tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss. Their lips seared together, and for a brief moment, warmth filled her belly, chasing away the ball of anxiety lodged in her chest.
“Please be careful,” she whispered, gazing into his eyes.
“Always.”
He cradled the back of her head with one hand and kissed her warmly and thoroughly. Tightening her fingers on his broad shoulders, she pressed into him and reveled in the pressure of his mouth against hers.
The kiss stoked the flames of her hunger for him. She wanted him, needed him so badly, and wished she were bold enough to articulate that need.
When he released her lips, his dark eyes were darker. Her heart thundered in her chest and the area at the apex of her thighs dampened with raw need. She’d never experienced such a vortex of emotion for any man.
Cruz locked eyes with her, that inscrutable expression he liked to wear firmly planted on his face. For a split second she thought he was about to say something, but his lips firmed.
And then he was gone.
18
Cruz and Raheem watched the storage facility from an empty lot across the street. They’d been there over an hour, observing the activity in and out of the fenced property.
The businesses on either side were already closed this time of night, and at the back of the facility there were warehouses—also closed with no visible activity within.
They had two minor problems to circumvent. To get onto the property, customers had to pull up to the gate and punch in a code to make the gate slide open. The other issue was the camera over the front door, which led into the office they needed to break into.
A white SUV pulled out of the lot and drove away. Based on what they’d seen before, there wouldn’t be another vehicle for at least ten minutes.
“You ready?” Cruz asked.
“Born ready,” Raheem answered. He pulled a skullcap low on his head and picked up a brown bag made of worn, cracked leather from the floor.
Both dressed in black, they exited the vehicle and waited on the sidewalk until a car passed before they ran across the street and jogged along the chain-link fence that enclosed the lot. Once they were in a dark area with limited visibility from the street, Cruz pulled himself up the fence while Raheem kept an eye out. Cruz landed lightly on the other side, and then Raheem climbed over while he stood watch. They took off for the front, staying in the shadows and hugging the long building which held multiple units.
At the end, Cruz peered around the corner, and headlights swept the front as a yellow car turned toward the gate. He pulled back out of sight, pressing flush against the brick. They’d wanted to be inside the office before the next car arrived. They listened to the gate scrape open on rusty wheels, and then the vehicle drove in. As luck would have it, the driver went down another row.
“We don’t know how long they’ll be here. I say we go in,” Cruz whispered. He would have preferred that there be no one in the yard, but that renter could be back there for a long time. Better to take their chances to get the information they needed.
With a curt nod, Raheem confirmed that he agreed.
Cruz peered around the corner again to make sure they didn’t have more visitors. The street out front was empty. He pulled a miniature can of black spray paint from the front pocket of his jeans. The container was small, only about three inches long with the circumference of a tube of lipstick. It was used as touch-up paint but would serve another purpose tonight.
The camera was angled toward the front door, which meant he was in its blind spot coming from the opposite direction. He stood out of sight underneath and, careful to keep his hand out of view, sprayed the paint upward over the lens, blacking out its line of sight.
Dropping to his haunches, he pulled two simple tools from the lock pick set in his back pocket and opened the door. He’d already jammed the frequency for the alarm system while they were across the street, so now they had no additional barriers to entry.
With a low whistle, he signaled to Raheem that the door was open, and they both slipped inside. The office was small and dark, but light came in through the window from a light post on the street. Staying in the