Page 61 of Corrupted Pleasure

“First, let’s vote whether Garrett should get the money he’s blackmailing us for,” Juliette started, sounding like Judge Judy. Not that I ever watched the show. Nobody raised their hands, including myself. “Let the record show the vote is unanimous that Garrett the dickhead won’t get our money.”

The three of us rolled our eyes. Juliette was taking this to a whole new level. But she had a knack for theatrics.

“Okay, second vote,” Ivy continued. “Should we start a school for badass women?”

“I hope that’s not the name we’ll use,” I muttered.

“We’ll worry about the names when the time comes,” Juliette added. “Now if you vote ‘yes’ raise your hand.”

Ivy and Juliette instantly lifted their hands. Wynter and I shared glances.

“I’m all for it,” Wynter started, “... but with my training schedule, I’m just not sure if I can fit it in until the Olympics are done. But after I get the gold medal in pair skating, I’m all in.”

“Well, it’ll take us that long, if not longer, to set it up,” I added. “Besides, we’ll have to steal more money because that million won’t be enough.”

That was another thing. In my guesstimate of how many stacks of money to take, I stole double the amount of money we needed.

“Or we can seek investors,” I suggested smartly. After all, I learned something at Yale. Suddenly everyone was shaking their heads. “No?” I asked. “Why?”

“Investors would have a claim on whatever we build,” Juliette said.

“Yeah, I know how it works,” I muttered. “Why would we object to it?”

“I have to agree with Juliette,” Wynter chimed in. “If it’s just ours, then nobody can tell us what to do. It will be just the four of us.”

It made sense. Except, it would take us forever to gather those kinds of funds.

“And we can’t ask any of the criminals,” Wynter continued. “Even if they didn’t put a claim on the school, there’ll always be something they’ll want. Don’t let this organization send their kids to school. Or that organization. We don’t want that. This will be built all by us and our own hard-earned…” her voice trailed off, realizing it wasn’t exactly hard-earned, so she added, “- okay, stolen money.”

“Yeah.” All three cheered and I shrugged my shoulders and joined in. What are friends for, if not to dream with and support them?

“I vote we steal from the Italians,” Juliette grinned. “And then the Russians. Maybe even the cartel.”

Great, Ivy and Juliette were getting all fucking excited for our brilliant future as criminals. We should have all studied criminology. By the time we were done stealing, the entire criminal world would be after us. At least my business degree might come in handy once we actually have the school established. Assuming we were still breathing and not at the bottom of a lake somewhere.

“Well, I did my part last night,” I muttered. “It’s someone else’s turn to steal.”

Juliette and Ivy exclaimed at the same time, “I volunteer. I volunteer as tribute.”

Wynter and I snickered.

“You two are crazy,” Wynter proclaimed but then we all knew that. It was the reason we paired Ivy with Wynter and Juliette with me when we went out or doubled up on our trips. Otherwise, we’d end up in jail. “If we do this, Davina and I are making decisions on who will steal from whom.”

“So you’re in?” Juliette asked, her voice full of hope and her eyes ping-ponging between the two of us.

And just like that, we were on board - either because we were insane or we were just as good at making trouble as our two best friends.

“Hell, yeah,” we both answered at the same time, grinning mischievously. A round of high-fives followed.

“Where else would I use my Yale business degree?” I remarked sarcastically, smiling like a fool.

“Or my ice skating championship skills,” Wynter added. When the three of us gave her blank looks, she continued, “Or my mathematics and physics?” No comment. “Okay, I’ll hustle and learn something useful.”

“Seems Davina is currently the only one with a useful skill,” Juliette proclaimed. “My theater and performance studies are useless. And I discovered that right on the day of my very last exam of my four year college experience,” she added exasperatedly. “What a damn waste!”

“Actually, theater and performing is a great skill set for a con artist,” I told Juliette. “You’d probably be able to sell whatever we decide to do.”

Juliette’s eyes lit up. “I never thought of it that way.”