For the Love of Chocolat Page 8

  “But he doesn’t know. Because you and I both understand telling him will ruin any chance of escape. And that’s ultimately what you want? Right?”

  “He’s going to set Sasha free after this final job tonight. I plan to go with her.”

  “And you want to stay gone?” Abahti asked, leading her toward a confession she wasn’t sure she should make. They stood in silence for several moments. Abhati’s motives seemed clear. He wanted her gone, just as much as she desired the same. Maybe this could work to her advantage.

  “That’s my plan,” she confessed. He was right. She needed his help to pull it off. “There’s a problem with making sure Lee doesn’t follow me.”

  “That’s my problem, not yours,” Abahti agreed. “It’ll be my job to hold him off until you and Sasha disappear.”

  “How?” She looked him over, doubtful.

  “Like I said, I have my ways.”

  “Why do you want me gone? Why do you want to isolate Lee? His feelings for me are genuine. He’s changing, for the better. After this job, we can walk away.”

  “You telling me you want to stay? Make a family with Lee?” Abahti snorted in disbelief.

  “I’m asking what business of it is yours? Lee’s your boss, not your boyfriend!” she shot back.

  “Lee rescued me from a bad place years ago. I’ve made it my life’s blood, a vow you won’t understand, to repay that debt. In all the years I’ve worked for him, I’ve never seen him vulnerable. Pops taught him to survive. Pops made him strong, and Pops told him never to cross the line with you. Your father knew you two were wrong for each other. He tried to prevent this. He wanted to free you both. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, Chocolat. Am I?”

  “Correction, Abahti. Pops was wrong. Lee loves me and I love him. If he wanted us free, he of all people should have known he can’t control what freedom means. And guess what, neither can you,” she said softly and walked off, looking back at him once more curiously.

  ***

  “Would you stop pacing?” Kumar groaned. “I can’t concentrate.”

  “Where is she?”

  “On her way upstairs,” he grumbled.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Forgive me for interrupting your geek moment.”

  He looked up at her coolly and Sasha averted her gaze. She twisted her hands and shook her head. They had to change plans. It kept repeating in her head, like a flashing neon sign.

  “How we doing?” Michelle asked as she entered the room.

  “Not good!” Sasha blurted out in a high-pitched whine. “Kumar, tell her.”

  “Well....”

  “You can’t do it!” she cut him off. “Tell her, Kumar!”

  “We found—”

  “They have an extra trigger,” Sasha interjected. “Something Kumar missed. It’s in the final locking system. New. They call it a phantom lock, Michelle. It’s very precise; you’d have a better chance with dynamite than cracking the thing. It’s new technology, just under a year old, maybe less. Pops never got through it. Do you understand? This isn’t the job Pops would run.”

  “Calm down.”

  “No! If you insist on doing this job, then we do it together,” Sasha demanded.

  “No.”

  “Damn it, Michelle. Even I don’t know much about it.” She threw up her hands in defeat. “It’s a counter lock, but that’s about it. And…and…and it’s trigger-sensitive. Very, very, very sensitive. You can’t go through the ticks or any shit like that. You have to go on instinct and you have to be exact.”

  “Hey.” Her sister grabbed her hands. “Relax. Breathe, Sasha. Breathe.”

  “I’m serious, damn it!” Sasha snatched her hands away. Her bottom lip quivered and tears rolled down her cheeks. “This is too risky. You can’t do this. The bank is not the same, it’s different. It’s not like when Pops did it, do you get that?”

  “Kumar. How bad is it?” Michelle asked.

  He looked between the sisters.

  “Kumar! Tell her! She can’t, right?”

  He cleared his throat. “Since you’re going in through the tunnels beneath, we’re already bypassing half of the security system and—”

  “Kumar!” Sasha snapped.

  He rose. “Sasha, it’s not impossible. You know it. It’s your fear talking. I got enough technology here to delay all of the triggers; hell, I’ve planted one of my own to throw off the synchronization. In that window, she goes in manually. The baby will open, I swear it.”

  “She’s my sister, you asshole! I thought you were going to support me on this!” She turned and stormed out.

  “Sasha!” Kumar went after her.

  ***

  “They don’t believe you,” Escobar said.

  Lee rode in the limo. His eyes cut over to the city flashing by his window. Timing was everything. Was it a coincidence Rawhead’s body would appear the night before the job Michelle was to pull off? He doubted it.

  “Smoke and mirrors,” Lee mumbled.

  “Que?”

  “It’s Eddie. You said he didn’t show at the meeting, so there’s your proof. I didn’t kill Rawhead. I won’t even answer to it. Eddie did it.”

  Escobar stroked his chin. “Why? What’s going’s down between you and Eddie? What does he gain by taking down Rawhead?”

  “You know what this is about.”

  Escobar chuckled. “Well, things are tense. There are rumors, man. Others think your lady is making a play for the Chalice. Monk Eastman is sniffing in every corner. If you want peace, then find the thing and destroy it. Get rid of it once and for all.”

  “Right.” Lee shook his head. “Because if I have the Chalice, everybody plays by my rules going forward, including you.”

  “No, hombre,” Escobar said. “You will make those Dixon sisters targets. Everyone knows you’re soft over her. Do you think the others, including Yacazza, would not take that as the advantage?”

  Lee digested the bitter truth. He had to play this one very carefully.

  “Half a mil for where Eddie is. A mil if he’s dead. Cash.”

  Escobar smiled. “Smoke and mirrors, huh, Lee?”

  “Like always.” Lee nodded. “Like always.”

  ***

  “Well, I’ll be damned. What she ever do to you?” Eddie chuckled, dropping the folder and picking up his cigar.

  “Doesn’t matter. You take her out, Lee’s done. She’s going for the Chalice tonight,” Abahti grumbled.

  “Right. And you’re just itching to help me do Lee in?” Eddie dragged on his cigar and released a puffed ring of smoke.

  “My loyalties or motives shouldn’t matter to you. That bitch is done either way. Just thought you’d like to do the honors.”

  He scratched his brow and looked to the folder once more. “Maybe. Especially since I now know there’s dissent in his crew. Besides, she’s damn tasty.” He chuckled. “But hey, she resisted my charms. So fuck her.”

  “We never met, Eddie.”

  He lifted his head. “You’re a ghost, motherfucker. Never seen you.”

  Abahti nodded his thanks.

  Eddie laughed. He watched the tall African beat a path to the back of the restaurant and out the rear door. His gaze lowered to the information provided to him. “Mmm? It must be Christmas.” He gave his second-in-command the nod. Most nights when he dined at his favorite hide-a-way restaurant, his men lingered at the tables around his booth seat. At his nod, one rose and approached. “We take them all down tonight.”

  “Yes, boss.”

  ***

  Later

  “What do you need?” Lee asked.

  Sasha slammed his office door so hard it bounced back open. He watched her curiously as she marched to his desk with flared nostrils and eyes bulging in their sockets. “We need to talk.”

  “Is that right? Where’s your sister?”

  “She’s with Kumar. Going over the plans for the crazy job you convinced her she could do. The one that might get her killed
tonight!” she shouted.

  Lee reclined in his seat. “Tell her to come here.” He sighed. “Close the door properly on your way out.”

  “Not until we talk. You and me.”

  “About?”

  “You can’t let her do this. I found something out. The security is different. It’s not the same system Pops used. It’s changed and….” Sasha bit down on her bottom lip. “Damn it, Lee, she’s my sister. The only family I have left.”

  He pushed up from behind his desk and stepped around, tapping his fingers over the top.

  Sasha stepped back. “Please. If you care about her, stop this.”

  “What am I exactly supposed to stop, Sasha? This is what we do. Who we are. It’s what you wanted, remember? What you signed up for.”

  “No. Never this,” Sasha cried.

  ***

  Kumar walked the long halls, looking for Sasha. He and Michelle had wrapped their dry run twenty minutes ago. Now he had good news. He’d found a safe way in. The risk was there, but the three of them made it less an issue. Sasha should relax. She should trust him more.

  Hearing voices, Kumar stopped, then stepped forward. It sounded like his Sasha. Normally, he wouldn’t stand at Lee’s door. But something in her voice drew him closer.

  ***

  “Your sister is doing the job and it’s her choice. Live with it. I have to.”

  “Live with it? Let me ask you this. How do you think she’ll react if she knew how you seduced me into sucking your dick?” Sasha dropped her hands to her hips.

  Lee stepped inches closer. “What did you say to me?”

  She noticed the way his eyes darkened with keen interest. She swallowed the knot of fear that congealed in her throat. “I…I want you to call it off.”

  “Or what?” he asked, his tone hardening.

  “Or I’ll tell her about us. Then she will hate you. Remember how you drugged me?”

  “After you threw pussy at me and sucked my dick, Sasha. Something you volunteered freely.” He stepped closer.

  “You tricked me. I came to you with a solid plan to set my sister up to steal those diamonds. You made me think we could hustle together. Be partners. You tricked me!”

  “No, sweetness. You walked in and offered your services. I took you up on it.”

  ***

  Kumar retreated.

  It all came back in a flash. The things she said and didn’t say during her captivity. It was her plan? She had set up her own kidnapping? Stunned, he grappled with the truth and her lies. Had Sasha been playing him for a fool all along?

  Kumar’s throat went dry and the old, familiar burn to erase his insecurity, wrapped in panic, crept over his skin, giving him invisible shakes. Whenever he felt too much too fast, he wanted numbness. And right now his heart was breaking in ways he couldn’t have predicted. Turning, he bolted for the stairs, and his room.

  ***

  “Please, Lee, I’m begging you. Call it off.”

  “Get out.” He turned and went back to his desk. Sasha closed her eyes. It was like waking in a never-ending nightmare. First the vamp freaks who worked for Rawhead had beaten and tortured her beloved Kumar, now this. How much would she be made to pay because she’d disobeyed her sister and brought Leith Sullivan back into their lives? Sadly, she began to understand why Michelle never wanted anything to do with the business Pops introduced them to. If something happened to her sister this time, it would be all her fault.

  She opened her eyes. Lee sat behind his desk with his head tilted, observing her. No sympathy in those cool hard eyes. “I thought you loved her. How could you sit back and watch her destroy herself?” She didn’t wait for a response. She did as he asked and left.

  ***

  Midnight

  Michelle pulled the zipper up to her neck. The black, slick bodysuit fit like a second skin. She swung her arms out and back in, stretching the material. Finding it extremely flexible, she relaxed, with one less worry off her list. When the door to the bathroom opened, she glanced over. It was Lee.

  “Hey?”

  He slipped up behind her, hands to her waist. “It’s time.”

  “I’m ready.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She turned in his arms, seeing the hesitation in his face despite his forced smile. “You just be ready to celebrate when I walk out with the Chalice. For you.”

  “I just want you to walk out.” He ran his hand down her backside.

  “For us.” She breathed against his mouth and forced her tongue inside. He held her tight to him, deepening his kiss, possessing her.

  “For us,” he agreed.

  She smiled. Pressing her hands to his chest, she gave a gentle push and avoided the temptation of a deeper kiss. “Let’s go.”

  She stepped out from in front of him then back through the room to locate her ski mask. She didn’t wear one in the Jesus Stones heist, and the glimpse of her face cost a young guard his life. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

  Chapter Five

  “I’m in.” Michelle took a moment to catch her breath. The drop brought her to her knees. She rose slowly in the darkness. Her head went back. She peered up into the moonlit opening. There it was: freedom above, the unknown ahead. If there had been any doubt she wasn’t risking her life, it cleared when her eyes returned to the darkness engulfed in the cave-black tunnel.

  This had to be Pops’ way in. These tunnels were over eighty years old. Every entranceway above had been sealed by the city. Lee’s men had worked surreptitiously on her manhole for two days just to get her in. It was an additional measure because the city had started nightly construction on the road that lead to the entranceway they figured Pops had used.

  She imagined she’d fall in murky waters filled with the bile, sewage, and rats as big as cats sleeking about. But thankfully it was bone dry, and eerily silent. She reached in the bag for the night goggles. Her ski mask on, she fitted the goggles over her head and turned them on. Suddenly everything around her shone with a dull-green infrared clarity. “Guys, can you hear me? I said I was in.”

  ***

  “Kumar?” Sasha asked, elbowing him.

  He blinked at the screen. His skull felt as if a trillion tiny sewing needles were being pressed into it. His nasal passage burned and his throat felt aflame. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Nausea had him squirming and burping his own bile. If Michelle got hurt or caught because he slipped, Lee would carve up his balls and make him eat them. If he didn’t kill him outright.

  His gaze slipped sheepishly over to Sasha. Sweat dotted his brow. He could feel it pebbling over his top lip. Returning his eyes back to the screen, he cued up the two-way feed. “Ah yeah… yeah. We hear you, Chocolat.”

  ***

  Sasha leaned into the electronic dashboard to get a good look at her beau. Kumar turned in his chair, preventing her access. He trifled with unseen dials and made little snorting noises that only added to his strangeness. He’d avoided her most of the day, which was understandable since they all had work to do for the heist. Even so, the silent treatment he was giving her felt odd.

  He sat next to her in the cool, air-conditioned van, with over a million dollars worth of equipment and the job he claimed was a dream come true, sweating and scratching his arm repeatedly.

  “You okay? You feeling okay?” she asked, reaching to check his temperature. He was quick to dodge her touch.

  “I’m fine,” he affirmed through clenched teeth and shot a steely glance her way. She drew back from the anger in his eyes; it was so foreign to the sweet, gentle guy she knew.

  “Chocolat, remember, it’s a quarter of a mile in,” Kumar warned.

  “Yeah, I got it,” Michelle answered.

  He turned back to the screens that showed different levels of security vaults. “We won’t get a visual until you enter. But your signal is strong. So I can step you through if you get turned around…and…um, whatever.”

  Sasha’s eyes never left him. He scratched his
face and then ran his hand back through his dark, short locks. Something was oddly familiar about the way he fidgeted but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

  “Is Lee there?” Michelle asked. “Kinda need him arguing with me.” Sasha heard her laugh nervously through the speakers in the van.

  “Not yet, stay focused, Chocolat,” Kumar snapped. It was a little abrupt. And a little resentful? That’s what Sasha heard in his two-syllable reply, and her stomach dropped instantly.

  ***

  Michelle was quick on her feet. She hurried through the dark tunnel, ignoring the rats as they scurried along the sides of the curved walls, stopping to hiss at her with their beady-yellow eyes. She checked her watch. Kumar gave her ten minutes to get the maintenance ladder.

  There were only six left.

  She needed to hurry.

  ***

  “This one you need to stay clear of,” Abahti warned.

  Lee’s vision was trained nowhere in particular. Using his mind, he tracked her. She would be running through the tunnels, hidden in shadows. His baby was good at this. He just had to keep the faith. Before they ventured out into the night, she playfully joked of a failed mission and his baking cookies for her with diamond chips when she was in prison.

  “Where are they?”

  “A block away. Too close.”

  “Not close enough.”

  “Lee….”

  His eyes returned to Abahti. The debate was over.

  “Maybe we should pull them back. To be sure we’re clear enough. Not far. Just not as close?”

  “You anticipate trouble? Then you should be prepared for it, right?” Lee asked.

  He tensed over how his second-in-command moistened his lips with nervous agitation before he answered. “No. No, no trouble. I just think, well, it’s the way we’ve done it before.”