Page 40 of Marked by the Pack (Crooked Point #2)

Thursday

Zoey

I couldn’t stop smiling as I walked home.

They’d forgiven me. And I was pretty sure I was also dating Titan now.

No, he hadn’t officially asked me to be his girlfriend or anything.

But he’d referred to us all as a we . He’d called me beautiful.

He’d stopped staring at me like I was the scum of the earth.

I knew there was a heart of gold somewhere underneath his scowling exterior.

God, I couldn’t wait to tell Emma everything. I’d been so torn up about all of it, and now I was on top of the world. Which had me second guessing everything we were about to do.

I unlocked my door.

Emma and Kebe were already in their skin-tight black leathers. Although for some reason, Emma had an oversized black hoodie on top of the hot outfit I’d picked out for her.

“You’re late,” Emma said. “I thought maybe you’d changed your mind.”

Honestly…I think maybe I have changed my mind. “Sorry, I was coming clean to the guys about my camming.”

“Yeah? How did it go? I can’t tell if you’re happy or about to burst into tears right now.”

“Well…I might cry.” I did a fake sniffle .

“Oh no.” Emma hurried over to me and awkwardly gave me a one armed hug. She kept her other hand in her hoodie. And I was a little worried she had brought an actual gun for the heist or something.

“What’s going on with your hand?” I asked.

“Me?” She stopped hugging me. “Nothing. Are you okay?”

I couldn’t even pretend any longer. “I’m going to be fine.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded. “I’m going to cry…happy tears. Because I’m still dating them! All five of them now, actually.”

Emma squealed. “You really had me going.” She slapped my shoulder with her hand that wasn’t…holding a revolver in her pocket?

“That’s fantastic,” Kebe said. “And they were all cool with the camming thing? I’m impressed, I thought they all had really bad tempers.”

I’d never said my boyfriends had bad tempers.

And why had she not reacted at all to the fact that I was camming in the first place?

Oh. She’d probably just heard me doing it.

Still…weird. “Yeah. I mean, no. Not at all. They’re all very possessive.

” I smiled. I loved that about them. “So I’m giving it up. ”

“Like right away?” Kebe asked. “Cold turkey? Don’t you need to like say goodbye to everyone you talk to in private sessions?”

“Why do you know so much about camming?”

Kebe laughed. “I only know stuff from movies.”

I squinted at her.

She laughed again. “Forget I said anything. So none of them lost control and shifted when you told them? ”

“No.” I stared at her. “I’m sorry, how do you know that they shift when they lose control?”

“Didn’t you tell me that the other night when we were all drinking?”

Maybe. I honestly couldn’t remember.

She waved her hand through the air. “Either way, I was chatting with my daddy last night and he mentioned something about that from all his research as an anthropologist.”

Emma and I both looked at each other.

“A curator, a professor, and an anthropologist?” Emma asked.

Kebe shrugged. “He’s very worldly. Anyway, heist time? I love this outfit, by the way. And the cat ears were a nice touch. It doesn’t give us away to your boyfriends like if we’d worn bunny masks like when you cam.” She touched one of the leather cat ears connected to her mask.

“Okay, I definitely didn’t tell you I wear a bunny mask when I cam. I don’t remember telling you anything about my camming.”

“You totally did,” Kebe said. “The other night. When we were…”

“Drinking. Yeah.” I shook my head. I needed to stop pounding the wine.

“You remember, right, Emma?”

Emma shrugged. “I think…maybe? It kind of rings a bell.”

I don’t know why I was so suspicious of Kebe. But there was just something a little strange about how much she knew about everything. I shook my head. “Anyway…since I’m in a really good place with the gu ys…I was thinking maybe I should just tell them about the cure.”

“Oh, thank God,” Emma said. “Because I’m in a really good place with Callum too, and I don’t think getting arrested right now is the right move.”

“So you spoke to him about everything ?” I asked. Trying not to make it obvious that I was talking about Kebe being an inappropriate flirt.

“Mhm. We had a really good talk. And…” She pulled her hand out of her pocket.

I almost ducked, expecting her to be wielding a firearm she had no idea how to use.

But instead of a gun, she wiggled her fingers, showing off the most gorgeous ring.

“I’m engaged!” she yelled.

“Ahhh!!” I hugged her so hard I almost knocked her over. “Oh my God!” I pulled back and grabbed her hand. “It’s gorgeous!”

“It was his mother’s.” Emma was smiling so big that even if I had been dumped tonight, I’d probably still be so happy I could burst.

“How did he pop the question?” I asked.

“We were just talking about our future. And how he wanted us to be on the same page. And how he never wants me to worry about him leaving ever again. It was so romantic and so perfect and… God, now I’m crying!” She wiped beneath her eyes.

“I’m so happy for you,” I said.

“I’m so happy for you!” she said back to me.

We hugged again.

Kebe cleared her throat. “Congrats, girl. You too, Zoey. I’m super happy for both of you. But…we have a whole plan for tonight. I think we should still go th rough with the heist. It’s always best to have the cure just in case, don’t you think?”

Emma and I glanced at each other.

“Like what if one of your boyfriends loses control and starts terrorizing the town, Zoey?”

Or if Callum does? Why was she singling out my boyfriends?

“It’s always good to have it in our back pocket just in case.”

“You were just saying earlier that you don’t think Callum should change,” Emma said.

“And I don’t think he should. But like I said…it’s just in case something bad happens.” Kebe turned toward me. “And I thought you wanted to be caught? And rappel down the side of the building. This is going to be awesome!”

“I do really want to do those things…” my voice trailed off. “But we don’t even know if the coin will be there.”

“It’s definitely there,” Kebe said.

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Oh,” she said with a laugh. “I should have led with this. I’ve been doing tons of research ever since you two looped me in.

There was an artifact stolen from a museum a couple years ago that meets the exact description.

The coin and one other Egyptian relic were the only things stolen.

And who else do we know that goes around stealing only Egyptian artifacts? ”

Okay, that was a good point. “You really think the coin is in their vault?”

“I’m like 99 percent positive. ”

“But even if we do get it…I don’t know how to activate it. And clearly my boyfriends don’t either, or they already would have.”

“I figured all that out too. It’s easy peasy. You can leave it to me. We can cure everyone all at once whenever you two feel like the time is right. Come on, let’s do this thing!”

Emma and I glanced at each other again.

“And even if we do get caught, Emma and I will bow out so you can get completely railed.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“We’ll let you have your sexy time with your boyfriends, and we’ll skedaddle with the cure to give you alone time. You can have fun getting caught. Emma and I are just focused on Callum.”

“Kebe,” Emma said. “Callum and I are engaged .”

“I know. Congrats.”

“I’m so confused,” Emma said.

I shrugged. Me too. But I’d had a long talk with Kebe about flirting with Callum. She seemed to understand. I was starting to think it was just a cultural thing that I didn’t know about. I couldn’t place Kebe’s accent and whenever I asked her where she was from, she just said, “All over.”

“Come on,” Kebe said. “Let’s be the badass bitches that we are!”

I nodded. Damn right! Kebe was really great at pep talks!

“We do have a good plan,” I said. “And even if we do get caught, you won’t get arrested, Emma.

My boyfriends won’t call the cops on us.

And even if they do, I have an in with Officer Davis.

The plan is practically flawless. I really think our boyfriends…

sorry, my boyfriends and your fiancé , will be grateful after it’s all said and done. ”

Emma pressed her lips together. “Ugh. Fine! Callum’s been searching for the cure for so long. I want to surprise him just like he surprised me today.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do this thing.”

Kebe clapped.

“Give me one second to change.” I pulled off my shirt and skirt and grabbed the leather outfit that Kebe handed me.

“I love that lingerie set,” Kebe said. “Where did you get it from?”

“It was a gift from Huxley.”

“Hmm. He has surprisingly amazing taste.”

Why was that surprising? She didn’t even know Huxley.

And I didn’t love that she thought that he had such great taste.

She’d probably start hitting on Huxley next.

And I was as possessive over my men as they were of me.

“He really does.” I finished getting dressed.

“Emma, are you going to take off your hoodie? I thought you were packing underneath that thing.”

Emma laughed and looked down. “No, I’m not bringing a gun to the bank. Then I really would get arrested. I was just hiding my ring so I could do a whole reveal.”

“It was a great reveal. But you can ditch the hoodie now.”

“I’m good,” she said.

I shook my head. “We need to match.”

Emma groaned. “This outfit is too sexy. I’m an engaged woman.”

I just stared at her.

“Gah, fine!” She pulled off her hoodie .

“We all look amazing,” I said as I pulled the duffel bag full of supplies out from beneath the coffee table.

“What if they’re watching us?” Emma said and pointed to one of the cameras Ace had installed.

“They were very excited about the game,” I said. “Pretty sure their full attention will be on that for the next couple of hours.”

“Okay…”

“Stop pointing at it though.” I grabbed her hand. “Seriously…this ring is gorgeous.”

“I know. I can’t stop smiling.”

“We’re going to look like very happy thieves then.” I heaved the duffel bag over my shoulder and we all walked out.

“Isn’t it suspicious that we’re all walking around like this?” Emma asked. “I feel like we should all be wearing hoodies right now.”

“It’s fine. The whole town is probably inside watching the game…

” my voice trailed off as we passed an older woman walking her dog.

Okay, maybe Emma had a good point. Hopefully the woman just thought we were going to a Halloween party that had been postponed or something.

“But it doesn’t matter if we get caught, remember? ”

“Right,” Emma said as she nervously watched the old woman over her shoulder.

“People probably just think Zoey is visiting one of her clients for a late night booty call,” Kebe said.

I laughed. “Yeah, probably.” I needed to put that rumor to bed and this probably wasn’t helping.

“I feel like we should have waited until later,” Emma said. “I know it’s dark, but people are still going out to dinner and stuff. ”

Shit, she was right. Main Street wasn’t as dead as my street. And who went to a postponed Halloween party on a random Thursday night? This was suspicious as hell. “We’ll go the back way. Follow me.”

We went down a side street and walked the length of Main Street before turning back onto it. We stopped at the corner of the bank and peered around toward the entrance.

“There’s literally people across the street,” Emma said.

“Give it a second,” I said. “They’re about to go into that Italian restaurant…see. Done. Coast is clear.”

“Someone could walk out of the restaurant at any second.”

“Then we better hurry.” I rounded the corner and sprinted up the steps of the bank. I pulled out Ace’s keychain and started trying different keys.

Emma groaned. “There’s a freaking spotlight above our heads. Hurry!”

“I don’t know which key it is,” I said as I shoved another one into the lock. This one didn’t turn either. Shit.

“We’re going to get caught,” Emma said.

I tried another key. Why did Ace have so many keys?! Crap, I was pretty sure I’d just tried the key to my house. The one to the bank would look different, right? Maybe this gold one? I slid it into the lock but that one didn’t work either.

“I’ve got this,” Kebe said. She grabbed the keychain from me and whispered something under her breath as Emma started fidgeting.

“We’re going to get caught!” Emma hissed again .

Kebe was probably whispering curses at Emma to calm the fuck down.

“Shh,” I said. “Take a deep breath.”

“Someone just walked out of the restaurant.” She pointed across the street.

“Just act cool.” I pushed her arm down.

“We’re dressed in all black and breaking into a bank!”

“No, we have a key.” I turned back to the lock. “I’ve already tried that one,” I said as Kebe slid the gold key back into the lock. But then the key turned with a satisfying click. Huh. I guess I hadn’t tried that one.

“You were saying?” Kebe asked as she pulled the door open and gestured for us to get inside.

“Are you secretly a ninja or something?”

“Daddy is all about security and protecting what’s his. I’m just good at stuff like this from growing up under this thumb.”

Okay then. We walked into the bank and the door closed behind us.

Emma looked out the front window to see the person outside just walking down the street minding their own business. She breathed a sigh of relief. “I can’t believe no one called the cops on us.”

I nodded. If they had it totally would have been her fault though. She needed to calm down. I didn’t mind getting caught, but I’d rather wait until the coin was in my hand. Otherwise this would be the lamest bank job ever.

I turned toward the vault that Bennett had shown us. The one filled floor to ceiling in relics. It was go time.