It Takes a Thief--A Heist Romance

by Sloane Steele

  She went straight to her bedroom. Burying herself in work was just the antidote for her abysmal thoughts. Mr. Green had given her a job, so that was where she would focus her energy. Spending the night digging into someone else’s misery made her feel better about her own circumstances.

  It didn’t take long at all. Seven hours later, she had a dossier of dirt for her client. With it being almost three in the morning, she debated whether she should send it now or wait. It was officially Christmas, so would it be rude to interrupt his holiday? No, he was the kind of guy who worked around the clock. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she did.

  Data: I have a Christmas present for you.

  She immediately rethought the message because the dude might not even be Christian. If he was Jewish would he be offended that she’d made the assumption? She sent the link to the file and set her laptop on the bed next to her with the intention of logging off for the night. But a message immediately bleeped at her.

  Green: You work fast. I appreciate that.

  Data: Don’t you sleep?

  Green: Of course. Do you?

  Data: Sometimes

  Green: Alone?

  Audrey snickered. Where the hell did this guy get off asking if she slept alone?

  Data: Sometimes. You?

  Green: Sleeping? Always.

  Hmm... Mr. Green was letting her know he was a player. She shouldn’t care, but this was the most personal they’d ever gotten.

  Data: Kind of a sad comment on your life. Not only do you always sleep alone but you’re working on Christmas Eve.

  Green: The same can be said of you.

  Data: I’m just fulfilling the stereotypical image of a hacker sitting alone in a dark room playing with my gadgets.

  Green: Oh, to be one of those gadgets.

  She burst out laughing and she couldn’t stop.

  Misty suddenly pounded on her door but didn’t wait for a response before swinging it open. “Are you okay?”

  Audrey gulped air and swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “I’m fine.”

  “Damn, girl. You’re always so quiet that when I heard the noise, I thought you were having a seizure.” Misty placed a hand over her heart as if to calm it. She must’ve just gotten home from work. Although the baby pink hoodie and sweatpants might appear to be workout clothes, Audrey knew that was Misty’s to-and-from-work outfit.

  “I’m fine. Just laughing over something that probably shouldn’t even be that funny.”

  “Okay.” She turned, her overly teased and sprayed red hair looking like a cloud around her head.

  “Thanks for checking on me.” It’s good to know that if I die in this crappy room someone would notice. Her computer bleeped again.

  Green: I’m sorry. Did I offend you?

  Data: Not at all. I was laughing so hard my roommate felt the need to check on me.

  Green: That’s good then. Have an excellent evening.

  Data: It’s closer to morning.

  Green: Not for people like us.

  A few minutes later, she received notification of payment. If Mr. Green kept her busy like this, paying for Gram’s care wouldn’t be too bad. She opened the payment email. Mr. Green included a note in the memo.

  Get yourself a nice new gadget and think of me.

  While there was no new gadget in her budget, thoughts of him would be hard to ignore.

  Chapter Two

  June

  Green: new job

  Data: send the details

  Green: has to be f2f

  Data: not how I work

  Green: I’m aware. I’ll make this worth your while

  Data: How do you know what will be worth my time?

  Green: Even if you don’t like the terms, I know you want to meet me :)

  Jared stared at his screen and hoped she’d come back with the answer he wanted. In all honesty, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure she was a she, but every conversation they’d had led him to believe so. Regardless of gender, Data was the best, most discreet local hacker he’d worked with. As far as he knew, she never bragged online about her accomplishments. For her, it was always about the money. Months ago, when he and Mia started planning, Data had been his first thought, no matter what Mia said about crossing lines between their real lives and the lives they needed to project to the people they hired.

  For him, it wasn’t quite so straightforward because he lived in the space between the lines.

  He tapped a pen while waiting for an answer. Data either had an affinity for cash or was desperate. She was always hungry for work, like a squirrel gathering nuts for a winter that would never end. She never turned down a job. Then again, he’d never asked her to cross this line. This job was one hundred percent illegal. There was no doubt, she wouldn’t just be crossing the line; it would barely be a dot in her rearview.

  If she accepted, she would be a good fit. Someone who was desperate was someone they could control. And they needed to control the narrative they spun as well as the outcome of every job.

  His computer bleeped again.

  Data: You’re full of yourself Green. Didn’t we discuss the size of your ego months ago?

  Green: This particular job comes with a price tag that will more than double the highest paying job you’ve done for me

  If nothing else drew her out, that should. People could rarely turn down obscene amounts of money.

  Data: time and place?

  He loved being right about people. He named a coffee shop near his downtown office to meet her at in two hours. Long enough that she would be able to reach the location from pretty much anywhere in the city, but soon enough that she wouldn’t get cold feet.

  His office door swung open without notification from the receptionist. Mia stormed across the room. It must be bad for her to come to my office.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She tossed her small purse on the chair across from his desk. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you to find the people we need.”

  He couldn’t imagine what had her rattled. He rose and closed his door. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said in a low voice. “Not about this.”

  “It’s not unheard of for me to visit. And what I’m discussing isn’t far from the status quo for you.” She waved a hand. “At the rate things are going, our plan will never get off the ground anyway. Five years of planning. Gone.”

  Her nostrils flared and her hazel eyes blazed. Irritation radiated from her five-foot-nothing frame. Her glossed pink lips pursed in an unmovable line. Any other woman would’ve been screaming at this point, but not Mia.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The thief you said would be the perfect addition to our little team has been arrested.” She said the word team as if it might make her gag.

  “What?” His brain scrambled. Nikki had a stellar reputation. She didn’t get caught. No matter how many people knew she was guilty, she simply didn’t get caught.

  “Drunk and disorderly.”

  Jared released a pent-up breath. “So what?”

  “We agreed everyone had to fly under the radar. Avoid drawing attention. This is far worse than drawing attention.”

  “I told you she was a little rough around the edges. But we’d be hard-pressed to find someone better. She was probably blowing off some steam.” He pulled the chair out to get Mia to sit. When she took the offered seat, he went back behind his desk. “I have our hacker. I’m meeting her in a couple of hours.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Yes, I am. I just made plans.”

  “You need to go to the fifth precinct and bail out Nikki. Make it go away. Bring her to the apartment and make sure she understands the severity of our terms. We’re too close to start over.”

  “What about my meeting?”

&n
bsp; “I’ll take it.”

  He laughed. Mia was incredibly intelligent. She could read every person in a room. But she knew very little about computers or hacking.

  “It’s a meeting. You said she knows what she’s doing. What’s to stop her from blowing up our whole operation because she knows who you are?”

  “We’ve never met. To her, I’m Mr. Green, a man with deep pockets.” He left out the part of his relationship with the hacker that included flirtation.

  “It’s better for me to go anyway. I’ll be objective in a way you might not be.” She released a slow breath as she calmed down. “How bad is this other thing going to be?”

  “I have no idea. What do you expect me to do?”

  “You have a law degree. You have connections. Obviously, you can’t meet with her in any official capacity. Hire someone to go bail her out.” She rose from her chair. “Make sure you get her under control. We’ve come too far.”

  He didn’t need the reminder.

  “What do I need to know for this meeting?” she asked with her purse in hand.

  “Give her the terms and the timeline. Ask what equipment she needs. If she agrees, give her this phone.” He pulled the burner from his desk. “Tell her we’ll text with the address to meet us when we have her setup ready.”

  “Simple enough.”

  Then she swept out of the room. He loved Mia. She’d been his best friend most of his life. No one knew him better and there was no one he trusted more, but sometimes she pissed him off.

  He made some calls to get Nikki out. She’d been charged but refused to give her name. On his way to the police station, he got the call from the bail bondsman letting him know Nikki would be out within the hour.

  Jared watched the clock. Maybe if he could wrap things up with Nikki quickly enough, he could make his meeting with Data. Around the corner from the station, he had his driver stop and idle. He handled a few emails while he waited.

  When he finally got the text saying they were headed out, the driver stepped from the car and waited by the back door to open it. Gary, the bail bondsman, pointed at the car. Nikki slid her sunglasses down on her nose, stared right at him through the darkened windows, and flipped him off. The driver opened the door and whatever Gary said to her worked. She strutted across the sidewalk as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  At the door, she bent over and peered in.

  “Get in,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “We had an arrangement. You were supposed to keep your nose clean.”

  She snorted. “My nose is clean. My liver, on the other hand, might be a little messed up.”

  “This isn’t a game.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Everything is a game. It’s all in how you play it.” She saluted Gary before climbing in.

  The driver shut the door and got back behind the wheel. “Where to?”

  “Just drive.” Jared closed the privacy glass before turning his attention to Nikki.

  She sprawled all over the opposite seat, ripped jeans and dirty white T-shirt clinging to her thin frame. She’d removed her sunglasses to reveal dark makeup smudges around her eyes. Her usual bronze complexion appeared pallid. Her long black hair was piled messily on top of her head. He stared at her until she broke.

  “Look, I’m sorry. I went out with some friends. Things got rowdy. I might have taken out some anger on a trash can.”

  What the hell? The property damage was to a trash can? “What exactly did you do to it?”

  She snickered. “I threw it through a plate glass window.”

  Jared didn’t even want to know. Property damage was easily taken care of. The right dollar figure kept people quiet. He’d get the charges dropped. He only hoped Mia’s meeting with Data was going better than this.

  He propped his ankle on his opposite knee and picked at imaginary lint, as if the upcoming conversation didn’t matter to him. “You have an important decision to make here, Nikki. Do you or don’t you want to work for me?”

  “The money’s good. But I can make that anywhere.”

  He shot her a look that called her bluff. They both knew no one was paying what he was.

  “But you don’t make all the terms,” she continued. “From what you’ve told me, I’m expected to put my life and my freedom in the hands of strangers. I don’t like that. I work alone.”

  They’d been around and around on this. Mia insisted each player not have contact with the others. It made sense. If one person was picked up and questioned—which in his mind was a long shot since no one would even be aware they’d been robbed—that person couldn’t give up any information on the other players.

  On the other hand, they wouldn’t be able to function as a team, which was what Jared had tried to get Mia to understand. It was hard to put trust in people you didn’t know. She wanted them to rely on each other sight unseen.

  Knowing he’d have to face Mia’s wrath later, he offered a compromise. “How about you meet my partner and the person who will get you into the house? Those are the only people who have an impact on your job.” At least it kept the forger separate. And as long as no one used real names, they’d be fine.

  “I suppose I could live with that.”

  “In the meantime, you’ll move in to the apartment we’ve set up as a base of operations and stay out of trouble.” He wouldn’t have to make such demands of the other players, but Nikki was a wild card. However, knowing she was the best made it worth dealing with her.

  “So in order to participate in your illegal job, you expect me to be an angel.”

  “Something like that.”

  “What if I have other jobs?”

  “As long as you’re in our employ, you don’t.”

  “Then you better open your piggy bank. Good behavior is gonna cost extra.”

  * * *

  Audrey stared at her screen far longer than she should have. She hated that Mr. Green had guessed right about her desire to know more about him. She’d done a number of jobs for him over the last few years. He’d even referred other clients to her. She didn’t know who he was or exactly what he did, except cause trouble to gain an advantage. Never anything truly evil or dirty. Nothing to raise a red flag for the need to turn him down. At least nothing she knew of.

  Every time he reached out with a job, their conversation floated into the realm of flirtation. It was safe for Audrey, though, because she never met clients. Ever.

  But he tempted her.

  Added to that temptation was a payout that would take care of her grandmother’s assisted living facility for months. She’d finally have some breathing room. She glanced around at the shithole room she sublet. She and Misty rarely crossed paths, which suited Audrey just fine. The walls were paper-thin and yellowed from Misty’s cigarette smoking. More often than not, the outside hallway was littered with passed-out junkies and drunks. But it was cheap.

  Maybe she could even get her own place. One without roaches.

  After securely locking up her room with a keyed padlock and a combination lock, she struck out on her two-train-and-one-bus ride to get to the meeting with Mr. Green. Her stomach fluttered the nearer she got. Maybe it was the crowd on public transportation or the summer heat. Maybe it was doing something she knew was stupid.

  Or maybe it was finally satisfying her curiosity.

  No other client made her wonder. Alone in her dingy room, sending out DDOS hacks to what she imagined was some rival corporation, she found herself wanting to know more about him. He never just sent directions and money. He...chatted. Like he was intrigued by what she did for a living. He was as curious as she was.

  By the time she got to her stop, the afternoon sun sat low in the sky, beating on her face as she hiked the last block to the coffee shop. Commuters jostled against her and no matter where she walked, she was
going against the flow.

  This was why she hardly left her apartment.

  She pushed through the door and let her eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting. A quick glance around let her know that Mr. Green probably wasn’t there yet. No single dude sat by himself. At the counter, she paid cash for a bottle of water and then took a seat in the corner, which afforded her a safe view of the entire place.

  She sipped her water and picked at the label as she studied each person who came through the door. No Mr. Green. She’d arrived a little early, so she tried not to get anxious, but it was no use. Just as she prepared to get up, a short woman in a designer dress—at least Audrey assumed it was designer since it looked like it fell from the pages of a magazine—stepped up to her table.

  The woman held a cup of coffee with her hand covering the name and she slid chic sunglasses off her face. Shockingly bright hazel eyes stared at her.

  “You can have this table. I’m done,” Audrey said.

  “I believe you’re the person I’m here to meet.”

  A million thoughts flew through Audrey’s mind. Mr. Green wasn’t a mister? Had she totally misread all communication and mistaken it for flirting? Was she really that far gone? Or had this Ms. Green been flirting with her? If so, how did it make her feel?

  As the questions rapid-fired through her brain, the woman simply said, “I work with Mr. Green.”

  “Oh,” Audrey managed and sank back into her chair. Disappointment stabbed at her. She’d wanted to meet him. If he wasn’t going to show, why demand a face-to-face?

  The woman sat down and crossed her legs. She had perfect posture, like that of a dancer, as she studied Audrey. “Data, is it?”

  Her voice held the quality of a rich person—not an accent exactly, more like the pitch of someone who spoke like everyone else was beneath her. She reminded Audrey of Whitley Gilbert from A Different World without the Southern belle twang.