Giving Her My Baby(22)
Just then, Heavy walks in.
“Out!” he snaps, and the girls who have been roaming around scurry from the room.
Lazily, I drop back down into my chair and wait. Heavy pours himself a drink before making his way over to where Nick and I are sitting, a few more of his crew coming in behind him and joining us.
Heavy is anything but heavy. He’s barely five foot, balding, and wears the most God-awful suits I’ve ever seen. The only reason he’s got himself this little makeshift gang is because it used to be his father’s until he passed a few years back.
What was once a decent crew turned into a bunch of lazy fucks who clearly aren’t making ends meet. Seeing as they all latched on to the stupid idea of robbing a Federal bank, these idiots are dumber than I thought.
Or maybe Heavy’s as crazy as I’ve heard he is, and he just doesn’t care. Crazy is dangerous and makes for sloppy work. Crazy is hard to understand and not easy to predict. I feel like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew with this crew, and I’m starting to have second thoughts. My doubts are bubbling to the surface, and I think maybe it’s time to call this whole operation off.
Right until Heavy drops a stack of pictures and papers on to the table, making my heart jump into my throat.
I sit perfectly still, trying to appear completely unfazed by what I see. The real reason I want to call off the job. I don’t make a single move to indicate I know who the woman is. Her pictures are scattered across the table for all these men to leer at, and I’m cool and calm on the outside. On the inside, though, I’m losing my shit.
I’ve always been known for my control, and for the first time in my life, I feel a crack split in my facade. The mask I so carefully wear starts to slip, and I have to rein myself in.
“Tessa Morgan.” Heavy says her name like he bought himself a winning lottery ticket. I should have seen this coming, and maybe I did but I ignored it. I don’t even like her name on his lips. She’s too sweet and pure for a man like Heavy to even say her name.
When I knew what bank was my target weeks ago, I started digging up every piece of information I could get my hands on. Tessa stood out to me right away but probably not for the same reasons she stood out to Heavy.
I hate her name on his lips; it makes my stomach clench. I’ve been watching her for weeks already, and I told myself it’s because she’s a part of the job. That’s a lie, because I haven’t watched anyone else at the bank. Just her. I want to watch her now.
Each day my little obsession for her seems to grow. Now I’m so deep there’s no turning back. I have to have her, and I will, by any means necessary.
She’s the reason I keep picking up my phone every ten minutes. I’ve been checking her location. Checking on her.
“What about her?” I manage to ask the question with as much indifference I can muster, but my blood feels like it's ice, moving through my veins as everyone in the room stares down at the pictures of her. She looks like a fucking angel. My angel. That’s what I thought the first time I’d laid eyes on her, and I still think it every time I see her.
Her reddish-brown hair falls in waves around her face down to the middle of her back. She has honey-colored eyes like I’ve never seen before. I didn’t even know eyes could look like liquid gold. When I first saw her, I was sure they were contacts. After I planted the camera in her apartment, I learned it was her true color. Those gorgeous eyes hypnotize me.
She’s curvy, almost plump, and her short stature makes her seem compact. It’s like I could carry her soft little body around with me, and she’d mold against me perfectly. But what drives me wild about her are the little freckles that pepper her cheeks and her little button nose. It makes her look sexy and innocent, all rolled into this fucking package I can’t get off my mind.
It started with how she looked, but as the days went on, the more I watched her, it became so much more. She truly was a sweet little angel. Not a mean bone in her body. Always has a smile for everyone, but a lot of the time the smile doesn't reach her eyes. I want to make that smile reach her eyes. Have it directed at me.
Now all these fucks are standing around, staring at her, and I’m trying not to lose my shit.
I know what Heavy’s going to suggest, because I’d thought it myself.
“We’re going to use her to glean information on the bank and get our hands on her access keys. She looks easy enough to seduce.”
“I’m not into chubby chasing,” Nick says, picking up one of the pictures of my angel. I feel my fingers twitch, wanting to grab the blade at my side and slam it through his hand.
“You’ll do what you’re told,” Heavy reminds him, but no way could Nick seduce her. He isn’t charming enough. She’d run from his sleazy advances the first time he tried to come on to her. He’s used to paying women to fuck him.
Heavy’s eyes are on me, but I don’t want to seem eager. If I try to jump in, the situation could blow up in my face and ruin everything.
“Sparrow should do it. The ladies always seem to be after him.” I have no clue what Heavy means by that. Maybe it’s because the whores in his club are always trying to latch on to me, but that’s probably because I don’t look like I’d beat the shit out of them. Like his whole fucking crew does.
“I’m here to make sure the cops don’t show up. I’m cutting the lines and hacking the systems. Those are my skills sets,” I remind him, as if I want no business seducing the girl. I’ll be the one to do it if it’s something he’s going to push. “We don’t need her. I got you the floor plans, schedules, and I can take their system down easy. We don’t need to drag a woman into this, one who can end up identifying us when it’s all finished.”