Reckless {HS}

twenty-four

Harry's Pov

The moment I saw her, I knew. The shape of her body, the way she moved—Delilah was here. My heart skipped a beat, but I quickly pulled myself together, tearing my eyes away from her and the friend she was with. I couldn't let her distract me tonight, not when everything was on the line.

I moved away from where she stood, slipping into the shadows of the gallery, my heart pounding for reasons I didn't want to acknowledge. I rejoined the boys near the back hallway, keeping my focus on the job. Louis was finishing up with the security system. As he walked over, he handed off the flash drive like it was nothing, and we all knew what that meant—security down, clean job.

We moved quickly and silently through the halls. Niall and I slipped into the vault, our steps muffled by the thick carpeting. Everything was going perfectly. I knelt down in front of the glass case, my eyes zeroing in on the antique dagger. It gleamed under the soft lighting, just waiting for me to take it.

I smirked to myself. This was it. We were finally going to pull off the score my dad had been pushing us toward for months. I reached for the glass, ready to lift the case and grab the dagger—

And then the alarm went off.

My heart nearly stopped as the piercing sound ripped through the room. My head snapped up to Niall, whose wide-eyed expression mirrored mine. What the hell? We'd disabled everything—or at least we thought we had. This wasn't supposed to happen.

"Shit!" Niall cursed, scrambling to his feet. "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" I hissed, already moving. There wasn't time to think. The entire plan had just blown up in our faces, and we needed to get out. We bolted for the exit, sprinting through the gallery's halls as the alarm blared in the background.

As we rounded the corner into the hallway, I froze. Standing there, right in front of us, was Delilah. Her face was pale, and she was holding something in her hand—a flash drive. My eyes widened. No... it couldn't be.

Niall skidded to a stop beside me. "Is that—"

Before he could finish, the sound of footsteps echoed down the hall. Security guards were closing in, charging toward us with weapons drawn. There was no time to figure out what the hell Delilah was doing here, or why she had the flash drive. All I knew was that she was in this now, and we needed to get the hell out.

"Come on, Delilah! You're in this now!" I barked, more panicked than I wanted to admit. I grabbed her arm and yanked her toward me, not giving her a chance to argue. I wasn't leaving her behind—not now.

She stumbled but kept up, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. We ran as fast as we could, the three of us tearing down the hallway toward the back exit. My pulse was pounding in my ears, the adrenaline pumping through my veins. Everything was falling apart, and I didn't have time to think. We had to get out.

The door slammed open as we burst through it, the cool night air hitting us like a shock. Parked at the curb, engine running, was Liam in the car. He glanced back at us, his face tense. "What the hell happened?"

"No time!" I shouted, shoving Delilah into the backseat and jumping in after her. Niall followed right behind, slamming the door shut just as the first security guards burst out of the building.

"Drive!" I barked.

Liam didn't hesitate. He floored it, and the car screeched as it peeled away from the gallery, speeding off into the night. I leaned back in my seat, trying to catch my breath, my heart still racing from the chaos.

Delilah sat next to me, her chest heaving, her face pale as a ghost. Her wide eyes darted between me and the others, clearly in shock. She had no idea what she'd just gotten herself into.

I shot her a look, my anger barely contained. "What the hell were you doing in there?" I growled, my voice low and sharp. I didn't care how scared she was—she'd nearly blown everything for us. "This was reckless, Delilah. You shouldn't have been there."

She didn't answer. She just stared at me, still clutching the flash drive, as if she wasn't even sure how it had ended up in her hand. But she knew, deep down, that things had just changed. She was part of this now, whether she liked it or not.

We sped off into the darkness, the tension thick in the car as the city lights blurred past us. I glanced at her again, my mind racing. This was the last thing I'd wanted—her caught up in this world, this mess. But it was too late now. We were in it together. And for the first time, I wasn't sure what that meant for either of us.