5 days before the job

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"As you know, we have a difficult task ahead of us today, ladies and the non-binaries," I say loudly, to get our group's attention.

Blaise stops playing Minecraft on her MacBook, Cassandra stops killing fruit on her mobile, and Rey and Yuri stop stuffing marshmallows in Alby's mouth. I think twelve is quite a big amount.

Pandora and Ariadne abandon the scarring episode of Criminal Minds they had just been watching, while Dhara takes her bag of popcorn out of the microwave.

When did she even buy microwavable popcorn? How did I not notice we had a microwave in this house?

Kai drapes the blinds because our dear landlady was watching us again, Elara stops painting on her easel and wipes her hands on her painting jeans.

Monique comes to stand next to me at the head of the dining table to address everyone.

"The property auction at the auction house in three hours, and it's the perfect time to get into the camera room. The place we chose for the opening of the tunnel needs to be completely out of range, and the camera in that room has too wide of a scope, we can't create a blindspot," I say, and then proceed to take a sip from my can of Dr. Pepper.

"We're gonna have to remove that camera from the system entirely," Mon finishes my sentence, "And Blaise needs direct access to the security room to take away any evidence of the existence of that particular camera."

I turn to Rey and Dhara, "Suit up."

And then to Cassandra, "You as well."

Then Pandora and Alby, "You both prepare to send Alby in tomorrow as Maria Costa. We need to get that service cart as well," that reminds me, I turn to Minji, "Get our service cart well prepped, tomorrow and the day before are the only days we have, to get that cart into position."

I then face Monique, "I hope you've gotten all the equipment we need right now."

And then I address Kai, "Catch up on some sleep. I need you in top condition on job day."

"What about me?" Yuri asks.

"Get dinner ready for all of us," I smile sweetly.

****

I sit comfortably in my chair in the trunk of our truck, the outside of which is labelled, 'Suzy's Sweets.'

Yuri has way too many friends. What kind of a favour would a caterer owe her?

We are parked in the crowded parking lot of the auction house, next to an identical truck which was actually used to deliver sweets.

Monique sits in the other chair with a monitor in front of her, while the rest crouch in the remaining area.

"Here's the plan, once again. Rey, Dhara, your sole job is to get Blaise into that security room," I turn to Cassie, "I need you to distract whoever is in that security room long enough to get Blaise in and out."

I turn to Blaise, "You sure we can't  access their footage from here?"

Blaise shakes her head, "The system is too protected to access over public network. I need inside access. But I can get a view-only, to not raise alarm."

"Perfect, Mon, Ellie," I turn to the most trustworthy members of the crew, "Monitor the entire situation through the cameras."

Monique speaks up, "Everyone, test your ear pieces every time you enter a room. If you lose access, don't enter the room. Inform me. Capisce?"

There is a chorus of 'yes' and 'okay' and 'I hate this fucking mask'. I'm pretty sure the last one was Rey.

I face Dhara, Rey and Blaise, "You guys first. Cassie!" I turn towards my lovely grifter, "Take the camera glasses, distract the people monitoring the security room. Okay?"

Cassandra straightens her blazer. Ariadne dressed her up as a realtor. And she does look the part alright. A navy blue pant-suit set with a white sweater inside. Very professional.

They head outside, and we watch them. Cassandra goes through the front doors while Rey, Dhara and Blaise, dressed as security, go through the back entrance reserved for staff only.

No one stops Cassie as she walks right in, and starts going through the displays of the different properties in Chicago that were going to be auctioned tonight. It's a silent auction, that means, you place a bid on the property when its on display itself, there will not be an auctioneer calling out prices for each and every property. It's not a very high end auction, just a normal sized group of customers looking for houses, and realtors who will help them offer a good price.

Cassie gets offered a finger sandwich and champagne which she eats quickly as she goes around 'surveying' the prices. We watch through her glasses as she looks around for the exit towards the corridors outside.

Eventually she does find it and starts walking towards the security room. She peeps inside to find one guard lazily switching through the camera footage.

"You gonna drag him out, or are you planning on seducing him?" I ask into her ear piece.

"How much time?" she whispers into the bluetooth.

"Blaise!" I connect to Blaise's earpiece, "How much time?"

"I need eight minutes, maximum."

"Eight minutes, Cass," Monique delivers to Cassie.

"I'm distracting him with a problem. Make it quick."

She walks in. And I hold my breath. So do Minnie and Mon. All of us are not supposed to watch this like a thriller holy shit.

The guard looks at her, "Miss, you're not supposed to be here-"

"Ahem, I'm sorry for coming in like that, but I saw a very sketchy looking man hanging around the ladies room, so I wanted someone to check it out."

The guard gets up, "Oh, I'll tell someone-"

"What if he goes away by then? I'm a little scared," she cuts the dude off before he can think of calling someone else to that spot.

The guard look real hesitant, but then nods, "Please, lead the way. Your security is our top priority."

And they head out.

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" I urge Blaise, Dhara and Rey.

Blaise rushes inside as Rey stands on the end of one side of the corridor while Dhara goes to the other. Okay, seems like they are good. I gave Blaise instructions to delete the footage of them entering, hopefully it won't be noticed.

Seems like they are fine.

We go back to Cassandra's camera, where she is very slowly making her way to the ladies room, trying to make small talk, "I am so grateful you agreed to come, I had to go, but the creepy man standing outside made me too nervous. It has been like that for half an hour now."

"You did a good thing coming to us, ma'am," The guard says in a strong voice. How sweet.

"How much progress Blaise?" Monique asks.

"I need six more minutes!"

"Six more minutes Cassie!" I transmit the message to the grifter.

She turns the wrong way, and the guard calls out to her that the bathroom is the other way. She then slowly walks back to the original position. Oh God this is not looking good.

"Blaise?"

"Four more minutes!"

I don't know how Cassie pulls this off, but she manages to waste five more minutes, before they find out that the dude is no longer there, and then the guard tells her he will be on the lookout for a sketchy figure and starts returning back to his post. Dhara, Rey and Blaise get the fuck out of there from the opposite end of the corridor.

But then, Mon tenses next to me, "STOP," she shouts into the ear pieces. Rey, Dhara, Blaise stop in their tracks in one corridor, while Cassie stops in the other corridor.

I look at what the problem is, and I gasp as I see our favorite security guard-slash-owner-slash-statue man walking towards the camera room, nearest to the enforcers and hackers.

There is no way to get out of there before he walks in on them and recognises that they don't work for his company. It's a long ass corridor, one exit leads to towards the camera room where the guard has taken his place again, the second exit leads to the main hall where the auction is happening, whose entrance is also blocked by a guard.

Without thinking, I dash out of the truck and into the corridors through the now unguarded back entrance and make my way to Luke who is about to walk in on Blaise, Rey and Dhara.

I burst into the same corridor as Luke and run straight for him, and then remember that momentum is a thing and crash directly into his back. Both of us fall onto the ground, I notice his pistol is drawn and pointing at me as my leg rests on his cheek.

"Who...Alicia?" He says in his thick accent.

"H-Hey!" I say, lifting myself to my feet, "I-I was passing the auction house and I remembered that you paid for the drinks that night so I wanted to give you what I owe-"

"Oh! You really don't need to-"

"Please!" I say rather loudly, "If you could just come to my car, my wallet is there-"

"Alicia I am in the middle of work right now-"

"Just five minutes? I feel bad," I give him the best pleading look I can manage.

A small smile rests on his face, "Okay...Just a sec", he puts his walkie talkie to his mouth, "Hey, is the bathroom situation clear?"

He listens into the device then nods, "Okay, noted."

He then turns to me, "Sure, I have give minutes to spare."

I hear Dhara exhale in the ear piece.

Then I hear Blaise's voice in the Bluetooth, "Pfft what a simp, leaving his job for a chick."

Excuse me.

"I could have knocked him out as well," Rey complains in a whisper.

"Can't you see she doesn't want him hurt?" Comes Dhara's voice.

What the hell is that supposed to mean-

"Shut up all of you, y'all will get his attention," Monique scolds.

I walk with him out the back door and towards the Cadillac before he talks again, "Wait...how did you even get inside without a registration?"

My eyes go wide. I can hear my heartbeat.

Is it hot in here?

Think, Alicia, think. No, don't go to prison like this. Oh god they'll send me to some private island where I'll rot until I die. What if they hang me? Oh God. I can't even make a Pokemon Go excuse. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I hate Yuri-

"Tell him you're Suzy's friend!" I hear Cassie's voice above the thumping blood in my ears.

"I-I am Suzy's friend!" I shout out, "I helped her with the sweets!"

Goddamit Alicia don't sound like a teenager who got caught snorting crack by their parents!

See this is why we need grifters on our team. I suck.

"But you told me you were passing by," he narrows his eyes.

"S-Suzy is not the greatest friend to have, she can be...an embarrassment at times..." I say, looking anywhere but at Lucas' face.

"Hey not cool Leesh," I hear Elara in my earpiece.

"Ah, I will not ask about such problems. Seems personal. Okay, if you could hurry up, I will be on my way," he says.

I grab the first wallet I see, which was resting on the dashboard that turned out to be Elara's wallet.

I pull out a few bills and thrust it into his hands, hopefully he doesn't feel how sweaty my palms are.

"This is too much-" he looks at the money.

"Consider it a thank you for putting up with my drunk self!" I interrupt him loudly. Why does my voice rise so high when I lie?

"Are you okay? You seem jittery, full of nervous energy," he asks with a concerned face.

I see Rey, Dhara and Blaise walk into the parking lot, they make eye contact with me and all of us begin to lose our shit.

"What are you looking at...?" Luke questions and begins to turn around.

I turn his face towards me, lean up and plant a kiss on his right cheek. The three idiots leap behind one of the cars.

I let go and he immediately places a hand on his cheek, with his eyes wide and his ears are strangely red, "What was that?" He questions with an intrigued expression.

"This...is...how we Americans express gratitude," I say with confidence.

He looks at me strangely, "Oh. Are you sure?"

I move my head around, not nodding and not shaking my head either, "Yuuup."

"Ah she didn't go for the lips! Damn it!" Elara whines in the earpiece. I move my hair to cover it properly.

"Pay up," I hear Monique's voice. Were these assholes betting on me? I see two heads popping out of the back of our, ahem, my apparently not-so-great-friend Suzy's truck. So fucking creepy.

I clear my throat while I ignore the burning in my cheeks as well at the two sets of prying eyes, "Don't...you have work to do?"

God Alicia that sounded so demeaning.

He jumps slightly, as if out of a trance, "Right! Nice meeting you."

He then turns around and stalks away, extremely fast, without looking around. And within seconds, he's back into the building.

I rush to the truck, which had thankfully been closed before Luke turned around. I pry open the doors and give Mon and Ellie and powerful stare.

They pretend to be busy. We collectively watch Cassie drinking a glass of champagne and eating a well-deserved brownie.

Moments later, Rey, Dhara and Blaise join us. 

Rey rolls her eyes at me as soon as we make eye contact, "God the sexual tension between the two of you makes me want to jump out of a moving car."

"Please, do it," I sneer at her.

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Hello beautiful people! I hope you liked the chapter! I need some feedback on how the story is going so far.