Chapter 18

Jeremy was asleep by the time I walked into the sitting area. Despite myself, I smiled for the first time in three weeks and went back to my bedroom, pulling the covers off the bed. Gentle con fingers helped me as I slid the covers over the Jeremy that was curled up on the couch, as if he were a cat, trying to block out the cold. The man didn’t even stir, but continued breathing in deep, letting peaceful air out.

Jeremy –quite uncharacteristically –had kept everything in the room perfecty clean and neat –like the last time I walked out here. Close to a window with the blinds partially drawn, I saw an easel with a cloth covering the boeard. Curious as to what artpiece Jeremy was now preoccupied with, since he was supposed to be obediently staying at my place, straying far far away from cons. But of course, I knew better than to expect for Jeremy to stay pure and abstaining from his favorite hobby. One big flaw of seemingly-Mr-Perfect was that he was nothing without conning. He was a lousy theft, and could not even sweet-talk teenaged girls to bed with him until my father came along and imparted important knowledge to the poor boy who wanted nothing but be rich, handsome and powerful. So far, Jeremy had two of his desired tratis. All he needed was to get himself into The Circle, then he would be his own perfect man.

I uncovered the cloth, a little surprised to see Massacre staring back at me. It was a decent piece of work –obiously not Jeremy’s best. Actually, it looked like something a lower-levelled-in-forgery con would do. Something, say, Dorian would do. Though, I had to note, that the watercolour that Jeremy used was almost the perfect replicate of the material of the original artwork.

I reached to the nearby palette, dipping lightly on the watercolours left open and made a few slight amendments, keeping the overall effect the same. Whatever Jeremy wanted to achieve with this –it definitely wasn’t his best work. But if he was trying to fake a low-levelled con faking a piece of work, he was doing it perfectly.

I set myself to the mindless chore of making my own breakfast, setting the electric stove to work. The temperamental coffee machine worked to my favour this time, and soon, dark, heavenly, thick and smooth drug was in my cup, ready to work as my fuel for the day. Jeremy was still sound asleep, almost like a baby as he lied on the couch, and I couldn’t help but sneak over to him, lowering myself to his level.

I blew him softly on the nose, making his stir slightly. I touched gently fingertips on his cheek, poking softly. Jeremy’s hand came up to scratch his cheek, then stirred. I did both together, this time a little harder. He made a grunt-like sound, with eyes still closed, and shook his head, perhaps to get me off his back.

“Hey, pretty boy.” I cooed softly, blowing softly on his face again.

“Come on, I’ve got heavenly coffee and breakfast. Then we’ve got conning to do.” I urged softly again, this time stroking his face. Eyes of green slowly opened to the world, and I watched as it slowly focused on me. His reaction was slow to come to light, but his hand reached out and touched my cheek, as if trying to convince himself that I was here, right before him.

“Hayley? You’re out of your room?” He asked cautiously, as if I were a scared animal, and anything more than his low, unsure voice was sure to chase me scampering away.

“Come on, don’t be a sleepyhead. I made breakfast and coffee. Then we do some light cons to get my skills back. After that, I’m going to need to do some experiments on Rainer, and you’re going to help me.” I removed his hand from my cheek, gently putting it back on the couch.

“You’re out.” He repeated again, this time sounding like a shocked statement.

“Yes, I am. Do you want to wash up, or do I have to do it for you?” I asked, shaking my head.

“I’m not hallucinating right?”

I stood up. This guy was just pushing his limits, wasn’t he?

“Well, yeah. I’m probably a figment of your imagination right now, so do you want me to help stab a knife through your heart to prove your point or do you want to do it yourself?” I put hands on my hips to give him my offended look, and he fell for it quickly.

He rushed to sit up and grabbed me before I could react. Shock had me reeling towards him, and I stumbled on my feet, falling into his sitting embrace as he hugged me like I was his long-lost favorite teddy bear from childhood.

“Wow, it really is you!” He exclaimed while lecherously moving his hands down to my ass, trying to get a feel of me to confirm that I was here in reality.

“Who else could it be?” I asked as I unplastered myself away from him, pushing his face away as he tried to nozzle my breasts which was right as his face-level while I sat on his legs.

“I don’t know. Mabel or Jerlyn trying to disguise themselves as you? Heck, it could even be our very own Dory-fish.”

“You mean Dorian? When did you guys ever come to become nickname-friends?”

Jeremy grinned, seemingly as if he would never stop smiling goofily. I hadn’t seen him in three weeks, and he seemed a little too unshaven for my liking.

“Not exactly a friend, but he did give me something to do while you were locked up inside the room.”

I was in the process of walking back towards the kitchen at that sentence, but stalled a little. Jeremy must have seen my sudden hesitation, because he rushed to collect himself shortly after he realized his own words.

“Look, Hays, I-” He sounded weak and apologetic, but it was not his fault. If anything, it should be me. I should be the one at fault for putting Jeremy through so much suffering along with me. He had been appointed to be my babysitter, but all he had been allowed to do the past three weeks was to stay in my apartment without being able to con. For someone like he, it must have been such a torture.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I locked myself up for three weeks. But you don’t have to worry. It’s over. I’m over. I can’t forget how I loved Neal, but right now, things are different. I didn’t have Dorian, you or Hayden with me when I had Neal. It’s over between Neal and I, and I was just clinging on to false hope. Of course he doesn’t care. He hasn’t contacted after seven years. Dorian is right. I should have just let him go, and pretended that he was dead even though I knew he wasn’t.”

There was a short moment of silence between us, then Jeremy took me by surprise by hugging me from the back, strong arms pulling me against his hard chest, embracing me with his warmth. I felt his breath on my neck as he merely took me in his hug, not even trying –characteristically from Jeremy –to get a feel of my breasts.

“It’s good that you’re over him. The last three weeks was probably horrible for both of us, so let’s just forget it and pretend it never happened. You’re still Hayley, you’re still part of The Circle. One day, I’m still going to work my way up there, and I’m going to sit on the chair beside you in The Circle, and by then, I will have you as mine.”

“Jeremy, you’re just a friend.” I replied cautiously. Bad enough that Dorian wanted very much for me to love him, I didn’t want Jeremy pushing himself on me too.

“A friend whom a promise was made. I will take care of you until you’re married off. And if not, I’ll be the one to marry you.”

I pushed myself away from him, escaping from his arms which tried to hold me back.

“Like I said, that promise was made when we were young, and it’s a stupid con you and my father played on me. You and I can’t be together like that.”

“I can make you eat your words.” Jeremy stated clearly, as if he had no doubt of his skills. Jeremy’s strength was his self-confidence, and in that one sentence, I heard his lifetime’s worth of determination in there.

I walked back to the kitchen, because there wasn’t anything more I could say. I’d given Dorian a chance. I had to give Jeremy a chance too.

But maybe not now. Maybe after Hayden and I are pulled out of FBI. Maybe after I finally forget the man who used to be in my life.

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I had a Ruben’s art piece in one hand, and a Pollock’s piece in another. Between the two of them, it was obvious that Massacre could bring more money. But Jeremy had done such a great job at doing a low-levelled con forgery of the art piece,  I wasn’t so sure. Still, the curator of the museum seemed pretty taken in by our ‘donated pieces’, remarking that it was the true piece of Ruben’s.

Oh, if he only knew.

“The museum thanks you endlessly for you generous donation, Ms Falroy. I promise you we will be displaying this at our next art exhibition. “ The Curator was a middle aged man with a pair of thick spectacles –probably used to scrutinising art pieces. However skilled he must be at detecting forgeries, it was obvious that this guy sucked big time considering how he could not see the lousy work of Massacre.

“Oh, it was a joy to know that you guys still accept intakes for the next exhibition. I wasn’t sure where I would put it, since I am about to move house.” I replied with a big heaving sigh, as if truly relieved of my situation.

Dorian’s initial con had been taken over by me as a warm up back into reality, and I wanted to make this a good start-up run. So far, I had already been to three musuems with same forgeries of Massacre, and Jeremy was making his rounds with another three more in musuems in uptown.

The auction for the real Massacre was going to be tomorrow, which was going to sadly sell at extremely low prices to a rich unknown caller number 50, who would in turn sell to a Mr. Kenrus who badly wanted this painting, but couldn’t afford to go fighting for a bid.

“It is no bother to us at all. Please, if there are any more jems like this you find hiding in your attic, don’t be afraid to come forward.” The Curator replies as we walk towards the door. Another one down. Jeremy was probably already done and making for my location. It had been almost a month since I was shot, but the guy just didn’t seem to understand that I was actually well enough to go out conning.

“Of course. It was a pleasure.” I flashed the Seyfried smile and left the doorstep to the small studio, turning down the pavement. My killer heels were back on, and I felt finally at home with them since I wasn’t struggling to walk or stay on my two feet anymore. I was making towards a hotdog bun stall at the corner of the street before the car horn took my attention.

“New car?” I asked with a raised brow as Jeremy drew up by my side with a Honda Civic.

“I might have convinced someone that he doesn’t want to trust his chauffeur. How did it go?” He replied with an amused smirk while I got in. There was just nothing more Jeremy loved than to persaude people to his will. Perhaps of every skill con artists could do, Jeremy was good at persuasion. Maybe he could even be a hypnotist. But before all that, Jeremy was still quite a sucker at pickpocketing.

“As expected. Is Dorian ready with the money?”

“Most likely. The poor soul’s still trying to suit Jerlyn’s style of working. She’s still quite convinced that she’ll have him stuffed and made a life-size doll for her.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Jerlyn was a strange woman who never knew the idea of growing up. Mabel was definitely the older sister of the duo, but sometimes Mabel just had to join Jerlyn along with the ride to take care of her. Still, nothing change the fact that they were very good con-artists at impromptu acts. None of the cons they did were ever planned, and always seemed to end up as a mess that they would miraculously erase away almost instantly.

“Hey, isn’t that Rainer there? And who’s that?” Jeremy asked the car stopped a traffic light. I hadn’t been reporting for the past month and was about to get back to work tomorrow, back to being Annabel Francis. I turned towards where Jeremy was pointing towards, watching the back of Rainer as he seemed to be pushing someone on a wheelchair.

It was quite a distance away from here, but the guy on the wheelchair had blonde hair and seemed to be wearing a semi-formal suit. A business bag that wasn’t his was slung across Rainer’s back, and he was pushing the guy forward with a small smile. I couldn’t see his face properly, but I knew enough that this guy was pretty disabled.

“Hey, look at his right sleeve…” Jeremy stated softly, and I directed my attention to the guy’s sleeve.

I just realized that it was loose. Empty.

A loud honk from behind us took our attention, and Jeremy stepped on the gas, easing the car forwards, away from Rainer and his wheelchair-bound friend.

“Well, well. I’m surprised. Rainer has a life outside of his office?” Jeremy asked with an amused tone of voice, but I wasn’t listening to him. That blonde hair of the guy on the wheelchair seemed pretty familiar. Though there were a million people who had the same hairstyle, it struck me something familiar. It was…… Neal’s hairstyle.

I shook the name from my mind, determined to forget about him. There was no point holding on to a man who wouldn’t ever come back to me. He’d made it clear to me, that he wasn’t coming back to me –for his own stupid little reasons. It was Neal all over. Neal was as good as running as Seyfrieds like Hayden and I.

“Hays?” Jeremy’s sudden voice pulled me out of reality and I jerked back to realize that I’d been jacking out for a few streets now.

“Yeah?”

“You’re thinking about Neal again.” He said it so suddenly that I couldn’t help it but return him with a guilty expression. Con-Artist Hayley would have denied it, but at the moment, I was just a lousy woman who had just been dumped by her long-lost lover.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I just…”

I bit my bottom lip to stop the stupid stupid tears from coming out again. Damnit, I should really stop. But how could I try to bounce back so quickly?

The car rolled to a stop, and arms took me in a warm embrace, wiping the tears I wasn’t aware had already fallen from my eyes. Jeremy took me with into his soft hug, not even trying to take more than he should in my sensitive state. It was rare, but I finally felt the old, young and slightly innocent Jeremy back with me again. The Jeremy I once knew was not such a pervert, but it was obvious that this guy had matured sexually following his success.

“Darling, I know what it’s like to lose a love. I don’t know how you’ve kept it going for seven years, but it’s over. You don’t have to pretend to be strong. You’ve got Dorian, Hayden and me. There are a million men out there who loves you more than Neal does, and you don’t have to crash down to Earth with him in his plane crash.” Jeremy cooed, and I did my best to calm myself down.

I was being stupid. It was time to stop being Crybaby Hayley about it.

Jeremy didn’t ask more but silently set the car to drive when I’d finally calmed down.

We spoke none about my breaking down and I reapplied my screwed up mascara, primming myself up to find Dorian. According to my little brother, the Dorian and the girls were beginning to get the attention of the FBI, and surprise surprise, Agent Clarke’s team was put on the job. Before they got screwed up accidentally, I needed to meet them one last time to confirm everything they were doing.

Dorian’s mission this time was to work with the girls and come up with consecutive cons that could even mislead a con-minded FBI agent like me and Hayden. If Dorian could pass this roung without any of my suspicions coming true, then he would make my perfect little student.

We were at Dorian’s in no time at all, but I didn’t move to exit the car.

“Can you bring me to find Hayden after this? We have things we haven’t settled.” I asked, not bringing eye contact away from the dashboard. I was going to meet this head-on before I changed my mind, before I chickened out like how I had been doing for the past few months.

“About? I thought you’re doing okay with him?”

I finally looked up, and met Jeremy’s worried eyes. The poor man reminded me of my dad. Dad was a strong independent man. But around Mum, Dad was someone else entirely. No one could mislead Matthew Seyfried like how Rose Seyfried had done, and it must have contained some sort of a charm for Dad to find a woman who could make him run in love-struck circles.

Jeremy was like that.

I guess I was like that too –with Neal. I guess I was like that with Hayden too.

But it was time to put my foot down and make things right. I need to clear things between Hayden and me. We needed to forget that Neal ever happened. It was going to be hard.

There was going to be screams and shouting from both of us at each other.

But I’m going to make it happen.