“Lucky for you, I’ve heard there’s a job tonight. Youcan get out of here soon enough.”
Only my dad would be so excited about a job for me.The fact that it would be highly illegal and dangerous didn’t bother him at all,even though I doubted he knew any of the details. He didn’t have my clearancelevel—something that equally made him proud and drove him crazy. I strained myneck and tilted it to the side, cracking the bones and releasing some stress.
“I haven’t heard anything,” I argued. And I hadn’t. Wewere supposed to be celebratingDymetrus’sbirthday.The whole gang was here. A girl was supposed to jump out of a cake later and Ihad been curious about the finer details of that for a week. Was it a realcake? Or a plastic one like what you’d see on TV? Would she be covered infrosting? Would she be only covered in frosting? Because gross.
I wasn’t usually invited to shindigs. The little partsFrankie and I played were usually purposefully overlooked. I was paying achildhood debt, and Frankie got to do whatever Frankie wanted. We reported toSayer and Atticus and nobody else. They told us what to do, and we did it. Thatwas it. That was our part. They paid us enough to keep us from wanting to takea piece for ourselves. We were Sixes; we were thebratok, soldiers with a specificpurpose. But tonight, we got a piece of the cake.
Only I wasn’t going to eat any of it if a woman jumpedout of it.
“Here comes the kid. He’ll tell you.” My dad’sattention moved to a cluster of young guys walking toward us. They moved throughthe crowd as one unit, the other, older guys stepping back, out of their way.Sayer was at the front, Gus and Atticus behind him like the wings of a fighterjet.
It was ridiculous how much respect they commanded, howmuch influence they had. Gus and Sayer weren’t even out of high school yet.Atticus was an asshole. But they’d somehow built this untouchable reputationwithout being killers, without dealing in women, drugs or weapons.
Money talked. And Sayer brought in a lot of money.
He caught my eye from across the decorated backyard,jerking his chin in a command for me to follow him. I thought about lookingaway and pretending I didn’t see him. I could probably pull it off. I wasn’talways looking at Sayer. I looked at other things.
Sometimes.
“That’s your cue, kiddo.” My dad nudged me with hiselbow.
Letting out an agitated sigh, I looked at my dad.“Aren’t you supposed to protect me from this kind of stuff?”
He let out a bark of laugh. “Protect you? Honey, I’mproud of you.” And then his eyes truly teared up. The bastard. “Who would’vethought my daughter would be able to do what you do? I knew taking you on allthose jobs when you were young would pay off. I saw the potential in you fromday one. Now look at you. Think of your future, Caro. Don’t say I never didnothing for you. Cause you keep this up and you won’tgottaworry about nothing, baby. You’ll be set for life.”
Yeah, right. Life in prison maybe. “Do you know howscrewed up that is, Dad?” I asked calmly.
His smile stretched. “I think you meant to say thankyou.”
“Unbelievable.” I turned around, knowing better thanto keep Sayer and Atticus waiting. “I’ll see you later.”
“Probably not going to be home tonight though,” hecalled after me, and I decided it was better if I didn’t know why.
I slipped into the crowd the same way Frankie had,silently, stealthily, smoothly, clocking pockets and purses as I went. Forbeing criminals, these people had no idea how to keep track of their crap.There was so much to take—so much there to be stolen.
They assumed they were safe here, surrounded by theirbrothers and their weapons. But these were the moments we waited for. The gamehad begun.
My fingers were light as feathers. A roll of cashpeeking out of the side pocket of trousers, a money clip just barely visible ina back pocket, by the time I’d reached the other side of the party, I had threehundred bucks. I divided the money and slipped it into the cups of my bra. Theextra padding wouldn’t hurt either.
Sayer raised his eyebrows as I approached, havingcaught the tail end of my heist. I shrugged one shoulder and silently dared himto bring it up.
“That’s a dangerous game, Six.”
I looked away. “No more so than the job tonight.”
“You don’t know what the job is yet.”
“Is it legal?”
His lips twitched. “You have a death wish, is thatit?”
We were standing under a tree that had twinkly lightswrapped around each of its branches heavy with the green leaves of summer.There was a band playing some kind of polka music near the house. Women wereflirting, and men were laughing. The warm breeze smelled like expensive perfumeand July moonlight.
Sayer had dressed up for the night, in a whitecollared short-sleeve shirt and black shorts. His hair had been styled withactual product and pushed back from his face, tamed into staying in place. Hewas dangerous. And beautiful. And he was going to ask me to do something that Ididn’t want to do.
After I said yes, I would blame the magic of the nightand the three hundred bucks hidden inside my bra.
But Sayer had a kind of magic all his own. He steppedcloser to me, trailing his finger over my bare shoulder. Dad had said I neededto dress up, that this was a big deal. So Frankie had let me borrow one of herdesigner things. A strapless emerald green dress that was too short and tootight and too pretty for me—the degenerate daughter of a bookie.
