Under the Mask (Complete)

[Delilah Keyes]

Continued from Behind the Mask​

She caught sight of Walker moving in on the Baron's wife out of the corner of her eye. That was all she needed.

As far as the Baron was concerned, the dark haired woman with smoky eyes appeared out of nowhere. He swayed, bemused but not displeased, preening slightly and losing track of his diatribe as she tilted her chin up to whisper in his ear. While Walk kept his wife a flutter with flirting, Del's hand ghosted across her mark's hip, promises and invitation offered. She judged it right- he didn't need seduction beyond the stroking of his ego as his own whispered invitation in return gave her his room number. Some men might find a straight forward offer suspicious, but the Baron was too stupid, too drunk, or too full of him self to question it.

Del suspected all three.

After the party, came the return promise.

Somehow, she didn't think he or his wife would find the situation a new one. Not if his immediate response and the look his wife was giving Walk were any indication.

You should get another drink, dollface.

Didn't even offer to buy it for her.

It was a good thing she had no intention of actually sleeping with him.

But she did appreciate how easy it was to move in, get out, and disappear into the crowd again. With both his room number and the keycard she had swiped from his pocket.

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

A kiss broke and then he brushed past her, away.

There was only the promise of more at a later junction. After all, this might have been primarily to rob her husband, but before that the stolen glances had been filled with genuine interest. It would have been silly not to take advantage of interest at a time that was more opportune for the both of them.

Seconds later Walker left the ball room and entered the adjacent corridors, it didn't take long to pick out the swish of Del's dress from the corner of his eye.

Suddenly Walk found himself in a shadowy alcove, warm breath brushing and body melding against him.

"Mmm, is good." He mumbled, before snorting slightly. "Pretty sure I got us a playmate whenever we feel like it."

 

[Delilah Keyes]

"I don't usually pity kark," she murmured against his lips before kissing him again. "But for her I might make an exception, based on that very brief interaction with her husband. Gods that man is-"

Whatever he was, it was lost again in a kiss, deep and *hard*.

"Let's go see what he is so generously donating to our endeavors.... since other sorts are clearly beyond him, I believe we can teach him the benefits, don't you?"

Smirk.

Perhaps it wasn't what she had come here tonight hoping for. If the information panned out, she'd hoped it would be a potential line out of all of this- at least out of her side of the mess. A small voice lurked, reminding her that if she could get herself extricated from Sonny's ire, then it was time to let Walk float. But she pushed that down, drowning it fairly easily. Words might say because it was moot now. Without that info it wasn't as though she could do anything about it anyway. Of course. That was the reason.

It had nothing to do with the laughter between them as they brazenly left the masquerade and headed to the Baron's penthouse a block from the palace. Or the way their bodies fit together as easily as their humor and personalities. Or how easy he was to talk to or sit in comfortable silence with.

Nothing to do with that at all.

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

It was strange how Walker didn't have any of the concerns that Delilah had.

Maybe because he wasn't as complicated as her, or maybe it was simply because by his very nature the Smuggler was one to simply... enjoy the ride and see where he'd land. Would there be conflicting opinions once the time came to split? When opportunity showed itself to free himself of debt... if it meant cutting her loose? Definitely. Especially how she smiled at him just now... very definitely. But why worry about that mess now, when it would only corrupt their moments together? Who knew what would happen between now and a nebulous moment in the future?

It didn't take long at all to walk to the apartment, nearby for convenience to the Palace.... or perhaps it was her presence that made it so much smoother. A kiss here, squeeze of the hand there, a smile added to a soft chuckle, the journey was over before it truly began.

"That looks... wow." Walker whistled as he looked up to the large apartment complex, it scraped against the heavens. "Wonder how we will get all of it out without anyone noticing..."

Though there were a few ideas in his head that could help with it.

Most of them revolving around his ship.

 

[Delilah Keyes]

"Let's not count our mynocks before they've hatched. We can see what 'it' is before worrying too much about it."

Maybe Walk was good for her. Or maybe she was just happy and trying to pretend that there was nothing worth worrying about, even as she worried deeply about all of it.

It was hard to tell.

Dressed as they were, with a valid key card, it was child's play getting into the building and up to the apartment. Knowing that both members of the other couple were waiting on them to return, and the night was still young mean that the two had plenty of time to rifle through their things.

Kissing him hard, she swiped the keycard on the apartment door, pushing him through the door as it slid open for them without letting her lips leave his.

Of course, the apartment itself was enough to give them both pause, Del offering a low wolf whistle of appreciation as the pair parted enough to look around.

"Mon Cal Watersilk curtains, Dantooine mahogany secretariat, those are salt water pearls from Kamino, if I don't miss my guess, and they are sofa buttons for crying out loud. Walk dear, you have impeccable tastes in people to rob blind."

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

Walk didn't reply immediately.

His attention was firmly on the sword in his hands taken from the wall. Tionese, the edge still sharp and oiled, the texture of the blade etched with a stylistic heron on its side. The scabbard was forged from the scales of an Eol Sha wyrm (those things were extinct by all accounts and here it was) and the hilt? Walker shook his head, the hilt alone would have been enough to buy... his mind was stretching out under the options. Obviously they wouldn't be able to sell it off at its actual level.

Black market and stuff.

But, this changed things.

"Believe me, darling, if I knew about my own taste?" He turned around, grinning wildly. "I would rob people more often."

None of this would have been possible without Dells, of course. He may have marked the target, but she had been the one granting them passage to the marks. That was part of why Walker never had hit such a big score in the past.

He wasn't exactly a gala-person.

"I wonder how much we can get away with..."

 

[Delilah Keyes]

This, on the other hand, was exactly how Del operated. Infrequent thefts, but lavishly high payout. It wasn't what she had wanted from tonight, not by a long shot. This was the potential for cold, hard credits, yes, and it would set them up well for whatever was coming next. But what she'd hoped to gain was leverage, and that, sadly, would not be offered with buttons and swords.

"Looking at it wrong, Walk," she said with a smile, running her hand over the silk of the couch.

"It's not about how bare we can strip this place- we do that and someone like Baron Von Horny will *have* to track us down. It's a matter of pride. No, we take just what we can carry, and choose it carefully. Do you think that man actually pays attention to any of his things, once they've been acquired? He's a man of the hunt and very lazy beyond- I could be wrong, but if I am, I'll eat my mask."

Dark gaze shifted and she made her way into the bedroom. Still talking over her shoulder, she started to rifle through the objects on the dresser, opening drawers.

"They have so many things. And are so..... cavalier with them." She toed a pair of earrings that had been on the floor that probably cost more than the rent on her apartment for a year, casually under the dresser. "If we pick and choose, we can walk out of here with a duke's ransom, and they'll just assume at first, if they notice at all, that they misplaced the items."

She reached, stirring her finger through a cup full of jewel encrusted cuff links. With a practiced eye, she pulled out a pair of Corellian Opals- pocketing them and then restirring the lot.

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

"...point taken." Walk agreed after a moment of consideration. He took another look at the sword, before sighing and putting it back on the wall. Difficult to do, but after some pushing and pulling the hooks latched back on. Oh, Walker would have taken it, but the dust gathering on the metal indicated that this thing was used absolutely... never.

Meant they wouldn't miss it.

But they would miss it. There would be no option of thinking that they misplaced it somewhere, not when it was literally always hanging there in the first place.

"I am just a simple smuggler, Dels." Ducartre teased over his shoulder. "Weapons here, spice there, sometimes refugees when it's serious, but this is new for me."

He found a safe hidden away by the way of a stealthy switch behind a book.

"....I am starting to like this."

 

[Delilah Keyes]

"Work smarter, not harder," she called with a chuckle. "One or two high payout jobs will last you without having to keep scrambling. And there's a chance, in a sitch like this, that they'll never even know what happened. Pick the right marks and their pride will do your cover up for you."

She heard the sound of him fiddling with a safe as she picked through the jewelry box. The pieces on the bottom, those would be the ones she didn't favor, and it had nothing to do with their value.

"If there's cash, leave more than half," she called over her shoulder.

Sticking a few pieces into her purse, she poked her head back out. Watching him, she smiled, leaning on the doorjam.

"Stuff in a safe, with the exception of cash, they might notice if it's missing. But if there's something similar to something out here, we can swap it and they'll just end up confused."

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

"Hehe, exactly my thought." Walker chuckled before winking at her. "How's their bed anyway, comfortable?"

He was getting the hang out of it- localize the objects they might miss the most, obfuscate their disappearance and pocket the rest without fear of immediate reprisal. It was difficult, of course. After all, he never had much in the way of cash.... so it was complicated to just put himself in their shoes and figure out what they might miss and what they wouldn't miss.

For him?

All of this was valuable enough to really miss.

"Don't get why they need this much crap- don't get me wrong, not complaining, but..." What was the point? Why amass so much stuff that you literally couldn't keep track of it anymore?

Where was the sense in that?

He left the ur-diamond the size of his fist in the safe, but pocketed a few of the smaller ones, still the size of his tips.

 

[Delilah Keyes]

She positively smirked at him.

"Dunno, didn't try it. Didn't seem worth the effort alone."

Meandering over to where he was kneeling at the safe, she leaned over, settling her forearms crossed along his shoulders. Resting her chin there, next to his ear, she watched as he rifled through.

"They don't need it though. Maybe they think they do, I never really understood it. But they gather it all like magpies, the owning the more important part. It fills a gap, a need they have for something else. But all it does is make the hole bigger, not smaller. So they throw more stuff in after it."

He could feel her shrug from behind him.

"They don't really live. Just.... collect. As though it can make up for whatever they are missing."

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

"Sounds like they are dead, but their bodies haven't caught up to the fact yet." Or something widely similar to that, because what Delilah described didn't seem like a way that Walker would wanna live. Riches were good, wealth, money, otherwise they wouldn't be doing the things they did. But the entire idea was to enjoy yourself.

Just hoarding crap without a joy in the world seemed like the opposite of that.

"Hold on-" He pushed a few bags away, solid aurodium, these people were insane. "The kark?"

He pulled out papers.

Not just papers, in the one hand were about four or five different passports for the Baron, in the other for the Baroness.

 

[Delilah Keyes]

"You're not wrong."

Cocking her head over the side, she reached over his shoulder. Nimble fingers plucked one from each stack.

"Come on, you know these two aren't heading into Sith Empire space anytime soon," she said, rolling them up. "I know a guy who can repurpose the numbers and seals."

As she withdrew, she paused to nibble at his ear before stepping back.

"Going to check out that desk."

Sauntering across the room, she settled down in the witchwood chair. She stroked the satin finished wood with the back of her fingers. Plucking a pearl inlaid pen from the collection, she used it to pull open the drawers one by one, riffling through them lightly.

"Land and mining rights," she murmured. "If we'd done a long con, I'd know if he was oblivious enough of his holdings to know if we could sell one or two of the smaller ones off under his nose. Alas."

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

Walk tilted his head to the side in a move that was becoming a reflex to him, giving her more access by the span of his breath.

"Mhmm, is nice." He mumbled, before finally closing the safe and locking it tight. There were other riches there. Sadly all of them were of the variety that they would miss, somehow Walk doubted that even the Baron would be stupid enough to miss a fist-sized ur-diamond. That would have been a bit too lucky as far as he was concerned. He followed her close, watching over her shoulder as she settled down and started going over the papers with a practiced eye.

"Looks like a bunch of numbers to me, knew there was a reason I kept ya around." Walker teased as he leaned down, mouth already brushing against her neck, beginning with the smallest of pecks.

Feeling her reaction, exploring it, wondering how far he would be able to push her here.

The mention of the bed hadn't been just for the sake of it, after all.

 

[Delilah Keyes]

"Mmmmm yes. My ability to parse legalese," she murmured absently, dark eyes scanning the papers for info she could actually use.

"The lynch pin of our partnership."

She wasn't paying enough attention, too engrossed in what she was doing- but then, if she had been, she probably wouldn't have called it that. A partnership.

Del had three hearts at any given moment. The top the masked one she showed to the world, changed out at will, discarded or recycled as needed. The second one, bare faced but still guarded. Walk had managed to slip into that space more easily than she cared to admit. But somewhere beneath that was the third. A private heart. Guarded and careful. More vulnerable than she wanted anyone to know. One that even he only got glimpses of, and only when she was too distracted by something else to keep it fully hidden. Oh, it would have been, if he'd been only offered that first, outer layer. But there, the middle level? Occasionally it cracked and something shone out.

This was one of those moments.

It wasn't much. The word partnership got bandied around in their lines of work casually all the time. But *she* didn't. Unless she was playing someone and it was useful.

Or if she meant it.

And Delilah never meant it.

Except there it was. And somehow, she'd missed it.

She didn't close her eyes, tilting her neck to offer him the full line of it until she reached the last paper in the stack. Then she let herself hum with a certain pleased contentment, like the purr of a great cat inviting more.

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

Teeth brushed skin, but halted just short of her ear as the word partnership entered his ears.

?!

Walker didn't, as a rule, worry about things. It didn't seem to be the thing to do when there was so much in the world to enjoy, to explore, to witness and to do. But that gave him pause- at least for a moment before she tilted her head slightly to give him better access. He already closed around her ear, pulling it down with teeth, before inching lower once more.

But the... it wasn't concern, but the something stayed as he explored her neck.

He enjoyed this, liked it, whatever it was, but giving it a name? Were they a name now? Of course, that was clear from the moment they hadn't split up to deal with their problems separately.

But a name.

"Want to test their bed, Del?" Walk murmured against her, pulling softly at her to rise. "Or do you want to improvise with the table?"

It did seem sturdy.

 

[Delilah Keyes]

Oh, she'd caught the meaning to his earlier question. But until she was satisfied that they had everything they could easily walk out with that wouldn't be missed, well, it had to wait. She still didn't answer right away, putting every paper back in place before letting him draw her up.

She smiled as she turned around in his arms, sliding hers around his neck. Drawing him in, she kissed him deeply.

"Well, we've already both been invited into that bed, so it only seems fair to take them up on it," she murmured against his mouth.

It was likely not what either of the residents of the apartment had meant.

Del didn't particularly care.

****

Leaning over the side, she frowned.

"Can't find my other shoe," she said over her shoulder as she tipped over to peer beneath the bed.

"Now wouldn't *that* be an awkward way to give us away," she muttered, reaching down under the bed to retrieve it.

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

Well, maybe the old Baron enjoyed to watch.

Who could really say?

* * *​

​

Walker enjoyed the view for a moment, before finally sighing to himself. It was a guarantee that if he didn't turn around now and start dressing, that they would end up entangled in blankets, passion and heat in no time- just kissing that bit where shoulder shifted to neck, teeth biting down while nails drag all the way down exploring.

But there was no time for that.

"Better question would be where my pants are..." Walk mumbled- "...or my underwear. Dells?"

The pants were found once he turned on his back again and actually looked at the chandelier hanging lazily off the ceiling. Entangled around the diamonds and other crap were his pants.

"The feth you do to get there??"

Ducartre asked while trying to figure out the best way to actually get there.

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

 

[Delilah Keyes]

She hooked her shoe with one finger, pulling out and sitting up.

"I think I mentioned something about that when it happened. But you were a little.... preoccupied," she said with a smirk.

Standing up on the bed, she motioned him over.

"I'll help, let me get on your shoulders."

It was ridiculous, she decided a minute later, how tall the ceilings were in this apartment. She reached, trying to balance while Walk gripped her calves. The tips of her fingers brushed the lowest cuff. An irritated sound grumbled deep in her throat.

"Hold on tight."

She pushed up, Walk needed to hold her legs tighter so she could gain that extra inch she needed to pull them down. It sent the chandelier swinging, and one of the tear drops stayed stuck to the pants by the ring. She plucked it off, handing him the pants before letting him drop to a knee and let her down.

With a smile and a kiss, she started dressing.

A minute later-

"Wait a minute, what special kinds of arseholes use real diamonds in a chandelier? Ugh, I wish we could rob these people harder."

[member="Walker Ducarte"]

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Delilah Keyes"]

Her breath hitched once or twice when he tilted his head to see how she was doing.

Exertion from trying to get to the pants? Maybe.

It was difficult to say in this particular situation, but in the end they got their treasure (two of them even) and he settled her back on the bed. "We should do this every morning, special.... warm-up, make sure our muscles are all nice and loose." Walk mumbled against her lips, before nipping at the lower end, pulling it with. There was a lot of temptation to restart their previous efforts and do it another few times, but they had already spend a lot of time here.

Too much time.

The risk was getting greater the longer they were here and even Walker wasn't that casual to risk getting caught.

"We can- ain't like we don't know where it is... we got his pass too." The drunken Baron would probably assume he simply lost it or forgot it somewhere. It would take time for them to rewire the security systems and something told him that the Baron didn't really.... care enough about those kind of things.

"Could pay another visit soon, when they are back at their estate."

That was also a risk, but one that Walker didn't mind taking if she didn't.