“Why are you doing this?!” He screams at me. The jewelry store worker is clinging to life and at the hole I put into his stomach.

I take a deep breath in and let it out. “I’m incredibly selfish.” I shrug and laugh. “And I like nice things.”

This is the truth. I gave up on attempting to be a good person a long time ago. Now I live life the way I want. It’s worked for me so far.

The radio in my ear buzzes. “You have two minutes Dare.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I respond to no one. “Alright, so we are going to do this one of two ways.” I wave the gun at the other store employee; she looks to have already peed herself. “You will load up that bag with everything in those two cases or you will join our friend on the floor.”

The lady doesn’t hesitate as she grabs the bag and begins to fill it with her shaky hands. “That’s more like it.” I smile.

Sirens begin to fill the background, but I don’t worry yet. After the lady gets what I want in the bag, I snatch it from her and tell her to lie on the floor. Three murders if that whiny one dies. I miss when times were less messy.

“Heading out in plan B form.” I tell Jess who is listening always.

In the back room, I change into the right police uniform. None of the witnesses I left saw my face. I’ll be walking out the way I came in, through the front door. The jewels are loaded into the pockets of my pants and tucked into the pockets behind my bullet-proof vest.

And when the time is right, I join my uniform brothers in searching the place for me. We don’t find me. And I walk out but disappear before anyone realizes one too many cops were there.

Jess picks me up like planned. “Did you get it?” He asks me.

I feel the ruby in my pocket. “Yeah I got it.” I had to steal a lot to throw off my true target but also enough to pay Jess. This was the easiest job I’ve done in a long time.

Now comes the hard part. We have to lie low for a while. I’ve never been good at being still or quiet. Jess will take his cut and head to Nicaragua for a bit. I will take mine and the ruby, and I will go home.

And after a few weeks, I’ll go out in search of my brother. Now that I have the family secret in my pocket, he has some explaining to do. Maine is a long way away though. Maybe I’ll have a little more fun before I get there.