Partners (Fire & Lies - One) (21 page)

Despite our
limited preparation time, all parties involved know their roles
perfectly. We know the time, we know the place, we know who to
target and we’ve tested every scenario we can to time it all
perfectly. Now, all that’s left to do is rest up for the big
day.

I, of course,
have chosen to ‘rest’ with Chloe, whose arms I’m holding over her
head as I hold myself above her. I’m teasing her entrance with my
cock but refusing to put it in like she wants. It’s a sweet
torture, and I’m enjoying every whimper of want that escapes her
parted lips.

“Please,” she
begs, gasping as I slide in just a little further then pull out
again. She whimpers, her face twisting in her disappointment.

“What do you
want, Chloe?”

“You know what
I want,” she answers, thrusting her hips up at me.

I pull back
and shake my head. “That’s not how this works. Tell me what you
want and I’ll give it to you.”

She opens her
mouth to answer but the doorbell sounds earlier than expected. It’s
the delivery guy, and if I wasn’t so damn hungry, I’d ignore him
and make him go away so I could continue this game.

“Don’t move,”
I warn her, kissing her lightly as she pouts. I release her hands
and climb off her.

“Can’t you
ignore it?” she groans.

“Not if you
want to eat,” I say, pulling on a pair of pants before I head to
the door, trying to keep my raging hard on as discreet as possible.
I give the guy a hefty tip in case I didn’t succeed, then take the
bag from his hands and lock the door.

“When the hell
did you order food?” Chloe asks from behind me. She’s wearing one
of my shirts. I normally hate it when chicks do that sort of thing,
but with Chloe, she can wear all of my shirts if she wants – just
so long as she doesn’t wear any fucking underwear. I want my
access.

“When you were
in the bathroom. There’s a mobile app for it.” I walk past her to
the kitchen and put the bag on the benchtop. “And I thought I told
you to stay put.”

She shrugs in
response. “You can show me who’s boss later.”

I grin as I
remove the contents of the bag and grab some cutlery out of the
drawer. “Get your arse over here,” I command.

She walks
over, and I reach down and grip her hips, lifting her up onto the
bench. My hand slides up her leg and around to her arse as I give
her a look of approval when I find that she hasn’t put on
underwear. “At least you got that part right,” I say with a
wink.

“Smells good.
What did you order?”

I peel one of
the lids from the foil tray. “Italian. Pasta with lots of cream.
You know I like my women with curves.” Piercing a piece of penne
with a fork, I hold it up to her luscious lips, swollen from the
torture I’ve been inflicting on them lately. I smile slightly as I
admire them - knowing it was my mouth and my cock that caused the
swelling is fucking sexy.

Taking the
pasta into her mouth, she lets out an appreciative groan and chews.
“I do remember something along those lines.”

I fill the
fork and eat some of the creamy pasta myself before filling it
again and holding it to her. “Open.”

She does as I
ask and chews silently as she watches me with those piercing blue
eyes of hers.

“What is it?”
I ask, repeating the process of feeding myself then her.

“What are we
doing here, Aiden? This is crazy.”

“Which
part–the job or us?”

“Both. But I
was talking about us. Tomorrow will change everything.”

I place the
fork on the bench and place my hands on either side of her as I
stand between her legs. “You want me to talk feelings with you?” I
ask, noticing how a slight blush creeps across her cheeks as she
shrugs.

Bowing her
head, she watches her hand as she slides it over my chest and then
traces the edge of the tattoo over my left pec, starting from the
outstretched wings until she moves her finger down the blade and
across the banner that says ‘who dares wins’.

She takes a
deep breath before she starts. “I just want you to know that these
few days have been more than I ever expected to have with you.
They’ve been amazing.”

Taking a hold
her face on either side, I gently lift her chin so she’s looking
into my eyes again. “Sugar, don’t talk like we’re on borrowed time.
Tomorrow is all planned out and no one will know it was us.
Ok?”

“I know.
But–”

“Hey,” I cut
in. “Did you not understand what I meant when I said that you’re my
woman?”

She pulls at
her lips with her teeth, giving me a look that tells me she’s
unsure or nervous, or something. Fuck. I’m not saying this shit. I
don’t get how she can’t understand how things are between us
without needing me to say it. Shit.

“You know how
I feel about you, Chloe. So don’t drag it out of me. I want this. I
want you. We’re going to great lengths to get this done so no one
has to run. We get the information, we stash the loot and we hand
the evidence over to the cops. Then you and I can fuck for
eternity. Is that clear enough for you?”

Her hand
stills and flattens on my chest and her eyes drop. “I’m not
questioning what’s between us. It’s just... I need you to
understand how much you mean to me. I need you to understand that
if there was any other way–”

“Don’t,” I
say, cutting her off again. “Don’t bring any of that shit up. Not
tonight. Let’s just focus on the job and the rest can come
after.”

She nods her
head, her eyes glistening with tears. “Ok.”

“Tell me
you’re not freaking out. You can still do this, right?”

“I can. I just
wish I didn’t have to.”

AIDEN SLEEPS
peacefully beside me, his rhythmic breathing telling me that he’s
fast asleep. I look over at him, drinking in his features and
committing them to memory. The future for all of us is so uncertain
right now. Each of us has our own role to play and we don’t all
know exactly what that is.

One thing is
for sure, tomorrow will change everything. Tomorrow, we become bank
robbers.

It sounds so
ridiculous to actually say those words. But they’re the truth.

To get what we
want.

To clear my
family name.

To cover up
exactly what we’re taking.

We
need
to rob a bank, and we need to be indiscriminate and take everything
we can get our hands on.

Aiden rolls in
his sleep, and I slide my arm around his middle, pressing my naked
self up against the warmth of his back. I don’t want to let him go.
I wish we didn’t have to do this.

Sighing, I
roll out of the bed and head to the bathroom, picking up my phone
along the way. It’s while I’m in there that I message Leah and
check that he’s all ready for tomorrow. We’ve been in this together
since the beginning, and while the plan is slightly different from
our original, the ending is still the same–do whatever it takes.
Right or wrong. This must be done.

All ready,
girly. Sleep well. Tomorrow is what we wanted,
he sends me.

I hope
so,
I send back, before deleting our previous messages and
setting my phone in my bag before returning to bed, snuggling up
against Aiden as I wonder how the hell he’s managing to sleep so
peacefully, when I’m a bundle of nerves beside him.

PRESENT,
the day of the job

CHLOE SLEEPS
soundly on the bed as I get up, squinting a little as the sun beams
in through my window. Keeping an eye on her, I slide off the
mattress and leave the room, ducking down to grab a pair of pants
and swipe her phone from her bag as I pass.

Walking toward
the kitchen, I key in her code, learning it by surreptitiously
watching her over the last few days. I know she was using it in the
bathroom last night. She thought I was asleep but I wasn’t.

I may be head
over heels for the girl, but I’m not stupid. She’s a known liar and
I can’t always trust the way she speaks and behaves. I need to read
between the lines and work out what she isn’t telling me.

When I go
through her history, there’s nothing, she’s deleted it. Lucky for
me, I have Jared.

“Last
activity,” I say after dialling him from my own phone.

He knows
exactly what I’m talking about. “Text messages. Nothing
suspicious.” He reads the short conversation between Chloe and Leah
to me. It was nothing and looked like a friend checking on a
friend.

I still felt
like I was missing something.

I move around
the kitchen, preparing coffee as I listen to Jared, rattling off a
few last minute details in my ear. We’re not stupid enough to talk
blatantly, it’s all in the code that we use when organising
recoveries.

“See you
soon,” I tell him as I sign off and disconnect the phone, downing
my own coffee as I run through the timeline of the day in my
mind.

Every move
needs to be precise. Every step needs to be followed. I feel
confident we can do this, and have it be the best damn robbery this
world has ever seen. I just wish we had have had more time…maybe we
could have found another way.

Shaking my
doubts away, I pick up the second coffee and carry it in to Chloe,
slipping her phone back into her bag where I found it as I pass.
She’s still breathing heavy, her mouth open and smooshed up against
the pillow.

Chuckling to
myself, I run my hand down her back and she stirs slightly, her
hand reaching up to wipe at her mouth as she tries to look at me
but fails. Sleep wins.

“Come on. Get
up. Get ready,” I say, slapping her on the backside as she tries to
curl up again.

“Ow!” she
groans, rolling over then rubbing her eyes. “Oh god. What time is
it? I barely slept.”

“It’s seven.
Here, drink this.” I hand her the coffee I’m still holding for her
in my other hand and she sits up to take it, sipping at it
gratefully.

“Thanks,” she
says. “How the hell did you sleep? I’ve had my mind on overdrive
all night.”

“Practice,” I
state, leaning down and kissing the side of her head. “I’ve done
more clandestine operations than I’ll ever admit to. You get used
to the risk.”

“Aren’t you
nervous though?”

“A little. But
I trust the plan. Just do everything like we practiced and you’ll
be fine. Ok?”

She nods and
sets the coffee cup on the nightstand. I can feel the nerves
radiating off her body and as she stands. So, I collect her in my
arms and squeeze her tight. “You’re going to be fine,” I assure
her, planting a kiss on top of her head.

Releasing her,
I head out of the room, leaving her to get ready while I go and
make sure everything is switched off around the house. As confident
as I am that this plan will go well, I still prepare my house as if
I’m not coming back. It’s a ritual I have before I go on a mission.
It involves switching all of my appliances off at the wall, getting
rid of the milk from the fridge and leaving an envelope addressed
to my sister with instructions on what to do with my assets if I
don’t return. It might seem a bit stupid to some, especially when I
talk about my trust in the plan, but I’d be a fool to think there
wasn’t a chance that things could go awry. I’m cocky, but I’m not
so arrogant that I can’t see the danger in the situation.

Ten minutes
later, Chloe exits the bathroom, dressed in a pair of black pants
and a white t-shirt with her hair braided tightly against her scalp
in preparation for her costume change before we go.

This is where
having Chloe on this mission is the clincher – her costume makeup
skills. She’s going to transform us into two very non-descript
looking men. We did a practice run with the makeup the other day,
and she looks like an eighteen year old boy sporting his first
moustache when she’s all done up. She’s a little too curvaceous to
just dress in men’s clothing, so she’s going to put a suit on that
will broaden her shoulders and hide her breasts.

When she was
finished with me, I looked a lot like that boy’s father. My eyes
had been coloured with brown contacts, my lips thinned out by some
crafty makeup and facial hair placement, and my nose had been
broadened so it was a similar look to hers.

Jared was so
impressed that he wanted to take photos, and it took the threat of
violence to make him put his phone away. But we were all in
agreement that as long as the getaway goes smoothly, there is no
way that anyone could ID us after the fact.

“Time to go,”
I state, taking her by the hand and leading her out the door.

She takes a
deep breath and follows along with me I can feel her palms
sweating. It makes me nervous and I worry that she might not be
able to do this after all.

***

When we arrive
at the warehouse, Jared and Leah are already there. I half expect
that they were here all night, going over the plan, making sure
everything was just right.

Jared,
especially, is meticulous like that. He jokes around a lot, acting
like a kid half the time, but when his fingers hit that keyboard,
his focus is wholly on the job at hand. I could ask him about any
detail and he would know the answer, without even needing to think
about it. He carries on that I don’t pay him well, but I do. And he
earns every penny of it.

The plan we’re
going with now isn’t that far removed from what Chloe and Leah had
originally planned. We’re still going in there to get into the
safety deposit boxes, but we just have to be a bit more high tech
about it since the bank has upgraded its security.

Leah is still
going to be the decoy. His job will be to stay in contact with
Jared who will be monitoring the police network for any activity
regarding the bank. He’s going to do his best to circumvent any
possible alarm trip, but we have to prepare for error. If cops do
get called to the scene, then Leah is going to lead them on a
high-speed chase in the opposite direction to where we’re heading.
We don’t think we’ll need him. But it’s best to have a backup plan
in these situations.