Chapter One
Zahra
Was there such a thing as having too much money?
I shook my head, ignoring the single bead of sweat running down my spine as my gaze roamed over the pool table before me; the endless cash bundles shocked me while at the same time sending a thrill through my body that was hard to disguise.
This was the biggest heist we had ever pulled. What’s more, with all five of us still intact, with no casualties, and no mistakes made. It was fucking fantastic, and my grin was about to split my face in half.
With gloved hands, I pushed my hair away from my face, my tongue running over my bottom lip in anticipation.
“Bloody fucking mental,” Upper said in awe, his accent coating his words.
Dog blew out a whistled breath, soot-stained fingers rubbing his stubble as he looked up at each of us. “This is what I’m fucking talking about. I want to keep hitting the people who have more than they should.”
“Yeah.” Milk nodded in agreement, her pink hair still in a ponytail as she shrugged out of her coveralls. “I gotta say the thrill of hunting the people at the top of the food chain is—God, it’s sweeter. So much money…” She clasped her hands in glee. “Our vacation is guaranteed.”
Removing the black gloves from my hands, I picked a bundle of money from the table, fingers skimming through it, the smell going straight to my head—the smell of new, fresh, illegal money was like a hit of cocaine.
Familiar arms wrapped around me from behind, followed by a kiss on my neck.
Devil. He was a good six foot one and towered over my five-foot-five frame.
“We should listen to Zahra more often,” he said, and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was grinning from ear to ear.
My own grin spread wider when I leaned into him.
We called ourselves Street. Growing up in the streets, surrounded by people who stole and killed to eat, we were built from the cracks and crevasses of neighborhoods too rough to survive in, but we made do through theft and trickery, break-ins and shoplifting.
Every member of Street, aside from me, went by a code name.
There’s Dog. He was one crafty motherfucker; partially good with computers, but his humor sometimes was the very relief we needed when things went awry on a mission.
There’s Upper, who was a mad genius with computers and all things coding and hacking. He was our eyes and ears and seldom played the role of our guy in the chair.
Milk, on the other hand, could talk any man or woman into doing her bidding, and it was a gift I would have killed for. She was approachable and beautiful. She compelled people with her smile and the seductive sound of her voice.
There’s Devil, who had a mysterious aura. He always wore black and knew how to handle weapons like a professional. He was hard-hearted when it came to doing something none of us would approve of but would have to do.
And then there’s me, Zahra—as it says on my anklet. I’d love to think I was the bravest. When you spend every waking minute of your life around people who can snuff the life out of you at any second, you learn to be bold and fearless, to never cower when there’s a gun pointed at your face.
“I’ll prepare the bill counter,” Dog said, rubbing his palms together as he disappeared to the small storage room.
“And I’ll get dinner; what do you fuckers feel up to?” Upper pulled off his overalls, took out his contact lenses, and carelessly flicked them to the ground for the next person who would bother to use the vacuum cleaner.
We lived in a studio apartment that was never tidied and would probably get us arrested if the cops were to burst in, but it was above an unpopular kitchen in the city, so the odds of us getting busted were slim.
Devil shot Upper a taunting smile, turning me around to face him. “Get us whatever, as long as it’s not stolen.”
“What the bloody hell do you mean by that?” Upper cursed, but there was a lightness to his voice.
“I’ll go with him,” Milk announced before dashing after Upper, who grabbed his glasses from one of the worn-out couches, slipping them on without bothering to clean the lenses. He threw his arm around Milk’s shoulder as they walked out the door and out of view.
Devil grinned down at me. “How are you so amazing?” he asked, pulling me to his body, lips trailing down my neck, with his hands going down my back to squeeze my ass.
I pushed at him lightly with a smile. “Get your horny hands off me, I’m sweaty.”
“Yeah, but that’s us half the time.”
I smiled at him, throwing my arms around his shoulders.
“You really are amazing, Zahra,” he repeated.
I traced his jawline with my index finger. “I’m pretty sure when I was born, my mother or father said the word amazing. It grew with me, I guess.”
“Mm-hmm,” he murmured, pressing his lips to mine in a kiss. My lips parted, kissing him back.
While our relationship wasn’t defined, he was one of my best friends, and we shared comfort and appreciation with, well, very intimate gestures.
“I’m pretty sure we pissed off some really dangerous people tonight.” Dog’s voice rang through the space as he dropped the bill counter on the table and pulled up a chair. “Ass off the table, Zahra.”
I chuckled.
Life was going well—as well as it could for five skilled criminals who robbed other criminals. I didn’t know how we managed to pull off this mission, but somehow, the forces that ruled the world seemed to be on our side.
And honestly, I wasn’t complaining.
“I’m thinking … America,” Milk said, her eyes dreamy as her hands waved apart an invisible picture of America. “I’ve always wanted to live that American dream. With all this money, I could even open my salon and spa.”
I smiled, relaxing back on the bean bag as we thought about our next step after this. We’d always wanted to go on a one-year vacation away from Italy; we wanted to travel the world and see people and places we’d only heard of.
The money we had now could last us more than three years, and though I knew we could never have too much money, the break was something we all needed.
Hitting one of The Wicked’s vault houses was the biggest risk we had ever taken; we had made a pact before we left that if we pulled it off, we would all go on a vacation together and live like royalty.
They deserved it, and if I managed to cross off everything on my list, I might deserve the break too.
I let out a silent breath, glancing at the wall clock opposite me before focusing on the conversation going around.
“Just think of all the places we could visit,” Milk said.
“America, where dreams come true,” Dog sighed. “Los Angeles, the city of angels, and Miami, the city of tits.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “You’re an idiot.”
“You trained me well.”
I flipped him off.
“Isn’t America overrated?” Upper cut in, playing lazily with his Rubik’s cube. “I heard it is.”
“We could go to Hawaii,” I chipped in. “I’ve heard it’s beautiful there.”
“And dreamy,” Milk added. “All those men walking around with those beach shirts they leave unbuttoned to show off their chest hair.”
“Yum.” Upper grinned. “I would love to see—”
“Or maybe we could travel around,” Devil interrupted. “Spend a month in each city, live like the world has always been in our favor. We don’t have to overthink it.”
I directed my smile at him this time. “Yeah,” I backed him up. “I think we need to draw up a—”
Something shattered in the distance, cutting me off. We all sat up—alert, ultimately quiet for almost two minutes, listening for any other suspicious noise. But it was dead silent.
I glanced at the wall clock just as the sound of pounding footsteps reached our ears.
Dog frowned. “Guys, I think—”
Our door exploded with a force that had my heart almost beating its way out of my chest. Masked men rushed into our space before white smoke filled the air. My throat started to feel tight, my limbs weaker by the second; I couldn’t see a single thing but blurry black figures all around me.
I could hear Devil shouting my name; I could hear gunshots, bone-breaking kicks, and grunts—more ear-numbing gunshots and Milk’s terrified screams. I tried to reach for her, but my lungs felt so heavy I couldn’t breathe, my eyelids fluttering furiously, fighting dizziness.
Come on, Zahra, get up.
Get up.
I fought to get on my knees and managed to open my eyes, only to find the hilt of a gun quickly approaching my face.
I didn’t get to feel the pain before I was out like a light.