The Thief

  He bunches it in his hands and tosses it to the corner, treating me to a delicious flexing of shoulders and biceps and thick ropey veins. Kelly’s body isn’t chiselled and lean. It’s large and wide and thick with bulky muscle, as if his physique is acquired naturally rather than hours spent pumping iron in the gym. It feels good to have those rounded shoulders take some of the load. I didn’t realise how much I’ve been leaning on them until he left. Now those luscious shoulders are coming at me right now and instead of being all sexy like I want to be, my eyes prickle with hot tears.

  “No, no, no, no, no, no,” he says, keeping his voice low as he climbs on the bed. He collects me in his arms, lifting me against the warmth of his chest. “You are not gonna cry now. Not now. We’re almost there, babe. We didn’t come this far for you to fall apart when we only have two cars left.” I mush my face into his bare skin, breathing him in. “You’ve been so strong. You’ve got this okay?”

  My inhale is shaky, but I suck in the tears, holding them at bay like a dam holds back the flood. He’s right. We’ve come this far.

  Kelly pushes me back, grasping my face in his hands. “You stole a Bugatti, for fuck’s sake. That shit is insane. You’re insane.”

  A little bit of hysterical laughter bubbles out of me, and he clamps a hand over my mouth.

  “Shush,” he whispers and removes it.

  “No one’s going to hear us,” I protest. “You’re being super paranoid.”

  “I don’t want to risk Marchetti finding out I’m here, that I’m still involved.”

  “And yet here you are sneaking inside my house.”

  He walks his fingers slowly up my bare thigh, inching his way closer until his palm cups me between my legs, rubbing slowly. “Because I needed you.”

  “Needed me?” I ask, my eyes dropping to the intimate placement of his hand. “Or just needed that?”

  Kelly stills, and I literally feel the thunder rolling up inside him. “Did you really just ask me that?” He draws back, looking at me as if he doesn’t know me at all.

  “I’m sorry. Fuck.” I cover my face with both hands, feeling like a fool for experiencing even a sliver of doubt. I’m so wound up and exhausted. “I don’t know why I said that. I’m all over the place. I feel so much for you so soon. It’s scary, and then add everything else going on into the mix and it’s made me crazy.” I inhale another shaky breath. “My life is a such a bloody mess, and I’ve dragged you right into the—”

  Kelly plucks my hands from my face so I can see him. “If we’re together, it means I’m in. I’m all in. Your mess is my mess. If you have shit in your life, then I’m not going to sit back and wait while you sort that shit. I’m wadin’ in to fix it because I have a dick, and that’s what any real man would do for his old lady.”

  “Dick fix it?”

  “Damn straight, baby, I’m gonna dick fix your mess.”

  I laugh. It’s a teary one, but I still laugh while I wipe at my eyes.

  “Where’s the remote?”

  His abrupt change in topic throws me. “What?”

  “Your remote. For the TV. That is a TV, isn’t it?” he asks, lifting his chin toward the little box resting atop the tallboy in my bedroom corner.

  “It’s a TV. But it’s old.” And a slight layer of dust rests on the top of it because housework is low on my list of priorities at the moment. “I don’t have a remote. And the picture only comes in black and white.”

  “Jesus,” he mutters. “Well get up and turn it on.”

  My brows rise, dubious. “You want to watch TV?”

  “No. I want to watch TV with you. There’s a difference. So get up and turn it on.”

  I rise, getting up to turn on the TV like the man wants, halting when he grabs my arm. “Wait. You have to take off your clothes first. I wanna watch you do it naked.”

  “Watching me switch on the television in the nudie rudie is what gets you off?”

  “Anything that involves you being in the nudie rudie gets me off. Does that upset you? I know you got your knickers in a twist when you thought I only wanted your pussy, but I don’t discriminate. I need your tits too. And your sexy ass. And you always smilin’ at me with that smile. That one right there…” he pokes at my lips while I’m trying to pull them down into a straight line and failing horribly “…that says you’re a fuckin’ idiot but I love you anyway. You do realise you’re a package deal, don’t you? I’ve fallin’ so hard for you that I’m here, sneaking into your bedroom after midnight just so I can touch you and hold you and breathe you in like you’re fuckin’ air.” His eyes lose their teasing glint, hardening in the shadowy light of my room. “Don’t you ever doubt me, Arcadia.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Promise?”

  I trace a cross over my heart with my finger. “Promise.”

  “Good. Now get your gear off and turn on the television.”

  I rise from the bed, tugging my tank top up while he watches me. My hair is out and gets tangled in the folds. I yank, feeling hairs rip from my scalp. It’s about as sexy as a dog taking a shit. Seriously. I actually feel a bit sorry for Kelly. I have no moves. I finally free myself and drop the offending garment on the floor beside me. “Why do you want to watch TV anyway?”

  “You’re right. I’d rather just watch you.”

  My cheeks flush. “Watch me make an ass of myself,” I mutter.

  “Babe, you could dance about the room wearing an adult diaper on your head and unicorn slippers on your feet and I’d still find you sexy.”

  I snort. “Oh my god, that’s ridiculous. You would not.”

  His chuckle is low and deep and washes over me like a hot shower on a cold day. I peel my panties down my legs without any further drama, kicking them off with my feet as I straighten. His gaze slowly runs the length of me and back up again. He exhales deeply as though he wants me with every fibre of his being.

  Then he nods toward the television. I walk over to the tallboy, feeling the burn of his eyes with every step. I switch it on and a late-night talk show flickers to life, flooding my room with dim light and the muted sounds of studio laughter.

  Kelly divests his pants as I walk back to the bed, pushing them down to the edge with his feet where they go over and drop to the floor. I set a knee on the mattress, climbing on and crawling my way to where he lies.

  He tugs at my hand, and I drop on top of him. I scoot off, tucking myself to his side, my arm resting over his belly and my head in the crook of those wonderful shoulders. He tucks one arm behind his head, lifting it a little, and the other comes around my back.

  “This is nice,” he says, gruff, his eyes on the little black and white screen. It’s a crappy show but neither of us seem to care. It just feels so normal and just what I need. His fingers play with the ends of my hair while mine scratch lightly through the hair on his chest and lower, where his cock rests at half mast, showing interest in my wandering hands. “We never get to laze about and watch TV.”

  I find myself starting to doze.

  “Babe,” he whispers.

  “Mmm?”

  “We’re almost there. Then we can do this whenever we want.” The arm around my back lowers, skimming the cheek of my ass and further down. Goose bumps rise on my skin. His hand finds my inner thigh and nudges. I slide them apart, lifting one to rest across the top of his legs. His touch curls inward, stroking the crease between my cheeks.

  My breath judders. “Almost there.”

  “Did you patch things up with Mason?”

  “Seriously don’t want to be talking about my brother right now.”

  Kelly stills his hand. “Yes or no?”

  “No.” Damn him. “Stubborn donkey.”

  His eyes round like dinner plates. “Did you just call me a fuckin’ donkey?”

  “Just calling it like it is.”

  “Oohh, baby, you’re askin’ for it.”

  I giggle as Kelly rises up over me and flips me on my belly like I weigh nothing. He
grabs my hips, lifting them up and towards him. His tongue comes out and flicks my clit.

  My teeth bite down on my pillow to stop the squeal escaping. He teases me like that forever, until I’m feverish, and then he fucks me until I’m limp and it’s when we’re dozing, tangled naked together in the sheets, that I whisper in his ear, “You’re the last thing my heart expected, Kelly Daniels. You make me feel everything. I’m scared of losing that.”

  “You won’t,” he replies, his voice low and sleepy and his arm tightening around me, making me feel safe. “Trust me.”

  “I trust you.”

  He turns his head. I can feel his eyes watching me in the dark. “Enough to tell me about your past? You said you won’t go back there, Ace. To prison. What happened?”

  I clear my throat, the memory sticking in there like a lump. It wasn’t the lowest point in my life, but being incarcerated feels shameful. Even though the record was expunged after three years, it still sits like a stain on your clothes you can never get out. “It was a juvenile detention centre. I stole a car and got caught. Grand theft auto. I pleaded guilty.”

  Kelly pulls me closer, pressing his forehead to mine. “Tell me about the car.”

  I close my eyes, picturing it in my mind. “It was yellow with black stripes on the bonnet. A Camaro. Rusted. A little beat up. But the tyres were new. She needed work but she was a sweet ride.”

  “How old were you, babe?”

  “Sixteen and twenty-two days.”

  “Young.”

  “Yeah,” I mutter, opening my eyes.

  He draws back a little, brushing hair off my forehead with his warm palm.

  “It started when I met Johnny,” I tell him. “We hung out. He was my first.” He was also my last for a long, long time. “He was actually pretty great, but his best friend was a total ass, always watching me. Not in the way that suggested he liked me, it was more creepy … like he didn’t like me. He resented me because he and Johnny were thick as thieves and then I came along and suddenly they weren’t. He went through Johnny’s phone, found a picture of my tits, and posted it all over social media.”

  Kelly’s body goes rigid beside me. “He fuckin’ what?”

  “It didn’t have my face in the photo at least, but I was wearing a necklace that everyone knew was mine. Johnny gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday. It was a strip of black leather and in the middle, separated by little knots, were three small silver blocks with the letters A C E stamped on each one. So yeah, everyone knew they were my tits on display.”

  Kelly dips his head, pressing a kiss to my lips, then he rolls to his back, pulling me on top of him.

  * * *

  Kelly

  My eyes drop to Ace’s tits as she straddles me, her hands planted on my chest. They’re a small handful. The nipples perky and pale pink, so pale the edges almost disappear into the rest of her skin. They’re pretty and pucker beneath my stare.

  That someone stole a photo of them and then plastered it all over the internet pisses me right the fuck off. It’s a violation of her trust by some disrespectful little shit who needs to learn a lesson. Then it hits me and my chest swells with pride. My eyes slice up to hers. “You stole his car. The Camaro.”

  “Yes,” she breathes, rocking a little because my cock is hardening beneath her weight.

  I ignore the rising surge of hunger. Ace got her revenge in the best way she knew how. And the way she answers me tells me she doesn’t regret what she did. Not for a minute. But satisfaction wars with the anger inside me, because Ace did her time for it. He deserved to lose more than his Camaro, and she was the one that got locked up.

  “That’s how I met Echo. Ellington Reid. It was her idea to take the car. She was my new lab partner and the one who showed me the photo. She said she’d take it down in exchange for stealing his car.”

  My brows pull together. “What was her beef with the guy?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re best friends. How can you not know?”

  “I’ve tried to pry it out of her, but whatever it is, it seems she plans on taking it to the grave.”

  Her fingers trail over my stomach. It tickles. I circle her wrists with my hands and tug. She drops down against me and I feel the loss of her pussy rubbing against my dick, but I need to focus.

  “How did you get caught?”

  “We took the car from the school parking lot. Echo disabled the cameras and we drove it through back streets to the chop shop, but the damn thing almost had an empty tank. We had the choice to stop and fill her tank or just abandon her on the side of the road.”

  “Ace. Babe.” I rub the side of my face, knowing what she did before she even tells me. “You shoulda just fuckin’ abandoned her.”

  “I know. But I was so mad about the picture I wasn’t thinking straight. All I knew was that I didn’t want him to get his prized car back. I wanted it in pieces and sold off to all four corners of the globe.”

  “And that’s how they got surveillance video of you fillin’ the tank.”

  “Yep.”

  “And why you pleaded guilty when they arrested you because there’s no refutin’ that kind of evidence.”

  “Nope.”

  I swallow. “How long?”

  “Six months,” she replies. “Plus I had to pay him back for the cost of the car. Even though I didn’t feel lucky at the time, I got off light because no one was hurt. There were no weapons involved, and I didn’t resist arrest. That wasn’t the worst part though.”

  Her breathing is shaky. I twist a little, grasping the edges of the sheets and pulling them over us. “What was?” I ask, wrapping my arms around her and rubbing her back.

  “The first night I was there, they roomed me with another girl. We were pretty much free to roam the facility during the day, but they locked us in our rooms at night. The rooms were tiny and there was a small square window high up with bars on it. I couldn’t breathe in there. I was so wound up it was a wonder I got to sleep at all. But I did. I don’t know what it was that woke me just after 3:00 a.m, but I remember my eyes blinking open in the dark, adjusting. The girl, my roommate, had used her sheets to … to …”

  Ace chokes up and I rub her back while my heart pounds a hard, furious beat.

  “She was dead, Kelly. And I banged on the door for someone. I banged and yelled until my hands were bruised and my voice was gone. They didn’t come until morning. It was the worst night of my entire life. I’ve never been able to stand enclosed spaces since. Even getting trapped in traffic gives me anxiety.”

  I’m angry. So angry my whole body vibrates with it. A tear plops down on my chest. Ace smooths it away. “Kelly—”

  “Don’t,” I snap, my arms tightening, my fingers digging in to her delicate skin. Ace doesn’t try to pull away. She simply sinks in further, holding me tighter. I’m trying hard to find calm. So hard. But I can’t. It’s rising, building, a tidal surge I don’t know how to stop. “Give me his name.”

  I need to know the name of the fucker who’d sink so low as to post a photo of a young girl’s tits on the internet. A little shit who, instead of taking the punishment he deserved by telling the cops it was all a mistake, brought her down with charges and walked away, leaving her to drown beneath the choppy waters he threw her in.

  “You don’t—”

  “His name,” I grind out.

  “Miles Howard.”

  30

  Kelly

  “Run the name, dammit,” I say into the phone, shoving frustrated fingers through my hair as Mitch denies me my request. How is it fair if you have a contact in the Feds and they won’t even do one simple thing for you?

  “I don’t have time to be your errand boy, Daniels.”

  If I could just reach through the phone and ring his infuriating neck, maybe it would squeeze the information out of him. If I’d entertained for even a single second handing over that one hundred and twenty-five K like an upstanding citizen would, then I surely wouldn
’t be now. Not that I care about the money. I just want Marchetti to know that not only were Ace and I the ones who parked his ass in prison, we also took his cash too.

  “Miles Howard,” I reiterate. “I’ll even spell it out for you.”

  “Go ask Echo if you need someone to dig shit up for you.”

  I huff. According to Ace, Echo is a vault on the subject. You can’t get blood from a stone. Approaching her won’t just be a waste of time, it will tip my hand. Girls tell each other everything, and Ace’s best friend is as loyal as they come. “I’m not askin’ Echo. I’m askin’ you.”

  “We have Ace on the GTO in a few short hours. Why don’t you focus on that? Whatever this Howard guy has done to piss you off can wait. I’ll see you in a few.”

  Mitch hangs up, leaving me to feel like a petulant toddler who didn’t get the toy he wanted from the store.

  I contemplate lighting another cigarette out of frustration, but my stomach rebels at the idea. I may as well just lick the bottom of an ashtray. Instead I send a message to Ace.

  Me: All set?

  I left her just before dawn the other morning, sleepy and sated. That little furrow of worry between her brow eased. I’m glad I went, even if that meant having to sneak in like a naughty schoolboy. We both needed to see each other. Have that edge taken off. Even if only for a few hours. She needed the reminder that I was there, taking her back. And I needed to make sure she wasn’t buckling beneath the crazy pressure she was being put under.

  Arcadia: All set.

  Tossing the phone to the couch beside me, I rise and walk to the front door, resting an arm up against the frame as I stare out, watching a storm rumbling its way in from the west. Branches are flapping wildly as the wind picks up, sending leaves fluttering through the air and cartwheeling along the road.

  Flowers bow beneath the gusty onslaught, fragile, and so unlike Ace, despite their beauty. Ace is strong, and I’ve never met a strong person with an easy past. She’s passionate and fierce. A sinner and a saint. A gift. Something given for me to fight for. To show me that there’s still love in the world, even when it’s dark and I’m waking from the monsters that choke me in the night. She’s there to remind me that life is short, and there’s no time to leave important words unsaid.