Hating The FBI

Hating The FBI -- Bottle of wine

Chapter 23 —

      "Are you being serious?! I swear to god I'm going to kill that pineapple head." Alex was laughing at me while Mozzie sat sipping his coffee.

"You know Moz, I think she might actually use a real swear word in a minute." I glared at her and kept pacing the length of my living room. This couldn't be happening, I had got rid of the jerk last time and I had hoped that I wasn't going to see him again. I thought wrong.

"All jokes aside. What are you going to do?" Alex asked. I paused in my pacing and sighed. I wondered what I could do, I needed to tell Neal that he was back but I didn't quite feel like talking to him. I ran a hand through my hair and fell onto my sofa and looked at the two best people in my life right now.

"I have no idea. Anyone have any thoughts?" They both looked stumped.

"But why has Keller put a bounty on your head? It doesn't make sense." Alex poured a shot of whiskey. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"It's like ten in the morning." She shrugged and knocked the shot back in one.

"Since when has that stopped you?" She asked and it was my turn to shrug. She had a point, I poured a shot. Moz just shook his head and began pacing.

"We need to find out what he wants with you." Alex then looked as if she had a light bulb moment on top of her head.

"What does the bounty actually say Moz?" I leaned forward intrigued. She had a plan formulating and I could see it was going to be a good one.

"Well, there is a large reward but it clearly states alive and not dead." I grinned.

"I knew he wouldn't want me dead. I am just far too awesome." Alex snorted.

"If he doesn't want you dead, then there is a specific reason why he wants you alive."

"I know! It's just so he can attempt to beat my high score on angry birds, he couldn't do it last time." They both just stared at me and I grinned.

"Either way, you need to keep a low profile for a while as we don't want another Barbados scene." I shuddered. It almost seemed like a life time ago since I had left that beautiful island. I really hoped I could move back there one day as my apartment had a really great view. I was happily dreaming of the beach when my ringtone brought me back to earth. I glared at the phone wishing it would destroy itself but after a moment I soon realized it wouldn't. I picked up.

"Ahoy." I greeted and grinned. I had gotten into Big Bang Theory while I was over in Barbados and loved Sheldon and his weird knowledge. I had recently watched the episode where he enlightened everyone that when the phone was invented, 'ahoy' was supposed to be the greeting instead of 'hello'. I thought it was better than 'hello' any day.

"I see you haven't changed Ashley." My blood ran cold. Keller.

"Why the hell have you put a bounty on my head Keller, I know you have a secret crush on me but you could have called instead of trying to win my affection." He snorted.

"What are you talking about?" I grinned knowing I had confused him.

"I know you love me Keller, why don't you just admit it." I heard him cursing on the other end and it took everything I had not to laugh.

"You will go straight to hell with that potty mouth Keller." More cursing.

"Well it was nice talking to you Keller but I will see you in hell."

"I'm coming for you Caffrey." He growled and I laughed.

"See, I knew that you loved me! Ahoy!" I then hung up and Alex was crying of laughter.

"I have no idea how you can talk to him like that Ash, he gives me the creeps." I shrugged.

"He gives everyone the creeps. Now, to formulate a plan."

            A week had passed and we still had no real plan. We had bounced ideas but got nothing that would actually work. I sighed. I was bored. I was tired and being stuck inside my apartment. Mozzie and Alex had me on lockdown as they thought it was too risky for me leave in case someone grabbed me.

"If I'm going to be cooped up in here with you guys, at least give me something to do." I was sprawled across my sofa flicking through the channels. I had already watched two seasons of the Big Bang Theory and there was only so much of Raj's whining I could contend with.

"What do you want to do Ash?" Alex was building a house from a pack of cards and Mozzie was forging his latest art piece. Looking at his piece struck me with an idea.

"Let's do a heist." I sat upright grinning. It was perfect. Moz glared at me.

"Oh that's great Ash until someone steals you and gives you to Keller." I rolled my eyes.

"Think about it. We could use this to our advantage. If we perform a heist and frame Keller, I'm off the hook. No one would want to deliver me to him if he is in prison." They had both stopped and I could see them considering the idea. I knew I was onto something and hoped it would work.

"Come on Moz, I know you have been dying to steal something! Alex, I know you have been wanting to fence an item to keep in touch with your contacts. It's simple!" They glanced at each other exchanging a silent conversation that I was not cool enough to be part of. After what seemed like an eternity, they both looked at me and smiled.

"We think this might work." Alex declared and I fist pumped the air and started performing my happy dance.

"Might work? Come on, this is my idea! Of course it would work." Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Like the 'Mona Lisa'?" I shrugged.

"There were a few tiny details I had missed there." She rolled her eyes at me. She would never forgive me for that heist going wrong. Everything was going extremely well until I had forgotten to turn off the laser sensors in front of the painting. We soon made a quick exit and almost didn't get out. It was a close encounter with the law that we never wanted to do again.

"What about 'the girl with the pearl earring'?" Mozzie fired and I shrugged again.

"Again, tiny details." Moz and I had run into the same problem as I had with Alex with the lasers. I thought I would have learned the first time, but apparently not. I glared at them.

"We are getting off topic here. There is one thing that was missing from those heists that we have now." They looked confused. I wished that I had their tiny little brains, it was so difficult having my amazing thought process.

"We would all be involved in this heist. Moz, your good with security, I'm good with stealing and Alex is good at fencing."

"That's a good point, but we need to make sure that we are not caught out again and we cannot let Neal catch wind of this." Alex said firmly and I couldn't have agreed more with her. Neal could not be a part of this, he had crossed the boundary of our relationship. I didn't think I could take any more from him. We then sat and began the research. We started looking at all the art galleries within the city and something that would catch Keller's eye and make him steal it. It was an easy enough job as we were looking for something worth a large value and rare. Something we would steal in simple terms. It would have to catch the media's attention and most importantly, the FBI's attention. It had to be good enough that Neal would think it was Keller too. As much as I hated him right now, he was also in danger and this would get the message to him to be careful. I was happily googling away when I came across it. I had found the perfect piece for us to steal, a rare bottle of wine. I knew it was Keller all over, he had once challenged Neal to see who could forge the best bottle of wine. Keller had unfortunately won but that was only because he had the original. I turned my screen to Moz and Alex to show them what I had found.

"That could work." Moz grinned.

"I suggest that we get work." Alex started typing away furiously on her laptop researching the bottle of wine. I watched as Moz started looking at the security that would be around the bottle and I began looking up images of the bottle and the different views. I looked up as much as could to get a good basis to start the bottle. I grinned as I was researching as I knew that this was going to be a knock out the park plan.