Page 7 of Steal Me (Rebel Hearts Heists 1)
I’m arguing back and forth with Kaden when we hear helicopters overhead and that’s when Royce makes a decision for everyone. “Guys, masks off. Like this we’re too noticeable.”
“Dude the more Sloane knows, the harder it is going to be—” Royce and Blaine take their masks off and Kaden follows suit with a deep sigh. They all shed their jackets too and I notice that Royce and Blaine are wearing their football jerseys, ready for tonight’s parade.
“Holy shit!I … I know you! You all play football for UCLA. How—” I interrupt her authentic surprise and give Royce a side glance, keeping my attention on the road in front of me.
“Can I know what the fuck happened?” Royce and Kaden fill me in on the disastrous outcome of today’s job: we barely got a quarter of a mil, there was a cop among the customers in the branch and when he confronted them in the vault, Blaine shot him.
“This is why we had to take a hostage, to get away.”
His condescending tone rubs me the wrong way and I snap: “You shot a motherfucking FBI agent, dudes! And now you have to add that to bank robbery and kidnapping …”
Blaine intervenes. “I aimed at his feet. The cop’s still alive.”
I scoff at his clarification and my eyes meet the girl’s cautious gaze once again. “Yeah but however you look at the situation, this will be a fucking manhunt. Now we’ll be wanted for armed robbery, kidnapping and murder.”
Kaden asks incredulously, “What the fuck are you talking about? Blaine just told you that he didn’t kill the cop.” Honestly, I understand that I have the easiest job sitting in the car, but the adrenaline rush from the robbery and the stress of everything going wrong, is clouding their judgement.
“Yeah, not the cop. But what do you plan to do with her? Not only could she identify us in a line up, she fucking knows who we are. I hope you realize that we can’t just leave her by the side of the road, right?”
She speaks again, looking at me and this time her voice is small and shaky. “Are you gonna kill me?”
I open my mouth to explain that this isn’t personal but there’s no other possible outcome where we all walk away unscathed from this situation when Royce and Kaden say ‘no’ in unison. Kaden’s a fucking control freak, so I address Royce who’s the boss in this whole situation and my team captain on the field.
“You can’t possibly let her go, you know that, right? She—”
Royce has made up his mind.“No one’s killing anyone … for now. We’ll take her with us and then we’ll decide. I need time to think.”
“Fuck that! That’s complete bullshit, I—” I’m at a bit of a hard impasse here because despite my tough talk, actually shooting the green eyed girl behind me ... shit. I guess if it has to be done, it has to be done. I’ve been a lot of things in my life, a murderer is a new one but it might be the only way to not be exposed.
The light and noise of police sirens stop me in my tracks and I pull over. We’re five minutes away from the highway and this might be it. The cop asks me for my license and registration and when he sees that the car isn’t registered to me, he begins asking questions. I’m about to explain that Royce is sitting right by my side, when his colleague taps him on the shoulder.
“Hey sarge, these aren’t the robbers we’re after. I know these guys! They’re headed to the UCLA parade. That’s QB1 right there in the backseat with his date!”
He smiles and then lowers his voice as if he were one of the boys. “Is that his girl? Good choice if so.” The other cop narrows his eyes and it's clear that one of them is a bit more experienced in the field than the other. Kaden nods and places a kiss on Sloane’s neck but I spot his arms tightening his hold on her. Honestly, I am a bit surprised she hasn’t screamed bloody murder yet considering that I told her I was going to kill her not that long ago. Instead, she’s silent and watchful. I frown because that type of stillness only comes from learning it the hard way.
Then I recognize the cop: he’s a rookie who makes some extra money working for campus security on his days off. He always hangs around the football field and we’ve talked several times. His sergeant seems convinced and lets us go on our way after apologizing for stopping us. “Sorry guys, we’re looking for a similar vehicle with three, possibly four men in it. I’m gonna be off soon, see you at tonight’s party. Ma’am …”
And just like that, we drive to our mid-point in complete silence.
