“How much do you trust the guy who got you the plans and other info? Did you date him?” His tone was casual, but his knuckles were turning white from the grip he had on the steering wheel.
She snorted, holding back a guffaw at his question even as she wondered at his reaction. It seemed to bother him that she might have dated the guy. “No way. If you met him, you would understand. He just owes me.”
“Sounds like a lot of people owe you.”
“It’s kind of how I do my job. In trading favors. I owe people, they owe me. It works very well.” And she was cashing in everything now.
The sooner she could quit her job and pay off the mortgage for the pet shelter, the better. And now…she was wondering if maybe when she moved home, if she and Nash had a chance at something?
It seemed too much to hope for, but things had shifted between them today. Either that or she was allowing her imagination to go crazy.
Chapter 11
“I can’t believe we’re contemplating this,” Nash muttered as he crouched low next to her.
Ivy didn’t glance at him—he was too distracting—just kept her binoculars up as she watched the warehouse. The sun was high in the sky with limited cloud cover, creating a haze of brightness over the barren area. They were hiding behind a bunch of overgrown brush from the empty lot next door to the warehouse. Though empty wasn’t entirely accurate—people had taken to dumping all sorts of crap here including old barrels, rusted bicycles, car parts, a couple washing machines and probably bodies. Okay, no bodies that she could see or smell, but it was still gross. “You are absolutely free to stay behind.” She kept her tone neutral.
He made a growling sound. “How often do you break into places?” he asked a moment later.
“Probably more than you want to know. So what does the tracker say?” They’d been staking out the warehouse for an hour and there had been no further movement. The tracker they’d planted on the SUV had been moving for an hour and she wanted to know when the brothers decided to return.
“They finally appear to have stopped. From the map, the vehicle is in a parking lot of a restaurant. It’s a solid hour from here, in Homestead. With traffic, it might even take them longer to get back.”
She flicked a glance at the tablet and saw the dot blinking in place. “We should have enough time to break in, look for what I need, and then get out.”
“Or you might set the alarm off.”
“True, but they’re not going to have this place rigged to call the police.”
“Exactly. But the alarm will alert someone.”
“Look, I’m doing this. And if the painting isn’t there, I’m gone.” She looked away from him and back through the high-powered binoculars. Nash had military experience—a lot of years—and now worked for the top security firm in the Southeast. Maybe the country. She knew he would have her back and be more than capable of handling this break-in. “From here and from the drone footage, I’ve pinpointed a couple cameras. We’ll be able to avoid most of them and I’m going to completely blind the camera by the door we’ll be using to break in.”
“I can see why the CIA tried to recruit you.” His tone was dry.
She’d forgotten she’d told him that. “It never would’ve worked out.”
When she’d been in her senior year of college, she’d been approached about working for them—after taking some aptitude tests for school. But she’d turned them down flat. She had absolutely no desire to work for the government. Way too many rules and restrictions.
She set the binos down and unzipped her duffel bag. “Check this out.” Ivy knew Nash was annoyed with her—not like he was making a secret of it—but this should impress him a little.
He frowned as she handed him the thin plastic film. It took a moment for recognition to set in, but his eyes widened a second later. “How the hell did you get this?”
She started putting the thin film on her face, resisting the urge to flinch as it molded to her skin. She’d only used this once before and it was like wearing a cold, sticky cucumber mask. “So you know what this is, obviously,” she said as he started putting his own on. Talking was odd, as if her face was restrained, but she sounded normal enough.
Even though she was going to white out one of the cameras with static, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t be caught on any camera, especially once they were inside. These plas-films were a special type of technology, and distorted faces on any camera.
“I’ve heard about it, but never used it. This is cutting-edge stuff.” He lightly patted his face, clearly as weirded out as she was. “You look normal, almost like you’ve got cellophane on or something.”
“You too. On camera, however, this completely distorts our faces.” There was some kind of wiring in the actual plas-film that messed with any type of recording devices. She glanced across the lot from their hidden spot behind the underbrush and fence. “There’s no way we can get around crossing this huge parking lot. We’ll just have to make a run for it and then I’m going to open the door.”
“You’re sure you can do it?”
“I know this system. And I know that particular lock. I can handle it.” Combined with what she’d gotten from the city plans and her drone footage, she knew what she was up against. It was mid-level security—which basically confirmed what Genesis had told her about the owner of this building.
Mouth pulled into a line, he pulled out bolt cutters, then zipped up the bag and tucked it behind one of the abandoned, rusted barrels that littered the area. This place was deserted and she doubted anyone would bother their stuff, but it was a risk they were going to have to take. They’d parked half a mile away behind a hardware shop with no security cameras, in preparation for their escape.
“You ready?” he asked as he stood.
She nodded.
He quickly snipped away a section of the fence with the bolt cutters, going straight up in a quick motion. As soon as they had a big enough opening, he peeled it back and she ducked through. Moving quickly, they raced across the gravel lot. Weeds sprouted out randomly, but there were no impediments.
As soon as they neared the wall of the warehouse, Ivy pulled out her phone and executed the order to fritz out the nearby camera. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t look like an accident, so if the Green brothers had someone watching the cameras, they would know this was intentional. Which meant the clock started ticking now. Ivy had to assume the Green crew had been alerted to something weird going on and would be headed back here. With traffic, she was banking on an hour.
They hurried around to the edge of the back wall and Nash stepped in front of her, peering around first. He nodded once that it was okay and they rounded the corner, racing toward the door.
Working quickly, it took a precious thirty seconds until the multiple locks popped free with soft clicks.
Nash pushed her behind him and eased the door open.
She hated that he was going first, putting himself in potential danger when he didn’t even need to be here with her, but she knew arguing with him about it would be pointless. He’d been so intent on helping her with her job—and she enjoyed working with him. And a very primal part of her enjoyed how protective he was acting about this whole thing. As they stepped inside, she braced herself for any sort of attack even though Nash had his pistol up.