A grinding began that made Drake wince. The iron safe scraped across broken brick and mortar, shoving it out into the street as it came. Its edges collided with the wall, loosening even more bricks, but came through as the winch started to strain. Luther jumped out and straightened the safe, seeing it though the gap.
“I hear noises inside,” he told Drake. “They’ll be through the door soon.”
The safe was dragged frustratingly slowly but inexorably toward the van.
Drake jumped into the hole it had just passed through and fired three shots into the heavy wooden door that led back toward the nightclub and Mattheus’s other rooms. A scream attested to his accuracy or his luck — it didn’t matter which at this point. The hammering sounds stilled and Drake put his back into helping the safe across the sidewalk and down onto the road.
Luther positioned flat metal ramps that ran from the lip of the van to the road. The safe scraped like a ship running aground as it bumped down onto the tarmac and then began a slow incline up the ramps.
“Still need a few minutes,” Luther said.
Drake watched the door and the street, alternating between the two. This was one of those moments when he wished more than half the team weren’t in America. Usually they had strength in numbers. Not so today.
“Hurry the fuck up,” he hissed apprehensively at the safe. “We’re about to get bludgeoned by the might of a Greek crime boss here.”
When the deep rumble shook the nightclub not everybody noticed. Alicia detected it, as did Mai and Kenzie. The guards noticed. Most of the guests partied on, but some pulled away and cocked their heads with sudden worry.
Alicia saw the curtains twitch before several guards hurried out. Already, their weapons were drawn which started a panic in those that saw them. Screams broke out and panic spread quickly, but the guards couldn’t care less. They headed for a door marked Private.
Alicia dashed back to the curtain, face distraught.
“Oh, please. What’s going on? Should we leave?”
Both guards drew their guns just as Mai and Kenzie stepped around Alicia to disarm them. The process benefited from being a surprise and took far less time than ordering a drink at the bar. The guards collapsed as the two armed women stepped around Alicia and drew back the curtain.
A wide passage led to yet another door. No guards stood before it, although Alicia guessed they probably had before the explosion. A few seconds later and they were at the door, peering through the vision panel. A room lay beyond, sumptuous, replete with gilt-edged paintings and golden light-stands, a dazzling chandelier and a full-size poker table. Three seats were occupied, two by barely clad females and the other by Mattheus himself. Alicia recognized him from the pictures they’d looked at.
Pushing through, Mai and Kenzie ran with their heads down, guns out. Three guards were standing inconspicuously around the edge of the room. Mai shot one and Kenzie another. The third dived to the floor, but Kenzie leapt atop the poker table and shot him before he could react.
Mattheus, if anything, allowed the edges of his mouth to curl in amusement. “Do you know who I am?”
“Go.” Alicia waved at both women. “Get out of here.”
Mai grabbed hold of Mattheus’s seat and spun it so that the crime boss was facing her. Kenzie ran over to watch the door and Alicia picked up a discarded weapon.
“I will not talk.” Mattheus laughed. “You will get nothing from me.”
Mai smiled, then jabbed her knuckles right between his eyes. “Stop talking, idiot. Now, give me your finger.”
“Wh… what?” Mattheus’s eyes leaked tears and his chest heaved.
“Steady on, Mai,” Alicia said.
Mai took hold of Mattheus’s wrist with an iron grip and planted it down on the table. Then she squeezed it around a fresh glass, making sure she got a good set of prints. By the time Mattheus knew what had happened the deed was done.
“I will kill you all for this.”
Mai handed Alicia the glass with care and watched as it was wrapped inside several black napkins with the name Mattheus emblazoned across the surface.
“We good?” Kenzie called from the door.
“We’re good,” Alicia said.
Mai punched Mattheus twice more and then watched him slither unceremoniously under the poker table.
“After you, girls.”
Drake waited impatiently for the safe to be loaded onto the van, then grew irritated and started pushing it from the back. Luther dragged it from the front. Drake fired three more shots into the wrecked office. Finally, the safe crossed the threshold and Luther slammed the sliding door closed.
“Go!”
Drake jumped back behind the wheel, switched on the lights and gunned the engine. The road ahead illuminated brightly, blinding him for a second and also the lone guard that was running toward them. Drake winged him with the van, ducking as a shot was fired, and heard a side window smash. Luther yelled at the back, still trying to get the safe secured to the floor bolts so that it wasn’t rattling all around the metal floor.
Drake drove up the narrow street, then switched the lights off as he reached the main road. Easing out, he turned right and drove away from the nightclub, sending Luther a look that was a mix of elation and worry.
“Just waiting for the women to call now.”
“Yeah,” the soldier said. “I sure hope Mai’s okay.”
“Alicia too,” Drake said. “Even Kenzie?”
“Yeah, yeah, them too.”
Drake proceeded toward the rendezvous point, conscious that the women should already be waiting. Four minutes later, when he pulled up, the area was entirely devoid of people.
“Shit.” He looked back toward the city streets. “I think they could be in trouble.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Alicia led the way, edging the curtain aside and peering into the nightclub’s interior. Amazingly, many figures were still dancing, although the herd had thinned. Lights continued to flash to the beat and the bar served drinks to the hardy and the foolhardy.
Alicia wiped sweat from her brow. “Idiots,” she said. “Don’t they have anywhere better to be after a shooting?”
“Guards?” Mai asked demandingly.
“Yep. Two at the right, two at the left, one by the bar. All with their fingers in their ears. It’s a bull pit of confusion right now, but pretty soon they’re gonna catch on.”
“The explosion has distracted them,” Mai surmised. “And probably fear of their boss which, perversely, is working against him right now.”
“Nobody wants to report the bad news,” Kenzie said. “I remember it well.”
“Clock’s ticking,” Mai said. “Move.”
They slid carefully out onto the dance floor, edging their way to the right where the mini-stages were set. Sparsely occupied now, Alicia could see the sweat glistening on the silver poles, spattering the floor and a whole gallery of different brand bottles lying around — lipstick encrusted, peeled, some even broken with jagged edges sticking straight up.
Several men and women danced to their left, moving with more abandon now they had more room. The bar staff stood around looking bored. Only a bouncer, stationed close to the exit, saw them approach.
“We gotta get outta here,” Alicia drawled, trying her best to appear nine-tenths drunk. “It’s been a long night.”