Gabe

This wasn’t my best plan. This wasn’t even a good plan. Unfortunately there wasn’t any time to come up with anything else.

“I’ve never broken into a van before,” Scarlett murmured from behind me.

“That makes two of us.” We had parked the car a couple of blocks away from the flower shop and were watching the employees load up the vehicle. Thanks to my cover at the escort service, I knew that Edgar liked his flowers as much as Rocco liked his art. Every Friday afternoon they had fresh blooms delivered to the Morales mansion and placed throughout the rooms. A little flirting with Edgar’s secretary confirmed that he ordered flowers from this shop, an exclusive boutique in the heart of downtown Miami.

“How do we know that this van is the one going to his mansion?” she asked.

A man in a maroon polo and jeans brought out a large bunch of white and purple orchids, similar to what had been delivered to Cox’s office earlier that week.

“That’s it.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s going through an orchid phase right now.”

“You can have an orchid phase?”

“Evidently.” The man moved back inside to get another bunch of flowers. “Come on.”

We crept along the side of the building and hid behind a nearby sedan. Two men came out and loaded up more flowers, then went back inside.

“Let’s go.” I dragged Scarlett up to the van and helped her climb in the back.

“Where should we hide?” she whispered.

Thankfully the van was almost full. I motioned her toward the back, where a large stand held multiple bouquets of orchids, tulips, roses, and chrysanthemums. No sooner had we crouched down, the men returned with more flowers.

“What a waste,” one of them said. “I hate going to this place every week. That guy is cranky and he doesn’t care for his flowers.” He pushed his bouquet back into the van and climbed up on the rim. “If he bothered to water the ones he has, he wouldn’t need to buy fresh every week. A little TLC would save him a ton of money.”

“A little TLC would put us out of business, Harry,” the other man joked. “He’s paying a premium for these blooms. The money is fantastic.”

I tried to cover Scarlett the best I could as the delivery guy picked up the vase and moved to the back of the van.

“I know,” Harry said. I held my breath as he placed the vase on the rack right above my head. “I just can’t help but think that there could be some other use for them, you know?”

Scarlett held her body stiff against me. I could tell she was scared. If we were caught, it would ruin our entire plan. Everything hinged on this moment.

“You and your conscious,” the other guy said. “Just shut up and get back here. Once this delivery is made, we’re done for the week. I don’t know about you, but I have an entire season of Walking Dead and a six-pack of beer waiting for me.”

Harry snorted. “All right. Let’s go.” He turned away from us and made his way back out of the van. I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief as the doors closed behind him.

“That was close,” Scarlett said as the van started moving. She pulled away from my arms and I fought the urge to keep her close. She felt so good next to me. It was the perfect fit. Part of me was reluctant to let her go.

“Do you think they locked the van?” she asked.

“I hope not. Things could get messy if they did.”

She crawled out from behind the rack and glanced at all of the flowers around us. “It’s rather romantic, don’t you think?”

“Romantic?”

She turned to me and smiled. “Hiding out among a bunch of flowers.”

“Yeah.” Honestly, I hadn’t thought much about it, but if she thought it was romantic, I could play along. Anything to get her close to me again.

“Do you think the paintings are still where we last saw them?”

“I’d imagine so. The auction itself is scheduled for the same place. I can’t see why they’d want to move anything.”

“True.” She shivered and averted her gaze.

“Hey.” I slid close and put my arm around her. “What’s wrong?”

“What we’re doing is dangerous.”

I hooked my finger under her chin and lifted her head to meet my gaze. “I’m a cop, remember? Danger is my middle name.”

She snorted and pulled her jaw from my fingers. “Well, it’s not my middle name. I haven’t done anything this crazy since . . .”

“High school?” I asked.

She smiled at me. “Yeah. Since high school.”

I rubbed her shoulder reassuringly. “Remember when I showed up at your bedroom window after dark?”

“That was a crazy night.” She grinned and rested her head on my chest.

I pressed my lips to the top of her head as the memories came flooding back. “That was a terrible movie.”

She chuckled. “Yes, but it was rated ‘R,’ and our parents didn’t want us to see it. It was exciting.”

Exciting and stimulating, if I remembered correctly. I was trying to hide my raging hard-on for most of the night.

“You were wearing a blue dress,” I said after a long moment.

She turned in my arms to face me. “You remembered.”

How the hell could I forget? The flimsy sundress showed more upper thigh than I had ever seen in my eighteen years. “Of course.”

She leaned in closer. “Do you remember coming home?”

“And how your father thought there were raccoons in the bushes? I swear that shotgun was aimed right at us.”

“But he didn’t use it.”

“No, thank goodness.”

“And then, after he went back inside.” She shifted her gaze to my lips. “Do you remember what happened then?”

Oh yes. There was no way I was going to forget the night of our first kiss. I had kissed girls before, many times, but that one time underneath her bedroom window was magical. I don’t know if it was the adrenaline rush we had from the shotgun incident, or the excitement of doing something forbidden. Perhaps it was just the fact that I had been waiting to kiss her for months and finally had the opportunity. Let’s just say that the kiss exceeded expectations.

“My memory is a little hazy,” I lied. “What did we do?”

Scarlett chuckled and slid her arms around my neck. “Let me see if I can refresh your memory.” She leaned forward and brushed her lips against mine. Immediately, my body responded, tightening with anticipation as she worked her tongue into my mouth.

It only took me a few seconds to recover. When I did, I tilted my head and deepened the kiss as I slid my arms around her torso. Time stood still as we tasted and explored each other. For one long, blissful moment, I was transported back to my teenage years, before my father’s death. Before I was forced to break up with the woman I loved.

Scarlett moaned and shifted her weight, leaning into my chest. I eased back toward the floor, dragging her along with me. Sliding my hands up under her jacket, I fumbled with her shirt until I finally touched her skin. She felt warm and soft. As she pressed her body on top of mine, I eased my hands down her jeans and ground my hips against her, eager to be inside of her once more.

I probably would have gotten inside of her, if the van hadn’t stopped.

“Shit.” Scarlett pulled away and straightened her clothes. “We’re here.”

I blinked and tried to clear my head as she tucked her shirt back into her pants. “We could just be at a light.”

“I don’t think so.” She nodded toward the front cab. “I think I hear voices.”

I tilted my head and listened. She was right. Frowning, I pushed my rising libido aside and moved toward the door of the van.

“Where are you going?” she asked. “We have to hide.”

I shook my head. “Once this van stops, they’ll be clearing it out.” I nodded to the rack. “That means taking everything out of here. It will only be a matter of time before they find us.”

She widened her eyes. Clearly, she hadn’t thought this part of the plan through. “What are we going to do?”

“Once we start moving again, we’ll jump out and hide in the bushes until the coast is clear.”

“We’ll what?”

“You heard me.” I placed my hand on the floor to steady myself as the van started moving again. “Come on. This is our chance.”

“You want me to jump out of a moving van?” She shook her head. “I can’t do that.”

“You can, and you will.” I took her hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right there with you.”

“But—”

There was no time to argue. Like I told her, once this van stopped, our chance for escape would be lost. The entire plan hinged on us getting away before the van stopped.

I flipped open the door and thanked my lucky stars that the delivery guys didn’t think to lock it from the outside. Pulling Scarlett close, I watched the pavement as it passed beneath us.

“Gabe, I can’t do this.”

“You can. I’ll be right there to break your fall.”

“But you’ll get hurt.”

The van slowed down to go up the final incline, and I knew that this was our last chance. Tightening my grip on Scarlett, I jumped off the back of the van and toward the flowerbeds that lined the side of the long driveway.

Scarlett’s legs immediately buckled, and the added weight pulled me to the ground. We rolled several times through the flowers and stopped underneath a nearby tree.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I loosened my grip.

“I think so.” Scarlett moved away from me and brushed the dirt off her clothes.

“See, I told you that you could do it.”

She stood and flashed me a frown. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”

I laughed, stood, and grabbed her hand. “Come on, it won’t take those delivery people long to set up those flowers. I want to be out of here by the time they’re finished.

We snuck through the gardens to the back of the house. The sounds of the ocean drifted through the air as we made our way between the bushes and up onto the deck.

“With a little luck, the staff will be busy with the flowers,” I said.

“Let’s hope that they left the sliding glass door open,” Scarlett added.

“Even if they didn’t.” I pulled a hairpin from my jacket.

“You can pick locks?”

“It’s part of the job.” We crept up onto the deck and I set to work on the lock. It wasn’t long before I heard the familiar click. Pocketing the hairpin, I slid open the door and waved Scarlett inside. Voices rose up from the front of the house, and I motioned for her to keep quiet.

“Do you remember how to get downstairs?” she whispered.

“I think so.”

We quietly moved through the house, past the busy delivery men and butler, down the hall to the small stairwell in back. I went first, doing my best to step as silently as possible on the creaking stairs. Scarlett stayed right behind me, matching me step for step. Once down the stairs, we navigated the halls until we came upon the familiar room.

“I thought there were guards here?” Scarlett asked as we stepped inside.

“Yeah, they must be on break or something.”

“All at once?”

I shrugged. “It’s possible, I suppose.” Possible, but unlikely. Something didn’t feel right about this, but it wasn’t as if we could leave and come back another day. I vowed to keep my senses alert. Hopefully it would be enough to keep us out of trouble.

“It’s so dark.” Scarlett moved to turn on a nearby light, but I placed my hand on her wrist, stopping her.

“It will draw attention,” I explained.

“Oh, right.” She lowered her hand. “Well, let’s get this over with, I guess.”

We made our way down the line of paintings to the one in question.

“Is this it?” I asked her.

She nodded and moved closer. Seconds passed and I started to feel uneasy.

“Well?” I asked. “What do you think?”