AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The blueprint in his focus was for the basement of Circus Circus. In fact, all the floors of Circus Circus were represented in blueprint on this pool table. And a schematic for their vault door.
Harridan had said these were petty thieves, picking pockets and swiping chip trays. A nuisance crew. He’d said they had visions of being a real-lifeOcean’s 11, but he’d said it with a sneer. He hadn’t suggested they could be looking to pull an actual professional heist.
Was that hubris? Or had Harridan seriously undersold the threat these dudes posed?
“Safe!” Geno called from the shadows. “Big one. Kai, get over here.”
“Nothing here but bullshit,” Zach said, coming up on Cooper’s left. “What’s all this?”
Cooper moved his light so it shone on the legend at the bottom of the blueprint. Then he pulled the schematic over.
“Fuck! They’re planning to hit thevault? I thought these dudes were small time.”
“That’s what Sheriff Redneck said.”
“Do you think they’re biting off more than they can eat? Or is Harridan fucking with us?”
“I just asked myself exactly those questions,” Cooper replied. “I don’t know.”
“Boss, you need to see this,” Kai said.
Cooper closed his eyes. That wasn’t a sentence that ended with anything good. Kai wasn’t over there sayingyou need to see this gorgeous chickorthis huge pile of free moneyorthis pristine 1955 shovelhead. Something was wrong.
With a weary sigh, he turned and headed in the direction of Kai’s voice. Zach followed.
Kai was standing before a large safe. Not a casino vault, of course, but a good five feet tall and about half that deep and wide. Empty, the fucker had to weigh upwards of thousand pounds. If it wasn’t empty, then there was probably something of serious value in it.
“Will it burn?” he asked, steeling himself for an answer he wouldn’t like.
“All safes will burn,” Kai said. “Fireproof just means it’ll take longer. But I don’t think I need to burn it. You see that lock?” He focused his flashlight so Cooper could see the elaborate combination lock.
“Yeah. What about it?”
“This is a Nationwide eleven cubic foot safe with a basic dial combination lock. It’s exactly the same safe we have in the tribal office, and I can break that fucker in twenty seconds.”
Oh. That was better than a gorgeous chick or a vintage Harley. It might in fact be a great big pile of money. “What are you standing here yakking at me for, then?”
Kai grinned and crouched before the safe. He pulled a kit from his kutte and called out, quietly but enough to carry, “Shut the fuck up, everybody.”
All the Bulls went quiet and made their way over to watch Kai work.
Cooper timed him. At twenty-three seconds, they all heard the lock disengage, and five Bulls made various silent gestures of excitement. Even Ben almost smiled.
Kai opened the door, and they all froze.
Diamonds. The safe was full of fucking diamonds. Cut and uncut, loose and in jewelry settings. Cooper leaned in to get a better look.
Actually, the top three shelves were diamonds, the other shelves were assorted colored stones and one shelf of gold jewelry.
“Did they jack a jewelry store?” Zach asked. “That would’ve made the news, wouldn’t it?”
“Uh-uh,” Geno said, rifling through the trays. “It’s not one job. These are all different settings, different tags. Some of this stuff is vintage.” He picked up one elaborate necklace and put his light behind some of the stones. “Can’t say for sure without a loupe, but I’d lay down a decent bet that this is zirconia. I think these are all bits from a bunch of different jobs. It’s a total jumble of good stuff and crap. They didn’t know what they had and what they didn’t. It’s like they grabbed whatever they could and hoped for the best.”
“Why the fuck would they hold on to it?” Ben asked. “What good’s it doin’ ‘em in a safe?”
Cooper thought he knew, and he enjoyed having a decent answer that Ben did not. “They’re saving up for something.”
“Yeah,” Geno agreed. “That’s my guess, too. They crossed the wrong guy and owe big, and they’re putting the payment together.”
