Young and Scambitious (Scambitious #1)

Wendy

"What's that sound?"

Wendy closed her eyes and increased the mobile phone speaker volume. "I think that's her chili cheese rolls."

Alexander laughed softly. They were talking barely over a whisper, in the off chance that their voices carried over to the other end of the call. "It sounds crunchy. I want some."

"Ssh. Dinner later."

They had each taken an end of the backseat now, Wendy leaning against one door, phone in hand, and Alexander against the other. His knees touched her leg sometimes. Alexander's role in this was over, but he kept hanging around, offering to drive, volunteering various other services. She knew it was because of her, and how she carelessly let slip that she and the boyfriend were going through a rough patch lately. For three days she'd been kicking herself already. Do not open that door. Alexander was always there on the other side of it. Waiting. Watching.

She tried not to think about it.

They heard Jane, "Elizabeth," order chili cheese rolls. And wait for them. And then walk to what they assumed was Chrysalis' car. They heard Chrysalis tell the driver to take a walk, and then car doors slammed.

The reception for the call, being transmitted by the phone in Jane's clutch, became clearer.

"Oh my god," Chrysalis was saying. "This looks…oh my god. Which one is mine again?"

"The engraving is slightly different," Jane responded.

"What engraving?"

"You didn't know? There's an M & N 25 inside yours. There's more space between characters in the copy."

"Fuck, I didn't know. I mean, I'm sure someone mentioned it before, but I didn't really look. This looks...I can't tell the difference."

"My people are artists. I understand why you'd want a copy made though. I wouldn't feel safe wearing the actual thing anywhere."

"Yes, yes exactly. I'll feel much safer walking around with this. And it looks so real!"

Wendy rolled her eyes at Alexander. "She never told ‘Elizabeth' that this is the same ring she reported stolen earlier this year, right?"

"As far as I know."

"She's worse than me."

"What does that mean?"

Wendy lightly pushed his leg with her foot, eyes warning him to be quiet. But also because she could tell what he was going to start talking about, and it would distract her, and she was on the job right now.

"Fuck. Are you kidding me?" Chrysalis was saying.

"What did Jane say? I missed it." Wendy was this close to panicking.

Alexander put a hand to her knee. "Relax. Jane just told her how much. She overpriced it."

"Overpriced it? By how much?"

"A lot. Like a million over."

And then Wendy started panicking, for real. They had a script. She gave Jane everything in detail, three responses for each possible reaction. Overpricing the fake was not in the script.

"...but I could get an actual diamond rock with that!" Chrysalis was saying.

"You better not fuck this up," Wendy hissed, to Jane, to the phone, to the ear that wasn't going to hear it. Alexander was pumping his fist in support though, and she glared at him.