Page 31 of The Hard Way (The Kinky Bank Robbers #5)

“They wouldn’t have all this if you weren’t sending that money,” Odin reminded me.

“It still hurts.”

Sure enough Petey came to the edge of the fence, a black and white streak. He went wild, barking in the direction of our tree.

Candace went up and petted him. I held my breath as she squinted at the tree we were in, but I knew she wouldn’t investigate.

Eventually she turned away, leaving Petey to his freakout.

They headed up and inspected a rotting section of fence.

Candace and Vanessa seemed to be consulting on a repair.

Vanessa slung down her pack, and they banged a pair of two-by-fours into place.

At one point, while Candace was hammering, Vanessa smiled in my direction.

I passed the binoculars to my guys and let them look. I loved that they got to see it all.

Candace and Kaitlin headed back toward the house after a while, but Vanessa lingered.

“What’s she doing?” I asked.

“Maybe she wants to talk,” Zeus said.

Eventually my younger sisters disappeared from sight. A few minutes later, a diesel engine roared to life. Candace would be taking Kaitlin to school in the truck.

Vanessa waved us over.

We climbed down, trekked over to the fence, and jumped it.

Petey jumped up on me, barking madly. I knelt and let him lick my face, ruffling his scruff.

Vanessa was all smiles. “Did you see?”

“Of course! Oh my god.” There were no words. I introduced Zeus. Vanessa shook his hand with an undisguised look of awe.

“I wanted to see you again. To thank you. Nancy Zietlow confessed, and they charged Hank.”

“Thank goodness.”

“There is still a bad aura around our cheese, just from all the coverage, but we’re getting so much goodwill. You know that monthly cheese box I started? Twenty-some sales this morning already. And the news hasn’t even broke in the Reporter yet.”

“People will come around. They may wait, but they’ll come back.” We strolled into the herd, and I looked at the sheep. So many of my old favorite ewes were there. My eyes welled up a bit as I patted their fluffy backs.

“Probably stronger than ever,” she said. “You saved us. Again.”

“I should be thanking you—for this. It meant so much. I didn’t know if I could do it.”

“Are you glad now?” Thor asked.

“It was hard. But no, I’m glad.”

“We miss you,” Vanessa said.

“I miss you.”

“Someday,” Thor said, rubbing my shoulders.

“You think?” Vanessa asked. “You think you could come back? Just for a visit, even?”

“Only if things change,” I said. “I so want to.”

“Things do change, though, right?” she said hopefully.

“Sometimes.” I brightened up. “I would’ve never thought I’d stand here being jealous of going out with the herd to fix a fence issue. So I guess things do change.”

Vanessa got a mischievous look. “Funny you should say that. So very funny.”

“What?”

“Kaitlin’s at school all day, and Candace is heading out to her temp job. Those girls will be gone until sundown. And I can’t help but notice you’re here with three capable-looking guys.”

I widened my eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

“Capable looking ? We can do better than that,” Odin said.

I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.

“You know we can’t go through summer with those tarps,” Vanessa said. “It’s shantytown central in there. And the shearing shed has major issues…”

“And you have the materials…”

“Of course.”

“We’re in,” Zeus said. “Give us a list of things to do.”

Shivers went over me.

“Come on.” Vanessa picked up her pack, and we trudged all the way back with the herd and Petey, who continued to jump on me like crazy. He went even crazier when I threw a few sticks for him. God, I’d missed that dog.

Back near the house, Vanessa and I showed my guys the lamb pen. Ten lambs, going on a month old by now. A cute age.

Before I knew it, we were in the hush of the main barn.

My guys got to work on the wall, and Vanessa and I went over the spreadsheets on her laptop and talked about the operations. She told me her ideas for marketing and expansion. She’d been taking classes at the local college.

Later, we went into the house and made lunch and brought it out to the guys.

It really was like we were a family, and for a moment, with the five of us sitting there at the picnic table outside the shearing shed, I allowed myself to imagine a world where ZOX wasn’t chasing us.

A world where my guys and I weren’t being hunted.

A world where they got the commendation they deserved instead of a life on the run.

And we could come out to the farm and help. Hang for holidays.

We explained a little more of the situation to Vanessa, and she looked sad. Worried about me living the life of a fugitive with ultrapowerful, ultradeadly enemies .

I tried to explain the good parts to her. Not getting graphic about our sex lives, but about the places we went, the thrills, the luxury hotels. Vanessa was impressed, but it sounded empty to my ears. What did we really have?

But then Zeus came behind me and put his arms around me and his chin on my shoulder. “We’ve burned through the list,” he said, “but we’ve noticed a few other things we could repair. Odin wants to have a look at the HVAC.”

“You can’t repair the mechanicals. That takes an expert.”

“He’s an engineer,” I said.

Vanessa sat up. She was interested, I could tell. “You’ve done so much. All the drudge work and now mechanicals?”

“It’ll never be enough,” Zeus said. “And it’ll never be drudge work. You’re family.”

She raised her eyes to mine. That’s what we had. Family .

My sisters were family and always would be—I hadn’t lost them. And Zeus and Thor and Odin and I were our own fierce little family, fighting against all odds.

And winning.

Little did we know, standing there in that quiet farmhouse kitchen, that the biggest fight of our lives was just around the corner.

Thank you for reading the bank robbers! This is me hearting you so hard!!

Next up: The gang is stunned when their worst enemy comes to them for help.

Denko is a man whose most cherished wish is to kill the God Pack—the more slowly, the more painfully, the better.

Does he really need their help or is it just another trick? Is it foolish to trust him?

But how can they ignore Denko when he holds the key everything they’ve always wanted?

— — Grab The Best Trick