Chapter 4
Michael
Seeing Arya at church made me feel even worse about what I am about to do to her. I wanted to go talk to her the whole time. She was surrounded by relatives who seemed to be picking at her, and she seemed desperate to escape. But every time I tried to engage her, she avoided me despite staring at me almost constantly throughout the service and the potluck.
Last night, I had trouble sleeping. I even dreamed of her again. Not a sex dream, but a guilt dream. Her standing in front of the church congregation, asking why I ruined her life. Why I’m always in the way when she’s trying to do something to impress her family. Why I smile at her face but act like I hate her.
I wake up broody, ashamed, and still horny for her, and it doesn’t help when I look at the date on my phone. The heist is tonight. That means that tonight, I have to steal it all from her.
The worst part of all of it is that my father’s added another requirement to my list of tasks for the night. After all the aggravation her family has caused him, he wants to make sure that they know it was us.
Which means that Arya will know... it was me.
That makes me feel especially awful and especially weak for not standing up to my dad. He’s right, we can’t let the Castelluccis get that much of a financial leg up on us, but she’s the one who is going to pay when that money’s stolen out from under her. And she doesn’t fucking deserve it.
Her father’s an asshole who had my cousin shot for working in “his territory.” Her mother’s a social-climbing, holier-than-thou bitch who tries to control everyone around her, regardless of if they’re family or strangers. Her family is a giant pain in our collective asses. But Arya?
All Arya’s tried to do is keep her network secure from me. Inconvenient, but understandable, and hardly an insult.
But I still have to do this. I can’t afford to die on this hill. I know better than to cross my father.
I just wish I could do anything but this.
“I don’t get it,” I mutter to Manny, one of my dad’s enforcers and my best buddy. “I don’t want to be antagonizing this woman. I want her in my bed. But now, she’s going to hate me for the rest of our lives.”
“Well, buddy, I hate to say it, but even if you were crazy in love with her, it still doesn’t change that you don’t go against the boss. I know that sucks, and I don’t really agree with this. But your dad’s the head of this family, and he has some seriously real reasons to hate the Castelluccis. You and Arya are just caught in the damn middle.”
“Ugh, this sucks!” I get up and go over to the window, seething with excess energy. I’ll have to burn it in the family gym once I get home. “I wish I could sabotage her by distracting her with sex or something.”
“Wouldn’t change anything. You’d still have to do the whole job. Unless you feel like handing your dad five mil.” He sighs and comes over to put a hand on my shoulder. “Just get it all done, buddy, get it over with. The sooner you do, the sooner you can get past this.”
“You’re right.” Of course, he would say that even if it wasn’t because Dad’s his boss. But sometimes, being a mob man means that the only way out of an uncomfortable situation is to go through it and come out the other side.
Nobody can really help what family they’re born into. It’s the same for me. My duties aren’t going to change because they hurt a lady I’m into. I still have to get it done.
I’m sorry, Arya, I think, and I wish I could go get drunk with my friend instead.
But duty calls.
I get my first good look at Arya’s code late in the afternoon. I have her habits down and know she’s always away from her keyboard from midafternoon to midevening, probably at her family’s insistence. This gives me a chance to pop into her family network and get a good look around while she’s not around to monitor it directly.
It takes more time than expected to break into the network and then into her system. She really knows her stuff. That makes her just all that much more interesting to me. She’s definitely as good as I am, and I’m guessing that whoever ends up winning in this contest of code and hacking is going to be down to luck and small mistakes.
I’m still going to win this. I have to—and besides, I don’t like losing. Now that I’m committed, I have no intention of letting her keep my fingers out of her stolen purse.
I look around her setup, and it impresses the hell out of me. Her programming is top-notch. She’s even working on some high-level AI stuff that I can’t even quite sort out at first glance. I’m tempted to grab a copy of more of her stuff, but I restrain myself. I’ll stick to what I’m required to do—no more, no less.
I’m very aware, even as I prepare to mess up Arya’s plans and life that I would rather be doing anything but this. Especially if it involved doing her. But I’m going to end up burning any chance with her on the pyre of my dad’s ambitions because that’s what I’m supposed to do.
This absolutely sucks. I know I’m going to regret it. But... there’s a gun to my head.
I make a few tweaks here and there to make sure I can track what she’s doing even if I’m not currently connected to her system. Hopefully, she won’t notice until it’s far too late. If she does, I’ll have to come up with a plan B.
I manage to log off within three hours and go to make myself a hoagie that I can barely taste. Mom’s mad I missed dinner, but Dad explains to her that I’m working, and she leaves it be. “Just don’t let yourself go hungry, honey. You know how you get with work.”
The hoagie meets with her approval, and I retreat to my room with it and a chilled energy drink. It’s not exactly the dinner of champions; it’s the dinner of a tech guy in a serious fucking hurry to get fed and get back to work.
At 3 a.m., she logs on and gets to work. I immediately set what’s left of my hoagie down and go to jump on my system, too, and not a moment too late because she’s already hijacking the overseas transfer.
I watch the flow of code in fascination, then start weaving my own little trap for the money as soon as she has her pretty little hands on it. From her point of view, it will fill her target account with five million... and then, all that money will vanish in under thirty seconds. If she’s not vigilant and goes off to celebrate, she won’t even notice until tomorrow.
Five minutes later, the money is hers.
Six minutes later, the money is mine.
By the time I finally get to bed, the money’s secure in one of my accounts after being bounced through a couple of stops overseas. I’m exhausted, guilty, and angry that things had to go down like this. But I’m also thrilled to have accomplished it.
I left her a little note in my usual cheeky style, knowing I at least owe her the admission. She will probably already suspect me since, after all, she considers us rivals. So, when it comes to my prospects with her, I’m screwed either way.
At least this way, I am being honest. Besides... my dad didn’t exactly give me a choice.
Hey babe
It’s me again. Just being honest. I know you’d figure it out anyway, so I might as well be upfront.
Good job on the heist, and I’m sorry to take your hard-stolen cash and run. But orders are orders, and I’ve got mine.
Your code’s amazing. Go ahead and try again. But maybe you should beef up your system security first.
Michael
I stare at the ceiling, rolling the words I’d left for her through my mind and wondering if I should have been more serious. Explained more. But that email hurt me to write. I want to get it over and done with as fast as possible. Now, I’m wondering if I should have pushed myself harder to apologize and explain.
Too late now. Besides, it doesn’t really matter in the end. I ruined her plans. Now, she’s going to hate me no matter what I say and do. I’m usually a genius at getting out of trouble with women, but this one? It fucking kills me to admit it, but now I know for sure that she’s completely out of my reach.
And I probably deserve that.