The Gambit (35 page)

“I know, I know. It’s gone.”

I stepped back to get a better look at him.

“This is the real deal. Look at you, with a tie-clip and everything. Genuine stud!”

He was turning red. “Grey, you better watch out. Briana might come on to you as handsome as you look all dressed up.”

I heard Briana huff. She made a duckface with quirked eyebrows and her hand on her hip. “He look good,” she began in a dramatic tone, “but he
still
a white boy.”

Grey rolled his eyes at all of us analyzing his looks.

“I’ll take him if you don’t,” I went over and put my arm around him. “You’re crazy,” Grey said. Rachel began outright laughing.

Briana pursed her lips and shook her head with a drawn-out sigh.

“White people,” she muttered and turned back to face Vinny and Luke.

I turned to face Grey. “So why did you get rid of the beard, man?”

“I had to for the picture Briana put on our licenses. We stopped by her friend’s house. Plus, I need to look clean-cut for what I’m going to do tomorrow at the airport.”

I nodded. “Which is?”

“I told you, man. I don’t want to jinx it.”

“I never remember you being superstitious.”

“It’s just not worth risking,” he said.

“Did you say licenses a second ago? What do you mean?”

Briana must have heard me because she whipped back around and pulled out two New York State driver’s licenses. “We aren’t Briana and Grey anymore…” She handed them both to Rachel. “Say hello to Rose and Gregory Johansen!”

Luke almost spit out his beer.

“No fucking way,” Vinny croaked. “You made yourself married? Because there isn’t a chance in Hell you two are brother and sister.”

We all laughed at his statement, a lot. Grey just stared at his feet.

“It’s 2016,” she said. “Interracial is all the rage nowadays.”

We continued laughing hard.

Rachel shot her a sidelong glance. “Am I reading this right? The city is Westhampton.”

“You read it right,” Briana affirmed. “Greg here is the heir to a Swedish entrepreneur, and he came to America as a child, and now that his father passed, he has invested money out west in renewable energy. He is a multimillionaire, and
I
am his beloved wife he met at an outing in New York City.” She walked over and tucked her arm beneath his. He couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Gregory,” I chuckled. I couldn’t get over Briana’s creativity. When Rachel handed me their driver’s licenses I was incredibly impressed. Her talent was nothing to scoff at. I was curious to see how my Swedish passport had turned out, but Briana wouldn’t let me see it. She said the chemicals used underneath the laminate were photosensitive, and she didn’t want to risk them spoiling before they had dried.

“What about the credit card?” I asked.

“Taken care of,” Grey answered. “Loaded thirty-five thousand onto a prepaid Amex card. They won’t take a second glance at it.”

“Nice,” I said.

“Oh,” Briana began. “Here are your prepaid phones we got today.” She threw the simple flip-phone in my lap and did the same to Rachel, Vinny, and Luke. “I already turned them on and put each other’s numbers in there. That way there is no confusion. They all have minutes, except Owen’s.”

“What? Why?”

“Because you won’t be able to call us from Russia, Bozo.”

I nodded in understanding.

“I added all of our numbers to the contacts though, Owen. It’s an international flight, I would think there are phones behind every seat.”

“Good point.”

“So,” Rachel said. “When do we leave?”

We rode in a black Tahoe and had made it onto I-95 South. We were only a few exits shy of Downtown Miami. The skyline was growing larger as we neared it. Vinny and Luke were in the front seats, Briana and Grey in the row behind them, and Rachel and me in the back. We took the exit for Biscayne Boulevard and US-1. Traffic was thick. Rush hour was approaching. A taxi laid on his horn and didn’t let up. The sound blared for fifteen seconds, and the car in front of him honked back and stuck his middle finger out the window. I glanced out of Rachel’s window and saw a red Lamborghini beside us. I imagined my face looked like a child’s would on his first vacation to a new city. Rachel noticed and let out a chuckle.

“Welcome to Miami,” Rachel said.

“The city of heat,” Vinny added from the driver’s seat. “Makes our tempers hot, too. Can you tell?”

“Just a little,” I answered sarcastically.

On US-1 South, the bay was beside us. Rachel told me it was Biscayne Bay. Palm trees lined the median in the road, and I couldn’t go a minute without hearing a horn being honked. This was the definition of hectic. Ahead on our left I saw a massive bridge.

“It’s the MacArthur Causeway. That’s how we are going to get to Miami Beach.”

“Miami Beach is on an island?” I asked.

“Yes, the whole thing is a barrier island. The home of the famous South Beach.”

Within minutes, we were going over it and Biscayne Bay was below us. In the rearview I saw the skyline of Downtown Miami getting smaller. Ahead, the buildings weren’t as tall, but the design was different. More whites and pastels—it had a tropical flare to it. The roads in Miami Beach were narrower, and I saw a sign for Collins Avenue. We turned onto it and I saw many boutique hotels, all in Art Deco architecture.

“Our hotel is a half-mile on the right,” Luke said. “Rachel and Owen, are you ready? They will have valet, so make sure your disguises are okay.”

The moment he said that Rachel began whipping her hair up into a tight bun and put a Miami Dolphins ball-cap on. She pulled out makeup, and I watched her draw on a fake mole where Marilyn Monroe had one. I used the black, blank screen of my flip-phone to see my reflection. My blond goatee was in place and my eyebrows and hair were bleach-blond. I was ready to go.

We pulled up in the registration and came to a stop. I could already see the bellman standing nearby, ready to approach us. I hadn’t been out in public in days—I was nervous.

“You ready?” I whispered to Rachel.

“We got this.”

Briana opened her door and Grey his. Rachel and I followed him out and were immediately enveloped in the muggy Florida warmth.

“Welcome to the Setai,” the bellman greeted us in a Bahamian accent.

I nodded. I didn’t say anything back. There were hundreds of cars in the road behind us, and dozens of people were walking in and out of the hotel. I was in awe of its design. The main building looked like it was straight out of the ancient Aztec. There was a large tower behind it. It had to be close to fifty floors. Vinny handed the valet attendant his keys and Briana strode towards the hotel entrance without hesitation, with Grey by her side. We lingered a good distance behind them. We had planned that because we weren’t dressed at the same caliber as
Rose
and
Gregory
were. I almost laughed out loud thinking about their aliases and how they were married.

With a deep breath, I went through the revolving door and entered the lobby. The refreshingly cool air hit me, and my eyes were overwhelmed. I glanced around, not knowing what to look at first. There were palm trees in clusters of four that jutted out from the black granite marble floors. There were stained wooden beams that went all the way to the ceiling high above. Low to the ground contemporary sectionals formed squares for sitting areas. It was nothing short of luxurious.

Briana was already at the registration with Grey by her side. She wasn’t waiting on us, she knew the drill. This was her expertise, and she was filling the role just as an actress would. She faked her documents, so she tried to fill the shoes accordingly. I saw a hallway with a sign for the elevators. Not knowing what to do while we waited, I walked over to them. The hallway was extremely long, and I realized we were walking into the tower with the majority of the guestrooms. I had sunglasses on, but as I stared at all the faces, I was just waiting for the moment when someone paused to take a second glance at me.

I wasn’t just a criminal. I was a criminal who had been on every major news network, newspaper, and magazine. That fact made me feel so exposed. My breath started to shudder, and I tried to relax myself. Rachel’s brow creased when she reached me by the elevator and noticed my distressed state.

“Chill out, Clyde,” she muttered with a smug smile tugging at her lips.

“Oh, do we have aliases now?” I chuckled.

“It just adds to the excitement, don’t you think?”

I returned her mischievous glare. “You might be right,
Bonnie
.” I winked.

The elevator opened and a group of people walked out of it. There was an older couple beside us, and they were glancing over at us peculiarly when we didn’t step in.

“You go ahead,” the elderly lady offered with an open hand.

I couldn’t even open my mouth. I tried, but nothing happened.

“We are waiting on the rest of our family. Thank you, though.”

Rachel stopped the elevator door from closing and held it open with her arm.

“Thank you, ma’am,” said the older man’s crackled voice.

Once they were in and the elevator closed, she shook her head at me with pursed lips. “Are you really that afraid of someone noticing you?”

I glared at her in bewilderment. “Bonnie, really? Not so loud. Okay? You never know who might be listening.”

“Look at you,” she wrapped her arm around my waist. “You’re trembling. You look nothing like your old self. Relax.”

“I was still blond when you recognized me. If you could do it, so can anyone else.”

She bit her lower lip and stayed quiet. My eyes began to wander. I scanned the high ceilings and the walls by the elevator—cameras.

There were
cameras
filming us. I immediately turned my head to the ground.

“What?” Rachel asked, alarmed from my sudden movement.

“Cameras,” I said. “Don’t look up.”

She followed suit and kept her eyes towards the elevator doors. I heard a set of heels hitting the marble. Briana and Grey approached us, with Vinny and Luke trailing.

“Success,” she said, and held up the black keycard.

We gathered into the elevator and Briana pressed the button for the 40
th
floor. The elevator didn’t budge.

“It says put your key in to access the penthouse,” Grey spoke up.

She slid in our room key and we pressed the button again. The elevator smoothly accelerated upwards and extremely quickly. A lot quicker than what I was used to back home in my apartment. When the doors opened, my jaw dropped.

It was gigantic. There were no other words that sufficed. The living room was easily the size of an office space, there was a full kitchen with stainless-steel appliances, and the countertops were the same black granite used on the floor of the lobby.

Gasps from Briana and Rachel filled the air. Luke and Vinny ran to the glass door that led to the terrace, but I wanted to see the rest of the suite. Rachel and I went through, room by room, and I was keeping count. There were four bedrooms total, each with their own bathroom. I knew when we had reached the master bedroom because the bathroom was the size of its own room. It had two Jacuzzi tubs, and the shower appeared to have holes coming from the ceiling.