[h3] Dean and Duke [/h3]

Dean gave another apologetic look to Esme as she turned her eyes back to him. He didn’t want to even bother with the job at this point, and with her in that dress, but he didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t come out of the party empty handed, or Bobby would kill them for damaging his reputation. Dean nodded, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

He then turned and jogged up the stairs, trying to catch up with Duke. Duke met him at the top, scanning the hallway for the door the ex-wife had instructed him to find. His eyes fell on the double doors at the end of the hallway and he smiled brightly, turning to Dean.

“It’s that one.” He beamed, pointing to it. 

“And how do you know that they’ll just…let us in?” Dean asked, genuinely curious. Duke looked around them in the hallway, and he shrugged his shoulders. Other than a few people mingling around them, most of the rooms seemed pretty unguarded. It was as if the owners didn’t figure anyone would be stupid enough to mess with anything inside, alarmed and ready to scream to the masses.

“I don’t see nobody tryin’ to stop us, do you? Look like you own the place. We don’t have faces.” Duke tapped his finger on Dean’s mask, before stepping away from him. He dug in his pocket and pulled his lock picking kit, quickly assembling his pick as he approached the door. It didn’t take long for him to figure out what needed to be done, and with a small press and a click, Duke was in. Dean scanned the hallway, blocking anyone’s view from Duke breaking in, and as Duke pushed the door open a bit, Dean slipped in and Duke followed quickly behind him. Duke closed the door quietly behind them, and he turned, smiling brightly with his tongue between his teeth at the sight of the giant leather couch in the center of the room, “She wasn’t lyin’ about the couch!”

Dean rolled his eyes, as he scanned the room for the necklace case, “Can you focus for ten seconds. Ten seconds is all I need your brain for.”

“Hey! Don’t you go innocent on me just because you have a girlfriend. Back in the day, you would have been just as excited about that couch, and a hot billionaire ready to use and abuse you on it!” Duke defended himself, stepping away from the door. He walked straight to the shelf that held what looked like the most expensive artifacts in the room. Just as he suspected, there was a pedestal to its right, and inside the glass case on top? The necklace.

Dean tilted his head with his lips pressed together at Duke’s teasing. Duke wasn’t…completely wrong. The thought of being settled down honestly felt weird to Dean but he had to shake himself from any dirty thoughts and they had work to do. Duke was already working, scanning up the sides of the pedestal as Dean walked over to him.

“So, do we have what we need to break it open?” Dean asked, as Duke carefully pulled one of his other tools from the inner pocket of his jacket. Duke didn’t say anything at first, as he found the edge of the alarm system door. He popped it open with his multitool, and studied the wires inside for a moment. He glanced up at the glass and then back at the wires, following them with his eyes like he was studying an invisible manual. Then he looked up at Dean and nodded.

“You remember how to track wires?” Duke asked, and Dean rolled his eyes with a huff, “I’m just makin’ sure before I hand you tools. I don’t need this thing screamin’ out like a fire alarm. I’ll do it myself, if you can’t.” 

Dean mocked Duke comically as he reached down and snatched the tool from his hand and waved him off, “I can cut the right wire. What you need to do is to get downstairs and make sure that Esme’s not been whisked away by some billionaire playboy.”

“Is someone worried?” Duke teased him, although Duke could feel the unease rumbling up in his own stomach at the idea of some billionaire ‘untouchable’ type groping and dragging Esme around the room. Dean growled and rolled his eyes again, causing Duke to raise his hands, cutting him off before he could rant. “Fine. I’ll go down there. I’ll get her a drink and I’ll mingle. But don’t take all night, alright? Make it less than twenty.”

“Thirty.” Dean grumbled as he he lifted one of the wires to get started.

“Fine, thirty.” Duke conceded, before turning and walking to the door. He turned the handle, turning the lock on his way out, and then closed the door behind him as he casually walked down the hall and back down the stairs. He straightened his mask beneath his hat and began weaving himself through the crowd, looking for Esme’s unique dress color amongst all the black and maroon dresses.

His eyes landed on her after a moment, and he searched for her eyes, cringing a bit at the way the man’s hands were traveling over her body. When he finally found her eyes, he locked his gaze onto her and did his best to project something along the lines of ‘hold on, I’m coming’ back at her desperate gaze. He quickly shoved and pushed his way through the crowded room, keeping his eyes on Esme the entire time. The man seemed to be dragging her all over the place, and after a moment, her back was to Duke, which only caused him to speed up his walk. As he reached them, he leaned in close, and wrapped his arm around Esme’s waist, placing his hand on her stomach with a soft smile, “There you are…C’mon. I don’t think this guy would mind if I cut in. I’ve been watchin’ you all night.” 

He tugged and pulled her against his chest, stepping back from the man with a tip of his hat. The man seemed to want to protest, but Duke simply turned Esme, wrapping his other arm around her to pull her chest to chest. He shaded her face with his hat and walked her toward the center of the room, as far away from the jackass that was groping her as he possibly could.

“You alright?” He asked sweetly, glancing up at the guy with a look that said that he was having a hard time not defending Esme with more than just a rescue mission. “You need me to break him? Like…one or more bones? I’d be happy to.”

As he asked the question, he pushed her out, stretching his arm all the way, before spinning her back into his chest, her back pressed against him for a moment as he leaned his head down and whispered in her ear, “I can make it real discreet. Real quiet. Everyone will think he just had too much to drink.”

He could tell that eyes were on them from the moment he pulled her to his chest. A few of the women were whispering to one another, and even though he didn’t let his eyes wander, much, he did catch a glimpse of the woman he was supposed to be taking home. She glared and huffed with a whine, slapping her bodyguard on the chest as she told him she wanted to leave. Duke didn’t honestly care, because for the first time, he had Esme in his arms. They were in a place where he could show her the attraction he felt, openly, and it could be disguised behind ‘just dancing’.