Code Name Heist (Jameson Force Security 3)

By the time I reach the door, Sin already has it open and has slipped inside.

Without pause, I move past the office door to the exterior exit. With a quick flick of the small knife in my hand, I reach up and cut the alarm wire. I push on the bar that opens the door and just as smoothly, Neal’s hand reaches in from the outside to hand me a nylon bag. I turn away without a word and slip into Brandis’ office, closing the door and locking it behind me.

It has taken less than thirty seconds for this to go down.

At this exact moment, I imagine Jason Brandis is out in front of his nightclub having a meltdown of epic proportions because the Mercedes G550 he loves so much is now a raging inferno thanks to the tiny explosive I’d rolled under his car. It should keep him occupied far longer than what we need.

Sin is already at the safe, attaching an auto-dialer to the lock. She looks affronted to be using technology when her lock manipulation skills are the best in the business. But we need to be as fast as possible and this particular safe was poorly designed. It needs to be cracked by technology instead of her dexterous hands, so that’s the method we decided on.

I watch the second hand on my watch, and she has the safe open in about twenty seconds.

Sin gives a low whistle as she peers inside.

Stacks of sterling-pound notes are neatly bundled. William had told us that he estimated Brandis had close to five-hundred-thousand pounds in the safe, the byproduct of the bustling drug business he runs out of the club.

I had wondered why Mercier would bother robbing a lowlife drug dealer for that amount. Don’t get me wrong… it’s a lot of money. But Mercier doesn’t need it.

William never gave me a good reason, but I suspected it wasn’t the amount of the money as much as it was the actual person we were robbing. There’s no way Brandis is going to report this theft to the police because he would never be able to explain having that amount of money on hand in his nightclub. It’s almost like a victimless crime, which is the perfect opportunity for Mercier to test how well we do as a group.

Sin snaps her fingers, and I toss the nylon bag to her. I keep myself positioned at the door as she starts to fill the bag. When she’s done doing that, there are still a few bundles left in the safe. Grinning, Sin hikes her dress up over the fake belly she’s wearing, then unzips the side of it. She starts stuffing more cash in there. When the safe is empty, she closes it and re-engages the lock. After she straightens, she pulls her dress down and gives me a sly wink.

I wink back.

It’s at that moment I hear a key slide into the lock of the door, and I realize our plan is going off the rails. I quickly move to the side, so the door will hide me when it opens. There’s nowhere for Sin to hide, so she swiftly kicks the nylon bag under Brandis’ desk as the door opens.

She manages to put her hand on her hip and strike a sexy pose, but that pregnant belly throws it all off.

Brandis steps into the office. He has the door halfway shut behind him before he even notices Sin.

“What in the bloody hell are you doing in my office?” he explodes, his face turning red.

I’m prepared to take the man down, but then the door slides open once more, and the barrel of a gun comes through first. I freeze, thinking it’s one of the security guards, but then, in an almost slow-motion-like fashion, I realize it’s Neal walking in unbeknownst to Brandis. In one fluid move, Neal manages to shut the office door and put the gun to the back of Brandis’ head. And he fucking pulls the trigger.

Blood and brain matter explode outward, some of it catching Sin along the right side of her arm. She gasps as Brandis hits the floor. Lunging at Neal, I grab his wrist and bring it down hard as my knee drives upward to meet it. The bones in his wrist crack audibly and the gun falls away, leaving Neal shrieking in agony.

“What the fuck did you do that for?” he screams, cradling his wrist. I bend over and pick up the gun, shoving it down into the back of my waistband. I stare in dismay at Brandis’ dead body and then over at Sin, whose skin has paled considerably.

I whirl on Neal. “What in the hell have you done?”

Neal grunts. “I was saving both of you.”

“You didn’t have to kill him,” I growl as I move over to the electronic system that monitors the security for the club. The cameras are all set to record onto a DVD player, and I pop the disc out so there’s no evidence of the three of us in this nightclub. After I break it in half, I shove it into my pocket.