Read Online Steal: A Bad Boy Romance by D.G. Whiskey - Free Book Online Page A

for it,
and I wouldn’t let it be anything other than the best sex she’d ever had. She
would beg for more after I was through with her.
    “Shouldn’t
you be leaving now?”
    Addison
perched on the edge of the couch—I hadn’t even seen her.
    “Jesus,
fuck, Addison!” I sat up from where I sprawled out and took my hand out of my
jeans. “Warn a guy, would you?”
    The
petite redhead shrugged. “It’s not anything I haven’t seen before. Were you
thinking about her?”
    I
glared at her. “That’s none of your concern.”
    “I’ll
just assume you were. You’re falling for her so hard.”
    “I
am not!” The denial was too quick and loud. I took a deep breath. “I’m not,
Addison. Just getting myself into the right headspace. Don’t worry about the
plan, I’ve got everything under control.”
    She
tilted her head, her big green eyes narrowed. “You’ve been in love with this
girl since you were five years old, James. You may have convinced yourself
otherwise, but it’s obvious.”
    Addison
was a pain in the ass sometimes. Despite our past, she was like a little sister
who spoke inconvenient truths just because she knew it would get a rise out of
me. She knew me too well.
    “Let
me deal with this, okay? I’m the con man, you’re the hacker. I know how to
play people and that’s all I’m doing here.” If I said it enough, maybe it would
become the truth.
    “Whatever.
Like I said, I’m just here for my cut. You could marry the girl for all I care,
so long as we still pull off the job.”
    “Ha.
As if.”
    Addison’s
words sunk in—it was an option that hadn’t even occurred to me. I shook
myself internally before the thought could settle. The whole point of involving
Kat was to fuck her and embarrass her the way she’d humiliated me. Not to try
to end up with her.
    “Before
you go, I have the package ready for you.”
    Addison
held out a tiny piece of plastic.
    “This
is it?” I took it and held it between my thumb and index finger as I examined
it. “It’s so small.”
    I took a
small cap off to reveal a USB plug. The plug accounted for ninety percent
of the device. A small LED sat in the black casing of the other part.
    “I’ve
programmed it to work on its own. All you’ll have to do is insert that into the
USB port of one of ARCANE’s internal servers. They’ve shut themselves off from
the internet so I can’t hack in remotely, but this little guy will pull their
data from inside the firewall.”
    I
raised an eyebrow, impressed. Addison was getting even better at what she did.
Not for the first time, I thanked whatever god led to her being on my team
instead of working against me.
    “Just
plug it in?” I asked. “How do I know when it’s done?”
    She
pointed to the LED. “While it’s working away, the LED will be red. Once it’s
gathered the data it can, it’ll turn green. Then you pop it out and return
it for analysis. Hopefully we’ll get lucky and it will tell us everything we
need to know about ARCANE’s operations and Nick’s accounts. Remember, one of
their servers, not just a random computer.”
    “So
now I just need to figure out a way to get into ARCANE’s offices and server room
and plant this. What a coincidence I have lunch with one of ARCANE’s senior
executives in ten minutes.” I winked.
    Addison
laughed. “Just don’t get carried away and elope with her or something. I have
expensive tastes and I’ve already planned what I’ll do with the money from this
job.”
    I
rolled my eyes. “I’ve got this handled. Go watch your anime shows. I’ll get you
the data soon.”
    San
Francisco at noon was the perfect temperature, and I took a minute to enjoy the
sun and the view along the boulevard. I had enough time for a leisurely stroll
before lunch.
    I
scanned the faces of each person approaching on the sidewalk far before we
passed each other, a habit I’d picked up and trained my subconscious to handle.
My identity was different to so many