So.... On the scale of things that shouldn’t be done working a job, fucking on the desk of the hideout room you were in wasn’t number one on the list, but it definitely was on the top ten. Though, while her body was still coming down from her amazing double orgasm, she was having a hard time feeling bad about it. She did the best she could to clean up with the Kleenex on the desk.

She avoided looking at Austin, and Austin, who of course was too observant for his own good, laughed at her. “You embarrassed, sunshine?”

Jennifer faced him and tried to look cool. “Not embarrassed,” she said carefully. “Surprised.” And that was true. She was surprised. Surprised she let it happen. Surprised she wanted it. Surprised she liked it. And especially surprised she wanted to do it again.

It wasn’t as though she didn’t know how good he was in bed. Pretty much every night, he made a point of proving exactly how talented he could be between the sheets. She was just surprised at the danger aspect of what happened. That seemed so much like... old her. Not new, protective, maternal her. Maybe her past and present weren’t as segregated as she liked to think. She opened her mouth to try to say something, to tell him how she felt, but the sound of footsteps running down the hall pulled them each away from their own drama. They ran to the door and heard the man running past cursing under his breath. Jennifer and Austin locked gazes. “Laxatives,” they both said at the same time.

She padded over to where she left the little mirror instrument, and by the time she got back, Austin had cracked the door enough for her to poke it out and they looked through. Sure enough, the hallway was now empty. Austin’s stupid plan had worked.

They each reached for the door handle at the same time. Neither one of them fought over who would open it. They both just pulled together and walked into the empty hallway.

The smoker guard was gone, and laxative guard was distracted for the time being. No time like the present. Jennifer left her shoes in the little office. She didn’t need heels getting in the way.

Once they reached the door the guards had been standing in front of, Austin pulled out his little lock pick set. These historical doors had nothing on the modern technology of a thief. It took fifteen seconds for him to get the door open. Jennifer knew because she always counted. At least she had back when they were still working. Funny how easy it was to slip back into old habits. The door opened and Austin waited for her to go in first. A little bit of chivalry between criminals.

As soon as she was in, she scanned the room, trying to figure out where something valuable would be. Houses like this weren’t original. She went straight to the artwork on the wall and found the safe behind the second largest one. Because she didn’t do research on this case, she didn’t know what kind of safe it was going to be. Luckily, she didn’t have to.

Thanks to having a sister who made it a point to defeat every computer she met, Jennifer had a few tricks up her sleeve. She opened her purse and pulled out a little ball that looked like chewed-up bubblegum; she attached it to the safe and then put a little computer chip-looking device on top of the tacky sphere. As soon as it was there, she took out a lighter and let the heat do the work.

She looked over at Austin. “Guard your phone,” she said as the computer chip suddenly let out a loud pop. Just like that, all the lights in the room went dark. However, none of the Christmas lights outside even dimmed.

“What the hell was that?” asked Austin in a soft voice.

“It’s a little toy that Toni has been tinkering with. It cuts off the electronics inside the safe but has a nasty effect of reaching other electronics in a close radius.”

“A little warning next time you set off your electric bomb thing.”

“I did warn you. I said ‘watch your phone.’”

“With no context!” he whisper-yelled.

She gave him an innocent little smile as she pulled the safe open. And there it was. In a beautiful gilded glass case, there was the Cypher. “Well, damn,” she whispered. “We might have actually pulled this off.”

And that’s when the door opened.

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Austin didn’t have to guess which guard was back. He smelled the cigarettes well before he turned around. Austin flipped around to look at the man and put an innocent smile on. “Hello there,” he said. But there was no time for charm. The guard was taking out his gun and aiming right at Austin.

Austin’s eyes widened as he quickly went through every option to get them out of this mess when something flew through the air and hit the guard in the face. As the man was falling over, Austin realized Jen had thrown the glass case at his head. Resourceful girl. He knew it wasn’t enough to keep the guard out, but it was enough to get the gun out of his hand. Austin leapt forward and grabbed the gun before the guard could fully recover. The thing felt strange in his hand, and he looked it over curiously. Not an actual gun. A Taser. Interesting. But not that interesting. He aimed it at the guard and shot off a few hundred volts into his body. It wasn’t like the movies where he would pass out, but it would be enough to keep him down while they made their escape. He angled his head toward the window. “Out. Now.”

Jennifer didn’t have to be told twice. She ran to the window, flipped open the locks, and pushed it up, followed quickly by the screen. They both looked out at the same time to assess the situation. There were no balconies they could climb down to or trees they could use to help their descent. And because this house had high ceilings, the second-story height was oddly intimidating. They probably wouldn’t die if they jumped, but he was going to bet all their bones wouldn’t make it.

They each looked around and looked back at each other at the same time. “Christmas lights,” they said in unison. Right as they heard more footsteps down the hall, they started to climb out. Each taking a different side of the window, they grabbed onto the nearest string of Christmas lights and then threw their weight outside the window.

He wouldn’t exactly say it was a graceful landing, but as they tore the Christmas lights off the building, it slowed their descent enough to keep the landing from becoming a bloody mess. They each flopped onto the grass in an ungraceful heap as a couple of guys stuck their heads out of the window above them. Austin reached out for Jennifer’s hand, and as soon as she intertwined her fingers with his, they took off running. This wasn’t the kind of heavily guarded place that had people at all corners. Pretty much all the guards had gathered in that one room. And now the escape was easy. After ducking in a few shadows and lurking around a few corners, Austin had made it to his car and Jennifer was in the passenger seat. As they drove away, Jennifer took out the Cypher so they could both appreciate their prize.

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Austin and Jennifer were still high from their victory as they stumbled into their apartment, giggling as they thought of how they had escaped capture. Sure, it hadn’t been the hardest heist or the most complicated one, but it had been their first in a while and it had been fantastic. For almost the entire drive home, Austin hadn’t let go of Jennifer’s hand, and at this point, he was thinking he never wanted to let her go. Pretty much par for the course.

But the elation was cut short as the lights flicked on and there was Toni, glaring angrily at both of them, with her hands on her hips. “Where the hell have you two been?”

They both straightened, their giggling rapidly disappearing as they remembered that they were grown-ass adults. “We were... we were on a date,” said Jennifer.

Even Austin didn’t believe that one. He tried changing the subject. “Where is Lucy? I wanted to say good night.”

“Lucy is sleeping, and you’re damn well not going to wake her up this late at night. No, you two tell me where you were, and don’t let me catch you in a lie.”

Jennifer and Austin exchanged a glance. Lying to Toni was tricky. She had a bad habit of knowing the answers to questions before she asked. He gave Jennifer a little nod, signaling that the truth was probably better. She took a deep breath. “I think you know where we were. I saw a good deed that needed to be done, and I was able to do that good deed. Isn’t that what you and Scott are trying to do?”

Toni’s lips were so tight, but he could see her eyes soften the slightest bit. All she wanted was for her family to support her and Scott and their new do-gooder business. And despite their many other reasons, Austin and Jennifer had noble reasons when they started this heist.

“Yes, I do want you to help me. But I want you to help me on my terms. Not the terms of some stranger we know nothing about.”

“We know some things about him,” said Austin. “I checked into his story. Lily Reinheart does a lot of good things for charity, philanthropy... pretty much everything. She was cut out of her father’s will, and the executor of the estate was donating the Cypher to some charity that has almost no records.”

Toni nodded, but he could tell she wasn’t agreeing with them. “Yes, Lily Reinheart does have a lot of philanthropy connections. You want to know who else has a lot of philanthropy connections?” Jennifer and Austin were both quiet. “Every other heiress, that’s who!” yelled Toni. “Lily was cut out of her father’s will two years ago when she and her boyfriend tried to poison the guy.”

Austin frowned. “No. I did thorough research. I didn’t hear anything about that.”

“Of course you didn’t. They’re rich. They don’t want anybody knowing about their dirty laundry. That doesn’t mean he was going to leave one single cent to that greedy bitch. And do you want to know who the boyfriend at the time was?”

He could feel the tension creeping into him and Jennifer. “Please don’t tell me it was Graves.”

“Ding ding ding,” said Toni. “Now, do you want to know why the orphan charity doesn’t have a lot of records?”

“Not really,” muttered Jennifer.

“It’s because children don’t always need to be found easily by people who mean them harm. Charities that deal with children do not have easy-to-access records. Not to mention that nonprofits aren’t exactly known for being great with paperwork. You just stole from a really good foundation tonight for a murdering bitch.”

“Hey!” said Jennifer. “We still have the Cypher. We weren’t going to give it to anybody until we had your approval. We just wanted to....” She drifted off, and Austin knew exactly what was tripping her up

“We just wanted to get back out there,” said Austin. “We didn’t need a good reason. We needed any reason. It wasn’t about the job, it wasn’t about Graves, it wasn’t about children, and it wasn’t about some heiress we felt bad for. We just wanted to work again.”

Toni nodded. “Okay. Scott and I will get you working again, don’t worry. Tomorrow, you are both heading to that orphanage and handing over that Cypher to the people it belongs to. Understand?”

Austin and Jennifer both looked at the ground sheepishly. “Yes, ma’am.”