Page 101 of Stealing Blinds

I slide my fingers over the stubble on Cash’s cheek, dragging his focus back to me. “Why would that be bad? Other than the fact that my solo heist has grown to roughly ten. Or more.”

“I love my sister’s family. They would defend you with their lives. But they’re part of KORT, which is much bigger than just them.” His chest deflates. He’s in as much distress as I am. “You don’t want to be owned by KORT, Sly.”

“She will not be,” Axel breaks in, joining us so that everyone is now crowded in the threshold of this room despite us all essentially living here. Noting the same absurdity, he gestures for us to spill out into the hall and leads the way. “I will handle that.”

Cash doesn’t seem convinced, grumbling, “That’s a slippery slope.”

Axel stops, forcing Cash to do the same as he faces him. “I want to involve them to keep her safe. That will be my top priority, like I’ve always made all of you my top priority.”

“You have, Axe. But what if those two goals come into conflict?”

Axel cups the back of Cash’s neck. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s all the same.”

The exchange is so tender that the line between sibling and guardian blurs, highlighting the strength of their family, the strength Cash told me Axel infused. And from what I understand, Axel is claiming he’ll make my safety a priority, like he would the rest of them.

It’s just as Cash promised earlier, but to see it play out has warmth spreading through my chest. And worry. This is complicated.

Zara grabs my hand for a brief squeeze, and Tessa rubs my back while the guys conclude their silent conversation.

“Love in action,” Tessa whispers, and based on the small tidbits she’s told me about the difficulties she’s had with her parents and sisters, I know that’s as enthralling to her as it is to me.

Another taste of family.

“If you want out of the business after this, I will make that happen,” Axel says to me when he releases Cash. “You will have no obligations to KORT or anyone else. I’m sure involving more people feels risky. But having a military-grade backup and the rest of us inside with you—especially Zara—will ensure that this doesn’t get ugly.” His gaze bounces across his family before parking on me. “I would not ask you to do this if I didn’t believe it would make a huge difference to all of us.”

“Revenge for me and freedom for your sister,” I offer in summary.

“Exactly,” Jax chimes from beside me.

And Zara tacks on an empathetic, “Freedom for you too.”

I swear I hear my father’s voice. “The most valuable things to steal are freedom and time. But if you’re going to reach for something more, let it be for the sake of either family or prestige. Anything else is greed, and that leads to ruin.”

I still need to think this through, but while my parents would have conflicting thoughts regarding their daughter involved in this subterfuge, Sterling and Heath would undoubtedly be chanting, Sly and Noire.

SYLVIE

His palm roves across my curves, skating roughly over my breast to my ribs and stomach and hip, hovering near where I want him, but not giving in.

We haven’t spoken about the meeting. I managed a shower and alerted my mother about what was going on last night, but that was the last task I could muster the motivation for. I buried myself under a mound of pillows and fell asleep with too much caffeine in my system and tear-soaked cheeks. And Cash holding me.

How does he know what I need when he’s never done this before? Sex god, I expected. But relationship wizard, I did not.

An apricot hue stains the room through a crack in the blackout curtains, glinting off his display of vintage cards and coins and magic accessories. His lips trail the slope of my neck and shoulder. His breath ghosts my fiery skin. His hard shaft prods my back.

We’re both on our sides, in the perfect spooning position for our foot-plus height difference, so he can’t see my face. But he reads my every breath, as skilled here as he is with his trick deck. I think I’m realizing this isn’t a ruse. He’s in this, like he promised.

He lifts my top leg, towing it backward, so it rests on his. Still no words. He knows I’m awake, but he’s waiting for me to give him the go-ahead. Or to beg. I’ve found pleading actually arouses me. Or maybe it’s simply Cash. And this fire he lights inside me.

He makes every moment feel like being chosen. Despite my awareness of how shattered I was when we met, I don’t think I grasped how desperately I needed to be someone’s first choice.

Yesterday, he showed me that he’d prioritize me. So much so that his family was willing to do the same—even with the stakes of my compliance truly being life-altering for them. I haven’t told Cash yet, but I’ll choose them back. I’ll do this job and flip on E, not for the revenge angle they mentioned, but to help rescue their sister and her family from the prison they seem to be in. Because that’s what they’re doing for me.

It’s what Cash did when he determined that our encounter on Mardi Gras was a beginning, not an ending.

“Good morning,” I start, my voice thick with sleep and yearnings as I reach behind me to comb my fingers through his hair.

His teeth sink into my shoulder, his hips rock in goading invitation, and a muted growl emanates from him. “Is that how you greet me properly, baby girl?”