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Chapter Two

My mind is wandering a bit as I get off the subway and start up the stairs. Part of me can only think about meeting up with Username in the next few minutes, and the other part is wrapped up in the fact that Hailey has not answered at all .

She paid me part up front, so it’s not a huge loss if she never comes through, but she’d seemed so adamant about getting the papers that now that I have them, I really feel uncertain why she just wouldn’t care. Or did she only want them out of his hands and doesn’t care what happens to them now?

The restaurant isn’t far from the station, so I’m going to end up a little early, but it strangely makes me feel more at ease. He’ll have to find me instead of me trying to wade through people to figure out who he is—I should have asked for a better picture.

“Swinging on by to rob the place?”

I freeze where I am and turn around to face Dylan who is standing there with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. “Two times in two days, boy what luck do I have,” I say. “And no, I’m actually much more into robbing trains now. Living out my Wild West dreams, you know?”

“Uh-huh,” he replies, looking almost nervous for some reason. Maybe he thinks I really am planning on robbing the place and isn’t looking forward to arresting me.

We continue to stand there on the sidewalk outside the Italian restaurant, caught up in this weird as hell, awkward stare-off of silence where I debate whether or not he could crush me with a hug. And whether or not I would enjoy it. Honestly, I thought I’d grown up since I saw him last, but I’m pretty much positive I have not. I would still enjoy that hug crushing.

“Well, this was awkwardly fun. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say as I head toward the restaurant and pull my phone out.

Me: I’m here. I’ll wait inside.

And that’s the moment I hear the familiar ding of the app. Slowly, like ridiculously slowly, I turn around and stare at Dylan who is still standing there. The phone is in my hand as I lift it up and text:

Me: Are you here?

The ding comes again, clearly from Dylan’s pocket. He reaches in and pulls it out.

Username: Yes, I am.

Fucking hell. I set up a date with the man who tossed me in jail.

“Really?” I ask, unsure how to feel about this. The man I’ve been chatting with online is kind and funny and so easy to talk to, and this man is like talking to a sexy wall. It’s kind of fun to appreciate how sexy it is but you don’t really plan anything beyond that. “Did you know?”

He shrugs. “I thought your face looked familiar, but it didn’t really click until I saw you yesterday.”

“You forgot what my face looks like?” I ask, feeling minorly offended by this. I mean, yeah, it would’ve been creepy for him to think about me like I had thought about him back then, but we aren’t that far apart in age. Four years, according to the app.

“You’ve… changed a lot since you were a teenager,” he says, like that’s an amazing reason not to have mentioned any of this.

“I guess. Man, why didn’t you tell me last night?” I ask.

Dylan shrugs again.

“Wait, you’re not a cop anymore? You’re a professor?”

“It just wasn’t the job for me,” he says.

“So I can go in there and rob the place and you can’t arrest me?” I ask, trying to sound serious.

He seems a little hesitant. “That wouldn’t be a very good date.”

“I don’t know. It sounds like a date you wouldn’t forget,” I say before something dawns on me. “Wait. You still want to have our date?”

Apparently, my brain is malfunctioning because he almost looks shy or embarrassed. Is he… is he blushing ? No, that can’t be. “I wouldn’t have shown up if I didn’t want to.”

“Huh,” I say as my phone beeps.

Glancing down at it, I realize it’s Hailey who has finally graced me with her attention. Of course at the absolute worst time possible. I’ll just have to tell her to come later, I have a date with…

Hailey: Help me. They know.

Well. That’s not good.

“I’m sorry,” Dylan says when I look up. “I really should have told you… but I didn’t think you’d show up if I did.”

“Yeah…” Would I? I think I would have, right? Oh, I definitely would have but I also would’ve been questioning myself the entire time. “Hey, something’s going on with one of my clients. Can you wait right here? I’m just going to call her quickly, and I’ll be right back, and we can have our date that you’ll never forget. While you wait, maybe you could assess how many workers are inside, you know, so when we rob it, we can tell if one runs off.”

He seems uncertain, probably not because of my joke but because he’s assuming I’m going to take off, which I might have done one time when I was younger and didn’t want to get arrested , but it didn’t get me far. “Okay, but if you want to leave, you can go. Just tell me so I’m not waiting here.”

“No, I promise. She sent me a text saying she needs help. It’s kind of weird since I’m definitely not who you go to for help. I’m the kind of guy who usually causes issues, not cleans them up.”

“I’m aware.”

“Hey, maybe this isn’t half bad after all. You already know like one-tenth of the bad shit I’ve done. It’s a solid start.”

Dylan looks skeptical, but I head over to the side of the building where it’s a bit quieter since there aren’t people lingering around waiting to get called in.

As I walk around the corner of the building, I pull up Hailey’s number and listen to the phone ring and ring. How the hell am I supposed to help if she doesn’t even tell me what’s going on?

The phone reaches the voicemail with a “Hey, this is Hailey?—”

I don’t hear the rest as someone slaps a hand over my mouth and an arm around my neck and starts dragging me back toward one of those “I’m a kidnapper” vans.

And as I see my life flash before my eyes and question all of my life choices up to this point (but mostly the one where I turned down learning karate), I’m dragged into the van just as my knight in shining armor prances onto the scene.

Okay. He doesn’t prance as much as lumber, and it seems to take him a full ten seconds to realize what’s happening.

“Hey!” he shouts, and I quickly realize he’s going to destroy them all. He’s like a fucking boulder and these people have absolutely no idea what’s in store for them. I’m almost giddy. He’s going to beat every last one of them to a pulp and he doesn’t even realize that sexy men saving my life is a huge turn-on for me.

It’s a little less of a turn-on when a guy wallops him across the side of the head, staggering him as two of the people who had been preoccupied with me give him a valiant shove into the van where he slams down on top of me, head hitting the side of the seat a moment before he goes down.

Well… shit.