“Well damn. When you put it like that, sis, of course I’ll come.”
I smile up at him, a stupid grin plastered across my face, but I can’t help it. I’m just so happy.
“You in?” Tony says, exiting our room with a big bag over his shoulder.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Samuel says, not looking over at Tony, his eyes still on me.
“No words like ‘Better treat my sister right or I’m going to pound you into the ground?’” I tease.
“Princess, he gave me that talk when he busted me kissing you in the sixth grade. I told him then I was marrying you and would treat you like my king.”
“King?” I laugh, raising my eyebrows at him.
“Yeah, everyone knows you’re the king around here,” Tony says, pulling me into his arms and giving me a soft kiss.
“Isn’t that the fucking truth,” I hear Samuel mumble from behind us, but I just ignore him. We’ve got a wedding to get to.
Two
Anthony
I hear the alert go off on mine and Samuel’s phone. I’m driving, so I look up in the rearview mirror and see him checking it out. “What is it?”
“Looks like we got a skip pop up just outside Vegas.” He pauses for a second, and then I see his eyes go big. “Goddamn, the bounty is a million dollars.” He whistles and looks up to meet my eyes in the mirror.
“Don’t even think about it,” Mary says beside me. She’s holding my hand, and I feel her squeeze it a little tighter. She hates it when we go out picking up people who skip out on their bail, but it’s great money and we’re good at it.
The three of us are about half an hour from Vegas, and this could be some damn good money. I’m a fucking great hacker considering my dad taught me everything he knows. I know I can find anyone anywhere, and Samuel can bring them in. We’ve both got the best training for this, and it was from our dads.
I look back up in the rearview mirror and lock eyes with Samuel. He nods at me, and I know where he’s at. We’ve been talking about this for a long time. We want to be smart about the bonds we go after, so we’ve been trying to take bigger paying jobs less often. A lot of deadbeat criminals who skip on bail aren’t worth the risk for the little it pays out, but with the two of us teaming up, we’ve got the skills to wait and go after the whales. This one that just came up is the whale we’ve been waiting for.
With this nest egg, Mary and I wouldn’t have to worry about setting up a home for ourselves and our babies. She’s been going to school to be a kindergarten teacher, even though she knows it doesn’t pay anything. It’s always been her dream to have lots of babies, and teach, and I’ve made it my mission in life to make even her tiniest of dreams come true. I want to give her everything, and if that means doing this, then it needs to happen.
I take a deep breath and start to say something, but Mary knows me all too well and lets go of my hand, looking out the window and ignoring me. “Just take me to the hotel. I’ll order room service until you get back.”
“Princess, listen to me,” I try, but she’s not having it. I reach out for her hand, and while she doesn’t pull away, she doesn’t squeeze it back. “This is the one we’ve been waiting for. This will set us both up for a long time. Don’t you want that house out in Springfield? I’ve seen that Pinterest board you made for it.”
She whips around and looks at me with big eyes. “That was a private board! You weren’t supposed to see that.”
Goddamn, she’s so adorable when she’s angry. “I’m a computer hacker, baby. There’s nothing on the internet that’s private. Back to my point though. I know you’ve been eyeing it. I know you want it, but you know we can’t afford it. This would buy that house outright and then some. I wanna take care of you, princess. Take care of us.”
Mary shakes her head and turns around to look at her twin. They have a silent conversation where they just stare at each other, and I keep driving, waiting for it to be over. They’ve done this since we were babies so I’m used to it. After a few moments pass, she turns back around and crosses her arms in a huff.
“There’s no changing your minds. I know your voice, and Samuel won’t be moved. But I just want to state for the record that I don’t want either of you doing this for me. It wrecks my nerves when the two of you go out on these things, and seeing as how you’re calling off our wedding to go do one, I can’t help but be a little pissed.”
“Nobody is calling off anything, Mary.” My voice is stern because I don’t like that she thinks we aren’t still getting married. “I’m going to do some research on this, but I’m sure Samuel and I can be in and out in an hour. Pick up the skip, take him back to the county jail, and be back before you’ve even gotten out of the tub.”
“Sounds like a chick from the name,” Samuel says from the back seat, not looking up from his phone. “I don’t have the whole file yet, but it’s on its way. From the bio it sounds like a cake job for a cool mil.”
“See? It’s all going to be fine. Samuel and I are going to go make some quick cash, and then you and I are gonna make this official.” I reach over, pulling her hand out from her crossed arms, and this time she holds mine back. After a second of me rubbing my thumb on the inside of her wrist, I feel her relax and squeeze me back.