The Heist (7 page)

Lee swallowed hard and forced himself to back off those thoughts. He had a plan and he wouldn’t get sidetracked over lust or whatever it was that claimed him when he allowed his mind to wander. But after….

Silently his gaze narrowed. He and his men watched her acrobatics as she gracefully flipped over twice to land on her hands and feet on a lower beam. Steady and with ease, she balanced to an erect pose, both arms extended. Like a gymnast, she walked the beam, measuring each step carefully.

“So she got past the wireless system?” Lee smirked, both hands now clasped behind his back.

“She’s good, I’ll give her that.” Kumar gave a nervous chuckle as he swiped the sweat from the tip of his nose.

“Give me a front row seat,” Lee rasped. Kumar nodded, and the monitor switched. Lee turned his attention to the next monitor. The infrared goggles were equipped with a camera, allowing him to see what she saw. When she looked down, he gauged the drop to be at least thirty-five feet. He had underestimated how far his dark beauty would go to save Sasha. It wasn’t like him not to read desperation on a mark. But with
Chocolat
, he could never get close enough to read anything, until now.

“I’ve lowered the sensors around the top of the case, released the trip alarms covering the glass, but that will only hold for the next forty-five minutes or so before the second-tier alarms switch on. My calculations, boss, she’s gained an extra ten from how quickly she got inside. She’s fast.” Kumar chomped on his gum. His dark face split into a grin.

“The plan?” Lee asked.

“It’s stick and move. Then she’s to wind that sweet ass back up the way she came—they won’t know what hit them.”

Lee turned up the corner of his mouth with mild amusement. “We’ll see.”

“She’s the best there is, boss, face it. She’s going to deliver, and when she does, we can’t hold her.” Abahti spoke with his thick Nigerian accent.

“Really? Maybe this was too easy. She wasn’t properly challenged,” said Lee.

Kumar looked up from the computer monitor. “She got through sixteen of the most advanced security traps I’ve ever fucking seen. None of our people have been able to get past level three. We’ll have the Jesus Stones.”

Lee believed she remained unchallenged. “Trip the alarm.”

“Huh?” Kumar swallowed his gum.

“If she gets her hands on those diamonds, you trip the alarm.”

“What? Are you serious?” Kumar looked to Abahti. “Is he serious?”

Lee walked out, and Abahti stepped forward. He placed his large calloused hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Never question a direct order.” He applied the kind of pressure that made his words profound. “
Never
. Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Kumar winced.

Abahti let him go. He smiled at the image of
Chocolat
, securing her harness for the drop. “Trip the alarm, this should be interesting.”

Kumar looked back to the screen.

Chocolat
dove off the beam….

***

Freefalling,
Chocolat
braced herself for the snatch; it came with such force, her body folded then swung out over the target. Winded, she blinked several times then quickly recovered. It took extreme discipline to capture air into her lungs while hovering fourteen-feet above ground.

“Control…you are the one in control.” She breathed, forcing herself to relax. Closing her eyes, focus returned behind her shut lids. She grabbed the strap, threw one leg up, and the other out in a ninety-degree angle before winding it around her ankle. Now pointed downward, she pressed the release button on her belt and slowly began her descent.

In her backpack were the tools needed to complete her mission. Retrieving them without tripping the alarm would be risky. Stopping her descent, she reached over and hit
play
on her mp3 player. MC Hammer’s cheesy rap song
Can’t Touch This
queued up. It was an effective distraction; there was no room for fear. Sasha preferred heavy metal when doing a job. Michelle didn’t understand how she could stand the blaring tunes during a time of concentration.

Sasha
….

If it weren’t for Sasha, she wouldn’t be risking her life and freedom. Her half-sister’s recklessness was genetic, but her stupidity was all her own. How Sasha had managed to pick up where Pops left off and get indebted to Lee was beyond comprehension. But the time for debating that issue would come later. Tonight, her objective was to save her sister from herself. Failure would mean death. He would kill her sister, she was sure of it.

Dropping just above the glass case, she admired the large, colorful stones that glistened on the black velvet within. They were dated as far back to the days of Christ, hence the name:
Jesus Stones
. On display for only one month, security was supposed to be impenetrable. Michelle hit the infrared lights on her goggles to see exactly what “impenetrable” meant.

A yellow luminance appeared over the invisible beams. Hanging upside down, she lifted her head and counted off the rays covering every inch of the room. The cameras she could locate were focused on the case. Kumar’s reconnaissance was accurate. If not, she would be dead by now.

“Guess no one thought a person would be stupid enough to come in from the roof,” she mumbled. “Raise your hand, Michelle, that person would be you.”

Michelle fought off nausea as the blood rushed to her head. The constant sway of her weight on the strap further complicated things. She stretched, and then reached behind her to ease the zipper down an inch on the side of her backpack.

Removing the pen-shaped laser, she placed it between her teeth, but fishing for the suction piece brought about a sway. She couldn’t zip the side pocket back up. That was the least of her worries. Any other professional would have used a cable. That wasn’t how Pops trained her. She was old school for good reason. Getting in was one thing, managing a quick exit was paramount.

Closing her eyes, she controlled her breathing and body movement. Soon, the rope came to a manageable stillness. Opening her eyes, she focused on the task at hand. Pushing the suction cup onto the glass and gripping the handle, she worked the laser pen.

The laser cut through the glass like a knife through butter. She lifted the cut portion slowly and very carefully. Kumar had warned her that even the casing was sensitive; she would only have a small window of time to retrieve the stones before the alarm went off.

She smiled and blinked. Sweat dripped from her long lashes, stinging her eyes. She blinked again then reached. As soon as her gloved fingers made contact with the diamonds, her heart dropped. Lights flicked on and alarm horns blared all around her.

“Oh, no!” She snatched the jewels and quickly stuffed them in the opening to the pouch around her waist, and dropped everything else. Clicking her ankles together, she released the knife in her boot. Pulling up, she grabbed the strap for balance then eased up the slack so she could swing the heel of her foot upward and cut through her support.

The drop came quickly, and Michelle hit the floor so hard she cried out in agony then rolled over wheezing. Pain was a luxury she couldn’t afford. Instantly on her feet, she bolted for the door, ignoring the sting in her ankle.

“Freeze! Freeze!” she heard someone yell, but she was already through to the next room. She could hear the heavy footfalls of more guards over the blaring horns. She shot around one corner, then the next. Gated guardrails began to lower. She dropped to the floor, rolling under two at a time before springing to her feet and running for her life.

Checking her watch, she considered the escape Lee’s men had offered. She wouldn’t make it in time before the cops swarmed the place. She had exactly ten minutes.

“Freeze, lady!” a man yelled from her right. Michelle stopped. She put her hands up, breathing through her nose. The guard looked to be no more than twenty. His hands shook as he held the gun. “Put your hands behind your back!”

She nodded, turned, and opened her palms, before lowering them behind her back. He stepped behind her, pressing his gun into her back as he reached for her wrist. Michelle swung upward, her elbow delivering a crushing blow to the man’s throat, just before she kicked out at his knee with such force it snapped. He fired. Hot pain grazed her, searing her arm. Was she hit?

“Shit!”

Picking up the gun out of instinct, she was running again. Choosing the employee exit, she forced the door open. The stairwell had a two-floor drop, too high to jump. So she hurried down them several at a time, holding the railings to avoid breaking her neck. She stumbled and nearly fell, but recovered, panting hard. Nothing could stop her. She was back up and sprinting through the belly of the museum to the one exit she knew could be her salvation. It was where they accepted deliveries. She found the door locked and nearly collapsed.

Damn it! Two minutes left
.

Frustrated, she fired three bullets into the lock. The metal sparked and gave. Michelle kicked it open and rushed out into the night….

Chapter Six

“I want to see Lee!” Michelle said with deadly calm to Abahti. She had walked into the fortress with a gun in her hand and a crazed look in her eyes. Abahti relieved her of the piece so quickly she hadn't felt it leave her grip.

“Lee’s very pleased, he—”

“Now, Abahti! I want to see him now!” she shouted.

Consumed by rage, she gave little notice to the fact that the African could snap her like a twig. The other men in the dark smoke-filled room were playing poker or pool. Their gaze went to her curiously. Some of Lee’s thugs wore amused sneers, but none challenged her.

Abahti gave a nod. Permission was granted. Michelle straightened her back and managed to walk without much of a limp. She forced open the door just as Lee lowered his phone.

He was sitting in an oversized leather chair behind a black cherry-wood desk. Before Sasha’s kidnapping, she had vowed never to see Lee again. Now here she was. She limped over to his desk and threw the fanny pack on it. “Here are your diamonds! Where’s my sister?”

Lee’s glare went to the pack then to her. Who was this angry, smug man before her now? She didn’t recognize him at all.

“Where is she?”

His hand moved under his desk. Michelle braced herself. Whatever he did released a mechanism on the wall. The divider parted and a flat-screen monitor blinked on. Sasha sat in the back of a cargo van with a hood over her head. Her hands and feet were bound. Relief calmed Michelle’s racing heart, but it was temporary.

Sasha’s alive.

The van apparently stopped and the cameraman snatched the hood up. Sasha’s gag was removed by another, as well as her bindings. Michelle almost smiled when the door slid open to free her half-sister, but then the screen blinked off.

She looked back to Lee, whose stare bore through her.

“We’re done.” She pointed at him. “You and I are done.”

“No,
Chocolat
, we’re not,” Lee said, calmly.

“Don’t call me that! No one called me that but Pops, and you’re not him! I’m not her, anymore. I have a life, damn it!”

“What life? Waiting tables and juggling the little Pops left you to raise money for medical school? Is that your life?”

“It’s none of your business, Lee. I’m not that person anymore.”

He leaned in with his elbows on the desk. “You are, and tonight proves it. You just needed the proper motivation.”

She couldn’t believe her ears. He had that gleam in his eyes, just like Pops, from the rush he felt, thanks to his addiction for stealing what was unattainable. For Pops, his addictions spilled into booze and gambling, a deadly mix. For Lee, she knew it was always about power. Yes, it was seductive but it came at a price; the contradictions that were Lee the man and Lee the mobster had confused her since she first met him at sixteen. They confused her now.

“I have a question, Lee.”

“Anything, beautiful.”

“How come the alarm went off?”

The light of amusement in his gaze dimmed. He sat back, his hands resting on the arms of his chair. The flash of the diamond ring on his left pinky finger could not be missed.

“I had those diamonds in my hands. Your diamonds.” Michelle nodded. “That’s right, I remember hearing how much you wanted them. Those ancient jewels the world has guarded for centuries were a big score to let slip through your fingers tonight.”

She stepped closer to the desk, folding her arms; she winced at the sting to her left. “Those stones were in my hands. How many times have I heard you and Pops talk about the day they’d be on the move and you’d claim them? Those gems and the Golden Chalice is all any smuggler has ever spoken of.”

“The Golden Chalice is a myth, but you seem to know the fable,” Lee said. “The stones however—you’re right, I’ve always wanted them and you were the only one besides Pops talented enough to deliver.”

“Right.” Michelle laughed. “Because you couldn’t! I know your secret, Lee.” Michelle nodded to him, teasing him with her sly smile. “Pops said you tried for the Jesus Stones yourself when you were green. He said Interpol almost cut you down. That you escaped with only one. That one.” She pointed to the purple diamond sparkling in his pinky ring. Lee’s face reddened. She had finally hit her mark. Found his soft spot.

What Pops told her of Lee, he did in a drunken stupor. Pops rambled often when he was drunk. Sober, he made her promise never to repeat it. Well, screw that. Lee kidnapped her sister and almost had her thrown in jail tonight. What did she care about his ego? “Imagine my surprise when I was tagged. The precious stones are in my hands, and the alarms go off. Your operation isn’t that flawed. The sensors weren’t on the gems. I saw those laser beams go down before I cut into the glass. Were you jealous, Lee? Jealous that I could do something you failed at? Jealous because those stones will always have my name on them, no matter how you claim them?”

He smiled.

“Pops swore you were a good guy, swore you could be trusted. I know you saved his life many times in the past, from the bottle and from the law. What would he think of what you’re doing to his daughters, now that he’s dead?”