The Cocky Thief (Stolen Hearts #1)(48)

“Fine. Come on.” He stepped inside and even though she knew that she had called him in, she still inched away as he approached.

He seemed annoyed at the added inconvenience, but it only took a fraction of a second for him to reach her and, with a hard grip on her upper arm, he pulled her up.

The pressure on her shoulder was painful, but Melody made sure to let out a moan with a little extra oompf.

“What?” he snapped.

“My arm. The floor is shockingly not the best place to sleep.” She needed him to at least cut the ties around her feet, but the first rule of working a con was to not ask for anything up front. That was too suspicious. She needed to make Blondie think it was his idea to cut her loose.

He started to pull her forward and she gave one undignified hop before she crashed into him, “accidentally” shoving her elbow right into his kidney, scoring her an annoyed grunt from him.

“I’m so sorry,” she said hastily. “I’m having a hard time... The room is spinning. It won’t happen again,” she lied.

He tightened his lips but once again they started toward the door. This time when she fell, she made a show of falling away from Blondie, instead slamming her other shoulder into the door before Blondie could pull her back to his side.

“Seriously?” he asked.

“It won’t happen again! I swear.”

He sighed and once again took her arm and started to half drag her down the hall to where she knew the dirty bathroom was. Her little act wasn’t going to work. He wasn’t going to cut her loose. But there was one other option. When she’d fallen against him, she’d taken the chance to feel what exactly was filling up those utility pockets.

Right as they were almost to the bathroom, she fell once more, this time fully body-slamming Blondie so they both fell into the wall.

“Oh my God!” she said loudly as they fell forward. Right after her bound hand slipped into his side pocket and picked out something small and metal, she made sure as much of her body was touching his as possible. If there were so many contact points, he wouldn’t know what to focus on and, hopefully, wouldn’t realize she just made a lift.

Except when her hips pressed against his, there was a noticeable bulge that was definitely not a gun.

She immediately jerked away and averted her gaze to the floor. Shit, that wasn’t supposed to—

His hand was back on her arm as he practically shoved her into the bathroom. “You have thirty seconds.” Then the door was slammed shut and she was left dumbstruck.

He had a hard-on for her but was distinctly not threatening her, at least not sexually. Which was surprising considering he had no problem threatening her every other way.

But she didn’t have time to focus on it now. Thirty seconds wasn’t a lot of time with the knife she’d gotten. The small blade was barely two inches long, but at least it appeared sharp.

She couldn’t angle the knife right to work at her wrists, but she was able to sit down and get a good rhythm at the ties on her ankles. Right as she heard footsteps approaching, she was able to finally get through the thick plastic of the zip tie and she heard the satisfying crack as it finally gave way. Before she could even think about how to get her wrists, the doorknob started to turn.

Melody scrambled up and gripped the tiny knife in her hand. No matter what came through that door, she was going to have to make her move now.

But she’d rather die trying to survive than doing anything they wanted. This would be a good way to go. This would make her family proud. This would make her proud.

She took one deep breath. When the door was open far enough, she ran through, the knife aimed right at the man who’d opened the door. Except it wasn’t Blondie. It was the bald one. His eyes widened in shock as he fell back. She knew the two-inch blade wouldn’t slow him down long and she needed all the help she could get. As he started to get up, she kicked him fiercely in the crotch. Once he fell, she kicked him again, aiming right for the windpipe, leaving him gasping for air as she took off running.

Fair fighting had never been her style anyway.





“Are you ready for the call?” asked Scott as he tried to see what Toni was doing with all those computers.

“It’s eight fifty-five and the call is at nine. What do you think?” she snapped.

Scott reached up for the small button on the outside edge of his comm to mute it. “I think that a yes or no would be fine.”

Her fingers were moving so rapidly over the keyboard until the screens suddenly lit up with various sized boxes, all showing different sections of the building. “I’m more than ready for the call,” she said. “This is what I was trying to get done.”

“You hacked into the security feed?”

She rolled her eyes. “No. I could’ve hacked into that joke in five seconds. I just piggybacked off their Wi-Fi signal to get the camera feed sent to us in an undetectable way so they’ll never even know they were hacked.”

“You’re modest. I like that about you.”

She turned around in her chair to glare at him. Scott had a feeling his sarcasm had hit a nerve.

“I’m not here to be friends with anyone.”

“I noticed.”

“I’m just here to get my sister and get out.”

“What the fuck do you think I’m doing?”