Page 3 of The Wicked

There’s Upper, who was a mad genius with computers and all things coding and hacking. He was our eyes and ears and seldom played the role of our guy in the chair.

Milk, on the other hand, could talk any man or woman into doing her bidding, and it was a gift I would have killed for. She was approachable and beautiful. She compelled people with her smile and the seductive sound of her voice.

There’s Devil, who had a mysterious aura. He always wore black and knew how to handle weapons like a professional. He was hard-hearted when it came to doing something none of us would approve of but would have to do.

And then there’s me, Zahra—as it says on my anklet. I’d love to think I was the bravest. When you spend every waking minute of your life around people who can snuff the life out of you at any second, you learn to be bold and fearless, to never cower when there’s a gun pointed at your face.

“I’ll prepare the bill counter,” Dog said, rubbing his palms together as he disappeared to the small storage room.

“And I’ll get dinner; what do you fuckers feel up to?” Upper pulled off his overalls, took out his contact lenses, and carelesslyflicked them to the ground for the next person who would bother to use the vacuum cleaner.

We lived in a studio apartment that was never tidied and would probably get us arrested if the cops were to burst in, but it was above an unpopular kitchen in the city, so the odds of us getting busted were slim.

Devil shot Upper a taunting smile, turning me around to face him. “Get us whatever, as long as it’s not stolen.”

“What the bloody hell do you mean by that?” Upper cursed, but there was a lightness to his voice.

“I’ll go with him,” Milk announced before dashing after Upper, who grabbed his glasses from one of the worn-out couches, slipping them on without bothering to clean the lenses. He threw his arm around Milk’s shoulder as they walked out the door and out of view.

Devil grinned down at me. “How are you so amazing?” he asked, pulling me to his body, lips trailing down my neck, with his hands going down my back to squeeze my ass.

I pushed at him lightly with a smile. “Get your horny hands off me, I’m sweaty.”

“Yeah, but that’s us half the time.”

I smiled at him, throwing my arms around his shoulders.

“Youreallyare amazing, Zahra,” he repeated.

I traced his jawline with my index finger. “I’m pretty sure when I was born, my mother or father said the wordamazing. It grew with me, I guess.”

“Mm-hmm,” he murmured, pressing his lips to mine in a kiss. My lips parted, kissing him back.

While our relationship wasn’t defined, he was one of my best friends, and we shared comfort and appreciation with, well,veryintimate gestures.

“I’m pretty sure we pissed off some really dangerous people tonight.” Dog’s voice rang through the space as he dropped the bill counter on the table and pulled up a chair. “Ass off the table, Zahra.”

I chuckled.

Life was going well—as well as it could for five skilled criminals who robbed other criminals. I didn’t know how we managed to pull off this mission, but somehow, the forces that ruled the world seemed to be on our side.

And honestly, I wasn’t complaining.

“I’m thinking… America,” Milk said, her eyes dreamy as her hands waved apart an invisible picture of America. “I’ve always wanted to live that American dream. With all this money, I could even open my salon and spa.”

I smiled, relaxing back on the bean bag as we thought about our next step after this. We’d always wanted to go on a one-year vacation away from Italy; we wanted to travel the world and see people and places we’d only heard of.

The money we had now could last us more than three years, and though I knew we could never have too much money, the break was something we all needed.

Hitting one of The Wicked’s vault houses was the biggest risk we had ever taken; we had made a pact before we left that if we pulled it off, we would all go on a vacation together and live like royalty.

They deserved it, and if I managed to cross off everything on my list, I might deserve the break too.

I let out a silent breath, glancing at the wall clock opposite me before focusing on the conversation going around.

“Just think of all the places we could visit,” Milk said.

“America, where dreams come true,” Dog sighed. “Los Angeles, the city of angels, and Miami, the city of tits.”