Love Is Only an Illusion

Jack pulled Sutton to the garbage shoot, pushing her in first. The sound of skin and shoes screeching against mental echoed through the shoot, piercing the young magicians’ ears. Jack looked up, noticing Agent Rhodes on their tails.

“Hurry, Sutton!” Jack cried.

Sutton released her hands and feet from the edges of the garbage shoot, flying down and out. Jack followed seconds after, Agent Rhodes tumbling onto him.

“Jack, the paper!” Sutton hollered, noticing it sitting atop a couch cushion. It must have fallen out of her jacket when she landed.

Jack scrambled for the paper just as Rhodes attempted to slide for it. Rhodes cried out in pain as Jack stepped on the agent’s back to make his getaway. He grabbed Sutton’s hand, leading her through the alley and down another set of stairs, Agent Rhodes hurrying behind them. The duo ran through a building, Sutton leading the way out as Jack knocked things into Rhodes’s path. Outside, Sutton and Jack attempted to look natural, their heads down.

“Hey!” a FBI agent yelled, grabbing Jack’s shoulder.

“Get in the car!” Jack instructed Sutton as he fought and handcuffed the men. Sutton started the engine as Jack made his way around the front, getting into the driver’s side. “Safety first,” he attempted to joke with Sutton as he threw on his seatbelt.

Sutton rolled her eyes. “Just drive, Jack.” With that, Jack was off. Sutton looked back, seeing the Interpol agent and Agent Rhodes behind them. “Jack, they’re following us.”

“We’ll lose ‘em for a second,” Jack told her as he turned sharply down a street, maneuvering around a tractor trailer truck.

“Okay, you’re way of losing them is near death,” Sutton yelled at him as she gripped the hand rail tighter.

Despite their situation, Jack chuckled. “I think this whole plan is near death.”

The two flew onto the highway, Jack jumping the barrier of the merging lane. Again, Sutton looked back, noticing this time it was Agent Fuller behind them.

“The bridge is coming up,” Jack reminded Sutton as he cut off a number of cars. “This is it.”

“That’s Danny!” Sutton informed Jack as they passed a taxi. “And Henley!”

“And here’s Merritt,” Jack smiled, seeing the fake car attached to the front of the bus. He quickly merged in front of the bus. The couple watched in their side mirrors as Merritt released the car. Seconds later, it hurled into the cement barrier.

Jack let out a loud laugh, his childish grin covering his face. “I can’t believe this worked!”

Sutton let out an exhausted sigh of relief, the complete opposite of Jack’s reaction. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

“I promise my driving isn’t always that bad,” Jack smirked, reaching for Sutton’s hand in an effort to calm her down.

Sutton looked over at Jack, giving him a smile. Jack returned it, bringing her hand up to his lips to give it a reassuring kiss. It was meant as a friendly gesture, but it was that action that made something go off in Sutton’s head. “Jack, we need to talk.”

Jack looked over at her, concern filling his eyes. “About?”

“Danny,” Sutton choked out, watching Jack’s eyes cloud in a bit of anger. With that, he floored it, making a 30 minute drive only 20 minutes long.

~~

“Let’s make this quick,” Danny told Merritt and Henley as they emerged from their vehicles, each quickly stripping off their jackets to reveal matching jumpsuits.

“These outfits are hideous,” Henley cringed. “This is the last time I let you buy me clothing.”

Danny rolled his eyes, popping the trunk of his car to reveal bags of balloon animals. “Just shut up and stuff these in the fake safe, okay?”

“Someone’s a bit touchy,” Merritt joked, grabbing the bags and heading for the warehouse.

“I am not!” Danny attempted to fire back, his voice cracking.

“Whoa, what’s wrong, Danny?” Henley commented as she stuffed the balloons inside.

Danny rubbed his throat. “N-Nothing,” he stuttered, avoiding any eye contact with the others until he had his emotions in line.

The team broke into the warehouse with ease. Danny pulled the remote control from his pocket, allowing the giant mirror to cover the real vault. The room appeared to look just like a giant rabbit box. Danny smirked, silently applauding the master behind the trick. “It’s actually pretty brilliant,” he admitted as he turned toward the others.

“Gotta give ‘em credit,” Merritt nodded, looking down at his watch. “Welp, if my timing is correct, the FBI will be here in about, oh, ten minutes.”

“I guess we better get to 5 Pointz,” Henley sighed, wishing Sutton was with her.

~~

Neither one spoke a word as Jack led the way into the abandoned warehouse just minutes from the one that held the safe full of money. Sutton followed behind him like a little girl who had just been scolded by her father, fearing that any moment Jack may explode.

Jack opened the door, holding it open for Sutton. “Sit,” he commanded, pointing toward the floor beside the equipment they would be using later.

Sutton did as she was told, folding her legs underneath her. Not once did she make any eye contact with Jack. He cleared his throat as he began to mimic FBI Agent Evans, demanding that the safe be moved from the warehouse in Queens to 5 Pointz.

Sutton sat and contemplated what to say to Jack until the floorboards shifted as he took a seat on the far edge opposite from her. “Talk.”

Sutton swallowed. “I-I wanted to tell you back before the second show,” she admitted. “Remember? You said we could talk, well, now.” She looked up at Jack through her lashes, seeing him nod slightly as he pinched his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger. “Um, Danny and I, we kind of, sort of-“

“You fucked?” Jack blurted, his stare still hard on an inanimate object in front of him.

“I-It wasn’t like that, Jack,” Sutton stuttered, reaching for Jack’s arm to force him to look at her.

He flung from her hold, standing up. “I can’t believe you, Sutton,” Jack scolded her. “You know the kind of person that he is.”

Sutton felt tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes. “Jack, he’s not like that.”

“Oh, yeah, Sut. Danny is a real gentleman. When was the last time he had a serious girlfriend? Oh, that’s right. Never because he only does one-night stands!” Jack paced the room, his hands ruffling through his hair.

“Jack, please just listen to me!” Sutton cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. She sobbed heavily, anxiety taking over her as she felt her heart breaking.

Jack’s head flung up when he heard Sutton’s breathing pick up in pace. His demeanor changed quickly, moving back toward his best friend. “No, Sut, please. I didn’t mean for you to cry like this. Please stop,” he attempted to sooth her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Sutton cried into the crook of Jack’s neck as he rocked her back and forth, the sobs becoming louder. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she wailed, her breathing sounding like harsh gusts of wind.

Jack shushed her, asking her to not speak but to breathe in and out slowly. He would listen when she relaxed. 25 minutes and two packs of travel-sized tissue packs later, Sutton sniffled one last time.

“Ready?” Jack asked her as he slowly released his hold.

Sutton nodded, breathing in deeply. “It happened after our first show in Las Vegas,” she began to explain. Jack stared at her intently as she continued. “After you all left, I really did shower, and so did Danny. We were going to watch a movie and eat popcorn when I got this stupid idea that I could seduce him.”

Jack snickered. “I never thought I would ever hear you say that word.”

Sutton let out a throaty chuckle. “Well, it’s what I had planned. But, anyway, it kind of just happened. I told him it would be a mutual thing, friends helping friends.”

“It wasn’t, was it?” Jack whispered, taking her hand in his.

Sutton shook her head, tears beginning to threaten their flow once more. She looked Jack in the eye. “I wanted it to happen, Jack. I-I think I’ve been falling for him from the beginning. The night Danny and I went back to the hotel early in Paris, we could have slept together. He kissed me and we just didn’t stop, not until you, Henley, and Merritt came back.”

“Wow,” Jack muttered, standing up and pacing to help sort everything out. “Wait, does Henley know about this?”

Sutton shook her head. “N-No,” she stuttered. “God, I’m an awful person, Jack. I didn’t even have the guts to tell my own cousin.”

“Hey, hey. Don’t beat yourself up,” Jack instructed her. “I’m sure Danny will tell her. Even he has a guilty conscious, I’m sure.”

Sutton’s eyes grew wide. “She’ll kill him.”

“He’s dead when he sees me, so better for her to do it,” Jack smirked, pulling Sutton up from the floor and into a tight hug.

Sutton sighed, grateful to have at least one person know her secret. “Are you mad at me?” she asked Jack.

Jack huffed. “I could never be mad at you, Sutton. We’re best friends,” he told her, pulling away to look her in the eye. He showed her the friendship bracelet that she had made him, still tight around his wrist since the moment he opened the gift. Sutton smirked, rolling up her sleeve and showing him hers. “I just want to know; do you love him?” Jack asked, the question hanging in the air like a falling leaf.

For once, Sutton didn’t scold the person who referred to her feelings for Danny as love. Instead, she smiled. “Yeah, Jack, I do.”

Jack smiled at her, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “Then that’s good enough for me.”

Sutton giggled but realized she was missing something. “W-What if Danny doesn’t feel the same way?”

“Then I’ll kill him.”