The decision had been made. BAAM was going to hit the Federal Reserve. They had ironed out the first few steps they needed to take. They were going to meet again in a week to give Aaron cashier checks for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He was in charge of allocating the funds where it was needed.
Margo had just arrived at Tampa’s premier nightclub, Club Prana, with Anthony and his cousin, Morris, who was the same age as Anthony. They went to the sky bar, which was located on the roof of the club.
They had just dropped Bobbi off at the airport. She had gotten a job interview under an alias Anthony created for her. She had worn a red-haired wig and contacts that made her eyes look blue. Bobbi was the master of disguise with makeup and was able to angle her cheekbones to looks slimmer than they really were. The interview was at the reserve location in Dallas. Atlanta didn’t have any openings that she had experience doing.
They sat down and ordered a bottle of Ace of Spades champagne. Once the beverage arrived, Morris poured himself a glass and excused himself to work the room.
“You think ole home girl will get the secretarial position?” Anthony said.
“I hope so,” Margo answered. “We don’t have time for her to apply for twenty different positions until she gets one.”
“Even if she doesn’t get a position, I’m sure Aaron will come up with something else. That cat is smarter than anybody I know,” Anthony stated. “He’ll find a way to get us on the inside to do what we gotta do. Have you started on the bug yet?”
“I’m piecing together some things. I have to be careful how I lay the language of the foundation of the program. It will be key to making the virus dormant until it’s time for it not to be. I have to program the timing just right.”
“Hell, I’m glad I got the easy tasks.” He sipped his champagne.
Margo laughed. “I’m sure your job is as hard as mine. I would find it tedious to create multiple false histories for people. I’m surprised you were able to come out with us tonight.”
“It can be a chore sometimes,” Anthony remarked.
“Well, well, look who it is,” Bruce said with a grin. He was wearing a light blue dress shirt and black slacks. A guy who looked to be in his early fifties was with him.
“Are you kidding me?” she retorted with annoyance. “I need to find another club to hang out at. They are letting anybody in here.”
Bruce’s friend snorted with amusement.
“Still spicy, I see,” Bruce commented. “How have you’ve been?”
It had been almost three weeks since she last saw him. “Fine, thank you.”
“Bruce, introduce me to your friend,” the older gentleman said.
“Vic, this is Margo. She was Lana’s bridesmaid at the wedding.”
“Oh, yeah. I thought you looked familiar,” Vic said. “We didn’t get a proper introduction there.” His dark hair had loose curls with streaks of white, which made him look distinguished. He was average-sized and appeared to be in good shape.
“Nice to meet you,” she said.
“And her date? I don’t know him,” Bruce said.
“I’m Anthony. Nice to meet y’all.”
“Likewise,” Bruce said, appearing to size Anthony up.
“Margo, would you like to dance?” Vic asked. “If it’s okay with your date, that is?”
“I don’t have much say in the matter, man, because I’m not her date. We’re just friends who kick it every now and again,” Anthony said.
“Oh, good,” Vic said and looked at Margo.
Anything to get away from Bruce. She placed her glass on the table and stood. “I would love to.”
Vic escorted her to the dance floor. He lightly placed his hands on her waist. She placed her hands on his shoulders, and they started to sway to the music. She looked over at Anthony. Bruce had sat down in an armchair and was chatting with him.
“You know he’s a decent guy . . . Bruce, I mean,” Vic said.
She turned to look at Vic. “Oh?”
“Yeah, I’ve worked with him for a while—”
“You’re an FBI agent too?”
“Yes, Alec, Bruce, and I work for the same division at the Tampa office.”
Damn, they are coming out of the woodwork.
“I know Bruce can come off as a bit of a . . . player, a good time boy. But he’s one of the best agents I have ever worked with in the field, and I’ve been with the bureau for over twenty-five years.”
Margo examined him. He was serious, but she still smelled a rat. “Let me guess. You two came here to find some young half-drunk girls, and Bruce spotted me and said, ‘hey, Vic, I need you to be my wingman for about twenty minutes’.”
Vic laughed. “Well, you can’t blame the man for trying.”
Margo chuckled.
“Whether he asked me to put in a good word for him or not, I would have said the same thing if you had asked me about him yourself.”
“I have no doubt, but we both know he is what you said, a player . . . playboy . . . and in his mind, God’s gift to women.”
“He’s all those things, and believe it or not, he has dated women that truly believed that he was God’s gift.”
“Perhaps, but why would I want to get involved with such a man?”
Especially, when he’s a federal agent, and I’m a professional thief?
“For fun?” he suggested.
She looked at him as though he coughed up something foul. “I can have fun without him – and have.”
“Yes, but Bruce . . . he can be a different type of fun. I’m not saying you should marry him. Matter of fact, I would advise against those kind of thoughts when it comes to him. He’s not the marrying type. But a little fun here and there wouldn’t hurt.”
She glanced over at Bruce and Anthony. Morris had made his way back to the area and was chatting with them.
“So what do you say? Are you willing to give my boy a chance?”
“I don’t think so,” she said as she turned back to Vic. “I . . . have a lot going on right now. I have several jobs I need to attend to, but I’ll be sure to tell him that you did your best to convince me.”
Vic gave her a crooked smile. “Well, at least he’ll know I tried.”
They went back to the sitting area. There was no polite or rude way of getting Bruce to go away and talk up another female. Margo’s saving grace was Morris. He had told them that he got a text from one of his baby’s mommas, and he needed to get back home to see about his daughter’s health.
Once they were in Anthony’s Cadillac, he spoke. “What’s going on with Adele, Mo?”
“Nothing. I made it up to get us out of there,” Morris admitted. “The last thing you and I need is to be around federal agents. They’re worse than the cops.” Morris was a drug dealer. He made no bones about it, but he wasn’t arrogant enough to wave it in the face of authority. Plus, he knew Anthony specialized in fake IDs and paperwork. He thought Margo was legit, but she had been known to buy a little weed every now and again from Morris. Margo and Bobbi liked to spark one up from time to time.
Anthony dropped Morris off at a less than stellar club located in the other part of the city. Anthony had told him that he was going to drop Margo off at home and then attend to some business. Morris nodded and didn’t ask any questions.
Once they had left the slums, Anthony and Margo chatted about the heist.
“It might be beneficial to the crew if you cozied up to the big FBI guy that has a hard-on for you,” Anthony said.
“Why?” she asked with disgust.
“We are about to pull the biggest robbery of . . . hell, maybe of all time. It wouldn’t hurt to find out what the government knows.”
“I doubt he knows anything useful to us. Even if he did know something, he probably won’t be able to tell me. I would think it would be classified.”
“Just think about it. Don’t be so quick to dismiss a good opportunity.”
Margo snorted.
Margo had made a list of things to do and get in order before and after BAAM hit the Federal Reserve Bank. She also had to work on creating the virus. Then she would have to put the virus through several trials to make sure it worked.BAAM sat inside an office in an old factory located in the industrial district of Tampa. It used to be a sewing factory until the crash in 2008. The recession after the crash doomed the factory for good. No one had been in it since. According to Aaron, the owner of the building was a motivated seller, and he got the place dirt cheap. He had used a dummy corporation to get a loan from the bank and put down fifty grand as a deposit. “Well, this is it. What do y’all think?” Aaron asked. “It’s big and dusty,” Bobbi answered with her noise turned up. “I’ll be sure to hire a cleaning service,” he said sarcastically. “We haven’t had a chance to really look around,” Anthony stated. “As long as it has po
Bruce and Margo met in the parking lot of Jimbo’s Steakhouse. The place looked like a huge log cabin on the outside. The parking lot was full of cars, trucks, and SUVs. As Bruce bragged about the food at Jimbo’s, Margo was thinking that she would have to wash her car tomorrow because the parking lot was more dirt than gravel. She was thankful that she took Bruce’s advice and dressed down for the occasion. This place wouldn’t appreciate Blahniks, diamond earrings, and a designer dress. She wore blue jeans and tennis shoes. Her white blouse was open and tied in a knot at the bottom. Her light blue tank top hugged her double- D breasts. They walked through the door. She refrained from frowning at the loud country music that blasted from the ceiling speakers. Not only was there sawdust on the floor but nut shells as well. Well, I’ll be damned, she thought with wide eyes. Barmaids with tight, white T-shirts walked around with tray
Bruce put her down on her feet. They came together in a kiss. This kiss was more aggressive, hungrier. Margo could feel his hands loosening the knot at the bottom of her blouse. Bruce smoothed the shirt off her shoulders and down her arms. She shook her wrist to be rid of the top. He started pulling the end of her tank top out of her jeans as she grabbed the bottom of his black polo shirt. Bruce raised his arms to let her pull it over his head. Tossing it quickly to the side, he pulled her tank top off, exposing her breasts to the night air. He got on his knees and then unzipped her jeans. Then he pulled them and her panties down to her knees. Bruce dipped his middle finger into her folds as he took a pink nipple into his mouth. Margo moaned as his finger rubbed her clit. His tongue swirled around her areola. He pulled back and blew on it. She quivered and moaned as it budded and tingled. Bruce attacked her other breast with hunger. It hardened in his mouth. His tongue flicked it, ma
Bruce was sound asleep until his cell phone chimed. He blindly reached for it on the nightstand. He was surprised when he grasped a piece of paper instead. Letting the phone ring, he groggily opened his eyes to look at the note. “Thanks for an exceptional evening. I truly enjoyed myself. See you around, M.” He frowned and looked over to the other side of the king-sized bed. She was really gone. No woman left his bed after he got done with them. The phone finally stopped ringing. Whipping the yellow sheet off his naked form, he slowly stood and stretched. See you around? What the fuck does that mean? See you around? His phone rang again. “Maybe it’s her. We exchanged numbers yesterday afternoon just in case she got lost getting to Jimbo’s.” Bruce picked up the phone and frowned when he saw it was Alec. Normally, he would be happy to hear from his buddy, but he wanted to talk to someone else right now. “Hello,” he a
Margo pulled up to the old sewing factory. She was supposed to meet Aaron at eight and she was over an hour and a half late. She popped the trunk. Thankfully, Aaron was outside posting “Private Property” signs on the gates and the building. “Good, I’ll have help getting this stuff in here,” she mumbled. “Hey, I see you finally showed up,” he joked as he walked toward her. “Yeah, sorry I’m late. I . . . had a late night,” she said. “Can you help me carry this desktop equipment and programming books inside?” “Sure. I got the perfect little office for you.” Aaron helped Margo get her things into an office. The floor was white and lime tile. The desk was big enough for two monitors, and the chair looked pretty comfortable. It was obvious that Aaron decided to spend a little money on cleaners for the warehouse. Margo didn’t think he had the entire building cleaned; that would have been a small fortune within itself.Sh
Margo had worked her fingers to the bone for five and a half days. Every time she came close to having something, it would crash as soon as she tried to transfer it to Aaron’s undetectable flash drive. She leaned back in her chair in her office. Someone tapped on the door. “Yeah.” It was Aaron and Anthony. “Hey, girl, guess who’s on the phone?” Anthony said with joy. “Hey, Margo,” Bobbi said through the speaker of Aaron’s cell. “Hey,” Margo said with glee. She hadn’t heard from Bobbi in over a week. Aaron perched himself on Margo’s desk, and Anthony sat in a folding steel chair. “How’s Dallas?” Margo asked. “Wretched,” Bobbi replied with disdain. “I don’t like it here. The men are absolute pigs. Seriously, I feel like I’ve gone back in a time warp. Women are not taken as seriously as they should be here. We’re like second-class citizens.” “Maybe it’s just cultural di
Instead of being at Jimbo’s Steakhouse BBQ for a few hours, they stayed until eight o’clock in the evening. The time had gotten away from Margo because she ended up having a better time than she thought. It was great to watch Bruce play with the kids there along with Keisha. Margo and Lana had a nice chat. Then Alec, Margo, and Bruce played softball with a few other guys and teenagers. Bruce walked Margo to her door. She unlocked it and turned around to face him. “Thank you for taking me to the barbeque.” He grinned. “I told you you would have fun.” “I did, and I hadn’t played softball since I was in high school. You were the hero of the team with that homerun that won us the game.” There was a twinkle in his eye. “I’m glad that I helped the team, but the reward of that kiss you gave me was better.” “Oh, I’m sure my kiss and the three other women’s kisses right after was great for you,” she remarked. She had given
Margo was excited about her trip to Monte Carlo. First, she had to catch a flight to Dallas. Then she, Bobbi, and her boss were going to be picked up personally by the filthy rich billionaire who was their host. And if Margo wasn’t excited enough, the billionaire was going to let them fly to France with him on his private jet.Luckily, Anthony had finished one of her post heist personas, and he and Aaron thought it would be a good idea to show at least one legit trip on her fake passport.Margo was checking things off her list when her doorbell rang. She couldn’t imagine who it could be. Her question was quickly answered when she opened the door.“How come you didn’t tell me you were leaving town for the weekend?” Bruce asked.Her mouth dropped open. “It was a last-minute decision, and how did you find out so quickly?”“Last minute, huh? Then how come Lana and Alec knew before I did?” Bruce asked as he walked past her into the house. It looked like he had just gotten off w