Page 7 of Mile High Heist

“Big plane.”

“We knew that.”

“No, I know. I just can’t believe a plane like this actually exists and doesn’t just fall out of the sky.”

I reached over and flicked his ear. He winced, scowling. “Hey!”

“No jinxes.”

Ryle rubbed his ear indignantly. “Since when are you superstitious?”

Since islands were never just islands. Since basements were never just basements.

Ryle handed the phone to me so I could read the specs. Woah was right. It wasn’t just a big plane.

It was a big motherfucking plane.

Five hundred and sixty-three passengers were booked on flight SN482. Seventeen flight attendants. A half-billion-dollar score.

It was our biggest job yet. And, if I got away with it, our last chance to earn our freedom.

There was just one problem.

One irritating, rage-inducing, perfect problem.

And she was already on the plane.

3

OLIVIA

Through the terminal windows, the plane looked monstrously big. White and silver, double-decked, with four large engines mounted beneath wide swept wings. But on the inside, the plane was a palace. A luxury hotel for the sky. Sleek, modern, with wide-spaced aisles and two full passenger decks connected by illuminated glass stairways. There was even an onboard lounge, with a bar, and a suite of bedrooms in first class.

I’d always traveled in style, thanks to my richy rich parents, but I’d never traveled like this.

“Woah,” Julie said, pausing beside me in the doorway. “This is some serious physics porn.”

I nodded in agreement. How something so large managed to fly without stopping for fourteen hours was super impressive. My stomach flipped uneasily.

I wasn’t a nervous flyer, but I’d never been responsible for tending to a plane. Usually, I’d be kicking up my feet, sipping my complimentary bubbles, and listening to a steamy audiobook with lots of sticks and balls.

Sometimes, I missed the girl I used to be.

She’d been spoiled and naïve, a rich girl with rich privilege. She’d been the cheer captain of her squad, the prom queen of her year. She’d dated the heartthrob quarterback. Joined her mother’s college sorority as a legacy.

Then Molly went missing.

And everything changed.

“Move aside!” A voice snapped behind us.

Julie and I shared a suffering look as we stepped aside. Lucille came striding in like a dictator. She took one look at Julie and me and sensed the mutiny brewing.

“Separate. Now,” she said, and clicked her fingers at a forty-something man with a hairless crown and a bored expression. “Marcus, take Emily. Make sure she doesn’t break anything.”

“I won’t—” I stopped short at the blistering look Lucille shot me. I thought the hardest part of maintaining my cover would be remembering the safety presentation. Turned out, it was not stabbing this woman with her knock-off heels. “Okay.”

Marcus walked ahead, his nose high, shoulders perfectly straight. I followed him, shooting Julie an encouraging smile. I sure as hell preferred shadowing Marcus to Lucille.