The Heist (9 page)

The heel of
the thief’s hand gave a soft tap to the window, before using both
hands to slide the old style sash window upwards, ensuring it was
done slowly and quietly. Halfway up, the thief turned at the waist
and jumped backwards to sit on the ledge of the partially opened
window.  The black leather gloved hands gripped the wooden
frame, and the thief hoisted his body through the small space. A
soft thud was all that was made as the thief lowered down onto the
dark oak flooring.
The thief's face was
fully concealed behind a black mask and as camera one and two were
disabled easily.

“
Fucking
child’s play,” was said in a muffled tone.

Satisfied
that no one had detected the intrusion, the thief knew part one was
nearly completed.  The years of planning and stakeouts was
nearly coming to an end. It had all been leading up to this — the
final part of the plan, and the end scene would be the icing on the
cake.

Taking a step
forward, the intruder didn’t see the almost invisible trip wire,
but did hear the alarms going off, dogs barking and lots of
shouting and disarray.

“
Ah fuck! This wasn’t meant to happen!” All the other
robberies and crimes had gone smoothly, and to have a hitch like
this so late on in the game was not only an inconvenience, but
could jeopardise the thief's life’s work.
Within seconds the thief was gone, fuming at the
unforeseen obstacle that had just occurred.  A more detailed
stakeout was needed and this heist would need more planning, which
meant an unscheduled return at twilight.

“
Fuck!”

The view from up high was
stunning.

The water had
a slight ripple coursing through it from where boats were coming
and going, but apart from that it was relatively calm. The sun was
starting to set to the West.
The day had
been overcast, which pleased Alicia as she didn’t feel cheated out
of a day of sunbathing. Her final day in the holiday resort of
Cancun had been relaxing and peaceful until two hours ago, a minor
glitch to her day that she had
almost
calmed from.

Last time she
checked her watch it had been 8 p.m. Two more hours until her coach
transfer would arrive to escort her to the airport for the dreaded
flight home. Flying made her sick, but it was a sacrifice she made
once a year so she felt accepted and fitted in with society. Being
a loner, this was of great personal importance to her.

Pushing
herself up with her hands, she pivoted her body from her lying
position to a sitting one and swung her legs over the edge of the
container.  Sunsets were beautiful to watch and here she had a
bird’s eye view.

****

Xavier’s mood
went from bad to worse by the time he had arrived at the
Belcastro’s mansion, disabled the alarm and received the report of
the incident.  After balling out Hawkeye on the inferior
quality of the CCTV footage — which had given Shuggie nothing to
work on as nothing had been picked up on the cameras — he left
before he committed mass murder.

The Belcastro guards were
beyond inept, and he was fully intending to head towards town to
find a cheap bar with even cheaper females.  But he couldn’t
even get pissed without being pissed off.

Answering his
cell with a grunt, Shuggie quickly gathered that today wasn’t the
time for chit chat or pleasantries, such as “hello” and so cut to
the chase. “Negative oan the CCTV Commander, no DNA trace, nada,
zilch.  However, the security detail doon at the docks hus
picked up a mobile internet signal near tae the Belcastro
containers. Sending the coordinates fur ye tae check
oot.”

Giving a
disgruntled snort, Xavier checked the details sent to his iPhone
and started up his battered Ducati, cursing under his breath about
not having taken it to the garage to be fixed yet.  Heading
towards the docks, he parked half a mile from the main gates, not
wanting to give the thieves any indication that he was there. The
tracking signal Shuggie had fixed on the mobile internet he
identified was getting stronger. A sly smirk formed on the corners
of his mouth as Xavier shut his cell down and stood at the
container where the signal was emitting from.

He walked
around it, listening intently, but there was no noise from within.
 Just then he noticed a shadow falling to the north west of
his position.  Looking up he frowned, narrowed his eyes and
stared.  Two tiny feet in pink leather boots — no treads, low
heeled — swinging from the top of the container.  Reaching up
with one arm, grabbing the ankles, he yanked hard, pulling the
perpetrator down to the ground.

“
What the
fuck
are you doing here?”

It wasn’t
often that Xavier was lost for words, but when he recognised the
thief as being the female who had run him down days earlier — the
object of his unwelcome thoughts ever since — he was
speechless.

“
Friera?”

One minute
she was enjoying the sunset, the next moment Alicia let out a
shriek as someone yanked at her boots and she was free falling off
the container and through the air where she landed with a thud on
her behind. Scrambling to her feet, her brown eyes looked up to be
met with green….it was him!

“
I was
enjoying the sunset until you came along! Why the fuck did you just
do that? If I’ve any broken bones you will be paying my medical
bills!”  Alicia stood with her hands on her hips glaring up at
him.

“
Medical bills? You have some balls, Sweetcheeks, I’ll give
you that yeah?  Where are the rest of your gang? And
don’t even think about saving their asses because if you
have
any
notion of a survival instinct you will know that I’m not in
the mood for playing fucking games, understand?”

Xavier paced
furiously in front of Alicia, still trying to work out in his head
how she could possibly be implicated in the thefts, but he couldn’t
deny the evidence.  She was as guilty as sin.  It was
just a pity, the sin was theft and not…chastising himself to remain
focused, he bridged his arms across his chest and glared at his
captive waiting for an answer.

“
Have you lost your damn mind? What gang are you bleating on
about?”
Alicia moved her hand to
tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she just stood and
stared at the arrogant man who had clearly just came from the
mental asylum. He was trying to intimidate her. His stance was
deadly, feet were wide apart and he spoke with authority.  It
was then she saw the glint around his neck...dog tags. Great! She
was face to face with Action Man!
“Stalking is a crime you know?”

Alicia pushed
up onto her tiptoes to give her some leverage. As with their last
encounter, she had to strain her neck to look up at the blond
haired, green eyed homeless looking man, and he was sporting a
beard that would almost give Santa Claus a run for his money. She
took the dog tags in her fingers and slowly massaged them with her
fingertips as her eyes looked them over.

“
Commander Raige,” her Italian purring the ‘R’ as she said his
name out loud, then abruptly she dropped her hand, turned and
started to walk away from the huge male.  She could feel his
eyes boring into her head like a laser beam as she purposely took
slow steps.
“I won’t tell the
authorities about you being the hit and run driver nor will I tell
them about today’s incident. Now if you’ll excuse me soldier boy, I
have a flight to catch. Arrivederci Com- an-derr!”

She was
trying to intimidate him, confuse him, Xavier thought as he
suppressed any notion of getting sense out of this female.
 She would try the patience of angels, and he was no angel.
 Never in his forty seven years had he ever encountered anyone
that spoke back to him or taunted him as she did.  Even when
carrying out torture to extract information, the prisoners he took
may have been full initially of bravado, but the underlying fear
was never far from them. This...this…Xavier struggled to find the
right word…little minx was testing him beyond his limits, and
although his natural response would be to knock her clean out,
there was a part of him — up until now undiscovered part of him —
that found her damned fucking irresistible.  As she sashayed
away, over emphasising her wiggle and throwing her hair over her
shoulder as if to punctuate her ‘don’t give a fuck’ status, he
stood dumbfounded.

Well, he stood
dumbfounded for a maximum of ten seconds before his senses returned
to him.

“
You really
are a piece of work, aren’t you, Sweetcheeks?” Xavier stood his
ground, eyes piercing into the back of Alicia’s head.  “A
twisted, delusional piece of work.” He left out the fact that he
found her beguiling and as hot as the fires of Hell.  Even he
wasn’t fully prepared to accept that as fact — just yet.

“
So, get that ass back over here, because you are as of
now
my
prisoner, understand?”

Shuggie zoomed in on the
docks cameras that he had managed to hack into.  Peering at
the screen his face contorted as he watched his Commander waving
his arms about and gesticulating while shouting at thin
air

“
Ach shite,
it’s worse than ah thought! He’s gone completely
mental.”

To and fro, the commander
walked, and he was either really pissed off with the dirt on his
boots, or he was having an argument to himself.  Either way,
it was not a good sign.

Shuggie’s
frown deepened.  What he wouldn’t give for some audio to
accompany the pictures on the CCTV from the dockside. He was
playing witness to his best friend, his Commander, having a nervous
breakdown. He was trying to work out just what Xavier was giving
his death glare to.  The screen showed him glowering into
empty space and then talking to himself, again.

“
Shite,
Commander, ah ne’er seen ye lose it like this afore.  Ah need
tae help ye, bit ye need tae help yersel’ first.”  Shuggie
could have wept as he watched the great man he respected and loved
like a brother coming undone before his very eyes.

****

Xavier
smirked a little as he watched Alicia stop in her tracks.  He
didn’t realise that he was holding his breath waiting for her to
respond.  “Cat caught your tongue, Friera?”

Alicia stopped
dead, mulling over his words quickly as it suddenly registered
the
she
had given
him the false name, and that he knew exactly who she was and what
she’d been doing.  She turned around slowly to face the huge
male.

“
Tell me
Commander Prick…what crime am I guilty of that you feel the need to
take me prisoner? I’m sure I told you I have a flight to catch. Are
you deaf as well as ignorant?”  Alicia stood still, staring at
the angered man before her.

Never before had the
phrase ‘Mexican standoff’ suited a situation as it did
now.

Xavier’s jaw
nearly dropped when she answered him, but he kept his composure as
he tilted his head to the side, keeping his voice low and
steady.

“
I have your
laptop, thank you for the gift.” His smirk widened into a wicked
smile as he seen the recognition flash in her eyes that she had
left it behind with all of her grandstanding. “So, you can go for
now, Friera. I will be back for you, I can guarantee it.” Xavier
gave a short, sarcastic salute, as he tucked the laptop into his
leather jacket, zipped it up and walked, with equal deliberate
casualness towards his bike. He was going to play this female
at her own damn game.

And I
have
your
name,
Alicia hissed to herself as she inhaled deeply. You have just
crossed the wrong female!

“
Oi!
Commander Prick.” She shouted at him, masking the panic in her
voice that he had her laptop with all her details on it. “You
know fuck all about me or who I am.”

“
But thanks
to you, I soon will, yeah?” Xavier barked a laugh as he started to
walk through the dockyard, making his way back towards where he had
hidden his bike. “Don’t miss me too much, female,” shouting over
his shoulder at her. As soon as he made it back to base, he would
have Shuggie hack into her computer and let it spill all of
Friera’s delicious secrets. That female was as good as
his!

Back at the
base, Shuggie shut down the link to the CCTV and waited for Xavier
to return.  He needed to broach the subject of his nervous
breakdown carefully. A man as skilled and deadly as Xavier had to
be handled with kid gloves. An hour had passed since he had turned
off the computer and he knew Xavier was back when the door to the
deserted hotel that they had commandeered flew open and he heard
the dulcet tones of his commander announce, “
Shug
, get your ass over here, asap.”
Fixing a nonplussed expression on his face, he walked out to be met
by Xavier in the hallway.

“
Got a
present for you,” Xavier grinned as he handed over Alicia’s laptop
to Shuggie.