Page 38 of Caged Bird

He raised one eyebrow. “Would you prefer we had a bunch of drugged women tied up and were here to transport them?”

I blanched at the image he painted. “No.”

“Then stop looking a fucking gift horse in the mouth, Zaney boy, and go get the wife’s fucking jewelry box.”

My jaw clenched at the taunting nickname Eddie had always used to belittle me. Spider wasn’t Eddie. He didn’t have half of his brawn or agility.

The thought of wrapping my fingers around the smaller man’s throat and shoving him up against a wall briefly crossed my mind.

But Derek, Ward, and Santos were all moving about in other areas of the house, and at the end of the day, I was relieved more than anything else that all we were doing was robbing the place.

I jogged up the stairs, grateful to get away from Spider’s gun. I kept one in the safe at home, knowing if Eddie came for us, it would be there. But I’d never taken one to work.

Now I wished I had. Or that I could rely on the lessons I’d given Mom. Except I already knew her memory was so bad she would have forgotten the code to the safe, let alone the knowledge there was a gun inside it.

If it was even still there. If Eddie knew about it or his guys had found it…

I sighed and poked around the master bedroom. There was some cash on the dresser, and a box full of necklaces with pretty gemstones. One was a love-heart-shaped locket with a photo inside of two women, one elderly, one several decades younger, perhaps in her late thirties. The locket was tarnished by age.

A family heirloom, most probably. There were some tiny bracelets that might have once adorned the wrists of babies,though the photos around the room showed a growing family of preteen girls, posed with their neatly groomed parents.

I sighed, taking one of the necklaces that didn’t seem to be of personal significance, knowing I’d need to provide something.

But I didn’t have it in me to take the lot.

A door slammed downstairs, and I grabbed the cash off the dresser, adding it to the haul in my pocket. I wrinkled my nose at the unpleasant odor that hit me as I went back out onto the upper-level landing.

It took my brain a second to work out what the smell was, but when my thoughts caught up, my stomach dropped.

Smoke.

I rushed for the stairs, but flames lit them up.

On the other side, Spider grinned at me, a box of matches clenched in his nicotine-stained fingers. “Oops. Sorry. Didn’t realize you were still up there. You really should have stuck to the time limit.”

He hadn’t said anything about a time limit, and we both knew it. He wiggled fingers at me in a wave before disappearing in the direction of the front door.

Fucking asshole.

Thankfully, the flames were still low enough I could back up a couple of stairs then jump. I hit the living room floor hard, deliberately rolling to put out any possible flames that had latched on to my clothing than to take the impact off my legs.

I tried not to think about the family memories being destroyed behind me.

Instead, I hightailed it down the street to where I’d parked the truck.

The guys all stood sheepishly outside it.

I exploded in a fit of anger. “You all forgot I had the fucking keys? Were you planning on walking home after trying to kill me in that fucking house?”

Santos was quick to come up with excuses. “We didn’t know Spider left you in there!”

I shook my head. But what did I fucking expect? Loyalty from men Eddie had picked?

Absolutely fucking not.

I got in the truck, slamming the door. The four of them were smart enough to throw themselves inside quick because I sure as hell wasn’t planning on hanging around waiting for them.

Even though it wasn’t smart, I doubled back, driving past the house again.

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