Page 261 of Caelum

As we opened up the loot, Reed whistled as Frazer, Eve, Stefan, and Eren walked in behind me to study our ill-gotten gains as well.

Upstairs, a door banged, and we looked at the ceiling like it could give us some answers.

“It’s Sammy. But don’t worry, Nestor’s watching over him,” Reed reassured the others. “In case he passes out.”

A pained sound escaped Eve. “I’ll sleep with him tonight,” she said with a low voice, her features flickering with tension as though Samuel’s habit of overworking physically hurt her too—why that messed with my insides, I didn’t know. “I want to make sure he gets some rest,” she ended, jaw clenching.

Frazer squeezed her shoulder. “Thanks, love.”

Her smile was gentle as she reached up and grabbed his hand. “He’s my Chosen.”

The simplicity of her words struck me as though she’d used a dagger against me and it had slid into the softest part of my belly. It hurt. In fact, no, it fucking caned. Enough so that I had to grit my teeth as I stared down at the jewels in front of me.

“There’s a couple of million here,” Stefan commented after a few minutes. He’d know, considering he’d been Oliver Twist back in the day. “Easy. Look at the size of that sapphire.” He whistled as he palmed the ring with its cabochon setting. “That’s half a million on its own.”

“Not to be sneezed at,” I said wryly. “I wish we could return them to the original owners instead of just giving it to a Holocaust charity.”

Samuel’s voice was husky when he said, “I’ll try to source what I can because that’s a nice idea, Dre.”

Did it piss me off that he sounded amazed I was capable of being nice? Sure it did, but I understood. Most people mistook my personality as attitude. I wasn’t about to correct those fuckers either. If they thought my attitude stank worse than four-day-old horse shit, screw them.

In my Pack, it wasn’t as cut and dry, and with Eve around, I was having to face facts.

I couldn’t stay as I was if I was ever to become an integral part of the unit. If I remained like I was now, I’d forever be on the outside and, truth was, I didn’t have to fear these guys tossing me out. They’d never abandon me. It wasn’t how we rolled. Not even Frazer, Reed, or Samuel would dream of dumping me, leaving me behind, even though we’d spent most of our schooling loathing one another.

The most I had to fear was never being accepted, and that? Well, that was more than I thought I could stand for a lifetime.

“We’ll need to hand some over to Ibramovicz,” Reed cautioned. “He needs to see the rest of our haul to trust us.”

I shrugged. “Shouldn’t be difficult. The joy of this scenario is that no one knows what Wassermann was storing in that bank vault, just that he was storing a lot of jewelry with dubious Jewish heritage.” Cocking a brow at him, I murmured, “If Sam’s links get us a ring that could match up to what Bartlett and Avalina described, then we should be okay.”

When making forgeries, it was definitely handy to have people around who’d seen the original.

With Sam’s father working in the jewelry industry, and with Sam’s obsessive-compulsive habit of watching his family like some kind of Peeping Tom without the heavy breathing and jerky right hand, he had access to all his father’s contacts. Getting a ring made of brass and iron was piss easy considering the metals were easily sourced and there were no precious gems to worry about.

If things worked out well, we’d be getting the ring and would be seeing the fence tomorrow.

Tomorrow could very well be Ibramovicz’s last day on this earth if he didn’t fall in line with our plans. I hoped, for his sake, he believed our forgery was authentic; otherwise his hump day would be even worse than usual.

SIXTEEN

EVE

As I knocked on a plain brown door with a frosted glass window labeled with Ibramovicz’s surname, I sucked in a sharp breath to calm myself down. To ready myself for the door opening and coming face to face with a man who, according to some of Sam’s contacts on the Silk Road website—a site that was believed by law enforcement agencies the world over to be shut down—was the best fence in this part of the world.

After news of the break-in at Silbermann & Hertz’s bank last night, he’d been most interested to see us, and the loot my Chosen had claimed for us rested heavily in the purse I had slung over my shoulder.

It was the first time I was in proper clothes, and to be honest, I was surprised at how good I looked.

Well accustomed to tight yoga pants but overly baggy men’s shirts, this neat skirt suit with low-heeled shoes, which I kept wobbling on when Frazer or Stefan would let go of their hold on my elbow or hand, made me look pretty feminine. It was a sight I wasn’t accustomed to, and it was something I quite appreciated.

The skirt curved about my hips and thighs which, because of all the exercise, had grown tighter, and its high waistline showcased my rounded hips and slim stomach. I wore a ruffled shirt that did devious things to my breasts and had me fearing they’d pop out of the bra one of the guys had picked for me—which meant it was seriously impractical—and that was topped with a slimline jacket that tucked into my waist. The red heels were a blast of color amid the black suit and creamy gold shirt.

With my men at my side, dressed in suits that had my eyes flaring wide every time I cast a look their way, I realized that someone was getting lucky tonight.

Me.

Them too, but it was me who counted the most, I thought with an inward smirk. This tag teaming thing really saved on time and doubled up on the pleasure. Why most women didn’t do it, I wasn’t sure, but though I was late to the party, there was no way I was leaving for home first.

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