Life Rewired (Aspen Friends, Book 3) (30 page)

I shook my head and breathed out my anger. In prison, I’d learned to deflect feelings of anger before things got too unbearable. I’d do two hundred more sit-ups or pushups to get past it. Right now, I let the anger flow through me. It helped me feel less guilty that I was setting him up. We’d both gone to prison because someone else on our team turned on us. It didn’t feel good, but watching Molly’s reaction to her home being broken into felt a hell of a lot worse.

“Fine,” I agreed. “But I want Molly’s stuff back.”

“There’s the Shaw I remember. We’re gonna be rich in a town like this.”

“Molly’s things,” I insisted.

“Yeah, sure, whatever. It’s not worth anything anyway. Gotta say, Shaw, she’s a far cry from the last chick you were doing.”

“Shut up, Porter. We’re not going to be friends this time. You’re forcing me to do this. You don’t get to say anything about how I live. Got it?” I growled but should have hit him. I knew exactly what he was trying to say about Molly. He had no idea how beautiful Molly was. How good she was to me. No idea.

His hands came up but his expression was smug. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. Here’s my cell. Call me when you have an address. Oh, and bring the bracelet back.”

I scoffed at his cavalier tone. “Call it a recruitment bonus.” And exhibit A, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Not a chance. I need something to live on while I get everyone back together.”

“Pull another job.”

“Ooh, aren’t you the eager beaver.” His face showed amusement. “You have someplace in mind already?”

I pretended to consider. “I just worked a place that could be good.” Tessa’s house with the tricked-out media room. The buyers hadn’t moved in yet.

“The empty house?” He smirked and scoffed. “Right. I’m not an idiot.”

“They close escrow next Tuesday. That’ll be moving day, and from what the realtor says, the stuff always moves in before the homeowners.”

His eyes sparkled. “Sounds promising. Let me check the entry points, and I’ll get back to you.”

“Spotter only, remember? I’m telling you it’s a good job, and it’s the only one I’ll have for months.”

He jerked forward, not liking the sound of that. “What?”

I shrugged helplessly. “My boss has another massive project coming up. We won’t be going out on any small jobs like my old crew used to.”

“Shit. What’s wrong with her?” Like it was Natalie’s place to provide for his burglaries.

“I was trying to tell you that things won’t be the same here. It’s not too late to head back to Boulder and start up there again. You already know the right neighborhoods.”

“I’ll risk it. I can always double up on the other two. They’ll have replaced their shit by now.”

I held in the disgusted snort. Every time I thought about what I used to do, I felt the shame well up inside me. Seeing how it affected Molly made me sick to my stomach. What had I been thinking? That those rich assholes wouldn’t care about being ripped off? Monetarily? No. But they had been harmed. I couldn’t have been thinking of anyone other than myself.

Brock let me know he’d be in touch and sauntered away. I seethed at his back, dying to run up and tackle him or side swipe him with my bike. Since neither would happen, I reached into my pocket to stop the recording on my phone.

Spinning the bike in the direction of home, I was about to step onto the pedal when I saw Molly glaring over my shoulder before shifting her glower to me.

The scowl on Molly’s face wasn’t nearly as disheartening as the look of distrust. She stormed down the sidewalk, nearly knocking over a tipsy man who spilled out of the bar in front of her. When she reached me, her eyes bored into mine then flicked over my shoulder to watch Brock turn the corner out of sight.

“You said you were working.” Her voice was calm but steely.

“I said I couldn’t hang out tonight.” It was a trivial distinction but the truth, which was more important to Molly than anyone I’d ever dated. I would always respect that.

She swallowed hard, uncertainty clouding her gaze. “Who was that?”

“Molly,” I began, but her hand came up.

“That was him, wasn’t it? You described him pretty well.” She swiveled and marched four steps away, clenching and unclenching her hands to help relieve the strain I heard in her voice. “He didn’t leave then? Even after you told him to, even after he got back at you by breaking into my place!”

“Molly,” I rushed forward to grab her clenched fists. “Please.”

“I can’t believe this. I thought you were working tonight. Then I run into Tessa, and she tells me you’re out riding your bike. Now you’re talking to the guy who put you in prison?”

The burning ball of indigestion flared and grew in my stomach. This looked bad. I knew that, especially to a woman who already felt I’d withheld too much from her.

“What did he have to say?”

My lawyer’s voice screamed in my head to stay quiet until this thing was over. Brock could have ears on the street, or Molly could share her concern about my plan with Vivian and Dwight. They might tell someone else. I trusted Molly, but I knew she trusted Vivian and Dwight, too. I was so close to being done with this. I couldn’t risk the plan being found out before it went down.

I gave her what I could. “He’s going to give your stuff back.”

“My stuff?” She looked agonized. “I don’t care about my stuff, Falyn. I mean, I do, but…shit!” She twisted out of my grasp and stomped off some of her irritation. “I just, dammit, I only care about you.”

As good as it felt to have her decide I was the most important thing in this situation, her anguish did nothing to help the fiery ball in my stomach. I cared so much about her, enough that I couldn’t get her more involved in this jam of mine.

 She turned back and laid her hands on my shoulders. They tightened in urgency. “Didn’t your lawyer have something to say about dealing with him?”

I stepped up close to her, reaching to set my hands on her hips. I looked deep into her concerned eyes. “Yes, but I have to ask you…” No, I shouldn’t. Could I? She’d already given me too much. Far more than I deserved. The fiery ball spread up to my throat.

“What?” she prompted, coming closer when she realized I’d gotten choked up. I loved this about her. She didn’t like seeing me upset any more than I liked being upset. “Ask me what?”

“For your trust that I know what I’m doing. Please, Molly, just for a week. After that, I can tell you more. Just please, give me the benefit of the doubt again. Next week, I’ll be able to make more sense of this for you.”

She studied me for what felt like an hour. Her breathing was slow and audible. She wasn’t comfortable. She wanted answers. She wanted to know that I wasn’t going to do something stupid again. As my girlfriend, she had a right to know.

“Please be safe,” she whispered and leaned forward to press a soft kiss to my forehead.

As my girlfriend, she was giving me more than I’d ever dreamed I could have. Hope. Faith. Trust. Everything I needed, and right then, I knew I was falling for her.

When I opened my car door and saw the brown box, my stomach twisted. I hadn’t put the box there and my car door had been locked. Brock always could get into anything. My hands shook as I looked around my new driveway, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. I was still getting used to this guesthouse setup. The main house was about fifty feet away across an elegant patio. Its garage hid the guesthouse from the road. There was a home on each side but far enough away to make it feel as if this house stood alone. When had Brock managed to sneak up here, behind the main house garage on the extended driveway to my little house? He would have had to do some pretty interesting traversing to stay out of the author’s security camera angles.

Picking up the box, I slid onto the seat. I was afraid to open it. I was afraid to touch it, but I could always wipe fingerprints. I didn’t think this was a setup. Brock couldn’t know about what we had planned for him today. My fingers flipped open the flaps. A sigh escaped as I recognized Molly’s iPod. Good. He was keeping to his end of the bargain.

Or I thought he was. I found a note under the iPod.
Stop by the score tonight and you’ll get the rest.

The knot in my stomach twisted back the other way as if my insides were being run through a washer. He wanted me to show up when he broke into the bait house. So he wasn’t above suspecting me after all.

I pulled out my cell and called Yolanda. When she answered, another difference between her and my old defense attorney, she told me to stop by and drop off the box with Molly’s iPod. She would turn it over to the police as evidence. I called Natalie to let her know I would be late. As usual, she was completely supportive without requiring an explanation. It was probably why her crew had stayed with her and never complained.

“Where was this little gift?” Yolanda asked when I set the box down on her desk.

“He broke into my car and left it on the driver’s seat.”

“Enterprising.” She pulled out the note and read it. Her face barely registered an expression. She must be one hell of a poker player. “He wants you there why, you think?”

“Probably wants another chance to recruit me. Or if something goes wrong, it never hurts to have a cohort to make a deal for a lesser charge.”

She nodded, assessing. “Let me call the detective and see how he wants to play it. It’s likely they’ll want you to follow his instructions or Porter might back out entirely.”

I sat forward in the chair. Anxiety about seeing Brock and being in a situation that might stir up the old feelings of adrenalin washed over me. I knew from several books I’d read that I should avoid putting myself into a situation that could lead to the same bad habits. Like a recovering alcoholic should not go into a bar with his drinking buddies. It just makes it that much harder to break the bad cycle.

Yolanda watched my reaction. “If the police want you to follow through with this guy’s request, I’ll make sure the D.A. signs another immunity agreement.”

I hadn’t even thought of that. I was more worried about what seeing him right before a break-in would do to me. I knew I had no inclination left to commit burglaries anymore, but I didn’t even want a hint of the feelings that used to come over me prior to hitting a home.

“Sit tight at work until you hear from me. One way or another, this should be done tonight.”

I saw her determination and no longer cared that I’d spent almost two paychecks on her so far. She spoke frankly and quickly and didn’t bill for incidentals like copies or phone calls. My first attorney had charged all that and more, and he still couldn’t get me a better deal than the one I’d gotten.

When I got to Glory’s renovation, I was a little distracted. I missed a splice and forgot to add another switch in my old bedroom before I figured out that I had to get my head back into the job or volunteer to help the rest of the guys with their cabinet refinishing. That would be safer work for someone whose head was stuck on legal consequences.

Cole handed me the receptacle that we were adding. All summer, he’d been my best helper. Natalie rotated the rest of the guys onto electrical work with me so we’d all have experience, but Cole had the makings of an electrician. He’d even talked to me about the process for getting licensed after he retired from ski racing every winter.

“How much do you think someone pays for a place like this?” Cole asked as he unpacked the supplies to turn the house into a smart home. It would add a week to our electrical work here, but it would make it easier for Glory to control things in her rental from offsite.