To Catch a Thief | Peter Quill

Part 9

THE DAY OF YOUR BIRTHDAY (PART 5.5)

"Ronan, are you fucking kidding me? I'm on a date," Peter yelled into his phone after leaving you alone at the table on your birthday.

"I bet you don't get those often," He laughed, forcing Peter to close his eyes and shake his head.

"What do you want?"

"It's time for another go around. Meet at the rendezvous point in ten minutes." He hung up without another word.

"Man, I'm a real a-hole," Peter mumbled, running his hands down his face.

Ronan always called on the most inconvenient days. Peter didn't want to leave you alone in the restaurant, but he had no other choice. This was going to go down as another terrible birthday for you, and it was all his fault. He planned the perfect night, but now you weren't going to see any of it. You were going to be pissed at him since he's the only reason you came out tonight. If only he could tell you the whole story, but he couldn't because you were one of the Feds on his case. All Peter wanted was for this to be over and after tonight he would be one necklace closer.

He sat behind his Milano, a blue Ford Mustang II King Cobra with orange stripes, driving to the rendezvous point. The only thing running through his head was the look on your face when he told you he had to leave. It was a mixture of frustration and annoyance. You hated him at that moment, Peter could see it etched on your face. He blamed himself, too.

He pulled up behind the gray surveillance van to grab his gear and change into a security uniform. Ronan goes over the plan one more time with everyone, but Peter's mind is focused on someone else. He wasn't worried about the plan because he created the plan after he scoped out the museum. It would be a quick in and out if everything went according to plan. Granted his plan was only 12% of a plan, but it was better than the 11% of a plan The Collectors Trinkets came up with.

Every time Peter was about to steal something, his father would pop up in his mind being his teacher and instructing him on what to do and not to do. With every theft comes a set of rules he needed to abide by. Upon learning about thieving, his father gave him a rule book he needed to follow and every few months Ego would test him. No matter how hard Peter tried to forget the rules he couldn't but he could forget how to do algebra.

Peter picked the backdoor lock and tiptoed his way down the hallway of The New York Museum of Art. Rule #23: Always step with the balls of your feet to keep your presents unknown. Ronan instructed Peter over his comm about what direction he needed to go. Peter ignored him because he knew this museum's layout better than anyone, including the location of every camera, bathroom, speaker, and fire alarm. The cameras didn't matter so much because Korth hacked into the system and played the same footage on a loop for the security room. All Peter wanted right now was to be with you in the restaurant, but he had to settle for Ronan's comments and stupid jokes.

Peter stopped moving when he heard someone whistling from around the corner. He dived into a caveman exhibit and waited for the guard to pass by. If he needed to, Peter could come up with a bullshit excuse, but he would rather go unnoticed if possible. Rule #47: Bullshit your way through a tricky situation.

After dodging a few more guards, he arrived in jewel room and sitting dead center in the room was the yellow Mind Stone necklace. He wandered over to the secure glass case with red laser security sensors surrounding it inside. With Korath working on turning them off, he stood there admiring the necklace.

This necklace was encrusted with rhinestones and the yellow Mind Stone was inside the large pendant in the center. There were two smaller yellow pendants on each side of it, but the large pendant attracted the most attention. Peter never understood what was so damn special about these six necklaces. Did they have these extraordinary powers like the legends said or was it all a hoax? It was insane how much one of these necklaces was worth, but all six of them together was an infinite dollar amount.