I held up my beer, taking a drink before tapping it back on the counter. “The booze? I’m trying to take it easy these days. At least easier than before. The sin I’ve already had enough of. And damn if the men don’t just lead to more trouble.”
“Now that I don’t believe. You telling me you just spent the past two months touring the country, and you weren’t spending your evenings buried inside some hot stranger?”
I scoffed, thinking back to the long months on the road. Sure, I had thought about hooking up, maybe making my way to a gay bar or downloading one of those apps. But that wasn’t what the trip was about. The trip was about clearing my head, getting some distance from my past, and figuring out what the hell I was trying to do with my life.
“I swear to god,” I said. “I didn’t so much as get a handjob at a rest stop.”
“Then I guess I’m not going to tempt you to stay with stories of hot Vegas men and mysterious international gamblers.”
I chuckled. “I might take you up on a few games of poker tonight, but I’m going to start heading back in the morning. I’ve been gone from home long enough, and I’m still trying to keep my head down.”
Declan frowned when I said it, rubbing his thumb across his jawline.
“What?” I asked. “You look frustrated.”
He shook his head. “I just don’t love hearing you say that about keeping your head down. Don’t get me wrong, Maddox. I’m glad you were able to get out of the game, and I think you’re smart for taking care of yourself. But I have to admit, I was hoping to get your help with something.”
Immediately, my mind flashed back to the last job I’d done with Declan, which was also the last job I’d done, period. It was years ago, when we were still fucking like rabbits. The job was pretty straightforward, just intercepting some dirty money in an empty office, dodging some guards, and making out like bandits on the other side. We had pulled it off without a hitch, too, thanks to my connections and insider knowledge. But still, it had taken Declan months to convince me to go ahead with the plan.
After all, even when your family disowned you, it could still feel pretty screwed up to rob them.
“The job we ran on my family was the last job I’m running,” I said, matter of fact. “Ever.”
“That’s what you told me then,” Declan answered, his voice rumbling low. “But that was a different life, Maddox. It doesn’t have to be the same answer now.”
I wondered for a minute if that was the reason he insisted I come visit Vegas in the first place. When Declan had a plan in mind, he could rarely think about anything else. And from the way he was rubbing his jaw and staring me up and down, I knew his wheels were spinning with a doozy of a job.
That’s how I always got myself in trouble, though. The second some sexy man with a bad idea came knocking on my door, I couldn’t help but at least hear what he had to say.
“I’m going to say no,” I told him. “But fuck it. Give me the details anyway.”
Declan grinned. “Just hear me out, Maddox,” he said. “It’s going to sound like a lot at first.”
“Get on with it.”
“Ten years ago, we made more money holding up your family than either of us ever pulled in before. And the wildest thing was—it worked like a charm.”
“I remember,” I said, drinking from my beer and not liking where he was going.
“The other day, I went and took a look at the Seattle news. It’s something I do every now and then, just to think about old times. And staring right back at me is an article about how big your family’s empire has grown in that city. They got their fingers in everything from real estate developments to municipal garbage.”
“Like a real bunch of crooks,” I agreed.
“And then I thought to myself, what’s to stop us from running that same game on them one more time?”
“Are you talking about robbing my Uncle Elmar again?” I let out a puff of air. “Buddy, you weren’t kidding when you said it was a hard sell. I’m not sticking my head out and risking jail time, but even more than that, I’m not so much as going in the same room as my family.” I whistled to myself. “No fucking way,” I repeated.
“Think about it, though,” he said, pushing back from the counter. “You said a million times—they never change up the way they run things, so the old plan should still work. Considering how dirty their money is, they couldn’t report it stolen anyway, and they have way more cash for the taking now than they used to. Plus, everyone knows you quit the game and I moved away. No one would suspect us, not even for a second.”
I hated it, but the idea sounded good. It sent a little thrill crawling up my spine, and my cock twitched awake just sitting there. I wanted to say yes to Declan. I wanted to jump back on my bike and head straight to Seattle to chase that high one more time, and I wanted stacks of money to prove that I still had it in me.
I wanted to feel alive.
But I wouldn’t do that to myself. I’d learned my lessons, and I wasn’t going to forget them. I was finally happy, and I wouldn’t trade that happiness for anything. Not the high of the chase and not a fat payday, either.
“Declan,” I said, “how many times are you going to make me disappoint you?”
“Shit,” he answered. “That quick? You aren’t even going to think it over?”
I reached out, grabbing his shoulder and squeezing. “Sorry, buddy,” I said. “My time has passed, and nothing’s going to change that.”
He shook his head. “I knew you’d say that. I didn’t admit it to myself, but I knew.” He finished off his beer, turning to toss it into a plastic trashcan by the fridge with a flick of his wrist. “Now come on,” he said, rising to his feet.
“Where are we going?”
“Even if you really are driving back to Seattle in the morning, there’s still a hell of a lot of mischief we can get up to in Vegas tonight.”
