Page 70 of Cosmo

Tally came up behind him and whispered, “The guy broke it off with him.”

That was what they all knew would happen. All except Mims, that was. “Sorry, Mims. I’m sure he was a loser.”

“Loser with a house near Capitol Hill and another in Aspen.”

“Who cares? He’s obviously gay and married to a woman, so he could have ten houses and still be miserable. It has to suck to lie every day of your life.”

Mims gave him the ghost of a smile and crept to him, kissing his cheek. “Thanks.”

Goldie called over to Mims, “If you can, baby, come help with this.”

Mims went over and took the chair in front of the computer, with Liam following. “There,” Goldie pointed. “That camera I set up outside the side of the place. See that?”

They all watched as two men were carrying the painting, the very one they were planning to steal, out of the house. “What the fuck?” Abs asked in amazement. “Do you think they knew?”

“No,” Liam said. “Look at the logo on that van they’re taking it to. Restoration specialists.”

“They’re taking it to get it restored? People don’t do that.”

“They do if it got damaged,” Abs said and pointed to the padded blanket they were setting over the painting. “Look at that corner.”

Liam saw it when the other had. “The frame is broken.”

Goldie whistled through his teeth. “What are we gonna do now?”

Murphy came through the door and got the information thrown at him quickly. He smiled and said, “That’s fine. We just readjust our timetable. This works for us, boys.”

Tally told them, “I’ll call as his secretary. That way, I can find out if they’re on schedule to have it back.”

“Perfect. Wait a day to make the call, though. Fellas, looks like we’re off duty this week,” Murphy said.

“Why? There’s a perfectly good Bentley waiting to be stolen,” Liam reminded him.

Goldie laughed as he said, “Just like that?”

“Well, the reason I didn’t go after cars of that magnitude is that we didn’t have a computer guy. Goldie, you can follow the owner, get something of his to get his prints, right?”

“Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?”

“The secret storage in those cars is only accessible by fingerprint. That is likely where the keys will be, and if not, it’s easy enough to lift. With the resources here, with you all, I can steal any car ever made.”

None of them looked confident, so he asked Mims to move so he could sit in front of the screen. “I’m not good at this, but can I type in anything? Without, you know, having someone tracing it?”

“Sure,” Mims said. “I have servers all over the world pinging me.”

“Great.”

As Liam typed, they all hung over his shoulder, watching him bringing up the Bentley specs, security, and anti-theft.

“GPS is easy enough,” Mims said. “A simple scramble or I could take it and point it at some old Pinto or something.”

“Don’t be cute,” Murphy said. “Remember what I said. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”

“Fine. I can scramble it, but I’ll have to be with him to do it.”

Goldie’s head snapped to him. “No way. You don’t go on these. You’re here or the van, that’s it. You don’t have any experience.”

“I have to go,” Mims said. “I have to be there if something happens.”

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