Chapter 36

                                    

                                          
"Do you need help with that?" Chace asked
                          
"No I'm fine" I assured as carrying the painting up staircase. 
                          
I wanted to start the forgery as soon as possible. It had been so long since I had been on a job - doing nothing was driving me crazy. 
                          
Uncle Nate had always preferred that I did forgery jobs more then anything else - despite my talent in other fields. This was mostly likely because he didn't like me being out on the field, being exposed to the dangers of the outside world. 
                          
The first few hours consisted of studying the piece - studying the painting mediums and the artists technique. I found a signature on the bottom right corner - PR in a messy cursive type of format. The signature was familiar but I couldn't remember where I had seen it.
                          
PR - who's PR? I have definitely seen the signature before, but where? I ignored my sudden impulse to stop, and just kept going. 
                          
***
                          
After non-stop painting for approximately twelve hours, I decided to take a break to avoid the risk of growing sloppy. 
                          
I walked through the kitchen to find John, Michael, Rosemary, Katie, and Miranda sitting around the table. 
                          
"Hey you still up?" John asked me as sipping his coffee.
                          
I ripped his mug from his hand and began guzzling down the coffee. "Mmm" I nodded 
                          
"Is Chris okay?" Miranda asked me whilst flicking back her white blond hair. 
                          
Michael, Miranda and Rosemary hadn't been home in two weeks due to being on high stake jobs. Miranda had partnered up with Michael and Rosemary due to Cotton being suspended. 
                          
"Yeah he's fine" Katie started "they're sending him to stay with the Carters in Denver Colorado"
                          
The Carter's were his mothers family, so we knew that he was in good hands. If it were anyone else we would be more concerned for his wellbeing. 
                          
"Yeah they got a program there" Rosemary nodded. 
                          
"Where is he now?" Michael asked.  
                          
"In the basement" John informed. "And Taylor I want you to go to bed...you know you can't function without sleep" 
                          
I wanted to argue - if it were any other day I would have, but that night, I had no choice. It was around two thirty am and I had been awake for something like forty six hours straight. 
                          
My eyes began to grow blurry. I couldn't risk fucking up the forgery that I had been working on. 
                          
"Yeah I might" I yawned as passing John his empty mug. 
                          
"You mean you will" he reinforced as furrowing his eyebrows. 
                          
"I mean I will" I rolled my eyes "buonanotte" I waved at my family as walking out of the kitchen. 
                          
"Is it true?" Rosemary lowered her voice. "...How she talked Chris out of it?"
                          
"Yeah" Katie sighed in concern "everything you heard was true"
                          
"Jesus" Michael cried.  
                          
"It was scary shit man" John admitted. 
                          
"But c'mon surely you guys knew that it was just a plan...I mean she wasn't actually going to pull the trigger" Miranda told them. 
                          
"You weren't there" Katie said "She was actually going to do it....if Chris fired first it would have released a domino effect and they knew that"
                          
I wasn't ease dropping - I was climbing up the staircase, half a sleep and the volume of their voices was making them merely impossible to ignore.