Heists and Vengeance

Thirty Three

Ryder

Ryder walked into the dining room that evening, full of anticipation, with Lana at his side. As soon as they entered the room, they paused at the sheer sight. The room looked much more extravagant than it had in the previous instances – dimmed lights, fancy place cards, faint music playing from hidden speakers (apparently the band was one night only). They were on time - there were a few guests already sitting at their assigned spots, along with Carmichael, sitting alone at a table on an elevated platform - the other spots most likely reserved for distinguished guests. A few waiters lined the sides of the rooms, filling up champagne glasses when asked. Everyone in the room was talking in hushed voices to their neighbors, as if speaking too loudly would disturb the whole aura of the night.

It made sense, for this dinner to be treated with so much importance - this was their final night on the yacht after all, an important landmark. This night was to be special for the Aces as well, but for a very different reason.

Ryder glanced over at Lana, who was still surveying the sight, chewing on the bottom of her lip. Of course. They were about to implement part two of their plan, bringing them so much closer to the heist - her first heist. Naturally, she'd be nervous. He nudged her slightly, and she started slightly, before glancing over at him.

"Shall we go in?" he asked, with a small smile.

She grinned back at him. "We shall."

He took her arm and strode into the room, taking the small smile on her face as a sign that her nerves were lessened now. They winded through the tables, trying to find the ones assigned to them. But they couldn't find their names, no matter how many places they checked, and as they moved further up the room, and the number of seats left dwindled down, Ryder was filled with a sense of doubt. Where were their spots?

They reached the other side of the room with no sign of their names on any of the place cards, and shared a worried glance. Ryder turned back towards the room, ready to do one more round, and in doing so, caught a glance of the empty table that Carmichael was sittting at. The empty table. There were only two other place cards on that table, and while he was too far away to make out the writing on them, he had the strong suspicion that it held his and Lana's fake namesThe unsurety roiling in his stomach was replaced with a sense of dread - what if their spots were up there? More importantly - why?

He pursed his lips, but tapped Lana on her shoulder, bringing her out of what looked like an internal freak out session, and motioned to the table on the platform.

She looked in the direction he was pointing at, and raised her eyebrows.

She glanced back at him. "Wait - you think-"

"Yup." He looked back at the table. "Let's go."

They walked over to the table, where Carmichael was on the phone, speaking with someone. As soon as he saw them approaching, though, he muttered a quick goodbye to whoever he was talking to, and turned off his phone. They headed up the few stairs to the platform, as Carmichael gave them a beaming grin.

"Ah! I was wondering when you'd realize!" He leaned forward conspiratorily as they sat down (the place cards did indeed bear their names) and whispered. "How does it feel to sit at the grown up table, huh?" He leaned back and laughed, not waiting for an answer,. "I'm just kidding! Though, you two are very young, you know. Almost too young...to already have a whole chain of bars, don't you think?" He cocked his head to the side this time expecting a response.

"We're younger than we look," Ryder said, with an easy smile - though internally he was cursing his stupidity. "Add that with a surprising amount of luck..."