Page 104 of Golden Touch
“I have to try. It’s four thousand dollars. If I die, I need you to call the ambulance. Also? If they find my Kindle, take it or burn it. The password islivia69, all lowercase.”
“Bitch, please.” Poppy makes a choking sound. “Just do me a favor and don’t die, okay? I don’t mind getting arrested, but helping to kill you is a hard limit for me.”
“Fine.” I wipe off my cheeks and reflect on what a shame it is that I have to leave Vermont, because Poppy and I would have been a great duo. “I’m pulling myself together. Help me find a window that I can climb into without cutting myself up too badly.”
We edge around the corner of the building. Now we’re standing beside the office. The building is in decent shape here, but getting in will not be easy.
“Hey—this window is open a little bit,” Poppy says.
“Oh yeah?” When I look, I see that she’s right. And when I wiggle my fingers into the opening and shove hard at the sash, Imanage to lift it about ten inches before it won’t budge any further. “Help me push this up?”
Working together, we get the window to open another half inch or so. But that’s all. “I don’t think this is going to work out,” Poppy says.
“No, it is. Just help shove me through that opening, I’ll make it.”
“Okay, okay,” she mutters. “Here, use my leg as a step.” She braces it against the bricks.
I grab the window ledge and carefully step onto Poppy’s thigh. But this looks so much easier in Cirque du Soleil. I’m having trouble lining my head up with the partially opened window.
“Oh shit! A car!” Poppy yelps.
I jerk my chin around to try to see it, but all I get is a blast of headlight glare. “Who is it?”
“No idea,” she whispers. “Better hurry, though.”
“Okay, okay.” I angle my head through the opening as Poppy grabs my hips. “Push!” I close my eyes and prepare to topple onto the office’s wood floor. It’s a good thing I kept this place clean of debris.
“This is like birth, but in reverse,” she mutters. Then she pushes me… right into someone’s waiting arms.
Even in the dark, I’d know his scent anywhere. “Nash!” I squeak.
He lets out a low chuckle and pulls me all the way in, easing me to the floor.
“What are youdoinghere?”
“Getting your cash,” he says, cupping my face in his hands. “I realized you’d left it behind, and I didn’t want anyone else to find it.”
“Oh.” His body is like a big, warm magnet, and I feel the pull on a cellular level. That’s why I have to take a healthy step back. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“Watching you and Poppy is really fucking entertaining.” He chuckles again. “What’s on your Kindle, anyway?”
I make a frustrated sound. “Stop being so nice to me, okay? This is hard enough. I have to get my cash.”
He reaches over and grabs something off a shelf. It’s my cigar box full of cash. He hands it to me. “Here.”
I take it, blinking at him in the sooty darkness. “How did you get in here, anyway?”
“Ladder intothatwindow.” He points toward the back of the building, where I can make out the inky rectangle of a window sash opened to a Nash-sized height.
“Oh. Well…thank you. Listen…”
“Psst!” Poppy says from outside. “I don’t want to interrupt this reunion. But I see someone wandering around in back.”
“Do they look threatening?” Nash asks.
“Well, no. Just curious.”
“All right. Let me know if you need help,” he says. Then he puts his hands on my shoulders. “You were saying?”
