- October 4th— 10:30 AM -

Amelia West sat in her jail cell, utterly calm as the world outside exploded with news of her arrest. Headlines screamed of her crimes, 'Heist King and Murderess Finally Arrested.' 'Cyber Thief is Done Hacking.' 'Heist King, more like Heist Thief." — The final headline wasn't clever, but anything that came from XOXO Gossip was usually utter trash. 

Decker was drowned in praise, his name suddenly famous. But as a case was built against Amelia West, her court date set, Decker's bank account suddenly full of amounts he had never seen before, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had missed something... 

CHAPTER TEN 

- ELEVEN MONTHS EARLIER -

DECKER

It took three hours for Decker to peel himself away from the crime scene. Two hours and forty five minutes of police questions, fifteen minutes for the police to arrive, and in those fifteen minutes, nothing but time to memorize every detail of the crime scene, and tuck away his horror at the sight of that red hair. 

By the time he was done, he was numb, exhausted and the Heist King was gone. He needed sleep. He was no good to anyone in the hollowed out state he was in. Dragging himself to a nearby hotel, he got a room, climbed the stairs, changed, and slid under the sheets, asleep a moment later. 

It could have been moments later, or hours. Decker wasn't sure as he was jolted awake, drenched in sweat, all of the hairs on his body standing on end. 

Someone was in his room. 

Decker's phone chirped a moment later. A warning he set on his phone. The Heist King was close. 

Decker sat up, the sheet falling down his body. "No need to get up on my account," a familiar husky voice said in the darkness. 

"King."

"James," came the response in the inky darkness. She stayed out of the moonlight, but even in the darkness, he could see the outline of her, something sharp glistening in her hand.

Decker kept his gaze steady, even as his heart began to race. Was he dreaming? Was she there to kill him? Then why did she look so beautiful, even while holding a knife?

"Why are you here? And why are you holding that knife?"

"Protection."

Decker's jaw hardened. "I don't kill people, King. Although I can't say the same for you." 

The Heist King remained silent, watching him in the darkness, her eyes glistening in the shadows. 

Decker's tone turned hard, anger radiating through him at the flash of memory of what he had seen. "The girl in the alley. She looked like Falls. What did you do?"

"Nothing." The Heist King responded. 

"You were in that alley."

"That doesn't mean I killed her." Her voice was strained, a strange fragile sound.

"Who else?" he pushed. "If you are innocent, then prove it, King. Because murder is not something that I would have assumed you spent your time committing. Every crime up until now has been flawless. Perfection. But this... this was brutal. Done in anger. So tell me... If it wasn't you, who did this?" 

Decker hadn't realized until that moment how desperately he wanted her not to be the murderer. How badly he had hoped that all the clues that screamed of her killing where fabricated, a farce. But when he walked down that road, asking himself why it mattered, he didn't dare open the door that hid the answers.

The Heist King stepped out of the darkness, giving him a clear look at her for the first time, moonlight washing over her body, tracing lines across her every curve, bleeding across her dyed fire red hair. 

"Your hair," Decker breathed, eyes wide. 

She stiffened, taking a step back into shadow, like his eyes burned her. He watched her touch her hair with self conscious hands. The first sign that she was afraid. 

Decker stood up, strangely drawn to her, itching to read her in the darkness, to trace her, touch her, to do anything in his power to understand her. "The attacker... was after you," he realized. "The same build. The same hair color." 

She didn't deny it, only took a step further back in the shadows.

"Is that why you run? Is that what all of this is about?" he asked, his voice softer than he expected. He reached for her hand but she pulled further away, his fingers brushing skin and something slick. 

Blood. 

...

HEIST QUEEN

This wasn't how the conversation was supposed to go. I was supposed to get information, learn where he put the tracker, not be comforted. Not be on the receiving end of his tone. 

The tone that had turned dangerous, murderous. A tone that I had expected to inspire with my own actions, not one pointed at an outside source because my own blood was not where it needed to be. He sounded protective, itching to tear someone apart because of the slick substance now on his fingers.

I could barely look at him, Decker's ice blue eyes flashing with fury, hair dripping moonlight. His chest glistening with sweat, showcasing a fantastic set of abs that left me completely distracted. It was like taking in a fallen angel, a breath away from committing a violent crime. One on my behalf. I could see it. See the promise of rage and pain and destruction. The only thing keeping me from falling to pieces was his lack of words. But then he had the audacity to say something utterly romantic like—

"Who did this, King?"

I shut my eyes, willing my heartbeat to slow down. Praying that my body wouldn't melt under those words. He might as well have just declared himself my bodyguard, swearing to protect me for all eternity with those four words. 

You can't keep him, I reminded myself fiercely. 

He wanted to know why. Why I had been in that alley. Why he had my blood on his hands. Why there was a girl with red hair, the exact same shade as mine, dead where I had been moments before. 

"I can't tell you," I breathed. 

"Why?"

"Because that's not how this game works."

Decker's fingers trailed along my arm, blood smears coating them. "Your life isn't a game, King."

"My life has always been a game. The only difference, is that now it's mine to control."

Decker's fingers brushed my charm bracelet, and clarity shot through me like a lightning bolt. 

"You tagged my bracelet," I said with a hard laugh, realizing where he had stored my tracker.

"It's the one thing you've worn every time I've seen you," he said, eyes still on my face, soaking me in. 

"The five minutes that you managed to track me. That's when someone tagged it." I suddenly remembered a small child bumping into me, their hand brushing mine before running off, shouting apologies. 

I pulled off the charm bracelet, placing it into Decker's blood soaked fingers before closing his hand over it. "Keep it safe for me."

"I can't just let you leave, King. That's not how this works." 

"It's not time for you to catch me, James."

"I have your blood and prints, King. You can't run. Not this time."

I took a step back. "They are still Harrow Kells in the system. You don't have anything yet."

Decker matched me step for step until he had me backed up against the window, the back of my shins flush with the wood window box. "If someone is trying to hurt you, I can help."

We were close. Standing so utterly close, breathing the same set of cold night air, the feel of it tickling my face, brushing the strands from James' temples. It was so tempting to reach out and brush the strands from his face. To feel his skin under my fingers. My fingers burned with the desire to touch him.

But I couldn't afford it. I couldn't afford a lot of things and it was becoming abundantly clear that I was coming up more and more empty handed as time went on. It didn't matter how much I took, nothing stayed in my hands for long. It was foolish to hope I could hold on to James Decker. 

"You are helping," I whispered, watching his face, features so full of frustration, a muscle working in his jaw. Just... not that way." I leaned forward for a breath, kissed the hollow of his neck, enjoying way his throat bobbed under my lips. 

I leaned back through the open window, taking in the sight of my lipstick on his skin with a wild thrill. His face soaked in moonlight. "Until next time, James."

Then I fell through the open window. The last thing I saw was the look of surprise on James Decker's face as I fell into darkness. 

...

DECKER

Decker didn't dare follow her out the window. Instead, he was out of the hotel moments later, racing down the stairs to the street, scanning the water and finding nothing. No proof that she had jumped, that she had ever been in his room, other than the blood on his hands. 

Pulling up Bex's number, he was on the phone with her moments later. 

"Um... do I want to know why you are standing in the middle of the street, half dressed?" 

"She was here Bex. In my room." 

"I don't need to know the details of how you seduce the people you catch, Decker—"

"No seduction," he clarified. 

"Riiiiiight. That's why you are half dressed and have lipstick on your neck."

Decker had the good sense to fall silent, face burning bright. She had left him looking half out of his mind. The feeling of her lips on his neck had nearly driven him to yank her away from the window sill and throw her down on his bed. Something that under no circumstances he could do. 

I need to get my head on straight. 

After a moment, Decker managed to collect himself, voice even. "Someone attacked her, Bex. I need to know who. And I need to know why. I think we've been going about this all wrong."

"Someone attacked her? That's..."

"Strange. I know. It was out in the open. No where near one of her heist locations." 

Decker made his way back to the hotel room, mind reeling, the drying blood on his fingers serving as a cold reminder that the picture he was dealing with was far bigger than he had realized. "Change tactics. Find out who killed the girl in the morgue. We need to figure out who this murderer is. Then we can use that to try to get the Heist King to cooperate long enough to get answers out of her. She's going to keep running until we solve that. She's been hinting at that this whole time."

"On it, Decker." Then after a pause. "We'll figure this out."

After a few more set of instructions, Decker hung up and sat down on the edge of his bed, eyes on the open window that the Heist King had vanished through. 

What are you running from King? And what started this whole thing?

---

Thank you for reading chapter ten! I hope you are enjoying the story! Or are at least curious to see where it goes! Add this story to your reading list to know when the next chapter drops!

UPDATE DAYS - A NEW CHAPTER EVERY FRIDAY!

What happened in that alley, and why won't the Heist King tell Decker?

Will Bex find the person who killed the girl in the morgue?

How is this all connected?

What will happen next?

CHAPTER QUESTION - If you had to play hide and seek, where would you hide?