Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
The engine turned over with a grind of the gears.
Then nothing.
I tried again.
Another wretched grinding noise split the stillness of the night.
Knowing the men inside could either discover me gone or hear my car and come out to investigate at any moment, I resolved to try one more time before I gave up and made a run for it. The Metra train was only a few blocks from here. Useful information when you drove an unreliable car.
Then I heard it.
A gunshot.
Fuck.
Sending up one final desperate prayer, I tried the ignition again…
CHAPTER 7
VAR
When I entered the room, Mac and Anton were crowded around a small security monitor.
Staring at the gray screen, I watched as a similar team to ours breached the office.
And discovered the bodies.
Anton motioned with his hand. “Looks like we weren’t the first to the party.”
The men dressed all in black with their faces concealed trashed the office.
Mac shook his head. “Or the only ones who wanted to know what Abakar was up to.”
The tallest of the men stretched out his arm, gesturing toward a set of metal filing cabinets.
The men in question pushed the cabinets aside to expose a blank wall behind them.
I rubbed my jaw. “They’re looking for a vault. Probably want the forged paintings.”
Anton fast-forwarded the video. “Yeah, well, they didn’t find it.”
We watched the screen as the men all turned in unison, then fled.
Mac nodded. “That is when we approached.”
“Anything earlier?”
Anton raised his arm and worked the remote. “It’s not pretty.”
He rewound to when a third crew entered even earlier. They were significantly shorter than the last.
With precision, they knee-capped Abakar’s first guard, then hit the second in the shoulder.
After incapacitating his security, they started in on Abakar.
Already seeing their handiwork lying in a pool of blood in the other room, I didn’t need to know the finer details.
I turned away from the screen.
While I should be focused on the problem at hand, my first thought was thank fucking God Vivian hadn’t walked in on that mess. I didn’t even want to think what those animals would have done to an innocent, unprotected woman.
Mac turned off the screen. “My guess would be that Southside gang. Word is Abakar was skipping town with the funds from that Van Strauss auction without paying his debts.”
Where the hell did Vivian fit in with all this?
As if reading my mind, Anton turned to me. “Did you get anything out of the girl?”
An erection.
I shook my head. “Not yet. I say we bring her back to the Four Monks.”
His gaze narrowed. “Are you sure about that? As it stands right now, there is a good chance she doesn’t know who we are. If we bring her to the club, that would no longer be the case.”
Fuck. He had a point.
I knew better. I just wasn’t thinking with the right head.
Mac cut in. “Judging by the video, neither group got what they wanted.”
Anton shrugged. “Other than the bastard dead.”
Mac gestured to him. “Very true. Which is what we wanted as well, so win-win.”
Serg strolled into the room with “The Cleaner” right behind him, wheeling in two suitcases, undoubtedly filled with all sorts of caustic chemicals. “Yeah, win-win. Except for the bullshit cleanup. Did you see the size of that bastard?”
We all grimaced.
Ditching bodies was the worst, but it had to be done.
As Serg headed into the other room to deal with that, I circled the chaos of the main office. “They certainly searched every bit of this place.”
Mac surveyed the room as he kicked at a turned-over box of files. “No one can argue with how thorough they were in searching for that damn vault.”
Anton leaned against the brick wall. “But…”
I winked as I took a few steps toward the center of the room. “They always forget to check the floor.” I stamped my foot and what should have been solid cement made a hollow clang.
With the help of Anton and Mac, I rolled back the carpet to expose a massive wooden trap door.
Anton pulled out his gun and fired at the padlock. The metal splintered into three pieces.
Leaning down, Mac and I pulled the trap open to expose a narrow lower chamber filled with what looked like nine canvas-wrapped paintings, several black duffel bags filled with cash, and three leather-bound ledgers.
Anton spread his feet with his hands on his hips. “Gentlemen. I believe we’ve found Abakar’s treasure. Damn, we should have said ‘open sesame’ first.”
“It’s not open sesame. It’s ‘open says a me’.”
“What? That’s not right. It’s Arabic, not bad English with an Italian accent.”
“Sesame? It’s not a fucking everything bagel.”
Anton pulled out his phone. “I’m Googling it.”
I backed up a step. “I’ll let you two sort this out and load the trucks while I deal with the witness.”
As I turned and headed down the hall toward the side room where I’d left Vivian, Anton and Mac dealt with getting the paintings into the truck.