Chapter 13
ISAAC
Isaac cast a calculating gaze around the building, checking exits, clear lines of sight, concentration of people, and the time it would take to cross the room from one end to the other if he needed to bolt.
“You really have a knack for casing places, don’t you?”
Andrew—once again his partner in crime, because neither of them could bring in their people until this was over. The only one who knew was Steven, waiting to make the arrests, but Andrew had asked him to keep it small and quiet and let them pounce first.
“It’s not too often I’m trying to catch my own shadow,” Isaac said. “Using Arthurian collectables as code for Avalon was cute. I’ll have to give the thief my regards when your brother is carting them away.”
“You’re sure I’m right about what the ad was saying though? A dance club?” Andrew whisper-yelled to be heard over the music from where they scanned the place beside the bar.
“Crowded. Easy to slip in and out with no one remembering you. Makes sense. And there is no South 225 Capella. Which means the 11 is for 11 o’clock, and South means the South part of the building, there.
” He gestured to a hallway leading to a back room of the club used for private parties that was currently not in use. That’s where they’d make the drop.
“So, Jericho or whoever he sends drops the payment, the thief collects it and drops the merchandise fifteen minutes later, then Jericho goes back fifteen minutes after that, and everything’s on the honor system that he won’t peek for the thief’s identity?”
“You don’t believe in honor among thieves, Andrew?”
Andrew looked at him with a smile devoid of all the distrust that used to exist between them. “I think I’m becoming a believer,” he said and turned to the bartender to order a couple shots of whiskey.
“Drinking on the job?”
“This is almost over. We earned it.” He paid outright and nudged the second shot glass toward Isaac.
They clinked and tapped their glasses on the countertop before knocking them back, reminding Isaac of Christmas, when all this started.
The whiskey burned soothingly down his throat.
Isaac called for one more and covered the tab this time. “We can’t seem too obvious that we’re watching. If the thief’s as good as we know they are, they’ll plan to make it in and out quick, no dawdling, but they still might spot us if we don’t look like we belong.”
“Someone just went down the hall,” Andrew hissed.
“Jericho?” Isaac glanced over.
“No, but definitely someone he sent. The guy had a bag and was scanning the room very carefully.”
They downed their second shots and waited. Eventually, the man came out, sans his bag, and moved to the other end of the bar. He checked his watch but didn’t look back at the hallway.
“He’s playing by the rules.” Isaac nodded.
“Now what?”
“Now, we wait and continue to blend in.”
Andrew got a wicked grin on his face and started to bob to the music. “In that case…” He moved into Isaac’s body and slid his arms around his waist to back him onto the dance floor.
“Not what I meant.”
“Why not? I bet you look hot when you dance.”
“Andrew…” he warned. The music wasn’t as loathsome as some clubs; there was actual music playing with lyrics, not mindless beats, but still. “I don’t dance.”
“Come on,” Andrew ignored his protests, using his hands to move Isaac’s hips for him.
Isaac wasn’t buzzed enough for this behavior, but Andrew was so adorable, grinning at him and biting his lip as he shimmied closer.
His whole body rocked to the beat of the music, thigh muscles taut beneath his jeans and shirt unbuttoned enough to reveal flashes of pale skin.
He turned them so he could see the hallway over Isaac’s shoulder, shifting effortlessly between focused professional and having all his attention on Isaac.
That damn grin. That lithe, tantalizing body. Isaac couldn’t resist and fell into step with him, Andrew soon pulling their hips closer until they were grinding to the driving beat.
The rest of the crowd fell away, men and women in various pairings.
No one minded them. No one cared. For a moment, it was just them, and the music, and the brief glance of Andrew’s eyes beyond Isaac to make sure their quarry hadn’t arrived.
Even that didn’t ruin the moment, that they were working, because they were always at their best in their element, and even better lately—in their element together.
“I told Dalton everything,” Isaac said.
Andrew’s eyes shot wide.
“Well, not about the sex, but… he knows everything else.”
“You’re okay with that?”
Isaac nodded, feeling like there were several other things he should be saying, but he had no idea how to begin. Andrew looked the same, unsure what to say with the music pounding around them and so many moving bodies.
And then he glanced over Isaac’s shoulder again, and his expression hardened.
“Get Steve.”
“What?” Isaac whirled around, but whoever Andrew had seen must have already slipped into the back. “I thought we were doing this together.”
“We are, but I have to go in first. I saw who it was,” he said simply and pulled away with such fierce determination, Isaac couldn’t deny him as he dashed quickly through the crowd.
ANDREW
Andrew couldn’t believe what he’d seen— who he’d seen—but there was no doubt once he noticed the bob of golden-brown hair, the diminutive stature, and remembered the flash of tan skin Dalton had mentioned.
He followed the figure into the back, a large but mostly empty room, with only one occupant, already knelt over the bag of money.
“And I thought that article was low,” Andrew called, watching the person stand up rigid with their back to him. “I knew you had little integrity, Liv, but I didn’t think you could be a part of something like this.”
Her shoulders slumped, a second bag at her feet that had to contain the research she’d stolen from Dalton. And then she turned.
“…Candace?”
Face pinched in apology, Candace pulled the wig from her head and let it drop to the floor. “I figured better to be safe in case someone I knew was here.”
“That’s why there were no hairs at the thefts… And you went in naked to avoid fibers?”
“It worked, didn’t it? Pretty freeing too,” she said with a wry smile.
“How could you do this?” He surged toward her. “Especially to Dalton!”
“I was trying to protect Dalton,” she countered. “I recognized his name right away. I didn’t know he was Ford’s son then, but if someone else had taken the job, Dalton might have gotten hurt. This way, I was able to keep an eye on him.”
“And still make money off him. What about the other jobs? This has been going on for weeks!”
“Because of Ford!” She darted to meet him, emphatic and pleading. “He was ruining us. We’d barely gotten off the ground, and he was ruining everything. Without some extra cash flow, we’d already be under. I just needed this one last job.”
“You were going to frame him,” Andrew realized. “That's why you were so against me working with Ford. You needed him to be your scapegoat.”
“Yes. The end. No more Ford Security, no more stealing, just us, doing this like we planned.” She reached for him, but Andrew lurched out of her grasp.
“We didn’t plan this. I wanted to do this on my own. With my best friend, but the right way, without any help from Steve, or shady dealings. You wanted to bring down Ford, but now, you’re bringing us down too.”
“No. It doesn’t have to be like that.” She grabbed his arm anyway. “I was careful. Never anyone who was our client. Not before the theft.”
“This is too far.”
“Even to save us? To get rid of our enemies?”
He pried her fingers from his arm, gently but still backing away.
“If you let them arrest me, we’re finished. Everything we worked for—”
“Then we’re finished.”
“You can’t be serious!” she erupted. “For Ford? Why? Why do you keep defending him? He’s the villain! It’s us or him.”
“You mean it’s you or him. And I’m sorry, Candace, I know you thought you were doing what you had to, that this was somehow the right answer, but if I have to choose… then it’s him.”
“For once, I agree,” Steven’s voice carried from behind Andrew, and he turned to see him and Ford standing there with a pair of uniformed officers.
Candace’s coldness and fury fizzled into defeat as the officers went forward to take her into custody.
Steven came up to Andrew first, gripping his shoulder in sympathy, but it didn’t feel like pity this time, because he knew the last thing Steven was going to say was that there was a place for him on the force.
Then Andrew’s eyes met Ford’s, and there was sympathy there too, but also solidarity.
Andrew was the one going down, but a part of him was glad that Ford wouldn’t be joining him.
Dalton met them at the police station. He insisted.
So did Luke, Kathleen, Riley, and Kevin.
Jericho’s man sang like a canary, and once Andrew and Ford were finished giving their statements, they were bringing him in too.
It had been months since Andrew saw pride in some of the other officers’ faces directed at him.
His best friend had been brought in as the serial robber, but he and Isaac Ford were the ones who caught her.
“I still can’t believe it,” Kevin said, all of them gathered around a bench, with Andrew and Ford sitting on it and Dalton between them. “She took everything we knew and turned it against us.”
“I’m so sorry,” Dalton said, absently rubbing his bandaged hand. “I’ll get everything back, but you’re the ones who are going to pay for it. Maybe… maybe the fallout won’t be so bad?”
“The biggest thief since Artifice,” Andrew said, “was from the security firm owned by the detective who arrested him, and I had no idea.”
“But you caught her!”
“I’ll lose enough clients that it won’t matter.”
“Don’t you dare gloat,” Kevin warned Riley.
“I wouldn’t! At least not in front of you.” He smirked.
“Can’t you two just go work with Dad?” Dalton said. “You already know you make a great team.”
“Still parent-trapping?” Ford accused.
“I’m just saying!”
Kevin looked in horror at Riley and the idea of working with him, but while Kathleen and Luke didn’t seem opposed, Andrew shook his head.
“The bad press would follow us, but it was a nice thought. We did make a great team.” Andrew leaned forward to look past Dalton at Ford, who met his stare.
“Yeah. We did.”