Bitter Bite

by Jennifer Estep

  “Don’t you dare die before Silvio and I get into the bank,” he whispered.

  I grinned. “Never.”

  I kissed him again, then got onto the ledge and took hold of the second handle. On the opposite roof, Bria waved her hand, urging me to hurry.

  “And away we go,” I whispered, and pushed off from the ledge.

  For a moment, I had the freeing, utterly weightless sensation of being suspended in midair. Then gravity took over, dragging me down the way it always did. The wind whipped around my face, making my ponytail slap against my shoulders, and I had the sudden urge to laugh. Despite the situation, despite the danger Finn was in, despite the fact that I could fall to my death, this was still fun.

  Three seconds later, I was over the bank roof. I softened my knees, let go of the handle, and rolled to a stop, coming up into a low crouch.

  Bria helped me to my feet. “Are you okay?”

  “Yep. You?”

  “I’m fine.” Her stomach rumbled ominously. “Except for a sudden urge to throw up.”

  “Don’t worry. It’ll pass.”

  I went over, pressed my hand against the wall where the grappling hook was, and used my Stone magic to crack the hook out of the wall. Then I took the hook and the attached zipline, walked over to the edge of the roof, and dropped the whole thing over the side. I gave Silvio a thumbs-up, and he started hauling in the zipline and hook.

  It didn’t take long, and he signaled me when he was done. Then he and Owen disappeared from view to get into position in front of the bank. They were going to park down the street in Silvio’s car and monitor things from there until I needed them for phase two of my plan. I didn’t want to make it down to the bank lobby only to find that Deirdre had brought in more reinforcements through the front door.

  But first, Bria and I had to get through the door in front of us.

  Most people didn’t bother to secure the doors and windows above the first two floors of their homes and offices, but Stuart Mosley and the other folks at First Trust were far more cautious than most. They had to be, given all the millions in cash, jewelry, bonds, and more stored inside. Normally, the two security cameras mounted over the access door would have been swiveling around in constant circles, covering every single part of the roof, and a faint hum would have been emanating from the door itself, since it was electrified.

  But the cameras were frozen in place, with no red lights flashing on them, and the only sound was the wind continually gusting across the roof. So I made a ball of slushy Ice and threw it at the door. When no sparks flew, I went over to the door and peered at the high-end lock embedded in the metal. I also rattled the knob, just in case someone had left it unlocked, but of course, my luck could never be that good.

  “Um, Gin?” Bria asked. “Do you see those security cameras pointed right at you?”

  “Yep.”

  She frowned. “And you’re not worried that Deirdre’s spotted us already on the feed?”

  “If you were taking over a bank and planning to pick it clean, what’s the first thing you would do after you got inside?”

  She thought about it. “Disable the security system and erase all the footage.”

  I shot my thumb and forefinger at her. “Bingo. Deirdre doesn’t want any record that she was ever here, and she doesn’t want to accidentally trip any alarms getting into the cash cages or the basement vault. That’s why the cameras are down, along with the rest of the security system. She doesn’t realize it, but she’s made it a whole lot easier for us to get inside.”

  I looked at the lock again. I didn’t want to waste precious time picking it, so I reached for my Ice magic, ready to freeze and shatter the lock—

  And that’s when the dead bolt clicked free, and the door started opening.

  Bria dashed around the corner and out of sight, but I didn’t have time to do that, so I ended up darting behind the door and hoping that whoever was opening it wouldn’t think to look behind it.

  A giant dressed in a gray bank guard’s uniform strode through the door and took several steps out onto the roof. I held my hands up, catching the door before it slammed into my face, then peered around the edge of it. The guard looked around, his hand dropping to his black leather utility belt, as if he were going for the gun holstered there. I palmed a knife and tensed, ready to move. But instead of reaching for his weapon, the giant grabbed the walkie-talkie off his belt, hit a button on the side, and brought the device up to his lips.

  “The roof is secure. You want me to hang out up here or come back down and help the other guys with the cash cages while you work on the vault?” the guy asked, then let go of the button and waited for a response.

  Static crackled out of the walkie-talkie. “I’ve got the vault covered, and Ralph and the others are cutting through the cages right now. Stay up there. I don’t want anyone trying to get in here from any angle, not even the roof.”

  That was Santos’s voice. So he had men working in the lobby, but he was down in the basement vault. That’s where Deirdre would be too, and most likely Finn.

  The guy sighed and pressed the button on the walkie-talkie again. “Roger that. Call me when you need me.”

  “Roger that,” Santos replied.

  The guy sighed again, louder and deeper, disappointed that he wasn’t in on the action down in the lobby. He holstered his walkie-talkie and turned to close the access door behind him.

  Right where I was waiting.

  His eyes bulged, but he didn’t even have time to scream before I stepped up and sliced my knife across his throat. The giant clutched both hands to the vicious wound, trying to put pressure on the gaping hole, even as his legs slid out from under him and he toppled to the ground.

  “I’ll take that,” I said, bending down and plucking the walkie-talkie off his belt.

  The guy coughed, but that was the only noise he made as he bled out. I turned the walkie-talkie back on, hoping to hear some chatter from Santos and his crew, but the device remained silent. They were probably too busy breaking into the vault and the cash cages to talk right now. Good. That meant that no one would miss this guard for several minutes, if not longer. I turned off the walkie and slid it into one of the pockets on my vest.

  Bria stepped out from behind the corner, gun in hand. “What now?”

  “Now we go down into the belly of the beast.” I held my hand out, gesturing at the dark corridor that led into the bank. “Ladies first.”

  She nodded, raised her weapon, and stepped through the door into the shadows.

  Bloody knife in hand, I followed her.

  We were in.

  25

  First Trust bank was housed in an old prewar building, so it wasn’t nearly as tall as the modern skyscrapers that made up the downtown skyline. But it took up the entire block, which meant that there was a lot of ground to cover.

  The fire stairs were wide enough for Bria and me to creep down side by side. I stopped at every floor, but the doors were all locked, and I didn’t hear any movements on the other sides, much less see anyone through the narrow strips of glass in the doors. No one was working up here in the offices, and Santos hadn’t bothered to station any guards on the higher floors. Excellent.

  Bria and I quietly went down the stairs to the second floor. Once we were on the landing there, I leaned over the side of the railing and peered down. Sure enough, a guard was stationed in the stairwell on the first floor, leaning against the open door, thumbing through screens on his phone, totally bored by his assignment.

  I motioned to Bria to draw back, then made two Ice picks and unlocked the door on the second-floor landing. I winced at the snick of the door opening, and Bria and I scooted through to the other side and eased the door shut behind us. We flattened ourselves against the wall, out of sight of the strip of glass in the door, and waited, but the guard didn’t come to investigate.

  “We’re stuck,” Bria said. “We can’t get past that guard without letting everyone in the lobby k
now that we’re here.”

  “Yes, we can. We just have to be a little more creative. This way.”

  The second floor was mostly offices and cubicles, reserved for some of the investment bankers and their assistants or rented out to real-estate and other companies that had extensive dealings with the bank. I stopped a moment, orienting myself, then went over to the opposite side of the building, pushed through a wooden door, and stopped. Bria slipped in behind me and looked around at the urinals, stalls, and sinks.

  “Um, Gin?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What are we doing in the men’s bathroom?”

  “Making our own elevator shaft.”

  Bria gave me a strange look, but she followed me to the back corner of the bathroom.

  “I spent a lot of time studying the bank’s blueprints when I was trying to figure out how to mock-kill Finn here. All the bathrooms are located on this side of the building, stacked right on top of each other, which means that we’re directly above the men’s bathroom on the first floor,” I said. “Someplace that Santos isn’t likely to be, since he’s down in the basement vault. So we get through the floor here, and we can get down to the lobby. After that, we’ll see what’s what and go from there.”

  Bria nodded. “Let’s do it.”

  We both knelt down. The floor was the same beautiful gray marble as in the lobby, but it wasn’t nearly as thick and had been cordoned off into three-foot squares fitted together. I reached for my Stone magic, and a cold silver light flared to life on the tip of my right index finger, burning as brightly and steadily as a blow torch. I leaned forward and traced my finger along the marble seams, using my power to crack the stone.

  Bria came along right behind me, her finger glowing an intense blue with her own magic, driving her elemental Ice down into the cracks that I’d created and widening them.

  We repeated the process over and over, cracking the marble with our combined magic until we were able to hook our fingers down into the broken stone and start lifting out chunks of the floor. We worked quickly and quietly, careful not to crack too much of the marble at once. The last thing we needed was for a piece of stone to fall down, hit the floor below, and make enough noise for someone to come check on things.

  It took us the better part of fifteen minutes to make a jagged hole that was big enough for us to drop through. I went first, with Bria behind me. We landed on the bathroom floor below, raised our weapons, and waited, wondering if anyone had heard or sensed our magical jackhammers, but a minute passed, then two, then three, and no one came to investigate.

  I had taken a step toward the bathroom door when a smear of red on the floor caught my eye. I stopped and pointed to the stain, which was in front of the largest stall door. Bria nodded and raised her gun. I tiptoed forward and opened the stall door.

  A giant was inside, his knees tucked up under his body and his arm flung over the toilet as though he were about to puke. The pose was so natural that for a second, I thought he was actually alive. Then I noticed his empty, sightless gaze and the black hole in his forehead still oozing blood. Given his gray uniform, he must have been one of the real guards, killed when Santos and his crew had taken over the bank.

  Bria tiptoed forward and eased open the next stall door, then the one after that and the one after that. Bodies filled all of them, stacked on top of one another like rolls of toilet paper. There were six in total, all dressed in guard uniforms.

  Santos must have eliminated the real guards first thing, so none of them would make any trouble or trip a silent alarm while the heist went down. Then he’d replaced them with his own crew, dressed in the uniforms that Dimitri had gotten them, so the folks from the armored-truck company wouldn’t know the difference as they handed over all the exhibit jewelry. Smart. And brutal.

  There was nothing I could do for the dead guards. I just hoped that Finn hadn’t met the same fate, but I shoved the cold worry down into the bottom of my heart. I wouldn’t think like that. I couldn’t let myself think like that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to do what needed to be done now.

  Killing Santos, Deirdre, and every other person who stood between us and Finn.

  Bria pressed her lips together in a tight line, as disgusted by the slaughter as I was. She nodded at me, and together we crept over to the bathroom door, which I cracked open. The bathroom was on the far right side of the bank, down a hallway that opened into the lobby. Faint sounds drifted over to me, but I didn’t see anyone, and I slipped out of the bathroom and crept down the hallway, with Bria right behind me.

  The sounds grew louder the closer we got to the end of the hallway. Men shouting back and forth. The steady whine of a power saw. The hissing of a welding torch.

  I reached the end of the hallway, dropped into a crouch, and peered around the corner, Bria hunkered down right beside me. Six men, all dressed in guard uniforms, stood in the bank lobby. One of the men was stationed at the fire stairs, same as before, while the other five were behind the tellers’ counter.

  A second man was using a power saw to cut through the silverstone bars that covered one of the cash cages, while a third guy was doing the same with a welding torch on another cage. The third and final cage was already open, and three men were moving in and out of it, hauling out shrink-wrapped bricks of cash and stuffing them into black duffel bags sitting on the tellers’ counter.

  The cash was a great score all on its own, easily millions of dollars. But none of the men was Santos, which meant that he was downstairs in the basement vault, just as I’d suspected.

  I memorized the guards’ positions and the distances between them, adjusting my plan. Then I nodded at Bria, and we slipped down the hallway and back into the bathroom.

  I raised my cell phone. “Time to call in our distraction.”

  I hit a number on the speed dial, and Owen picked up on the first ring. “Update?” he asked in a tense voice.

  “Bria and I are in the first-floor bathroom, watching some guys cut their way into the cash cages. No Santos, no Deirdre, and no Finn in the lobby, which means they must be down in the basement vault. Here’s what I need you guys to do.”

  Owen put me on speaker so he and Silvio could both listen to me. They agreed to my plan, although Silvio insisted that we all synchronize our watches so that we would be in perfect time. I rolled my eyes, but he had a point, and I set my watch to match his. So did Bria.

  Once that was done, I put my phone away, grabbed the walkie-talkie I’d taken from the roof guard, and turned it on. But the thieves were all busy, and nothing but static sounded, so I clicked off the walkie and left it on the sink.

  Bria and I slipped out of the bathroom and back into the hallway. The thieves were still in the same positions as before, with one man by the stairs and the other five working on the cash cages.

  I checked my watch. “In five, four, three, two, one . . .”

  An emphatic knock sounded, hard enough to rattle the glass in the front doors. “Hey! You in there! I need to make a deposit! Immediately!”

  Silvio’s voice boomed through the lobby, and the vampire himself was cupping a hand around his eyes and peering in through the glass. A briefcase dangled from his other hand.

  The giant guard who was stationed outside the bank stepped up beside him. “Sir, I already told you that you need to leave—now. The bank isn’t open.”

  “Not open? Not open? I can see exactly how open you are! Look at all those guys inside!” Silvio pointed in through the glass, then whipped around to the outside guard. “Surely one of them can take my deposit. I demand to be let in right this very second. Do you know who I am? I am a very important person who works for an even more important person.”

  His voice got louder and higher with every word, drawing the attention of all the robbers inside the bank. Even the guys with the power saw and the welding torch cranked down their tools to lower settings, raised their masks, and stared at him.

  “My boss knows your boss. So I suggest tha
t you let me inside, buddy. Right now.” Silvio stabbed his finger into the other man’s chest. “Or the only thing you’ll be guarding is a school crosswalk. And that’s if you’re lucky.”

  I glanced at Bria, who was grinning as widely as I was. Who knew that Silvio could do self-important pain-in-the-ass so well? I’d have to tease him about it later.

  “Well?” Silvio sniped again, his voice booming even louder than before. “Do I need to call my boss and have her call your boss?”

  That was the last thing the thieves wanted, especially when it would be far easier to lure Silvio into the bank and kill him. So the outside guard unlocked the front doors, while the one stationed by the fire stairs hurried that way, with all the men at the cash cages staring in that direction. A perfect distraction, just like I’d wanted.

  “Go,” I whispered to Bria.

  Keeping low, she left the hallway and darted out into the lobby, ducking behind a desk that was sitting between the front doors and the tellers’ counter. The second she was in position, I hurried over to and crouched down behind another desk, this one right at the end of the tellers’ counter.

  I peered around the corner of the desk, but the five guys in front of the cash cages were still focused on Silvio and the commotion he was making, and none of them had noticed Bria and me move. I flashed my sister a thumbs-up, which she returned.

  Silvio stormed into the lobby, walking fast and putting some distance between himself and the two giants coming up behind him. The vampire looked around, his gaze locking onto the guys holding the power saw and the welder’s torch. Both tools were still churning and burning at a low, steady level.

  “What is this?” Silvio asked, throwing one hand up into the air. “No one told me that you were doing construction today. Ugh. I’ll come back later.”

  He turned to leave, but the two giants blocked his path.

  “Sorry, pal,” one of the giants said with a sneer, his hand dropping to the gun holstered to his belt. “You wanted inside, so you’re going to stay inside—permanently.”

  Silvio shook his head. “You really don’t want to threaten me. You see, my boss takes threats to her employees very seriously. Some might even say deadly seriously.”