Rivers looks around at our small group. “You all know what to do?” he questions as though this is one of his marine missions. Rivers meets each of our eyes, making sure we’re all on board and not liable to fuck this up. After all, we don’t intend on getting caught tonight and one fuck up could have us all behind bars.
Rivers waits until we’ve all confirmed that we know our parts and with that, he looks up at the top of the gate. “Let’s go.”
Slade is the first to move, dumping his things at the bottom of the black gate and backing up a few steps. I watch him with wide eyes. I know he said he’s done this before but no…he couldn’t have. This gate is fucking huge. It’s not possible.
He strides forward, picking up incredible speed in such a short amount of time before launching himself up into the air. I gawk, unable to look away. He’s fucking amazing. I swear, there’s nothing this man can’t do.
His hands reach the top of the gate and with impressive strength, he hauls himself up to the top. Slade gets to his feet and turns to look back down at me, chuckling as he sees the disbelief on his face. “You didn’t think I could do it, did you?”
I shrug my shoulders as Noah moves in beside me and grabs Slade’s forgotten bags. “I mean, I had my doubts,” I say with a grin, reveling in the lighthearted banter that has me able to forget the heaviness if only for a slight moment.
Slade rolls his eyes as Noah launches the bags up at him. He catches them effortlessly and slips the bags onto his back as Noah turns back to me, interlocking his fingers and leaning down, preparing to propel me up to Slade.
Well, shit. This is either going to be a shitload of fun or an absolute tragedy. Let’s hope for fun. After all, he is propelling me up to the man I’m crazy about and in my book, that’s always a positive.
I step into Noah and put my foot up into his hands and Damian comes to my back, ready to catch me if I was to fall. “You ready?” Noah murmurs.
I nod. “Yeah, just do it.”
“Okay. 1…2…”
As the number three comes out of his mouth, I push up off the ground with everything I have as Noah throws me up into the sky. Slade catches my hands and easily pulls me up to my feet beside him.
“Holy shit,” I breathe, holding tightly onto his arm. I mean, I’ve never been afraid of heights, but I’m open to changing my mind.
With Slade needing to catch bags that are tossed up here, I sit down on the edge, gripping the thick gate and hoping I don’t fall.
Over the next two minutes, the guys start helping each other up and soon enough, the five of us are staring up at the big mansion which no doubt, still has a body lying in the hallway outside Lucien’s office.
Slade drops down into the grass below, landing in a low crouch and I watch in awe as the other three do the same thing. My brow raises and I peer over the edge. There’s no fucking way. I’d rather live for the rest of eternity up here than jump all the way down there. Though, wasn’t it less than twenty-four hours that I jumped down from Blake’s second-story window? It’s amazing how a little fear can motivate a person.
“Come on, Virago. I’ll catch you.”
I put the thoughts of my twisted ankle and impending doom to the back of my mind and close my eyes. I trust him completely. There’s no way in hell Slade would allow me to fall.
Feeling better about the situation, I stop wasting time and step off the gate. I quickly drop to the ground and just as promised, Slade catches me and steadies me on my feet. “Good?”
I look up and meet the eyes that I’ve missed so damn much over the past two weeks. “Good.”
His eyes soften and he reluctantly releases my waist. He turns to face the boys, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Alright,” he says, lighting up the screen and glancing down at the time. “It’s 2:23 am. We have seven minutes to get into position. You all remember where to go once you’re inside? Rivers and Noah, you guys are taking the south side, and we’re on the north.”
Damian nods as Noah and Rivers grunt their confirmation. “Good. We meet back at the top of the driveway at 2:45. Don’t be late.”
We all nod and as we go to run toward the house, Rivers calls out, his eyes staring into mine. “Hey, don’t try to be a hero, okay? That’s how people get hurt.”
“Got it,” I tell him just seconds before Slade tugs on my hand, pulling me along.
Rivers and Noah break off to the south, aiming for the back staff entrance while we head to the north which will give us access by the pool.
We run and to be honest, most of it is spent with Slade and Damian having to pull me along. The property is huge and it takes nearly the whole seven minutes to get to the house. I’ve never noticed how long it would actually take to run this before. Growing up, if I needed to get around the property, I would take the golf cart. There’s only ever been twice where I’ve run out of here and both times there was too much desperation coursing through my veins to notice how long it took. This time, my head is screwed on straight and I have my boys with me.
We reach the back entrance with a minute to spare and I lean up against the side of the house, trying to catch my breath. Once we’re in there, we’re going to have to be quiet. I don’t want to get sprung before we get a shot at ending this.
I watch the clock and the second it hits 2:30 am, I hash in the alarm code, making it possible for us all to get in. The little red dot beeps three times and I hold my breath, hoping to God that the code hasn’t changed. It finally turns green and relief sails through me.
“We’re good,” I say, grabbing the handle and pushing the door open.
We sneak in and I try to ignore the way Damian looks around the house as though he’s in some kind of fairytale, absolutely mesmerized by the sheer size of it. These guys wouldn't have seen anything like this in Aston Creek, only ever in movies, and that’s if they were ever watching the movie. I’m assuming guys like Slade and Damian are more inclined to use a movie as an excuse to get their freak on.
We make our way through the main part of the house and I lead them to the stairs, having complete trust that Rivers and Noah are doing their part. Shit is going to go down and while this is all going to be on me, I don’t want any innocents getting hurt during this.
We walk through the great hall when Damian stops and stares up at the statue of Maria. “The fuck is this?” he whispers. “What kind of rich bitch has a statue of herself inside their home?”
I roll my eyes. “You’d be surprised.”
Damian shakes his head then steps up to the statue, roaming his eyes over every inch. “Is this thing to scale?” he questions, looking over the statue’s tits.
I nod. “Uh-huh. The nose isn’t though. Maria wanted it smaller but she’s already had three surgeries on it and the doctors wouldn’t operate on it anymore. So, she admires this nose every day rather than looking in the mirror at her own.”
“Welcome to the sad, sad lives of the rich and famous,” Damian murmurs, stepping into the statue and having a good feel of its titties. “Damn. These have got to be fake.”
“They are.”
“Can we get a move on?” Slade demands. ‘We’re going to run out of time if you insist on feeling up every statue in the house. I’m sure there’s probably one of Lucien’s cock if you want to find that.”