Page 82 of Vicious Little Games

“Move aside, move aside,” Mike, Cole’s other guard, tells us until we’re on the other side of the porch. He gets a running start, then plows his shoulder into the door. There’s a crunch of wood when it snaps under his weight. A moment later, the door opens.

“After you,” Cole says with a wave of his arm inside.

“Great, now we’ll be charged with breaking and entering.”

“Like they would report us once we confront them for being rats. And besides, Mike is the one who broke inside.”

I glance back at the street, the surrounding houses. “The neighbors might have seen us.”

“Nah. It’s dark. Everyone’s busy having dinner and shit. We’re good. Even if we did catch charges, I’m sure Dante could get us out of it.”

“Or Alistair,” I add. “He was a cop, you know. I bet he still has connections.”

Cole grumbles something under his breath as he follows me inside.

“Now what? We gonna sit and watch a little television until they return?” I ask him while also curiously examining what a middle-class home looks like on the inside. The oversized furniture and photos on the wall make it seem…cozy and comfortable.

“No. We’re going to find where they’re hiding the rest of that cash,” Cole says as he starts down a hallway.

God, he’s so full of himself.

“Good luck with that. I’m going to sit right here and let you do the dirty work since this is your win,” I say before flopping into a recliner and pulling the lever to raise my feet. Definitely comfy.

“Then you won’t be getting a piece of it. Mike? You want a cut? I’ll halve whatever you find in cash. I’m guessing there’s about ten or fifteen thousand.”

“Hell, yeah,” Mike says. “I’ll turn this place upside down for a little extra cash,” the guard says before he starts going through kitchen drawers and cabinets like he’s being timed.

“Why would Lochlan pay someone thirty thousand dollars for intel on me and Sophie?” I ask Cole before he disappears down the hallway.

“Because the rich bastard was desperate for intel and could afford it,” he says simply.

I barely have time to take in the row of tiny Aztec pottery sitting on the mantel before the smug asshole yells, “Found it!” from the bedroom.

Cole returns to the living room grinning a moment later, a black metal box in his hands. “They stored it in the fire safe, no lock. So trusting.”

“How much?” I ask, slamming my recliner closed to go look when he sits the box on the sofa and pulls out a wad of bills.

There are so many bills it takes a while for him to count them all. “Seven thousand,” he finally says.

“So, you were wrong? Didn’t you say it would be ten to fifteen thousand dollars?”

“Guess they spent a little more already. But I was right about her being the rat and her having cash. And since I found it, I’m keeping it all.”

Rolling my eyes, I say, “So we just wait here to let her know that we know?”

“Yep.” He puts the box on the table and sits down where it was while I reclaim my recliner that rocks too. I’m not sure how anyone could get up and leave this furniture. I could sit here all day.

August comes through the front door so Mike says to him, “I’ll check on the guys watching the back door, then be ready to watch the front once they get home.”

“I’ll hang out here with the principals,” the other man responds before sinking into a chair identical to mine. “It’s not often that we get to sit down on the job.”

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Cole tells him with a grin. Reaching for the remote on the table, he powers on the flatscreen hanging on the wall, then scrolls through the guide as if he’s kicking back at home.

But then again, I guess there’s nothing better to do.

Cole puts the television on an old sitcom, then props his shoes on the coffee table, hands behind his head to get comfortable.

We wait a little over an hour before we see the headlights of a car pulling into the driveway.

---