Desperate to give Jay the benefit of the doubt, she read every article on their fathers. Forty minutes later, she had no benefit left to give. Towers and Benson stole from hardworking people and left them broke. When the police entered the picture, they fled the country. Most speculated they’d gone to a country without extradition.
Audrey’s blood ran hot. She clicked on story after story of families ruined because of those two men. People who lost their homes when they believed they were saving for retirement. Others whose kids had to skip college to work. Her heart broke a little with each instance. And she was helping Jared carry on the family tradition.
No, she wasn’t. She’d find another way to pay for Gram’s care. She went through the apartment and gathered all of her things. She wouldn’t be returning.
When the door opened, Nikki jogged through. “Guess what I picked up on the street?”
Jay—Jared—walked in behind her and held up a bag of food. He took one look at Audrey and rushed across the room. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Ignoring his questions, she looked at Nikki. “Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“Who they are.” She pointed at the huge screen on the wall. “Jared Towers and Mia Benson, heirs to two of Chicago’s biggest thieves.”
“Damn,” Nikki said.
Jared set the bag of food on the table. He reached up as if to touch her, but she backed away.
“I’m out of here. Don’t call me. Don’t contact me.”
“Why?” he asked.
The confusion on his face told her he really didn’t have a clue.
“You lied about who you are.”
“I never lied. I just never gave you all the information. Neither have you. Or Nikki.”
“It’s not the same and you know it.”
“How is it different? You’re entitled to privacy but I’m not?” The confusion flipped to irritation.
“This isn’t about privacy. This is about lying about who you are. Regardless of whether I use Audrey or go by Data, I’m a hacker. I serve whoever will offer the biggest paycheck. Nikki goes by one name. She’s a thief.” She pointed at him. “You were pretending to be one of us.” She huffed.
“What’s the problem? We’re all the same. That’s what you’re getting at, right? You thought I wasn’t a criminal, but I am.”
“The problem is the type of criminal you are. You steal from people who can’t afford it. You rob people of their lives.”
His face grew red and his eyes flashed. He got up so close they were nearly nose to nose. “Do not confuse me with my father. He stole people’s livelihoods. I don’t.”
She snorted. “Sure.”
“I am no more my father than you are your mother.”
She snapped back from his words. How dare he bring her mother into this? “Fuck you, Jay. Jared. I don’t work for liars.”
“Oh, that’s rich. You just admitted you’ll sell yourself to the highest bidder.”
* * *
As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Devastation stole across her face for a brief moment before she schooled her features.
He normally had much better control over his emotions. Worse, he didn’t even mean them. He’d wanted to strike out for being compared to his father.
She swallowed hard. “Glad to finally see the real you. Our business is done.” She pushed past him to the door.
“The job isn’t done. If you walk out that door, you won’t get your money.” He thought for sure the lure of the payout would make her stay.
Over her shoulder, she said, “Then I guess it’s a good thing there are plenty of rich assholes out there who will pay me.”
She stomped out of the apartment.
Nikki took a seat at the table and started taking out food. “You sure fucked that up good.”
“Me? What the hell did I do?”
Nikki shook her head. “If you don’t know, I can’t help you. Your cousin’s gonna be pissed, though. You just lost your hacker.”
“You’re not going to follow her bizarre moral code and leave?”
“I don’t care who I work for as long as the cash is good. You do have the money to pay me, right?”
He nodded. “I don’t spend money I don’t have.”
“Good.” She took a bite of pasta. “However, I won’t be going into this job without someone who can get me in and out of the house.”
“I’ll handle it.” He left Nikki sitting there and went to see Mia.
Nikki was right. He had fucked this up, but he didn’t know what he could’ve done differently. He hadn’t even considered the when or how of revealing his full name. He hadn’t wanted her to know for this exact reason.
Although Mia had planned to be at the museum most of the day, especially while Nikki and Audrey were at Scott’s house, it was late enough that she should be home; she rarely worked this late, even though she loved her job at the Art Institute. He knocked, and while waiting for her to answer, he tried to figure out a plan.
The door opened and Mia simply said, “What went wrong?”
“Shit went sideways.” His words were clear, all business, but his mind was hazy, his heart squeezed tight.
She stepped back from the entrance. Inside, he smelled dinner cooking. No table was set, though, so she was making dinner for herself, giving him the freedom to talk.
“The trip to Scott’s went off more or less without a hitch, but when I got back to the apartment, Audrey was pissed. She figured out who we are and shared the information with Nikki.”
“Audrey?”
“Data. Her real name is Audrey. She left. She said she’s out. She won’t work with liars.”
“You slept with her.”
It wasn’t a question. Not quite a statement either. More like an accusation.
“That has nothing to do with this. She thinks we’re continuing our fathers’ legacy,” he said defensively.
“How stupid are you? Sleeping with her has everything to do with this. When did you learn her real name?”
He opened his mouth and realized the trap she had laid. Rather than answer, he continued, “Nikki is still there, but we need a new hacker.”
“I told you this would be a problem. You never want to listen to me. Accused me of being a control freak. I stepped back, let you run this, and now look where we are. I warned you not to sleep with her. I said don’t let them meet. We’re not building a team.”
“They work so well together. You saw it. If we didn’t have them in the same room, they wouldn’t have come up with the solutions they did. Certainly not that quickly.” It had been a smart move. They were a team.
“But now we have less than three days. Can Nikki do this alone?”
“Someone has to force the reboot of the system and then trip the alarm.”
“How hard can it be to find someone to do that as long as you can show him how?”
“It would mean bringing in another person.”
“Do we have a choice?”
“Not really,” he admitted, but he didn’t want to replace Audrey. He wanted her to see it through.
“Then find someone. Preferably someone you won’t want to screw. To make matters worse, we need to move the timetable up on all the jobs. They’re making a move and I want to take away all of their options.”
He nodded. Thinking about the additional hassles this had caused, he said, “I’m sorry.”
“You truly care for her, don’t you?” She ran a hand down his arm.
“We have something special.” Had. She’d walked out and told him not to contact her again. That was pretty decisive. His heart said it wasn’t over yet, though.
“Not to be a dick, but how special could it have been if she didn’t even know you?”
Hearing
Mia use crude language startled him. It wasn’t like her. “She didn’t know my name or my family, but she knows me.”
“Then I’m the one who’s sorry.”
“But you’re not revoking the ‘I told you so’ though, are you?”
“Of course not. I do thoroughly enjoy being right. Stay for dinner.” She led him into the gourmet kitchen.
He followed even though he didn’t have an appetite, but the thought of being alone with his regrets didn’t appeal to him, either.
Mia pointed to a stool at the counter and poured him a glass of wine. She was the only person he knew who routinely cooked her own meals. And she did so in her designer clothes without spilling or splashing food on them. It was like she was surrounded by her own little force field.
While she served, he sipped the wine, knowing the drink wouldn’t take the edge off his hurt or anger at losing Audrey.
“Is there anything you can do to fix this?” she asked.
“With Audrey? I have no idea.”
“Obviously getting her to come back would be best. She created the plan and knows how it’s supposed to go.”
“Maybe once she cools off I can talk to her.” For a moment, he’d thought Mia was actually concerned about his relationship, but it was all about the job.
“If you can’t convince her, how difficult will it be to find another hacker we can use going forward?”
He didn’t like the idea of someone else taking Audrey’s place. In the few short weeks they’d been working together, they’d built a team, and starting over didn’t sound like a good idea. But Mia was right. If they had to move fast, they didn’t have time to wait for Audrey. “I’ll put some feelers out for other people I’ve worked with. Since most of the legwork is done, they can probably work remotely, but I don’t know if that can continue for the other jobs.”
“Why not?”
“Look at the issues we’ve had on this job.”
She waved a wooden spoon in his direction. “Let Nikki plan the next one. Give her the mark and let her figure it out. Once she knows what’s needed, you can inform the hacker.”
“In theory that makes sense, but remember Nikki insisted on meeting Audrey. She wanted to know who was at her back. I doubt she’ll trust someone who only works remotely.”
Mia placed two dishes on the counter and they both stared at the neatly arranged chicken and rice.
“Do whatever you have to for this to happen. We’ve come so far, Jared.”
“I’ll figure it out.” He reached across and placed his hand over hers.
“I wish our lives were different. Then you could have Audrey and the two of you could get your nerd on at the computer where the most complicated thing you’d have to navigate would be code.”
He saw complete understanding in her eyes. And maybe a bit of longing?
“That’s never been my life. But with her, I felt like I could have some semblance of normalcy.”
She gave him a disbelieving look with one eyebrow nearly reaching her hairline. “Seriously? The hacker and the negotiator—two people full of secrets and hidden lives who work mostly on the dark web. That’s your idea of normal?”
He laughed. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but because of the lives we lead, we make sense together. Even though it’s only been a couple of weeks.”
“If there’s anything I can do to help, I will. But my priority is getting the art and helping the people who have suffered because of our fathers. When the jobs are done, we can think about finding happiness and building new lives for ourselves. Until then...”
“I know. I let a distraction get in the way. But I’m not sorry about it. I was falling for her.” He knew everything coming out of his mouth sounded crazy. On paper, his relationship with Audrey made no sense. They didn’t belong together, but he didn’t care. But who they were, where they came from, that part made sense. They got each other on a deep level because of the fucked-up families that had shaped them.
Most women couldn’t connect with him in that respect. They couldn’t understand what drove him. Audrey understood because she was driven in a similar way.
He wasn’t just falling for her. He loved her.
Unfortunately, his need to help Mia with her plans might’ve cost him the best relationship he’d ever had.
Chapter Eighteen
Jared decided to avoid the apartment and Nikki for the next day. She would want to know what the plan was and he didn’t have one yet. He gave Audrey the night. He hoped that even if she was still pissed, she would consider coming back. He drove to her apartment and went to the door. The bells weren’t marked. He didn’t know which was hers.
He could ring bells at random and hope to be allowed in. He could call her and hope she would answer. Hope. It seemed as though that was all he had right now. As he considered his options, the door swung open. A thin woman in workout gear and with a heavily made-up face came out.
“Excuse me,” he said, taking a step back. “I’m looking for my friend, Audrey. Can you tell me which apartment is hers?”
“I could, but since I don’t know you, that would be dumb.”
He realized she was right. If he were a terrible ex-boyfriend, this would be how he’d go about finding her. “I owe her money for a job she did for me. She left yesterday and was upset.”
“Oh,” the woman said with a smile, “you’re the asshole.”
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
The woman tilted her head to the side, her bright red hair cascading over her shoulder. “Based on the ranting I heard last night, you owe her more than some money.”
“Is she home?”
“No.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“Yes.”
He waited patiently.
She narrowed her eyes. “If she were really your friend, you would know the only place Audrey goes is to spend time with her grandmother.”
“We didn’t share a lot of personal details, if you know what I mean. Can you tell me where her grandmother lives?” When she just continued to stare at him, he gave her his most charming smile and added, “Please. I’m not here to cause trouble for her.”
“She owes me a couple hundred dollars.” She held her hand out expectantly.
He pulled out his wallet and pressed the bills into her palm.
“A place called Horizons, but you didn’t get that information from me.”
“Thank you.”
She waved as she headed down the sidewalk, shoulder bag thumping against her body. She hadn’t given him her name, so he didn’t know if she was Audrey’s friend or just a neighbor, making it easy for him to not explain where he’d gotten the information.
On his way to his car, he googled Horizons to see where he was headed and what kind of place it was. The internet informed him it was an assisted living facility for the elderly. He gathered information on the residence and quickly realized the reason Audrey accepted any well-paying job.
He pulled up to the facility and parked in a visitor spot. Since he had no idea what Audrey’s last name was, much less her grandmother’s, he didn’t have much choice but to sit and wait for her to come out and hope she used the main entrance. As far as he knew, she didn’t drive, so coming out this way made the most sense since the bus stop was on the corner. While he waited, he learned more about the assisted living facility and the kind of patients they cared for.
At the hour mark, he became restless and stepped from the car to walk around. The sun beat down on him. Even the breeze was thick and warm, adding to his restlessness. He removed his suit jacket and rolled the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows. He stretched his legs and thought about what he wanted to say to Audrey. For the first time in his life, he was at a loss for words. In his work, he figured out what people wanted or what they were afraid of and used it against them.
He didn’t understand why Audrey was pissed off. They’d spoken on numerous occasions about the secrets they kept. He didn’t know what she wanted, other than money, and now he understood the importance of that. Although she’d never actually said it, he’d figured out she feared turning into her mother, which was what made it an easy comparison to make during their argument. Understanding how to get at people was what made him successful at his job.
It was a low blow to bring her mother into the fight, but she’d come at him with gloves off. He’d fought back the only way he knew how, and for that he had regrets. But in order to fix this mess, he needed to understand why finding out his real name made her so upset.
She finally came through the front door and a tug pulled the middle of his chest. He’d missed seeing her and talking to her, even though it had only been a day. She walked quickly, head bowed, but he knew she paid attention to her surroundings. Stopping abruptly a few feet away, she stared at him with a stony face.
“Stalking me now?”
“It’s not like that. I asked your friend from your building where I could find you.”
She gave a disgusted snort. “I don’t have any friends in my building.”
“Someone knew enough to give me the name of this place.”
“Why are you here?” She wrapped her arms across her middle, making sure to put up every barrier he’d already fought past.
“I wanted to see you, talk to you.”
“I have nothing left to say.”
“I do. We have a pretty good thing going here. I know you feel it, too.”
“What exactly is good? The part where you pretend to be some art thief in order to get me to help you be like your conniving father? Or the part where you fuck me, say you want to know who you’re sleeping with, but don’t offer me the same courtesy?”
He sighed. “I didn’t lie to you. For the purposes of this job, I am an art thief, but it’s nothing like what my father did.”
It Takes a Thief--A Heist Romance Page 17
