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Less than thirty minutes later, I was behind the luxury leather steering wheel of a black, tricked-out Escalade that must have cost the owner a pretty penny, and it felt good. The steering wheel was warm against my fingers, something I very much appreciated in the chill of the late fall weather. I drove through town feeling like a million bucks. Rico was sitting by my side, while Stacy was behind me. I chuckled when I looked in the rearview mirror to see that Tina and Trey were having a full-on make-out session in the backseat.
Gross. I tried not to listen. It sounded like they were using a whole lot of tongue.
Rico navigated, telling me when to turn left and when to turn right. As I drove along, I recognized that we were entering the ritzier areas of downtown. Many of the shops were dark, but I’d been inside many of them during the past few years.
My father called me a troubled girl, but it didn’t much matter. It’s not like he ever paid attention to me since my mom died. He’d been stuck at the bottom of an endless whiskey bottle ever since.
Sometimes I liked to steal things. I never went in planning to, but sometimes I just wanted something, and I didn’t have enough money to pay for it. I had an allowance, but it wasn’t enough for things from Prada or Gucci. I got away with it most of the time, but I’d been caught once or twice in the past. Somehow, my dad always knew the right people to sweep it under the table, so I had a clean record. He said it was important for me to get into college, but who was he fooling? He and I both knew I wasn’t cut out for that. It wasn’t that I wasn’t smart enough for it; it was because I wasn’t the type of girl that would do it just to please my alcoholic, deadbeat dad.
My reputation was known throughout Mercer Prep, and it made me popular. Occasionally, other girls would have me steal things for them and they’d pay me for it. I made a decent amount of money that way on occasion, but recently several stores had circulated my picture around and I wasn’t allowed in most of the designer stores here anymore.
Honestly, it was kind of a bummer.
It was nice to have fancy things that were still in season for the other rich kids at school to admire. It made me feel like I actually fit in with them for a change. I’d always dealt with their judgment because it was easier to stay there. I’d managed to keep a full scholarship all these years, mainly to keep my father off my ass and because most of the classes weren’t that hard.
Thankfully now though, the drama of high school was over with. I was free to live my life just like I wanted, and I was going to make the most of it.
When we’d snuck into the mansion Rico had mentioned, I’d raided the woman’s jewelry box. My fingers were decked out in big fat rings made of gorgeous clusters of diamonds, sapphires, rubies, you name it. This woman was stacked. Her closet had been full of sizes close to mine, so I’d stolen a new outfit that made me feel like a queen. The jeans were Neiman Marcus, all black and decked out with bedazzled jewels all over the back pockets. I thought they made my ass look incredible. The light purple tank was a luxurious name brand I hadn’t recognized, but the black, gray-lined blazer I’d layered on top was Dolce & Gabbana. Rico had said it was the perfect outfit for me and that made it ten times better. It even exposed a little bit of cleavage and I’d caught him looking a few times afterwards.
Feeling sexy always made a woman feel brave.
Combined with him sitting at my side? I was in heaven.
The Escalade drove smoothly over the crumbling pavement of the back-alley street. I continued for a few more minutes until Rico held up his hand and an excited hush fell over the five of us.
“Are we there yet?” Tina giggled.
“Shhh,” Trey murmured, and I watched her nip the finger he’d pressed to her lips in the rearview mirror.
Another flash of movement caught my eye as I looked back, making me tense. There was a group of men coming up on the back end of the car. I looked to Rico, and he winked before hopping out. I couldn’t help feeling like something was off, but I did my best to ignore it.
“Wait here,” Rico whispered, and I smiled.
His warm brown eyes found mine. Maybe he would even ask me out after this was all over. Hopefully I was impressing him with my courage tonight and he’d think I was just as much of a badass as he was.
“Got it,” I answered quickly.
Trey hopped out of the backseat of the car and Tina went along with him, leaving Stacy and me in the car all by ourselves.
“Where are we?” she asked quietly.
Of the three of us girls, she was the shyest. She didn’t get into nearly as much trouble as Tina or I did, but she got into enough to at least fit in with us. She liked to shoplift just as much as I did, but she didn’t usually hit many higher end stores. Gas stations and Sephora were her favorite targets, and their security was pretty subpar compared to the designer storefronts.
“I’m not sure. We’re somewhere near University Street, I think, but it’s hard to tell in these back alleys,” I replied.
For a while, we sat there not saying anything at all. Eventually, the overwhelming silence grated on my nerves enough that I turned on the radio to one of the more edgy stations available through whatever service the owners was paying for. I didn’t tend to listen to much mainstream music, but I could enjoy a Selena Gomez or Beyoncé song on occasion.
I glanced down at the clock radio. The key to stealing was to get in and out as quickly as possible while no one was looking, but the group of them had been inside for nearly fifteen minutes now. I chewed my lip as I glanced at the back door of the shop Rico had chosen. The stores weren’t labeled with anything other than numbers back here, so I wasn’t quite certain what store he’d settled on tonight.
An ominous boom echoed inside, deafeningly loud enough to be heard over the music I had pumping in the car.
Fuck.I swallowed hard. That had sounded a lot like a gunshot. I had to be hearing things, right? It couldn’t be that…
I stared back at the door, and it slammed open hard enough for the frame to bounce against the concrete with a heavy, thunderous crack. Rico rushed out first with Trey and Tina behind them. Her face was frozen in fear. She wasn’t even the slightest bit tipsy anymore; she was petrified of whatever had happened inside that store.
As the door swung closed, I stared inside, and my stomach fell. It was a jewelry store, not some high-end designer store where I’d thought they’d steal a couple things and we’d be on our way. This was far bigger than I thought. I didn’t mess with stuff like this. It was far too dangerous.
Rico jumped into the passenger seat with a massive velvet bag in one hand and a gun in the other. I watched him as he tucked the piece into the back of his jeans, frozen as he lifted his sweatshirt and covered it. That didn’t much help my overwhelming fear.
