I should’ve followed her directly, but I needed equipment. My team came without me asking. They’d just suited up with me, as if it was assumed they were going.
“In all the times we trained to get out of restraints, I don’t remember once having my dick out,” Taft added with a laugh.
“When’s the last time you got your dick sucked, asshole?” I growled. “I’m guessing never. I have to wonder if you still have your V card.”
Kennedy snickered.
“Says the man who’s in love with a thief,” Taft countered. “She better be fucking worth it.”
I spun around as best I could in my seat belt and glared.
“You’re going to find your woman, and then you’re going to eat every fucking word because you’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.”
Taft held up his hands in surrender. “Helping her steal a knife is child’s play. This is gonna be fun.”
I didn’t think fun was the word, but this wouldn't be the hardest mission we’d completed. Which was ironic since I was ready to rip Taft’s head off before I officially broke the law.
“Here’s the info on that other robbery,” Kennedy said. “An attempted theft on the Empress Ring happened eleven years ago. It says the burglar entered through the HVAC system, rappelled down over the locked case and stole it, but was captured exiting the boiler room. The ring was safely returned and, from what I can tell, is now a part of a collection at a museum in Venice.”
What she told me earlier had been true.
“Your woman’s quite the cat burglar,” Kennedy added.
“No mention of accomplices?” I asked.
“No.”
“She did a stint in juvie while Daddy got away, and now she’s doing an almost identical job to save him?” Taft asked.
“Burns is going to kill him if she doesn’t,” I explained. “It doesn’t matter the reason. My woman’s going in alone, and that’s not fucking okay.”
Ford slows the SUV. “Easy, brother. We have your back. And hers.”
“I’m going to spank her ass for going this alone.”
“We don’t fall for meek women,” Ford added. “We’d be bored out of our minds.”
“Yeah, infiltration and extraction on a Thursday night?” Taft asked. “Hooyah.”
“We’re close,” Ford said, a few minutes later.
I grab my comms unit from the center console and stuff it in my ear. “Testing, testing.”
“Clear,” Kennedy responds as Ford pulls over and cuts the engine.
“The house is over there.” I point out the windshield into the darkness and unclick my seat belt. It helped that I’d followed Megan here earlier. The guys only had the info Kennedy found online and the plans I’d shared–the ones I’d nabbed from Megan’s kitchen table after I’d gotten myself free of the cuffs.
“We know the plan. Go get your woman,” Ford said.
I nodded then slipped out into the darkness.
I wasn’t kidding when I told the guys Megan was going to get a spanking. I’d let her run the show enough. Held secrets. Kept herself apart. Her heart too. That shit was ending now. If she hadn’t figured out I was sticking, she’d learn tonight. It was time she knew who was in charge, and it sure as fuck wasn’t her.
CHAPTER
TWENTY
MEGAN
Once I got to the roof by scaling the Straights’ chimney, I looped the rope I’d tied off at the ground over the roof vent for one of the toilets. I let the rest of it drop the two stories to the ground ready to be used later. From there, I scaled the roof until I came to the skylight. I thought about the blueprint and realized this was the one over the central stairwell, not the room with the dagger.
The shingles were rough beneath my palms, and I moved slowly so as not to slip. With the treads on my shoes, I held well, but the incline was more generous than other roofs I’d had to maneuver in the past.
I was also older. I hadn’t grown since I was seventeen although my hips and boobs definitely had. But it was clear I wasn’t as agile. No, that wasn’t right. I stopped at the correct skylight and took a breath. Back in the day, I’d been fearless. Had a sense of indestructibility I didn’t have now. Maybe it was the fact that I’d been caught, that I wasn’t invincible, that had me moving more cautiously now.
I had to be methodical. Consistent. To let my skills take over. I was ballsy and confident enough to be on someone’s roof at midnight. I could do the rest.
Using a penknife, I cut the seal around the edges of the skylight, then worked a slim chisel in to pry it open.
Once open, I tugged off the second rope. This one was thinner. I tied it off like my escape rope and attached the clip to my harness I’d had on over my dark clothes. Checking to make sure I had the tools I needed in my pockets, I leaned into the opening and tumbled through. My harness caught me as I dangled in the vaulted ceiling.