Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

to the side and Sebastian headed for the door.
    Don't run, he reminded himself. Keep cool.
    The door was opened for him, and he stepped out blinking in the afternoon sunlight. He scanned the street again trying to recognize anyone who might have been there when he walked in. His chauffeur opened the passenger door. Sebastian handed him another slip of paper before getting in.
    The door was shut, and Sebastian leaned back into the leather upholstery. He bit back a giggle. There was a million dollars sitting on his lap. A solid million. It was, in essence, the bounty from a few years of Daren skimming off his allowance, but it was still a million dollars.
    He pulled out his phone and composed a text to a number that was listed as Chen's Chinese Delivery. It simply said 1 , and he deleted it from the phone as soon as it was sent. In theory, Daren would know that he'd gotten through the first one. Daren wasn't to text him at all unless something was wrong.
    The second stop was different but the same. Instead of old wood and leather, the lobby he stepped into presented a minimalist style with everything done in pristine white. It looked like a set piece from some sci-fi film. A thin woman in a tight business suit, frightfully high heels, and thick blood-red lipstick approached. He held out the second letter.
    "Mr. Costa's box."
    There were the same formalities and pleasantries, a polite and very large young man to lead him to the vault which was behind four thick security doors. Instead of a library reading room, the main vault looked like a place best suited for storing flu samples, right down to the slightly chilled air.
    A mid-sized box was opened, and Sebastian was again left alone. Inside the box was a suitcase identical to the one he'd left down in the car. He flicked it open. Inside was a stack of bearer bonds at least three inches thick, and they weren't all alike. He flicked through and found bonds for dollars, euros, pounds, and yen issued by countries, banks and corporations. Just the first five in the stack equaled the cash amount in the other briefcase.
    If the first suitcase was enough to get them out of town and to a tropical island, the one in front of him would let them buy the damn island.
    He quietly closed the case, replaced the empty box back in its slot, and calmly walked out of the vault. There was the repeat of pleasantries and Sebastian stepped out into the street again.
    He looked up and down. He tried to figure out if the blue Prius across the street was the same one that had sat down the block from the last stop. He was pretty sure neither the government nor high-priced goons drove hybrids, but that would possibly make it a better choice for tailing someone, wouldn't it? His chauffeur opened the door and received a new bit of paper.
    This time there was no holding back giggles. There were now two places that could possibly know that those boxes were owned by Gerald Delaware and that they had been accessed. It was starting to feel less like a heist and more like Russian roulette.
    The third box was registered to a Mr. McConnell. It was a small box on the top floor of an office block that looked like it was put up when disco was still in. The main office had a musty feel to it, and the very, very large man who stood by the door made Sebastian feel like he was in a mob movie. If it turned out that someone had been whacked in this place, he would have not been surprised.
    The third box was smaller than the first two, and inside was a large sunglass case. Sebastian frowned. If he was picking up jewel-encrusted sunglasses, Daren was never going to hear the end of it. He flipped the case open. There were jewels, but they weren't on sunglasses. Diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires glittered at him. Some were the size of a pinhead and others were nearly as big as his thumbnail. Some were shaped, others uncut.
    "Shit," he whispered to himself before snapping the case closed and tucking it into a pocket.
    As he stepped outside he looked around, really looked. He peered at every face, every car, and tried to get a general vibe of things. Daren had told him that the last two boxes had the most important things in them. That it would better to dump the contents of the first three boxes and run, rather than let anyone even know the last two existed. He wouldn't even tell Sebastian what was in them, in case someone ‘asked.’ If anything felt even slightly wrong, he was to abort at this point.
    His