Fall Into Place (Taking the Fall) (2 page)

I
hear
the alert go off on mine and Samuel’s phone. I’m driving, so I look up in the rearview mirror and see him checking it out. “What is it?”

“Looks like we got a skip pop up just outside Vegas.” He pauses for a second, and then I see his eyes go big. “Goddamn, the bounty is a million dollars.” He whistles and looks up to meet my eyes in the mirror.

“Don’t even think about it,” Mary says beside me. She’s holding my hand, and I feel her squeeze it a little tighter. She hates it when we go out picking up people who skip out on their bail, but it’s great money and we're good at it.

The three of us are about half an hour from Vegas, and this could be some damn good money. I’m a fucking great hacker considering my dad taught me everything he knows. I know I can find anyone anywhere, and Samuel can bring them in. We’ve both got the best training for this, and it was from our dads.

I look back up in the rearview mirror and lock eyes with Samuel. He nods at me, and I know where he’s at. We’ve been talking about this for a long time. We want to be smart about the bonds we go after, so we’ve been trying to take bigger paying jobs less often. A lot of deadbeat criminals who skip on bail aren’t worth the risk for the little it pays out, but with the two of us teaming up, we’ve got the skills to wait and go after the whales. This one that just came up is the whale we’ve been waiting for.

With this nest egg, Mary and I wouldn’t have to worry about setting up a home for ourselves and our babies. She’s been going to school to be a kindergarten teacher, even though she knows it doesn’t pay anything. It’s always been her dream to have lots of babies, and teach, and I’ve made it my mission in life to make even her tiniest of dreams come true. I want to give her everything, and if that means doing this, then it needs to happen.

I take a deep breath and start to say something, but Mary knows me all too well and lets go of my hand, looking out the window and ignoring me. “Just take me to the hotel. I’ll order room service until you get back.”

“Princess, listen to me,” I try, but she’s not having it. I reach out for her hand, and while she doesn’t pull away, she doesn’t squeeze it back. “This is the one we’ve been waiting for. This will set us both up for a long time. Don’t you want that house out in Springfield? I’ve seen that Pinterest board you made for it.”

She whips around and looks at me with big eyes. “That was a private board! You weren’t supposed to see that.”

Goddamn, she’s so adorable when she’s angry. “I’m a computer hacker, baby. There’s nothing on the internet that’s private. Back to my point though. I know you’ve been eyeing it. I know you want it, but you know we can’t afford it. This would buy that house outright and then some. I wanna take care of you, princess. Take care of
us
.”

Mary shakes her head and turns around to look at her twin. They have a silent conversation where they just stare at each other, and I keep driving, waiting for it to be over. They’ve done this since we were babies so I’m used to it. After a few moments pass, she turns back around and crosses her arms in a huff.

“There’s no changing your minds. I know your voice, and Samuel won’t be moved. But I just want to state for the record that I don’t want either of you doing this for me. It wrecks my nerves when the two of you go out on these things, and seeing as how you’re calling off our wedding to go do one, I can’t help but be a little pissed.”

“Nobody is calling off anything, Mary.” My voice is stern because I don’t like that she thinks we aren’t still getting married. “I’m going to do some research on this, but I’m sure Samuel and I can be in and out in an hour. Pick up the skip, take him back to the county jail, and be back before you’ve even gotten out of the tub.”

“Sounds like a chick from the name,” Samuel says from the back seat, not looking up from his phone. “I don’t have the whole file yet, but it’s on its way. From the bio it sounds like a cake job for a cool mil.”

“See? It’s all going to be fine. Samuel and I are going to go make some quick cash, and then you and I are gonna make this official.” I reach over, pulling her hand out from her crossed arms, and this time she holds mine back. After a second of me rubbing my thumb on the inside of her wrist, I feel her relax and squeeze me back.

We ride in silence as we make it to our hotel on the Strip. The three of us are used to rooming together, but this is our wedding night, so instead of adjoining rooms, Samuel got one across the hall from us. I sprang for the suite, wanting to treat Mary to a few luxuries, even if this was all last minute.

When we get upstairs and drop off our stuff, Mary goes to the master bedroom and closes the door. I know she’s not super happy with the two of us right now, but after this is over, I’ll have a lifetime as her husband to make it up to her. And who am I kidding? I know this won’t be the last time I mess up.

I pull out my laptop and download the file. “Let’s go over some of the details and see what we can find. From what the report says, I don’t think the skip has gone too far.” I scan the document and keep reading over the details, but something odd is standing out. I can’t seem to nail down what it is, and I keep looking, trying to pinpoint it.

I look over and see Sam pulling out his duffel bag and taking out a couple of handguns. He’s always packing heat, and I knew this trip would be no different. No matter where we go, I never have to worry about protection with him. I get up and walk to the window, look down on the Vegas Strip, and try to figure out what’s bugging me about this report.

“What’s wrong?” Samuel asks from behind me. We all know one another well enough to read body language. He can sense I’m churning something over in my mind just by the way I’m standing.

I turn around to face him and cock my head to the side. “That alert we got in the car?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Did you notice it only went to the two of us?”

He thinks for a second and then nods his head. “That’s not unusual. Sometimes the counties that know our reputation send to us directly instead of just a cattle call for bounty hunters. You know that.”

“I do, but this one didn’t come from a county. It came from an individual.” I go back to my computer and do a little more digging to find the trace for the request. “The alert was sent directly to us even though we’ve never worked with them. The request was generated elsewhere, but it looks like we were specifically requested. And I can’t seem to access who it was.”

“Maybe someone heard about us and wanted all this talent.” Samuel holds his arms out wide, showing off his big body. I roll my eyes. He’s an idiot. He’s GI Joe on steroids, and he’s always ready to go charging into a mission.

“I can’t seem to find anything that makes me think we shouldn’t do this one. It just seems a bit suspicious, that’s all.”

“So what’s this chick look like? All I saw was a name, and it sounded Russian. She’s probably some old grandma who’s still got spy ties in the motherland.” Samuel laughs at his own joke as he slides his handgun into his shoulder holster.

I turn the laptop around and sit back. “Samuel, meet Nika Kozar.”

S
amuel just stares
at the computer screen like he’s in shock. His mouth is hanging open, and he isn’t blinking.

“You know her or some shit?” I ask, trying to figure out where his head is at.

After a few seconds, he finally speaks. “She’s fucking beautiful.” He’s still in a trance as he looks at the screen, and I can’t think of a time I’ve ever seen him act like this.

I flip the screen back around to have another look, and he growls. I just ignore him and look at the girl. Yeah, she’s cute, but she’s got nothing on my Mary. Where my Mary is bright light, this girl seems a little dark. She looks like she might carry a knife in her boot. She has short, dark-brown hair, honey-colored eyes, and the fullest lips I’ve ever seen.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” Samuel barks, flipping the screen back around towards him.

I hold my hands up because I know that fucking look he has on his face. It’s the same one that was on my face the first year of college and Mary was surrounded by all those pricks who thought they could take her from me. I broke a few noses my freshman year, but those fucks stayed away from her after that.

I’ve never seen Samuel this bent out of shape over a chick before, but in all fairness, I haven’t seen him with many either. It’s not like we went out partying. Sam was on the road a lot and didn’t like getting tangled up with them. I’m glad I never had to worry about shit like that. I’ve always had my girl and never had to worry about anyone but her. Thank fuck.

“That’s it.” It finally hits me, making my snap my fingers. “Kozar. I know that fucking name.” I search my mind but it doesn’t seem to want to come to me. I feel like it’s on the tip of my tongue. “Can I have the computer back for a second, or you want to take it into the bathroom with you for a minute?”

“Fuck you,” he bites out, but turns his back to the computer. “Send me her pic. So I have it. You know.”

“Yeah…I know.” I want to give him shit, but it’s probably not the time. With the way he was looking at just her picture, I can already tell there’s going to be problems. Maybe this isn’t a mess we want to get into. The more I think about it, the more uneasy I get about the whole thing, and my dad always told me to go with my gut.

“You sure you wanna do this skip? You seem off,” I say, flipping the laptop back my way and digging into Nika Kozar. She was last seen in Vegas this morning at the Blue Diamond casino. Other than that, the file on her doesn’t give us much.

“Fuck yeah, I wanna do this. It’s already messed up because we’re the only ones to get the alert. Besides, what could a little thing like her have done to have a million dollars on her head? She looks like she couldn’t hurt a fly.”

Shit, this isn’t good. Because the picture of the girl I just saw looks like she can swing a good left hook if she wanted. Sam isn’t seeing clearly here, which is scary because he’s better at sizing people up than I am.

“All right.” I know he isn’t going to let this go so there’s no point fighting him. And it’s not as if I’d let him do this alone.

I search through the casino footage that tracks her out of the casino, and then switch over to traffic cams to follow her path. She’s good at keeping her head down, but if you want to stay hidden, Vegas isn’t the town for that. Eyes are everywhere, and there isn’t a camera I can’t get into here.

After some searching we catch a break when she finally darts into the Snake Eyes. My feed starts catching up to real time, and I see where she’s headed. “Gotcha.”

Sam rushes over to stand behind me, scanning the screen. “Where is she?” he asks. She’s off the video feed.

“She went into the bathroom.” I point, and both of us watch for her to come out.

She finally comes out about five minutes later, and I almost miss her. She has changed outfits, and I barely recognize her. Gone are the jeans, baggy shirt, and tennis shoes. Now she’s in a dress that leaves nothing to the imagination.

“Fucking hell,” Sam growls behind me, and he makes his way back over to the couch, strapping up to leave.

Mary comes out of the bedroom at the same time, looking fresh and warm from her bath. Her cheeks are extra rosy, and I rise from my chair, pulling her into my arms instantly.

“You’re going to marry me when I get back here. So get ready,” I tell her, holding her snug to me. Her body fits me perfectly, and there’s an ache in my chest as I think about having to leave her like this.

“Be careful,” she says, letting her body melt into mine.

“I promise,” I whisper against her lips before taking them in a deep kiss. I have to stop before we get too carried away, and I break the kiss, resting my forehead against hers.

“Next time I kiss you you’re going to be my wife.”

“I love the sound of that.”

“Me, too, princess.”

“Can we go?” Sam barks, breaking our little love fest. I want to smack him on the back of the head, but I’m going to give him this one.

“What’s his problem?” she whispers, looking over my shoulder at her brother, who I know is glaring at us.

“He just wants us to get this done so he can walk you down the aisle to me,” I lie, because I don’t want her to worry any more than she needs to.

“All right, get going, you two. I’m going to order everything on that room service menu while you’re gone, and I won’t save you anything.”

“The only thing I want to eat is your pussy.”

“Anthony, my brother is right there!” She playfully smacks me as I put her back on her feet.

Grabbing my laptop, I pack up anything I might need, transferring the feed I have on Nika over to my phone.

“She just took up residence at a bar,” I tell Sam as I put the rest of my shit into my backpack. Picking my phone back up, I watch her as we walk out of the room. “It looks to me like she’s looking for an easy score.”