Adamant Spirits, page 181
I needed to chill, but it was difficult. I was about to commit my first crime and having this thing in my ear always caught me off guard. I was not cut out for this criminal life.
“I’m working on the cameras and lights by the safe right now,” Tink added.
“So, when will they—” My mouth snapped shut as an onslaught of guards rushed past us toward the front of the house, snarls on their lips.
“Just set off the fireworks,” Tinker said. The sound of popping gum filled the comm. I imagined her sitting in a hotel room somewhere above us, blowing bright pink bubbles with her gum. “No one is around the vaults. Which is perfect, because I’ve nearly hacked the main door open. Hurry your asses up. We won’t have much time before someone notices that the cameras are on a loop.”
Less than a minute later, we stood before the massive metal doors that reminded me of a submarine portal. My gaze swept the ceiling, and right away, I caught the cameras.
“Those are looped too. Only I can see you guys,” Tinker commented. “No one in the security room has noticed yet, but that’s because the show on the floor is so spectacular. They will notice eventually.”
“How close are you to breaking open the door?” Robin asked when Tinker fell silent.
“Almost . . . there!”
A click of metal met my ears, and we rushed forward. We entered a long gray hallway. Vaults lined the walls on both sides of us, and the scent of cold metal infiltrated my nose.
“Most of what you’re looking at are decoy safes,” Tinker said. “Judging by the digital activity that logs the opening and closing the doors, they only use a few on the right to store their money. Then they do a mass extraction and transport a lot of it to a bank. But not all. Some safes are rarely opened.”
That sounded reasonable, and it tracked with what I knew about the vampires liking to keep a small fortune on hand.
“Go right until you come across a blinking red light. That’s the safe I’m trying to crack. But that’s just the outer shell. They’re also protected by old-fashioned locks inside. That shit is all you, Munchie.”
We moved right, searching for the red blinking light, and found it halfway down the hall. After we were in position, it took Tinker less than a minute to crack the safe she had zeroed in on.
“I’ll get to work on the next one,” she said with obvious pride. “If you guys have time, you can loot them both.”
Munchie opened the door. Because the hallway was tight, and everyone wanted to see the safe, we were squished close together. Robin brushed against me, and my body lit up in a way that made it impossible to repress a shiver.
“You all right, Mar?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.
“Fine . . . it’s nerves,” I replied, trying not to dwell too much on how he affected me.
“Quiet, you two,” Munchie hissed. He had his ear pressed close to the manual locking mechanism. A faint series of clicks filled the vault as he turned the dial. Sherwood and Jehanne insisted on installing two locks per safe—one electronic, one manual. That they put more trust in the manual ones as the last line of defense didn’t surprise me. Most vampires didn’t completely trust technology, particularly old vamps.
Munchie was still working to crack the final lock, when down the hall, another safe clicked open. Tinker was on a roll.
“Will, go crack the second lock,” Robin whispered, trying not to distract Munchie.
Will followed orders, disappearing from our side.
The second he left; Munchie snorted. “If it’s taking me this long, he won’t be able to get it. Will can only open baby safes.”
This long? We’d barely been in the vault for a minute. I didn’t think that was long at all, but the comment conveyed important information. Munchie had already expected to be done by now.
We’re supposed to be in and out in five minutes . . .
A frenzy built inside me, only to be interrupted by Munchie a few seconds later. “Got the bastard.” He pulled the safe door back.
I peered inside and gasped. The piles of money in front of me could support me for years.
“Nice work, Munch. Mar and I have got this, go help Will.”
Munchie dashed down the hall, leaving Robin and I alone for the first time that night.
A part of me wanted to inch away from him, but I knew that was stupid. Time was precious, and the penalty for getting caught would be prison. Or, if the vampires chose not to involve the police, death. It wouldn’t be the first time vampires took justice into their own hands.
And yet, despite the danger we’d put ourselves in, I was very aware that I’d never felt more alive.
“Let’s get this done.” Robin stepped into the floor-to-ceiling safe and began undoing his employee vest and button-up shirt. A sliver of his fox tattoo appeared, then the whole damned mouth-watering expanse of Robin’s chest.
For a moment, I froze. Then I remembered we’d had our casino employee outfits altered to suit our needs. The lining in the vests, shirts, and even the bottoms of the pants contained compression pouches to carry cash.
I followed his lead.
“These look like Benjamins. Pull from this stack,” Robin placed the first stack of bills in his pouch.
I moved over to where he stood and began filling my pouches quickly. I was as exposed as Robin and wanted to cover myself back up.
“Even in this light, I can tell you’re beet red,” Robin muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, Mar.” He shrugged. “Don’t be sloppy because you’re trying to be all modest. Make sure the bills lay flat in the pouches. We have a thin margin of error.”
I didn’t respond. Even though it annoyed me that he acted like my cleavage didn’t attract him, he was right. There was no time for me to get butt hurt. Especially when I’d been the one to reject him.
My mind is so messed up. I need to get away from him so I can think straight.
Once we filled all the pouches in our outfits, Robin and I exited the vault and shut it softly. We got halfway to the next vault when Munchie and Will burst out and shut the door behind them.
“We’re all full,” Will said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Thank goodness.
We whirled around and ran down the metal-lined hallway. No one had caused a commotion on the comm, which meant that miraculously, no one had suspected anything. The guards were still occupied with the front of the house. Somehow, we’d pulled it off.
A thrill ran through me. I wanted to whoop. I wanted to throw my hands in the air. I wanted to dance down the hallway.
But first, I had to get the hell out of the Oasis. Once we were outside, the getaway car would be waiting. Only then were we home free.
I put on a burst of speed. I was moving so fast, and the joy that ran through me was so strong, that when I caught the scent of cotton balls, I almost didn’t notice. As it was, I stopped short only feet before the gang reached the entry to the vault. My blood froze as the scent registered and my joy came crashing down.
“What the heck, Mar?” Robin asked, his eyes wide. “We’re on a time crunch here. What’s—”
Sherwood strode around the corner, a wall of wolf-shifters at his back.
“Hello, Marian. It’s about time we had a talk.”
Twelve
Sherwood ordered his wolf minions to bring us to the dingy sub-basement of the casino. I’d never been down there before, and it didn’t take long to deduce why.
The space was lit with harsh fluorescent lights that illuminated the blood spatter on the floor. The only furniture to speak of were god-awful smelling buckets and chains that lay on the stone ground. I shivered. This was nothing like the hotel and casino above. Sherwood wouldn’t even want employees to know about this place. It was where he brought those who displeased him, who backstabbed him.
A vampire’s torture chamber. Fabulous, I thought as wolves relieved us of our stacks of cash and shackled our feet to the wall with thick iron cuffs. Once we were immobile, many of the wolves left the room with the cash, but three remained.
The brawny assholes prowled before us in their wolf aspect, deterring us from shifting and trying to escape. As if that was even necessary. We were tied to a wall and an ancient, very powerful vampire was in the room. Should he want to, Sherwood could kill us all in seconds.
Who was I kidding? Of course, he wanted to kill us. We’d tried to rob him. It was only a matter of time before he busted out his fangs.
“Now that you’re settled in, let’s have a chat,” Sherwood paced in front of us. “I have to say, this was a well thought out plan, but clearly not foolproof. Irregular trails were left, and I’ve been around a long time. I’ve learned to pay close attention to the smallest of irregularities.”
His eyes snapped to me, and my stomach dropped. Trails? The only thing that had been left was the letter in his penthouse. Had he found it already? Had I blown my chance to incriminate him?
“How did you discover that we were here?” I blurted out.
A million questions ran through my mind, but one resonated as the most important because it concerned the Merry Men in the casino too. Had their distractions failed, and he’d already captured them as well? Were they in jail? Escaped? Could we hope for a rescue?
Sherwood chuckled. “That bimbo Anna will stop at nothing to rise in the ranks of the Oasis. She told Albus that she’d seen you in disguise. Something about your hair.”
My hand landed on the bobby pins, once again askew on the top of my head. My stomach sank. I’d gone to such great lengths to disguise myself, but of course Anna would zone in on the single aspect of my appearance that she’d always snubbed.
Sherwood arched an eyebrow. “I’ll admit, at first, I thought her claims far-fetched, but Albus vouched for her. He scented foxes in the halls. Not you, Marian, but another fox. That assurance was enough to make me return from the Diamond early. After all, two foxes are suspicious. We all know how rare your type is in Vegas.”
“Because of you,” I spat.
“Moi?” Sherwood placed a hand on his chest.
“Did I stutter?”
Sherwood’s eyes latched onto mine before he turned to the wolves. “Leave us. Wait outside the door.”
As they couldn’t speak in wolf form, one tilted his head to the side, like a confused dog.
“Do as I say,” the vampire commanded.
I blinked, not sure where this was going. Two weaponless fox-shifters and two bird-shifters weren’t a threat against an ancient vampire—even if we shifted. But still . . . why dismiss his guards?
The door slammed shut as the wolves left, and Sherwood turned to me. “I wondered what your motive was, Marian. Truth be told, you’ve always been such a pliant employee that it shocked me to hear you were attempting to rob the Oasis.” His gaze shifted to Robin. “Someone has been telling tales. Stories that were better left forgotten.”
I sneered. “How dare you kill my parents and then hire me to traipse around your hotel like you did nothing wrong? That’s low, even for a heartless bloodsucker.”
Sherwood held up a hand. “My dear Marian. Do you forget the state you were in when you arrived at my hotel five years ago? You positively blubbered through your interview.” He shook his head as if I were the most pitiable creature in the world.
That pissed me off so much that I began to tremble. My fox wanted out. She wanted to fight the vampire, to tear him to pieces. Of course, she’d never win against him, but she didn’t care.
“Of course, I recognized you that day,” Sherwood continued. “Who couldn’t? You look just like your mother, and in beauty, you are second to only one other fox.” His eyes flashed to Robin. Horror welled up in me. He had to have found the letter if he knew that Robin was the son of his ex-lover. What had I done? What would Sherwood do to Robin?
“It might have been a touch tasteless of me to hire you.” A sheepish expression crossed the vampire’s face. “But I’ve always had a soft spot for foxes. And you were so pathetic that I truly wanted to help you out. Think of it as my form of penance, if you will.”
“Penance my ass! You should be in jail!” I shouted.
“True, many times over.” My boss gripped his hands behind his back and paced in front of us.
None of us said a word. I wasn’t sure that I could; I was seething.
“Marian, Marian, Marian.” Sherwood stopped to stand in front of me. “I truly tried to take care of you. At the pleasure house, you would have fetched a high price. It would have been far superior to washing dirty sheets. I kept hoping you’d come around, that you’d see I only had your best interest at heart, but . . .” He shrugged. “I suppose this was one of those instances in which modernism holds women back, just as much as it helps them.”
I spat on his Italian leather shoe.
Sherwood glanced down at the spittle, disgust washing over his face before he smoothed his features into an unreadable mask. “Not that it matters any longer. None of you are leaving this room alive.”
I stiffened, rationale taking over my fury for the first time since our capture. My mind flipped through escape scenarios. We had no weapons. They had chained us to the wall. Shifting would get us out of the chains, but without weapons to kill Sherwood, we’d be dead in a second. And then there were the wolves outside the door.
“Let Marian go,” Robin blurted out. “I got her into this. I should be the one who’s punished.”
Sherwood’s lips lifted slightly. “And why would I do that? As long as she’s in the city, she’s a threat.”
Robin’s mouth flattened. “I have enough money so that Mar can leave Vegas and never come back.”
“That would only get her out of my sight, not out of mind.”
“Please,” Robin’s voice cracked, “if you ever loved my mother, do this for me. My life is nothing, but Marian . . . she’s the love of my life—like my mother was yours.”
My heart stopped at Robin’s declaration, and I tore my eyes from Sherwood.
“The love of your life?” I squeaked, unable to stop myself even though this seriously was not the time. “How can you even say that? We didn’t speak for years, Robin.”
Robin shook his head. “I wanted to call you every day, but I had a lot of growing to do to be good enough for you. Honestly, I don’t think I’m there yet, but I’m better . . . I no longer think only about myself.”
Sherwood lifted a finger as if he’d had an epiphany. “You’re the fox I’ve heard about, aren’t you? The equalizer of men? The bane of the one percent.” He cupped his hands as if begging. “Robin Hood, the fox who robs from the rich to give to the poor. No wonder you slipped into my hotel so easily.”
Sherwood shook his head, and although his tone indicated disdain, he looked rather impressed. “You know, had we met when I was building my fortune, I would have hired you. In fact, I could still have use for a thief of your skills. Interested?”
Robin’s chin jutted out in defiance. “When we take a job, we give most of it away and invest the rest in ethical companies or non-profits we believe in. I expect that would not make us ideal business partners.”
My heart stopped. What was he talking about?
“People always have a price,” Sherwood quipped.
“Not me,” Robin growled. “I only steal from those who have stolen before—whether they get caught or not.”
I sucked in a breath as realization washed over me. “You only steal from bad guys,” I whispered. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Robin’s eyes fell to the floor. “I don’t know, Mar. Like you said, a thief is still a thief. I guess I wanted to spend more time with you first, so you’d fall in love with me again. Or at least, that’s what I hoped would happen. Obviously, it didn’t work out.”
My heart ached because he was so wrong. I wanted to deny it, even to myself, but what was the point now? We were surely seconds from death and lying to myself hadn’t done me much good as of late. It was time to come clean, to give us both a shining moment before the vampire tore us to pieces. “I love you Robin, I always have.”
His eyes lit up, but before I could truly enjoy the moment, Sherwood cut it short by opening his damned mouth.
“How touching. True love found again. Unfortunately, you have little time to savor it, for I will have to decline Hood’s offer. Sorry, Marian, there’s too great a chance that you’ll return to Vegas and stake me.”
If only I had a weapon, I’d happily end him right then and there. My fingers itched for a bow and arrow, and an image of me shooting Sherwood with a silver-tipped arrow arose in my mind.
My eyes popped open wide.
A silver arrow. Oh, my god.
My hand flew to where my necklace lay hidden beneath the uniform. My fingers grazed the silver arrow pendant. Would something so small work? Or did the silver have to puncture his heart like a dagger?
Surely not, if he banned all silver from the Oasis, right?
Either way, I had to try. As far as I could tell, my tiny silver pendant was our only chance.
“No!” I blurted. “I won’t betray you! I’ll give you what you want and I’ll take a blood oath.”
Munchie and Will gasped. From the corner of my eye, I saw Robin stiffen. But it was Sherwood’s reaction, the way his lips curled up, that gave me hope.
“An interesting proposition,” the vampire’s posh accent drawled. “What would you be promising?”
“Nothing!” Robin’s shout made my heart seize. “Take me. She won’t come back, I promise!” Hysteria seeped into his voice.
It appeared he feared a blood oath with a vampire even more than death. I totally agreed. At that very moment, fear arrowed through my heart, making it hard to breathe. But I couldn’t let that show . . . not now, not when I was so close.
“I’m a grown woman, Robin. You can’t stop me,” I said.
“Yes, she is, and apparently a newly formidable one at that.” Sherwood moved to stand in front of me. “Now, as you were saying, Marian. What would you promise me in return for your life?”
