Against the Dark (16 page)

How sad that it was so rare for her that it should be a surprise.

“Cole,” she said, resting her hands on to his chest, looking into the bright gray of his eyes.

He cupped her cheeks and kissed her. Then he turned away from her and flipped on the shower.

“A shower?” she joked. “Well, I must say, you
are
quite dirty.” She ran her finger over a series of fat cigar-shaped scars on his upper back. Bullet wounds? Knife wounds? They looked old.

When he turned around, she knew something was wrong. “What?”

He concentrated on testing and adjusting the shower temperature. “This too hot or anything?”

She stuck her hand in. “Good.”

He flipped on the fan. “Get in.”

She got in, and he got in with her. What was wrong?

He let her be under the hot first. He soaped up a washcloth and washed her, reverently, and then washed himself in a slightly less lavish way.

“What?” she said again, moving so he could be under the shower more.

“I’m fine where I am,” he said.

“Come on.” Playfully she nudged him under.

He clutched her shoulders and whispered, “There’s a camera out in the bedroom. Maybe two. It’s been picking up everything out there.”

“What?” And then she thought of all that had happened.
“What?!?!”

“Shhh. Not so loud, baby.”

Anger descended over her. “Don’t
baby
me.” She eyed him furiously.

“There’s no camera in here,” he whispered. “But I don’t know what that one out there can pick up as far as sound. Okay?”

“
Okay
? How the hell long did you know?” she whispered furiously. “All that time?”

“Pretty much since we got into the room.”

“And you let me be like that? You played me like that?”

“Shhh,” he said.

“What the fuck.”

“If you recall,” he whispered, “you had quite the reaction to the cameras out in the hall. If I’d told you in there you would’ve blown it. I couldn’t risk him knowing I know. It’s an advantage.”

“So instead you played me.”

“I needed us convincing.”

“You couldn’t trust me to be convincing?”

“No, Angel, I couldn’t, and I think you know that. You’re obviously rock solid on a job, but you have some kind of hang-up being the focus of attention. That part is hard for you.”

“Is that how it is, Sherlock?”

“I’m trying to keep us safe,” he said. “It’s not like you got naked.”

“Yeah, I just bared everything else.” All that lightness and joy flew out the window. She just felt dirty now. She wanted to cry. “You tricked me.”

“I didn’t trick you. And it strengthens our hand for the job,” he said.

“For the job?” she whispered. “Cole, he’s got surveillance on your room, and you still want to go through with it? He’s obviously suspicious. My girls and I would never go through with a job under these conditions.”

“There’s no other way.”

“Why? What’s the rush?”

“This isn’t a debate. We’re going forward. If he really suspected, we’d be dead.”

She wanted to get out of the shower, to be out of view, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of being right.

“Let’s keep sight of this job. He sees that footage—”

“And he will,” she said. She felt embarrassed that she’d wanted him to tie her wrists and pull her hair—
on camera
. Proof of some sort of ugliness inside her. The guilt for what she’d become and for how she’d let her family down came flooding back.

“Well, then there’s no question in his mind we’re a couple now, is there? We needed to establish that for our mission. And that's what we did.”

But he’d made her feel dirty. And then he’d fucked her. “With the pool thing, at least I knew what I was getting into. At least the whole thing was voluntary.”

He flicked his hair from his eyes. She realized it was a defensive movement. A way to look tough, put up a wall, take back control. “That scene in the living room seemed pretty goddamn voluntary to me.”

She slapped him.

He just stood there, wet, water pounding him. Like she hadn’t even done it.

“It wasn’t voluntary to be put on display like that,” she hissed.

“Why do you care? You might as well have been washing dishes for all the shock value it would have for Borgola.”

“I care, Cole.”

“Why?” He looked at her keenly. “What is it? What does it show, Angel?”

“Screw off,” she said.

“What?”

“Get out.”

“You’re amazing. Nobody can take that away.”

A few minutes ago she might have believed he thought that. How could she be so stupid? He was blackmailing her. She was a means to an end. “I’ll do your damn job. You don’t have to insult me on top of it with your bullshit platitudes,
comprende, amigo
?” The slip into Spanish was deliberate, placed there to create distance.

He seemed about to protest, about to say something, then stopped. What was he about to say? Stupidly, she hoped he’d tell her it was the truth, that she was amazing, beautiful. Instead he got out. Left her alone. She closed her eyes as the water beat down over her head.

Pull it together,
she told herself.

But she didn’t know how she could deal with him after this. She’d let down her guard with him. She’d felt beautiful. She’d felt happy.

Angel. Her ironic name. She was anything but—even to this lowlife.

Fool.
The bathroom door shut. He was gone.

She let the water stream down on her for a long time. The mansion would have a massive hot water supply, and she might damn well use it all.

And she imagined the upcoming job. Or more, resorted to it. She visualized herself sinking into the shadows, the way everything bad melted away. The thrill of cracking the safe. The rush of the high wire. It would be even more intense now. The danger would even her out.

And if things went well, she would be able to slip back into her life, but that thought wasn’t all that enticing. What was even worthwhile there? Five years she’d been out, and still nothing felt as true as the rush of the high wire.

She shut off the water and stepped out. Her dress and panties lay in a heap on the floor. No way was she putting that stuff back on. She knotted the towel around herself and stepped out.

Cole was at the little desk. “Hey, you,” he said. “How was the shower?”

“Fine.” She opened her suitcase.

“Take a look at this, baby. What do you think?”

She went over to the desk. A word doc was up on his tablet. It said:
We have the location of the safe. The other side of the bed is a blind spot for the camera in this room. You can change there w/o being seen. Then turn out the lights & get into bed.

She sniffed. “I’d use a proper
and
between those two sentences,” she said.

“Good,” he said. “Thank you.” He slid an arm around her waist and looked up, like they were this couple. “You good?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

He looked at her a little too long. Was she good to do this job? That’s what he wanted to know.

She was more than good to do this job—she needed to do it. It called to her like a purifying flame.

He got up and went into the bathroom, letting her change in private. She went to the blind spot and put on the alternate safecracking outfit they’d picked out—jeans, dark long-sleeved T-shirt, and tennis shoes. She braided her hair and nestled her tool into her pocket. Then she turned out the lights and got under the covers. The bathroom door opened with a sliver of light. Cole shut it off and came out. With the blinds shut, the room was totally dark, but she could hear him moving around. He was over at the shelf.

Then he slid into bed and flicked on a tablet. The light of its screen illuminated the firm outline of his jaw and reflected in his glasses as two lit squares. It was 2:12 in the morning, according to the little number in the upper right hand corner.

He typed slowly.
Camera covered w towels. But shhhhh.
He brought up a screen that showed the schematics of the place. She’d seen something like this on White Jenny’s computer, though Cole had more of it worked out.

He pointed to a red dot on the first floor.

She furrowed her brow. A space behind a room. White Jenny had wondered about that space, but it had been out of their way. Cole moved the cursor to the room they were in. He looked at her to see if she got it. She nodded. He plotted their path by moving the cursor slowly, out of their room, down the hall.

She gestured for the thing and he gave it to her. She opened a word doc and typed:
What about the cameras in the hall?

He moved close, tipped it his way and typed.
Act normal. This room feed would go to Borgola. The guys watching the hall won’t think anything.

She nodded.

He pointed to a corner. He turned to her and straightened, gave a salute. She got his meaning: Guard. He pointed at his chest, then took the tablet back and typed.
I’ll handle him. Hang back. We’ll travel only in blind spots after. Stick close.

She nodded, wondering what he meant by handle.

They went over the route, and an alternate. He knew the mansion well. He typed,
If we get into trouble, I may have to kiss you.

She nodded.

Is that a problem?

She sniffed in derision. They were both pros. Well, she used to be one. Truth be told, she felt like one again, senses cranked high for a job, focus narrowed on a goal, awareness widened to take in all possible danger. She was calm yet dizzyingly alert. She sensed that he felt like that, too. She recognized him on so many levels.

She typed,
Got a plan B? Contingency if we’re busted?

He typed,
Don’t worry.

She didn’t like that, but it wasn’t as if she had veto power. He pointed to the room next to the one with the secret safe and typed some more.
Borgola’s office. It has to stay dark. Stick close to me.
He erased everything and put the tablet aside, then brought out a gun—
her gun
. A gesture of trust. She nodded and put it in her pocket and stuffed down her hurt and her anger.

Then she applied a coat of lucky lipstick. He smiled. He liked that.

Together they slipped out of bed and out the door, which he shut soundlessly. He’d oiled it. He seemed to think of everything.

He grabbed her hand and they walked down the hall. She supposed anybody watching would think they were going for a late-night stroll.

Cole stopped her just before a corner. She hung back as he stole ahead. He threw something down the other hall and melted back into the shadows. The guard there wandered off to investigate. Cole yanked her up behind him and they slipped past his post into the main part of the house, through the dining room and outside. The course was circuitous, meant to skirt guards and cameras.

Working with Cole was easy; they both knew when to slow, when to dart, when to hunch or stand tall and slip, how to not crunch gravel. At one point he pulled her under a bush to let a guard pass and they existed in perfect silence, part of the scenery.

She’d never thought she could trust somebody else the way she’d trusted Macy and White Jenny. But she found, perversely, that she trusted Cole—on the job, anyway. Not off it.

Cole knelt and picked a lock on the side of the home and got it open without too much fuss. They snuck into a hall that led to another locked door. He picked that one open, too, and opened a door to what she now understood to be Borgola’s office. She could vaguely make out animal heads and bookcases along the wall, and a massive desk stood at the far end. They moved along the floor like tigers in the dark until they reached a closet in the far corner. Cole pulled a meter of some sort from his pack.

“Hot,” he whispered. He had another tool out. If it was the kind of interruptor Jenny used, it was far more advanced. He went to work setting up a bypass, then tucked a thread-like wire under the rug. “Better if he doesn’t know he’s been robbed for as long as possible,” he explained. “They’d have to test the system to know I did this.” He started picking the lock. “I always thought this was a closet,” he whispered. “I even got a peek in when it was open once. It
looks
like a closet.”

A door sounded. Footsteps neared.

They melted to the floor together, scrunched so close, Angel could hear Cole’s heartbeat. Slow, steady.

The footsteps receded.

“Usually not a place for guard rounds,” Cole said.

“Should we worry?

He held up a finger, eyes closed, and listened some more. Cole was a man who heard and saw more than even most seasoned burglars. He went back to picking the lock. Apparently nothing short of a direct attack would sway him from his need to get into that safe.

Finally they were in. Angel shut the door and Cole flicked on a small flashlight. It did seem to be a closet, lined with shelves holding mildewy-smelling boxes. Coats hung at the very end. Cole parted the coats to reveal a combination lock and handle in the wall.

Angel went up and ran her hands all around it, discerning the outlines of a door. She held out her hand for the flashlight. Cole turned it over and she inspected. Very basic spindle, not a Fenton Furst. She handed the flashlight back. “Home cooked,” she said. “They use this a lot.”

“How can you tell?”

“Smell.” She applied the stick-on dial markings, set up the magnifying glass and pulled out her tool. She shoved in her earbuds and pressed the body to the area around the lock. She turned the dial, which was nice and loose, and started in, linking up the gates. Eventually the fence dropped. She pushed and the door opened a crack. She looked at Cole.

“That was fast.”

“Every lock has a personality. This one was...” she tilted her head. “Cooperative.”

He shoved the coats to one side and opened the door all the way. They slipped into a new room. Cole flicked his light around in a space large enough to hold three or four cars. The floor was dark linoleum, with a drain in the middle of it, like an autopsy room, and she could make out dark stains in the seams of the tiles and around the baseboards. Then he flashed over some dungeon-y implements hanging on the walls. Manacles, Medieval stretching things. Three cameras set on tripods were clustered in a corner. She caught sight of a glass coffin-looking thing that stood upright against a wall, and it had spikes in it. Dark stains coated the bottom of the thing and the floor underneath it; the upper part was clean, yet streaky, as if it had been washed. A person closed in there would die. Horribly. And the cameras would film it.