Page 33 of Marked by the Pack (Crooked Point #2)

Wednesday

Emma

Tonight hadn’t gone at all how I was expecting it to go. I thought I’d just go into Callum’s room of relics and either find the Anubis head coin or not. I hadn’t expected to be walking down Main Street with the most expensive earrings in the world dangling from my ears.

He’d finally convinced me to try them on when my head was foggy and happy from sex. I was starting to find that Callum did that a lot. Used sex to get what he wanted. But he didn’t need to. I’d always give him what he wanted. After all, I’d stopped asking him to change me.

Instead, I was going to change him back. I hope.

Yes, technically he told me to give up chasing a cure for him. But he’d be happy once it was in my hands, I just knew it.

I put my key into Zoey’s doorknob, but it didn’t turn. Huh. I pulled it out and tried again. It still didn’t turn, but the door flew open.

“Hey,” Zoey said. “Sorry, I need to get you a new key. Ace changed the locks. Love your earrings, by the way.”

“Thanks. They were a gift from Callum.” I lifted my hand and touched one of the black opals. Maybe I could pull them off. “Wait, why did Ace change the locks? ”

“He set up this whole new security system.” She pointed to a camera that was facing us. “He wants to make sure I’m safe. Isn’t that incredibly sweet?” She blew a kiss at the camera.

So I waved to it.

Zoey laughed. “I’ll get you a key tomorrow. Come on in.” She stepped to the side.

I walked in and hung my jacket on the coat rack. But my feet froze before I reached the couch. “What the hell is all that?”

Zoey sat down on the couch and spread her hands across the huge sheet of paper. “The schematics of the bank.”

I just stared at her. “Schematics of the bank? Why do we need those? We know where the vaults are.”

“You have to do your due diligence before breaking and entering.”

“We didn’t do that when we broke into Callum’s house.”

“Exactly,” Zoey said. “And we almost got caught. This time, we’re going in prepared.”

I sat down next to her. “I thought you wanted to be caught?”

She laughed. “I mean, I don’t not want to get caught. But I’d prefer to do it perfectly and then just brag about it to them. I see pros and cons for both though.”

I had a really bad feeling about this. Mostly because it wasn’t just the schematics of the bank on the coffee table. “What about the rope? And whatever that huge hook is? And why are we wearing leather?” I picked up a pair of black leather pants.

“All epic heists include black leather. And this?” Zoey grabbed one of the hooks that was attached to a long spool of rope. She smiled the way she always did when she had a wicked plan. She tossed the hook in the air and caught it again. “This is for rappelling down the side of the building.”

“I’m sorry…what? And stop tossing that thing, you’re going to impale yourself.” I grabbed the hook from her hand.

“We’re going to escape from the bank via the roof,” Zoey said.

“Seriously?” I shook my head. “Wait, if we’re only escaping that way…how are we getting in?”

Zoey pulled a keychain out of a box of lingerie. “We’re going in through the front door.”

“Wearing lingerie now?”

“No.” She laughed. “This was a gift from Huxley. Since he keeps ripping my matching sets.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. “Why does he keep ripping your underwear?”

She waggled her eyebrows at me.

Never mind. I got it. “So we’re going to walk into the bank and then exit off the roof while wearing sexy outfits?”

“Exactly. You’re getting it now. And I memorized the vault code, so that’s easy peasy. We’ll be in and out in a flash.” She snapped her fingers.

“What about alarms? And cameras?” I pointed to one of the new ones Ace had mounted in her living room. “If they have cameras in your house, they have cameras in their bank. Shit! They’re probably watching us right now!” I rolled up the schematics of the bank and shoved them under the coffee table .

“Don’t make it obvious, Emma!” she said as I threw one of the ropes under the table too. The metal hook clanged against one of the legs.

“I’m helping.”

“By breaking my coffee table?” She grabbed the other hook from me before I could accidentally do any damage.

“Besides, I don’t think those cameras have that good resolution.

They’re for security purposes. And we don’t have to worry about any of that.

We’re walking in the front door. Why would an alarm go off if we have a key? My plan is flawless.”

“That doesn’t mean they won’t get notified of someone walking into their bank after hours. I think we need to plan the heist from the beginning. Scrap everything you’ve already done.”

“Why?”

“Because your plan is way too extra.”

“I think you’re just not getting it,” Zoey said.

“Oh, I’m getting it. And it doesn’t make any sense. The vaults are on the first floor. We don’t have to go anywhere near the roof…”

“But I’ve always wanted to rappel down the side of a building. Come on, Emma, it’ll be fun.”

“We can do that at a different time then.”

Zoey just stared at me like I was the one with the crazy plan. “Oh. I know what’s happening.”

“What?”

She stood up, went into the kitchen, and came back out with two glasses of wine filled to the brim. She handed me one. “Drink up.”

“This doesn’t fix your plan.”

“I think you’re about to see everything a bit more clearly in about twenty minutes. ”

“Zoey,” I said.

“Emma,” she said back.

I sighed and took a sip. I honestly needed to be drunk to plan any of this.

“And while that heist planning liquid kicks in, tell me what you found at Callum’s place. You said you had some new information?” She plopped back down next to me on the sofa.

“Yeah.” I took another sip of wine. “Callum has this theory that your boyfriends are trying to gather relics for a certain Egyptian god. Sek something? Hold on one second. I know it was the goddess of lions or cats.” I did a quick Google search.

“Ah yes. He thinks they’re either trying to find the relics of Sekhmet, goddess of lions, or Baset, goddess of cats.

And that if they find all the relics that have been taken from Egypt and return them to the source… that their curse will be lifted.”

Zoey nodded. “Huxley mentioned something like that tonight. About returning relics to their rightful owners.”

“Yeah, but aren’t we looking for a coin with an Anubis head? Why would that belong to Sekhmet or Baset? You’d think we’d be looking for a coin with a cat head instead.”

“They’re still Egyptian, though. That’s definitely related.”

I shrugged. I didn’t really know enough about them to argue with her.

Just what Callum had told me. “Yeah. So your guys think their cure and creation is linked to Egyptian mythology. But Callum thinks his is linked to Slavic mythology. Most of his relics were from Romania and somehow related to the Eastern Orthodox church. A cure for him would be something religious, tied to the church. He doesn’t think anything to do with Anubis will cure him or your boyfriends.

Apparently he’s just the god of the dead or something.

Nothing linked to supernatural creatures. Or cures.”

“I think my billionaire source knows what he’s talking about,” Zoey said. “He seemed pretty confident in what he told me. And he definitely said the Anubis head coin would cure all of them.”

“But how well do you know him? Who’s to say he’s an expert on any of this? Callum’s been searching for a cure for hundreds of years for vampirism.”

“I think King is an expert. Hell, he wears an Anubis head mask during our sessions.”

I just stared at her. “What?”

“He wears this black and gold Anubis mask.”

“You’ve never seen his face? We’re going off a tip from a source that hasn’t even revealed his true identity to you?” For fuck’s sake. I took a huge sip of my wine.

“I wear a mask and wig too, Emma. It’s for anonymity. Because he’s rich. And knows things.”

I mean…he probably did have contacts if he was wealthy. “Wait, how do you even know he’s wealthy?”

“His house is amazing. And the mask thing. You only hide your identity for a variety of reasons. One being wealth. Another being you’re a cam girl.” She gestured to herself. “And King isn’t a cam girl.” She laughed and took a sip of her wine.

I laughed too. It would be funny if the guy she entertained was also a sex entertainer.

Plot twist. “But seriously…he could be anyone. And clearly if he wears an Anubis mask, he has some kind of fascination with Egyptian culture. Maybe he just wants the coin for himself. For his collection or something. ”

“If he wanted it himself, why wouldn’t he just go find it? And he doesn’t need it. We’re the ones with a vampire and werecat problem.”

“True.” I took another sip of wine. Honestly, all of this was starting to make sense. Or…was it? Damn, I’d already drunk half my huge glass of wine. I set it down so I could focus.

I stared down at the matching leather outfits.

Callum telling me there was no cure should have made me stop holding on to hope that Zoey’s contact was correct.

But at the same time, Callum calling himself a monster?

If that’s how he thought about himself…he still wanted to change back. He did. And I was going to help him.

I took a deep breath. “Okay. Callum doesn’t want to be a vampire anymore. And the bank boys don’t want to be werecats. So…we’re going to rob their bank and cure all of them.”

“Now we’re talking.”

I lifted my wine glass and clinked it against hers.

Zoey smiled. “We’re going to pull the best heist ever. Quick question though. Did you sleep with my werecats?”

“Which one specifically?” I tried to hide my smile.

Her eyes grew round. “I’m asking about all of them. Wait, which ones did you sleep with?”

I laughed. “None of them. I’m just messing with you. I was terrified of them.”

“Yeah, they definitely get quite frightening when they shift. I’m a little relieved that you didn’t sleep with one of them though.”

There was a squeak of a floorboard on the stairs and then a loud bang as Kebe tumbled down the stairs .

Zoey and I both stared at Kebe sprawled out on the floor.

I would have laughed if I wasn’t so horrified about what Kebe had probably just heard. Shit! Shit, shit, shit! I’d completely forgotten that Kebe was living here! And clearly Zoey had too or we would have been talking about all of this somewhere else.

For a second we all just stared at each other. It almost looked like she was pretending like she hadn’t just fallen down the stairs. Or hadn’t been spying on us. But you fell down the stairs if you were trying to lean in closer to eavesdrop! It’s not like the floor was slippery. Gah, Kebe.

Kebe cleared her throat. “Ow. Clumsy me. I’m just going to go back upstairs…” She pushed herself up off the ground.

“Wait right there, missy,” Zoey said. “How much of that conversation did you hear?”

“Um…” Kebe’s voice trailed off of it. “Kind of like…all of it.”

“Fuck,” Zoey said.

“I’m sorry, it was just really hard not to listen to the fact that you’re both dating supernatural creatures and are about to pull a bank job.”

Zoey sighed. “Well, now you’re in on it.”

“In on what exactly?”

“Everything you just said. Come sit with us. We’re finalizing our plans for the heist.”

“Oh…um…” She brushed off the knees of her pajama bottoms and walked over to the couch. “Okay.” She sat down next to me and smiled. “I love your earrings. ”

She would. I was pretty sure I was glaring at her. “They were a gift from Callum.”

Kebe nodded. “I knew whoever picked them out had impeccable taste. So it makes sense they were from him.”

Yup, I was definitely glaring at her.

“So…” she rubbed her hands together. “We’re stealing a coin with an Anubis head on it? And you know exactly where it is in the bank?”

“We think we know where it is,” Zoey said.

“Great,” Kebe said. “I kind of heard the whole plan already. I’m down.”

“Wait,” I said. “You don’t have any questions? About anything you just overheard?”

“Well yeah…one question. Where’s my leather outfit?”

Zoey laughed. “I have just the thing for you upstairs.”

“Perfect,” Kebe said.

What? “That’s seriously your only question? Nothing else you need to ask us?”

“No, not really. I mean, it all makes sense.”

“The fact that we’re dating supernatural men makes sense?” I asked.

She laughed. “Yeah, I believe in all that stuff. My daddy is actually a curator of sorts.”

Ew. Who called their father “daddy” when they were a grownup?

“It’s kind of hard to shock me when I grew up hearing all his outlandish theories.

” She rolled her eyes. “I actually know a ton about Egyptian culture. Not much about Slavic mythology though. And I had a feeling about Callum as soon as I met him. I just knew he was an old soul. He’s so easy to talk to. ”

Gah, that’s exactly what Callum had said about her. Stop flirting with my man! And I felt like she should have a lot more questions.

I took another sip of my wine and tried not to glare at her. And why was she just down with pulling a bank job that in no way helped her? I was only doing it for Callum. Crap. Maybe she wanted to steal the coin for herself and be the one to help Callum first or something?

“You okay?” Zoey asked and elbowed me in the side.

I nodded. “I’m good.”

“Great. So we’re going with the original plan. And this will be even easier with three people.”

“Awesome,” Kebe said.

No, none of this was awesome! What the hell was she up to? I took another sip of my wine and hoped that somehow only Kebe would get arrested tomorrow night.