Chapter 2
Chapter Two
STELLA
Holding back just enough cash to pay for my drink and give the bartender a nice, fat tip, I split the rest of the stack in half and stuffed the bills into both cups of my bra so I wouldn’t come out of the bathroom suddenly looking lopsided.
Just as I prepared to leave the stall, my phone vibrated with another text.
I quickly pulled it out and saw that it was from my dad on the family thread.
Dad: Hey angel. How you doing?
God, I really hated it when he acted sweet while I was in the middle of a job.
As if I wasn’t already struggling with my moral compass, doing what I was doing, then he’d be his normal sweet, jolly self, and I’d remember I couldn’t quit, no matter how badly I wanted to, because without him, we’d all be lost.
He might have done stupid shit from time to time, but there wasn’t a single doubt in any of our minds that Dad loved each and every one of us like crazy.
He was the rock of our family, the strong yet gooey center—like a whole bag of M&M’s on the first day of your period—that carried us all through.
Without him, we’d all be cast adrift, unable to fight our way to the surface.
I quickly typed out a reply to everyone on the chain.
Me: 1 lift. $560.
My mom hopped on the thread with that.
Mom: Oh, that’s so great, sweetie pie! I think that might be a new record. You just beat out Spence. Proud of you!
I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling. Where most parents kept trophies of the kids’ Little League tournaments or gymnastics competitions, things like that, my folks celebrated my siblings and me on our scores, mentally keeping track of whose was bigger.
Probably not the healthiest way to show pride in their children, but it was what it was.
I’d stopped questioning our disfunction a long time ago.
My brother interjected just then, never one to be shoved out of the limelight.
Spencer: That’s only because I accidentally dropped the wallet that had over a grand in it that one time, remember? I still think I should get credit for that. Not my fault I didn’t realize my jacket pocket was torn.
It was the same defense he’d used a million times, even though he knew it wouldn’t fly.
After all, one of our family’s rules was that you never kept a wallet you boosted.
If something did happen and you were approached by the cops, the quickest way to end up in jail was to have someone else’s wallet and ID on you.
You were supposed to take the cash then get rid of the evidence as quickly as possible.
My sister responded to that at lightning speed.
Serenity: Don’t be salty, Spence. It’s not a good look on you.
My mom’s reply followed quickly after.
Mom: Don’t worry, honey. Your dad and I love all of you equally.
I let out a tiny groan. As usual when it came to my family, the conversation had totally gotten away from me.
My thumbs moved rapid-fire across the screen. Think we might have a problem, I typed quickly before hitting send and continuing on. I got a wonky feeling just a second ago. Like someone was watching me.
Spencer: You and your wonky feelings. Don’t flake out now. We need this.
My brother had never really been one to trust in my gut instincts.
He always thought I was being flighty or overly sensitive when I talked about feeling weird about a job.
As the oldest, he always thought he knew best. And with a stubborn streak a mile wide, he refused to admit that I was usually right when I spoke about my wonky feelings.
Me: I’m not flaking out, jerkoff. It’s called being cautious.
A response from my sister came in right after.
Serenity: Ignore Spence, he’s having his man period. But I’m sure it’s nothing. It was probably just some guy checking you out cuz you look super hot.
I tried telling myself the same thing, but I couldn’t get rid of the nerves swimming around in my belly like fizzy champagne bubbles.
If this had been the only time I had that feeling, it would be easier to ignore, but more and more lately, I felt that telltale tingle between my shoulder blades, although every time I did a surreptitious scan of my surroundings, I came up empty.
I was actually starting to think I was losing my mind.
Before I could formulate a reply, the phone vibrated unexpectedly in my hand with an incoming call. I swallowed down my yelp and swiped my thumb across the screen. “Hello?”
“Hey, Starshine,” my dad’s deep, calming voice rumbled through the line. Just hearing him call me by the nickname he’d christened me with when I was born made me feel a million times better.
“Hi, Daddy,” I said on an exhale, mindful to keep my voice low and listen for sounds of someone else coming into the bathroom.
“You okay?”
“I’m good. It’s just those damn butterflies again. I thought I felt eyes on me when I was walking to the bathroom.”
“What do I always tell you, baby girl? That’s your sixth sense talking to you. I trust your gut more than I do my own or anyone else’s. You know that, so if you want to pull the plug, do it. You have my full support. Always have, and always will.”
There was no use denying that every one of us Ryans teetered way over the line, falling smack dab into the middle of amoral.
But even with us being crooked as a politician with scoliosis, we loved the hell out of one another and had each other’s backs in everything.
Even Spencer, who could be a moody bitch a lot of the time, would pound the living shit out of anyone who dared mess with his little sisters.
Between me and Serenity, my brother had several busy years for a while, beating the hell out of more than his fair share of ex-boyfriends.
We didn’t have a typical upbringing by any stretch of the imagination.
My parents might have raised us to be grifters—a family legacy that was passed down so many generations I’d lost track of when it started—but they’d also raised us to love each other unconditionally.
There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my family.
I’d walk to the ends of the earth, barefoot and on broken glass, if that was what it took to protect them.
That was why, even with my father giving me the perfect out just then, I pushed that uneasiness in my belly down as far as it would go, and steeled my spine. “No,” I said, trying to infuse determination into my words. “No, it’s okay. I think Serenity is right. It was probably nothing.”
There was a brief pause on my dad’s end before he spoke again, his question hesitant. “You sure?”
I had to be. There was no other choice. If we didn’t all work together to get the money to pay these guys back, well .
. . the outcome of that was unthinkable.
Just remembering how bad my father had looked after they’d beaten him made my eyes burn with unshed tears.
There wasn’t an alternative. I refused to even consider a world in which my father wasn’t with us.
“I’m positive. But I have to get back out there.”
“Okay, Starshine. I love you, you know that, right?”
“Without a doubt,” I replied. “And I love you too.”
“Call me as soon as you get home,” he ordered, only ending the call once I’d promised.
With no other choice but to get back out there, I sucked in a much-needed breath, squared my shoulders, and unlocked the door to the stall I was tucked in.
Once I exited the bathroom, I tossed the—now much lighter—wallet onto the floor outside the men’s room for someone else to find.
That way it would seem Fat Bastard had just dropped it on his way in or out of the can.
Time to get this show on the road.
West
I’d joined the Marine Corps right out of high school.
It was all I had known as an adult, and when I finally got out, I’d been a little out of sorts, trying to figure out where I belonged in the civilian world.
I’d even gone so far as to apply to the police academy, thinking it was the next logical step after having spent years serving my country.
It didn’t take long for me to realize it wasn’t a good fit.
When a buddy from my old unit told me about the setup Lincoln Sheppard had, smack in the middle of the mountains of Virginia, I packed my shit and relocated one last time. That had been nearly seven years ago, and there hadn’t been a day since when I’d regretted my decision.
There were times when the job could be a little monotonous, like when a spurned housewife set on revenge and divorce asked for our help in surveilling her cheating husband.
But then there were cases like the one I was currently on, where a known higher-level drug distributor had been thwarting the cops at every turn.
The private investigation and securities firm I worked for, Alpha Omega, had been known to team up with the local police departments whenever they hit a roadblock in one of their cases and needed someone who wasn’t as restricted by rules and regulations to take the baton.
That was where we came in. We lived in that gray area that bordered between legal and felonious, utilizing the different skills we’d acquired during our time in the service. It was what made us all so fucking good at our job.
I was supposed to be here on a case. I’d tailed the distributor from his known compound to the swanky hotel bar I was currently sitting in, recording the meeting he was having with one of his dealers, when my attention was diverted by the temptress who’d waltzed into the bar all alone only a few minutes ago.
Never before had my focus been pulled from what it was supposed to be on, but once I’d noticed the stunning brunette in the red dress, I couldn’t stop watching her from the corner of my eye, even as I forced myself to concentrate on what my mark and his associate were saying.
I nearly lost track of their conversation when she collided with the loud prick who’d been sitting a few stools down from her.
I’d turned to give the woman my full attention when I saw her hand, whip fast and with all the grace of a coiled snake striking, slip into the asshole’s pocket and lift his wallet without him even realizing.
Just as fast as she’d stolen it, she dropped it into the purse hanging on the back of her stool, getting rid of the evidence before the dude she’d just robbed even had a chance to notice it was missing.
It happened so fast I almost thought I’d imagined the whole damn thing. If I hadn’t been watching her so closely from the moment she first walked in, and if I hadn’t been trained a long damn time ago to spot such things, I might have missed it, just like everyone else in the bar.
She had to have been one of the best pickpockets I’d ever seen. Under the right circumstances, there was a possibility she could have bested one of my Alpha Omega brothers.
After sharing a few quick words with the woman behind the bar, she grabbed her purse and headed toward the back where the bathrooms were, no doubt to go through it and see how much she’d come away with.
Not long after she disappeared, the meeting I’d been recording ended.
The dealer took off, but my mark stuck around and ordered another drink from the waitress.
A second later, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, a flash of red that alerted me to her return to the bar from the restrooms, and just that brief glimpse set the blood roaring in my veins.
She did a cursory scan of the bar, as if she was looking for another target. Her gaze caught on the guy I’d been hired to surveil, or more to the point, the Patek Philippe on his wrist.
She smiled at him, and there was no doubt it was a beautiful smile, but there was a stiffness to it she was trying to hide behind a mask of seduction and confidence. A mask that easily fooled the dumbass I’d been spying on all damn night, because I saw the very moment he noticed her as well.
And I knew the shit was about to hit the fan.