Page 3 of Parker

“I did a dry run a couple days ago.” Justin kept his focus on his current task. “It worked okay with the system you built, but a job this big needs the best.” His eyes found hers. “Go big or go home, right?”

Quinn’s stomach dropped. “I thought you agreed to wait until tonight. Youpromisedwe’d do this together.”

If he’d messed up a single step during his practice run…

He could have ruined everything I’ve been trying to do. If he’d gotten caught somehow…we’d both be sitting in a jail cell right now, instead of sneaking around in this shitty building in the middle of an even shittier night.

“Relax, babe.” Those blue eyes rolled the way they always did when she got worried. “I didn’t fuck anything up. I can do a simple hack. Besides, now we know for sure it’s gonna work.”

“Well, then.” Quinn crossed her arms at her chest and stared. “As long as we know…”

No acting was required at the moment, her anger and frustration most definitely real. How could he risk himself like that? Riskher?

“Don’t be like that.”

“Like what?” She scowled. “There’s a reason I didn’t want you messing with any of it without me, Justin. Did you stop for even a second to think about what would’ve happened if you’d gotten caught?”

Lips tight, she struggled to control the conflicting emotions filtering through her veins. Anger and fear. Uncertainty and dread. The war raging inside her was strong.

Stronger than the actual one currently filling the skies right now.

“I wasn’t going to get caught, babe. I also wasn’t going to risk trying to pull off the whole job without you behind the keyboard. I need what’s locked in here”—a light tap of his finger to her temple—“to do that.”

“Then how—”

“I picked the day manager’s wallet from his pocket when I was leaving work that morning. Took no time to hack into the guy’s online credit card account. Once I was in, I changed the email on file to a dummy one I’d set up before. That way, he wouldn’t get alerted to the activity taking place. After that, I reported the card lost.”

Quinn stared back at him. “If you canceled the guy’s card, then how—”

“Some of the bigger card companies have started issuing e-cards instantly after reporting a card lost or stolen. The poor bastard’s new numbers popped up right there on the screen.” Justin smiled proudly. “By the time he realizes what happened, it’ll be too late. The available credit will have already been spent. I get that we’re not messing with the whole lost or stolen card scheme for the big job, but I wanted to see if it would work, and it did. Now come on.” Justin pulled out one of the two folding chairs butted up to the table and sat. “With you at the helm, it’ll go a helluva lot faster, but we need to be out of this place before dawn, and we have all of these to get through.”

From his jacket pocket, he revealed a stack of crisp, clean credit cards. No customer names or numbers, just a plain front with their target’s name and logo, and a back with a black electronic strip and the usual small-print gibberish on the backs of all credit cards.

Quinn swallowed hard, her eyes zeroed in on the cards. This was it. The point of no return.

You can do this. For him, remember?

She lifted her schooled gaze to his, praying he wouldn’t see the truth behind her casual façade. “You get those from that guy you told me about?” She asked. “What was his name…Matt…Mark…”

“Monty.” Justin set the stack down and shrugged his denim jacket off his shoulders. “Yeah. That’s the guy.” Laying it sloppily on the back of his chair, he removed the thick, blue rubber band from the stack.

“That’s right. What was his last name again?” Quinn went to the empty chair. Working to control her breathing—and racing heart—she licked her dry lips and took a seat. “Or maybe I never asked you. I can’t remember.” She forced a light chuckle. “And how did you even find someone who knows how to make fake credit cards?” She reached for the stack to get a better look but was stopped with a firm, almost painful grip around her wrist.

Her eyes flew to Justin’s, his expression unreadable despite his close proximity.

“Careful, babe. These things cost me a pretty penny. Don’t want to risk scratching the electronic strips and ruining them.”

A condescending tone squeezed her heart a little. It was something she’d come to notice more and more in recent weeks, along with the eye rolls and head shakes. All things she’d brushed off, excusing it as a byproduct of the stress he’d been under.

Hacking into a major credit card company can do that to a fella.

With another nervous lick of her lips, Quinn scooted in close and placed a hand on his denim-clad thigh. “I know they had to have cost a lot.”More than you know.“I bet they set you back, what? A grand? And that’s not including the other stuff.”

“Gotta spend money to make money.”

“Right, but how do we even know this Monty guy can be trusted?” She continued her attempts at getting him to keep talking. “I mean, what if he goes to the cops?”

“Jesus, Quinn,” Justin snapped. Shoulders rising with a calming breath, he turned to face her, cupping her cheeks and softening his annoyed expression. “Look, Monty istheguy to go to for this sort of thing, okay? The man makes his living on this shit. Hell, he has a whole team of guys working for him.”

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