No guns were permitted, per Xavier’s orders, he didn’t want any noise attracting attention. So Alicia secretly concealed her pink Glock in the belt of her suspenders, and headed back out to where Xavier was to be fitted with the wire she had to wear. As a final touch, Xavier put his own personal throwing stars into Alicia’s hair behind her ear so that it looked like a decorative adornment.
“These are as sharp and lethal as a sword, be careful not to slice your ear off when you draw it, yeah?”
Putting his two huge hands on either shoulder, Xavier’s eyes searched Alicia’s as he figured out whether she was right for this mission or not. He seen the steely determination in her big brown eyes and the resolve that she would keep her emotions in check, but his hold on her didn’t relax.
“Now, I want you to be absolutely fucking clear. I don’t want a hero in there. You go in, give him a false sense of security about why you’re there and when his guards leave for him to ‘interview’ you, kill him. Draw the blade across his bastard throat and then you get the fuck out of there, because if you don’t the place will be swarming with his guards like flies around shit, and you’ll end up getting hurt. And if that happens, Sweetcheeks, it’ll be a fucking bloodbath, and I’ll be so damned pissed with you, you’ll never hear the fucking end of it, yeah?”
It was a huge risk letting her go in on her own, but Xavier knew all too well how important it was for her to end the Belcastro line personally. All he could do now was trust her that she would do precisely what he told her to do, and then his duty as bodyguard would be done.
“The mission tonight isn’t like the heists that you did before. That was child’s play in comparison, so I want you to promise me that you understand what it is you have to do, and that you will comply with my orders.”
Releasing his hold of her, Xavier stood up straight, but still maintained eye contact with her.
“Yes Commander, I will do as you instruct. In and out.” Giving a smile to Xavier, Alicia nodded her head as she popped a lolly in her mouth. “It’s time Xav.”
Shuggie had deployed the foot soldiers around the perimeter of the Belcastro mansion, hidden in the shadows, so as not to be detected by the guards or monitoring equipment. He knew that the Commander was not happy at allowing Alicia to go in alone, but there was no other way to let her have her revenge on Snr Belcastro without increasing the likelihood of her being injured. As he switched on his ear-piece, he could hear Xavier talking through the plan for the hundredth time with Alicia, before he gave the order to lock-down. Alicia was walking into the mansion, escorted by two of Belcastro’s goons.
“Lieutenant, order Hawkeye and Ballbreaker to plant the landmines in the grounds. Snakebite and Gerbil have fixed the explosives to the ground floor windows. I want you over here asap.”
Giving the instructions, Shuggie flashed over to the Commander’s coordinates, nodding as he read the look in Xavier’s eyes. Grabbing his Commander by the arm, he flashed both of them into a room next to Snr Belcastro’s office which was unoccupied. From there they would listen into the wiretap, and get a visual from the CCTV surveillance they had placed in the old bastard’s office.
Alicia was shown into Snr Belcastro’s office, and it took all of Xavier’s strength and resolve not to rush in there beside her.
The fact that she was in danger was killing him.
Chapter Sixty Three
“Senor Belcastro, thank you so much for agreeing to see me this day.”
Alicia walked into the office with a flow of elegance. Xavier made the suggestion that she wore heels and a skirt, making it far easier to get a meeting with the Mafia Don. He did have an eye for the ladies after all. As Alicia took a seat on the chair opposite the vile looking man, she swung her left leg so it was perched on her right knee. Xavier had insisted that she was wearing a wire as she was going in with ‘only one weapon’ — or so he thought — so he and Shuggie wanted to hear all that was being said.
“I’ve come to discuss employment in your fine establishment and as a trained dancer, I believe I’d be an excellent asset to your business.”
Keeping a smile on her face as the letch with the bad breath leaned over his desk to look her over, ordering his guards to exit the room and leave them alone. Snr Belcastro had shifted in his seat, stubbing his cigar out in the ashtray he beckoned Alicia to him with his chubby, nicotine stained finger.
“Show me what you can do Senorita!”
Shuggie rolled his eyes as he and Xavier listened and watched Alicia in the lion’s den. In truth, he was keeping more of an eye on Xavier, whose vein in his right temple was bulging and his hands were curled into punishing fists. There was something odd about his eyes. Well, his face, truth be told. He could have sworn that a couple of times he caught the image of a wolf’s muzzle veiled over Xavier’s features, but he knew it must have been a trick of the light, or the heightened tensions waiting for Alicia to complete the mission and get out of there.
Still, it had troubled him enough to make a mental note of it and discuss it with Teodora later — for her medical opinion, of course — nothing else.
Alicia rose. The mini skirt sat high on her thighs, so she gently tugged at the bottom as she moved to stand directly in front of the Don. Raising her left leg upwards, she kicked her ankle out a little so that it was balancing on the armrest of his oversized chair, snaking her arms upwards under her hair so her fingers could find the small switch to the wire, Alicia flicked it to the ‘off’ position.
What she was about to do was not as they had planned. Xavier wanted her in, kill Belcastro and get out.
This was it though, this was the moment Alicia avenged her family and she was about to make the most of it. The two most important males in her life were outside anyway so nothing could go wrong…she thought internally.
Xavier’s eyes widened, then narrowed, as he hit the comms units. Looking over at Shuggie, he snarled, “What the fuck just happened? Do you still have audio/visual on Alicia?” When Shuggie shook his head, he nearly flew across the room to pummel his face. “Get it back online - Stat”.
She was in there. Alone.
Anything could be happening to her right now, and he was only feet away and not helping her. Every second that passed seemed like an eternity, and the sweat was beading down his spine, as his anxiety was increasing.
“Shuggie, don’t fucking test me on this. Get me Alicia back online. Now!”
Shuggie’s fingers worked quickly on the surveillance equipment, but he gave a defeated look to Xavier, hoping he would keep his voice down and not attract any attention “Commander, ah need ye tae listen tae me. Alicia’s switched her own unit aff. She’s locked us oot, Commander.”
He watched the ticking time bomb in Xavier’s eyes ready to explode. This was not good.
“Your name, tell me your name,” Belcastro drawled
“Ali Sir, my name is Ali.”
“This is a boy’s name, you must have shortened this, tell me your full name.”
Alicia had moved her hands so they were running up and down her stocking-clad leg, a small smirk playing on her lips as she felt the grip of her Glock.
“Alicia Sir, my parents named me Alicia.”
“Bella! The Bella is Italian! Beautiful name for a beautiful lady. You will be perfect for my personal entertainment.” Snr Belcastro had shifted his hand to loosen his tie as Alicia was inching closer to him, dipping her head to the side her lips ghosted over his ear.
“Alicia Carberletti,” she whispered.
Belcastro stilled.
A bad move on his part as Alicia took his moment of stupidity to move and, using the rope Xavier had disguised as a belt around her waist, she had Belcastro’s hands and feet bound in seconds. Using his own tie as a gag, she secured it around his mouth, not caring that she had moved at inhuman speed. He was about to die anyway.
Alicia spun the seat around then took a seat on his desk.Pulling the Glock from the top of the suspender on her thigh, she twi
rled the pink gun around on her finger then started to taunt him.
“You know the Carberletti name don’t you? All I want to do is have a little talk with you, so sit back and chillax and soon it will all be over.”
“The robberies?” Alicia popped a cherry lolly into her mouth, sucked on it a couple of times then moved it slowly with her tongue to the side of her mouth.
“That was me, all me, just my little self.”
Belcastro’s eyes almost bugged out of their sockets as he faced the thief, the name ‘Carberletti’ resonating in his head.
“Good aren’t I? Now tell me how is your family doing? Word on the street is that it’s only you and your son left, such unfortunate circumstances that took your wife and youngest son from you. It’s heart wrenching to have your family taken from you, wiped out. You see Mr. Belcastro, my father and twin brother were killed also.”
Alicia had to take a deep breath so calm herself down, now was not the time for her emotions to surface.
“Killed by your family. So I think it’s only fair the same happened to the living Belcastro...but news flash! You are the last of your line.”
Belcastro had went green as he sat and processed what he was being told. Alicia had slipped from his desk and was circling around the chair he was tied to when she stilled and opened the palm of her hands where the two eye balls sat. It was her trademark shot when she killed. She always looked into their eye. She was the last person they would ever see. Placing them on the table she reached down into the purse that was sitting on her shoulder and produced a camcorder. Turning it to face the far away wall, Alicia started the tape. The video footage of the torture and murder of Belcastro Jr played out on the wall.
“He tasted vile by the way, his blood was full of artificial substances, and the young prodigy was so keen to impress Daddy at his prestigious school that he had to take shit up his nose just to stay awake…but never fear I sorted that for you. He’s sleeping forever now.”
“Your son knew his killer. She was the last person he ever saw, and his father? Oh Snr Belcastro you are about to look into the eyes of his killer too, and she will also be the last person you ever see.”
Alicia’s hand was raising upwards, Belcastro’s eyes were darting from left to right as he tried to move in the chair, the barrel of the gun was now pressed against his forehead.
“This is for my father and brother.”
Alicia’s finger pulled the trigger, the sound of the single shot music to her ears as she watched his body slump. Overcome with emotion at the years of planning it had taken to come to this point, she took a moment to stare down at Belcastro. Frozen in her stance, unable to move, she was unaware of the commotion surrounding her.
“Alicia!” Her name was being roared. She knew those voices that were calling for her, but as she stared at the lifeless body of Belcastro she slowly went into shock…
Chapter Sixty Four
The noise of the gun going off reverberated through the mansion, and Shuggie was pretty sure the bullet hadn’t even left the barrel of the gun before Xavier was out of that room, and kicking the office door down. Leaving the surveillance equipment, he took out his weapons and ran after Xavier, covering his back as swarms of Belcastro’s guards made their way to their Boss’s office.
Xavier wrapped his arm around Alicia’s waist, ripping the gun out of her hand and giving a cursory look over her for injury.
“Are you hurt, Sweetcheeks?”
He got no reply, as Alicia was rooted to the spot.
“Alicia, can you hear me? Alicia….?”
Within seconds, the room was filling with gunfire as the guards tried to get past Shuggie and towards Alicia. Covering her with his body, he bent her over double, throwing his arm back, and firing back over Shuggie’s left shoulder to execute the two nearest guards. Shuggie lifted the corpses, using them as a shield to block up the broken door, firing shots as he backed up to his Commander’s position.
Xavier pleaded with Alicia to come back from the edge. He needed to get her out of there, and she needed to be back in the game for him to do that safely.
“Alicia — snap the fuck out of it, yeah? Sweetcheeks, Now!”
That name, ‘Sweetcheeks’, was what it took to free Alicia from her catatonic state of shock, and when she blinked her vision came back quickly.
All around her were dead bodies and Hugh was here, so who was holding her?
“Sweetcheeks!” Xavier… her bodyguard was squeezing the life out her. “I can’t breathe you prick, what’s happened?”
In between another volley of shots, Xavier shouted into Alicia’s ear so that she could hear him. “You went off script, that’s what fucking happened.”
Turning his body to the right, tucking Alicia under his left arm, Xavier returned fire as the guards started closing in on them. Shuggie had flashed out of the room on his instructions, to ensure that the foot soldiers were bringing up the rear, and the explosives were ready to be detonated.
Just as he was about to tell Alicia to flash them out of there, he heard a whizzing past his ear, followed by a soft thud. Alicia went limp in his hold.
Roaring her name, Xavier flung her slumped body over his shoulder as he ran and charged the Belcastro guards, hurling throwing stars with his left hand and firing his semi-automatic weapon with the right. For all his size, he was swift on his feet and turned, dodged and rammed anyone in his way. He could see the dark, damp patch growing at the side of Alicia’s body, and he knew the smell of fresh blood anywhere.
His Sweetcheeks had been shot when he was supposed to be protecting her. He only had one objective now, and that was damage limitation. Get Alicia out of there, and back to the base so that her wounds could be attended to.
Shuggie had seen Xavier and what looked like a sack of coal thrown over his shoulder. As a head started bobbing, he realised the ‘sack’ was Alicia, and as soon as his Commander was clear of the landmines, he gave the order to detonate.
As the grounds and mansion exploded in a fireball, Shuggie grabbed Xavier and Alicia and flashed them all back to the base, having left instructions for the foot soldiers to retreat back to their original coordinates in the trucks they had arrived in. He was mentally exhausted from the exertion. He normally could only transport one other person when flashing, but two?
As he fell to the floor, he saw that Xavier’s face was wet. Tilting his head to the side he was about to ask what was on his face, when he realised exactly what it was.
Tears.
His Commander was crying as he held the body of the youngling in his arms.
“Shuggie…Help me!”
Xavier could barely get the words out before his knees gave way and he was holding Alicia out to him like a sacrifice.
Chapter Sixty Five
Crawling over towards Xavier, Shuggie bit into his own wrist and fed his blood to Alicia, forcing her mouth open to swallow it down. He heard her start to murmur and took it that his blood was healing her, which was precisely the moment he gave in and let his body go into its death-sleep for the day.
“Alicia…Sweetcheeks, wake up.”
Xavier’s tone was soft, but insistent as he cradled her to him, resting back on his heels, as she lay in his arms. His large tears were slowly dripping onto her forehead as his lips moved against her skin. “For me, Alicia. Wake up, for me?”
When did I feed? Wondering where the hell she was that it was raining and she was getting wet, Alicia’s eyes fluttered open slowly. Oh…it wasn’t rain, it was salty mortal tears that belonged to Commander Raige. Confused that she had missed something here, she tried to move her body but realised she was being held in death grip. Why could she smell congealed blood? Fuck Xavier was hurt! Maybe grown men do cry when in pain after all…who knew?!
“Oi you Prick, you’re squeezing the life out of me here, let go, you’re injured and need attention.” Satisfied she’d done her good deed for the day, Alicia smiled up at Xavier, the events of earlier having taken leav
e of her mind.
Smiling down at Alicia, relief washing over him, he carefully laid her down.
“Sorry, Sweetcheeks — I thought…” he left his sentence unfinished as he caught sight of his hands and stood up, walking quickly to the bathroom. Locking the door behind him, he turned on the faucet to wash Alicia’s blood off of his hands. He knew that he had been overreacting and now felt foolish and ashamed.
What was he thinking of?
She was an immortal vampire, of course that wound would mean nothing to her. She didn’t even feel pain. He had been thinking like the dumbass mortal that he was.
Alicia sprang to her feet from where she was lying down, staring at the bathroom door that Xavier had closed on her.
“You thought I was what?” Placing her hands onto her hips she felt the damp patch.
Ah duck!
“It’s my blood isn’t it, you thought I was dead didn’t you? What the hell happened back there?” When she got no response after ten minutes she rolled her eyes and head to her own room.
Men!
Hitting the dial for the switch to the shower, she exited the bathroom to allow the room to fill with steam that’s when she caught sight of herself. The shirt and skirt were torn and covered in blood.
“I remember ending Belcastro, but then what happened?” Alicia whispered to her reflection in the mirror.
Pulling himself together, Xavier walked out of the room to let Shuggie get his death-sleep in peace, and started packing up the comms room. They had been using the abandoned hotel as a base only whilst they were here in Mexico, and in a matter of hours, no one would ever have known anyone had been there. He was meticulous in his clean-up operations, and once he had finished in there, he headed back to his room, stopping only to bang his fist on Alicia’s door.
The Heist Page 21
