Hunt

“The Birth of Venus.” I walked up to the wall. “It’s gone.”

West left the window. “The birth of who?”

“Shit.” Griff rushed to the stairs. “That wasn’t actually the cops.”

Phoenix sneered. “That fucking bitch.”

Well. . .Pandora has a new crew to do her bidding.

West frowned. “Man, did we hide in that cave for nothing?”

We could have opened the door and killed those assholes.

Phoenix scanned the space. “Not a bad idea on their part. Screaming that you’re the police is better than any gun.”

“Thieves stealing from thieves. That shit always pisses me off.” West shook his head. “I’m going to kill that bitch.”

“Doesn’t matter.” I rushed upstairs. “Get whatever you can and pack. Quin should be here soon.”

Griff yelled from upstairs. “Sons of bitches! They took my bag of money!”

Damn it.

“Check your room. Change your clothes if you can.” I got to the top of the stairs. “Pack any of your shit that’s still here!”

I stormed through the wide, empty hallway and then stopped. “Hold up.”

No. Tell me they didn’t.

I took a step back toward the stairs and surveyed the hallway. The large, heavy statues of gods and goddesses had been pulled off their pedestals and dragged out of there. The dust on the ground left a trail.

I grinned. “They stole the statues.”

West met me in the hallway. “They really did a good job of cleaning the place.”

I shook my head. “Jokes on them. Those statues were worth nothing.”

“They’re a bunch of idiots.” Phoenix passed us. “That’s why they were her second choice.”

Phoenix was right. The thieves didn’t have a knowledge of art. They spotted shiny objects and things carved in marble. Instantly, they assumed wealth due to those same objects being in a beautiful, big house.

Meanwhile they missed the ancient Chinese vases in the corners, the French clock further down, and all the Persian rugs on the floor.

“I’m glad they’re idiots.” West rushed to his room. “It will be easier to find and kill them.”

“Let’s hope so.” I headed off and entered the bedroom. The whole space was in disarray. My duffle bag of guns and knives were now empty. My portion of the money I had in there was all gone too.

I should have cut Pandora open on the kitchen floor this morning. I’ll take that as a lesson.

To my surprise, Phoenix began laying out a pair of jeans and a long sleeve black shirt for me. It was exactly what I would have put on for this night. She placed her outfit next to it—jeans and a hooded long sleeve black shirt.

My heart warmed. “Thanks.”

“No problem. I heard you yell that we had to change.” Phoenix picked up clothes off the floor and stuffed them into our duffle bags. “They didn’t take everything. Dr. Fuzzy is still here at least, but that bitch grabbed all my designer shoes.”

Rage filled me. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine.” Phoenix’s face held rage. “I’ll straighten her out about that later.”

I went to my other duffle bag. “They grabbed my knives too.”

“We’ll fix her moron team up also.” Phoenix let out a dark laugh. “It won’t be nothing but a little bit of straightening.”

I lowered to the floor and checked under the bed. “Well. . .at least they missed my heist bags.”

“Heist bags?”

I yanked out two heavy duffle bags and unzipped them. “Gloves, a roll of cash, rope, guns, flashlights, lock picks, and other things.”

Phoenix stopped packing, came over to me, and peered in. “What’s that right there?”

“A diamond-tipped coring drill.”

“For what?”

“Boring smooth holes through the thick concrete of a building foundation, elevator shaft, or even a bank vault.”

“Have you used it before?”

“Some of our earlier strip club jobs had big safes in the back.” I picked up the roofing hammer. “And I use this to rip through drywall, stucco, and shingles. Sometimes a job calls for it.”

She pointed. “And that screwdriver jimmies open windows and doors?”

“Exactly.” I dropped the hammer back in. “Put on the gloves just in case real cops come later. We don’t need more of our prints everywhere.”

She grabbed a pair of black plastic ones. “Maybe, we should wipe the place down.”

“I doubt we have the time. Whether the police come or not, Pandora has a head start on the getting the key.”

“At least her crew is moving marble right now and securing the other stuff there. That will delay them. Then, they’ll rush to search for the key.”

“You think so?”

“If she was smart, her and these guys would have went for the key, but she wanted to teach us a lesson.” Phoenix went back to the clothes. “She fucked up by coming back with those dudes for revenge. In fact, maybe she brought them here to kill us. That would keep us away from the storage.”

“We’ll beat them to it.” I put on the gloves. “I’m sorry about your shoes.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to Pandora about it.” Her face remained blank. I got the feeling that she would really tear into Pandora.