Adamant Spirits, page 180
“Yeah?”
“I don’t think I said this before, but welcome to the Merry Men. Try not to get caught, okay? I enjoy having you around.”
In my periphery, I caught sight of Robin stiffening. So, he hadn’t told the rest of the gang that I wouldn’t be sticking around.
Now isn’t the time to clue them in.
“Thanks, John. I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“You bet, sweetheart,” LJ replied, and the bug cut out.
Munchie shrugged off his leather jacket and tossed it into the bushes to reveal a casino employee’s uniform underneath. His uniform was identical to the one the rest of us wore.
Besides the clothes, Tinker and I had further disguised me by using contouring makeup techniques she’d learned from the internet. We’d also hurriedly bleached my brown hair to platinum blonde. I didn’t love it, but I looked like a new person, and that was the whole point.
“What do you guys say we get moving?” Munchie asked.
“Let’s do it.” I stepped forward to claim Munchie as my partner. The action made Robin scowl, which was ridiculous. It wasn’t like he could fly me up to the window. Like me, he needed to be carried.
After a brief look around to make sure no one was staring, Munchie transformed into an enormous harpy eagle. I followed suit, transforming into a small fox. As soon as my shift was complete, Munchie snapped me up, and we were in the air, rising above the city. Wind rushed through my fur as I soared higher and higher in the eagle’s sharp talons.
Any other time, the experience would have terrified me. Foxes thrived on solid ground, not the air. But my fear didn’t hold sway over me right now. It didn’t matter because there was no way I was backing out now. Every beat of Munchie’s massive wings brought me closer to Sherwood and Jehanne’s window—closer to revenge and security for the kids at the orphanage.
I wanted to make sure the children were safe and bring the bastard who had torn my life apart down—all in one fell swoop.
I was so determined to get my revenge that I’d thought about it the entire night before. And in my musings, I’d had a great idea. One that I’d set into motion before we left the ranch. The letter Sherwood had written to Robin’s mother all those years ago burned in my pocket. I’d stolen it before we left the ranch house and planned on planting it somewhere in the vampire’s suite. It would be perfect evidence later, after I called in a tip to the cops. I needed to plant it without Robin taking notice.
With three more beats of his massive wings, Munchie brought us even with the top floor. I motioned him toward the window I’d cracked open so we could enter the hotel without notice, and Munchie maneuvered as close to the window as his wings allowed. I squirmed, and his talons dug into my skin as I worked to pull the window out more. The gear was so smooth that the gap widened with little effort.
Then came the hard part.
I motioned for Munchie to fly lower, but before he could do so, Will flew up against him.
Robin, in his fox aspect, pointed to himself and then to the window. My eyes narrowed. I wanted to be the first to go inside so I could stuff the paper somewhere. Robin couldn’t see me do that. He wouldn’t like me planting evidence—especially evidence that rightly belonged to him. He probably wouldn’t even allow it. But before I could argue that I should go first, Munchie moved back.
Robin slipped through the window without incident, shifted, and began searching the room, making sure no one else was there.
Two minutes later, he returned, stuck his hand out, and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck to pull me inside.
Munchie and Will flew in last, but unlike me, the birds didn’t transform. Instead, they soared around the perimeter of the room, searching for cameras that Robin or I might have missed. If they found any, we’d have to get Tinker to erase the footage right away. While Robin watched them, I darted to the couch, ripped the letter out of my pocket, and stuck it between the cushions. I glanced toward my ex and breathed a sigh of relief. He was still watching the birds. He hadn’t noticed a thing.
Planting evidence, check. Now we need to rob the joint and get out alive. Easy peasy.
Will released a loud screech which Munchie echoed—the signal that all was clear.
“Looks like we’re good in here,” Robin said. “Show us to the laundry chute, Marian.”
The hatch was right outside the master bedroom. When we reached it, I opened the gold door and stuck my head inside.
It was as small as I remembered. Robin and I would fit easily, but as we were on the top floor, the fall would kill us. Thankfully, Will’s shifter aspect was small enough that he could fly us most of the way down. Munchie’s harpy eagle aspect, however, was too damn big. He wouldn’t be able to give anyone a lift. Will would have to fly him down last.
“Me first,” I said.
The guys stepped aside, and I shifted again. Will’s talons latched onto my back a moment later, and Robin opened the hatch so we could get through. The next thing I knew, Will soared through the opening and downward.
We’d descended at least fifteen floors when the bin of towels and sheets at the bottom of the chute came into sight. While I didn’t relish landing in someone’s dirty sheets, I couldn’t help but feel relief. If it was between soiled yet soft linens or landing on hard linoleum and giving myself away, I’d take the nasty sheets every damn day. At the very least, falling into them would be less noticeable.
Will beat his wings, and the tips hit the side of the chute for the dozenth time. It made a loud sound, and I winced.
Hopefully, no one comes by to check that something is stuck in the shoot. Seconds after the thought materialized, the hatch whined open a few floors above us. My heart stopped as I glanced up and peered through Will’s feathers. A glint of metal caught the light coming in from the hallway, followed by an empty bottle of Jack. My eyes widened.
Another idiot guest had mistaken the laundry chute for a place to put their garbage. I watched in horror as gravity pulled a whole trash bin full of crap toward us.
Will hadn’t noticed, so I squirmed and pointed upward. He caught my motion, glanced up, and dove.
My heart leapt into my throat. Oh shit!
The stale air of the chute blew straight up my nose as the eagle shot downward like a bullet. We didn’t know what was in the garbage pail. Was there broken glass? Anything else that could hurt us? We were smaller than normal. It would take less to knock us out.
I hoped that no one would be in the laundry room when we entered. A tiny fox falling into a basket might go unnoticed in a room filled with running washers and dryers and bustling people. At least that had been our original hope. But an eagle soaring around the room with a fox in its clutches as trash fell into the laundry bin? No one could miss that mess.
We were screaming downward, the white bin growing closer and closer. The sound of the machines filled my ears. We were approaching the moment of truth.
I closed my eyes.
I felt Will change direction and suddenly, he released me. I landed in the bin with a sharp exhale and instinctively pulled a bunch of sheets over me to protect my head. The sounds of cans, bottles, and other junk hitting the sheets filled my ears. Once the noise died off, I took a chance and peeked out of the sheets.
Will was nowhere to be seen and thank goodness for that, because three washerwomen milled about the room.
Remaining in my fox aspect, I burrowed deeper into the sheets and hoped no one would swing by to pick up an armload of dirties before the others arrived.
Had Will flown back up the chute? Or was he in the room somewhere? His position determined whether I would have to shift and buzz Tinker.
I waited to see if a voice would come in over my comm. After a few seconds, I pivoted and tilted my ear toward the chute. I couldn’t hear a thing which made my stomach drop.
Will was probably still in the washer room somewhere. Great. That meant that Robin and Munchie were wondering what the hell was happening, and calling Tinker was up to me. Thankfully, my comm had stayed in my ear. I just needed to be human to use it.
I was about to perform the fastest shift of my life so I could talk to her, when the cart I’d landed in jostled. Gloved hands brushed by my tail. Panicking, I hissed, flipped around, and bit the hand. A shrill scream echoed through the laundry room, and the woman leapt back.
“A rat’s in the bin!”
Oh, hell . . .
Any other time, I would have been offended at being called a rat, but this situation was too dire to muster up anything other than terror. Then the lights in the laundry room went out. I sucked in a breath. What was happening?
“Oh shit, no,” the same woman declared. “I am not staying here in the dark with a rat running about.”
“Same,” another voice answered. “I’m out until the lights come back. We’ll shut the door so it can’t escape. We can lay traps when the lights are back on.”
The other two murmured agreement. Footsteps followed, and the heavy door to the laundry room slammed shut.
I exhaled a breath as my heart rate slowed. That had been close, too close.
“You okay, Marian?” a voice, Munchie’s, crackled in my comm.
Even though I’d rather not be in the bin in human form, I needed to assure them I was okay. I shifted and climbed carefully out of the laundry bin. “Yeah. How’d you get Tinker to turn out the lights? And why didn’t I hear the call?” Slight annoyance filtered into my voice. If I was going to do this with them, I didn’t want any secrets between us.
Robin spoke next. “Will escaped back up the chute without notice. He said there were lots of people in the room, and we had to get them out of there. We used Tinker’s special frequency so we wouldn’t startle you.”
Apparently, my earlier winces and jumps any time someone had spoken into my ear unexpectedly hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“Is anyone in there still?” Robin asked.
“They all left because one touched my tail and thought I was a rat.” The bitter tone was impossible to keep out of my voice.
“Your fur is nothing like a rat’s,” Robin said. “It’s silky and perfect.”
“Thanks,” I said, uneasy with the compliment considering the tension between us. “Now, shouldn’t you three be hurrying down here? Tinker can’t keep the lights off forever without someone noticing.”
“Roger that, Mar,” Munchie said. “We’ll be right down.”
“Make it quick,” I shot back, unable to keep the tension from my tone. I didn’t like being down here alone. “I bet the laundry ladies went to get food or a drink, but they won’t be gone forever. We need to be out of this room before they get back.”
The heist had barely begun and already we’d had a hiccup. I hoped that it was the only one and not a sign of danger to come.
Eleven
By some miracle of the ancients, everyone else made it down the chute just fine, and by the time we peeked our heads out of the laundry room door, none of the laundry women had returned. There wasn’t a soul in the hallway. We crept into the hallway and shut the door. Being in human form and inside the backend of the hotel took a huge weight off of our shoulders.
Of course, there was still the chance that someone would recognize me, but I was confident my disguise was good enough. Personally, I didn’t think I looked like myself at all.
We’d made it about halfway to the vaults when the one person who would test my theory, Anna, sauntered around the corner. I sucked in a breath, hoping we’d breeze by one another. She seemed out of it—her blonde hair stuck out in odd places and her eyelids were heavy. The direction she’d come from indicated she’d been in the manager’s offices. Probably banging Albus again.
Ugh, gross.
And yet, despite her relaxed state, my heavy makeup, and bleached hair, Anna’s perfectly shaped eyebrows still pulled together when she saw me.
I stiffened for a millisecond before loosening up again and pretending not to notice.
No matter how brief my reaction, Will and Munchie caught it. They moved in front of me to block, but it was no use. Anna might be a lazy maid, but she was a tenacious person when she wanted something.
“Excuse me, do I know you?” she asked, peering past the guys in interest.
“I don’t think so.” My voice came out in a high, nervous squeak that sounded nothing like my normal voice. My stomach twisted into knots when Anna appeared even more interested, taking another step forward, her gaze darting over my face.
“But you look so familiar . . .” Her eyes snapped up a smidge and then back down to meet mine. “And so, you know, those bobby pins are out of whack.”
“Err, thanks.” My lips pressed together, and I shot Robin a death glare for not mentioning the pins. We were on a heist, but honestly, I needed to look like someone at work—not a hot mess.
He must have interpreted the look as something else, though, because his demeanor changed on the spot and he shifted between Anna and me.
Leaning against the wall, he focused on my co-worker, eyes twinkling and a sexy grin spreading across his face. “Cynthia’s new on the floor. We were showing her the ropes. But I’ve seen you around, and I’m wondering how we’ve never been introduced. You’re in that acrobatic show, right?”
Anna’s eyes lit up. That someone would believe that she was a hot Vegas performer was her dream come true. She looked Robin up and down and must have liked what she saw. The next second her chest jutted out ever so slightly as she took a step closer to him.
“We must have been missing each other,” Anna purred. “I’m usually working . . . all over the casino. Thank goodness I was back here so we could run into each other today.” She placed a hand on Robin’s chest.
My lips pressed together as jealousy reared its ugly head.
Robin leaned in closer. “I’m glad we caught each other too, Miss—?”
“Anna Shay.”
“Anna.” Robin beamed. “I love that name. I’m Rob. And at the risk of sounding too forward, I’m hoping that maybe we can meet up sometime? I don’t have my phone on me—floor regulations, you know—but can I get your number?”
Frustration twisted my gut. “Shouldn’t we get going?” I asked, careful to alter my voice, so it sounded high like before. I hated it but might as well be consistent. “Don’t I have new hire paperwork to fill out?”
Anna shot me an annoyed look before turning back to Robin. Then the hussy placed a hand on her breast, allowing it to linger there before pulling a small notepad out of the shirt pocket.
I stifled an eye roll. Who really kept notepads in their breast pocket?! Only someone who wanted to draw attention to their boobs—which judging by how Robin’s eyes had dropped, had worked like a charm. My fists clenched. Damn him.
“Here you go, sweet thing.” She jotted her number down. “I have nights off.” Robin extended his hand to take it, but she tucked the paper into his shirt pocket and gave him a coy smile.
“Excellent,” Robin rasped, playing the part a touch too convincingly for my liking. “I look forward to seeing you again, Miss Shay.”
“Back atcha,” Anna purred. She shot me one last loaded glance, before sashaying down the hall, hips swinging and ass swaying.
“I thought for sure she’d recognized you,” Munchie said once Anna was safely around the corner. “Way to act fast, Robin.”
I snorted. “Like he didn’t love flirting with her.”
Munchie and Will shot me looks of surprise, but Robin just shook his head.
“Can you guys give Mar and I a mo—”
“We don’t have time for a moment,” I cut him off and pushed past him, wishing that the heist was already over, and I could put physical distance between us. Thankfully, at that exact moment, the comm buzzed, and Tinker’s voice, punctuated by the whirring of the jackpot machines, filled my ears.
“How’s everyone doing?” our hacker asked. “Alan is ready to jump onstage, and the others are in position. Is it time for a distraction yet?”
“Get him on that stage,” I answered before anyone else could. “We’re nearly to the heart of the casino.”
The vaults were located far away from the floor, past the managerial offices. They were both high-tech and old-fashioned, which was why we needed Tinker and Munchie on the job.
But first, we needed to distract as many wolf-shifter guards as possible. We needed an event that would rock the casino floor and send them flooding toward it.
“Mar’s right,” Robin said, his tone tight from our disagreement. “Sorry we didn’t mention it sooner. We got held up. You guys will have to move fast.”
“No problem, Boss,” Tinker said. “One distraction coming right up.”
The comm cut out, and I sucked in a breath. The countdown was on. We’d estimated that once the distraction was underway and Tinker took control of the casino’s power grid, we’d only have about five minutes to get the goods and leave.
Fear trickled through me. Firmly, I reminded myself of my purpose here: to save the orphanage—my living family—and get revenge for my deceased parents.
I squared my shoulders.
There was no backing out now. I could do this. No, I needed to do this. And I would.
Sherwood is going down.
We’d made our way down a couple more hallways, when the commotion began. Although we couldn’t hear the scene that Alan, our balladeer, was putting on, it had to be stupendous for so many wolf-shifters guards to rush past.
“The pyrotechnics should start any time now,” Will whispered.
My eyes widened. I’d known that our friends would create a distraction. But pyrotechnics?! I must have missed that detail.
I veered closer to Munchie. “That’s risky. How are they going to pull that off?”
Munchie grinned. “Tinker’s idea, so you know it’s legit. She engineered special fireworks for us that can be lit remotely. And hopefully, she’s already disabled the cameras that would point straight at the gang.”
“Done and done.” Tinker’s voice came in through the comm, and I jumped yet again.
