The Heist (16 page)

“
No, all soiled goods. Some stupid asswipe forgot to leave a
vent open, so they were all dead on arrival.” Martinez looked
lazily out of the window as he spoke, his tone matter of fact, as
though he were merely telling someone that he had spilled his
coffee and not that human beings had been found suffocated to death
in a container that morning. “Thirty, or forty, not totally sure,
but that’s not the fucking point. Point is we need them all
disposed of before the next shipment is brought forward in the
scheduling. Don’t breathe a word of this to the contacts, just feed
them some shit about weather conditions holding up the docking of
the ships. The last thing I need is the contacts getting edgy,
thinking there’s a problem,
capiche
?” Without giving any
indication, Martinez ended the call.

That was one
problem dealt with. The other, and potentially more lethal one for
him, was Commander Raige. And Martinez knew that was going to be
one motherfucker of a headache to deal with.

Alicia flashed
away after saying her farewells to her friend, returning to her
London abode.  She grabbed the fresh lily bouquet that she had
placed in the vase earlier that day and disappeared from her home
just as quick as she had arrived.
It was
early morning and the sun was rising for the day, birds were waking
and chirping away.  Alicia was in her preferred sitting
position, legs crossed over another as she bent forward to arrange
the flowers in the holding pot.
This was
her thinking place, the place she could come and talk and her Madre
would listen.

Alicia’s
slender finger ran over the black granite stone with the names in
gold lettering of Alessandro, Naldina and Alessandro Jr engraved
into it.
She was never able to say goodbye
to her parents.  Only with the discovery of her Madre’s
journal did she know what happened to her Papa and twin.  Her
Madre she assumed died not long after her last entry, but as a
mortal she would have passed over a hundred years ago
anyway.
With no bodies to bury, Alicia had
wanted peace of some kind for them, so had purchased a plot of land
and erected a headstone. That way their memory was still alive for
her and there was somewhere she could come, lay fresh flowers and
just be with her family once a week.

It was her Madre she
wanted to tell her news to today.

“
I have a
friend! His name is Hugh and he knows exactly what I am Madre!
After all this time of being alone, unable to share what I am…I can
finally be myself! He’s just like Papa, polite and manners you
would swoon over.”

“
I know you and Papa would not approve of what I am…vampires
are killers…but I’m not like that. I only feed and let them go! My
little trick helps me control their mind and Hugh taught me how to
mesmerise two at the same time tonight. Madre, it’s like a huge
weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I think you’d appreciate
at how he’s looking out for me as Papa and Alessandro would have
done had we…well you know. I nearly had them Madre, the living
Belcastros were in my reach and then that
pri
…unkempt looking male
with the green eyes was stalking me! I will avenge Papa and
Alessandro, I promise you that.”

Alicia raised to her feet
and flashed back home, she was going to spend the day in bed then
meet up with Hugh later that evening.

Shuggie paced
slowly around Xavier’s office practicing under his breath what he
was going to say.  He was so immersed in his thoughts that he
didn’t notice that Xavier had been standing behind him watching him
for the best part of three minutes.  Xavier cleared his
throat, an amused look on his face.

“
Don’t tell
me Shug, you’ve decided that you can’t live without my fuck
handsome self and you want us to become civil partners, yeah?”
Barking a laugh, he slapped the back of Shuggie’s head so hard, his
brain almost rattled, and grabbed a bottle of Scotch. “I would ask
if you wanted three fingers, but in your present state you might
think that would be a come on, so pour your own,” he said laughing
again, he took his glass with him as he sat behind his
desk.

“
Dinnae
flatter yersel ya big ugly bastard, you’re not in mah league,”
Shuggie laughed as he poured his drink, the worries of the
conversation he needed to have with Xavier momentarily pushed
aside. “Ye kin keep yer bromance an shove it up yer arse.” Silently
holding his glass up to toast him, he drank greedily. “Although, if
ye keep buying this Scotch, ah might be persuaded.”

Shuggie’s
laugh bellowed as Xavier threw a now empty glass at him, narrowly
missing a direct hit.

“
Hey! That
nearly hit me oan the coupon, ya nugget!” Picking the now smashed
glass and disposing of it in the trash.

“
So, you want
to enlighten me as to what exactly you were talking to yourself
about?” Although his laugh had died down, Xavier’s face was relaxed
and good humoured. He had awoken refreshed from his sleep, and was
determined that he was going to have at least one day without any
shit hitting the fan.

Shuggie’s
demeanour sobered almost instantly as he sat opposite his
Commander.  As Xavier reached over to grab the bottle of
Scotch and a fresh glass, he put his own glass down, leaning
slightly forward. “Aye, well, it’s jist that ah need tae update ye
on a few couple o’ wee matters.”

“
What
matters?” Xavier arched an enquiring brow as he kicked his feet up
on his desk and took a drink from his glass. “Shuggie, you are
acting shiftier than a nun in a sex shop. What the fuck do you need
to tell me?”

Clearing his
throat, Shuggie decided it was probably better just to cut to the
chase.

“
Aye right,
well, aye - it’s jist this.” Oh fuck here goes nothing, he thought.
“Ye see, ah managed tae get intae that laptop that ye gave meh, and
it turns oot - an ye’ll likely laugh at this - but it turns oot
that Friera isnae Friera after all.  Her name is Alicia
Carberletti.”

Xavier’s
reaction hadn’t changed, but then Shuggie thought, why would it? He
hasn’t heard the interesting bit yet.

“
An Alicia
Carberletti is the thief we’ve been after.” Still, not unsurprising
to Xavier who, although was getting a bit impatient, hadn’t changed
his mood one iota. Shuggie continued to speak, but the last part of
his sentence was spoken so low, so quickly, that Xavier nearly
missed it.

“
Say again?” Xavier’s expression changed in a heartbeat, his
feet off the desk, glass slammed down and leaning over the desk,
almost nose to nose with Shuggie.
“She’s a fucking
vampire
?” The last word was blasted
in Shuggie’s face as he sat, averting his eyes from Xavier’s glare.
“Friera, is Alicia, who is a vampire.  And you know this, how?
 Was there some fucking file in the cunting laptop that was
entitled ‘diary of a bloodsucking kleptomaniac’?”

There was a
vein throbbing in the right hand corner of Xavier’s forehead, and
Shuggie knew that he was going to get his arse well and truly
kicked.

“
Naw, well,”
he had thought of a smartarse comment to make, but backpedalled so
fast there was almost steam coming from his feet.  Xavier was
no longer in any mood for frivolities. “Naw.  Ah met her. A
couple o’times actually. Ah’n I’ve invited her over here the night
tae talk.”

Xavier
scanned the room for hidden cameras.  He was sure that he was
being set up for some shitty candid camera show, because what he
was hearing from Shuggie could not be serious. It absolutely
couldn’t be fucking serious. “You have precisely ten seconds to
tell me that you’re having a fucking laugh, or I swear to damnation
that you are going to get an all over suntan. Do you
understand?”

“
Actually, as
ye mention it, there’s summit else ah need tae tell ye, Commander.”
Shuggie had suddenly found his hands very interesting, staring at
them so that he didn’t have to look Xavier in the eye. “Cos Alicia
isnae quite normal.”

Xavier almost
laughed.

“
Tell me something I
don’t
fucking know! The female is
wired to the bloody moon,” his scornful tone biting back at
Shuggie.

“
Naw, ah mean
she’s…” he struggled to find the words, “…she’s different. Think
aboot it Commander. She’s a vampire, bit think back tae when you
huv met her.” It was only then that Shuggie raised his eyes
to look at Xavier, and could tell the moment the recognition
of what he was implying took hold.

“
Every time I’ve seen her it’s been in the daytime. She was
fucking
sunbathing
at the dockside! But how the actual fuck could
that even be possible? Shuggie?” Xavier felt his ass connect with
his seat as he replayed in his head all the interactions he had had
with the little nuclear bomb whom he had known as Friera, but was
in fact, Alicia Carberletti. “Vampires can’t go out in the
sunlight, she’d fry, wouldn’t she?”

Shuggie
shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Apparently, she kin tolerate
the sun. Ah’n I’m no a hundred percent sure she is pure vampire.
 We need tae get a hold o’some o’her blood tae get the Doc tae
test it, jist tae be sure.”

“
And so, let me summarize this. You have invited a known thief
and head case into
our
base.” Xavier’s growl had returned, “Our
secret
base,” and was
getting more menacing, “and not only that, but she may be some sort
of creature that even
you
don’t know about?  Have you taken leave of
your fucking senses, Shuggie?”

“
That aboot
sums it up, aye,” a sheepish Shuggie agreed reluctantly, adding,
“bit nae point cryin’ over spilt milk. The lass will be oan her way
soon, so we kin discuss it aw the gither.”

Xavier must
still be asleep, or had fallen into a crack in time and landed in
an alternative universe because he knew that this was NOT
happening.  His best friend did
not
actually say that to him.
 He knew that for a fact because Shuggie was not a suicidal
maniac who didn’t value his balls.

“
I’ll tell
you what is happening, Shug, yeah? I’m going out — for a very
fucking long time. You are going to get your shit together and stop
acting as though you’re having some sort of psychotic delusional
episode. Then you are going to imprison the thief that we have been
paid to find, and when I get back you and me will deliver the
little troublemaker to our employer, take his fucking money and get
out of this shithole.  Am I clear, Lieutenant?” With that,
Xavier got up, marched past Shuggie, and slammed the door nearly
off its hinges as he left.

Alicia
checked her watch. In over just over half an hour’s time she had a
play date with her new friend!

She was
feeling freer than she had in a long time. For one, Hugh knew of
her identity and she was finally able to talk to one of her own
kind, and two…she’d had a heart to heart with her Madre. The talks
Alicia had with the headstone always left her feeling
better.

Tying her hair into a
loose ponytail, she was ready to head off into town to where Hugh
asked her to meet him.  She grabbed the carrier bag that was
sitting on the entrance hall table and flashed back to
Mexico.

Appearing from an
alleyway behind a busy bar, she popped a lolly into her mouth and
walked out onto the busy street, her brown eyes scanning for
Hugh.

****

Xavier knew he was being
tailed.

Belcastro
goons were about as subtle as a kick to the balls, but they were
easily lost as he led them a merry dance weaving in and out of
traffic, taking sharp exits and doubling back on himself. The
benefits of having his bike back in full working order was that he
could pull manoeuvres that the wheeled cages couldn’t and now the
hunted had become the hunter. Xavier was following behind the
Belcastro men’s car smirking as they led him straight back to Snr
Belcastro’s mansion.

Stupid
motherfucking idiots
, he thought to
himself as he parked the bike a mile from the mansion and started
walking up the hill.

The diversion of the
chase was enough to almost lift his mood and take his mind off of
how unbelievably stupid Shuggie was, although he was troubled by
his true reaction to the intel he had been given.

He had warned Shug that
the only interest he had in the thief Alicia Carberletti was to
hand her over to Belcastro and take the reward money, but it was
far from his true feelings. For some fucked up reason, the thought
of Alicia being handed over to that ball bag made him murderously
angry. There was a need deep within him to protect her and he
didn’t know where the fuck that had come from or why. He’d never
ever felt like this about anyone, but the feeling was almost primal
and overwhelming.

Instead of
walking in through the main gates, Xavier snuck into the grounds of
the mansion and easily disabled the alarm systems, he had organised
the installation himself, after all.  Belcastro was playing
dirty by clearing out his bank accounts and not paying him, as well
as having him spied upon.