His Son. Her Secret.

Chapter 1

‘You are being childish about this.’

Beth glared down at the text message and ground her teeth. Childish? Was he being serious? Fingers flexing, she resisted the urge to respond. Nope. That’s what he wanted, and she wasn’t going to give it to him, no matter how tempting it was to tell him where he could shove his ‘childish’ opinion.

“Unless that is Colin Farrell personally asking you out on a date, put it away, Beth,” Aviyah’s tone cut across the van.

Jerking, Beth turned off the screen without argument before she looked up and found her friend’s narrowed eyes fixed on her despite the dim light filtering in from the windows. A beat passed. Beth held her breath. She didn’t want to talk about it and prayed like hell Avi wouldn’t ask.

Thankfully, the others in the rental van were not watching her like a hawk and were far too eager to pick up the conversation as though it made perfect sense. “You would botch a job for Farrell?” Malaika, aka Mal, asked.

Avi shifted her frown to the other woman. “What?”

“I would consider it for Shemar Moore,” Rosebelle, Belle, helpfully supplied.

That got Beth’s attention. “Really? I thought you were more of a Keanu Reeves sort of girl.”

An exasperated breath wooshed out of Avi a beat before her voice followed. “We are getting off topic. Focus. Don’t forget we’ll be stuck in jail for a very long time if you get caught. There will certainly be no dates with sexy men then.”

Beth froze, her fingers tightening around the black cap she had been inspecting. Slowly, she lifted her gaze to meet her friend’s. As far as pep talks went, this one fell short by a mile, but Avi wouldn’t have been who she was if she sugar-coated it. Beth cleared her throat. “This isn’t the first job we are doing,” she reminded.

A huff. “Exactly. So imagine what will happen if we get caught. Not a slap on the wrist, that’s for sure.”

“Would we be allowed to share a cell if we got arrested?” Belle asked, her tone still casual as though they were just discussing which color of nail polish to paint. She didn’t even bother to look up from her laptop.

Before Beth could respond and tell the woman they didn’t need to worry about such details because no one was getting caught, Mal spoke up, all the while piling her long locks on top of her head and securing them with a black band.

“If we do, I don’t want to share a cell with Avi. Her night farts are nuclear bombs.”

“I beg your pardon?” Avi hissed, clearly beyond offended by the comment.

Beth swallowed down the laugh attempting to burst from her lips and was at once grateful the light inside the van was so bad.

For her part, Mal was completely unperturbed by the glare thrown her way. Neither was Belle, who chuckled with abandon.

“Jesus. I thought something had definitely crawled up your backside and died yesterday, Mal went on.

“Grow up,” Avi finally said, her tone clipped like a mother reprimanding a toddler, even though they were the same age and had known each other a long time. In Beth’s case, she had known Aviyah all her life. The others were recent additions, but it still felt like they’d been together forever.

Beth was tempted to point out that the one who needed to grow up was the one who attempted to kill them with a combination of Hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, and indole every time they had dairy products. However, taking in the narrowed look Avi was giving them, Beth chose to keep her mouth shut and focus on the task at hand.

And the task at hand was preparing to commit a crime that would land them years in a cell if they got caught. Oh joy.

***

Everything was quiet in the alley. The industrial district lay silent as a graveyard under a silver wash of moonlight and sparse security lights. Long, creepy shadows stretched between boxy buildings like the stuff of nightmares.

To add to the effects, the only sounds to be heard were the distant hum of highway traffic and the occasional bark of a stray dog that clearly had no idea crime was in progress. Or perhaps it did and was trying to alert the authorities and get them caught.

Feeling the usual nervous flutter in her abdomen, Beth adjusted the black cap over her head, making sure her hair was still tucked away under the swimming cap she added just to be certain she never left behind any strands of DNA. Then she checked her gloves one more time. Getting a little paranoid? Maybe, but it was like Avi said, if she got caught, they all went down.

“Third one this month,” Belle said, her voice smooth and amused in Beth’s ear through the earpiece. “We’re officially developing a hobby.”

“This is not a hobby,” Mal scoffed. “A hobby is knitting. This is asset redistribution.”

Beth quietly snorted. However they called it, it was time to get the show on the road. Not daring to lean her body against the brick wall in the alley, she studied their target.

Luxury Shipping. The sign above the large steel doors was sleek and polished, black letters glowing faintly under spotlights. The building itself was a flat, wide structure of concrete and steel, with three loading bays facing the street and a smaller personnel entrance around the side.

Nothing flashy. Nothing dramatic. Just another box storing things that rich people obsess over. The target today was a collection of wristwatches worth eleven million on the way to a collector across the ocean.

Lucky for Beth and the crew, they’d learned of the shipment and the little detour it had made for some antique cleaning before continuing its journey. Mal already had a buyer on standby, ready to take it off their hands for eight million. That kind of money was more than enough to solve so many of their problems and probably get them out of this line of work permanently.

Beth let out a sigh. “Just another target,” she murmured.

“That’s the spirit,” Avi said, her voice crackling in Beth’s earpiece. Calm. Focused. Always two steps ahead. “Don’t overthink it. They’re rich and selfish. And they won’t miss what we take.”

True that. The guy who’d bought the watches probably had a pair of jeans worth more than their entire annual apartment rent.

By now, they all knew the routine well. Everyone moved into position, which wasn't saying much.

Belle stayed in the van with her laptop to deal with the cameras and security alarms while Mal took up a position as a lookout on the roof of a nearby building.

Armed with a dart gun, Avi took care of any guards on duty who wandered too close. Which left Beth to do her thing: go in, c***k the safe, and get their treasure. Sometimes, she wished she had wider hips that couldn't squeeze through air vents so she could be assigned another task, but she was the only one who could c***k any safe under five minutes.

Still, as prepared as they were, the job had a little twist to it. They couldn't easily get into the shipping company's warehouse due to its advanced security system and guards. But what they could do was access another warehouse next door with less security and use it to get to their target.

The night air felt cool against her skin, the concrete still holding a whisper of heat from the day. Her boots made no sound on the gravel as she moved until she reached the corner leading to the back emergency door, which in turn led to the maintenance room, which had access to the air vents. She crouched. Waiting.

Belle’s voice cut in then. “Already inside. Their firmware is two versions behind. I almost feel insulted.” A beat. “Cameras looping in five… Four… Three… And we’re clean.”

“Right,” Beth said. Her pulse jumped as she quickly moved to the door, keeping her body low and in the shadows, but she forced herself to calm down. This wasn’t the time to allow nerves to get the better of her.

At the side door, she crouched again. The lock was electronic, keypad entry with a magnetic fail-safe.

Beth grinned a little as she pressed her device to the panel. The small screen glowed faint blue as Belle worked her magic remotely.

“Override in three… Two… And the door’s yours.”

There was a soft click. Beth eased the door open and slipped inside. The smell hit her first. Cardboard. Oil. Metal. A faint chemical tang like cleaning supplies layered over something heavier she couldn’t place.

The corridor stretched wide and dim under industrial lights that had been dimmed to half-power for the night. She could just make out the tall metal shelving units at the open end that led into the main storage area; they rose like narrow towers, stacked with labeled crates. A forklift sat abandoned near the loading bays, its forks lowered to the ground as though it had bowed out of boredom.

Beth closed the door behind her and let her eyes adjust. The empty backpack on her shoulders suddenly felt like it weighed a ton.

“Inside,” she whispered.

“Copy,” Avi said. “Timer is live. Fifteen minutes max.”

Beth nodded even though no one could see her. She moved towards the maintenance room.

Routine. That was the key to staying alive. Never deviate from routine. Unless, of course, you thought you heard something.

Hand on the door, Beth froze. A faint noise drifted from the main warehouse floor. Her head snapped around so fast she felt it in her neck, but ignored the urge to massage the ache away. Holding her breath, she lowered herself back into a crouch. “What was that?” she whispered.

“Didn’t catch anything on my end,” Belle said.

But Beth had. Unable to ignore it, Beth stood slowly and moved halfway down the corridor. The warehouse floor looked still and silent. Still, she held her breath. Then there it was again. Beth’s brain tried to fit it into something logical. A cat. A faulty pipe. Wind through a vent.

But it came again. Clearer this time. A cry. High-pitched, and there was no mistaking it was the cry of a child.

Beth sucked in a breath. Her heart dropped hard against her ribs. “Uhm… Guys,” she said, her voice tight. “I think we have a problem.”

As though to emphasize her point, the cry echoed again through the warehouse, small and desperate in the cavernous space. Yeah. They definitely had a problem.