever seen. I just wish we had have had more time…maybe we could have found another way.

  Shaking my doubts away, I pick up the second coffee and carry it in to Chloe, slipping her phone back into her bag where I found it as I pass. She’s still breathing heavy, her mouth open and smooshed up against the pillow.

  Chuckling to myself, I run my hand down her back and she stirs slightly, her hand reaching up to wipe at her mouth as she tries to look at me but fails. Sleep wins.

  “Come on. Get up. Get ready,” I say, slapping her on the backside as she tries to curl up again.

  “Ow!” she groans, rolling over then rubbing her eyes. “Oh god. What time is it? I barely slept.”

  “It’s seven. Here, drink this.” I hand her the coffee I’m still holding for her in my other hand and she sits up to take it, sipping at it gratefully.

  “Thanks,” she says. “How the hell did you sleep? I’ve had my mind on overdrive all night.”

  “Practice,” I state, leaning down and kissing the side of her head. “I’ve done more clandestine operations than I’ll ever admit to. You get used to the risk.”

  “Aren’t you nervous though?”

  “A little. But I trust the plan. Just do everything like we practiced and you’ll be fine. Ok?”

  She nods and sets the coffee cup on the nightstand. I can feel the nerves radiating off her body and as she stands. So, I collect her in my arms and squeeze her tight. “You’re going to be fine,” I assure her, planting a kiss on top of her head.

  Releasing her, I head out of the room, leaving her to get ready while I go and make sure everything is switched off around the house. As confident as I am that this plan will go well, I still prepare my house as if I’m not coming back. It’s a ritual I have before I go on a mission. It involves switching all of my appliances off at the wall, getting rid of the milk from the fridge and leaving an envelope addressed to my sister with instructions on what to do with my assets if I don’t return. It might seem a bit stupid to some, especially when I talk about my trust in the plan, but I’d be a fool to think there wasn’t a chance that things could go awry. I’m cocky, but I’m not so arrogant that I can’t see the danger in the situation.

  Ten minutes later, Chloe exits the bathroom, dressed in a pair of black pants and a white t-shirt with her hair braided tightly against her scalp in preparation for her costume change before we go.

  This is where having Chloe on this mission is the clincher – her costume makeup skills. She’s going to transform us into two very non-descript looking men. We did a practice run with the makeup the other day, and she looks like an eighteen year old boy sporting his first moustache when she’s all done up. She’s a little too curvaceous to just dress in men’s clothing, so she’s going to put a suit on that will broaden her shoulders and hide her breasts.

  When she was finished with me, I looked a lot like that boy’s father. My eyes had been coloured with brown contacts, my lips thinned out by some crafty makeup and facial hair placement, and my nose had been broadened so it was a similar look to hers.

  Jared was so impressed that he wanted to take photos, and it took the threat of violence to make him put his phone away. But we were all in agreement that as long as the getaway goes smoothly, there is no way that anyone could ID us after the fact.

  “Time to go,” I state, taking her by the hand and leading her out the door.

  She takes a deep breath and follows along with me I can feel her palms sweating. It makes me nervous and I worry that she might not be able to do this after all.

  ***

  When we arrive at the warehouse, Jared and Leah are already there. I half expect that they were here all night, going over the plan, making sure everything was just right.

  Jared, especially, is meticulous like that. He jokes around a lot, acting like a kid half the time, but when his fingers hit that keyboard, his focus is wholly on the job at hand. I could ask him about any detail and he would know the answer, without even needing to think about it. He carries on that I don’t pay him well, but I do. And he earns every penny of it.

  The plan we’re going with now isn’t that far removed from what Chloe and Leah had originally planned. We’re still going in there to get into the safety deposit boxes, but we just have to be a bit more high tech about it since the bank has upgraded its security.

  Leah is still going to be the decoy. His job will be to stay in contact with Jared who will be monitoring the police network for any activity regarding the bank. He’s going to do his best to circumvent any pos
sible alarm trip, but we have to prepare for error. If cops do get called to the scene, then Leah is going to lead them on a high-speed chase in the opposite direction to where we’re heading. We don’t think we’ll need him. But it’s best to have a backup plan in these situations.

  We’ve commandeered two identical vehicles that aren’t connected in any way to any of us, or to anyone we know. They were chosen completely at random and will be the cars at the scene. Once we’ve achieved our goal and made our escape, we’ll switch out cars and remove our disguises before we stash everything in my floor safe at the warehouse, and go back home like nothing happened.

  It all sounds perfect. Now we just have to pull it off.

  “Good morning, Bonnie and Clyde,” Jared says with a grin, as Chloe and I get out of the car. He hits the button on the wall and lowers the roller door. “Are we ready to have some fun?”

  “If that’s what you call it,” Chloe says, heading over to sit next to Leah. They exchange a few words in greeting and I watch them carefully, concerned that there may be something going on that I don’t know about. Knowing Chloe, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was.

  I catch Jared’s eye and signal that he needs to watch them. He nods, heading over to the table where there are some takeaway coffee cups that appear to be empty and a massive tray of sugared donuts, already half gone.

  “Where we at?” I ask Jared, as he grabs one of the donuts and stuffs most of it in his mouth.

  He sits on a metal stool in front of the computer set up he’s created in here and points to one of the screens that has a small window open with constant scrolling updates inside it. “I’m just monitoring police reports and making sure we’re good to go.” He then points to a window on the next screen. “And our target in the bank has clocked on and they’ll be opening their doors in exactly one hour and fifty minutes.”

  “So that gives us two hours to get ready and leave here.”

  “You’ve got it. I’ll be locking down the Goldsmith building in exactly ninety minutes. So get your faces on, ladies. We’ve got a heist to pull off.”

  I clap him on the back and head over to where Chloe is still sitting with Leah and as I approach. They stop talking and Chloe looks up at me with a welcoming smile.

  “No cold feet?” I ask, looking between them.

  “No, bro. I’m all in,” Leah says, holding out his hand to shake mine. “And if I don’t get the chance to say it – thank you. For all your help and shit. It’s been real, man.”

  “Thank me later. We’ll have a beer when it’s all done,” I say, taking a hold of Chloe’s hand and pulling her to stand. “You ready to do your magic?”

  “Sure am,” she says, and I press my lips to hers in the last kiss we’ll get before we go in there. I kiss her with everything I have in me, trying to let her know exactly how much she means in the simple meeting of our mouths.

  “For luck,” I say as I pull away, leaving her lips pink and her cheeks flushed.

  “Get to it you two,” Jared butts in. “I said ‘get your faces on, ladies’ not ‘get your face on a lady’.”

  Laughing, I move to another stool where we have everything ready to go and from that moment, the plan begins its final move forward until we’re transformed. Jared does a final countdown then enters the commands that set the first part of our plan into motion.

  The emergency lockdown gets triggered at the Goldsmith Building. Dozens of pre-recorded panic calls, mostly lifted from TV and movies, go out to emergency services and report sightings of man with a bomb strapped to his chest. Communications are cut off from the building and police, fire and ambulance are mobilised. It all happens in minutes. A massive panic, started by the calculated press of a button. It’s beautiful to watch.

  Jared listens intently to the headset, hearing the calls, and the orders. I wonder how he makes sense of it all, but he’s focused, he’s confident. This is going to work.

  To mark this momentous occasion, there’s no wailing sound. No flickering of lights. No screams from the public. Nothing. There’s just four people, standing in a warehouse staring at three computer screens that monitor the mayhem we’ve just unleashed. The only sound, our breathing, the buzzing of the fluorescent lighting overhead, and our nervous hearts, beating in our chests.

  “Done,” Jared says, and I slap him on the back, giving him a grateful nod as we collect our weapons and get into our respective vehicles. It’s time to move onto phase two.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chloe

  AS WE drive to the bank, we hear the sound of sirens as emergency services are sent to the scene of our false bomb threat. A slight tinge of guilt pulls at my gut as I watch them wail past. I know it’s a hoax, and I know that we’re wasting their time. But I promised myself I’d do whatever it takes to do this right. And I have to do it. The life of my father depends on it.

  We pull up in front of the bank, and Aiden shuts off the engine. “Ready?” he asks, and I nod, even though I don’t think anyone with any type of conscience can ever feel completely ready to do what’s about to be done.

  He moves to open the door but I reach out, grabbing his arm to stop him, my fingers digging into his muscular forearm. “Wait.”

  “What is it?” he frowns. “It’s too late to back out now, sugar. I need you to stay with me.”

  “No. I’m not backing out. I just want you to know… I need you to know that no matter what happens today…or tomorrow.” I swallow, my mouth suddenly feeling dry. “I need you to know that I love you, and that I always have,” I force out of my mouth. It needs to be said. He needs to know that I’m not doing any of this because I want to. He needs to know that if our world were a different place; if my father was a different man; if I was a different person–then he would be my one choice. My only choice.

  He takes my hand in his, running his thumb over the flesh coloured glove. “I know, sugar. But we’re going to be ok. Just stick to the plan.”

  I nod, glad in a way that he didn’t claim to love me back. It makes this so much easier knowing that I need him more than he needs me. I reach for the door, nerves swirling about in my stomach as I push it open, stepping out and walking confidently toward the glass doors. Already, I can see a couple of customers lined up at the tellers. But it isn’t busy. Good. Less people to control.

  I sling a heavy laptop bag over my shoulder and straighten the baseball cap on my head. Aiden walks beside me, carrying a briefcase. Look closely and you’ll think that perhaps there’s something odd about the stiffness in our faces. But to most, we look completely normal. Not like the bank robbers in the movies at all.

  Moving through the door, we both scan the area and I note that there aren’t any red lights beside the cameras. We’re not being filmed in here. Our disguise is primarily for the CC footage that will be recorded on the street. We’re counting on them to help misidentify us.

  Jared said that he could hack into the CC network and black out the cameras, or add some sort of loop. But on top of everything else he’s had to do, to help us pull this off, he would have needed a team of hackers to help him. The disguises would do. Our plan was sound.

  “Benson Tanner, please. We have an appointment,” Aiden says to the staff member on the floor as she greets us.

  Obliging, she asks him his name and then goes to get Mr Tanner who is the man who’s going to kindly let us inside the vault–even though he has no idea about that as yet.

  The electronic doors open and close behind us, and Leah walks in. His own disguise is on to conceal his identity, as he heads over to the customer bench where he pulls out a deposit form and sets about looking busy so he can keep an eye on the floor for us.

  We’re hoping he won’t need to do anything because we want to keep this as quiet as possible. But you never know, and even though Jared has disabled all alarms, and blocked phone reception, we don’t need anyone trying to be a hero.

  Benson Tanner, a dark skinned man with a soft friendly face and a soft belly
to match, comes to the floor and greets us warmly, escorting us to his office where he closes the door and offers us a seat.

  “Now, what can I do for you gentlemen this morning? I understand you have some farm holdings you’re looking for help to manage.”

  Aiden opens the briefcase on his lap and reaches inside. “Actually, I’d much prefer it if you’d put this on and escort us on a tour of your safe,” he says, holding up an explosive vest for Mr Tanner to see.

  Immediately, the man breaks out in a sweat, his eyes widening as he glances at me, his mouth trembling as he shakes his head.

  Looking at me doesn’t help him. It just adds to his fear as he spots the gun I’ve pulled from my bag, and now have trained on him. I raise my eyebrows at him, not daring to speak so he can’t recognise that I don’t have a male voice. But I don’t need my voice. Mr Tanner very quickly obeys without the need for words.

  Aiden steps toward him and he flinches back, his hands held up in surrender. “You have two choices here, Mr Tanner. You can put this on under your jacket and you can walk us out nicely so no one gets hurt, or you can fight us and our man out there starts taking out your employees.”

  “I…I..I’ll cooperate,” he stutters, his round head nodding and wobbling as he looks at me to see if he can take his jacket off. I nod.

  Aiden quickly gets him strapped up then shows him the remote detonator. “Try anything, and we turn you into dog mince. Got it?”

  “G…got it,” he says.

  “Ok. Now take us to the safety deposit vault.”

  Benson leads the way, walking a little stiff and nervous, but we make it through the first door without a problem then he takes us to the safe.

  “The power’s out. Do the manual lock,” Aiden commands, watching as Benson complies. It’s in that moment that I decide I like Benson. He hasn’t said no to us once, which shows he values his life and isn’t going to do anything stupid. “Good work. Now, you’re going to stand out here with my partner and be nice and quiet while I go in. Ok?”