The Heist (20 page)

“
Damn bugs!”
Alicia mumbled as she shifted in her seat. “Tell Me Xavi, what did
you find out? Perhaps that the Russians are involved with the
fuckers that slaughtered my father and twin brother?” Alicia
slumped back into the chair, sucking away on her lolly.

Bridging his
arms across his wide chest Xavier kept standing, leaning his back
against the wall.  He took his time looking over Alicia — it
was as if he was seeing her for the first time.

Really seeing
her.

She was
oozing confidence, and was self-assured. She had an inner
strength and determination which showed in those big brown almond
shaped eyes of hers, and the way her lips moved when she spoke was
hypnotising.  Her appearance was deceiving. She looked petite,
frail, and delicate.  There was no denying she was feminine
and sexy as fuck, but that didn’t come from her small, fragile
appearance. No, it was coming from her intelligence and
tenacity.

She was
right.  She didn’t need anyone. So why did Xavier want her to
want him so fucking badly?  He shook his head as the word
resurfaced in his mind. “Mine.” His wolf was rising, and he had
never felt it before in his life.

It was
impossible — wasn’t it?

He was
faulty, the ‘runt’.  He couldn’t shift, never mind communicate
with that part of him.  Pushing these thoughts out of the way,
he tried to focus on the conversation.  If he was having some
sort of midlife crisis, he could deal with that later.

When Alicia
mentioned about the Russians, the last piece of the Belcastro phone
call fell into place for him.

“
Seems Snr
Belcastro has moved on from gun running and drugs and is now
getting himself involved in people trafficking.  I was at the
mansion earlier, incognito, and overheard an interesting phone
conversation.  My bet is that they are bringing in the females
by ship and using the containers at the docks to hold them before
selling them on.” Xavier was looking at Alicia, but was talking to
both her and Shuggie.

“
If some ill-mannered prick hadn’t stole my laptop then maybe
we would have answers that we seek.  Belcastro will be mine,
and I want his blood all over my hands! Although, I may be willing
to help you, Xavier Raige, for a price of course.”
Alicia slowly rose from her seating position and
walked towards where Xavier was propped up against the
wall.

Shuggie was,
by now, feeling like he was the spare prick at an orgy. There was
an uneasy truce forming between Alicia and Xavier, although the
tension was still heavy in the air.  As Alicia stood and
approached Xavier, Shuggie broke the uneasy silence.

“
Why don’t we
discuss the details when we all huv had a chance tae rest and mull
things o’er?  Ah don’t know aboot you two but I’m
beat.”

Xavier was transfixed by
Alicia. He gave a low, deep, growl but his attention was spoiled
when he heard Shuggie’s dulcet tones.

“
Sounds like
a plan, what do you think, Sweetcheeks?” He reached behind him, and
pulled out her pink gun, handing it back to her as a show of
faith.

Alicia moved
closer to Xavier as he held her pink gun above his head, wagging
her finger to motion him to her. Xavier bent at the waist. She was
dwarfed by his huge size but lowered her lips to his ear and
whispered, “You would have got a kiss in the cupboard it you hadn’t
of smelt of an ashtray.”

Nipping his
lower lobe gently with her fangs, Alicia’s hand raised for the gun
and with a final whisper of “I’ll be seeing you soon Xav,” she
flashed away from him, hoping that he didn’t pick up that her pulse
was racing.

Alicia lay on
her bed in an upside-down position, her head hanging over the edge
as the blood started to rush north. The night before was not
as she expected her play date with Shuggie to end, and she most
certainly had not banked on Commander Xavier Raige making a guest
appearance.

Why would the
male with the vibrant green eyes want to help her in the first
place? Their previous encounters hadn’t exactly been on the best of
terms yet there he stood with his golden blond hair tied back with
a leather strap, his handsome, chiselled face and vowed to help her
bring the Belcastros down.

Why though?

Could she
take him at his word that it was because he was morally offended
that females were being trafficked by them?  She could believe
that Shuggie would react like that, he was a proper gentleman,
after all.

But Commander
Prick?

Questions
that she had no answers to rattled about in Alicia’s head as she
tried to work Xavier out and what exactly his agenda was. Alicia
trusted Shuggie — he was the only person she did. Commander Prick
was his boss, for all intents and purposes…with that thought, her
mind was made up...laying low for a while was the best course of
action. If she didn’t enter Mexico then Shuggie wouldn’t be able to
trace her, and maybe their paths would cross again in a hundred
years or so.

Exhausted from
over-thinking she fell asleep in her upside-down
position.

****

Shuggie had just returned
from flashing back from their headquarters in France to drop off
the sample of Alicia’s blood to the Doc.

He had tasted
three drops of the blood on his tongue so that he could flash to
Alicia’s location anywhere she was in the next twenty four hours.
It was like vampire Sat-Nav, and was more than helpful to him and
Xavier, particularly when Alicia had purposefully ‘forgotten’ to
say where she was going when she left the night before.

Shuggie would
have preferred to spend more time at headquarters, touch base with
the other soldiers and maybe even help the Doc in the medic bay.
 She was overworked and it would have been manners to offer
assistance.  It was definitely not because he had any hidden
agenda about hanging around her and being able to just be in the
same room as her.  Shuggie told himself this, but even he
wasn’t convinced.

Unfortunately for him,
the mission took precedence over anything else, so the way he seen
it the sooner they did what they had to do in Mexico, the
better.

For all
concerned.

Clicking his
fingers before lighting his cigar, Snr Belcastro looked through the
lenses of his shades and sized up the nervous blonde as she was
dragged towards him. She was whimpering like a kicked puppy, but
she was making no attempt to run away. Vladlina, her lifelong
friend, had tried to do that before they had been herded into the
containership back in Russia and she had been made an example
of.
First, Vladlina had acid thrown in her
face, then a bullet to each kneecap before getting her throat
slashed and bleeding to death in front of them all.

It was an extremely
effective deterrent, and served its purpose well.

Petra
Baranovsky had just graduated as an elementary school teacher and
had been out on the town celebrating with Vladlina when they were
picked up by the tall, well built, expensively dressed strangers.
 They were treated like Tsaritsa’s — wined and dined in the
finest restaurants, champagne pouring like water.  When the
men suggested that they go to a club, both Vladlena and Petra had
absolutely no hesitation. This was turning out to be the best night
of their lives.

Or so they
thought.

Vladlina’s
ruined, lifeless body was now beneath the waves, and Petra was
about to be sold into prostitution in a country she didn’t know by
ruthless men who didn’t care. It was difficult to say out of
the two girls who had the better deal.

Snr Belcastro
muttered something to Martinez and they both laughed as Petra stood
violently shaking in fear. The brightness of the sun after the
blackness of the container was blinding, and the salty fresh air
was making her lungs hurt.

Suddenly, Snr
Belcastro turned and gripped Petra’s chin roughly, making her eyes
water.  He forced her mouth open, checked her teeth, and then
started pulling at her eyelids, hauling her around inspecting her
like a show horse.  Petra was turned around and Snr Belcastro
kicked her legs open. As he shoved his fingers roughly between her
legs, she cried out and lurched forward.  Martinez slapped her
face hard as the two men laughed and exchanged words.
She didn’t understand what they were saying, but
she thought they spoke in Spanish, from the little she had learned
at college.  Pulling his fingers out of her violated body, Snr
Belcastro, smelled them like he did with his finest cigars.
 He then put his sticky fingers in his mouth, suckling
noisily.  The disgust on Petra’s was mixed with fear and she
was half glad to be taken back to the container with the other
girls.

The two men made her
flesh crawl.

“
And all the
girls are of the same calibre, eh? Very satisfactory, Martinez.
 I think the Russians have more than made up for their last
defective batch, don’t you?”

Snr Belcastro gave a
snake like smile as he walked back over to his waiting car.
 Martinez walked behind him, smoothing his greasy hair back.
 He knew that the old man wasn’t wanting a conversation.
 In fact, unless he addressed him personally, talking back to
him would do nothing but get him an assbeating.

As Martinez got in the
back seat beside the old man, he had already moved the conversation
on from the consignment of prostitutes and back to their main
business.  

The other
cartels had been making inroads in their territory with the drugs
and guns. It seemed that word had got out that they were unable to
cope with internal security issues, which gave them the confidence
to start trying to edge them out of the market.  It was
obvious to Martinez that he put the blame all at one door —
Commander Xavier Raige.

“
This
situation cannot continue, I will not permit it. Raige has been
flaunting his presence and it won’t take long before the other
Families figured out why he was here. Tell me again why you
persuaded me to hire him, Martinez?”

Martinez knew
that this was coming.  The old man had been headed this way
for days, ever since their meeting in the mansion, and he knew that
his own situation was precariously tied to Xavier’s.  It
wasn’t that he gave a fuck about Commander Raige or what would
happen to him, but as he was the one who hired him. He needed to
play this clever if he wanted to keep his own head on his
shoulders.

“
His
reputation is the best, Boss, and the thefts have stopped since he
put his security measures in place.”

After an
elongated silence, Snr Belcastro exhaled his cigar smoke into
Martinez face.

“
And isn’t it
such a coincidence? We hire this Commander and suddenly - poof! -
The robberies stop!  It is an old fashioned extortion and
protection racket. And he thinks that I, the notorious Mauro
Belcastro, can be fucked like some street whore? And where has he
been, this high and mighty Commander?” As he spoke, Snr Belcastro
was waving his hands around wildly, almost singeing Martinez
eyebrows with his cigar in the process.

“
I have had
him tailed, as you instructed, Boss. We are building up a portfolio
of his movements and associates.” Martinez tried to keep his voice
level, as any hint of fear would make the old man seize on him like
a rabid dog. “There has been an interesting development. He seems
to be working with a young lady. Might be his daughter, although
there is no physical resemblance. She has been spotted by my men in
town over the last month, but has so far evaded being caught on
camera.  She’s fast, and obviously professional.”

Giving a
malicious laugh, Snr Belcastro leaned over to Martinez, his soft
gut pushing against his arm as he bore the brunt of his
weight.

“
Then maybe
we should introduce this Raige’s girl into a new
profession?”

As he renewed
his laughter, Martinez had a feeling that he couldn’t explain that
this was not a road they should be going down, but from the look on
the old man’s face, he would never be able to persuade him
otherwise.

Shuggie
scrubbed his hand down his face as Teo explained for the third time
the results of Alicia’s blood tests. He never considered himself of
low intelligence, but as he sat opposite the Doc he knew he was
asking the most dumbass questions. For her part, Teo sat
patiently and repeated the same answers over and again until the
information started to process.

Shuggie was
loathe to leave the Doc, but not for his usual motives.  He
just didn’t want to have to break the news to Alicia. The little
vampire didn’t even know that he had taken some of her blood never
mind consented to having it tested, and as uncomfortable as he was
about that, having to tell her what the findings were would have
implications for them all.

Xavier sat
staring at Shuggie.

“
Just a quick
visit with the Doc this time, Shug?” A small smirk twitched at the
corner of his mouth.

“
Aye,
Commander.” Sighing, Shuggie rolled his shoulders then straightened
his back and stared ahead of him.  As he recounted the
findings from the blood tests to his Commander, Xavier’s smirk
disappeared, and his features become serious.  Once he had
finished talking, Xavier didn’t respond straight away and it was up
to Shuggie to break the silence. “In light of aw that, Commander,
ah think the best course o’ action would be fur ye tae tell Alicia.
Ye are the Commanding Officer, after all.  I wud also like tae
propose that she be appointed a personal guard so that she is no
left unprotected.”