Page 59 of Beastly Armory
As we walk, I grab a clean towel and toss it over his shoulders, then hand him an ice-cold bottle of water. Everything better be copacetic. I never want to hear of Two Fingers again. “We square now, Buddy?”
“Yeah, Million. We’re square.” Before we make our way to the hotel, Bud grabs my arm, turning me to face him, his comb-over flopping in the freezing winter breeze, only blocked by the closeness of the buildings nearby. “I don’t think the boss will like hearing about you taking up with Lavinio, though. I miss you, son, but please avoid this city.” He sneaks a glance at Derichs. “For your own safety.”
Nodding, I let him know the plan. “I have one more job that I came for. Then we’ll be out of here.”
“Better make it quick. If word gets around town, especially after tonight’s antics…”
“We’ll be gone shortly.” Just another reason I wished no one had known I had come back. Now that word had gotten around I was working with Lavinio and had caused a problem in the ring tonight, it could be bad for me. Somehow, Gnarled Pine Hollow is safer for me now more than ever, and that’s a strange feeling. Comfort in the uncomfortable.
Once we get changed back in the hotel room and Derichs takes some anti-inflammatories, we ride over to the building we need in the Barracuda. Zayne lives in a penthouse at the top of a ritzy glass building in the middle of downtown. After circling the block a few times, scoping out escape routes, I park down the street, butmake sure there’s a clear way out if we need to leave in a hurry.
Fortunately, Zayne’s housekeeper is broke. She’s also an unwilling sex slave at times. The guy likes whips, chains, and cigarette lighters and she doesn’t seem to appreciate the burns.
It was easy to give her cash, promise her safety, and get her to locate the purple sapphire for us. Zayne keeps most of his jewels locked in a bedroom safe; she told my spy Gemini over the dinner date he wooed her with. My hackers located the plans for the building and the codes to get inside. Wearing all black with ski masks stuffed in our pockets, Derichs and I enter through the glass doors of the building, prepared for our midnight trek.
We’re able to waltz right past the sleepy security guard and into the gleaming silver elevators without any issues. The trick is to always appear like you’re supposed to be where you are, or maybe having Derichs look as busted as he does is enough to scare off any questions. We don’t look friendly.
Riding up to the top floor, I tap a quick message on my phone to Skipper, my lead hacker. Before the doors open, he’s already disabled the security cameras and says he’s working on Zayne’s electronic lock on the penthouse. Derichs and I tug on our masks, then head out onto the top floor. The solid white hallway holds only a single plain door, modern and sleek, where we wait for only a minute before a loud click, then a buzz echoes through the barren hall. I enter the apartment with Derichs close behind my back.
Derichs nods at me when I point to the entryway. He’ll take the six and monitor for anyone trying to come in without warning. Sneaking toward the hall, I find the main bedroom from the floorplan I was given. Everything is laid out just as Gemini drew for me.
Placing my hand on the cold handle, I ease it down as slowly as my muscles will allow to open the door without a sound. Curtains block all light inside the room, but as my eyes adjust to the blackness, I can make out a heap of a figure lying under puffy blankets on the large bed near the center. Gently placing one foot in front of the other, my boots curl up in a creep to the open door of the closet on my left.
Edging inside while steadying my breathing, my hands grab a handful of his freshly dry-cleaned shirts to slide them aside, but as I do, their plastic covers rustle louder than I anticipate. I freeze, but don’t hear any movement after waiting for at least one full minute. A green glow of digital zeros lights up a metal box sitting on the wall, the safe right where the housekeeper said it would be. She gave up the code willingly, and I press the buttons one at a time, pausing between each loud beep to monitor for any sound coming from the bedroom. Everything is still.
A creak interrupts the calm as the metal door finally clicks and swings open, causing my heart rate to spike. I ruffle through the contents using my phone as a flashlight, but there’re only papers and file folders and a book. No jewels.Fuck! It’s not here. Maybe I missed it or maybe there’s another safe. I go through it again, butthere’s no purple sapphire. Blood rushes in my ears, making hearing anything behind me difficult. Did the housekeeper lie?
“Zayne?” A high-pitched female voice breaks my panic, my arteries rioting as all the blood rushes into my extremities, ready for a fight. Fumbling with my phone, I turn off the flashlight and quiet my breathing, but my heart is pounding so hard, I fear whoever it is may hear it. “Zayne? Is that you?”
Holding my breath, I glance around the closet. There’s nowhere for me to hide without making noise. Footsteps slap the ground assuredly in my direction before a shadowy figure of a woman peers around the corner. She flips on the closet light, momentarily blinding both of us. When our eyes adjust, she gasps, but my body is already in motion from years of experience.
My arms surround her, wrapping one hand around her neck and the other over her mouth. She kicks in the air with her feet, but given she’s so much smaller, I lift her body until her flails meet open space. Squeezing my hold, I feel the breath collapse from her lungs as a cough escapes around my palm. Her body calms in my grasp. Some of her long, blonde hair catches on my tongue, and I spit it out as her bony, cold fingers grip the hand on her mouth, trying to pull me off. The metal of her rings cuts into my skin.
“Don’t make a fucking sound. Nod if you understand.” Rapidly, she nods while moaning a whimper.
Placing her feet back on the ground, I forcefully march her body back into the bedroom, but I can’t makeout anyone else in the dark space. Releasing the palm over her lips, she inhales deeply with a gasping breath.
“Let me see your hands,” I command. Dropping the arm around her neck, I maintain a hold on her waist. Now that she can move, her body shakes violently with desperate sobs.
“Please, please, don’t hurt me. Just take anything.”
“Let me see your fucking hands.” I give her waist a squeeze with my bicep to let her know how serious I am, and she holds them up in front of us. There it is, sparkling in the light of the closet on her perfectly polished ring finger. Dropping her, I pull out my phone, and flash the light on it to be sure. “Give me that ring.”
She hesitates, staring at her outstretched hands. The dumb bitch actually hesitates. Snatching her wrist, I almost crush it, attempting to rip the ring off along with a finger. Wails of pain rip from her mouth, but I twist it off, then shove it deep in the pocket of my jeans. Just as quickly, I gather her back into my arms and reach for my Glock sitting in its holster on my belt. Holding the barrel to her temple, I shove it into the skin as she cries in frantic, muffled pleas.
“Where’s Zayne?” I ask, my voice gruff, my finger with steady pressure on the trigger. She only whines and shakes her head in reply. “Where the fuck is Zayne? Is he here?”
Arms wrap around my biceps, and the sudden jarring causes me to drop my gun. Tight hands grip my throat in a chokehold from behind. My mask works its way off my face as I kick with my legs to try to gain a hold, butthe guy is just as talented as me. He’s got training. With a small torque of my waist, I’m able to bend over and flip his heavy body off me, but he maintains a hold on my head until we end up on the ground in a wrestling match.
Eventually, I gain a lock with my legs on his while those large hands maintain their grasp around me. I’m losing air and can’t yell for Derichs, the world fading in and out from black to deadly. Leveraging him with my thighs, I flip us and finally get in guard, despite his continued squeeze on my neck. Using my elbows, I beat in his face, then dig my thumbs into his eye sockets, building up the pressure there and not letting go.
His fingers loosen their clutch on my life, and my breath comes back in small pants as he relaxes. The blood rushing through my ears slows, replaced in pulsating sonic waves by shrill screams of terror from the lady standing over us. Derichs busts in with his gun raised. Grasping the guy’s brown hair with one hand, and his jaw with the other, I push up quickly until I feel each bone in his neck pop in a neck crank. His tongue lolls out of his mouth as he groans, giving up resistance, paralyzed. Fingers threading around his windpipe, I squeeze until his eyes gouge out of their sockets, and his last breath exits his chest with a haunting, rattling gurgle.
Haven’t had to do that in a long time, but I’ve still got it. And my shoulders relax some as I realize I at least got out of that match alive.
Derichs quickly runs to the woman and clasps a hand over her mouth. “Shut the fuck up, lady.”
Standing, I look around the area for my gun. “I’ve gotthe ring.”