Chapter 8
Raider kept his eyes closed as he relaxed on the couch. Denlo paced in and out of the room constantly checking on them. While his downtime wasn’t sleep, it was a rest of sorts. Raider was bone tired, and it had nothing to do with his current lack of sleep from the time spent helping with the evacuation of unfortunate citizens. This exhaustion was a direct result of Piper’s ability to tie him up in knots. Even after the half decade since their split, he still wanted her. Wanted them.
He’d thought he’d finally gotten over her but now he knew he’d only been hiding from the truth. Judging by the speed of his reaction to her in the closet, Piper still owed his heart and the rest of him. The instant she’d kissed him, the sweet familiar taste of her had driven from his mind everything except his need to have her. Fuck, he couldn’t allow that to happen again. This was his heart he needed to protect.
Denlo came into the room again, grunted at them, and then turned to leave. He’d done it so many times, Raider recognized the sound of his walk as well as the fact that his agitation was growing worse as time went by. Denlo stressed out wasn’t something he wanted to witness. Especially since he had possession of the only gun in the house. Raider bit back a harsh chuckle as he considered the woefully insignificant knife still tucked into his boot. He muttered something about knives and gun fights under his breath as Denlo’s steps rang on the marble floor.
There was more to this whole op than met the eye. He wanted immediate answers but forced himself to be content to let things play out a little while longer.
Reality was, Denlo was the least of his worries. The guy’s lack of professional training could be used against him. The dummy didn’t really know what the hell he was doing. Yes, he had a gun, but that was the only one he’d seen, and Raider didn’t foresee that taking it from Denlo would be much of a problem. There was an element of risk involved, but after years of being a SEAL, Raider figured he had the jump on the guy in a situation involving hand-to-hand combat.
Instinctively, Raider kept his body as relaxed as possible. He needed Denlo to believe that he was sleeping and presented no threat. No need to have Denlo anymore on edge. The smell of toast reached him. The couch he’d claimed for his little nap that wasn’t a nap was in the great room just around the corner from the kitchen. Denlo must be making himself a snack. Raider had noticed he hadn’t eaten when the rest of them had, and he’d wondered. Now toast. Maybe he had a food issue? A nervous stomach that meant he couldn’t eat anything but the stuff on the brAT diet? Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. Imagine choosing against having a greasy fast food burger and fries, like the rest of them had. Pretty fucking boring, but whatever.
Wells and Baker were down the hallway in different rooms and Piper was in the primary bedroom. Denlo told her she could stay there but if she tried to exit the house he’d know about it because the house had an alarm which made a chirping sound if any door or window was opened. Piper had shot Raider a look but said nothing. She wasn’t stupid. Denlo was making shit up and not thinking it through. How clueless did he think they were? They’d all been there and walked right into the house. Not one single alarm had sounded when they’d broken in. Raider had decided Denlo was worried about losing control of the group so he was making shit up to keep them from making a break for it. In this kind of situation, the best thing to do was to remain as passive as possible, hence pretending to sleep on the couch.
The sound of a phone ringing harshed his mellow. The call was answered immediately.
“’Bout time,” Denlo snarled. There was silence and then he said, “Are you sure about the bank layout? The blueprints are wrong. Are you sure the vault is in the back corner?” Another silence. “My guy says they’re wrong. That he should be seeing stuff on the shared wall and it’s not there.” Denlo must be pacing because he heard his footsteps scuffle closer and then recede again and again.
“We have to blow the hole in some office. The explosives guy says we can’t do it at the front because it will blow the windows.” Denlo had stopped pacing. By the sound of things, he was facing away from Raider in the kitchen. It was harder to understand what he was saying.
“You said you had this all figured out. You said…” Denlo’s voice faded out. Then it was back, “police would be busy. I’m risking my neck for…” Denlo’s voice dropped again. “Fine,” he said. “But I’m telling you right now that if this all goes south, I’m not going down alone. It had better be there. I’m not breaking into any more banks looking for it. This is the last one.” Denlo must’ve hung up because the conversation was followed by a long silence.
Interesting. So Denlo had broken into more than just this bank and he hadn’t found what he was after. That fact begged the question; what is he looking for? And why do they think it is at this bank? Raider stopped to consider. It made sense. They were hitting a small bank, so likely there wasn”t a ton of cash on hand. Breaking in was really all risk with little reward. If there was something else that Denlo and others wanted, that created a much different picture. They’d broken into multiple banks for whatever they were after, so it had to be valuable. Lots of ideas came to mind, but none of them jumped to the front screaming ‘pick me.’ God, this sucked.
Another question occurred to him: if money wasn’t the target did that mean the team was getting paid from another source or not paid at all? Raider’s gut told him it was the second scenario. Denlo probably had instructions to kill them all after the job was done. Could be one of the reasons Denlo was getting so agitated. Killing someone wasn’t easy. Killing four someones with no backup was damn hard.
“Get up,” Denlo snarled from across the room.
Raider pretended he was asleep.
“Get up,” Denlo said coming closer. He kicked the couch and Raider opened his eyes like he’d been sound asleep. “Time to go.” Denlo turned on his heel and stalked out of the room, going to wake everyone else.
Raider sat up. He’d left his boots on so he didn’t have to find another place for the cell. Standing, he went down the hallway to the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He turned on the water in the sink and threw some on his face and hair, then pulled out the cell. He shot off a text to Harlan checking in and then he thought for a second and hit the call button. “Kian, did you find the guy?”
“Yeah, we got him. Wasn’t easy but me and Waylen pulled him out.”
“He’s alive?” Raider asked.
“Barely. Not sure he’s gonna make it. Dude, I don’t know what you’re involved in, but it doesn’t look good from here.”
“It’s not,” Raider agreed. He flushed the toilet and kept his voice low. “I need you to talk to Vardis, that’s his name, and get details of the job from him. I don’t have time to explain it now.”
A loud bang on the door made Raider grit his teeth.
“Get the fuck out here,” Denlo demanded.
“I’m taking a shit. Gimme a minute,” Raider shot back. He dropped his voice. “I gotta go. Get Vardis to explain everything. I’ll call if I need help.” He clicked off the call and stashed the cell in his boot, then flushed the toilet. Opening the door, he then leaned over and turned off the water.
Denlo glared at him. “What the hell were you doing in there?”
Raider cocked an eyebrow. “If I gotta explain it to you, then I think you got a problem.”
“Just go get in the fucking van.”
Raider crawled into the van and had to sit with Wells and Baker on the floor in the back. The van was stuffed with equipment for the job. Most of it was covered by a tarp so he didn’t have a visual on the explosives or any of the stuff he needed but there were some power tools and rope exposed.
Once again, the idiocy of this struck him. Piper should know better. He got that she felt responsible for Marta’s death but risking her life, and now his, wasn’t the answer. He shifted as they drove, trying to get comfortable. He was risking his freedom for this. Breaking into a bank was no small thing and with no support from the outside, no one from the ATF backing them up, it was a hell of a gamble. He glanced at Piper. What the hell was he thinking? He was risking his freedom and his life for a woman who’d kicked him out without a backward glance. And who had yet to explain why. He needed his head examined.
No…what he needed was to get out of this.
They were approaching the intersection across from the bank. Denlo snarled, “Fucking hell.” From Raider’s angle, he couldn’t see anything. He was behind Denlo’s seat, so his view was of Piper and Wells who was sitting across from him.
Baker mumbled a curse and his eyes widened. Raider nudged him and raised an eyebrow. Baker just glanced at Denlo and shook his head slightly.
“Park over there at the dentist’s office,” Denlo instructed.
Piper made a left and then another left and pulled into the lot across from the strip mall. Raider had no view, but since she kept driving so he assumed she’d gone to the other end of the parking lot before turning around and facing the strip mall.
“Fuck,” Denlo snarled again. “Okay, all of you stay here.” He turned and his head came between the two seats. “If any of you moves from this van, I will hunt you down and kill you.” He then hopped out of the van and slammed the door.
Raider waited all of fifteen seconds before saying, “What’s going on?”
Baker shifted closer to Wells. “See for yourself.”
Raider leaned forward. The entire parking lot of the strip mall was filled with emergency vehicles with their lights flashing. Cops, fire trucks, ambulances. They were all parked at varying angles, from the entrance by the convenience store and all the way down to the bank. Denlo jogged across the street and approached the convenience store.
Raider didn’t bother to hold in the laughter. “Like this job wasn’t fucked up enough already.” Jesus, what else could go wrong? “They’re using the parking lot as a staging area,” Raider said to Wells.
The other man’s eyes widened. “Shit.”
“Yeah,” Baker agreed. “This isn’t good.”
“None of this is good,” Wells blurted. “Man, I am getting real cold feet about this job. I think we should run.”
Raider tossed a glance at Piper. She looked over her shoulder and bit her lip as she met his gaze.
Baker suddenly nodded. “I’m with him. This is bad. I think we get the hell out of here. With all the confusion from the eruption, it should be easy to just disappear.”
Raider looked out through the windshield. Denlo was talking to the same clerk who’d been behind the cash register the other night. Various cops and firemen milled about in the convenience store. One of them moved over to stand next to Denlo and started talking to him.
“If we’re going, now’s the moment.” Raider looked at Piper.
She glanced back at him and then Baker. Then she gave a slight nod. Raider felt his shoulders unknot just a fraction. Piper cranked the engine and started slowly forward, heading down the parking lot away from the store. She made it almost to the street when Denlo saw them through the glass. He raced out of the store to the parking lot with the cop not far behind. Piper hit the gas and turned onto the street. She zoomed through the intersection and took a right. They continued to drive in silence for about ten minutes before Piper finally said, “Make the call.”
“What call?” Wells asked.
Raider pulled the cell out of his boot.
“You’ve got a cell?” Baker stared at him as he turned the cell on and hit re-dial.
“It’s me.”
“Me who?” the voice at the other end barked. “Wait, Raider is that you?”
“Yeah.”
“Is Piper okay?”
“Yeah.” Raider knew Chambers had always had a soft spot for Piper. He’d sensed it when he and Piper were still a couple. He didn’t worry about it at the time because John Chambers was at least ten years older with a large belly and a lot of kids. But now, the concern in his voice made Raider wonder. Maybe he should’ve worried more about Chambers.
“Where are you?” Chambers demanded.
“We’re headed out of Hilo. Where are you?”
“At a small office building about two miles down from your motel. What’s going on?” he asked.
Raider glanced at Piper. “Just give me directions and we’ll explain it all when we get there. There’s four of us.”
“You’re bringing along the other two guys?”
“Not much choice,” Raider confirmed. He listened to the directions and gave them to Piper then hung up.
“What’s going on,” Wells demanded. “Who are you two?”
Piper swung into the parking lot of an older office building and drove around back. She threw the van into park and got out. Raider reached up and opened the van door, to find three men standing there, guns out pointing in his direction. He slowly raised his hands and swung his legs out of the van. He stood. “Hey, John,” he said to the older man standing behind the line of guys.
“Raider,” Chambers replied then instructed the armed men, “Let him by.” Then he tipped his chin toward the building.
Raider followed Piper and Chambers into the building to an office space where three other agents of varying ages and nationalities were hunched over computers. None of them spared much more than a cursory glance at him, but each had a smile for Piper.
Wells and Baker were brought and put in another office. One of the agents stayed with them and the other two returned to the main room.
Chambers stared at Piper with a look on his face that told Raider the older man wanted to rip her a new asshole. But he must have recognized that now wasn’t the moment. Instead, he said, “Coffee?”
Raider nodded. Piper went over and poured them two cups from the makeshift setup in the corner of the office. She handed Raider his and then followed Chambers to a cubicle that was obviously his version of command and control. There was a laptop on the desk and papers everywhere. Although it looked chaotic, Raider could tell there was a method to the madness.
Chambers sat. “We’re trying to figure out how much money is in the bank and why these guys would target it.”
“It’s not about the money,” Raider supplied.
Piper turned and stared at him.
“I overheard Denlo on the phone earlier. They’ve broken into a couple other banks looking for something. Whoever he’s working with thinks whatever it is, it’s in this bank. Denlo’s starting to lose it. The stress is getting to him. He was threatening whoever was on the other end of the phone. He said this is his last job so what they were after had better be here.”
“Well shit,” Chambers said. “That puts a new spin on things. Collins,” Chambers bellowed. A young guy hurried around the corner. He was wearing a button-down with a pair of jeans and he looked to be in his mid-twenties. Raider stared. When had everyone gotten so damn young? The kid had been one of the agents on the computer when they’d come in, probably the computer geek of the lot. Had to be young to keep up these days. He had no idea how Waylen did it.
Chambers pointed at him. “I need a list of bank robberies here and in the whole US in the last six months. See if you can find any pattern or if anything weird sticks out.”
“On it,” the kid said and disappeared around the upholstered wall that created Chambers’ cubicle.
“What else can you tell me,” Chambers demanded.
“Not much,” Piper said. “All I know is we were supposed to rob a bank.”
“So why are you here?” Chambers asked.
She shrugged. “Denlo was starting to unravel. The whole job feels…off.”
“It’s too fast,” Raider supplied. “From what I can gather, they changed the timeline. I think they were planning on it doing a couple of weeks down the road.” He looked to Piper who nodded her agreement. “But when the volcano blew, they decided to move up the op. It’s pretty smart. All the first responders would be busy elsewhere and honestly if the bank alarm went off, it would be a second priority to getting people out of harm’s way.”
Chambers leaned back in the chair. “So why are you here?”
Piper sighed. “Because Denlo seemed to be losing it and none of us thought the job was going to work and the whole thing gave us a bad feeling.”
Chambers looked back and forth between Piper and Raider. “So what? You thought pulling the plug was a good idea? Goddammit, Piper, you jumped on a plane with no backup, got involved in this mess without approval, and now you want to just let it go? I’ve gone to the mat for you on this. You can’t just pull the plug now.”
Raider had the urge to punch Chambers. “What the hell was she supposed to do? Wasn’t like you had everything under control on your end. She’s out there on her own. It’s dangerous.”
“I thought you were there to help her,” Chambers shot back.
Raider leaned forward in his chair. “She jumped on a plane and you left her hanging out there. She had no idea what level of readiness you’re at and Denlo is starting to fall apart. The situation is volatile and, like the fucking volcano, this can blow up at any minute. She came in because she was in danger. This thing looked like it was turning south.”
Chambers’ face was a dull red. “I did the best I could within the time frame I was given. Piper never should’ve gotten on the plane, but she did, and now we’re here. She needs to go through with this so we can nail this guy and find out what the hell is really going on. This could be our only line to Marta’s killer.”
Raider couldn’t believe his ears. What a line of bullshit. He knew Chambers had put his ass on the line for Piper but telling her to go back in was just batshit crazy. He leaned forward to tell Chambers just what he thought when there was a commotion behind him. He turned to see a man in a suit arrive along with two other suited agents.
“Who the hell is that?” Raider asked.
“Tom Fielding,” Chambers grumbled as he stood and then walked out of the cubicle.
Piper watched Chambers meet and shake hands with Fielding. She met Raider’s gaze. “He’s the Assistant head of the field operations group. So Chambers’ boss’s boss’s boss.”
“What the hell is he doing here?”
Piper shrugged “No idea, but whatever’s up won’t be good.”
Raider’s stomach rolled. He’d thought he’d gotten Piper out of harm’s way and that now she’d be safe, except his gut told him, she was still in trouble. The way things were going, he might not be able to save her this time.