Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
“I don’t like this.” Serena splayed her hands across the back of her neck and stretched the muscles that were turning as stiff as the stone wall she’d climbed an hour ago.
She needed out of the vehicle to move her legs, but stopping would only make her more anxious.
She stared at her phone on her lap. They’d lied and said they had the diamonds.
Now they had to deceive the kidnapper long enough to keep Dani alive.
“I don’t like it either,” Peyton said. “But if we’d told them we didn’t have the diamonds, they would have killed her.” The words of reason didn’t help diminish the ball of anxiety winding in Serena’s chest.
“Milo and I paid them all the cash we have on hand, and yours is locked in the bank until tomorrow morning—we wouldn’t have been able to buy more time even if they’d agreed,” Brock reminded her.
“I know, I know,” she moaned. She moved her tongue around the dry cavern of her mouth. How long had it been since she had a drink of water? If her mouth was any indication, several hours. “Milo, I’d really like to hear your plan.”
His thumb rubbed her elbow in a circular motion. “You, Brock, and Peyton will get out before we reach the meeting place and stake out a good vantage point, where you guys can shoot. Once they reveal Dani to me, I’ll give them the bag of rocks, aka fake diamonds. Then we ambush them.”
The hair on Serena’s arms sprang to attention, and she closed her eyes on a swallow. Milo’s gruff cough snapped her eyes open. The air in the tight space became too thick to breathe. She looked at the others in the vehicle.
Brock’s forehead was set in determination. Peyton wrung her hands together at her abdomen, and worry pierced her brows together. Dark circles hung under Milo’s eyes, and the hair on his jaw tangled around his face in the longest mess she’d ever seen on him.
“How do we know they’re not going to have men staked out in the same spot?”
Brock shrugged. “If anyone is there, we’ll take them out.”
Serena exhaled, and her gaze slid to the clock on the dash. She rocked her knee from side to side, turning over the thousands of possible scenarios in her mind, most of them ending with a bullet in Dani’s head—or all of theirs.
“All right, I guess we don’t have many options.” She looked at Milo over her shoulder. “I’m coming with you to meet them.” It wasn’t a question, or even a condition. Milo must have picked up on the challenge in her voice. His jaw moved, as if fighting to hold back his refusal.
“Fine.”
Milo sorted through his bag. Between Brock and him, they had enough guns and ammo for all of them. Each bend and twist in the road led them closer and closer to their fate.
He wouldn’t let Serena die. Taking her to meet the kidnapper would put her life at risk.
But keeping her away would be tougher and more dangerous.
She wouldn’t stay back, he knew that without a doubt.
If he didn’t allow her to accompany him, she’d crash the party anyway.
Better to have some kind of control over the situation.
Not that he could control her. He’d always tried to protect her, tried to keep her out of the dangerous side of their heists, but she wanted the thrill, the action.
Which is one of the reasons he’d kept his distance over the years.
Maybe if he’d been able to talk some sense into her and get her to understand that their career had no longevity, she would have listened.
But he’d been young, cocky—and Sebastian landing his useless, asshole father in prison had been the final straw.
Milo checked the safety on the Beretta. Man, life was funny. If someone had told him a week ago that he’d be back in the thick of this shit—with Serena no less, ready to kill everyone who dared to get near her or in the way of saving her sister—he would have laughed his ass off.
He looked up and watched as bursts of light from the streetlamps illuminated Serena’s profile.
The slight upturn of her nose accentuated the graceful line of her cheekbone, which led his gaze down to her delicate, but always defiant, jaw.
Her small earlobes had once held a pair of diamond earrings he’d lifted for her. She’d probably sold them after he left.
Still so fucking pretty she drove him wild. She turned and fixed her ice-blue stare on him. “Ready? We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
She was challenging him. Seeing if he’d speak up and say she couldn’t join him at the meeting.
“Ready as I’ll ever be. Are you comfortable with the gun I gave you earlier?
There’s this one too.” He turned the butt of the gun to face her and she accepted it.
She turned the weapon over and examined it.
“I think I’ll keep the one you gave me. This one’s a bit too heavy.
” She passed it back to him, and he secured it in a holster at his ankle.
“I’ll take a knife if you have one,” she said.
He smiled, fished in his bag, and pulled out a dagger. “It’s not a switchblade, so you’ll have to be careful. You can clip the holster to your pants, though, and cover it with your shirt.”
She took the set from his hand and did as he instructed. Brock slowed and turned down a gravel road.
“I’ve hiked here before. We’ll have to trek uphill a bit, but we should be able to get a clear shot from behind them.” Brock shifted into Park and got out. Milo and Peyton followed.
“Be careful,” Serena said, as she rounded the vehicle to pull Peyton into a hug.
“You too. Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.” Peyton winked.
Milo grimaced and clapped Brock on the shoulder.
“Let me know when you guys are in place. We’ll leave to get in position in about five minutes.
” There was no chance he’d risk meeting the kidnapper without backup.
He also needed to make sure Brock and Peyton didn’t run into any problems while setting up.
Brock and Peyton made their way up the path toward the forest.
Serena took out the black velvet satchel and bent to scoop up a handful of rocks.
“Try not to get any crusher dust.”
She nodded and shook her hand to get rid of the crushed pieces of stones.
Milo watched Brock and Peyton disappear into the trees. When Serena finished, he climbed into the driver’s seat and she hopped into the passenger’s. He hit the Lock button, and the click of the doors went off like a gunshot. Serena jumped and Milo winced.
“Sorry. We’re going to be sitting here a few minutes and I don’t want to leave us vulnerable.”
She nodded, but some of the color had left her skin. She puffed out her cheeks and rubbed her fingers over her sternum. “I’ve never been this nervous before . . . for anything. Even the Alban heist.”
Milo settled his fingers on the bottom of the steering wheel and shrugged. “This isn’t a heist.”
“It is. We’re lying and handing off rocks in the place of diamonds for god’s sake.” She shook the bag for emphasis and Milo chuckled.
“Yeah, I guess that makes this pretty fucking dangerous. All the more reason you should be on the hill and not confronting these bastards.”
She dropped her head back against the headrest. “I wondered when you were going to say something. Milo, I have to do this.” Her voice dropped low, pleading—not for permission but understanding. “It will help Dani to see me there.”
“They’ll try to shoot you.”
She shrugged and lowered her chin. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
He chortled and gently squeezed his eyes together with his thumb and index finger. “I never thought I’d be doing this again, you know.” With his eyes shut he couldn’t gauge her reaction, but tension crackled through the air.
“With me?” Her tone held a hint of a smile, but her question spoke volumes. He dropped his hand from his face and curled his fingers over the smooth material on her supple thigh.
He met her gaze and watched as color tinted her cheeks again. She dragged her teeth along her bottom lip and nodded toward her knee.
“I was referring to this,” he said, waving his hand in front of him.
“Breaking into houses, stealing shit, running from guards and dogs.” He couldn’t deny that the rush had come flooding back.
The sweet flavor of adrenaline tempted him to crawl back underground.
He shook his head at the thought. He’d come too damn far.
“Sorry.” She turned toward the passenger window. He cupped her cheek and brought her face back to his.
“Don’t be. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” Heat rushed from his belly to scorch his neck, and with the heat came the stark realization that it was true. “If I die tonight, I’ll go to heaven with the peace of knowing that I righted the wrong I did to you.”
She leaned forward, her lips hovering inches from his. “Thank you for everything you’ve done. I won’t let you die, I promise.” Her lips hiked up in a grin. “Besides, I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t think you’re getting into heaven.”
He tipped his head back and roared. Damn, she still made him laugh. And she could still insult the shit out of him.
But she doesn’t forgive me . . .
“Hey bro, we’re in place.” Brock’s voice crackled over the earbud and he pulled away. His senses kicked into overdrive, and he scanned the trees and gravel around them.
“Any problems?”
“No. It’s quiet on the hillside. I saw an SUV pull up, circle the area, and then park on the south side of the lookout.”
Serena’s hand caught his wrist. He watched her throat move on a swallow. He moved his hand over hers and squeezed it.
It was go time.
Serena clicked her seatbelt in place and closed her eyes, trying to slow her drumming pulse.
The vehicle pitched as Milo drove over the gravel and pulled back onto the road.
He hadn’t said a word since ending his call with Brock, but he still held her fingers in his.
Their previous discussion had vanished from her mind.
There was no way in hell she could think more about what he’d said—not until all this was over.