I laughed despite myself, the sound rough and breathless. The tension cracked like ice breaking.
Parker grinned. “Alright, fun’s over. Let’s get out of here.”
We slipped from behind the dumpster and cut through the narrow alley we’d found ourselves in. The smell of turpentine mixed with something floral—perfume? No, maybe I was smelling fertilizer again.
Parker led, crouching down, checking corners. I made another mental note to ask him how he was so good at this.
The criminal life was definitely not for me.
We were halfway across the grass when a spotlight flared behind us.
“Freeze!”
Spoiler alert, we didn’t.
We ran.
My thighs screamed. Jace cursed every god he knew.
“That’s the fence!” I gasped, spotting the glint of metal ahead.
We were almost there when the worst possible thing happened…Jace tripped.
Not a stumble. A full-body, limbs-everywhere wipeout.
He went down hard, face-first into the grass with a noise that sounded like a dying walrus.
“Go without me!” he groaned dramatically. “Save yourselves!”
“Get up!” I hissed, yanking his arm.
He popped up, grass in his hair, and sprinted again. “All part of the plan!”
We hit the fence. Parker was already halfway over. I shoved the ledger under my hoodie, climbed, and nearly slipped when my sweat-slick palms hit the cold metal.
A flashlight beam swept across us. “I said to stop!” a guard yelled.
“Not today!” Jace yelled, vaulting over.
We dropped down on the other side and hit the ground running again.
The asphalt chewed at my shoes, the cold air burning in my chest. Freedom wasn’t clean it turns out; it was sweaty and filled with a shaky kind of relief where you were proud you hadn’t pissed yourself.
Behind us, the alarm still howled. Ahead, the dark stretch of road promised nothing but silence.
We didn’t stop until we reached the car.
I collapsed against the hood, chest heaving. Parker bent over, hands braced on his knees, gasping. Jace sprawled flat on the pavement, arms and legs splayed like a crime-scene outline.
“Well,” he said between ragged breaths, “that went perfectly.”
“Perfectly?” Parker wheezed. “You tripped, lost a shoe, and almost got us caught.”
Jace straightened, still gasping, and flashed a grin. “Yeah, but I stuck the landing—and that’s what people will remember.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” I said as I slid down next to him, clutching the ledger. My hands still shook, but a laugh broke out anyway—wild and breathless and uncontrollable. Within seconds, Parker cracked, too, shaking his head. Jace followed, the three of us laughing like lunatics in thedark. The kind of laughter that only came when you realized you’d somehow pulled off something impossible.
Finally, Parker wiped his face, still grinning. “We need to go.Now.”
