Red Handed by Jessa Wilder
Idragged my hand down my face in mingled exhaustion and exasperation. It had been a long-ass night, and it had only been two fucking hours. I glanced at my watch. It was just past eleven. I was going to have to deal with another two hours of this shit, at least.
I hated this house. I hated some of the hotels too, but at least there I’d taken back a lot of the bad memories I’d grown up with. Forged new ones in the halls. This place was fucking cursed. When Nico gave it to Giovanna, I had a fucking parade. It was the next best thing to burning it to the ground.
I cracked my knuckles and took a deep breath through my nose, watching the party from the entrance of the coat room. The sharp tang of jealousy filled my mouth as I watched Beck twirl Rae around the room. One hand was on the small of her back, and the other held her hand. He was looking at her with emotions that neither of us had the right to feel. Not knowing what we did. That didn’t stop me from wanting to be in his place.
Rae was the one who suggested how tonight’s roles should be divided up, and at the time it all made sense. It still made sense. It was a great plan, and yet no one was happy. Well, except for Beck. Fucker was having the best day of his goddamned life. He won a race this morning. Now he got to be Raegan’s date to the party, and later Nico was probably going to need him to take off some asshole’s fingers with a blowtorch. For Beck, that was like hitting the trifecta.
Meanwhile, I was grinding my teeth so hard I was afraid one would crack, just knowing I had to hide in here like the good little employee. Sophie and Nico were forced to spend hours staring at each other in total silence, which was as poetic as it was tragic. They were fucking miserable.
I scanned the crowd, searching for Nico, and put my hand to my com, intending to check in. Instead, my gaze caught on Rae again. She seemed to be having a good time with Beck. My stomach constricted uncomfortably, like I might be sick. If she wanted to be with just Beck, would I be okay with bowing out? Fuck. Why was I even thinking about this? This was not the time. We had some other much more important shit to deal with.
Rae darted toward me, out of the crowd. She must have gotten another phone while they were dancing. Shit, she was so skilled it was almost scary, and here I was totally unfocused.
“Hey,” she gasped as she skidded to a halt, almost crashing into me. “Fuck, I hate these shoes.”
I glanced down. I didn’t hate the shoes, but I’d like the whole outfit better on my bedroom floor. Fuck. Focus. “Why’d you wear them?”
“Nico picked them. Who knew he was such a fashionista,” she joked.
My eyebrows shot up. No fucking way.
Nico had pets, not girlfriends. Jesus Christ, if he was adopting Rae now...no. She had the wrong personality for that kind of arrangement. The pets were always submissive brunettes. Rae wasn’t submissive. And anyway, Nico hated her.
Or, so he said.
Again, I had no idea why I was even worried about this. I needed to calm the fuck down.
“What did you get this time?” I asked, reaching my hand out for the phone.
Her fingers grazed mine when she handed it over. Goosebumps ran up her arm, and it took willpower not to pull her against me on the spot. I focused on the phone instead. It was in an innocuous black case.
“Belongs to Rob something-or-other,” she said, dancing from foot to foot. “The guy with the fauxhawk.”
I nodded. Fuck, it was one of those LifeProof ones that was a pain in the ass to take off. “Okay, give me a second to switch the SIM.”
She hummed and glanced back out at the crowd. I slid a tiny screwdriver in the side of the phone case and popped it open, quickly swapping the original SIM out with one of ours. It wouldn’t seem any different to Rob, but now we’d be able to track everything they were doing.
I looked up, about to hand the phone back, and paused. Rae was now watching me.
I stepped closer, lifting my hand to her jaw, and tipped her head back. Her green eyes went wide, and her chest grazed mine with each shallow pant. Fuck, she was beautiful. She sucked in a breath as I lowered my mouth to her ear. “Having fun, Firecracker?” I paused, needing to get my shit under control, before I locked the door and took her against it. I brushed my lips over her sensitive skin and smiled into her neck as a shiver rolled through her.
She turned her face into mine, the corner of her mouth a heartbeat away. My dick twitched, already hard, and we hadn’t even gotten started yet. I groaned, pulling her toward me, and dropped my forehead against hers. I felt each one of her breaths as they came out faster by the second. I cupped her face in my hand and ran my thumb over her cheek. The need to know if this could go further was outweighing all the reasons it couldn’t happen.
Quicker than I thought possible, she slipped from my grasp and winked. “Got to go,” she whispered. “They’ll miss this.”
“What?” I said, and she held up the phone. “Oh, right.”
She darted away, and I shook my head to clear it, absently lining up my tools and straightening my laptop for something to do. I watched as she paused with Beck, before locating her target and waltzing over to Rob. She brushed past him, making the drop without him realizing she’d done anything. Fucking unbelievable.
I scanned down the list on my laptop. We had seven of the eight phones already, and it had only been two hours. We were ahead of schedule. Damn, maybe I’d be able to stop hiding in the closet at some point tonight. Get some air.
The last name on the list was Emilio, one of the oldest members of the crew. He probably wouldn’t have made the list, except for the fact that he was more loyal to Alessandro than Nico and hadn’t been quiet about it. Could just be the grumblings of an old timer, but hard to tell. I watched as Rae approached Emilio, dragging Beck with her as though they were headed for a drink. Emilio saw Beck coming and paled. I smiled a little. Rae probably didn’t realize her partner in crime tonight wasn’t the most subtle guy to be shoving in the faces of potential traitors. We’d probably have to tell her at some point, assuming she’d be around for a while. My chest ached with the pain of the thought of her going back to the South Side. Lost to us forever.
Rae paused to speak to Emilio’s wife, probably complimenting her dress or something from the way she was gesturing. Then she and Beck brushed past them. I squinted, looking for the moment she took the phone. Nothing. How the hell did she do that? In moments, she was dashing back toward me.
“Make this one quick,” she panted. “That guy isn’t that drunk, he’ll probably notice if his phone is missing.”
I nodded sharply. “What are you going to do?”
“I saw him smoking on the porch for a while. I think I’ll leave it out there to be safe. He’ll think he just took it out and left it on a table.”
I nodded, smart. Maybe there was something to all that paranoid shit Nico had been spewing lately about her special training. If I asked, would she tell me? Probably not. I kept forgetting she wasn’t one of us.
“This is the last one,” I said, my voice a little thick. “Drop it off and we’re all done.”
“Perfect.” She smiled, but there was a hint of apprehension in her tone. “Save a dance for me?”
I blinked at her, my mind immediately going to that first time we danced, when everything fell into place. She’d immediately burned through my walls, and I’d been caught in her trap. Finding out she was the enemy had more than stung. There was an immediate void of what could’ve been, and every time I got close to her there was an ever-present need to fill it. I scanned her face, her eyes glanced around everywhere but on me. She was antsy, weight shifting from foot to foot, waiting for my answer. I wanted nothing more than to wash her uncertainty away, at least for one night. “Consider it saved.”
Her eyes met mine, and she smiled wide. “Be right back.”
She ran away, and I turned to pack up my laptop and tool kit, shoving it into my bag. Footsteps made me look up, tensing as someone loomed over me in the dim coat room.
Beck raised his hands. “Chill, man, it’s me.”
“Don’t do that, I have three loaded guns on me.”
He laughed. “Yeah, okay. Whip ‘em out. Let’s see who’s faster.”
“Fucker.” I stood, swinging the bag over my shoulder. “You didn’t go outside with Rae?”
“No. She said she’d be right back, and she’s starting to notice that I’m not exactly good at blending in.”
“Fair.” I glanced at my watch. “How much longer do you think we need to stay?” I was down for one dance, and that was it. We needed to get everyone back to the hotel before something went wrong. The plan had gone too well so far. I didn’t trust it…but dancing with her was worth the risk.
“Have you seen Nico?” Beck grinned wickedly
“No, I’ve been in here. Why?” I looked up sharply. The way he said that meant nothing good.
Beck sniggered. “He looks like he’s going to shoot himself in the face. Half an hour ago, I saw him go and talk to Giovanna. On purpose. Next time we do this one of us will have to take a turn guarding Sophie.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I ran a hand through my hair. “So, you’re saying we’re leaving right now then?”
“Yup.” He popped the P exactly like Rae did.
I frowned. Beck was even sounding like her now. I pushed down my disappointment at losing my chance to dance with her. “Come on, let’s go round up the troops.”
Nico and Sophie weren’t hard to find. Sure enough, Nico was staring into space while Sophie chatted with a guard behind him. He really did look like he was about to lose his shit. Beck waved to Nico, and he came to life, barking something at the guards and directing Sophie toward the door with military-like efficiency. Jesus Christ, how hard was it to hold a conversation with a regular girl for an hour?
“Where’s Rae?” I asked Beck, glancing around.
“Outside probably, she knew we were going to leave.”
I furrowed my brow. Did she know that? She said we were going to dance. Wouldn’t she have come back inside? A weird feeling settled in my stomach. Probably paranoia, brought on by years of missions going wrong. Maybe there was a hint of protectiveness in there too, which I probably didn’t need to examine too closely right now.
I strode out the front door. The porch had emptied somewhat, with only ten or so people still lingering on the far side, smoking cigars. The lawn stood eerily quiet and dark, half the cars in the driveway already gone. I took a few steps down the stairs, head swiveling side to side. Maybe she was waiting by the car? Nothing. My heartbeat sped up, beating angrily against my ribs. What the fuck. Where was she? Something was off. She would have come back inside.
“Beck!” I barked, my voice sounding foreign. “Where’d Rae go?”
“Outside,” he answered promptly from the doorway.
“Where outside?” I growled.
Nico had now come up behind Beck and was pushing past him onto the porch. “What the fuck is going on?”
I realized my gun was in my hand. Who knows when that happened? How long had it been since she said she was taking the phone to the porch? Five minutes? Fifteen? Fuck. “I don’t know where she is.”
Nico started screaming something at his security, and everyone started moving behind me. Sophie’s shrill voice spoke over Nico, and Beck wisely removed her from the porch before she got caught in the line of fire. My head buzzed as I tuned it all out.
I wouldn’t lose her. She’d stepped into our lives and provided a balance that Nico and Beck hadn’t noticed yet. I was quickly realizing she’d become more important than I had let anyone be. There was no fucking way I was letting anything happen to her.
I moved, as though on autopilot, down the porch steps and into the dark yard. Following the pathway from the house to the driveway, I kept my gun ready in my hand. There were far fewer cars now. Someone could easily come up the driveway and park, or even go over the lawn and right up to the house. My heart pounded in my chest, stealing each breath from me as I scanned the lawn for tire marks.
A creak rang through the quiet of the yard, like rusted hinges opening. My head snapped up, my gun instinctively coming up as well. One hundred yards ahead at the end of the driveway, a dark figure was pushing something—a person sized something—into the back of a white van. A cold, hard stone of dread formed in my stomach as he jumped into the back and slammed the door behind them.
I started running.