“It…it’s clear. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Nick saw terror scrolled across Lisa’s facial features. “Good girl. There’s our ride. We’ll go to my rental house where you can make a call. It would be to your advantage to be very convincing with the Albanians. Channel that little lawyer’s daughter minx who likes to mastermind armed robberies. This will be the last time you get to play that role, so do it well.”
“I will.”
*
“I wish to see this bitch’s stash!”
Edon Fier held a placating hand in front of the tall huskily built, nearly white haired man in a black suit. “We must speak only English. Please… listen Valon. You must protect Jahannam identity. Let us deal with her. We saw the stash from her first two jobs. I only let her walk out because I think she get more. It is true. They do three more jobs since then. Her buy-in will far exceed what we have asked.”
“The bitch talk like she some kind of crime Goddess! If she has the goods, shoot her in the face, and take everything.”
“She may be a help in future, Val,” Edon urged his boss. Nearly as tall as his boss, but with thin featured brown bearded face. “If we get hoped for value from shipment, the Cincinnati job will be a statement in the heartland.”
“Edon is right,” another Albanian named Luan Curri, a heavily built, squat man in chinos and black t-shirt added with hands clasped in front of him. We have only been activated because other cell wiped out by madmen. We must make perfect job, and forward the money on so military recruitment center is wiped out. It will be as if the homeland was assaulted. The cell sent to Cincinnati has two helicopters. We cannot fail at this end.”
Valon calmed considerably at Luan’s words. He met the unblinking eyes of his chief of staff: a crewcut, dark haired man of slender build, but the deadliest killer Valon Kuteli had ever met. “What do you think, Ardi? Can we not simply shoot this bitch?”
“I see this as bad gamble anyway,” Ardi replied. “She is big mouth. Her gang will brag and shout all over city about big score. Val is right. She is too arrogant to live. I hope she bring crew with her so we don’t have to hunt them. When they arrive, make sure of stash value and kill her. We will use them as example to rest. We will claim they planned to cheat on our twenty percent cut. This will be final payment to Pakistanis. They will withdraw support of any kind if we botch this strike. The bastards think of everything as a gift while we do the dirty work. Helping obtain the helicopters and munitions in advance means nothing to them. They remain in shadows while we risk our lives to pay them off for what should have been given freely.”
Valon’s phone indicated a text message. He read it and smiled at his companions. “She will be here in five minutes with her crew. We shall kill them all after we see what they have brought us.”
“As you wish,” Edon replied. “Go in the back, Val. We will handle this.”
“No! I wish to be on hand for little girl crime boss death! Ardi will be at my side.”
Edon nodded. He glanced at each of his companions. “Take out crew first. We will let Val shoot the girl after we deal with the others.”
Valon smiled, clapping Edon’s shoulder with satisfaction. “Very good, Edon.”
*
Gus parked the SUV in front of the dilapidated warehouse office building on Canal Street while glancing over at Nick. “What do you think?”
“No matter how it looks inside, empty or with lots of crap lying around, spread out the moment we get inside. You get Lisa down as we discussed. John watches for back room intruders. I’ll handle the Albanian posse. You present the bags but then step back with Gus, Lisa. We’ll allow them to do anything they want with the stash bags. I want to see how they react. If there is a new face in the bunch, make sure to acknowledge him before rejoining Gus.”
“I understand,” Lisa replied, her hands wringing together in building angst.
Nick stared around the seat at Lisa. “Bring out the attitude, Lisa. It won’t matter for these guys, but they may say something important. Let’s do this.”
Lisa pounded on the door entrance to the warehouse which resembled a house rather than a storage facility. Her knock was answered by a grim faced Edon, who motioned them inside. “Follow me. Do not speak. I am Edon.”
Edon led them to a cluttered open area where the rest of the Albanians stood casually with little space between them. Nick noticed, measuring each of them and their positions, taking into consideration where they were wearing their weapons. The big guy in the group watched him with growing suspicion as Gus handed the relatively heavy bags to Lisa. She in turn set them in front of Edon, who had positioned himself in front of the other men.