When Lana woke up the next morning, she felt a heavy weight on her waist and a heat radiating from next to her. Her groggy eyes lifted slightly and then quickly grew wide when she saw Jack was indeed fast asleep next to her. Sleeping peacefully, chest rising and falling. She quickly jostled him awake.

"Jack! Wake up. What are you doing here? Oh God, what happened?"

Jack stirred, and his eyes opened slightly. "Huh?" was all he managed to let out.

"Jack! Why are you in my bed?" He mumbled something that Lana couldn't hear. "What?"

"Because you asked me to," he said, clearly annoyed that he was being woken up so abruptly.

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did," he said, the agitation growing in his voice.

"No, I didn't. I would've remembered if I had asked you to sleep next to me in bed."

"Lana, what's your deal? You asked me last night. No, actually, you begged me to come sleep next to you so you wouldn't be cold."

Begged?

Lana's eyes grew wide. Had she begged Jack to sleep next to her? She couldn't recall it but remembered her mom always told her that she talked in her sleep.

"Oh," said Lana. When Jack turned to look at her, she met his eyes. "Um, sorry about that. I sort of talk in my sleep. I didn't realize that I had asked that."

Jack cracked a smile, seemingly glad to be told he was right.

She couldn't help but giggle thinking about begging Jack. "I really begged you?"

"Yep! The whole 'please do this for me' and 'I can't sleep without you by my side,' and 'you're so amazing, Jack.'"

Lana's mouth dropped in horror. She started shaking her head, but then quickly realized Jack was embellishing just a little when his smile grew wider. She playfully hit his shoulder. She turned over and glanced at her phone: 9:32 AM.

"Okay yeah, whatever. Let's go. The museum is opening soon!"

As she got dressed, thoughts of the museum were clouded by thoughts of Jack. Next to her. All night.

After getting ready, she and Jack quickly grabbed croissants from the center courtyard breakfast table and ate them on the walk to the museum. She felt a shakiness throughout her body thinking about their trip ahead.

As soon as they got to the museum, Lana was surprised by how small it was. It only had one large room and one small room attached to it. Also, all of the items were on display without any glass casings surrounding them. She could have easily picked something up but saw signs throughout that had a hand with a circle and slash through it—no touching. She glanced at the woman at the small desk on the side and smiled. The woman didn't show any emotion back and looked down at some papers she had on her desk.

Friendly customer service.

Lana continued to walk through the museum until she spotted it. Her grandmother's box. Sitting on a table with other home goods items. She stood in front of it and couldn't help but reach down to touch it.

She jumped when the woman behind the desk spoke. "Excusez-moi! Ne touche pas."

Lana put her hand back in her pocket. She looked up at Jack who was walking over to the smaller room she was in. His face lit up when he saw the box. Thank God! Okay, let's talk to her and get it."

He led Lana to the desk where the woman was standing still, shuffling through her papers. "Excuse me, do you speak any English?"

She looked up at him, clearly annoyed by their presence there. Lana thought she must've been a bored woman, sitting in a museum day after day.

"Do you speak any English?"

"Oui," she responded in French and went back to looking at her papers.

"Okay great, we're looking to buy something here—"

"Non! This iz not allowed," she said abruptly, cutting Jack off.

"Okay, well, if you knew the offer I'm going to make, then you might change your mind."

The woman sighed heavily and narrowed her eyes. "Non! Nothing here iz allowed for sale."

Jack turned to Lana and asked for a pen and a slip from her bag. She pulled out an old receipt and a pen and handed it to him. He wrote $1,000 on the page and slipped it to the woman. "This is how much I'm willing to spend on one of the items here."

The woman looked at the slip and rolled her eyes. She grabbed it and ripped it right in front of Jack. "Again, monsieur. Nothing in here iz for sale. We are a museum."

Jack let out a sigh, and Lana wondered how far he would push this woman. "Are you the manager?" asked Lana, trying to be helpful and think of other solutions.

"Oui, I am the manager."

"Who is the owner here? Can we talk to them?" said Jack desperately.

"No, no, no, no, no. This iz not allowed," said the woman quickly.

Lana was desperate. "Listen, something in here belongs to me and ended up here by accident. We'd really like to speak with someone who can help me get it back."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Nothing we can do to help. Sorry, but please only look and leave."

"Are you kidding me? Is there really nothing you can do to help?" Lana was raising her voice now, and Jack's eyes grew wide despite his nodding in agreement.

The woman huffed out, "Mademoiselle, if you are going to raise your voice here, at me, I will have to ask you to leave."

"We're not going anywhere until you let us speak with the owner," said Lana as she stared at the woman.

The woman's eyes grew narrower, and she picked up her phone. Lana and Jack both let out a sigh of relief.

After the woman spoke in a combination of Arabic and French, she hung up with a huff. She looked up and calmly said, "The police are on their way to pick you up, so I suggest you leave."

Shit.

Lana and Jack's mouths dropped open. They looked at each other and quickly turned around and headed toward the door until Lana abruptly stopped them.

"Lana, what are you doing? We need to go! We can figure out a new plan back at the riad."

She looked at Jack and leaned in toward his ear. She could feel the woman's death stare lasering in her back. "Jack, we need to steal that box."

"What? Lana, we need to go! Like ASAP!"

"Jack, what is she going to do? Chase after us?" Lana looked behind her. The woman's arms were crossed and a frown was embedded deeply in her face.

Jack looked at the woman and then back to Lana. "Lana, this isn't the States. If we get caught, then who knows what would happen? Also, this isn't you. You'll regret it immensely, trust me."

"Jack, I'm going to do this. You stealing the box from me got us into this mess, so me stealing it back is only right. Whether you're in or not is up to you!"

Jack lifted his eyes and shook his head. She could practically see the wheels turning. She, on the other hand, couldn't think. All she knew is that she was done chasing after this box and she just wanted her life to go back to normal no matter what it took.

Lana didn't even realize she'd said it until she heard the words come out of her mouth. "I dare you." She knew it was a low blow, but she needed to take control of the situation, of her life, stat.

Jack stared into Lana's eyes. For just a moment, she felt like she was falling backward. "Alright, screw it. I'll grab it, and we'll throw it in your purse. I'll leave the cash in my pocket in its place so we at least pay for it."

Lana nodded her head. It did make her feel a slight bit better that Jack was going to leave cash in its wake, but she didn't want to think too hard about it.

"Okay, on the count of three: one, two, three!"

The two dashed toward the box and executed their plan as quickly as possible. The woman jumped up from behind her desk and started yelling at them to stop. As soon as the box was in Lana's bag, they ran outside the door and kept running down the hill, not looking back. They could hear the woman yelling behind them and chasing after them.

They dashed past shops and stopped dead in their tracks when a police car turned onto their street. They looked back to the woman flagging the police car and pointing to them.

"Lana! Run!" Jack grabbed Lana's arm and led her down one of the alleyways that was on the side of the street. At this point, they could hear the policeman running after them, having left his car in the middle of the street.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Jack guided Lana through the alleyway to the next parallel road, and the duo continued running back down the hill. They ran like their life depended on it. Lana looked back. The police officer was still yelling and trailing not too far behind. When Lana turned back around, she hit a fruit stand and tumbled over. By the time Jack turned back around to help her up, it was too late. The officer got to her and Jack and brought up his Taser to make them stop running.

They were all out of breath, and the police officer had one hand on his knee, with the threatening taser still raised in the other. Jack helped Lana up. A crowd was forming around them. They raised their hands, unable to see any way out of this one. They were going to jail. Jail in Tangier, Morocco.

***

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