by Michele Hauf
No, she trusted he would work through this heist. It was his job, after all. A job that meant so little to him, he’d leave and risk imprisonment again.
“Don’t let me down, Jack,” she whispered.
* * * *
Ten minutes later, the slam of something against the door alerted Saskia. She looked up from the mesmerizing spin of the drill bit as Niles punched through the concrete wall for the anchor hole. The back door opened and Jack stepped inside, shivering and complaining about the cold and how he should have strapped on ice skates.
“The next time I agree to a job in the bloody bowels of Scandinavia,” he muttered as he passed without glancing at her, “somebody slap me.”
Niles chuckled, but Clive only sneered.
This was going to be an interesting evening.
Chapter 15
An hour later, Jack’s hands were numb after taking them off the drill. He shook them out and paced behind the crew as they waited for Clive to move the drill away from the opening, which was now approximately two and a half feet wide by one foot high. More than enough room for them all to slip through and into the darkened depths of what should be the bank’s utility room. They had drilled through the thin brick wall of the accountant’s office and then one and a half feet of concrete on the outer bank wall.
If they would have drilled directly into the safe room from the basement, Jack estimated another three hours of drilling to get through the thick, reinforced concrete. This way had cut considerable time off the task.
He’d glanced over his shoulder while drilling to find Saskia pacing. Every time she’d meet his gaze, he’d look away. He didn’t want her to get inside his head.
Not that she wasn’t already deep in his thoughts and his very being. Would it be worth it to stick around and see what could develop between the two of them? It had been a fling between the two of them. Asking her to go along with him had been a foolish thing, spoken while he’d still been riding the high of some great sex. Now that he knew the truth about her? He wasn’t about to stake his entire future—and his freedom—on a wish for something that would never come to fruition.
Hell. He was starting to think words like fruition. What was wrong with him?
Maybe she had turned his head and his heart a little too far for him to disregard this time. She was a singular and intriguing woman. And her body was so hot, like it had been meant for him, and him alone. He did want to know her better, longer and—
“Jack?”
He jerked out of his thoughts and saw that Saskia was the only one left in the room.
“Right. Was just calculating when I should head back out to the vehicle. It’ll need time to warm up again. Did you uh…hand over the you-know-what to Clive?”
She nodded. “Fingers crossed it isn’t questioned. Can we do this, Jack? I mean… You know?”
He pulled her against his body and kissed her hard. There was that strange feeling again. The one that made him wonder why he couldn’t have the life he wanted and Saskia as well. Because she fit him. And that had never happened with a woman before.
“I need you tonight,” he said quietly. “We have to work together. We’ve got to find out if Clive has a hit list. And I will have to catch him with his hand in the cookie jar.”
Her fingers clenched against his chest as she processed that information. She nodded. “I’m here for you. I’ll be at the vault. But I can take a break, maybe wander down to check on Clive.”
He nodded. “Give it half an hour, then take a break to stretch. I’ll find a reason to walk around inside after that. Saskia.” He bracketed her face with his palms. “I need to be able to contact you after this.”
Her eyebrow quirked. “I’ve got your number.”
“It’ll be trash in a few hours.”
“Right. Going off the grid,” she muttered. “Unless I can stop you.”
So she wasn’t on his side. Never had been, never would be. Because she couldn’t be. Her alliances were to the ECU. He didn’t blame her for that. It would just make his task of keeping her in his life more difficult.
“Would you speak to me if, after I do make it out and go black, I find you later?”
She nodded. “Let the games begin, Gentleman Jack.” She kissed him, a slow, lush contact between them. “But I warn you, I’m good at what I do.”
Dropping, she entered the drilled hole and disappeared.
Yes, she was good at what she did. But so was he. He could work with that.
Crouching before the drilled hole, Jack inhaled the dusty wet cement odor then forced his wide shoulders through the tight squeeze and into the dark room. An empty mop bucket sat near the hole and beside that a torn-up mop. Must have gotten tangled in the drill bit when he’d punched through. Niles stepped aside as Jack stood. The door to the small supply room was open and Clive was gone.
“Clive is making the rounds,” Niles whispered. “Verifying camera locations and—”
“Good to go,” Clive’s voice suddenly said through the doorway. “All cameras exactly where we marked them. No night guard. Everything quiet and dark, save one light above a desk highlighting a dead plant.”
With limited vocal communication from here on out, Jack knew his job was merely to wait. He was the getaway driver. And, he should probably get back to guarding the office in which they’d entered. But he’d verify everyone was in position before leaving.
The crew slinked down a hallway and toward the safe room, which wasn’t even a room but a vault door at the end of the hallway. An interesting open plan that had been designed to highlight the safe door to those patrons who could view it through a glass wall from the lobby. It made him nervous. Any of their headlamps might be viewed by a passerby out on the street if they turned their head just so and the flash was magnified by the windows.
But they’d planned for that and would work in the dark until light was required. And Jack doubted too many would be out wandering the streets at two a.m. risking a broken neck by slipping on the icy surface.
Saskia stopped before the safe door and, with a flick to turn on her headlamp, inspected the setup. “Richardson 2700. Just as expected,” she said softly. “Always good to be right about something for a change.”
She nodded to Niles, who knelt before the safe and opened his mini laptop. He would provide her with the technical data and she would do the hands-on cracking work.
Jack appreciated a safecracker. It was a profession that very few could master and only with years of study and the best teachers. Generally, from a family member or close friend of the family. He’d never had the calm patience to sit there and listen for pins dropping or wheels catching. He was the rough-tough muscle, and that suited him fine.
For only one more night.
Clive looked to him and then tapped his watch. With a nod, Jack turned and headed back to the storage room. He turned once to see Clive head toward the basement door. As he climbed through the hole, he vacillated with the options of returning to the alley with the vehicle, setting off the alarm and fleeing, or simply driving away into the icy darkness.
He wasn’t sure which of the three he’d choose, even as he opened the back door and, bracing himself against the wind, skated down the alleyway.
* * * *
It would take up to an hour or more to crack this safe, of which, Saskia was prepared for the ordeal. She thrived on this game. There was no digital keypad. All old school. Her fingers, in latex gloves, moved the dial while she listened through the stethoscope to the inner clicks and gear shifts and hoped for the fence to drop into a notch. The sound was purer to her than any music.
And Niles was the perfect assistant. He didn’t talk much, and when he did it was almost as if he could foresee her need to know what number she’d last given him or if she’d given him contact points. He graphed all the info. If he spent any amount of time mani
pulating safes himself he could excel. But they’d had this conversation last heist. He didn’t like the hands on. It was all about the numbers to him and reading the grids.
Saskia had grown up cracking safes and picking locks. She hadn’t realized it wasn’t something normal kids didn’t do until third grade when her teacher had been upset she’d accidentally locked the supply closet, in which she’d left the days’ treats. Saskia had told her she could get it open. The teacher had laughed. Until thirty seconds later, and with a bent paperclip and the end of a slide ruler, the lock had been picked.
Needless, her teacher had been worried about Saskia and had sent a note home with her that day. That note had never made it to her parents’ hands. Not that they would have been too concerned. They had been the ones to teach her the skills she’d enhanced and studied over the years.
As well, an early love for playacting, in the bible study classes she took because her grandmother insisted, had instilled a deep love for dressing up, pulling on a new character, and ultimately walking through the world in various forms designed to trick, and manipulate.
A chameleon, her grandmother had called her. And she was proud of that. But there were times Saskia would wonder if her grandmother would be proud of her today. The reason she had been recruited by The Elite Crimes Unit was for her disguise talents. And the fact she’d tried to sign onto a bank job with an undercover operator. When given an ultimatum by the ECU, she hadn’t had to vacillate on prison or working for the law for more than a few seconds. It had been a means to continue what she loved doing, and not getting caught for it.
But she may have to get caught tonight. If Jack was in contact with the ECU they would likely want him to report their every move. And they could send in authorities to arrest them. They’d nab Clive and Niles, and also Saskia and Jack. She didn’t worry because the ECU would spring her free in a day or two. But she wasn’t certain they had enough on Clive right now to warrant arresting him.
Jack seemed to be more involved in this relationship, whatever they had going on, than she. But was that right? Or was she too afraid to admit to herself that she was interested in him beyond a few quick fucks.
Go along with him to live off the grid? Too risky. It was…no, she had a sweet life right now. She only owed the ECU another four years. And then? Who knew? She might choose to stay on with the ECU. Because for a woman who only knew how to survive by cracking safes and playing the long game? She wasn’t sure she could manage living the hard way.
Rumor had it the ECU had recently recruited a thief who had been attempting to live the hard way. But with little persuasion she had succumbed to the lure of her former life and agreed to work for the Elite Crimes Unit.
Just went to prove you could take the criminal out of the system but he’d always find a way back in, by pick or by swinging fists.
And thinking about swinging fists, Saskia wondered how Jack was faring.
“Sass?”
She startled out of her thoughts and met Niles’ gaze. “Huh?”
“You’ve been paused over that safe dial for five minutes. Everything cool?”
“Oh. Uh, yeah. Sorry. Just…working out scenarios in my brain. Read the three numbers I’ve cracked so far?”
Niles read them and she nodded, making a mental note to focus. She’d simply have to trust that Jack would have her back.
And that was not an easy thing to do. Because the man wanted out, and if he felt trapped she was sure he’d fight and flee, leaving her to battle it out in the carnage.
“I need to stretch my legs.” She suddenly remembered she’d promised Jack she’d look in on Clive.
“What? No, you’ve only got two numbers left.”
“Give me five, Niles. Work out the average on the contact points I’ve given you so far, yeah?”
“That is not part of the plan.”
Why was he being so obstinate tonight?
“It is now.” Saskia rose and made show of stretching a leg and then the other. “Be right back.”
Chapter 16
Surprisingly, as the night grew longer, the air seemed to warm. It wasn’t a noticeable feeling on his skin. Jack hadn’t stopped shivering since arriving in Finland, and was sure he wouldn’t thaw out until he left the country. But the ice on the roads seemed to be melting just enough to provide traction and not send the vehicle sliding across the intersection when he slammed on the brakes.
A man on a bicycle pedaled past him, waving and rolling onward, as if it wasn’t two in the morning and he wasn’t riding outside in ten below weather. Must have chains on those thick rubber wheels.
“This is a nutty place,” Jack muttered as he circled the bank block. He didn’t note any other vehicles—especially not police vehicles—and then pulled into the alleyway. But if the ECU were on them tonight, they had to be in the area. Waiting for the signal. The all’s clear.
He rubbed the back of his neck where the GPS chip had been embedded. They knew exactly where he was right now.
Once parked, he turned off the ignition and checked his phone for texts. Nothing about Jonny. And Kierce Quinn hadn’t contacted him either.
“Wait and see mode,” he muttered glumly.
Sucking in a dry breath as he entered the chill night air, he slipped, literally, inside the accounting office’s back door. Wandering up to the front window, he looked out over the street. Calm and quiet. Save the bicyclist who turned at the corner. Was the bloke an insomniac or just crazy?
“Gives me new appreciation for London’s wacky weather,” he said. The British Isles were having a heat wave right now with temps in the forties.
Confident all was clear, Jack crawled through the drilled hole. He was a tight squeeze, for his shoulders and biceps, which he managed only with his jacket off. No suit and tie tonight. He wore a dark pullover shirt and dark trousers. He wasn’t going to advertise to any CCTV cameras.
Entering the main hallway, he saw Niles and Saskia down the hallway, kneeling before the safe. If she cracked that in another half hour he’d give her a standing ovation. She was working old school. She hadn’t brought along a drill, which would provide a sight for her to peer in with a borescope and watch the inner mechanism as she twisted the outer combination dial. She worked by touch. He liked that.
He’d taken a moment before they’d entered the bank to touch her, to make contact. He would still take her along with him if she wanted to go. Yeah, he’d be that stupid. He’d have to set her up in a hideaway until he’d finished his business in London, but then, off the grid. Completely.
Did he dare tell her everything? He’d already alluded to her about a family issue. He’d wanted her to know there was a reason he was doing this, and it wasn’t simply because he no longer wanted to fulfill his contract to the ECU. He’d never walk away on a bargain unless the stakes were so high he had no choice. And they were high. Jonny’s life was in danger.
So he’d walk away from a reasonably good thing and take on the unknown. And he wasn’t about to let a pretty face trip him up when he was so close.
But close to what, exactly? Freedom? He wasn’t stupid. If he went off the grid he’d never live another day as a free man. The years and future decades would see him always looking over his shoulder, wondering if the next time he said “hi” to a passing stranger it would be the law looking to bring him down. It was possible to lose oneself in the world. But only for so long. And he suspected the ECU would be a determined foe, not ceasing their efforts to ensure he was punished for leaving them when he still owed them work.
Rock and a hard place, bloke.
Unsure whether Saskia had yet taken a walk downstairs, he decided to play a hunch that she had not and aimed for the safe deposit box room in the basement. Down the eight stairs, then a swing to the left as he’d walked that day he’d been here to check the place out. And he got a surprise.
The
vault door was open wide. A beam of light wavered from within as if a flashlight were moving about.
Knowing he’d be catching the predator while at the feeding hole, Jack had to be cautious not to surprise him. Tilting his head left to right and loosening his muscles, he then flexed his fists and approached slowly. He cleared his throat as he neared the door. The light beam brightened to indicate someone was nearing the door. Jack quickened his steps and made it to the door just as Clive slipped out. He only had a moment to scan the back wall of the room. No open box doors and nothing out of order.
“Jack. What are you doing down here?”
“Everything is A-OK upstairs, so thought I’d take a look around.” He noted the edge of a gas mask peeking behind Clive’s hip; he’d tucked it in a back pocket. “How you doing down here? I see you got the vault open. You beat Saskia.”
“I had expected to. The vault door down here was an easy crack.”
“Then why even bother having her work the safe upstairs?”
Clive’s brows crimped and Jack could feel the man’s tension. He wasn’t going to answer that question. And he didn’t expect him too. He knew what was up. And the man didn’t have anything in hand. Also, expected.
“It’s a good thing you came back in,” Clive said. “Time to pack up shop and get the hell out of here.”
“Uh, okay. I guess that was the plan. First room we crack, then we’re out. You need help carrying out anything from the room?”
Clive dug into his pants pocket and pulled out a small silver box that might hold a piece of jewelry or it could even be a prized possession in and of itself. “Nice, eh?”
“That’s it? Doesn’t make sense.”
“No questions, Jack. I answer to someone else. This is what they wanted.”
Ready to ask “what the fuck is that gas mask doing in your pocket,” Jack paused as Clive hefted the silver box and caught it smartly on his palm. So he changed his question. “That’s it? That’s the job?”
