Nine Billion Dollar Heist

*Co-written with the spectacular Lives in Dreams and TRDancer*

Chapter 10: Kiss and Make Up, Damn It

"Ugh. She's going to give me a 'mom talk.' Great. Now I get to experience the nostalgia of being a five year old, 'cept I don't get no fucking cookies and nap-time is now obsolete."—Emmett

After the bomb tech person had told Edward about the damage and that there was no way for them to trace who rigged the Volvo to blow up—not like we needed that scrap of information, we already knew who did the rigging—Edward had turned a pair of incredibly angry emerald eyes on the two culprits and hissed an abrupt 'we all need to talk' before turning sharply on his heel and storming away in a silent storm into the hotel, un-shoed feet marching furiously against the hard black pavement.

We all had, of course, followed behind him relatively quiet. Relatively meaning Emmett whistled 'Beat It' under his breath as he walked arm-in-arm with an irritated-looking Rosalie—who was probably only irritated because Edward was in a bad mood over the Volvo—and then switched to the Jeopardy theme song when we were waiting for the elevator, earning several glares from the other people who were also waiting—People who didn't know how to tune out Emmett's antics, like we did.

Well, most of the time we did.

So, after having trekked from the elevator and into the hallway, and then to mine and Edward's room, we had all situated ourselves in the little living room type parlor that our room had. Alice, Rosalie and I were seated on the loveseat with me perched lightly on one of the arms. We had grouped together, forcing Em and Jazz to take their places together at the adjacent chair, as they were the subjects of Edward's impending rage. Em was all spread out in the chair with his feet up in the air, hands behind his head and looking incredibly relaxed. Jasper, on the other hand, was standing by his feet, arms slightly crossed over his chest, with a slightly apprehensive look on his face.

Currently we were all waiting—as we had been for the last ten minutes or so—for Edward to say something. If it had not been for the fact that he was pacing a hole in the floor of the room and the continuous running his hand through his uncombed hair, one would think that he was a statue with his stony face, frozen as he ground his teeth together roughly against each other. His hands shook with ever run-through through his hair, and it was only a small amount of time before he blew up.

Of course, Emmett didn't want to wait that long. Sighing and propelling himself up from the chair, he stood and made his way to the liquor stand that was just outside the little 'kitchen' that we had in the room. He barely took two steps before Edward said the first words he had since telling us we all had to talk.

"Emmett, what the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed out low and angry. Emmett turned his head, eyes slightly surprised at the tone of Edward's voice.

"I'm going to get me a drink…" he trailed off.

"No."

Emmett blinked a few times before frowning. The air was thick with tension; Edward never ordered any of us like that, and Emmett was never ordered to do anything anyways. I mean, look at the size of him.

"No?" Emmett asked for clarification as he turned around fully.

"No," Edward repeated.

Emmett looked like he was going to say something before huffing and making his way back towards the chair, plopping down in it. He kept his eyes on Edward, a slightly irritated look on his face.

Now, the thing to know about Edward and Emmett is the fact that they've been friends longer than any of us. They grew up together, practically next door like brothers. Their personalities were so different, and yet the same, that when either of them got agitated—especially at each other—it was bound to be trouble. Many things that Emmett—and others—do, get under Edward's skin. He's just like that. He has so many pet peeves that sometimes I even have a hard time keeping up with them.

The one thing, though, that got under Emmett's skin most of all was people telling him what to do. It was something that seemed to be imbedded in his DNA—because Uncle Gerald was just like that as well—and so Edward telling him 'no' just now was bound to make him harder to talk to.

Edward gave Emmett one last hard stare before turning to Jasper.

"What the hell was that?" he shot. Jasper cocked his head to the side, a cautious look in his deep blue eyes.

"Well," he began in his southern drawl, "would you be referring to you ordering Emmett about or the dip in my pocket or the slight Volvo mishap—"

"Mishap?" Edward interrupted. "Mishap? A 'mishap' is when you forget to close the refrigerator and all your food spoils. A 'mishap' is when you accidently shoot yourself with a BB gun and get a bruise. Hell, a bloody 'mishap' would be forgetting condoms at your senior prom and having to explain to your date what a dumb jackass you are. No, the Volvo was not a fucking 'mishap'. That was sheer stupidity, Jasper." His voice was shaking with anger as he bit out his words. Jasper's eyebrow raised up. I could tell this was going to get a little out of hand.

"Hey now, Edward. Don't get all pissed because the Volvo was blown up. I'm sure it was an accident," Alice said, jumping to the defense of Jasper, despite the fact that we all knew it wasn't an accident. Well, the blowing up part. I'm positive that Em and Jazz wouldn't purposefully create an atomic bomb to get rid of the Volvo.

Possibly.

"Yeah. Go buy another one," Rosalie added in.

Edward turned his angry attention to the couch.

"You actually condone this? They blew up a car with a fucking make-shift atomic bomb, doing God knows what in the process. It's not about the fact that they did it to the Volvo, or that I have the means to get a new one. I already motherfucking knew that, thank you very much, Alice and Rosalie." Then he turned his glare on me.

"Bella, tell them! They were God damn stupid!" he nearly shouted, pointing in Emmett and Jasper's general direction.

I sighed. "Edward, you are totally blowing this way out of proportion. You need to calm down…," I said calmly. He practically growled.

"Blowing it out of proportion?! They blew up a motherfucking car in the parking lot of a hotel!"

Emmett spoke up. "Yeah, we get the whole 'blowing up' of your precious Volvo. You're pissed. Shut up and stop yelling, you're giving me a migraine the size of Kim Kardashian's ass, damn it," Emmett complained from his place on the chair.

"For real, Edward. Chill. We're sorry, 'kay? Just chill," Jasper said.

"Sorry?! What if it had been us in the Volvo, hm? Did you think of that when you oh so smartly created an atomic bomb in the engine of a car?! What about if they had caught you, huh? What about that then? This whole thing would have been ruined, and then where would we be? You two would be in jail, and the rest of us would be back the hell in Forks, doing jack for the rest of the summer. Did you think of any of that in your oh so brilliant and wise plan, smart ones? Because if you did, I want to know why the fuck you did it!" Edward yelled.

Before I could say anything—or Alice and Rosalie could say anything, as they both opened their mouths to speak—Emmett stood up and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Perhaps we didn't consider that, Edward, but you know what? We weren't in the Volvo, we weren't caught, we aren't in jail, and you aren't back in hell-hole Forks. So, does it really matter that your precious vehicle is now smithereens all over the pavement outside? No. So stop being such a prude and suck it up, buy yourself a man car, and let's get on with our lives."

Edward grimaced at Emmett, taking a small step forward.

Normally, we would let Emmett and Edward 'talk it out', because usually they were able to—together—reason out a solution that would leave them, and everyone around them, happy and content with whatever they decided. Apparently, this was not one of those times.

I jumped up—slightly gracefully, for once in my life—and quickly placed myself in the wide margin of space in between Edward and Emmett. I turned to Edward first.

"Edward, stop. This is getting us nowhere. You, Jasper, Rose and Alice, get out," I told him sharply. I turned away from him before he could complain. I faced Emmett. "You, go," I said, pointing to the kitchen-like area that he had been heading to earlier. He gave me a peculiar look.

"Why? I'd much rather stay in here and argue with Doucheward," he said, nodding over towards Edward.

"Fu—"

"Edward," I warned without turning around. Instead, I glared at Emmett for goading him even more. "Go. Now." He stood there for a moment, glaring right back at me before rolling his eyes, groaning, and stalking off towards where I pointed him to.

"Ugh. She's going to give me a 'mom talk.' Great. Now I get to experience the nostalgia of being a five year old, 'cept I don't get no fucking cookies and nap-time is now obsolete," he grumbled. When he was out of sight, and had slammed the door—childishly—I turned around. Jasper and Alice were already standing, hand-in-hand and watching in mirth as I was about to tell Edward to wait outside. Rosalie looked mildly interested, and when I looked at her, she mouthed 'don't go easy on them,' and turned and walked out.

I focused my attention back on Edward.

"Go wait outside; I'm going to talk to Emmett, and then I want to talk to you," I told him firmly. Honestly, I could understand Edward's anger, but if the two were allowed to be in the same room for much longer, they would rip each other's throats out. They needed to be 'dealt with' separately.

He grimaced.

"You're talking to him first?" he asked. I could hear the slight jealousy in his voice.

"Yes," I told him. He huffed.

"I don't even see why—"

"Edward," I warned once more. "I'm going to talk to Emmett, and then I'm going to talk to you. Go. Now. You two won't shut up unless I do." He gave me a look, and then gave the door that Emmett had disappeared through a begrudging glare before turning on his heel past Alice and Jasper, who were both shaking in laughter. I stuck my tongue out at the both of them—showing just how much I was like Emmett—and walking into the other room.

Emmett, naturally, was sitting on a bar stool and drinking down something brown in a small glass.

I shook my head.

"Isn't it a bit early to be drinking?" I asked. He snorted.

"It's five o'clock somewhere. Besides, that boyfriend of yours would drive anyone to drink. How do you put up with him?" he asked, finishing off the contents and pulling a bottle—one that looked suspiciously like a Crown Royal bottle—close to him and poured another glass for himself. I frowned and pulled up a stool next to him, and took the bottle of Crown from him.

"Emmett," I began. "Edward doesn't mean to be… Well, so hard on you and Jasper. It's just the way he is," I reasoned.

Emmett turned his eyes towards me, rolling them in the process. "Don't you think I know that, Bells?" he said, using his given nickname for me. "It's just he doesn't have to shit a brick about it. Like I said: we didn't get caught, we're not in jail, oh, Heaven forbid we go to jail," he shook his head. "And besides, 's'not like Jazz and I knew the damned thing was going to blow," he argued.

"That's just it, though, Emmett. You shouldn't have messed around inside something you have no idea about." I paused, before snorting. "How in the hell did you two manage to create an atomic bomb in the first place? I'm sure the chem-lab didn't teach that when we were in high school." He busted out laughing.

"Fuck if I know. We just junked around inside there pulling out shit until there wasn't nothing to pull no more, then we put what we pulled back together, but wrong-like, you see? Basically the same shit I do when Rose isn't around to fix my mechanical issues: I just help myself along 'till she comes to finish my work off for me," he said, smiling.

I couldn't help the laugh that escaped my lips before I cleared my face and got serious.

"Funny as it is, you do realize how dangerous that was, right Em? Someone could have gotten hurt," I told him. He sighed.

"I know that, Bells. I'm not a moron. Me and Jazz were just having some fun, plain and simple. Lord knew we needed it, what with Edward being all business and shit our first night here, making us 'work' and not lettin' us play whilst you two were gettin' busy at the tables…" he 'pouted'. I snorted.

"Oh, you know you could have played right along with us, Em. You just wanted an excuse for your drunken boredom."

"Who says I was drunk? I was totally sober, I was. You were just too blinded by Edward's googly green orbs of sexy orbness to see otherwise, you were," he said, tipping his drink to me before taking a swig.

I burst out laughing. "You think Edward's eyes are 'googly green orbs of sexy orbness?'"

"Nah, but I know you do, and if it makes you laugh and lets me off the hook, then I'll say whatever the hell I have to," he said in total honesty, looking at me with one of his rare 'I'm being motherfucking honest here, so fucking listen to me, because this is one of the few times I'm not screwing with you'.

We lapsed in to a small silence for all of ten seconds before Emmett spoke.

"You know, I've known Edward for so long, it's just funny trying to push his buttons. Perhaps—and mind you, this is a huge perhaps—you were right. We—Jazz and I—should have thought a little harder about what we were going to do. And maybe… just maybe… I feel bad for causing trouble. Because…" He took a deep breath. "Because Edward may be right that someone could have gotten hurt, we could be thrown in jail, blah, blah, blah, happy bullshit," Emmett muttered. I laughed.

"See, and I barely had to say a thing," I told him. Once more, he rolled his eyes at me.

"Bells, you said everything you needed to. You're like… You're like the glue that holds the papier mache model of our 'Six Crew' sign that I made in eighth grade together; nothing can tear that baby apart," he said with a smile. I smiled back and reached over to give Emmett a hug.

"Thanks, Em. Your profound words speak wisdom to me," I told him. This was one of the many things I loved about my cousin; he was quick to see when he had made a mistake, admit it, and then move on with his life by downing another drink and then throwing some extravagant party. He just went with the flow of the times.

He laughed, placing his hands on my shoulders and holding me at arm's length.

"Oh, I know. It's why I speak them, dear cousin. Now, take a drink of Crown, and work your magic on my dear best friend. He's going to be harder to sway than I am," he told me. I laughed.

"Don't I know it? Can you just tell him to come here?" I asked. Emmett nodded.

"Sure thing baby cousin. 'Course, he might not listen to me…" he trailed off, walking away.

I just chuckled, keeping my place on the bar stool. I drummed my fingers lightly on the counter-top to a beat I didn't know.

I heard the door behind me open, and I turned around to see Edward walking in, a small grimace on his face. It kind of made him look cute. Well, cuter than what he already was.

He stopped in front of me, arms lightly crossed over his chest. It was easy to see that he had calmed down from earlier; much less angry than he had been when I had told him to leave the room with Alice, Jasper and Rosalie so that I could talk to Emmett. Nevertheless, he was still agitated, that much was evident in his piercing green eyes that hid behind his silver-framed glasses.

"You know you blew that out of proportion, right?" I began, not feeling the need to beat around the bush.

"No, not really. I mean, they blew up a car, for Christ's sake's, Bella. Right in front of an entire hotel. They could have been caught! We could have been in the car when it blew up! Something could have—" I cut him off by placing my hand over his lips.

"Edward, I understand. Really, I do. It was a stupid thing for them to do, but really, do you expect anything else from Emmett? It's in his nature to do things like this."

He spoke against my hand. "Yeah, but Jasper helping him at it? Come on, Jasper has more sense than that, and he wasn't as drunk as Emmett either. He should have spoke out, said no, something. This entire thing could have been blown over their one small and stupid mistake. We've only been here a day, and they've drawn unnecessary attention to our entire group, attention that could get us in trouble. The whole point was to stay under the radar, and they've made it so we're practically in the limelight. What happens if questions are asked by the hotel owners, investigations made? They could look at surveillance tapes, ask questions of people around. They could—"

I gave him a look, effectively shutting him up.

"Edward. I know this, okay? It was a stupid thing that Emmett and Jasper did, and there are a lot of factors that can play into this and come back and seriously bite us in the ass. You have a good point. Perhaps they should have thought, rather than acting on drunken instinct.

But, Emmett also has a point as well." He groaned, rolling his eyes. I narrowed mine, and he fought back a small smirk as I went on. "Like I said, Emmett has a good point as well. Nothing bad happened. No one was hurt, there were no witnesses, and we all got off scot-free. There's not really a down side to this, other than the fact that you have to buy another car, and that's not really a problem. I already talked to Emmett about it, and he sees how stupid it was. Now, can you play nice with him, kiss and make up damn it?" I said exasperatedly. Edward twitched his nose in annoyance.

"Must I?" he asked incredibly childish.

"Yes," I told him firmly. He sighed and looked down.

This was one of the things that were most frustrating about Edward. It took him literally forever to admit defeat, or that he was wrong, or that even if he was somewhat right, he was still somewhat wrong in the process.

Grumbling internally to myself, I laid my head on his chest, giving the exposed muscle from where his shirt was haphazardly buttoned a light kiss. I could feel his pulse there, and smiled when I felt it speed up. Slowly, I left a small trail of kisses up to the base of his throat, wrapping my hands around his neck and pulling myself closer to him.

"Edward," I breathed against his skin. I felt him gulp underneath my lips.

"Yeah, Bella," he said huskily.

"Can you please be nice to Em and Jazz. For me?" I whispered. I knew I was playing dirty, but hell, it was fun.

"Well, um…" he trailed off. "I might need a little more encouragement, you know," he said, removing his hands from my hips to the sides of my face, bringing my lips up to his. We stood there, kissing, for what seemed like an eternity before we both pulled away for oxygen.

"Was that encouragement enough?" I asked, a smug grin on my face.

He looked at through the panes of his glasses, eyes dancing.

"Completely."

***

After I had talked to Edward and Emmett and the two 'made-up' with a 'man-hug'—and given Jazz a 'don't do it again' sentence that was comprised of 'don't do it again'— we all gathered around back in Emmett and Rosalie's room—because really, it was bigger, and there was more sitting space for us all—to go over what we had all learned last night.

Edward had the blue prints to the casino out on the table in Emmett and Rosalie's bar, except now he had marked the outside surveillance cameras with red, and marked—using Alice's incredibly amazing photography skills—the coverage that each had.

"So here, here, and here," Edward was saying, pointing to each place that was marked. "There are cameras positioned. With Alice's pictures, it seems like each point down to the ground at a fifty-degree angle, and each swivels on an axis at ninety degrees. Basically, they have the whole outside—what we saw of the outside—covered perfectly. Now, we know there's all eyes-in-the-skies at every table, right?" he asked, looking up at each of us from the paper.

We all nodded in agreement.

"So, we're going to have to exercise extreme caution when we go to give each other signals. We'll have to make them as inconspicuous as possible. The good thing is, no one is suspicious of us, and so we have nothing to worry about as we are new here. Now," he said, turning back to the blue-prints. "Here are all the exits, marked in black. We all need to be sure there are multiple exits in sight, no matter where we are, because if there's a chance that we get caught, then I want us all to be able to get out. It will be safer for us, if the situation calls for, us to split up. Also, I noticed something last night, something about the casino, something that's not in the blueprints," he said. We all perked up at that.

"What?" Jasper asked in disbelief.

"Not in the blueprints? What the hell?" Emmett said. Edward nodded.

"This space, right here," he said, showing us all a seemingly empty space labeled 'storage'. "Is actually a V.I.P room. I noticed when Bella and I played a few hands that there were some people who disappeared into that room either just themselves, or they got escorted there by these people wearing black suits. I noticed they had these pins in the shape of a fancy 'V' on them. Did anyone get a good look at the name of the casino last night?" he asked. We all shook our heads.

"Casino de la Volterra. The Owner's name is Aro Volturi, this wealthy Italian guy," Edward explained to us. We were quiet for a moment before Rosalie spoke.

"You think those guys with the 'V' work for that Aro dude, don't you?" she said. Edward nodded.

"I think, before we go onto Phase Two, we continue to figure out this place. Find out what it takes to get back there." He looked at Rosalie.

"We're going to need some way to hack into the camera in the eyes-in-the-skies. Did you bring your computer?" he asked. Rosalie snorted.

"Does the bird fly without its wings? No shit I brought my computer."

"Good. We're going to need it. If it comes down to it, we can disrupt the signal between the actual camera, and the security room where the image is sent. That of course will be something that'll have to be done if things get really serious, and someone catches on."

Emmett spoke up. "Can you do that?" he asked in amazement.

"Totally," Rosalie said. "A few clicks here, some code-cracking there. Depending on the protection they have for their electronics, it should be fairly simple," she said, tossing her long locks of blonde over her shoulder.

"Good," Edward said. "Now, I know Bella and I played a few hands at these tables here," he pointed to some random tables that were laid out on the blueprints. "So tonight when we go back, we'll need to be paired with different partners, and sit at different tables. We'll play the 'naive rich teenaged kids' for a while, and then slowly move up through the crowds." He paused, smiling. "I think that's it, for the moment. We can go over a few more things later, so any questions?"

"Yeah, when can we eat some food, I'm fucking starved!"

We all laughed at Emmett's comment, but I couldn't help but notice the small, nervous glance that Alice and Rosalie shared with each other, and how their laughs were off.

I just passed it off. It couldn't be anything major, right?

How wrong I was.

Dreamer: Yes Bella how wrong you are! *Insert evil laugh* Okay choking on laugh, can't talk!

Dancer: Teehee. Did you see who owned the casino coming? It means a lot, trust me.

And naughty Ali and Rosie, keeping secrets… tut tut.

Review! :D

Lennixx: When I was writing this, the one thing that popped into my head was 'damn, Bella, you fucking hussy, using your body like that on Edward to get what you want.' And then I thought to myself, 'hey, wouldn't you use Edward to get what you wanted from him, even if that meant being a sneaky hussy?'

Hell yeah.

So yes, the owner of the casino is important, as is that back room. Make guesses, my pretties, you will never be right…

Reviews are almost as smashingly sexy as angry, glasses-wearing Edward.

Mad props to the late Michael Jackson. The 'Beat It' was in refs to him, the amazing King of Pop. (Yes, I am an MJ fan. I am unashamed of this fact)