Catching the Storm

8. Careful What You Wish For

I paused in my rant to the person on the other end of the phone, waiting for their reply. There was a long silence.

"Okay . . ." Julie finally replied. "Well, sounds like you have a problem on your hands."

I rolled my eyes even though she couldn't see me. "Thanks for stating the obvious."

"What are you going to do if you can't get the necklace back?"

I let out a sigh and paced across the master bedroom I had commandeered. "I don't know," I replied honestly.

"Well personally," Julie said. "I always thought that necklace was rather ugly anyway. I say, accept your losses and move on. I don't understand why you're going through all this trouble just for a damn necklace anyway.

I groaned and rubbed at my forehead. "It's complicated."

"It wouldn't be if you hadn't been a secretive bitch as of late. I forgive you for that, by the way."

I couldn't help but smile at that.

"Also," She continued. "I'm bored out my mind here without you, so if you need me over there to help you kick ass, let me know."

I smiled again. "You'll be the first, but I don't want to drag you into this mess unless I have to."

"Fine, whatever," She sighed dramatically. "But if you need a getaway driver, call me." There was shouting on her end of the phone. I heard her grumble a string of curses. "Alright!" She suddenly shouted, her voice sounding slightly muffled like she was covering the phone. "I said I'd take care of it!"

I could hear a deep voice shout back to her, but I couldn't make out anything they were saying.

Julie, I did not have a problem hearing.

"I'm impressed," She said and I could hear the sarcasm dripping from her tone. "I didn't think you could manage to get your head that far up your own ass!"

There was the sound of something breaking, several thuds, and a few of Julie's screams followed closely by a door slamming shut.

I waited for a moment before speaking. "Do I even want to know?" I asked her as I put my down and set it to speaker so I could look over some maps I had laid out over the table. As soon as we took the necklace back, we'd need a fast getaway.

I heard her laugh. "My brother's back in town."

I shook my head. "I guessed as much. Which brother?"

"Which do you think?" She asked me. "I'm about this close to killing him. He's only been here a week and already I'm ready to pitch him off the penthouse balcony."

I smiled. Julie had three brothers. Two older and one younger. Her oldest brother was Carson Owens and he was set to inherit their father's multimillion-dollar company. He was the most responsible and least likely to engage in his siblings' antics. Dean was the youngest, working his way through law school. He was quieter and nicer than his siblings, but he'd be right in the middle of any fights they start. James, on the other hand, was the second eldest and a famous Nascar driver and way more likely to get into trouble and drag Julie into it as well. Not that she needed much dragging.

He was also the one, who Julie was more likely to clash with.

"When's your brother's next race?" I asked her.

She groaned. "I don't know but I hope it's on the other side of the world and soon. I missed him until he actually showed up."

I heard someone banging on a door.