The Heist (24 page)

“
How are you
liking our entertainment, here in Mexico, Alfredo, eh? Our pussy
wet enough for you?”

Snr Belcastro
hit the back of the smaller man’s back as Martinez winked then
laughed, throwing money onto the stage as the girls performed. The
other man answered, but Shuggie, watching from his vantage point,
wasn’t interested in him.

Only
Belcastro.

“
You will not
get looked after this well back in Sicily, I guarantee you.” Snr
Belcastro took a drink and turned his attentions to the dancers.
“These are the finest Russian stock, just fresh in. They aren’t as
skilled as I’d want them, but I am training those two myself.” His
ugly laugh almost made Shuggie vomit, he could not imagine the
horrors that these women had to endure.

Petra faced
the crowd, keeping her eyes front, although she knew that the
cigar-man was staring just at her. On cue, she and the other girls
lifted their umbrellas high above their heads horizontally before
opening their legs wide and reaching back to thread the umbrella’s
through their open legs, on hand behind one hand in front as they
dip and rub their bodies back and forth over the length of the
umbrellas in time to the music.

This earned leering
cheers and cat-calls from the men, which made her skin
crawl.

As they
discarded the umbrellas, Petra and the nervous girl turned their
backs on each other and both slowly bent at the knees wind down to
the ground, their hips swaying as they synchronised unbuttoning
their short jacket tops, before snaking back upright to turn and
remove each other’s jacket, sensually, letting the crowd whip up
into a frenzy at the sight. Petra wanted to spit on the men — claw
their smug sneering faces with her nails — but she wanted to live,
and that meant dancing, stripping and pleasing these animals until
she could find a way out of this hell on earth.

Shuggie’s
anger was almost palpable as he continued his surveillance of Snr
Belcastro. He was busy telling Martinez what he had in store for
two of the girls on stage afterwards and shouted approval as the
dancers who were now only dressed in their fedora’s, matching bra
and panties, stocking and suspenders and lethal heels as they
bumped and grinded on the stage. Shuggie had almost had enough and
was going to call it a night when Snr Belcastro’s conversation
turned more interesting.

Snr Belcastro
smiled over at Alfredo, and beckoned him closer as he
spoke.

“
You heard
about our little trouble some months back? The robberies, well, the
attempts. No, they never got away with shit, but we found out who
was behind it,” he paused to take a few puffs of his cigar, tilting
his head to the side as he watched the girls strip and dance right
in front of him. “It was that Greek — the one who proclaims to be a
Commander.  Yeah, the stupid bastard was arrogant enough to
think he could offer his services to catch the thief, but all the
time it was him! I had him killed for his impudence. No one crosses
a Belcastro.” Sneering, he stubbed the cigar out on the table and
leaned forward, snorting a line of coke as the seams of his
trousers took the strain.

Shuggie
smirked to himself at the way Snr Belcastro was trying to play down
just how skilfully Alicia had robbed from him — and at the
description of Xavier, and his alleged ‘demise’.

Sticks and
Stones
, he thought ruefully and ordered
another beer.

The spotlight
circled, and fixed on Petra as the crowd whistled and cheered. As
the room darkened once more, the beam settled on her once more, and
she could hear cigar-man’s voice over everyone else’s. She was
glad that she couldn’t understand what he was saying - everything
about him was danger and cruelty.  Petra tried to keep calm
and perform as she had been taught. As much as her mind and body
protested, if she didn’t the alternative wasn’t something to think
about. The nervous girl that had been beside her on the stage had
finally burst into tears and stood shaking, looking lost on the
stage.  She had been swiftly removed by a huge wall of muscles
in a black t-shirt, and Petra knew deep down that no one would be
seeing that girl alive again.

As the lights
nearly blinded her, Petra moved her body to the beat, pulling the
zipper of her too-short skirt down, and kicking it away in the
direction of cigar-man. She brought her fedora down to cover her
bra before flinging it out in the same direction. Cigar-man
gave her a look that made her stumble. Petra covered up her mistake
quickly, shaking her hair loose and putting a fake smile on her
face as she lowered into a crouching position, her back straight.
Slowly, she opened her knees to demean herself completely, her
pussy just inches away from cigar-man’s face, but luckily for her,
he was engrossed in conversation with the other men, so didn’t make
a grab for her like she had seen him do to other girls
before.

“
I let the
Greek think he had fooled me and then…” Snr Belcastro drew a finger
along his chubby neck, grinning. “Anyone who is dumbfuck to think
that they can take on the Belcastros and live, are really just
asking to die,” he laughed and rubbed at his nose, his small eyes
sparkling as he held court.

Shuggie gave
a derisive snort at hearing Belcastro lie about having the
Commander killed.  He knew the old man was trying to save
face. It wouldn’t look good for him if the truth that Xavier had
ended the contract between them and disappeared from his radar got
out to his associates and competitors.

Still, he had to laugh
internally at the shit Belcastro was spouting.

Martinez was
making a call on his cell, but Alfredo was hanging on his every
word and was encouraging him to continue.

“
We
Belcastros have a fine tradition of defeating our enemies! You ask
anyone from the Old Country and they will tell you how fearless we
Belcastros are — our name is mentioned to children like the
Bogeyman,” laughing as his whole body jiggled in a disjointed
spasm. “In fact, the Greek is lucky I didn’t ‘Carberletti’ him, eh,
Martinez?” Snr Belcastro called over to Martinez, then sat back,
his eyes pawing over the girls on the stage, saliva on his chin and
his chest wheezing slightly.

Quickly
putting his cell away, Martinez laughed and nodded.

“
Yes Boss,
he’s very lucky. Last thing anyone wants is a ‘Carberletti’.” He
caught Alfredo’s confused expression, then turned to Snr Belcastro.
“You want me to tell him Boss?”

“
It is my
story to tell, Martinez,” Snr Belcastro scolded as he hesitated for
dramatic purposes before clearing his throat. “My grandfather was a
formidable Boss.  He ran the North of Sicily like no other
before him, and his enemies either moved out or were disappeared.
The most impressive of his clearances was the family
Carberletti.”

“
The father
was Alessandro, and he had already built a very lucrative business.
Other families were envious of his power and influence and he had
started earning the respect of the elders. Well, my grandfather
decided that he wanted Alessandro’s business, and when he refused?
Not only did Alessandro meet his end, but his wife, son and
daughter and all the extended family — even their staff — were
executed,” Snr Belcastro whistled. “All wiped out, extinct! Anyone
even saying they had a connection to the Carberletti’s didn’t live
to see another day, and that my friend, is why we call it a
‘Carberletti’. We will wipe out a family line in one swift move.” A
smug self-satisfied smile formed on Snr Belcastro’s purple face as
he judged Alfredo’s paled complexion as the appropriate reaction to
his story.

Shuggie
hissed through clenched teeth.

“
Dirty
Fucking Bastard.”

He had heard
every word, and suddenly understood just why it was that Alicia
wanted to bring Belcastro down so badly.  How she could deal
with the knowledge of what that family had done to her own, and to
deal with it alone and with such dignity made Shuggie respect and
understand Alicia more than he did previously.  He also knew
that when he told the Commander what Belcastro had said, all hell
would break loose. He was already protective of the youngling, but
in light of this news? There was no telling how murderous he would
become. The party seemed to be breaking up, so Shuggie stood up and
started to make his way out of the club.  He didn’t want to be
seen by any of Belcastro’s group, and there was nothing he could do
to help the enslaved woman tonight. For now, he needed to get
back to base and report to the Commander.

They had much to
discuss.

Petra ran to the back of
the stage as soon as the lights went out and the music stopped,
heading straight to the grubby, smelly bathroom beside the
storeroom.  She flung the door open, and lurched over the
toilet, emptying her stomach.  The wrenching of her stomach
hurt her, but she couldn’t stop.  Just as she lifted her head
to turn on the faucet to wipe her mouth, she caught a whiff of the
cigar.

He was coming to get
her.

“
I don’t see
how bringing me here is helping me bring down Belcastro! Don’t you
look at me like that, when did you become all tiger cub eyes for
Commander Prick? Yes, I know what he said that I need combat
training before I go after them la la fucking la! Anyway you’re a
tiger, you don’t get an opinion here Frazzle!”

Alicia
crouched down on her knees and placed the little custom made black
ear defenders on the white Bengal tigers head. Once satisfied his
little hearing wouldn’t be affected she spun around, pointed her
left hand up to the window and with precise shots, fired bullets at
the ten empty Scotch bottles that were lined along the window
frame.

“
I hate being
bored Frazzle.” The cub was now lying on his back with an equally
bored expression on his face.

Closing the door to his
bedroom and throwing himself onto the bed Xavier kicked off his
shitkickers, then slowly opened one eye scanning the room, then the
other.

Sitting up
slowly, he cursed under his breath. Someone had been in
here.

The room
looked tidy enough to the casual observer but he knew — he just
knew —that his belongings had been moved. Standing up to walk over
to the wardrobe, his hand reached for the handle, but just before
he pulled it open, there was a smashing of glass and a whoosh of
air close to his left ear.

Turning sharply, looking
in the direction of the open window, he stared at the shattered
Scotch bottle that had been perched on the windowsill, then looked
behind him to the wall, where there was cracked plaster and a
rather small puncture mark, with a bullet casing lodged inside
it.

“
What the Fu…? Alicia!” Growling Xavier walked over to the
window and saw the small ‘weapon of mass destruction’ loading up
and aiming to fire again he barked, “You’re fucking lucky those
bottles were empty!” Glaring down at her, before adding, “Get your
ass up here,
now
, Sweetcheeks!” There was a crunch of broken glass underfoot
as he started to clean up the mess.

Alicia rolled
her eyes as she clicked the safety catch to her weapon, slowly bent
at the waist to place the gun into her boot and scooped Frazzle
into her arms. With a leap she was sitting on the window ledge of
decaying building also known as home.

“
You roared
for me darlink?”

Ignoring her,
he continued cleaning up the collateral damage, counting in his
head how long it would take for her to finally comply with a simple
goddamn instruction.  He pointed to his bed.

“
Sit down,
and that’s not a fucking request.”

Alicia waltzed past
Xavier, let Frazzle out of her hold where he padded over to the
corner of Xavier’s room.

“
You won’t
mind if I lie down will you Com-an-derr? I’m bored out my box here
—and why the fuck are you so grouchy? You needing some ‘leopard’
time?”

Alicia smirked to herself
as she belly flopped onto Xavier’s neatly made bed, her boots
swinging behind her head as her chin rested on her
hands.

Knowing that
was a dig towards his ill-advised un-date with the real ‘Friera’,
Xavier grunted in response, grabbed the edge of the blanket on the
bed and pulled hard, throwing Alicia unceremoniously off and onto
the floor.

Fixing the
blanket neatly onto the bed again, his wolf started it’s now
familiar chant of “
mine
”. This combined with the fleeting image of putting the
rebellious little pixie over his knee and spanking her for all the
trouble she’d just caused, didn’t help keep his mind focused on
being angry with her.

“
Grouchy? You nearly shot my fucking ear off, Sweetcheeks, so
I think grouchy is the least of my problems, yeah? How the hell can
you be bored when you should be training to go into battle against
Belcastro? I swear to fuck I have never met anyone as irritating
and out of control as you”
or as
sexy
. Damn that wolf, Xavier thought, he
needed to get it a fucking virtual muzzle.

“
Oi you
fucking prick!” Alicia rose to her feet from where she had been
thrown to the ground and stalked towards the giant male in front of
her, raising on her tiptoes, she prodded his chest with her
forefinger. “I’ve been training hard and I never actually hit you
did I? No, I didn’t and do you know why soldier boy? Because I
never miss my intended target and those bottles were said target,
so get off your fucking low cow and chillax.”