by Zoey Parker
He was going to go into that vault to find that I had betrayed him, but he had to know it was coming. He had to know that I had been trying to set him up the whole time. I had used sex to get in, and once I was in, it was only a matter of time before everything else got set into motion. I couldn’t allow myself to feel too bad because Gunner had to be smart enough to see some shit like that coming.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had done something horrible by screwing him over.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Gunner
My feeling of dread increased the closer I got to the house. I just knew that I was going to pull up to find something terrible had happened while I was in the meeting with the guys at the clubhouse. When I pulled up, everything looked normal at first. There was a vibe, though, that I picked up as soon as I passed through the gate. I tried to chalk it up to paranoia, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was some kind of panic in the house.
I didn’t park the bike in the garage. Instead, I stopped at the front door and hopped off. I hoped everything was okay so that I could go ahead with my plan to finally get rid of Sierra, like I should have done as soon as we finished sleeping together that first night.
“Mr. Kaye!” One of my guards was shouting from the front door. He had his gun drawn. Something had gone down while I was at the meeting.
I hurried up the stairs and followed him into the house.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I saw the broken window in the living room with several armed guards standing around it to watch the new entrance and exit.
“We’ve got quite a situation here, Mr. Kaye,” my guard said.
“Call me Gunner, and drop the mister shit,” I told him. “Where’s Sierra?”
“She’s gone, sir,” he said efficiently.
“Let me guess. She took the diamond with her,” I said, exasperated.
“I’m sorry?” He didn’t know about the diamond.
“Dammit, man,” I cursed.
I walked hurriedly to the kitchen, to the hidden panel leading downstairs to the cellar and the vault.
“Whoa! What is that?” I took a step back and covered my nose and mouth.
“Someone set off a chloroform bomb downstairs,” he told me. “I haven’t been down there yet.”
“Come on, man. Grab a couple of gas masks from the fucking pool house and let’s go downstairs, dipshit,” I snapped.
“Yes, sir.” His boots crunched on the glass as he walked through the now-open window to get outside.
I stood in the doorway to my kitchen and stared at the open door leading to the cellar. I knew what that open door meant. It meant I was too late. She had already stolen the damn Sun Stone for Coyote. She was probably halfway to Coyote’s hideout by now. It meant I was an idiot who had fallen for a piece of ass and dropped my guard, losing three billion dollars! It meant that my security had been violated, and that every jackass who worked for me was going to be fired when this was settled.
It also meant it was time to find where Coyote’s hideout was and track her down to get the diamond, or Sierra, or both, back. I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid, but damn, she was good in bed. I regretted every minute of it, though.
My reputation was going to be irreparably damaged by this fiasco, and that was the hardest part of the whole thing to swallow. This meant that some girl got one over on me by sleeping with me a handful of times and rocking my world. Oh, I was done with women after this, I vowed.
“Where the hell is my gas mask?” I called out.
“Right here, sir,” a muffled voice said next to me. It was my guard with his gas mask on.
I snatched mine out of his hand and put it on over my head. We walked downstairs into the cellar. He had his gun drawn, and I just had a gas mask.
“This bomb was strong enough that I’m surprised she didn’t get herself, too,” I said. “I can smell it through the mask, and I know it’s dissipated some since she set it off.”
“Definitely,” my guard agreed.
He rushed over and checked on the passed out guards to make sure they were breathing and alive.
“They’re okay,” I told him as I walked into the vault through the open door. I could already tell that the Sun Stone was gone. Its glass case had been knocked over and lay shattered on the vault floor. The podium sat with nothing on top of it.
“Want to help me get them upstairs?” the guard asked behind me.
“Yeah,” I answered absently.
I was staring at a missed opportunity to make three billion dollars. I was staring at a symbol of being duped by some chick. That was really all she was. She was just another girl, like all the rest, except that Sierra Farrow was really good at what she did.
“She got the diamond,” I told my guard as I walked out to help him lift one of the guards and carry him up the stairs.
“I figured she did,” he said, “but once we get these guys upstairs, they might be able to tell us exactly how it went down.”
“Sure,” I agreed. I didn’t give a rat’s ass one way or the other. I could have already told him exactly what had happened. Sierra had broken the back window to distract the staffers who guarded the hidden door. Then, she had tossed her chloroform bomb into the cellar. It leaked out enough to knock them out pretty quickly, and she went in behind them to steal the Sun Stone right out from underneath me while I was at the damn meeting where the guys were telling me exactly who she was and what she was up to.
I helped drag both of the guards upstairs where my staffers started working to revive them. I didn’t need to hang around to let them tell me what I already knew.
“Look, I’m going to go ahead and start working on getting the diamond back and finding Sierra,” I told the guard who had helped me.
“Okay,” he said.
“If they have any special insight other than the fact that she used a chloroform bomb to knock them out, call me. Otherwise, I’m handling it.”
I turned to leave and pulled my phone out. I called Duncan.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Are you guys still at the clubhouse?” I asked.
“You know we are, man. We weren’t going to go anywhere until we heard back from you,” he answered.
“Good. I’m on my way back out there. Make sure everyone is ready. We’re going after Coyote and Sierra.”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” he said. “She got the diamond?”
“She sure did, while we were talking about it at the meeting,” I told him.
“Hey, I’m sorry, brother.”
“It’s not your fault, Duncan. I was just too cocky, and it bit me right on the ass. We should have hidden it somewhere safer, but now it’s time to track her down and get it back.”
I could hear Luther in the background asking it was time to get Immortal.
“Tell the Stone it’s time to get Immortal,” I said, laughing as I said it. I didn’t like the idea of letting the guys get nasty with Sierra involved, but if the idea of breaking out some of our old tactics lit a fire underneath all of our asses, it definitely wasn’t a bad thing.
“Do we need to get some of our street members in?” Duncan asked.
“No, we should be able to handle this on our own.” I stood next to my bike while we talked.
“Look, we’re talking about Coyote. Let me get a couple of guys like Luther out here with us, okay? We might need a little more muscle, a couple of guys who don’t mind raising a little hell and hurting somebody when it needs to be done.”
“Whatever you think needs to be done, Duncan. I’m hopping on my bike right now.” I hung up the phone and stuffed it into my pocket. Other than my colors, I was still wearing the clothes I’d worn when I took the thief out to eat.
I couldn’t think of anything better to be wearing when we caught her ass and took the diamond back.
###
Sierra
Once again, I was escorted to Coyote’s office by one of her security
officers. I never noticed how similar Gunner’s mansion was to hers until coming back in there after spending so much time at his. They were very similar in design, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d had the same architects and crews working on them.
She was beaming when I entered her office. She quickly waved off her guard and told him to close the door when I entered.
“Do you have it?” she asked immediately after the door closed.
“It’s right here,” I told her, pulling it out of my bag again to show her.
I held the Sun Stone up for her to see it. It was more beautiful every time I looked at it.
Some of the stories said that it was cursed because it brought greed with it everywhere it went. Anyone who possessed it faced countless troubles as greed drew people to the diamond. There were almost constant challenges to face while the Sun Stone was in someone’s possession.
I could already feel myself being drawn into it. Its story lured me in. I even caught myself admiring its beauty, and I didn’t really care much for jewelry. Cold, hard cash was much more attractive to me than sparkly gems. I could use money to get the things I wanted and needed for myself.
I supposed gems could be used in much the same way, but they had to be sold to be converted into real money, and I hated that part of the deal. I wanted the money up front, no extra steps involved. That was what I liked about working for Coyote. I got paid as soon as I turned the jewels over. I rarely had to wait.
“Can I hold it?” she asked, and I could already hear it in her voice. The diamond was already starting to work on her.
“Please do,” I told her. “Get it off my hands. I can’t hold onto it any longer.”
I passed it across the desk to her. She held both of her hands out, and I put the gem down in her palms.
Coyote held it up to the light and looked through it.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said in awe.
“It is, but I’m more intrigued by its story,” I told her.
“Yes, its story is a lot like yours, isn’t it?” She chuckled.
It shocked me that she had drawn that conclusion as well.
“Oh, don’t look so shocked, Sierra. The whole reason I sent you after it was because I knew you would be attracted to it. I knew it would call out to you, making it nearly impossible for you not to get it.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Don’t lie to me. Don’t tell me you don’t feel it calling to you, even now, even with it in my hands instead of yours. You do, don’t you? It wants to tell you its story, Sierra. That’s why it keeps moving from person to person. It wants to have a bigger story than any other gem out there. That’s where its weight comes from. It’s not the size of the Sun Stone, it’s the story that it contains.”
I saw what they meant about the effect it had on people. I could see it in Coyote’s wild, obsessed eyes and hear it in her voice.
“I sent you after it because, just like you, the diamond has moved around almost non-stop for its entire existence. It never sits still for long. It has to pass to another owner. And when it doesn’t, it calls out to people like you, Sierra, people who can understand it. I can feel it.”
Her brow furrowed, and she looked at me with a strange look in her eyes. It was a troubled, concerned look.
“It wants to go back to you.”
“What the hell are you going on about, Coyote? You have the damn Sun Stone. Now pay me. I have to get out of here before this thing makes me sick,” I told her.
“No,” she said, almost dreamily. “I can’t pay you. The diamond is telling me it wants you to have it, Sierra. Can you hear what it’s telling me? Can you feel it pulling towards you?” She held the diamond out towards me as she talked.
I took a step back.
“That’s fine, Coyote. Just pay me, and I don’t care what you do with the diamond after that.”
“No, I really can’t do that, Sierra. I need to put this diamond up somewhere safe before it finds a way to end up with you again. It says that you are a kindred spirit, and that it feels like it could finally settle down if it were in your hands.”
“What the hell?” I started laughing. What she was saying made no damn sense what so ever. “Coyote, listen to yourself. You’re telling me that diamond is talking to you.”
“You know you felt it when you held it.”
What was really crazy was that I had felt it. I had felt it ever since I set my eyes on it. When I grabbed it, it felt like it was trying to thank me for finally finding it. That was one of the reasons I was ready to get rid of it.
Coyote opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out a gun.
“What’s the gun for, Coyote?” I asked nervously.
“It’s to keep you from trying to get my diamond, Sierra.” She pointed the gun at me, and I found myself staring down the barrel of a revolver.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked her. “All I need you to do is pay me, and I’ll be out of your hair after that,” I told her, trying to keep my voice calm and level.
“No, Sierra, I don’t think I can do that anymore. I think what I’d rather do is eliminate you. See, now that you’ve touched the diamond, you’ve created two problems.”
“You’re holding the diamond. What problems could you possibly have right now?” I asked her.
“It’s simple, really. First, the diamond has told me it likes you better.”
Okay, I realized right about then that my boss was bat shit crazy and that all the stories about how the Sun Stone would do that to whoever held it were true. I was glad I had given it to her, but I was not glad to have a gun in my face because of what it was doing to her.
“Second, and this is actually going to be the hard one to face,” Coyote continued, “Gunner and his men are going to be after you. The diamond tells me that he’s not going to come for it. It says it knows Gunner will take the diamond back if it’s still here where he can get to it, but that he’s coming for you no matter what. I can’t have that, Sierra.”
“Coyote, listen to yourself,” I pleaded. “You’re talking about talking diamonds and the leader of a motorcycle gang who wants the diamond, not me.”
She shook her head and laughed. She had started holding the diamond up to her ear.
“The diamond says he’s in love with you, Sierra. Did you not know that?”
“So, what, it makes you clairvoyant now?” I mocked her. I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but I really didn’t think she was going to shoot me.
“No, but it sure is a talkative little thing. It’s telling me that he’s already on his way. How did you miss that he was falling for you? I mean, it had to be obvious, Sierra. Oh, wait, it also says that you’re in love with Gunner. It’s telling me that it wants you to know that it will be happy for you if you can at least be with Gunner, even if you can’t have the diamond. That’s sweet, isn’t it?” she asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I told her, holding my hands up so she could see I wasn’t doing anything.
“The diamond isn’t talking, you idiot. I had someone watching you.” Her tone suddenly sharpened, and she looked at me with her hard, focused eyes.
She pulled the hammer back and cocked the gun in my face, and suddenly, I felt like she might actually shoot me. I hoped she was right about Gunner being on his way.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I stared at Coyote’s gun. I could see the bullets in the chambers of the revolver. I could see her finger on the trigger, resting but ready to squeeze at any moment and bring our conversation to an end.
The conversation was already over in my opinion. It ended the moment she cocked the hammer back. I couldn’t believe I was being crossed by my boss like this. Regardless of whatever reason she could come up with, I felt like she had been planning this moment for a lot longer.
She stood in front of me in a dark suit jacket and skirt. Her body stood straight and narrow, stiff as a board. She looked at me with sharp, cunning eyes.
She had always seemed controlling and sort of above everything around her, but in that moment, when I let my eyes drift away from the barrel to her face, I saw a cold, hard killer.
I had underestimated Coyote all these years. I knew she wasn’t afraid to make the hard decisions, the dirty decisions. She wasn’t afraid to have her people do all sorts of despicable things to her enemies. But I never imagined that she could any of them herself.
In her other hand, she held the Sun Stone. She had played on my knowledge of the diamond’s story by pretending to hear it talking. She knew I couldn’t resist the stories some of our most valuable prizes had brought with them. This diamond was no different since its stories were as grand as its price tag.