Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(63)

Core got to him, lifted an elbow and slammed it full force into his sternum.

The man grunted, flew back and nearly went down.

After he righted himself, Core got in his face.

“When I said I was point, it wasn’t a fucking suggestion,” he snarled.

The man stared at him, fear in his eyes, a bonus to being known as an Angel of Death.

Core didn’t waste any more time.

He led them to a back door, slid it open, then they were inside.

“We’re in,” he whispered to The Nerd, though The Nerd knew this considering they were tracking heat signatures.

Proof of that: the automated voice came back.

“Leader in office. Two in the basement playing a videogame. One in bedroom three, apparently asleep. Out.”

He heard the disconnect.

He took the earbuds out of his ears, shoved them in his pocket and looked to the men.

He pointed at three of them, gave them two fingers, then pointed to the floor, after which he made motions with his hands like he had a game controller.

They moved out.

He pointed at two more, then up, giving them one finger then three, to indicate one man in bedroom three.

They took off.

The other two he gave a nod, extended his forefinger upwards to indicate they were dealing with one man, then he moved with them following him.

They hit the ground floor office swiftly and with zero hesitation, Core first.

The man behind the desk took one look at the three coming in and reached for a gun lying close at hand.

But Core was already there. He’d pulled his knife out of the scabbard at his belt and rammed it through the man’s hand, pinning it to the wood of the desk.

One of his crew had already positioned behind the guy, so he had a rag shoved in his mouth to muffle the scream.

He also held the guy down in his chair.

Not that he was going anywhere with his hand stuck to the desk.

The last guy took the bungee cords loped around his shoulder and made light work of tying the guy to the chair.

Good.

So these fuckers might be gung ho, but when shit needed to get done, they were on it.

Calmly, Core moved to one of the chairs angled in front of the desk.

He folded in, rested against the back, and looked into the man’s eyes.

And then, quietly, he said, “Right. This is how it’s gonna go.”





The thumb he was pressing to the sensor turned it from blue to green.

He dropped the thumb, and the hand, arm and body attached to it thudded to the ground.

He shoved the gadget into the port at the side of the keypad. The light on it showed red, then green.

“Hit it,” he said.

His earbuds were back in.

The Nerd got on it.

The keypad above the sensor lit up, then scrambled. It went dark with only the number one illuminated, another scramble, then number six, and this went on through numbers eight, nine, five, a repeat of five, and last, seven.

A click was heard.

“You’re in,” the voice said in his ear.

Core pulled down the latch, opened the door and triggered a light that came on inside.

That was when he saw the room wasn’t big, but the space had been fully utilized.

He walked in, the seven men behind him holding position outside the vault.

He was quick, but he was thorough as he made his selections of the inventory. He put what he chose in a black velvet jewelry bag he’d had stowed in his back pocket. He took enough from the piles of cash to cover what the club had agreed was theirs.

After that, Core walked out of the vault, stepping over the inert body on the floor, and muttered, “It’s yours.”

The men swarmed in.

Core jogged up the stairs and spoke to The Nerd, “Your turn.”

There was a beat of silence.

Then, “It’s done,” and a disconnect.

That meant accounts were emptied, and tech was wiped, including computers and phones.

No more incriminating videos and pictures.

And the rest of their financial assets were gone.

Core took the earbuds out of his ears and sauntered out of the house.





Core was mildly disappointed when he hit the garage door opener on the approach to his house and didn’t see Hellen’s ridiculous car in the garage.

He’d texted her when he’d gotten in his truck at the airport, telling her he was home, and she’d said she’d meet him at his house.

She was probably tied up at work, where she’d been taking Nanook every day for the last three days to hang with her.

And if the pictures she texted of his happy boy curled in a dog bed in the corner of her office were any indication, Nanook liked to go to work.

Core drove in, parked and got out, going to the back of the cab to shoulder his duffel. He walked into the house, not bothering to close the garage since she’d be driving into it soon.

Monday morning, he’d given her a key, a garage door opener and his dog.

She’d given him a smile he’d never forget his entire life.

It might have been about the key.

Though he knew it was mostly about the dog.

He dropped the duffel in the laundry area, hit his kitchen and tossed his keys on the island.

He then halted and let what she’d done to his kitchen wash over him again.