by Zoey Parker
Even being called in at random late at night, I felt safe and secure once we passed through the gate onto the grounds of The Shadow Collective’s compound.
I was escorted into the house by a man with a shaved head and shades, despite it being almost midnight. His arms and shoulders were almost too much for his tux, and the white gloves he wore wouldn’t have left any prints if I were to be terminated. He held the door for me to enter the house and walked just in front of me on my right side.
Coyote’s office overlooked the patio and pool behind her mansion. She had marble flooring and exquisite antique lamps lighting the room. She had a dark wooden desk with a large red leather chair behind it, and two large antique arm chairs in front.
“Please, have a seat, Sierra,” she said in her cool, calculated voice.
She turned around in her chair. She wore her platinum blonde hair in a short bob cut right at her chin and a black skirt suit with a loose blouse under her jacket.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice, and so late at night,” she continued.
“What’s this about?” I asked, not wanting to waste any time when I wasn’t sure what she was putting on the table for me.
“I have another job for you,” she said with a cunning smile on her face.
“Great, but couldn’t it wait until a decent hour?” I teased. I was one of the only people on her payroll who seemed to be able to get away with it, which was good. Neither one of us would have done well otherwise.
“You know I wouldn’t have called you in here this late if it could.” Her tan eyes glittered while she talked, and I could tell that she was on to something big here.
She picked up a small remote control and pressed a button, opening a small section in the wall to my left. The bookshelves slid back to reveal a flat screen TV with a picture of a yellowish diamond on it.
“This is the Sun Stone,” she said. “Have you heard of it before?”
“I thought it was a myth,” I told her. I stared at the pictures she showed me as if they had all been doctored and edited. I knew she was about to tell me she had located its current owner, but I couldn’t believe it.
If the Sun Stone were real, it was supposed to outweigh the largest known cut and faceted diamond by several hundred carats. It was also about two hundred years older than the largest known golden diamond. The original Sun Stone was also more gold than amber or brown in color than other similar diamonds. It had been said that the Sun Stone had remained unknown for so long because it had been hidden in the hands of royalty, so there was no real record of its existence other than folk tales.
“It’s no myth,” Coyote said. “It’s right here in the city.”
I snapped my head around to stare at her. I wanted to ask if she already had it and was just calling me in to show it to me, but that wouldn’t have been the case.
“We don’t have any royalty in the city,” I argued.
“No, we don’t. As you probably know, the Sun Stone has shifted from one royal family to another over the last three or four hundred years. Its travels have both caused and prevented wars. However, it was lost about twenty years ago when a very skilled Arabian thief stole it from a member of the Saudi royal family. His story ended violently, yet discreetly, but the diamond was gone by the time his crime had caught up to him,” Coyote explained.
“So, how did it end up here?” I asked.
“I don’t know how this happened. I don’t know how this elite jewel has found its way into lower and lower hands, but the word is that Gunner Kaye has managed to secure it for himself and he has it here in the city somewhere,” she answered.
“No way!” I was incredulous. The idea that someone like Gunner Kaye, head of the motorcycle club The Immortal Devils and self-made multi-billionaire, would have the Sun Stone in his possession was just beyond all comprehension.
“Yes,” she added with a sigh, “I’m afraid it has made its way that far down over the years, but you know what I’m going to ask you to do.”
“Oh, I know exactly what you want me to do,” I told her eagerly. “You want me to get it from him and bring it to you. I know the drill, Coyote.” I couldn’t hide my excitement at the thought of infiltrating the notorious Immortal Devils and getting in with Gunner Kaye to get my hands on that diamond.
Now, that particular jewel had a history I definitely wanted to be part of. People killed to get into that storyline. It was like being given the opportunity to meet a Greek god or goddess, something that wasn’t supposed to exist in the real world.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” she cautioned me, snapping me back into reality. “This is a great opportunity for you, for us, but it’s also very dangerous, Sierra. You are to remain in almost constant contact with me to let me know you are okay. I’m going to expect regular progress updates. It’s not that I don’t trust you on this one, but I don’t trust The Immortal Devils. If things start to look like they might turn ugly, you get your ass out and call me right then.”
“Definitely,” I responded soberly. “When do I start?” I asked her.
“As soon as you make contact with Gunner and his men. They can be found at Eden, and my sources tell me they will probably be there tomorrow night.” She passed a membership card across the desk. “This will ensure your entry.”
“Thank you,” I told her, grabbing the card and turning it over in my hand. Eden was a highly exclusive nightclub open only to members and their guests. I smiled as I slid the card into my clutch purse.
“Be safe, Sierra, and use an alias. I don’t want them being able to track you down when it’s all over.” Her cold voice melted into a caring, almost motherly tone.
“Don’t worry about me,” I assured my boss. “But after this, I’m going on vacation. Somewhere sunny, with beaches and tourists instead of jewelry thieves and billionaires,” I teased.
“Definitely,” Coyote agreed.
I got up to leave as she turned around in her chair to look out the window. My escort was waiting for me outside her room, and he walked me back to the unmarked car. I was whisked away, back to my suite in the heart of the city to begin planning for the biggest job of my career. Possibly the biggest of my life.
Chapter One
Gunner
I stood in the vault in my cellar where I was keeping my newest prize, the fabled Sun Stone. I looked at it through the case in which it sat. I kept the light low enough to allow the diamond to really show off its golden glow as the light hit it.
“You’ve had an exciting adventure, haven’t you?” I asked my little golden friend. “Well, you can rest for now. Soon, you will be changing hands again, and your journey across history will continue.”
The jewel was extremely valuable, though there was no set amount anyone could agree upon. Many of the world’s wealthiest collectors listed it as priceless, simply because they had never seen it. No one knew what to expect other than a possible yellow hue. The closest valuable golden diamond was a deep, almost brown color, not truly golden like this one, and nowhere near as large. It was maybe half the size of the Sun Stone.
“Sir, your car is waiting,” one of my guards told me, stepping in through the open door of the vault.
“Yes, I’m on my way,” I said with a sigh. Then, before turning around to leave, I looked back down at my diamond and said, “It has been a pleasure. I will see you again before you leave.”
I turned to walk out, and my guards closed the door behind me. The vault sat inside several feet of solid, reinforced concrete in the middle of my cellar. There was one large metal door in the front wall of the vault. I had two specially trained guards standing on either side of the door. They were large men who didn’t need to be armed, but they were anyway, just in case. Of course, I still had them wear unassuming suits for appearances.
“I don’t think I need to remind you how precious this jewel is,” I told them as I walked past. “Remember, no one is allowed down here.” I ascended the stairs to the door leading to th
e cellar. It was concealed on the other side so that no one would know how to get downstairs except for myself and the guards I assigned there.
I crossed the marble floor of the entryway in my mansion to the front door. As I stepped down to the car that was waiting for me, I checked over my shoulders to make sure my snipers were in place on my roof. My house was heavily guarded, but I didn’t like the look of guards lingering around outside. It seemed too conspicuous, so I had a few hiding on the grounds and a few snipers in special places on my roof where they could see the majority of my property.
“Good evening, Mr. Gunner,” my driver said as I slid into the backseat of my sedan.
“Evening,” I returned his greeting.
“Eden?” he asked, double checking my destination.
“Do we ever go anywhere else?” I asked with a slight chuckle.
“No, sir. I guess you don’t.”
As he pulled away from the house and started down the drive, I looked out the window. Sometimes it struck me as absurd that I had made it all the way from the grimy streets of the city to a large estate on the outskirts of town. I had managed to take The Immortal Devils MC from drinking and fighting in bars to being a multi-billion-dollar operation, making all of the founding members billionaires. Not bad for a street kid.
Now we were in possession of the most valuable diamond in existence. I had put my men on high alert once the diamond had been delivered. We weren’t going to hold onto it for long. The longer we had it, the harder our lives would be because of the people seeking it out. No, we had already put the word out that we had it in our possession and were looking for buyers.
In the meantime, it was time to celebrate. We had gone from the dirtiest, roughest bars in town to Eden, a club open exclusively to members, and membership was expensive enough to keep out the small-time criminal element we didn’t want to deal with. We rubbed elbows with the wealthy elite and politicians these days.
Eden wasn’t the type of place where we could just roll up on our bikes and storm in like a bunch of punk street kids. We had to dress and play the part of high society to enter, even with our membership cards in hand. We didn’t mind. We only went Immortal when we had dirt to handle. Business was handled like business. And partying was handled like business as well.
We all arrived at about the same time. Five black sedans with government-black windows pulled up in a line to let each of us out. We exited our cars in our tailored suits and ties. We walked up together, five men with broad shoulders underneath suits just large enough to hide the bulging muscles we kept underneath. We dwarfed the bouncer as we each showed him our membership cards and entered.
Inside, Eden was as ritzy as the clientele. It was a cross between a high society jazz club from the 1920s and a ballroom. The place sparkled with grand chandeliers suspended over a dance floor in front of a stage that often featured jazz singers. Glitzy lights lined the walls over booths and tables draped in white cloths. The staff wore formalwear, and the patrons were treated like royalty. Hell, some of them probably were.
That wasn’t to say that the place was well-lit and garishly bright. Though the club seemed to sparkle like fine jewelry, the lighting was still dim and discreet. Not everyone in attendance wanted to be seen, except by the people they wanted to see them.
We sat at the bar along the left side and ordered our drinks. We all still drank like we were just a bunch of biker thugs on the street, each of us ordering whiskey or beer instead of some of the special cocktails they served with names none of us could pronounce.
“Here’s to success and our latest prize,” I toasted my brothers with our first drink.
I watched my Immortal brothers drink from their glasses and bottles. Duncan and Bryce drank whiskey on the rocks. Venom preferred cheap light beer. Luther always took his liquor in shots and chased it with a heavy, dark beer.
For a while, we sat and drank in silence, no one quite sure how to address our recent prize. It wasn’t an awkward, uncomfortable silence, but I sat and wondered which one would break his silence first. We all sat staring forward, and I realized as I looked into my brothers’ eyes in the mirror behind the bar that we were playing one of our oldest drinking games. Whoever spoke first had to pay the tab at the end of the night.
“Fine, I’ll be the first to talk,” Duncan said excitedly to cheers from the other three. I simply laughed as he slid his card across to the bartender.
“Paying for everyone tonight?” he asked Duncan with a smile.
“Yeah, start a tab for The Immortal Devils,” Duncan told him nonchalantly. It was cool. The bartender knew who we were.
The other three patted him on his back and thanked him for taking one for the team.
“Well, I figured we needed to start talking about what’s going on,” Duncan said.
“Yeah, I was wondering who would be first,” I told him. “But now that we’ve handled that, have we heard anything from anyone yet?”
“Nothing. It’s quiet,” Venom answered. “I don’t like it, Gunner.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got everything under control. It’s locked away somewhere safe, and no one knows where it is or how to get there,” I assured him.
“What about your guys?” Bryce asked, leaning over the bar so I could see him around everyone else.
“Don’t worry about them. Their loyalty has been bought,” I said. “Besides, I could see them fighting over it too long for anyone to actually get away with it,” I added, laughing.
“Hey, I don’t mean to be a downer here, but do you think we should be talking about this here at the bar?” Duncan asked. “I was going to suggest moving to a booth or table, something out of the way.”
“You guys can,” I told him. “I was going to suggest setting business aside tonight so we could have some fun. We’ve earned a night out.”
I turned around on the barstool and watched the powerful, rich women scouting out the room like predators. Everyone in Eden was a predator. Some were looking for a match. Others were looking for someone to overpower. It wasn’t the kind of place where someone could pick up a typical barfly. Everything that happened behind the closed front doors was about power, even for the people who were just meeting business partners.
“I think we should find a good time here tonight, gentlemen,” I told them. I turned back around and nodded for the bartender. When he approached, I handed him my card so he could give Duncan his back.
The guys looked at me like I was crazy.
“Gentlemen, we are about to increase our fortunes exponentially. Tonight is on me. Get into whatever you would like. I’ve got the tab covered,” I explained.
They didn’t linger, in case I changed my mind. They quickly dispersed throughout the club, making their rounds, looking for whatever vice would easily turn the night into a celebration. I returned my focus to the women in the club, each one a lioness in her own right. My vice was taking powerful women and making them mine for the night.
One of the reasons we frequented Eden even when there wasn’t business for us to conduct there was because of the endless supply of wealthy, powerful women who needed to be reminded of what it meant to be a woman, to be pleased like a woman.
The night was young. I watched patiently, waiting for the right one to appear. One of the problems with the exclusive membership of Eden was that there weren’t new faces very often. The best I could hope for most of the time was that a member who rarely showed up would decide to come in while I was there. Occasionally, a politician would send an aid or a secretary in on their own, and that would always be fun to watch.
I had expensive tastes, however, and the bright-eyed, star struck look of someone entering the club for the first time, discovering they were in over their head, was a turn-off. I didn’t want to be the one to corrupt one of the young, innocent assistants who were enjoying a taste of the good life. I wanted to take someone who had already been corrupted by wealth and power, and show them that there was still more to learn. Always
more to learn and explore.
I turned around and ordered another drink.
“Slow night?” the bartender asked me.
“Yes, but the night is still young,” I told him.
“That’s the spirit,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll pick up.” He poured more whiskey over fresh ice for me and handed me the glass.
I sipped and watched the people walking behind me in the reflection of the mirror behind the bar. I saw her coming. She had straight dark red hair, fair skin, red lips, and gentle green eyes. She appeared out of nowhere, parting the crowd behind me as she approached the bar. I had never seen her face before. I would have recognized it if I had. Still, she didn’t seem out of place. In fact, she had a confident look on her face, as if she owned the club.