Chapter1
Jake Parsons rolled in to Belmont as he did every other town. Each little southern town he and his gang visited were exactly the same. They were all full of churches. Each had a diner and a mechanic. Usually there was some form of a town square and each had tree-lined streets that were as beautiful as they were superfluous. Most importantly, though, each town had at least one poorly guarded bank.
For the past year, he and six of his foster brothers had traveled the American South, robbing banks in small towns just like this one. They had been in so many that each town blended in to the next. He couldn't tell you which had been in Virginia, Kentucky, or West Virginia, but he could tell you the layout of the bank and he could tell you everything one person could possibly know about the streets that surrounded it.
The trick to their business was to stick to small towns. None of them had a police force big enough to mount any kind of chase. As long as their heist and get-away were well planned, they were as good as gold. The one rule was that they could never look back. They needed no connections to the towns so that nobody could link them.
The kiss of death would be if someone grew suspicious of the strange group of men in town and remembered any details that could help authorities find them. That was where Jake came in. With his blond hair and blue eyes, he was the most innocent looking of the crew. All of his tattoos could easily be covered by a short sleeve shirt. He had a lean, muscular body, but he was of average height. In short, he was the one who had the easiest time blending so that was what he did. He went to the town a week before the crew was set to arrive and scouted out the place.
That, consequently, was what he was doing in Belmont. It was the next mark on their list. They chose very strategically, throwing a dart at a map of the next state on their list. They never hit twice in a row in the same state. They didn't even like to do back to back jobs in bordering states if it could be helped. Since none of them had any ties, they were mobile. There wasn't anything stopping them from jumping on their bikes and riding until they ran out of road. Their willingness to run was stronger than anyone’s will to chase them and it served them all well.
They had all bounced around from foster home to foster home before landing in Ms. Becky’s house. She was a kind old lady who had cared deeply for all the boys in her care. Her home was small but it was welcoming and it had been the first place that any of them had really felt at home. It was when Ms. Becky needed money that they committed their first theft. They had all been in their late teens then. They were old enough to see that the old woman was struggling to support them all and when the roof began to leak, they feared that she wouldn't be able to keep them all.
They worried that the makeshift family they had grown to love would be torn apart. That night, they had gone out together, smashed the window of an electronics store and emptied the cash register. They grabbed enough gear on the way out that they could sell to make up the rest of the cost of a new roof. They put the money in her mailbox with a note that thanked her for the work she did for foster children and signed it from an anonymous donor.
None of them had ever regretted what they had done, but they spent the weeks and months that followed waiting for the police to knock on the door. They were all sure that they would be caught. When that knock never came, they grew bolder, even proud of what they had done. It was then that they had sworn an oath that they would do whatever it took to stay together and to care for one another and he had never felt safer in his entire life.
As they each reached the age of 18 and were too old for foster care, they rented a house near Ms. Becky. She often had them over for dinner, calling them her boys. It wasn't until the last of them turned 18 that she gave up her foster care license, declaring herself too old to keep rambunctious boys in line. Still, she treated them all like her own and it was still to her house that they went when they needed to feel at home.
It was thoughts of going home that filled Jake’s mind as he walked the streets of Belmont. On his first day in any town, he didn't do serious scouting. He did what any young man would do on moving to a new town. He simply explored, trying to get a feel for the town. Jake had only been in the town a half an hour before he stumbled upon the bank. It was right in the heart of the town, sitting on a well-kept town square.
Most would have seen that as an obstacle, but Jake’s trained eye could see a side entrance that let out to an alley at the building’s rear. Their escape plan was already beginning to form in his mind and he was confident that it would only take him another few days to have all that he needed to make their plan a successful one.
He was so lost in his strategizing that he didn't hear the sound of soft foot prints approaching behind him. It wasn't until he heard someone clear their throat behind him that he knew he wasn't alone. He turned around to see the loveliest girl he had ever seen.
With her dark skin and jet black hair, she was striking. She was a good foot shorter than him, but she looked up at him with almond colored eyes with such life in them that they made her seem larger than life. She wore a red dress and a matching flower in her hair. In all his day, in all of the towns he had passed through, he couldn't remember a more alluring vision than she presented standing in the middle of that street.
“If you're looking for the festival stage, you're heading the wrong direction,” she offered, a playful suspicion in her eyes as she looked at the stranger before her.
The desire he felt as he stood there staring at her made it difficult for him to answer her quickly. He knew that he needed to get into character, to tell her the carefully crafted lies that he used any time he was forced to speak to the citizens of one of the towns he checked out. He just couldn't bring himself to say the words to her. Somehow it felt wrong. Still, he knew what he needed to do. For his safety and the safety of his brothers, he needed to tell her what she needed to hear to move along without thinking twice about him.
“Just looking at your town's lovely historic buildings,” he said, the words burning like acid in his mouth. Still, he forced himself to smile at her as he spoke.
“That building is a bank and it was built 5 years ago. It isn't what anyone would call historic,” she said, unable to keep from laughing as she spoke.
Her eyes were so bright and merry that he couldn't help but smile at her, though he knew that he should not. He would cut off the conversation and walk away before she had time to remember anything specific about him, but he couldn't.
He so rarely allowed himself to deviate from the plan, but he couldn't help it. In that moment, he allowed himself the simple joy of conversing with her. After all, how much of a problem could one pretty girl cause him?
“Really? Is it so charming that I just assumed it must be older,” he answered, giving her his most charming smile.
“Nope, five years,” unfazed by his efforts to charm her.
“How do you know exactly when it was built?” he asked, leaning against the lamppost next to him.
“This is a small town. You're not from around here, are you?” she said with a smirk, folding her arms across her chest in amusement.
“No miss, I'm not,” he said, knowing that they were entering dangerous territory.
The last thing that he should be doing was letting this girl mark him in her thoughts as a stranger snooping around the town. He told himself that he needed to walk away from her, but yet all he really wanted to do was reach out and take her hand. It was a strange impulse. He had lost the need to have anyone else in his life long ago. His brothers were all he needed, yet something about this girl called to him.
“I thought not. New faces tend to stick out in towns like this. Enjoy your visit here,” she said, nodding welcomingly to him before turning and walking away from him.
“Well thank you for the information miss,” he called after her.
“You're quite welcome,” she called over her shoulder.
Then, he watched her prance away. He could hear her singing to herself. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. The sway of her hips and the sweet sound of her voice froze him in place. It was as if she had put him in a trance. Once she had moved out of sight, he told himself to get back to the business at hand. He couldn't though. There was something about her that drew him. Instinctively, he started off in the direction she had gone. He was good at moving about unseen and he did his best to ensure that she didn't realize he was there. Still, he needed to see where she was going. He needed to know something more about her. After all, he didn't even know her name.
He followed her for a few blocks, sure that she didn't realize he was there. She moved through the town as if she owned it. Everyone she passed greeted her with a smile and a warm word. She had an ease about her that seemed to put all those around her at ease as well. Joy followed her through the busy streets as the festival celebration carried on around her. As she went the crowds grew larger and larger. It gave him enough cover to get closer than he normally would have.
He was shocked when he saw her move through the crowd around the festival stage and then disappear behind it. When he couldn't pick her out in the crowd, he was shocked by the sense of loss that he felt at her absence. It wasn't until she reemerged on the stage that he was able to relax.
When she approached the microphone, the entire crowd hushed. Though he didn't know what to expect, they all seemed to know exactly what was going to happen. The sun was just beginning to set and all of the street lights were coming on. Strings of white Christmas lights had been hung behind the stage to form a backdrop that twinkled like stars behind her.
Every eye was on her. It gave him a certain amount of freedom to watch her without being obvious. The band behind her began to play, low at first as she reached up her hand and curved it around the silver microphone before her. She commanded the stage and the audience before she sang a single note. Her face lit up as her lips parted and the first tones of the song began.
When she began, everything else around them faded. All that was left in the entire world was her. She began with a Billie Holiday song that his foster mother had listened to often, “You’d be so Easy to Love.” The words hung on the air as though she meant them just for him:
I know too well that I'm Just wasting precious time In thinking such a thing could be That you could ever care for me
I'm sure you hate to hear That I adore you, dear But grant me just the same I'm not entirely to blame for love
You'd be so easy to love So easy to idolize all others above So worth the yearning for So swell to keep every home fire burning for
We'd be so grand at the game So carefree together that it does seem a shame That you can't see your future with me
While she sang, it was as though she was consumed entirely by the song and the emotion of it. Everyone in the audience was enraptured and Jake was no exception. Each song she sang after was just as enchanting, but it was the lyrics of the first that stayed with him. The thought of having such a woman yearn for him, loving him, was intoxicating and he resolved to speak to her again no matter what it might cost him.
When she finally came out from behind the stage after her performance, she had traded her red dress for a pair of jeans, a white tee-shirt and flip flops, yet somehow she looked even more alluring. In the moonlight, she seemed to glow with radiance as though she was herself a star.
He stood there frozen, watching her, until he saw her turn to leave. With the skill he had honed during his years as a thief, he wove his way through the crowd until he was by her side without catching anyone’s attention but hers. She seemed to sense him, turning her head to meet his gaze as he came close to her. A jolt of lightening surged through him in that moment and he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms right then, but he held himself back.
"I don't know if you remember me. We met earlier, by the bank," he said, cursing himself for referencing the bank. That was all he needed, her associating him with the place a week before it was to be robbed.
"Oh, right. Hi,” she said, her face lit up with the same kind of excitement he felt after he and his brothers pulled off a job. She was all adrenaline and joy and he could feel her soul calling to his. She seemed to take his delay in answering as a sign that their conversation was over, turning and walking off in the opposite direction. That he couldn't allow.
"You have a lovely voice," he said, rushing to follow her while trying to appear as if he had casually been heading in the same direction.
"Thank you," she said with a sweet grin, both pleased by his compliment and I fooled by his attempts to play it cool. Another girl might have played coy and denied her vocal abilities but she couldn't. Singing was her greatest joy and she couldn't hide that, not for a moment.
"Where are you walking to in such a hurry," he asked, noticing that the town’s festival seemed to be wrapping up. Where could the angel in front of him have to be that was so urgent that she wasn't lingering to savor the audience's reaction to her performance?
"I have to drop dinner off to my father," she said, making a left down what appeared to be the town's Main Street. Though he had never been there before, he had little trouble reading towns like this one. It was why he was such an asset to his brothers.
"Why?" he asked in an effort to keep her engage.
If she was going to fetch dinner, then that meant that she was miles away from going to meet her father and leaving him behind. The thought of it caused an ache in his chest that shook him to his core. It had been a very long time since he had longed for the company of another, but he had to admit something inside of him was hungry to know all there was to know about this small town beauty.
"He is at work," she explained, not slowing her pace.
"Where does he work?" he asked, not really caring what the answer might be. In his experience with females, feigning interest in those they cared about was often a useful measure.
"He is the preacher," she said, causing him to stop in his tracks. How a small town preacher had brought such an alluring and mysterious creature in to the word was a mystery to him.
"Really?" he gapped, his jaw hanging open in disbelief. He had written off religion a long time ago, when his parents abandoned him and he realized that he was truly alone in the world. Even as a child he had realized that if there was a god, he wasn't worth worshiping if he allowed such things to happen to little boys.
"Yes, is that so surprising?" she asked, stopping and turning to study his expression with amusement.
"No, I guess not," he admitted. With eyes like those, her father could have been the chief of police or the mayor of the town and he couldn't have kept himself away from her.