Page 18 of Raider Unleashed

Interesting.So Denlo had broken into more than just this bank and he hadn’t found what he was after. That fact begged the question; what is he looking for? And why do they think itis at this bank? Raider stopped to consider. It made sense. They were hitting a small bank, so likely there wasn't a ton of cash on hand. Breaking in was really all risk with little reward. If there was something else that Denlo and others wanted, that created a much different picture. They’d broken into multiple banks for whatever they were after, so it had to be valuable. Lots of ideas came to mind, but none of them jumped to the front screaming ‘pick me.’ God, this sucked.

Another question occurred to him: if money wasn’t the target did that mean the team was getting paid from another source or not paid at all? Raider’s gut told him it was the second scenario. Denlo probably had instructions to kill them all after the job was done. Could be one of the reasons Denlo was getting so agitated. Killing someone wasn’t easy. Killing four someones with no backup was damn hard.

“Get up,” Denlo snarled from across the room.

Raider pretended he was asleep.

“Get up,” Denlo said coming closer. He kicked the couch and Raider opened his eyes like he’d been sound asleep. “Time to go.” Denlo turned on his heel and stalked out of the room, going to wake everyone else.

Raider sat up. He’d left his boots on so he didn’t have to find another place for the cell. Standing, he went down the hallway to the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He turned on the water in the sink and threw some on his face and hair, then pulled out the cell. He shot off a text to Harlan checking in and then he thought for a second and hit the call button. “Kian, did you find the guy?”

“Yeah, we got him. Wasn’t easy but me and Waylen pulled him out.”

“He’s alive?” Raider asked.

“Barely. Not sure he’s gonna make it. Dude, I don’t know what you’re involved in, but it doesn’t look good from here.”

“It’s not,” Raider agreed. He flushed the toilet and kept his voice low. “I need you to talk to Vardis, that’s his name, and get details of the job from him. I don’t have time to explain it now.”

A loud bang on the door made Raider grit his teeth.

“Get the fuck out here,” Denlo demanded.

“I’m taking a shit. Gimme a minute,” Raider shot back. He dropped his voice. “I gotta go. Get Vardis to explain everything. I’ll call if I need help.” He clicked off the call and stashed the cell in his boot, then flushed the toilet. Opening the door, he then leaned over and turned off the water.

Denlo glared at him. “What the hell were you doing in there?”

Raider cocked an eyebrow. “If I gotta explain it to you, then I think you got a problem.”

“Just go get in the fucking van.”

Raider crawled into the van and had to sit with Wells and Baker on the floor in the back. The van was stuffed with equipment for the job. Most of it was covered by a tarp so he didn’t have a visual on the explosives or any of the stuff he needed but there were some power tools and rope exposed.

Once again, the idiocy of this struck him. Piper should know better. He got that she felt responsible for Marta’s death but risking her life, and now his, wasn’t the answer. He shifted as they drove, trying to get comfortable. He was risking his freedom for this. Breaking into a bank was no small thing and with no support from the outside, no one from the ATF backing them up, it was a hell of a gamble. He glanced at Piper. What the hell was he thinking? He was risking his freedom and his life for a woman who’d kicked him out without a backward glance. And who had yet to explain why. He needed his head examined.

No…what he needed was to get out of this.

They were approaching the intersection across from the bank. Denlo snarled, “Fucking hell.” From Raider’s angle, hecouldn’t see anything. He was behind Denlo’s seat, so his view was of Piper and Wells who was sitting across from him.

Baker mumbled a curse and his eyes widened. Raider nudged him and raised an eyebrow. Baker just glanced at Denlo and shook his head slightly.

“Park over there at the dentist’s office,” Denlo instructed.

Piper made a left and then another left and pulled into the lot across from the strip mall. Raider had no view, but since she kept driving so he assumed she’d gone to the other end of the parking lot before turning around and facing the strip mall.

“Fuck,” Denlo snarled again. “Okay, all of you stay here.” He turned and his head came between the two seats. “If any of you moves from this van, I will hunt you down and kill you.” He then hopped out of the van and slammed the door.

Raider waited all of fifteen seconds before saying, “What’s going on?”

Baker shifted closer to Wells. “See for yourself.”

Raider leaned forward. The entire parking lot of the strip mall was filled with emergency vehicles with their lights flashing. Cops, fire trucks, ambulances. They were all parked at varying angles, from the entrance by the convenience store and all the way down to the bank. Denlo jogged across the street and approached the convenience store.

Raider didn’t bother to hold in the laughter. “Like this job wasn’t fucked up enough already.” Jesus, what else could go wrong? “They’re using the parking lot as a staging area,” Raider said to Wells.

The other man’s eyes widened. “Shit.”

“Yeah,” Baker agreed. “This isn’t good.”

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