Cole moved faster than I thought he could. One second he was near me and the next he was lunging for the handle.
The guy on the phone didn’t even notice as Cole caught it just before the door clicked shut. He yanked it open, grinning hugely at me.
“See! I told you.”
“We almost missed because of you,” I said.
“Your fault, actually.”
I followed him inside, sighing loudly.
“Told you this would be easy,” he said as we walked toward the elevator.
“The hard part starts now, actually.”
“Which apartment?”
“3-C.”
“Got it.” He hit the button and we climbed into the elevator. We rode it up to the third floor. I spent the whole agonizingly slow ride trying not to look at him, trying to forget that I had been inches away from kissing him again. All because he had been vulnerable, or at least as vulnerable and human as Cole was capable of being.
The door opened and he walked down the short hall, whistling to himself.
“Shh,” I hissed at him. “Be quiet.”
“Why? We’re just delivery people.” He smirked at me.
“But wait—”
Before I could stop him, he pounded on 3-C’s door loudly.
“FedEx. Got a package,” he grunted.
I stared at him wide-eyed. Quickly, he moved off to the side, pushing me up against the wall. We stayed there quietly and listened as someone came to the door.
“Hello?” she called out.
“Yeah, it’s a big one,” Cole grunted. “You order a refrigerator or something?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Let’s go, lady. This thing is heavy as hell.”
There was a slight pause, and then the sound of locks clicking. Cole was practically buzzing with joy as the door swung open.
Marla was a bit shorter than me, maybe five foot four inches, and she was practically a dwarf compared to Cole. Her chestnut-brown hair was cropped short, and her nose was covered in freckles. She looked like she hadn’t showered in a day or two, and she was wearing sweats.
“Marla?” Cole asked.
Her eyes practically popped out of her head.
“I guess you know who we are,” he said, smiling. “Can we talk?”
Marla didn’t say a word. She just tried to slam the door in Cole’s face.
But he was too fast. He stuck his hand out, stopping it. He pushed it back open, but Marla was gone, already darting back into her apartment.
“Cole, wait!” I said as he followed her inside.
“Don’t be slow!” he shouted back at me.
I moved after them, entering the girl’s small apartment. It was nicely decorated with some decent thrift-store artwork on the walls and nice second-hand furniture, but it looked more like a student’s crash pad than where an actual working adult lived.
The living room was empty, and Cole was stalking across the place toward the bedroom.
“Marla, open up,” he called out. “Don’t make me break this door.”
There was no sound from the bedroom.
“Cole,” I said nervously, “I’m pretty sure we just broke into this girl’s apartment.
“Nah. She opened the door.”
“That doesn’t mean we can just barge in and smash whatever we want.”
“Sure it does.”
Without another word, he kicked the door just above the handle. It buckled but didn’t break. He kicked again and it burst inward, the frame splintering slightly.
We charged inside. My heart was hammering in my chest, and I was pretty positive we were going to end up in jail for a very long time for this, but it was too exciting and Cole was too magnetic for me to turn around and stop.
The bedroom was neat, similar to the living room. I noticed her desk had a laptop plus a nice camera and another smaller camera.
“Fuck,” Cole said.
He charged across the room, and I noticed that her window was wide open.
“She went out the fire escape,” he yelled.
I opened my mouth to stop him, but he was already jumping out and climbing down.
“Marla!” I heard him shout. “Stop!”
I ran to the window and saw him running down. The rickety stairs were practically tearing away from the wall, and I was waiting for the whole thing to go crashing down. Marla was halfway to the bottom.
“I’ll go around front!” I yelled, and I turned and sprinted back through her bedroom. I tore down the hallway, my head buzzing with excitement, and dove into the staircase. I didn’t think I had ever ran down steps so fast. I took them practically four at a time, flying down the landings, and burst out into the bottom floor hallway.
I shoved through the front door and ran out front.
Nobody was there.
“Cole!” I yelled. “Where are you?”