Bishop lays naked in bed, her head resting on the soft warmth of Amy’s bare breast. Her lover’s fingers are wrapped around the curve of her hip, holding Maggie close, and that one tiny gesture alone makes her feel wanted and needed and loved. It’s something she’s never truly had before, and realizing what she had been missing in all the years before she found Amy almost overwhelms her. She wishes she could save this moment in time and experience it again and again in the years to come.

‘Love.’ She smiles to herself, and gives Amy’s breast a tiny kiss. ‘It’s the most precious thing in the universe.’

‘And I didn’t even have to steal it.’
 

by Randalynn

 

---

 

 
Bishop lays naked in bed, her head resting on the soft warmth of Amy’s bare breast. Her lover’s fingers are wrapped around the curve of her hip, holding Maggie close, and that one tiny gesture alone makes her feel wanted and needed and loved. It’s something she’s never truly had before, and realizing what she had been missing in all the years before she found Amy almost overwhelms her. She wishes she could save this moment in time and experience it again and again in the years to come.

‘Love.’ She smiles to herself, and gives Amy’s breast a tiny kiss. ‘It’s the most precious thing in the universe.’

‘And I didn’t even have to steal it.’

“Hey, baby … what are you thinking?”

Maggie snuggles closer. “That loving you is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Amy hugs her with one arm, her hand giving Bishop’s bottom a gentle squeeze. “Well, I think you’re the best thing that ever happened to me, so it sounds like we’re doing okay.”

“Oh, we’re way better than okay. We’re magnificent.”

She feels and hears her lover’s laugh through her chest, and suddenly Bishop feels the urge to cry. She’s happy beyond the words to express it, but still the tears threaten to come, and Maggie bites her lip to keep them in. One escapes and lands on Amy’s breast.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Bishop’s voice trembles. “I’m just so happy, I want to cry.”

“Goddess, Mags,” Amy whispers, pulling her into a hug. “Sometimes, you’re such a girl!”

Maggie stops for an instant, then begins laughing through the tears.

“Yes,” she says, through the laughter, “I guess I am. But I think that’s part of what you like about me.”

“What I love about you, woman.” She feels Amy’s lips touch the top of her head in a gentle kiss, and she buries her face in Amy’s soft skin.

They lie still for a time, cherishing the moments alone. Bateau is doing God-knows-what, and Finn is getting ready to make his entrance onto the stage, so this time is theirs alone. No need to be anything but lovers, to exist in that space where souls merge and time seems to slow to a crawl because you can’t bear to think of it moving any faster.

“Angel? Can I ask you somethin’?”

“Sure,” Maggie replies, her voice barely a whisper.

“How long have you three been doing what you do?”

“At least six years, I guess. Probably longer.” She traces little circles on Amy’s stomach with a fingertip. “It’s hard for me to say exactly. It’s been at least four years since Finn joined us, and Bateau and I worked together for a few years before that. Why?”

There is a long silence, and Maggie looks up to see her lover looking a little uncomfortable.

“It’s okay. Just ask.” Amy looks surprised, but then realizes Maggie knows her better than she thought.

“I don’t want to pry, but … how much did you three steal? And how much of it do you have left?” Amy’s tone is genuinely curious, without even a hint of greed, and Bishop smiles. She found the right woman to love, after all.

“More than I’ve ever bothered to count,” the thief replies. “And a lot more than we stole, actually. Certainly more than we’ll ever need. Bateau and Finn know to the penny. It’s their job to know — Finn because he needs to keep it all safely hidden and make it grow, and Bateau because he needs to use it to get what we need when we need it.” She gives Amy’s breast another small kiss. “And it’s us four, now.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re one of us now, Amy. Everything we have is yours, too.”

She feels Amy freeze, and her lover’s hand stops caressing her. “What’s wrong?”

“How can you do that? Give me so much, just like that? Without even asking the others?”

Maggie raises her head and looks into her lover’s eyes. All she sees is confusion, and she sighs.

“We all agreed, you’re family,” she says. “So you get an equal share of the family fortune, however much that is.”

“But … but you don’t even know how much you’re giving away!”

“First, I know roughly how much we have, and even divided by four, it is more than any of us will ever need. In fact, our money makes more money every second of every day.”

Amy stares at her, and Maggie reaches over and takes her hand. “Amy, the last time the three of us talked about finances, it was because Finn said our accounts were getting too big. We spread the cash around as many places as we could, but even the offshore banks we use were becoming … uncomfortable with how much currency we were moving through them. So we arranged for the interest on a bunch of our investments to be redirected to places where they could do some good. In fact, we’re the largest single anonymous source of donations for at least twenty seven separate charitable organizations worldwide. And we’re still making money.”

“How?”

Bishop shrugged. “Ask Finn. Something about exceeding what he calls ‘the financial event horizon.’ Which, believe it or not, is very bad for someone on our side of the law, because when you do what we do, the last thing you want is to be noticed. The bulk of our holdings are in places where they can’t NOT make money, and we have so much, we have to figure out new ways to give it away.”

“If you’ve got so much … why do you keep doing it?”

Maggie rises up and straddles Amy’s thighs, then lowers herself down until her chin rests between her lover’s breasts. She throws her girl an impish grin.

“Let me ask you something. Suppose I were to give you so much money right now that you would never have to work again. You could spend the rest of your days on a beach on a private island, drinking tropical drinks with little umbrellas in them and watching time slip by. Would you?”

There is a long silence as Amy tries desperately to come up with an answer. After a moment, Maggie smiles, raises herself and plants a small kiss on her lips.

“You don’t have to answer. I already know you wouldn’t. You’d want to do something, make a difference. Help people, like you did when I was walking around that shopping mall lost and confused when we first met. Because that’s the kind of person you are. That’s part of why I love you … and part of why you’re family.”

She lays her head back on Amy’s breast. “To answer your question, we do it because we can. Because we’re good at it. Because we can help people in ways nobody else can. And because all of us understand that there are better ways to measure success than money.”

“Like doing bad things to people like Harlan Straker?”

“Absolutely.”

###

The woman at the reception desk looks up as a small man in an expensive business suit walks through the revolving door. He carries a briefcase, and two bellmen come through the automatic doors with a cart, containing some luggage and a number of hard-sided cases. Even from the desk, she can see the complex locking seals on the sides, with rotating number groups and flashing lights.

“May I help you, sir?” The smile on her face grows as he approaches. The man smiles back. Between the grey in his dark hair and the lines around his eyes, he’s obviously more than an average salesman, and she finds him attractive, in an older sort of way.

“Yes, I have a reservation,” he replies, his accent placing his birthplace as somewhere in Northern Minnesota. He puts a business card and a credit card side by side on the desktop. “Michael Corcoran, Tektronica Systems.”

She types his name into the terminal embedded in the reception desk and nods.

“Yes, sir, four days, in one of the Executive Suites.”

Corcoran nods. “I also have some extremely valuable computer equipment that needs secure storage. My … associates told me that the Fountainbleu has a highly-secure vault room?”

“We do, Mister Corcoran. State-of-the-art security, monitored twenty-four/seven offsite.”

The executive raises an eyebrow. “I understand there’s some kind of jewelry exhibit taking place here this week?”

“A private party hosted by Harlan Straker, yes, sir.”

“Are those jewels being kept in the secure vault when not on display?”

“Oh, no, Mister Corcoran. Mister Straker doesn’t even know those vaults exist.”

“Keeping it a secret, even from the guests?” The guest threw her a grin that made him look years younger. “Now that IS secure!”

She winks. “He never asked, and we never offered, sir. His jewels are being guarded offsite by a private security firm until the night of the party. So the vault is all yours.”

“Good to hear.” He smiles. “When I heard about Straker’s party, I almost moved my stay somewhere else. I don’t want this tech anywhere near something that valuable.”

“I understand completely, sir. Would you like to head up to your suite? We’ll be happy to take your technology down to the vault for you.”

“I’m afraid I can’t let those cases out of my sight until they’re secured.” The woman behind the desk lifted an eyebrow. “The system is part of a classified government project, and I’m responsible for its safety. I chose your hotel more for your security arrangements than your accommodations, although both are impressive.”

“Well, then, let me call down to the security office. Mister Renfrew will be happy to escort you and your cases to the vault.”

“Thank you, I’d like that. The sooner these things are secure, the better off I’ll feel.” His cell phone buzzes, and he reaches for it and stares at the screen. “Excuse me, I need to take this.”

“Certainly, sir.” She nods at him and turns to the house phone to make her own call.

‘Guess all those lessons Bateau’s been givin’ me paid off,’ Finn thinks, smiling as he pretends to have a conversation with an imaginary colleague. ‘Sometimes the best hacks are hackin’ people … although I’ll not let the big guy know that.’

He pretends to press the disconnect button on the non-existent phone call, but the button he presses actually activates the full sensor suite embedded in his phone. It will record everything that happens from that moment on until he shuts it down, and send that information to all of Finn’s other systems – in real time if transmission is available, or as soon as possible whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Two security guards and a tall, dark-haired man in a gray suit appear from an unmarked door behind the desk, and the woman directs them all towards Finn. They approach.

“Good afternoon, sir.” The man in the suit puts out his hand, and Finn shakes it automatically. “I’m Len Renfrew, chief of security here. I’ll be showing you to our secure storage facilities.”

“Michael Corcoran. I look forward to seeing them … and getting this equipment stowed somewhere safe.”

“Are those Jeffries locks?” Michael nods, and the security chief lets out a low whistle. “Well, I am impressed. NSA-compliant, highest-level security.”

“What’s in those cases is highly classified, Mister Renfrew. I can’t even open them. If anyone tries …”

“… the contents of the case would be destroyed.” Renfrew finished for him. “I know security, sir. It is my job.”

Finn smiles. “The DoD personnel I’ll be showing the systems to will have the key codes when they arrive here to meet me on Friday afternoon, and it’s imperative we avoid having anyone touch those locks until then.”

“Then we’d best put them away as quickly as possible.” Renfrew motions to the bellmen and the guards. “If you’ll follow me, Mister Corcoran, we’ll get this done.”

“Absolutely.” He follows behind the security chief, the cases and guards falling in behind him.

‘Although I’m thinkin’ we’ve got different ideas of just what we’re getting done,’ Finn thinks, suppressing a smile. ‘Which is just how I like it.’

###

“Intelligent Designs, may I help you?”

“This is Keene Curtis, calling for Harlan Straker.”

“Oh, Mister Curtis, I’m so happy you called. The project is proceeding well. The measurements you gave us were very specific.”

“Made with laser scanning by computer, right down to the millimeter. Mister Straker wants this special order to be perfect.”

“And so it will be. But the timeframe is a bit … aggressive.”

“Which is why we’re paying you ten times what you usually get for an order like this. You received our draft, 50% up front.”

“Yes, sir. Extremely generous.”

“We paid prime rates because we need delivery by Thursday night. Period. So if you can’t do it, let us know so we can find another shop that can.”

“No, no! That won’t be necessary, really. Of course we can accommodate you.” A long pause. “Some of the specifications do seem a bit restrictive, however. Are you sure you want —?”

“Listen, we want what we ordered with all the extras, made to fit the measurements we sent, and we want it no later than six p.m. Thursday night at the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami, Florida.”

“The order will be there, even if we have to send a special courier.”

“Good! We’ll send the rest of the payment when you make delivery.” *click*

Bateau looks down at the phone receiver he’s just hung up and smiles. His impersonation of Mister Straker’s second-in-command was flawless, but of course he knew it would be.

After all, he is Bateau.

###

Bishop looks at herself in the mirror and sighs.

‘Sex in a skintight wrapper,’ she thinks, her lips falling into a frown. ‘Which is exactly what we need tomorrow night, I know. But I also know what will be going through Straker’s mind when he looks at me, and it turns my stomach just thinking about what he’ll be thinking,’

“Trouble, cher?” She looks past her reflection to see Bateau standing in the bedroom doorway.

“Yes and no,” she replies, the frown becoming a rueful smile. “Amy went down to the pool for a swim, and to pull Keene’s chain for a while if he should show up. I had to try it on, just to see.”

“And?”

“This dress is so tight, I can’t even wear anything under it. I don’t know what Amy was thinking.”

“She was thinking about turning Harlan Straker into a nervous schoolboy, of course.” He grins, and Maggie surprises herself by blushing. “Or maybe she just wanted to see you in it.”

“Maybe. But she doesn’t know I’m still getting used to … this.” She waves her hand down the front of the evening gown.

“I am thinking, considering all the time you and Amy are spending in your room, it is not as hard to get used to as it once was, yes?” Bishop looks away for a second and nods. Bateau leans against the door frame and crosses his arms.

“Do not be embarrassed. I have been in love before, too, you know. I understand the power it holds, and I can see it has its hold on you. You are more comfortable now. More centered than I have ever seen you … even as the man you were.”

“I know.” She looks into Bateau’s eyes. “I’m not sure I understand why, but I know it’s true.”

“The reason is obvious, mon ami. You were an extraordinary man, but for all of your genius and strength of will, you were always alone, even with Finn and myself at your side.” Bateau takes a step forward and takes her hand. “You never allowed yourself to love, because you perceived love as something that would weaken us all, make us vulnerable.”

“But what you failed to understand is that the love we three shared was what made us strong as a team. You may not have seen it for what it was, but it was love nonetheless, and it made us able to do the impossible, over and over again. Because we were always much more than a team. We are a family.”

“Now you have found someone who makes your heart beat as one with hers. She helped you open up. She brings you happiness and makes you complete. The one weakness the old you had was your isolation. But now we are closer to you, Finn and I, than we have ever been. A small part of that closeness came from what happened to you. It made you see how much we love you. The rest we owe to her … and to you lowering the walls that kept you apart from us.”

Maggie thinks for a moment, then nods. “I love Amy, and I am the woman she loves. That isn’t going to change. Even if I could go back now, I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. I’d have to be crazy to throw something this strong away.” She squeezes his hand. “And yes, I love you all, Bateau. Even Finn, although it would make him nervous if I told him.”

“I love you too, Your Eminence.” They looked at each other, surprised, but they could also hear the smile in his voice through the comms. “Although you might want to be a little more careful in the future about shutting down your signal booster before you have a heart-to-heart, yeah?”

“Bad protocol on a job, Michael. What if Straker and his goons were to burst in here?”

“With Bateau standing right there? I’d love to see ‘em try.”

The Frenchman grinned and shook his head. “Are you in place, my friend?”

“Right where I should be. Nice digs, too. Michael Corcoran is in the building, the cases are down in the basement vaults, and my systems are set up and ready, both here and in the van. All Net links are stable, the security systems are hacked, and I’m ready to play.”

“What about the rest of our surprise?” Bishop looks at Bateau, and he nods.

“Mister Curtis has made quite an impression on ‘his’ contractor in the west. The pieces will be here tomorrow, long before the party begins. And of course the phone calls and all of the financial records will point back to Curtis’s room and Mister Straker’s accounts, thanks to Finn’s skilled fingers.”

“We aim to please.”

“Oh, my!” Amy’s voice comes from the doorway. The smile on her face speaks volumes. “I saw you in that gown before we bought it, but with your new skin tone and hair? You look good enough to eat, girl.”

She walks over, still dressed in her white bikini, and cradles Bishop’s face with her fingertips. After a long deep kiss, she pulls back and looks into her lover’s eyes. “You know, baby, we may have to get dressed separately tomorrow.”

“Why?”

Amy lowers her voice to a growl. “Because if I see you in this dress again before we go out in public, we may not make it to the party at all. And we do have a job to do, right?”

Bishop nods, unable to speak.

“So let’s get that dress off of you.” Amy grabs her hand and pulls her further into the bedroom. “We don’t want anything to happen to it before we need it.”

“What could happen?” Bishop asks, confused.

“Can’t you guess? Damn, Mags! If we don’t get you out of it soon, I could rip it clean off!”

Maggie looks back at Bateau, her expression a mixture of embarassment love, and lust. Bateau shrugs as only a Frenchman can, then grins and grabs the pen-sized signal booster from the dresser before making a hasty retreat.

The door swings shut behind him.

###

Finn feeds the data from his trip to the vault into one of the laptops and lets it chew on it for a while. He’s not planning to leave this suite again until after the job is done, but that’s okay with him. After all, the rooms are big, the bed is soft, and the room service is impeccable. The fact that a cheeseburger and fries costs $32 doesn’t make it taste any less delicious, and if the Fountainbleu can’t make a decent pizza, there’s a place over on McFarland Road that can.

He thinks about what Bateau and Bishop said, and what he said in return. He did love the two of them, like brothers ... brother and sister, now. Finn sighs. Like family, Bateau said.

‘But better than family, yeah?’ He nods and hits a few keys.

‘And Her Eminence is in love. How about that?’ He leans back in his chair and watches his screens. ‘Bateau says it makes her stronger – that love makes us all stronger. Guess that’s true, too. I used to work with people I wouldn’t let hold my coat if my wallet was in it. But now I know who I can trust. And they know they can trust me.’

‘Not sure how I feel about Amy and Her Holiness being lovers, though. Father Patrick used to say it was a sin.’ He leans forward and enters a command, letting the machines start reverse engineering the vault’s locking protocols. Then he lets himself reverse engineer his last thought, and grins.

‘But tell the truth, now, Michael. When was the last time you listened to a priest about anything? They’re so in love, how could it be wrong? If they make each other happy, who does it hurt?’ Finn shakes his head. ’If that’s a sin, maybe we’d all be better off sinners than saints.’

Finn starts working his way through the vault’s code, letting his fingers prepare a hack while his mind was off elsewhere. ‘And if the Almighty’s got a problem with it, he can take it up with Seamus Finn’s youngest son. Because I ain’t afraid to mix it up with God Himself if I have to, and I got the best damned sinners on Earth watching my back. Amen.’

###

“Nothing?” Lou Rossi shakes his head and takes a sip from his coffee mug. “After all the time and people we put on this, how do we wind up with nothing, Donnie?”

They sit in The Roundup, the closest thing they can find to an East Coast diner in Dallas. Rossi is eating a breakfast that would drive a doctor to tears, but people in their line of work didn’t used to live very long as a rule, so he learned to eat what he wanted and let the future worry about itself. Donnie, being a younger man and still convinced of his own immortality, sticks to a cup of coffee and what passes for a bagel in Texas.

“None of the hotels east of here admit to seeing anybody who fits the description we’ve got, Lou,” he says. “Maybe they’re lying, but if they are, I don’t see why. For all we know, they just kept driving East until they ran outta land.”

“Or turned north, or south, or caught a flight to Buenos Aires, fer Chrissakes.”

Donnie shrugs and takes a bite of his bagel. “Hell, if one of them was Magdalene, they coulda driven to a private airport anywhere on the Gulf Coast and be halfway around the world by now.”

“Or they coulda turned around, ditched the van, and bought a house in the Bay City suburbs for all we know.” Lou puts the coffee mug down hard and stares at it like it’s done something wrong. “What are we missing?”

“Lou?”

“My gut tells me we’re closer than anybody’s ever been to nailing this guy down,” Rossi says slowly, still staring at his cup. “But every time we think we got a handle on him, he turns into smoke.”

“He’s had years of practice doin’ that. Coverin’ his tracks, I mean. Why should this time be any different?”

“Yeah, but we’re close, Donnie. We’re not just left holding the bag and wondering what the hell happened this time. We got something real to chase, and I’m not ready to just let it go yet.”

They think for a while, the noises from the other diners filling the silence. Finally, Donnie picks up his cup and holds it with both hands.

“I hate to say it, boss, but maybe we’re going about this the wrong way.”

“How so?”

“Okay, think about it for a second. We’ve been following these guys and the broad as best we can, but that’s done. There just ain’t nothing left to follow. So maybe, since we can’t chase ’em, we should be thinking ahead, and try to figure out where they might go next.”

“I see what you’re sayin’,” Lou says slowly. “But how are we supposed to do that?”

“Well, if we’re right, and one of those guys we been chasing is Magdalene,” Donnie leaned forward, and smiled, just a little, “we both know the bastard likes to work, and we know the kinds of jobs he likes to pull. So ...”

“So if there’s something happening somewhere – the kind of heist he can’t resist – we can go there and see if he shows up! Damn, Donnie, that’s fucking brilliant.”

“Thanks, Lou.” The younger man grins. “But that’s not all. If Magdalene was in that van, and it was headed east, that gives us a place to start looking.”

Rossi stands up and throws a few bills on the table, leaving half his breakfast behind.

“C’mon, kid. Let’s get back to my office and see if we can find something out there worth stealing — owned by a real card-carrying son of a bitch.”

He heads for the front door, leaving Donnie behind, scrambling to catch up.

‘Maybe it’s just another dead end,’ he thinks, a smile growing on his lips. ‘Or maybe I’m feeling lucky. But if I can find the real Magdalene, I can save Bruno’s reputation … before this whole Bishop thing gets out and bites him in the ass.’

The smile fades a little. ‘I gotta wonder, though. After all we’ve gone through to find him, what the hell will I do if I catch him?’

###

© 2013. Posted by the author.