Chapter 71
“Fine, but you stay behind us,” I say, annoyed.
“Fuck. You’re gorgeous like this.”
I freeze. “Say that again.”
Sterling’s brow creases. “I didn’t say anything.”
Lucky appears at my side. I know I’m not hearing things. Despite saying it to myself and hearing it from Lachlan a hundred times a day, I’ve never once imagined Sterling calling me gorgeous before.
Unless he was talking to Lucky.
“You called me gorgeous, or you called him gorgeous—not that either is really appropriate right now.” As soon as I say the word, Sterling’s entire body stills. He’d better not deny it. “I know what I heard.”
“Guys, what’s going on?”
Sterling shifts against the wall, and I wait. Wait for this man to explain why he’s thinking about me as though he hasn’t kept his distance for two years. Wait for him to take it back so I can use the shattered remains of my broken heart to cut out the crush I’ve held on to for all this time.
His thoughts come through, slow and steady, his eyes never leaving mine.
“There’s an earring on your desk—a gold stud with a ruby in the center. You lost the other half, but you won’t throw it away because they were a gift from a dear friend. Best friend, if I had to guess.”
I nod. They were a gift from Alice.
“You call your parents every week, but only during Monica’s lunch breaks.”
“You look amazing in every color, but green always makes your eyes shine brighter.”
“Uh, guys?” Lucky is really starting to look worried now.
Sterling hushes him.
“You love crosswords, and you beat yourself up when you can’t finish them, even though you shouldn’t. I know the guy who writes them, and he’s an asshole.”
I want to laugh. Cry. Scream at him for keeping this from me. But above all, I want to fall into his arms.
“Seriously, what’s going on?”
Sterling turns to Lucky. “Mia just discovered she’s telepathic.”
It’s alarming how fast Lucky’s head turns. “You can hear this?”
I nod.
“That’s amazing. Tell Sterling he’s a prick.”
“No.”
“Spoilsport.”
Sterling, meanwhile, is making it difficult to not regret letting him stay. He disappears into the foyer before I can stop him, checking over the guards before striding over to the front door and putting himself in full view of the police.
Fuck, now he’s waving someone over.
Lucky looks as appalled as I feel—because you don’t just make yourself an easy target in the middle of an active robbery. I can’t believe this is the smartest man I’ve ever met.
Grabbing my hand, Lucky blinks us out of view, too close to the entrance for them to see. I try to melt into the wall while Sterling gives them an update on the situation. I don’t listen; I can’t hear anything over the sound of my heart panicking.
Lucky waits until the coast is clear to grab Sterling by the back of his shirt and yank him into the shadows. “I’m not fucking working with them,” he hisses.
Sterling is annoyingly calm. “You don’t have to, but I’m making sure these people are safe.”
“Did you even think about us? If even one of them sees what we can do, we’re in trouble. I’m not going to let them make us a science experiment or a fucking weapon.”
The thought is terrifying. I press closer to the wall, until the chill permeates my clothes, cools my overheated skin. I can hear them mobilizing outside, boots and guns and vests and body cams that may or may not work when questioned.
There are so many of them. We wouldn’t stand a chance.
Sterling must have considered this.
Must have decided it was a risk worth taking.
His blue eyes fill my view, complicated and intense. There’s so much going on behind them—things I have always wanted to know, things I could know now, if I only looked.
It’s like holding the golden ticket.
Like breaking into someone’s house.
It’s too much.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he says, and I believe him.
This is Sterling Ross. The man who can’t be moved. If he says we’ll be safe, then I trust him.
His thumbs rub reassuringly over my arms, and I sink into the warmth. My heart calms.
He turns to Lucky, leaving his hands on me. “Look, I promised to get the hostages to safety, but that doesn’t mean we have to let anyone in.” And, goddamn it, even I can hear the smile in his voice. Of course he had a plan all along. “How many people do you think you can move at a time?”
“Four or five maybe, as long as I’ve got ahold on them. Where are you thinking?”
“There’s a bar a block over—The Little Llama. It doesn’t open for a few hours, so you’ll be able to come and go without being seen, and the hostages will have water and access to a bathroom while they wait.”
Lucky nods. “Yeah, I know it. Then what? I get identified by a couple dozen people who say I magicked them out of the building?”
“Not if you’re wearing a mask,” Sterling says, walking over and pulling the balaclava off the thief closest to us. He’s younger than I expected, with a shaved head and bruising under his eye.
Lucky puts the mask on and takes our hands. Even covered up, his smile is impossible to miss. “Buckle up.”
The corridor reappears.
Sterling takes a step, stumbles, grabs on to the wall to steady himself. “Fuck, that’s weird.”
Lucky slaps his shoulder. “You’ll get used to it.”
Moving the hostages is quick. They’re eager to get out, and I don’t blame them. We work well as a team; I open the locks, Sterling explains the plan, Lucky moves them.
The minutes drag on, even though Lucky works as fast as he can, and I spend the entire time worried the robbers will come check on their friends.
They don’t.
When we’ve finally cleared the room, I hear Sterling arguing, and my pulse spikes. I race down and find him in a standoff with an older man. He’s in scuffed jeans and heavy boots, and he looks angry that we’re saving him.
“How do I know you aren’t trying to trick me?”
Even his thoughts are shouting. “And where the hell is Tony?”
Jeez, the poor guy must be terrified. He’s separated from his friend, worried about him, and Sterling is arguing.
I step into the room. “Hey, I know today has been a lot, but I’m sure Tony is just fine. We’re getting you all out, so you’ll see him soon, okay?”
He recoils like I slapped him in the face, backing up to the desk behind him. “How do you know that name?”
Shit, I really need to start being more careful. Sterling lifts his hands, approaching slow. Easy.
It doesn’t work.
The closer he gets, the more agitated the man looks. He starts pulling drawers open, yelling at Sterling to get back.
The next thing I know, he’s slashing the air, a pair of scissors in his hand.
I see red.
It’s easy to take hold of them with my mind, flinging them to the other side of the room. Sterling grunts, and then Lucky is rushing in.
I point him at the other guy. “Get him out of here!”
The guy roars, but it’s gone before a second goes by, Lucky disappearing with him.
I rush over to Sterling. He’s bleeding, cut across his biceps, where I must have clipped him.
“Oh my God, I hurt you.”
It’s hard to tell how much blood because of his obsession with black, but the area around the cut is mostly dry so I’m going to use everything I learned from fourteen seasons of hospital soap operas to say that it’s fine.
“I’m okay. It’s a graze. I’ve had worse.”
Oh, worse, he says. That’s reassuring.
“That’s not good enough. This is why we wanted you to leave.”
He cups my cheek. “I’m not going anywhere. If you’re both here, so am I.”
“If anything happened, I’d never forgive myself.”
“Maybe we should all leave then,” I say as Lucky blinks back into existence.
“Fuck that,” Lucky says, shaking his head. “What’s the point of being able to help if we just stand by and watch?”
He’s using my own words against me.
“Getting yourself killed isn’t helping,” Sterling says. “You’ve already saved innocent lives—”
“And let these assholes get away to try again later?”
“The professionals know how to do their jobs,” Sterling argues.
“Sure,” Lucky thinks. “That’s why so many innocent people are incarcerated.”
“Only the great Sterling Ross is allowed to rush into danger and save the day with his mighty pen—is that it? We’re supposed to go home and what, sit and wait?”
Sterling starts pacing, pulling at his hair. This is the most animated I’ve ever seen him before. His mouth opens and shuts, starting and rejecting sentences as he goes.
The force of Sterling’s feelings for us steals my breath. I never knew … could never have guessed this was fueling his distance, but I can’t deny what is passing through his mind right now.
The longing, the regret, all of it circling back on himself until he returns to the same conclusion—we’re better off without him. But he’s wrong. So wrong. And I don’t need to read Lucky’s thoughts to know he feels the same.
Touching his arm, I stop Sterling in his tracks. There’s only one way to convince him he’s wrong. One way to tip the scales past his resolve.
I lean up and kiss him.
He takes control, cupping my face and tilting my head back. His kisses are as controlled as he is, deliberate, deep. Hungry for more.
Sterling kisses with intention.
I melt into him, not caring. He’ll hold me up; he’ll keep me safe. All I need right now is this—the safety of his arms, the trust that everything will be okay.
Stroking my jaw, he pulls back. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
I smile. “I do now.”
He grips Lucky’s shirt in his fist and reels him in, their mouths meeting hard and fast. It’s over as quick as it started, but the look in Sterling’s eyes says he’s not nearly done with us. “We have a lot to talk about, but first, I think we need to finish this.”
Lucky steals another kiss from Sterling, then picks me up and attacks my mouth so filthily that I almost forget what we’re doing here.
I’m panting when he puts me back down.
Even Sterling is biting back a smile. “Let’s go.”
* * *
The cops aren’t too pleased that we aren’t letting them in, but too bad; they’ll need to break the door down themselves. Besides, they should have their hands full with the hostages, especially that last guy.
At least he’s with his friend now.
“Must have shut the elevator down,” Lucky says, pressing the button again.
Sterling isn’t deterred, running behind the teller’s desk. “Then we take the stairs. There are only two levels below this; it won’t take long to find them.”
The stairwell is hidden but unlocked, and we don’t waste any time.
“This must be their escape plan,” I say.
“I don’t see how. There’s no exit except the foyer,” Sterling explains.
“None of this makes any sense. The silent alarm was triggered almost as soon as they walked in; they’re taking gold, which is difficult to move and even easier to track; and they’ve been here long enough for there to be a full contingent of officers outside.
It’s almost as if they want to be caught. ”
“Mate, you know I love how your brain works, but some people are just shortsighted. These aren’t criminal masterminds we’re dealing with here.”
Our whispers echo back to us, effectively shutting us up. We can’t risk them hearing us.
“Your ass looks amazing in these pants, by the way.”
I look over my shoulder at Lucky, shooting him my best, Now? Really?
He grins widely.
“Keep up,” Sterling thinks, his expression as clear as it usually is.
A thrill runs through me. I have a fast pass to his inner thoughts now. No more guessing games. Nothing else for him to hide behind.
This skill is really going to come in handy.
When we reach the first basement level, Lucky opens the door a crack.
It’s silent. No voices, no thoughts. They’re not here.
Down. I point, hearing their silent confirmations.
We continue down the stairs. My heart rate rises.
When we reach the last floor, I know we’re in the right place.
Tension pulls my senses tight, and I don’t even need Lucky to open the door to hear them in my head.
By the time we’ve stepped out of the stairwell, it’s too late.
There they are. Five guys in masks, one in a helmet. Just like Sterling said.
They stand outside the vault door, packed duffels in hand, stilling at the sight of us.
“The fuck?”
The bags hit the floor with a bang. They raise their guns.
“Mia,” comes the command in Sterling’s mind, and maybe he yells it as well, but they’ve started shooting, and it’s all I can do to rush back into the stairwell, taking the stairs two at a time.
I’m already at the next floor when Lucky calls out. Shit, I forgot.
Lucky grips Sterling’s hand and holds the other out for me. “We have to go.”
I can’t reach him; they’re too far away.
The stairwell bursts open.
Bullets pierce the walls, cut through the gap between us.
Sterling’s eyes are pleading, but it’s too late. They need to go. Now.
“Go!” I scream at Lucky. “Get him out of here.”
* * *
Make Your Choice:
they go (go to 76)
they stay (go to 74)
go back (go to 68)