“You can’t call me that.”
“Why not?”
“Because then they’ll all know we fucked. This is supposed to be a business arrangement, remember?”
The reminder was a cold shot to his system. He hadn’t forgotten, but he’d definitely put it out of his mind. It had been glorious to not think about Mia and this job and their fathers for at least a little while.
“There’s nothing that says business partners can’t be friends.”
She snorted. “I don’t think anyone would think this is being friendly. It was way beyond friendly. Unless, of course, you treat all your friends that way.”
“Not a chance. When can we be more than friendly again?”
“Get dressed.” She tossed his clothes at him without answering his question.
Before he could even sit up all the way, she was out the door. Whatever idea she’d had lit a spark in her. He hoped it would work. They were running out of time. Mia had chosen the date based on the calendar of society events. Scott and his wife, as well as Mia and Jared, would all be at the same place at the same time, allowing little room for surprises. If this first mission failed, he didn’t know what Mia would do. He feared she’d get reckless, which was the opposite of who she was.
Reluctantly, he dressed and followed Audrey to the living room. She was already back at her computer. She’d scooped her hair messily on top of her head, and the blue light from the screen eerily illuminated her face. He detoured to the kitchen and poured them each a cup of coffee. Setting a cup next to her, he glanced at what she was working on. Scott’s routine and schedule.
Mia had had the man followed for a month. She paid some private investigator to shadow his movements under the guise of trying to prove insurance fraud. They had detailed notes about the comings and goings around the house, regular routines, visitors—Mia had thought of it all. He’d thought she’d gone a little overboard, but based on Audrey’s sudden interest, it might turn out to be useful.
“What’s your brilliant plan?”
“I didn’t say it was brilliant. I simply said I had one. In fact, it’s kind of crazy.”
The front door opened on her last sentence and Nikki strode in. “What’s crazy?”
Jay opened his mouth, but he almost used Audrey’s real name, so he got stuck.
“What’s the biggest problem you have once you’re inside?” Audrey asked.
Nikki’s posture changed and the frustration she’d worn hours ago returned. “The damn frame. Everyone knows it’s the frame. Everyone also knows that anyone who steals a painting either cuts it out or takes the whole thing. Removing it from the frame is dumb.”
It wasn’t dumb. It would prolong their ability to keep the thefts—and ultimately their plan—undetected. But he didn’t say anything.
Audrey continued, undaunted by Nikki’s outburst. “What if we take care of the frame ahead of time?”
“What?” Nikki asked.
The sun was beginning to rise and a golden glow created a halo behind Audrey. “We go in ahead of time and remove the spline. With the spline gone, you can pop that sucker right out. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it earlier.”
Nikki didn’t comment, but she stepped closer to Audrey. As she neared, Jay saw the signs of exhaustion on her face. Even with dark smudges, though, her eyes were alert.
Was she actually considering this?
“You’re suggesting we break in twice?” He spoke it like a question, but he already knew the answer. The lack of sleep had taken its toll on all of them.
“Not break in. Walk in. I just have to figure out how.” She pointed to the papers spread on the desk.
“How is that keeping a low profile? In and out. Undetected. No one knows the painting’s been swapped for a long time to come.”
Audrey rolled her eyes. “These people leave their house all the time. We just need to have a plausible reason for coming in. While someone keeps the maid busy, another person takes the painting down, removes the spline and loosens the edges. Simple.”
She’d lost her mind. Maybe he’d fucked her senseless. He’d never considered that a bad thing, but this was proving otherwise. “No.”
Both women turned to him, arms crossed.
“What do you mean, no?” Audrey asked.
For a moment his mind blanked, thinking of her as Audrey. The name suited her—soft and quiet but strong. Unfortunately, it was strength staring back at him now.
“It’s too risky.”
“I live for risk,” Nikki said. “No one is asking you to do anything. You hired us to do a job and we’re doing it. That’s how being an independent contractor works.”
He opened his mouth to correct her, but clamped it shut. She was right. They were independent contractors, regardless of how much he felt like they were building a team.
Audrey’s words from the bed echoed in him. They were a team. He wasn’t part of it. “If you go in there, you risk exposing the entire plan.”
“That implies we’re amateurs who don’t know what we’re doing.” Nikki scoffed.
Audrey bit her lower lip. Eyes fixed on him, she finally said, “Nikki’s right. We’re good at what we do.”
She gathered the papers and took them to the long table. Nikki grabbed a pile too, and they spread the papers out.
“What are you thinking?” Nikki asked. “Cable guy again?”
“I don’t think that’ll work. I didn’t get much past the front door. We need to get all the way in. Plus, it’s not like we can say they called for an install. Too much risk.”
Jay stood there not believing his ears. Grabbing Audrey by the elbow, he said, “We need to talk.”
She sputtered as he propelled her back to the bedroom for privacy. Once the door closed, he released her arm.
“Look, I know you wanted another round,” she started, “but we have more important things to handle.”
He barely suppressed a growl. “What you’re suggesting is reckless and dumb.”
She shook her head, anger flashing in her bright eyes. “It’ll buy Nikki the time she needs.”
“And if you get caught?”
“We won’t.”
His frustration mounted.
“We got this. Nikki and I will have it planned.”
“Audrey—”
“Don’t make me regret telling you my name.” She pursed her lips.
Fuck.
She ran a hand down his chest. He felt her warmth as if he were still shirtless.
“Trust me. We got this.”
Maybe it was the spark in her eye, the same one when she made a difficult shot in a video game or ran a line of brilliant code. He didn’t know where exactly it came from, but he said, “Okay.”
Reaching around her to open the door, he added, “Let’s hear it.”
* * *
Audrey’s confidence soared when Jay acquiesced. She’d thought he’d put up a bigger fight. As she reached the living room, Nikki smiled.
“Did you two kiss and make up?” she taunted.
Audrey’s cheeks flamed, but she focused on the papers on the table. With her head down, she didn’t address Nikki’s question. “We need something to get us in there without notice, with the security down.”
Jay came up behind her and set a fresh, steaming cup of coffee next to her. She hadn’t even noticed him go to the kitchen.
“What am I, chopped liver?” Nikki said.
“I’m a little afraid to see you hopped up on caffeine. I brought you a bottle of water.”
Audrey bit her lip to stop the smile. If she didn’t know better, she’d think they were siblings. “Exterminators would work.”
“Do they have routine exterminators?” he asked.
“No. I’m suggesting we make them need an exterminator.”
&
nbsp; Nikki hopped onto the table and sat with her legs crossed. “That seems like a lot of moving parts. Getting them to call a company, intercepting the call, pretending to be exterminators...”
“No. Simpler than that. If the maid, or God forbid, Mrs. Scott, walks into the kitchen and sees a mouse, do you think either of them is going to hang around to supervise the exterminators?”
“We still have to take the call.”
“We wait for the exterminators to show up. Knowing Mrs. Scott, she’ll pay extra to get them in right away. While the guys are in there laying traps and spreading poison, you walk in, take down the painting, remove the spline, and loosen the canvas from the frame. In and out in five minutes. The guys working have no idea who lives there.”
A grin crept onto Nikki’s face. “I act like I belong there, do what I want, and they won’t comment.”
“Then next Saturday, you can follow our plan when no one is home.”
“Why not just take it with me while the exterminators are there? I can do it.”
“First, one of the exterminators would notice you carrying a painting out, or worse, replacing the original with the fake,” Jay said. “Second, there are other things at play. The date is set for a reason. That part is not negotiable.”
He stayed on the other side of the room, arms crossed on his chest, ankles crossed at the floor. The image was so different than everything she’d experienced with him earlier. He was pissed.
“Fine.” Nikki sounded disappointed.
Audrey wondered what other things were at play. Were they planning another heist at the same time? Maybe a string of them all at once? It would be brilliant. She briefly imagined rich assholes all over the city being taken for a ride. But then she considered that meant that Jay had other teams like this all over the city. What did that mean for her?
“Why?” she asked.
“Why what?” he responded.
“Why is that date nonnegotiable?”
“You don’t need to know the reason. It just is.”
She tried not to be irritated, but that answer was getting old. Her mind raced again, back to the idea of multiple heists.
“How do you expect to get them to call an exterminator?” he asked, breaking her from her useless musings.
Audrey shrugged. “I guess we get a couple mice and set them loose in the kitchen when the maid is around.”
“So you want yet another trip to expose us.” It wasn’t a question. More like an accusation.
She clenched and unclenched her jaw. Men. If he would just leave them alone, they’d be halfway done with this already. She inhaled slowly through her nose and released, so she wouldn’t snap at him. No matter how much she wanted to. “You’re the one who is insisting on that night for the heist. Nikki’s right, if we do this, we could get it out now.”
“No.”
She flicked her hand up. “If you’d stop interrupting me, we’d get to the part where I say we have their schedules. The neighbor’s dog routinely gets out and runs into their yard. If we tempt the little bugger over, it will set off the motion sensors. The Scotts will see the dog on the monitor and either call the neighbor to come get him or they’ll take him back themselves. They won’t pay attention to me. At that point, I slip by and let a couple mice loose through the kitchen window or door.”
“Then we sit on the house and wait for the mice killers to show,” Nikki added. “I feel bad for the little guys.”
Jay pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s still a lot of moving parts.”
“Well, unless you have something better...”
“If we can get the spline out from the frame, next Saturday will be a breeze. Every time I ran it at London’s, the spline is what takes forever. I lose at least three minutes on the damn thing.” Nikki leaned over and slid some pages around, uncovering the layout of the house. “And as an added bonus, I’ll know if there are trip wires on the painting.”
“Excellent information to have.” Audrey had almost forgotten that they didn’t know if the painting was hooked up to the alarm. They’d been banking on Nikki getting the switch done while the system rebooted.
“When do you plan to do this?” Jay asked.
Audrey looked at Nikki who shrugged.
“Later today, I guess. Early enough that they can see the mice and call the exterminator, but not so late that the mice hide and don’t get noticed.” Audrey shuffled the stack of papers. “They usually eat dinner around seven. So the maid will be prepping around six? Does that line up with when the dog likes to come over?”
Nikki scanned the schedules of activity. “The dog has been in their yard all times of the day, so I guess it’s a matter of the dog needing to go out. What do we know about the neighbors?”
“As far as I know, nothing. We didn’t have them under surveillance,” Jay supplied. “But based on the number of times the dog was reported in the Scotts’ yard, it seems that whenever the door is opened at the neighbor’s house, the thing escapes.”
Nikki’s grin returned. “So we just have to get them to open the door to let him escape.” Turning to Audrey, she asked, “Are you good with dogs?”
“Why?”
“Ring the bell at the neighbor’s house, when someone answers, comment on their dog, pet it, and then let it run past you. Look all contrite and chase the dog into the Scotts’ yard. While you’re running around after the dog, making a huge disturbance, I can let the mice loose.”
Audrey shook her head. “There’s a chance Connie will recognize me.”
“Connie?” Jay asked.
“The maid.” She pointed at Nikki. “You do it.”
Nikki shook her head. “I don’t do dogs.”
She was dead serious. Audrey had never seen her so grave.
“You don’t have to actually do anyth—”
“No.”
“What about you?” Audrey asked Jay.
He shook his head. “We’re hands off. We can’t be seen there.”
Audrey filed that bit of information away to think about later. The Greens were up to something, but she couldn’t fit the pieces together. Not yet anyway.
“I bet London would do it. And she’s about as nonthreatening as a person can get,” Nikki said.
Jay released a heavy sigh. Audrey didn’t know if he was resigned to the fact that they were going through with this or if he was still irritated by the idea. He unfolded his stance and took her near-empty coffee cup.
“If you’re planning on this for today, I suggest you both get some sleep. You’ve been going at this all night. If you’re exhausted, you’ll make mistakes. We can’t afford mistakes.”
“I’ll nap when I get back.” She checked the time. Today she normally went to visit Gram and she wanted to make sure the move to the new room was working. “I’ll grab mice on my way back.”
Nikki hopped off the table. “I’ll call London.”
“I wasn’t kidding. You both need to sleep.”
Audrey and Nikki both rolled their eyes.
“I’ve participated in hackfests that ran for over forty hours straight. No sleep,” Audrey said.
“And I once spent thirty hours in a broken elevator shaft waiting to gain access to an office,” Nikki tossed out.
Jay threw his hands up. “Fine. You win. You’re both superwomen who can function without sleep unlike mere mortals.” Then he pinned them with a stern look. “But if you get busted, you’re on your own. No job. No payout.”
His warning swirled the coffee in Audrey’s stomach. He had a point. She wasn’t normally this exposed on a job.
“We’ll be fine,” Nikki said.
“See you in a few hours.” Audrey picked up her bag.
Jay followed her out the door. “Can I give you a ride?”
“No, I’m good.”
“I
t’s not like I don’t already know where you live.”
“I’m not going home.”
On the sidewalk, he pressed the button to unlock his car. She really wanted to take him up on his offer.
“Where are you going that can’t wait? Your time would be better spent sleeping and preparing for tonight.”
“I don’t need you telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. My errand can’t wait.” She slid her bag across her body.
“Last time you ran errands, something happened and you spent the night drunk.”
She hated that he’d witnessed her weakness. Well, at least the aftereffects of it. “I’m fine. I’ll get the mice and Nikki, London, and I will handle our business. You don’t need to worry about us.”
He stepped closer and tucked some errant hair behind her ear. “I do worry. More than I should, I think.”
She didn’t want sincerity from him. Why was he making this difficult? “Well, I don’t need your concern. I can take care of myself.”
“Of that, I have little doubt. But there’s no shame in asking for a hand.” He flicked his thumb toward his car. “Or a ride.”
“I’m fine with public transportation. Thank you for the offer.”
“I’ll meet you back here later.”
“Why? You’re hands off, remember?”
“I still have a vested interest in what happens.”
She didn’t want to read too much into what he said. She reminded herself that he was out of her league. They were good for a quick roll, but she wouldn’t fit into his world. At some point, he’d figure that out.
“See you later then.” She turned and headed to the bus stop. She refused to turn around because she felt his gaze on her all the way down the block.
Chapter Fourteen
Jared had plenty to do. He texted Mia and asked her to meet him at his office. His consulting business always had new calls, many of which he’d been putting off since he and Mia had forged ahead on this endeavor. He should’ve been tired after pulling an all-nighter, but he was actually full of energy. Maybe it was the idea that they finally appeared to have the kinks worked out of the plan to get into Scott’s house. More likely, it had been the amazing release with Audrey.
It Takes a Thief--A Heist Romance Page 13
