I didn’t want her to go.
She was in jeans and a shirt, the outfit she’d packed so she wouldn’t have to do the walk of shame in that sexy red dress. She looked up at me, her eyes slightly hinting of dread, like she didn’t want to leave either. “I should go…” She echoed my own words back to me, probably understanding the pain I would feel.
Yeah, I felt it. “I’ll walk you out.” I took the bag off her shoulder and carried it so she wouldn’t have to. I took the lead and headed down the stairs to the vault doors. I closed the door behind us and walked her out to the curb to where her car was. When the door was unlocked, I opened the back door and placed her bag inside. “I want you to have this.” I pulled out the remote keypad.
She took it, clearly not understanding what it was. She stared at it for a few seconds before she looked at me.
“Enter that same combination so you can get into my garage. I don’t want you to park out here.” I nodded to the cross street. “The entrance is on the other side.”
She nodded. “Alright.”
“Come and go as you please.” I never gave anyone else access to my home. Not even Steel had it. “I mean that.” I had nothing to hide from her. She could walk in any time of the day or night, and I would be happy to see her.
She looked at the sincerity in my gaze before she gave a slight smile. “Okay.”
“When are you going to say that to me?” I gave her unlimited access to me, and she still hadn’t mirrored that. “Or do you really want me to hand over your key?”
A blush entered her cheeks like she was actually embarrassed by her previous reaction. “No. You already know you’re welcome…whether I say it or not.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear it.”
“Well…come and go as you please.” She rose on her tiptoes and grabbed the front of my shirt so she could pull me in for a kiss. She breathed into my mouth hard like the kiss burned her, lit her on fire all over again. Her fingers released my shirt, and she cupped my face, like she wanted more than the street could allow.
My arms wrapped around her and gripped her tight, kissing her hard like I didn’t give a damn who saw. One hand gripped her ass, my fingers digging through her jeans to give her a squeeze she wouldn’t forget.
When she pulled away, she looked at my lips before she kissed the corner of my mouth. “I’ll miss you…”
I cupped the back of her head and rubbed her nose with mine. “Me too, baby.”
After a long look, she finally turned away and got into her car.
I watched her drive away.
I squatted down in front of the safe, entering the long combination before I moved to the next step, pressing my palm against the screen to pick up my fingerprints and the webbed lines in the center of my palm. I’d replaced the old-school safe my brother used to use.
The first door opened, and I worked on the next step.
After every security measure was complete, I opened the heavy vault door, a door three times my height.
Steel carried the bags of money inside then used the machines to count everything.
The door behind us was locked, with two armed men protecting the entrance. My men were loyal because they all got a cut of the take, but I was a paranoid man.
Steel started entering the totals into his laptop.
I continued to carry the heavy bags inside before I took the counted bills and organized them in the enormous vault.
“You think Damien will comply next time we see him?”
I kept working, my muscles tight from all the heavy lifting. “Yes.” That piece of shit was making my life difficult, and I didn’t know what to do. If he pulled a stunt again and I didn’t kill him, I would really be in trouble.
“He better. Or you’re gonna have to shoot him in the head. Why don’t you just do that?”
“He makes us too much money.”
Steel shrugged. “It’s not that much.”
We kept working, spending over an hour taking care of the accounting before we locked the safe door and walked out. We moved down the hallway and entered the main hall, where the men were gathered.
Vox sat there alone, watching me from his place at the table. The look he gave me was different from before, far more sinister, like he was pissed off just to look at my face.
I may have to kill one of my own…and very soon.
Four
Catalina
After our performance, we all went out on the town, hitting up a bar and ordering rounds of drinks. I didn’t text Heath because I didn’t want to be one of those women who needed her man at her side every moment of the day.