The Thieves: Stealing Bethany

Prologue

Author's Note: The prologue is from Cody's POV, but the rest of the story will be from Bethany's POV. Updates will be every Sunday! I hope you enjoy reading about these characters as much as I enjoy writing about them! If you do, star, comment, follow :)

Prologue

Friday, September 12th 4:27 p.m. PST, 29 days to deadline

            Cody pushed open the door to the Sand Shack Surf Shop, setting off a jangling noise as a bundle of sea shells and colored glass above the entrance shook. Thanks to his team’s previous surveillance reports, he knew the pretty brunette who approached him was named Bethany Meyer before she ever got close enough for him to read her name tag. Thanks to his own research, he knew the girl’s name, age, address, social security number, and even that she’d broken her arm in third grade. Maybe accessing her medical records had been overkill, but he’d had a feeling they would need to use this girl, and he liked to be prepared for all eventualities.

            “Hi! Welcome to the Sand Shack. Can I help you find something today?”

            Her speech was clearly rehearsed, something she had said hundreds of times before, but her smile was genuine. It reached her crystal blue eyes, and Cody was struck by how light they were. The DMV photo he’d seen of her didn’t capture the way they pierced you when she looked at you.

            Cody shook himself and returned her smile, feeling unexpectedly glad he was the one to make first contact. “Actually, I was wondering if I could speak to your manager. I want to put in an application.”

            “Oh, sorry. I’m the only one here right now and we’re not hiring.” The sympathetic look she gave him was just as genuine as her smile, and he had a moment of regret that he wouldn’t be the team member working with her. Then again, she might be the one that ended up making room for his team. He hoped not. Her answer confirmed what he already knew, and with her assertion that the shop was empty he initiated the next phase of his plan.

            He hung his head in mock disappointment. “Damn.” Then he slowly raised his head, winked at her, and grinned. “Since you’ve destroyed my dream of working in a genuine California surf shop, would you at least let me use the bathroom before I go? You have to say yes now.”

            He expected the kind of girlish giggle Dominic usually elicited from the girls he flirted with. Either he just wasn’t as adept at flirting as Dom, or Bethany wasn’t a giggler. He filed that away in his mental dossier on her as she rolled her eyes at him, still smiling, and pointed towards a door behind the counter at the back of the store marked Employees Only. “Second door on the left through there.”

            Bethany followed him as he traversed the sales floor, and he momentarily panicked thinking she was going to come into the back with him. He was reaching for the phone in his pocket to send a text for backup when the door jangled, alerting them that someone else had entered the store. Bethany reversed course, going to greet the middle aged couple who walked in. Saved by the seashells.

            Cody had memorized the blueprints of the building the week prior. It was basically one big square, with the front two thirds of the space comprising the sales floor and the back third divided into three areas. On his left was a door that led to the manager’s office, followed by the door that led to the bathroom. To his right was open space that held the extra inventory and the employee lounge.

            Directly across from the door he’d come through was an emergency exit that led to the alley behind the shopping center the surf shop was located in. He could see now why Dom had been unable to break into the store through it the night before. No one was better at picking locks than Dom, but even he couldn’t open a door that was chained and padlocked from the inside. Cody shook his head at the hazard. It was breaking all kinds of fire and safety codes.