The Four Seasons got larger and brighter as they approached. Reitman would be inside by now, pretending to drink champagne, trading his full glass for an empty one every so often, staying sharp while everyone else’s senses dulled.
They were arriving late on purpose. Making an entrance. It was risky considering they weren’t invited, but important people never showed up on time. And tonight, they were the biggest game in town. Bowen, Sera, and Henrik were waiting for them a block from the venue, ready to go, if quite grudgingly. He’d managed to tear himself away from Polly long enough this afternoon for a conference call with his squad mates, reviewing details one by one until each step could be repeated in their sleep.
Some calls were made while Polly slept. He didn’t like having secrets between them, but in order for her to be convincing, they were necessary. He consoled himself with the personal vow that after tonight, he would never keep a single secret from her as long as he lived. Please God, let me have the opportunity to stick around and carry out that promise.
Austin looked down at Polly, trying not to make it obvious that he was memorizing every one of her beautiful features. “Red hair suits you, sweet, but if you don’t mind, we’ll be burning that sodding wig later. I don’t like changing any part of you.”
She tilted her head, peeking up at him from beneath her false eyelashes. “Now you know how I felt all those times.”
“I suppose,” Austin said quickly, before he could profess his undying love. It was an amazing—amazing—thing to believe someone when they spoke, without question. He had that with Polly, which meant she truly didn’t like him being in disguise. She liked the man beneath, despite his past. Hell, despite his present. He was an unforgivable asshole and they both knew it, but she wanted him in spite of it. The list of what he wouldn’t do to protect that was blank.
She deserved better. Total honesty. He couldn’t give her that just yet, but he could give her the closest thing, even though it might discolor him in her eyes. No, it would. There was no might about it. But he couldn’t let her go into tonight without a clear picture of the man on her team. Him. Before Polly, he hadn’t been a good man, and she needed to know the worst of it.
Austin pulled Polly to a stop, just outside the glow cast by a streetlight. She rubbed her painted red lips together, looking up at him expectantly, but the damning words wouldn’t come out of his mouth.
His atypical hesitation must have tipped her off that something bad was coming, because her shoulders sagged an inch. “What is it?”
“Polly, I…you should know that Reitman is retaliating against me for a good reason. After I found out about Gemma in S?o Paulo and he took off with the money—”
Alarm flared in her gaze. She lifted two fingers and placed them over his mouth, shaking her head. “Not now, Austin. Don’t do this right now.”
She didn’t understand. Couldn’t understand. What if he didn’t get another chance? He circled her wrist and tugged her hand away from his mouth. “It has to be now. You should know whose team you’re playing on.”
“I do know.” Confidence laced her tone. “I know who you are. I’ve done some terrible things in the past, too. Taken what I can do at a keyboard and ruined lives with it, telling myself those people deserved their comeuppance for what they’d done. But one of those people could have been you. Or Bowen. Or Erin, Connor, Henrik. If I’d known who I was affecting, I would have thought twice.” She stepped closer, getting right in Austin’s face, making his heart boom like back-to-back explosions in his chest. “We are not the sum of our past deeds. There are gray areas and straight-up mistakes, but we can’t let them define us. Okay? Whatever you did won’t change what I know. And I know you.”
“Oh God.” Austin dropped his forehead down to mesh with hers, rolling it side to side, absorbing warmth, strength. “Oh God. What are you doing with me? Why are you saving me like this?”
“You know why,” Polly whispered, her voice carried away on the wind.
He wanted to snatch the words back and immortalize them somehow, because they were as close as he ever expected to come to a declaration from Polly. The chocolate coin on his tongue grew heavier, but instead of unwrapping it the way he longed to do, he clutched her arms tight, so tight. “Listen to me. You go in there and do exactly as we planned. I will be there, even though you can’t see me.” He shook her a little. “Remember this.” Austin paused to make sure he had her attention. “I never go into a job unless I know for sure that I can win. Repeat that for me.”
She nodded. “You never go into a job unless you know for sure you can win.”
A man stepped out from between two parked cars, just behind Polly.
“Neither do I.”
Austin’s muscles tensed, preparing to throw Polly behind him. When the newcomer stepped into the light, showing Austin his identity, the tension didn’t ease, but his fear for Polly’s safety took a nosedive. His relief was so intense, it took him a moment to breathe again.