The Cocky Thief (Stolen Hearts #1)(22)

“I wasn’t,” he said softly. “What we had was just...fringe benefits.”

“Fringe benefits?” She slammed her palms into his chest, but Austin braced for the blow and didn’t step back. So she curled her hand into a fist and took a swing at him, but Austin caught her wrist and the momentum of the punch had her falling right into him.

The second her body was against his, her lips were on his mouth. He blinked in confusion before his eyes drifted shut and he kissed her back. He might never see her after this; he might as well enjoy the feel of her body in that tight-as-hell dress pressing up against him one last time. He thought back to those sexy legs he’d seen as he approached his seat in the plane, her husky laugh as they’d talked, her hooded gaze as she’d met his eyes across the table last night at dinner.

As of right now, all that was over. He pulled away from her and fell back, his knees actually shaking from the mixture of adrenaline and desire. But as soon as the confusion from the kiss washed away, he had clarity. Austin pulled his gun back out and aimed it right at Jennifer’s heart. “Give me back the necklace.”

She smiled, but didn’t seem concerned at all as she pulled the velvet bag out from behind her back and dumped it upside down. The necklace fell into her palm and the jewels glittered in the moonlight. “It really is something, isn’t it? The feature diamond is four hundred and seven carats.” She ran her fingers over it before she met Austin’s gaze. “I bet I’d look pretty good in this and nothing else, don’t you think?”

Hard to argue with that, but he wasn’t just another one of her marks. “You’re all out of distractions and I’m out of patience. Now hand it over.”

Car headlights flashed on their faces. They’d definitely run out of time.

“Fine,” she said petulantly as she dropped the necklace back in the bag and immediately threw it up in the air. Austin stepped forward to catch it as Jennifer started to run for the road. He barely caught the bag and started to run after her, but it was too late. The car came to a screeching halt and the back door flew open, allowing Jennifer to jump inside. “Better luck next time!” she called as the car drove off, leaving him alone and being hunted with no way out.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he started to run for the wall. The stone wall was too high for him to climb and there was no way the front guard would let him walk out. How Jennifer’s getaway car was going to wander out now that the alarms were going off, he didn’t know, but that wasn’t his problem.

As he ran, he pulled out his phone and managed to bring up Hart’s number. The phone connected, which was good and bad. Good because he could get a hold of Hart; bad because it meant they’d found and deactivated the signal jammer.

“I need a ride,” he said as he kept on running. The wall was only a short ways up but if he didn’t have a way to get over it, he was screwed.

“I’m on my way. Keep this call connected and I’ll track you.”

He heard voices behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see beams of light dancing through the vines. “I’m going to need that sooner rather than later,” he said breathlessly into the phone. He had a head start, but they had quantity and a pissed-as-hell boss who wouldn’t be calling the cops if they found him. Austin would end up as fertilizer for next year’s crops if they caught up with him.

“I’ve got you. Make it fifty yards up.”

Fifty yards. He could do that. Dropping the phone in his pocket, he pumped his legs faster as the beams of light got closer. The lights just hit his legs as he saw the rope that was thrown over the wall. Now or never...

He jumped mid-stride and used his momentum to propel himself up and grabbed the rope. The stone wall scraped his fingers, but he didn’t stop as he pulled himself up. Whoever was on the other side must’ve known he was there because they started to pull from their end. Between the two of them, he was rolling over the top by the time the shots started to hit the wall. The wall was meant to keep criminals out, but it also kept the bullets in, thank God.

When he rolled over, he didn’t have a chance to check where he was falling, but he was able to tuck in all his limbs so at least he didn’t break anything. Though judging how hard he hit the dirt, he was going to guess his ribs had some bruises to show for the hassle.

“No time for beauty rest.” Hart helped him up. “Let’s get going.”

He felt his pockets to make sure the bag was there and groaned as he got back to vertical and fell into the SUV.

And then Hart was flooring it and he finally got a chance to catch his breath. There were a few tense moments of silence as Hart drove through the dark streets without any headlights as they put distance between them and Stranger’s guys.

“You got it?” asked Hart once they were far enough away to turn on his headlights.

“I got it.” Austin took off his now ruined jacket and took the velvet bag out of his pocket.

“Good. I was worried things didn’t go like planned when I heard the shots.”

“Not as planned...that’s one way to put it.” More like things had blown up right in his face.

“At least we have the necklace.” Hart reached behind him from the driver’s seat. “Let me see it.”

Austin opened the bag and his blood ran cold. “Son of a bitch...”