Free Holy Rollers by Rob Byrnes

fun.”
    “Well…”
    “Also, I have to insist.”
    There was another long pause, until he finally said, “I guess I’ve got no choice.”
    “No, you really don’t.” The tough edge was back in her voice, and now she didn’t particularly care if she sounded confrontational. It was her twenty thou, damn it!
    Grant Lambert was a man defeated. “Okay, then. Find us a house in Nash Bog, and we’ll talk tomorrow.”
    Lisa disconnected the line and looked up to see Mary Beth standing in the doorway to the home office, still in pink robe and slippers.
    “What’s going on? What was that about?”
    Lisa swiveled on the chair and smiled. It was the same, blissful, everything-is-peachy-keen smile she was always able to muster no matter how painfully her stomach was cramping. And her stomach was cramping not because she might lose twenty thousand dollars, and not because Grant Lambert might yet cause them all to end up in jail, but because Mary Beth could occasionally be game for a scam, but it wasn’t in her nature.
    So Lisa plastered a benign, loving smile on her face. “We both need a vacation, don’t we?”
    “Maybe.” There was wariness in Mary Beth’s voice.
    “It’d be nice to get away for a few weeks.” That benign, loving smile flared just a bit. “And Virginia would be so peaceful…”
    “Oh, no!” Mary Beth brought the palm of her hand to her forehead and Lisa knew she’d seen right through her…as she usually did. “You want to get in on the job, don’t you? Bad idea , Lisa. Bad! Bad! ”
    Which maybe would have stopped a cocker spaniel, but Lisa could be a pit bull—albeit a pleasant-sounding pit bull with a benign, loving smile—when she really wanted something.
    “But…we’d have peace and quiet. And we could keep an eye on the twenty thousand.”
    Mary Beth’s hands went to her hips, and the pink robe shook. “That’s what you say . But I know you. You want to be in on the scam. You love that stuff.”
    Lisa would never acknowledge that to Mary Beth…or anyone else, for that matter. She barely acknowledged it to herself. “No, sweetie, I promise. I just want to make sure Lambert doesn’t screw up and cost me twenty thousand dollars.”
    Hands glued to hips, Mary Beth closed her eyes. “I really don’t like anything about this idea.”
    “It will be fine! Fresh air…dogwood blossoms…suburban living…”
    “You’re not making me feel better about this.”
    Lisa raised one finger. “How about this angle, then…”
    “I’m waiting.”
    Benign, loving, smiling Lisa turned into hard-nosed business-woman Lisa, determined to seal the deal.
    “If we pull this off, our share will be over two million dollars. Something like two-point-three million and change, if there’s really seven million in the safe. Since we’re talking the Virginia Cathedral of Love, I’m willing to give Lambert and Chase the benefit of the doubt.” She stood and wrapped her arms around Mary Beth’s shoulders, nestling her lips near Mary Beth’s ear and finding the exact words she needed to close.
    Her voice was almost a whisper. “That kind of money buys a lot of shoes.”
    Mary Beth squared her shoulders, trying to pull away but backing off no more than an inch. “I…I’ll think about it.”
    But Mary Beth—like Lisa—had already made her decision. More than two million dollars in spending money could do that to a girl.
    In her head, she had already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Christian Louboutin alone.
    And if Grant Lambert fucked the job up, well…each one of those very expensive red heels would have to be medically extracted from his ass.

6
     
    In the kitchen of their apartment in Jackson Heights—only a few miles away from Lisa’s place in Long Island City but light-years away in the level of luxury—Grant clicked off the phone and cast a mournful glance at Chase.
    “Lisa’s decided that she’d rather be an active partner than a passive partner.”
    Chase looked up