21. Ari
21
ARI
A ll these years, wanting to be like my father but not wanting to be anything like him. Wanting to be better.
But now you need to connect to him .
“Are you ready?” Damon asked when we reached the antechamber door.
I nodded as I double-checked our timing. Thank God we’d padded our planning time by several minutes. Only a minute behind schedule. “Let’s do it.”
I waited for him to start the secondary video loop from his watch and give me the thumbs up before I quickly punched in the code Penny had given me and held my breath.
When the antechamber lock flashed green, we both breathed a sigh of relief. We had the decryption key, but that would have meant using precious time we didn’t have.
Once inside, I slipped off my heels, then scooped them up to follow Damon to the vault.
Even I had to stare in awe. I knew what we were in for, but still, it was a thing of beauty. I dropped my shoes and had my tools out in seconds, taking my place next to Damon.
Damon had his scope out, his face set in grim determination. I had mine as well, and we both began on the vault. My heart beat a staccato pace against my ribs as I tried to stay focused.
Damon’s voice was low when he spoke. “I need you to listen to me, Ari. You can do this. We’ll do this together. But I need your breathing and your heart rate to slow down so you can hear what you need to hear. Just focus on the sound of the clock and my voice. Breathe with me. In, two, three. Out, two, three...” His voice was soothing. Despite what had happened in that maze, he was still my Damon. What I had said was true. I wasn’t afraid of him.
Just thinking about how close I’d been to messing up this whole mission made my stomach turn. And if I were being honest with myself, there was a moment there when I had been worried I wasn’t going to make it out alive. No way I wanted to meet Reaper and his minions in a dark room.
I’d thought I was in real trouble. And then Damon was there like an avenging angel, and it had been exactly what I needed.
His willingness and his capability to hurt that man wasn’t even a question; he hadn’t hesitated to come for me. I wasn’t used to anyone turning up for me like that.
After Mom died, things were hard, but I never wanted for anything. We had money, but there were funny little rules. When asked about my father or his career, obviously, I talked about the garage. I wasn’t allowed to have friends or sleepovers. In case of emergency, I knew there was a go bag in the walls and how to get to our safe house without being seen. No one ever explicitly told me, but I figured out my family was different after a while. I’d known it was something dangerous after the fifth-grade art incident. I’d known that I had to keep secrets. For a long time, I’d thought my family was just weird.
When he went on jobs, of course, my father didn’t leave me at home alone. Usually, my aunt was with me.
Thought his activities hadn’t gone completely unnoticed. Once, my teacher, Mrs. Davis, was an eyewitness to the robbery of a fancy jewelry store on Wilkins Avenue. She’d had car trouble and was waiting for a tow truck. She swore she’d seen my father and the getaway driver speeding away from the sight of the robbery.
That was the first time I learned to lie and lie effectively. I’d crafted a whole story for my friends at school about how my father and aunt had spent the night teaching me to play poker. I’d kept enough details real about my aunt’s visit and the games of poker I’d watched Dad play over the years that it sounded like the truth.
I’d been convincing enough that Mrs. Davis had questioned what she’d seen and hadn’t gone to the police.
As I got older, I got better at lying. But Dad was selective. He spread his jobs out. And as far as things on the books went, he did actually run a garage, and did brisk business too. The other money never showed up anywhere anyone could find it.
It wasn’t until I turned eighteen and a lawyer showed up that I found out I was the proud owner of an account in the Caymans and, thanks to a series of investments, a very wealthy woman. College had been a breeze to pay for, and I could have done anything I wanted.
I had a complicated relationship with that money. Just like I had a complicated relationship with Damon. And right now, in the antechamber of this vault, Damon was the one person I trusted above anybody. He was the one person I knew could get me out of this. So I followed his breathing cues. I listened, I relaxed, and then he nodded.
“Now do your thing. You’ve got your father’s quick hands and his touch. You can do anything.”
I nodded slowly. “You know he loved you, right?”
Damon’s hands stilled. “Your dad loved you .” He cleared his throat as he turned his attention back to his dial. “I was a messed-up kid. He gave me some direction.”
“It was more than that, and you and I both know it. You were the one he could teach his craft to without any guilt. You are his true legacy.”
As we both reached our final number, we let out a long breath, met gazes, then turned in time. The vault door opened. A sudden shot of relief and euphoria flooded through my veins, making me weak.
“Christ, we’ve done it,” Damon said. “We have broken into the vault.”
We were not out of the woods yet. We navigated the rows of items being held in safekeeping. All with pressure sensors. When we found what we were after, both of us gasped.
The Royal Heart was spectacular. The centerpiece of it was a massive diamond pendant; that thing was nearly as big as a toddler’s fist. It was one thing to have a replica in hand. It was another to know we were going to be holding the real deal in a minute. Holy hell.
Damon approached the pedestal carefully, and I handed him the replacement. I knew it was perfectly balanced and an exact replica of the actual necklace. We were going to be okay.
Damon found the weight mechanism, and I eased the lever down as he replaced the necklace.
My knees shook. Had we actually pulled this off? I couldn’t even think. My mind was buzzing. And then he slowly eased back, and nothing happened. Damon nodded. “Right, let’s pack it in.”
I had to give Damon his due. He didn’t even look at anything else in the vault. Not the vibrant orchid under glass, not the stacks of cash and gold bars on the shelves. He was only here for the job.
In less than thirty seconds, we were out of the vault. It took both of us to push the massive door closed behind us. With the vault closed, Damon pulled me in for a quick, hard kiss that took me by surprise. “Fucking brilliant, Ari. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Well, I’ll never repeat this in front of Galen, but it was kind of fun.”
“What is this? Are you flirting with the dark side?”
I laughed and shook my head. “No thank you, Anakin. But I certainly see the appeal.”
“Fair enough. Let’s get this to the prince.”
We rounded the corner in the antechamber. Then Damon stopped us to help secure the necklace under the bodice of my clothes. I did a quick check on my appearance and gave him the nod when I was ready.
At the door, he tugged, but nothing happened. When he tugged again with still no budging from the door, my gut twisted and dread settled into my soul.
Damon’s voice was soft as he tugged and tugged and tugged again. “No. No, no, no.”
I tried to shove down the sense of impending doom threatening to envelop me. We would get out of here. We weren’t stuck. We couldn’t be.
Fucking hell.
But the sat phone didn’t work, and as I knocked on the walls, I knew they were concrete. “Laser cutter won’t work for this.”
Damon wasn’t listening. He’d already stopped tugging at the door. He took out his flashlight and inspected the hinges. When he apparently found them not to his liking, he meticulously checked the walls, then the vents.
When he turned back to me, he hung his head. “Fuck, Ari. I don’t know what happened. There’s no way out.”
“What?” I gasped. “There has to be a vent or something.”
He pointed at the corners he’d just inspected. “You see, there and there, too small. The only hope I had was an access vent in case something needed repairs. According to the blueprints, there should be one up there. But it’s sealed from the other side.” He pointed at the ceiling directly above the central platform.
A chill skated over my skin. Everything had gone perfectly. Until now. That little voice inside me wanted to shout, rail against the unfairness of it. But that wouldn’t have done any good. And we’d still be stuck. “What do we do?”
“I—I don’t know, Ari. I don’t have a manual for this.”
I paced back and forth in front of the door, trying to make my brain engage so that the fear and its bestie, rolling nausea, didn’t overtake me. “So what, we just stay in here until this thing opens in the morning? With very angry security staring at us and wondering how we got in here in the first place?”
“I wish I had an answer for you, Ari. I’m focused on figuring out how the hell we’re going to get out of here.”
My panic was not helping. I knew that. I had to stay calm. “Okay, sorry.”
“All right, look, at the very least, Lucas knows we’re in here. If we don’t show up, he will come looking. It’s not ideal, but it’s all we’ve got right now.”
“Jesus. How did this get so fucked up?”
“We might have triggered something in the locking mechanism,” he suggested.
I shook my head. “I went over the schematics a million times. This wasn’t us. This door should open. Something else happened.”
“We may never know. Come on, help me try and figure a way out of here. Let’s walk the room again.”
As I watched him pace, check the vents, and climb on top of the tables, I realized something: We were trapped, and I was scared, but he was still calm. Maybe not comfortable, but calm. He was going to get us out of here, one way or another.
At least I really fucking hoped so.
I’d spent my whole life trying to avoid becoming like my father, and I could very well end up being the one Denton to ever be cuffed.
Damon
How could I tell her that she had risked her life and her freedom on a gamble that I couldn’t fucking pull off?
Because that was what was happening. I knew no way out of here. The vents above us were sealed. Hell, were they even big enough? And worse, Ari was looking at me like I would have the answers because that was the lie I had told her. And that was who I was. A liar. A brute. Someone who didn’t deserve love.
Except I didn’t want to believe that. Being with her made me not want to believe that. Being with her made me want to believe that I could be a better man. That I wasn’t that same kid her father had literally saved from the streets.
I kept trying to think my way out of the box.
Finally, Ari’s soft voice filled the room, and she leaned her back on the wall. “We’re trapped, aren’t we?”
I swallowed hard. “No, we’re not trapped. I just don’t know a way out yet.”
“Doesn’t that usually mean trapped ?”
She has a point. “Don’t give up on me, Ari.”
“I’m not giving up on you. But we are trapped, are we not?”
What was I supposed to say to that? No? That was bullshit because I didn’t have a way out of this.
“Ari, I’m so sorry. You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me. In the morning when they come to let us out, you’re going to tell them that I forced you into this. You didn’t know what was going to happen. Do you understand?”
“In the morning... which means that right now, you are giving up on us?”
I sighed. “Ari, I’m not giving up on us. I just need you to see your way out.”
“What you’re telling me is you are giving up.”
“Look around, Ari. We don’t have a lot of options. When someone comes through that door in the morning, they are going to mean business. Your safety, your way out, is to insist I forced you into it. Lie and do it well. Practice now. You’re going to need it.”
“I’m not just going to abandon you.”
Why was she being stubborn about this? “You’d better abandon me, Ari. After everything your father gave me, I would never forgive myself if you went to jail for this. For me. Absolutely not.”
Ari shook her head and pushed to her feet, her determined expression plastered on her face. It was one I’d seen often. Furrowed brow, intense gaze, teeth tugging on her bottom lip. “So let’s figure a way out of this.”
I knew what she was trying to do. Ari Denton, my slice of sunshine. Unfortunately, I had dragged her down. There was no way out of this.
Fuck.
Despite all my promises to keep her safe, I was going to fail.
Something pricked the back of my lids, and I tried to drive back the emotion.
I took Ari’s hand and pulled her to me so she stood mere inches away. “I know this wasn’t the plan. And I know this whole thing is fucked. And I’m sorry. But I can save you. Let me save you. Hell, at least give you a fighting chance. Let me do what I couldn’t do for Paul.”
She watched me mutinously for a long moment, her eyes welling up with tears. “Why don’t we focus on saving both of us?” She swiped her tears away with the backs of her hands. “Sit down. We can do this.”
She sat back against the wall and sat. “Let’s work backward. How did we end up here?”
She really wasn’t going to give up? “You’re serious?”
“Yes. Damon. We’re not giving up. We have some small explosives right?”
What we had wouldn’t do the trick. Not to mention, it would bring unwanted attention. We were stuck in here until the morning. “I’d rather not have the guards joining us for the moment. I want to at least spend the next six hours or so pretending everything is going to be okay.”
I eased myself down next to her. “Why did you say yes to this job, Ari?”
“Honestly? Even if Galen hadn’t made me, I would have eventually said yes anyway.”
I lifted a brow. “What?”
“I was so incredibly jealous over your relationship with my father. After a day or so, I would have come to my senses and realized you were my last hope of feeling close to him again. So you didn’t do this to me. I chose it myself.”
“I need to feel like you’re capable of making better choices than that.”
She shrugged, then eased off her heels before rubbing at her arches. “Well, sorry to disappoint you.”
“You are a mystery, Ari Denton.”
“Am I?”
“I don’t know. I guess in my head, I always thought you would rebel against the old man. Against being the good girl.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I really hated it when you called me a good girl.”
“Did you? There’s nothing wrong with being a good girl, Ari.”
“Back then, I loathed it. I wanted you to notice me.”
I furrowed my brow. “I still can’t believe what you told me.”
“What, that I had a crush on you? I still can’t believe I ever told you. But I mean hey, I was young. You were older and worldly. Also hot.”
I laughed at that. “Was I worldly? I was a hot mess. A dumb kid your father had to save.”
She shook her head. “No, you were his legacy. And I hated you for it. I wanted to be you. But I also wanted you to notice me.”
All that time I’d spent watching Paul’s daughter ignore me and wondering what I’d done to make her hate me, and she’d been watching me? “You were serious about that? When you told me, I thought it was bullshit that sort of tumbled out.”
“Oh I was serious. Come on, anyone with half a brain knew. I was obsessed with you. I just wanted you to see me, for the love of Christ.”
“Well, fuck, I did see you. I was trying to be cool. I was also trying to survive, but I was sort of fascinated by my mentor’s nosy kid. Every time you snuck out, I knew. I could tell. You had this mischievous look on your face.”
She laughed at that. “Oh no, I thought I was being so stealthy.”
“You weren’t. You were completely adorable. All I wanted was to impress you in that older-guy-who-knows-shit kind of way. You were cute, but you were too young.”
“I was not too young. I was fifteen.”
“Which was too young. I was eighteen, and I thought I was so much older. Honestly, I was just a clueless kid who didn’t know anything.”
“I wish I had known. I wouldn’t have tried so hard.”
“You were always my Ari. That’s how I saw it in my head. It’s why I never told your dad you were sneaking out. You know, I was looking out for you.”
“Well, thank you for that, but now I feel like a fool.”
“You weren’t. Because what you wanted, I wanted. I just was in pure survival mode.”
“And now?”
I swallowed hard. “Well, now you’re my wife.”
She laughed softly. “We can stop pretending here.”
“I haven’t been pretending since we got out of that limo. For me, this is a fantasy I’ve let myself live. One I never dared to hope for.”
Ari watched me carefully, her dark eyes wide. “I wonder what would have happened if you’d kissed me back then.”
I shook my head. “That would have been a disaster. Because then I would have been totally into this girl, known how she tasted, and inadvertently broken her heart.”
“But what about now?” she asked quietly.
“Now I’m a man who selfishly pulled you into this mess.”
“Are you going to break my heart?”
“Isn’t it already broken, Ari? I’ve gotten you caught.”
“Not yet.” She grinned. “By my watch, we still have several hours until we’re really caught. How are we going to use those?”