Page 8 of Raider Unleashed

Piper jumped but cranked the wheel. She’d gotten maybe three hours of sleep when Denlo pounded on her door and said they had to go back out again. Did that mean Raider had been directing traffic all night? Probably. That would be him. Always up for helping out. Always staying until the bitter end whereas she would cut and run as fast as possible.

Denlo growled, “You almost missed the turn. Are you fucking even paying attention?”

She didn’t bother to reply to his shouted question but tried to concentrate on her driving, banishing all thoughts of her ex-husband. There would be time enough to think of him when this job was over. She’d lain awake for many nights thinking of him and what she’d done to him, to them. Her callous, abrupt behavior, and worse, his uncomprehending response, would always haunt her.

The silence in the van was tense for the next ten minutes until she pulled into the motel parking lot and parked. Everyone got out of the van.

“Meet in her room,” he pointed toward Piper.

Dread filled her. She’d hoped to go into her room and hide. She’d been totally thrown due to how long they’d been inside the store and with Raider right there, she’d felt so exposed. He’d know. He’d know she was working, and he’d start wondering about it.

They took up the same seats they’d had the previous day. Piper leaned against the wall just down from the table. Denlo pulled out his cell and sent off a text.

Baker spoke. “Look, I know you want to do this, Denlo, I mean I know the boss wants to do this, but we can’t without an explosives guy. The plans you’ve given me are all wrong. They don’t match up to what I’m seeing. I can’t just randomly break down the wall or come through the floor. We’ve double-checked it now. There’s no way. There’s no way forward without an explosives guy.”

Denlo sat with his arms crossed over his chest. “I don’t see why you can’t just make a hole in the wall?”

Baker shook his head. “I explained when we were in the store. The walls are reinforced. I don’t have the tools to break it down and even if I did, it would be really fucking loud not to mention it would take a long fucking time and the whole building would shake.”

“That can’t happen,” Wells declared. “If the building shakes then the mechanisms on the safe will lock down and there’s no way I can open it. It would require a whole system reset and the only people who can do that are bank security. They can’t even do it immediately. They have to fly some guy in with codes and some sort of tool to do it. It would take a few days. The door to the safe can’t vibrate that much. I told you that before.”

Denlo stared at the two men. “If you’re making this shit up?—”

“No way, man.” Wells held up his hands, palms toward Denlo. “I told you this at the beginning. The only way this job goes off is if we have a good explosives expert. He’s gotta have a light touch. The floor’s gotta blow without shaking the door to the vault.”

Denlo’s phone went off. He grabbed it off the table and stood up, walking to the other side of the room. “Yeah,” he said and then listened. “No, it can’t be done. The plans aren’t right and they’re saying they can’t just bust in. It would make the vault door vibrate which would put the whole system on lockdown.”

Piper bit her lip. She glanced at Wells and Baker. They looked at her and then each other. She was sure the other two men had the same sinking feeling she did.

Denlo was turned away from them, facing the window. It was early morning, but it wasn’t obvious thanks to the falling ash which turned the world gray. Denlo was reflected in the glass. He said something but dropped his voice low so she couldn’t make it out. Her body tensed when his hand moved for the butt of the gun stashed in his waistband.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said.

She strained to hear more.

“It’ll be messy. I’ll need help.”

Adrenaline rushed through her veins, escalating her heart rate. Denlo was going to kill them all. What the hell? How was she gonna get out of this one?

She bit her bottom lip. There was a way out. One she never thought she’d ever use but it wasn’t like she had a choice. Just the thought of it had her breaking out in hives. She didn’t want to do it but she wanted to live. Right now, she figured the chances were eighty percent against her survival but if she could work her magic those odds went up to at least fifty-fifty. Still, it was going to be a huge fucking mess and if she did survive, the fall-out would be massive.

Denlo clicked off the call and turned around. He had his gun out of his waistband and down by his side. “We’re gonna take a drive,” he said and gestured toward the door with the gun.

“I— I might know someone.” Piper hated the tremor in her voice. She reined in her galloping heart and spoke again with more confidence. “An explosives expert.”

Denlo glared at her. “And you’re just coming up with this now?”

“Look, my job is to drive, not supply labor for the gig. I figured you handled that but if it means we’re not gonna get paid then I guess I can call a guy.”

Denlo came over and aggressively intruded into her personal space. “What guy?”

“The guy from the store yesterday. Like I told you, he’s an ex of mine. We’ve done shit together before. He’s an explosives guy. Learned it in the military. He could help us if you give him a decent cut.”

Denlo raised his chin. “You said he didn’t know anything.”

Piper tried to play it cool. She shrugged. “He doesn’t… about this job. We haven’t seen each other in a while.”

Denlo stepped closer to Piper. “Awfully fucking convenient that suddenly you know an explosives guy and you bump into him in the store.” He brought his gun up and tapped the barrel on her chest. “Maybe you’re a cop. Maybe that’s why it’s so fucking convenient.”

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