“And the Batman stuff?”
Lee laughed softly. “It’s called parkour, you nerd. I suppose I picked it up sort of randomly. Saw a bunch of Spanish students doing it in Hyde Park when I was about fifteen and thought it looked cool as fuck. So I approached the one who seemed like he knew what he was doing the most and asked him to teach me.”
“Clearly, he agreed.”
“Clearly. His name was Alejandro,” said Lee, camping it by putting an accent on the name. I giggled. “Good bloke. I helped him with his conversational English, and he helped me learn how to drop twenty feet without breaking a leg.”
“I’m sure that came in handy.”
Lee nodded. “My brothers loved it, especially Trev. They all wanted to learn. Believe it or not, I never really set out to use it to my advantage. I just wanted to do something fun. I suppose the whole thing sort of…evolved.”
“Is that why you pretend you can’t do it?”
“Come again?”
“You’re not like Trevor — you don’t show off. I’m guessing it’s for discretion. If you see a man hopping off a building to get away from the cops, there are only so many people it could be.” Almost as if my own words had led me to it, I realised why I’d had déjà vu watching Lee jump. It reminded me of the video Tony had shown me of the burglar robbing the cash-for-gold scammers.
“There’s that,” said Lee, drawing me from my thoughts. “Plus, Trevor’s a flashy fucker. He can’t help it, really.” He paused to eye me curiously. “What’s wrong? You look like you saw a ghost.”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing, I just…well, no, it’s not nothing. Can I ask you something?”
“Might as well. This already feels like a This Is Your Life interview,” Lee teased.
I mock-scowled at him. “I saw this surveillance footage of a robbery once. I think it might have been you.”
Lee chuckled. “Was I wearing black and white stripes and carrying a sack with a dollar sign on?”
“No. You were wearing a balaclava, and climbed ten flights of a building before swinging down through the scaffolding.”
A tension fell as his eyes shone in the dark, but he didn’t say anything. Somehow, his silence was more confirmation than words.
“The people you stole from were scamming the elderly. You took their things back and anonymously handed them in to the police. Why?”
He didn’t look at me when he spoke, his posture stiff, almost like he was embarrassed. “You know Mrs Spencer who lives on my road?”
“The old woman you saved dinner for, yes, I remember, Lee. That was really sweet, by the way.”
He huffed awkwardly. “She’s a widow. Been living in that house all her life. When we were kids, she used to get on to Mum about how badly mistreated we all were. She’d even give us food when she could afford it. Well, Mrs Spencer told me how she sent her old wedding ring and a few expensive pieces of jewellery off to those scammers, hoping for some money to do her house up. Obviously, she never saw a penny. I found out where the racket was being run from and put an end to it.”
I stared at him, warmth suffusing my insides. “You’re such a liar.”
Lee frowned at me, confused. “Why would I lie?”
“You said you couldn’t understand why I help people with no payback, but you do it, too. You did it for Mrs Spencer.”
“I care about Mrs Spencer. She’s my neighbour, and she was kind to me when I was just a kid. I could give a fuck about your average Joe Soap walking down the street.”
I just smiled at him.
“I’m being serious, Karla. I’m no saint. Don’t go building any fanciful ideas about me. I’ve robbed from people just like those scammers. I just don’t rob from the vulnerable. I rob from the wealthy.”
“High-end motor vehicles, I know.”
“Yeah, well, not anymore.”
“You really want to get out?” I asked, ever hopeful.
Lee emitted a weary sigh. “I can’t stay on the second-last rung of the ladder forever, Karla. You either move up, or somebody else comes along and moves you out, and I don’t want to move up. Liam’s court date is a couple of weeks away, and if he gets sent down, I’ll never forgive myself. Maybe it’s too late, maybe it’ll be all for nothing, but I at least have to try.”
His words gave me confidence. Perhaps I didn’t have to stop seeing him after all, not forever anyway. We could stay apart until everything settled down, and then we could see where this thing went between us.
Lee picked up my plastic bag and began rooting through it. Pulling out the milk, he asked, “You mind?”
I shook my head. “Not at all.”
He opened the carton and took a long swig before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m hung over as fuck, barely got a wink of sleep last night.”
Right after he said it, I noticed the bags under his eyes. He looked tired. Reaching out, I placed a hand to his chest and rubbed. “You shouldn’t drink so much.”
Lee let his head fall back, savouring my touch. “Yeah, tell me about it.”
Sometime between us arriving on the roof and now, the sky had darkened to night. It felt peaceful and quiet up there, civilisation far below us. Streetlights glittered in the sky, cars moving along on the roads in the distance.
“Lee,” I said, my voice seeking as it broke though the silence.
“What is it, Snap?”
“What if something bad happens? What if even after you do everything he’s asked of you, he still doesn’t let you go?”
It was a while before he responded, like he was really thinking about it. “There are dishonourable thieves, and there are honourable ones. Despite everything you might have heard about my boss, he falls into the latter category. If he makes a promise, he’ll stick by it, no matter what.”
I stared at him, not sure if I believed that. If McGregor had honour, then he never would’ve had Jennings beaten, or Liam, for that matter. People like him liked to claim they had a code, but when it came down to it, it was dog eat dog. Or maybe Lee’s version of honour was just a lot different from mine.
He looked at me, his eyes fierce. He seemed very sure of what he said. I just hoped his faith wasn’t misplaced. I hoped his plan worked.
Because I wanted to believe that one day we’d look back on all this and wonder how our lives had ever been so tumultuous.
Eighteen
“I bet I can beat you to the ground,” said Lee, his eyes flashing with devilry.
We’d been sitting on the roof for over two hours, talking about life, our past relationships, everything, really. I told him all about Gavin, and what a disloyal, narcissistic arsehole he’d been, and Lee told me all about his ex, Tammy, and how materialistic she was, only really with him so that he’d buy her stuff. What was left unsaid was how we both knew we were the opposites of our ex-partners. I wanted Lee for the core of who he was, and he would never cheat; it wasn’t how he was wired. He was too loyal.
It felt like we’d been trapped together in a bubble neither one of us wanted to leave, subtly finding new ways to touch one another that weren’t explicitly sexual, but still made my bones ache with need.
“What do you mean?”
“You take the stairs. Fuck, you can even take the lift, and I bet I’ll make it to the ground before you.”
His words gave me a little rush, my pulse starting to speed up. There was something about making bets with Lee that was always decidedly exciting.
“And if you win?”
He leaned close, his breath warm amid the cold night air. “I get to kiss you for the last time before everything changes.”
His answer made me shiver. “And if I do?”
He smiled widely, and it only enhanced his handsome features. “You get to kiss me for the last time before everything changes.”
I don’t know why, but I laughed loudly, smiling back at him and holding out my hand. “It’s a deal.”