beautiful thieves | ✓

seventeen

Colby was right. Here I am wearing a face full of makeup, a glittering, silver maxi dress with a slit exposing my left leg, a leather jacket and a gun strapped to my thigh, and I feel like I'm so close to reaching the peak of that rollercoaster.

My nerves have been throwing a party since I woke up this morning. I've been feeling sick with anxiety, the thudding of my heart never ceasing. We've gone over strategies many times; everyone knows where they need to be at what time, which people might attack us and where the stashes of money are kept. I also found out today that Danielle won't be coming on this raid to stay with Posie, but Enoch has managed to hack into the security footage at the mansion so she'll be able to watch everything. So I better not fuck it up.

Maeve and Chelsea are giggling as they struggle to strap the gun to Chelsea's thigh and I wish I could be just as relaxed to laugh along with them. But laughing too hard might make me puke, and my worries would just annihilate any morsel of humour I would be feeling. So I stand with the guys instead, my arms folded across my chest to hide the view of my trembling hands.

Faintly, I hear them talking about Blake being one getaway driver. Zavier is the other. Zavier, Chelsea and Jayden will go to where the money is kept while the others make sure no one gets in their way. I've been told to just bring out my gun and look like I promise to shoot someone, not showing them that the thought of killing someone tonight revolts me-- even if the person I shoot is involved in sex-trafficking and has ruined the lives of thousands of young girls. There's still the chance I might take a life today and I'm not sure if I'm ready to shoulder that.

We're getting in the cars too soon for my liking. Two cars. I'm in the back with Maeve while Blake drives and Jayden is in the passenger seat. I'm silent for the ride, my knees jogging up and down while I watch the others talk and laugh amongst each other. Maeve gives me a look full of concern at some point, asking me if I'm okay. I nod unconvincingly but don't say a word. She understands. I keep my eyes on the street and car lights that flash by in the darkness outside.

The mansion is breath-taking by the time we get there, probably the same size as ours but somehow more impressive with the luxury cars parked outside and the men and women in their finest clothes. My heart jumps with the knowledge that some of these people might walk in, only to never walk out again.

Our first task is to blend in with everyone else, as if we've been invited to this party. Enoch has made sure that eight people who actually were invited aren't able to make it today with some hacking that I couldn't even comprehend, while the host of this party believes they are still attending, so that we can steal their names to get through our first obstacle; the bouncers at the doors holding the guest list.

Maeve links her arm through mine as we walk up to the entrance. The pretty people lingering outside are too busy talking with other pretty people to notice us, and by 'pretty' I mean it in the terrifying way. It's all fake, the smiles on their faces too big, the expressions on their faces too frozen. I'm not usually against Botox and plastic surgery, but it's like we're walking into a rich kid's dollhouse.

We all walk around the grand fountain and up the stairs to the entrance to the house. Zavier and Colby are the first and are already joking around with the bouncers as if they've known them all their lives. They are easily let through. Chelsea and Enoch are next, playing an eccentric billionaire married couple who speak with ridiculously posh voices. They're having far too much fun with these roles, trying to upstage one another with their accents and laughing too hard. The bouncers smirk, putting it down to them already being on the drinks, check that their 'names' are on the guest list, and let them through.

I let out a shaky breath when Maeve and I step up. I'm so glad we agreed for Maeve to do the talking, otherwise I would've puked all over the floor by now. I smile, make direct eye contact with the bouncers as much as possible, and try to relax. If the huge guys in all black suits are at all suspicious with the way I'm acting, they don't show it, and after checking off our 'names', we walk through the grand doors.