The Heist (9 page)

***

Present
—

Michelle dropped the rag into the sink. The adrenaline rush was gone. Now her body was alive with aches, pains, and every emotion she’d tried to bury. She remembered everything now, how he listened, how sincere he was. How he saved Pops’ life, but only kept him indebted to him even more. Lee did that to people. Pulled them in and made them his. At sixteen, she craved Lee’s attention, just like Pops craved his notoriety for jewel smuggling. Now she just wanted freedom.

The Order was real; Pops had told her of the players. Lee must have suspected she knew as much, if not more, than Pops did before he died. If he wanted something Pops stole, then this was only the beginning. Could she rely on his compassion to let her and Sasha go?

Michelle slammed her hand on the countertop. Tears welled in her eyes. Damn her sister for this. They were so close to leaving their father’s legacy of thievery behind them. She had freed them. Now this? After everything she’d seen through the years, she’d paid enough of a price. She wanted her freedom. Her vision cleared, then focused on her reflection in the misty mirror. She could show no weakness. Lee rejected her when she was sixteen. He rejected her at nineteen. But he wouldn’t reject her now. Michelle sniffed and wiped away her tears. She touched her breasts and then ran her hand down her flat stomach. A slow smile formed across her face.

How was Lee weak?

Simple. He’s a man
.

Chapter Eight

March 18, 2008—Chicago, Illinois

“Everyone out!” Lee shouted. “Get the hell out! Now!”

His men hurried, passing him one by one as they headed for the door. Lee counted eight in total. Pops sat at the center of a sofa with his head in his hands. He looked worse than he usually did when he was at the bottom. In the dark, the brown and grey stains that spotted his Raiders T-shirt were putrid. Pops’ ashy knees poking out of his cutoff pants, his hair matted on his head, and bloodshot swollen eyes told the tale. How long had he been on a bender this time? Days? Weeks? He’d been off the grid for six weeks now. Word had it he’d flipped for the Feds and was giving up names. Lee didn’t want to believe it, but The Order had the proof; hard cold evidence from an FBI agent on the payroll. There was a code, and it had been taught to him by this man. This man, who saved his life; this man, who he’d trusted with his secrets. Why would it all mean shit to Pops? Now The Order wanted him dead. And Lee, as the council chair, had to give the command. But how could he? When his life would be nothing if it weren’t for Pops?

Lee stepped over the squalor. This was the last hideaway. The motel room reeked of piss and vomit. Empty beer cans and liquor bottles covered the soiled carpet. However, the wreckage of the small motel room wasn’t due to his men; this was all Pops at his worst. The men who stood off in the corners when Lee arrived had roughed Pops up. To make him pliable. There was no need. Pops had lost all the fight in him. Lee went to the nearest window and forced it open to let air in.

Why would a man as brilliant as Pops have so many fucking demons? He was one to talk; every man in his business had Satan on his back. How each man dealt with it was a personal matter. Kicking at a crumbled Burger King bag, Lee dropped his shoulder against the edge of the window frame, favoring the stench from the alley below to the one permeating the desecrated room. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t end you right now,” he seethed.

Pops’ head lifted from his hands. “I screwed you over, man. I had to. They had my baby. They were going to go after
Chocolat
.”

Lee paused. “Who’s going after her?”

“The Feds, they had her and me nailed. From the job in Boca in 2006.”

“How’d they get to you?”

Pops gave a bitter laugh. “Don’t matter. They had her tagged! I had to give them what they wanted, a bigger fish, ya’ dig? It’s all love though, it is, I respect the game, but—not my baby girl. Can’t live with her getting hurt because of me, ya’ feel me?”

Lee wiped his hand down his face. “You should have come to me,” he mumbled. “I would have protected her.”

“How? You’re like them now, brother.
The Order
is what you protect. Not some drunken jewel thief and his kids. I couldn’t lay my shit at your feet. That’s not who I am.”

“We go deeper than this, Pops. I’m at the top because you never wanted it bad enough to stop the boozing. Now you go and break the rules you burned into my chest? The fucking drinking, Pops, it’s what brought this on!”

“Shut up.” Pops chuckled. “I was drinking before you were born. It’s not the drinking. It’s not. Boca was sloppy because
Chocolat
wanted out, and I refused to let her go. Now it’s going to be the end of her if I don’t make this right.”

“But—”

“I don’t give a shit.” Pops waved Lee off.

“You should,” Lee said through clenched teeth. “We aren’t a couple of smugglers covering our tracks anymore. We made a vow. The Order would protect you. It has many times before.”

“Not with this.”

“Are you listening? The federal government can’t touch us. You’re dealing with some rogue agents we could’ve silenced.”

Pops dropped back on the sofa. Lee got the gnawing feeling in his gut there was more. It was all the Homeland Security bullshit. Ever since 9/11 they’d dealt with a shadow government whose reach was getting exceedingly close to where they were. He and his brethren struggled with their control over politicians, diplomats, and government agencies. The stakes were high, the jobs bountiful and, of course, the screw-ups even more costly. What exactly had Pops done? “You need to come clean with me. Don’t worry about your girls. I’ll protect them.”

Pops laughed. “Maybe you will, but I’m their father, it’s my gig. Not yours.”

“To hell with this.” Lee crossed the room and grabbed Pops under the arms. He snatched him upright. Pops slumped over, finding it hard to stand. He was so weakened, his body hung like a rag doll’s in his hands. Lee held his breath against rank smell. He dragged the staggering man to the bathroom, tossing him inside.

“Shower! Now!” he ordered and slammed the door.

He soon heard the water turn on. Lee went about collecting empty bottles; the small trash bin near the bed wouldn’t hold them all. He left the motel room, wedging the door open by the top security lock, then dragged the big green can down from the other end of the motel. In ten minutes, he had filled it to the brim with all the junk food bags and containers, liquor bottles, and unidentifiable clutter. Once done, he stripped the sheets from the beds and discovered the stained mattress was better than the bedding.

Pops emerged. He’d sobered, some. His eyes remained weepy, bloodshot, but color had returned to his face. Lee needed him alert. He needed him at his best. He would have to make some tough decisions and he needed the facts.

“I got news. Big news, Lee.”

“What is it?” Lee asked, trying to work the automatic coffeemaker next to the microwave.

“After you hear me out, if you and The Order want to end me, then so be it. I think you should at least hear me out, after all the things we’ve been through.”

“Don’t fucking play me, Pops,” Lee said. “Don’t throw our history in my face. Especially if you’ve flipped on me.”

Pops nodded. “Right. But I didn’t flip, brother, I gave them small time shit, not you, not The Order. Just that small time, diamond-hood, Bill Dwyer. Hell, they know about the Italian job anyway, that motherfucker just got lucky.” Pops chuckled, coughed up phlegm then spat it in the overflowing garbage can. “So I think they bought it, ya’ feel me? It’s all good.”

Lee didn’t know what to believe. His instinct told him to let his love for Pops go and waste him there on the spot. His loyalty to Pops forbade it. Lee would put a bullet in any man that walked through the door and tried it.

“I saw it, Lee. I saw it. It’s real.”

Lee paused, his mind cleared. “What are you talking about? What’s real?”

“The Golden Chalice. It exists. I saw the sexy motherfucker. I swear it,” he slurred, sniffed, and wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth. Lee looked on.

“The Golden Chalice was lost in WWII, if it ever existed.”

“Not true.” Pops chuckled. “That’s what they want you to believe. It’s beautiful, man, it’s everything we ever talked about. They have it. Keep it locked up tighter than Fort Knox, but in plain sight. It’s genius how they move it. When we did the job in Boca, we got close to the Raspberry Diamonds, I don’t know where it was, but we made the big boys nervous, put
The Order
on their radar. They don’t give a shit about what we lift, but they don’t want us anywhere near the Chalice.”

“We didn’t get the Raspberry Diamonds. And what do they have to do with the Chalice?”

“They belong to the Chalice.”

“That's crazy, Pops….”

“You're not listening. These people don’t deal in our reality. They distort everything to convince us of their lies. We got close, though. That’s why they sent the Feds to chase me down. A cover, so the boys would think I turned. Then they used my baby girl as leverage. They wanted names, hustles, all of it. They want to neutralize any of you that are going for the Chalice.”

“Nobody believes in the Chalice."

“Not true, one person does. There’s a viper in The Order and he’s making moves. They thought I could finger him. But by letting me go, they tipped their hand. Now I know where it is. I know the secret.”

Lee frowned. He couldn’t digest the truth coming from a drunk known to spew lies. He knew how the government works at covering their secrets. The biggest and baddest are kept in Fort Knox. Unreachable. Why would they risk The Chalice being discovered?

Pops dropped his head sadly. He wept. “My baby girl is done with me, man.
Chocolat
don’t want nuthin’ to do with her Pops. I went to see her when I got free, to explain, but she slammed the door in my face. Sasha and
Chocolat
is all I got. So yeah, I need you to hear me out. Not for me, for them. I screwed up, I’m weak. Let me set it straight.”

Lee paced. The Chalice was real? Utter bullshit. “You’re drunk. The Order has had enough of this. I can’t keep protecting you.”

“I hear you,” Pops mumbled. “Test it out. Take the info to the brethren. See who balks the loudest. That’s the traitor playing you, not me. Tell them the Chalice is going to be on the move, and I know how to get it. But they have to give me the okay, ‘cause even now we’re being watched, ya’ feel me? Trust me once more. Just one more time.”

Lee didn’t trust many, but he did trust Pops, despite everything.

***

Present
—

Lee flicked the lighter, released the flame, and lit his cigar. Seated in the far corner of the room, he took a drag then released a thick strand of smoke out of the corners of his mouth and up through his nostrils. Trust? He had been an idiot. Pops played him. Betrayed everything between them. He tried to let it go, but his anger and hurt was part of him. Sasha came to him.
Chocolat
was now his. He would have the last laugh.

His eyes returned to the bathroom door. He waited.

He’d seen her over the years. She bloomed before his eyes; he’d have to be blind not to have noticed. He’d been tempted to the point of blue-balls when she was barely nineteen. She’d pulled off a job with her father, and they’d settled up at his place. He offered them both a bed to crash in for the night. She snuck in his bedroom and undressed. He found her there. She offered herself to him. Said she loved him. Blew his mind. He fought the bastard in him and turned her down flat. The most beautiful creature he’d ever seen, and he pushed her away. He would never betray Pops. Well, that was then. Now, the Dixon girls were under his control, and what became of them could not be laid at his feet. He was their curse and they both had their father to thank for that.

Drawing on his cigar, Lee exhaled the cloud of smoke again through his nose and let it fill the darkness in him that thirsted for revenge. There was another motivation, the long buried desire he had to know her, one he wouldn’t ignore tonight. Especially since
Chocolat
was his golden goose that kept laying the diamond eggs.

Chapter Nine

Michelle stepped back from the basin. The bathroom was larger than the apartment she could barely pay the rent for. The one she shared with Sasha. All those years running through diamond heists and Pops had left them nothing.

Black marble covered the floors, walls, Jacuzzi tub, sink, and even the toilet had a black marble finish. On a silver hook on the door hung a floor-length kimono. Michelle found it beautiful to the touch. She eased it over her shoulders, relishing the cool, soft feel of the fabric as it draped over her skin like a silk cape. Wrapping the sash three times around to secure it, she admired the gold and red embroidery, turning in the mirror to see the dragon laced through the back. She looked a hell of a lot better than she felt. She’d resolved herself to what was expected of her: seducing a man she secretly loathed and loved since she was a teenager.

He waited.

Re-entering the room, she found the darkness a relief. A fire offered the only light as it blazed over cackling charred wood in a brick-layered hearth to the left of the room. Dancing, reaching flames flickered deep within, causing the shadows to withdraw and golden light to emanate. The thick carpeting curled around her toes as she walked across it barefoot. In the deepest shadow, she spotted the red glow of a cigar. She smelled the acrid burn of tobacco; it mingled with a spice of cologne. His face was shielded from her. She knew he would be waiting.

“Thanks for the shower,” she called. “I thought about your offer. This job you want me to do. How am I to know this is the last one?”

“You won’t. You’ll have to trust me.”

“I don’t trust anyone who uses kidnapping and emotional blackmail to get my attention. Besides you’ve been talking crazy...the
Chalice
of all things. What am I supposed to believe?”