Page 138 of Stealing Blinds

We’re robbing Kratos and double-crossing one of their members. E must be trying to take over the organization for some reason. I bet he can taste the power. I hope he drowns in the poison of us plundering it.

“It was a loss.” That was what Peter said. He was telling me that he was part of an organization my father was involved with or expected to be involved with.

My father wasn’t killed because the FBI approached him. He was killed because he wouldn’t work for Kratos.

Why isn’t Peter in here then? He’s one of the keyholders, so he should be.

One minute.

“Ready to wrap up,” I inform them as I close out the program.

“We’ve got a lot of movement,” Ty chirps back. “Get to the agreed-upon exit as quickly as possible. We’re going to extract you right to the boat. Three minutes out.”

The seconds tick by, and my lungs burn with the intensity of every inhale, exhale, the path back to the coal chute illuminated in my mind.

“I was just going for a walk,” Tessa utters, but it doesn’t sound like it’s for us. She’s in distress.

“What do you want with the storage room, sweetheart?” a deep voice growls.

“I don’t think the resort owners or Minds of Our Time will appreciate you smashing me against the wall and clasping my wrists,” she says, so sweet and unaffected that it nearly sounds like she’s bored.

Her feigned innocence and threat to report it to the authorities is a brilliant method to confuse whoever has her. It’s also for our benefit.

My stomach flops. Message received.

“Lucky for me and unlucky for you,” the foreign voice snipes, “I’m not with the resort or the convention.”

Kratos.

“Get the fuck out of my way!” Maddox roars as the computer beeps, signaling the download is complete.

I grab the drive and the keys, hustling out of there. “I can be there in a minute.”

And absolute madness ensues.

CASH

We achieved the chaos we’d planned to evoke, but there is nothing controlled about this moment.

While Jax, Tatum, Maddox, and I were drinking and belting out lyrics, security was banging on the wine cellar door, which we’d secured and blocked. It was both tense and comical as they tried to coax us out of here—tense because Sylvie was clearly on to something even bigger than we realized.

But as soon as Tessa’s voice filtered through the comm, Maddox swung the door open and attempted to barrel through more guards than we’d anticipated.

His knife is out, which is only inflaming the security team, but he’s got zero fucks to give with his wife in peril. And I’m right there with him.

I step forward, both hands up with one in front of his chest, in the hopes of calming everyone. “We’ll pay for everything we drank and tack on a hefty bonus for the inconvenience. But he got a call that his wife is hurt, so—”

“Appreciate that,” one of the guards begins, “but we can’t let you—”

“That’s not a fucking option,” Maddox cuts him off, spinning his Karambit.

And everything unravels in the next ten seconds.

“I’m halfway there, Nightmare,” Sylvie announces. “Climbing through the second transom. Don’t let him move you.”

It’s going to be both of them out there against armed guards when we have men on standby to handle this shit.

“Fuck no, Sly,” I grit out, eliciting bewildered scowls from the guards barricading us and wild eyes from Tatum.