Grab (Letty Dobesh #3) (10 page)

"Yes, Letty."

"Even if it's dangerous?"

"Especially."

"Fast as you can, bring your Suburban over to the Wynn. I'm going to give you the phone number of a man named Isaiah. He'll tell you exactly what to do."

"What is this, Letty?"

Sure about this?

All in.

"We're robbing the casino in less than one hour. Our driver is MIA. This is your chance to step in, take his place, and earn over a million dollars for a night's work."

The
silence on the other end of the line went on and on.

She could just hear the sound of the television ble
eding through. Some violent TV show or film. A man screaming through a gag.

She said, "Christian? Y
ou there?"

"Is this for real?"

"I swear to you. Look, I hate to pressure you, but our backs are against the wall. You ever see the movie
Heat
?"

"Sure.
It's in my top ten."

"Remember when De
Niro goes to the diner and hires the black guy from the Allstate commercials to be his driver?"

"Yeah."

"Remember how it's a right then and there, in or out, yes or no proposition?"

"I do
."

"Well this is
exactly like that. I need a yes or no right now. And before you answer, I have to be straight with you. This is beyond dangerous. If it all comes off the rails, you could be killed. If we're caught, you could go to prison for a long time."

More silence.

She said, "Did I just totally call your bluff, or what?"

"You called it.
Damn. You called it. But you know what?"

"What?"

"It wasn't a bluff."

# # #

"No way."

"Isaiah—"

"No way. He's a civilian."

"So what? He knows how to drive
, doesn't he? We aren't asking him to do hostage control."

"And you've known him
how
long?"

"
I met him when I lived in Charleston. Six months."

"You gotta be kidding me.
What's he doing in Vegas?"

"He lost his family
recently. He's suicidal. Nothing to live for."

"These are selling points?"

"You want this money or not, Isaiah? How many shots come along in your lifetime to make a score like this?" Finally, a pause. She could almost hear the gears turning. Said, "It's 1:44, Isaiah. Someone's coming through that door any minute now, and you know it."

"Bringing somebody in I never worked with,
never heard of, this late in the game, this big of a job. No scanners, no radio. We'll be blind."

"What other options do we have?
It's this or walk away right now."

"You right. You right."

"So you want to walk away? Pack up all your toys and go home?"

Silence.

She said, "Am I sitting tight or coming back down?"

# # #

At 1:57 a.m., she heard the electronic chiming of the door's locking mechanism.

Her legs had gone numb ten minutes ago, a pins-and-needles sensation sparkling from her hips down to her toes.

The discomfort vanished.

The lights
flicked on.

Letty cracked the cabinet door open just a
sliver.

A
suited man with a shaved head and neatly-trimmed goatee had entered. He was built like a vending machine. Carried a MAC-10 with a long magazine and suppressor, the machine pistol dangling from a shoulder strap.

He glanced into the powder room, the massage room.

Walked past the dining table, then turned, moving toward Letty's cabinet.

She let her door close fully.

Listening as his wing-tips sunk in the plush carpet, his wool pants swishing.

She caught a whiff of
overbearing cologne.

F
inally dared to breathe again when his footsteps trailed off toward the bedroom. She lifted her phone, banged out a text to Isaiah as the man's footfalls echoed off the marble in the bathroom.

1
man just entered

doing walk through

Isaiah responded in her headset. "Copy that. Just be cool."

The man emerged from the bedroom and walked int
o the living room. He lifted the shoulder strap over his head and set the machine pistol on the glass-topped coffee table. Tugged a small radio from an inner pocket in his jacket, said, "Clear."

Thirty seconds later, that electr
onic chiming repeated.

There was enough noise as the men entered for Letty to whisper into her
microphone.

"Ize, can you hear me
?"

"Loud and clear."

She whispered, "Three, make that four men have just entered."

"In addition to the
first guy?"

"Yeah
. Five total. All armed. Shotguns. Machineguns. Pistols. And still more are coming. A whole line of them."

"
All muscle?"

"No, they're pushing
carts."

"What's on the carts?"

"Cages. Covered in wire mesh."

"O
ur money?"

She liked the sound of that.

Said, "Oh my God."

"What
?"

"I've
just never seen so much. That makes six. Six carts they rolled in here."

"Is it our money?"

"Oh yeah. And there's a shit-ton of it. Two more guards have entered."

"Seven total?"

"You guys can handle seven, right?"

The cart-pushers departed, leaving the half-dozen carts
grouped near the dining area.

The front door closed.

A man armed with a subcompact Glock took a post by the entrance.

The other six
retired to sofas in the living room.

One of them spoke into a radio, "We're in, locked down, all secure."

Letty whispered, "They're getting settled. One man is standing by the door, the other six are in the living area. Wait."

One of the men stood. He moved over to the carts
, and on top of one of them, placed a small device mounted to a tripod. It began to revolve slowly.

"What's happening?" Isaiah asked.

"Not sure yet. Stand by."

The man
pressed a button on the device, said into his radio, "Visual installed. Confirm."

As he returned to the sofa, Letty said, "
They set up a camera. It turns, takes in the entire room."

"It's okay. We planne
d for this contingency."

"So
what happens now?"

"
Sit tight."

The radio silence unnerved her. The pain in her legs was back with a vengeance. Through the crack between the door and the cabinet, she watched the guards.

Everyone black-suited. None younger than thirty, none older than forty-five.

Each exuding his own special brand of ex-military
, fucked-by-life hardness.

Two of the men chatted about an upcoming fight at Caesar's.

One just stared.

Another
took laps around the room.

She startled when Isaiah cam
e through her earpiece.

He said, "Report."

"One guard is still by the door. Five seated in the living area. One on his feet near the TV."

"
Have they been making regular trips into the bedroom or bathroom?"

"Just once."

"Are the curtains still drawn?"

"Yes."

"Perfect. How
you
feeling?"

"
Scared."

"
It's show time."

"Even with the camera
rolling?"

"Yes. When I say 'go'
, I want you to climb out of the cabinet. Let them see you. Distract them. Engage them. Just don't get yourself shot."

"How much time do you need?
"

"
Ten, maybe fifteen seconds."

Her heart rate tripled
.

S
he began to perspire.

H
eard Isaiah say, "Stu? Jerrod? Ten seconds." And then, "Letisha?"

"Yes."

"You got your head on straight for this?"

"Absolutely
."

"Becau
se the next hour is going to take a few years off your life."

"I'll bill you for the Botox."

There was a four-second pause, and then Isaiah said, "Go."

17

Letty tugged down her Barbie Halloween mask.

Her
iPhone lit up with a text as she reached for the door.

Christian:
never in my life felt so alive thank you

She nudged the door open and crawled out of the cabinet onto the carpet.

No one saw her.

She
slipped out of sight behind the bar, made herself take three deep breaths, flooding her lungs with oxygen.

She t
ried to stand but her legs were still numb. Frantically, she squeezed her calves. The tingling burn of sensation roared back.

Up
onto her feet.

G
ot her elbows on the granite bar.

For what seemed ages, nothing happened.

She couldn't see the guard by the entrance, but the six men in the living room carried on just as before.

She opened her mouth
.

The words fell out.

"What a sausage fest. Could I get any of you gentlemen a drink?"

The air
went out of the room.

Six heads turning.

The seventh guard stepping out from the entranceway with an expression of pure disbelief spreading across his face.

Three men were already on their feet, reaching for weapons, the others rising.

Someone said, "How the hell—"

Letty said, "I sort of come with the room."

The tallest, oldest of the bunch stepped forward and trained his Glock on the center of her chest.

Thank God—he was blocking the camera from seeing her.

He said, "How did you get into this room?"

"Did you not just hear me?"

"You have no idea the world of shit you have just brought down on yourself."

Letty smiled
through the mask, making sure to keep her hands visible and still.

"Worlds of
shit are all I know, dude."

She c
ouldn't be sure, but she thought she heard the faintest sound coming through the wall—something sliding across the bathroom floor.

In her ear, Isaiah
whispered through a strained voice, "Keep him talking, we're almost in."

She said, "Are you sure you don't want that drink? Gotta be honest. You
all seem a little tense."

The man glanced at the
wide-load who had been on the door.

"You were firs
t in, asshole. Where'd she come from?"

"I checked everywhere."

"Really." He came another step forward, Letty growing increasingly uneasy with that black hole of death staring her down. Wasn't the first time, but you never got used to it. The difference between you being here and not—just the smallest movement of a finger.

Isaiah said, "Letty
, get down."

She
dropped.

By the time she hit the carpet
, the lights had gone out.

Instinct drove her to cover her head with her arms.

She heard confused shouting.

Footfalls on carpet.

Bursts of suppressed sub-machinegun fire, rounds chewing through the drywall.

T
hen the sound of snapping filled the room, interspersed with the
shuck-shuck
of shotguns pumping, more snapping, men screaming.

Isaiah's voice, "Go, go, go."

Jerrod: "Hit him again."