The beating of my heart outplayed the smooth blues as I kept my sweaty palm close to me and my weapon.
James rubbed the hair. "Kid, relax. I know this is all new to you, but you need to look like you fit in." Robert kept quiet but I could feel his eyes boar into me.
"Just think of what needs doing and forget about the rest, play it by ear."
I signed. "I get that, but this is much higher stakes than what I used to do before, I use to trade crappy guns and food on the black market. Not American tech from one of the biggest weapons companies in the world. Stark Tech is worth twice its weight in gold."
"Haha, got to love American might, but you don't need to think about those kinds of things. Just think of the mission and getting it done. Nothing else matters." He smiled as he leaned back in his chair and embraced the smooth music.
I tried to get more comfortable but got distracted by the stopping of feet above us, so loud that even James and Robert looked up.
"Haha, sounds like someone not happy, see even your worries have infected other people Kid."
I crossed my arm over my chest. "Very funny James." I tried to hear what they were saying but only got bits and pieces before the argument stopped, and we listened to the end of the song. Once it quieted down the crowd clapped and cheered for them before more calm background music started to play and the Boss stood up and walked our way.
The heavy door leading upstairs suddenly burst open, and men barrelled out before opening fire into the air. Screaming and shouting quickly filled the room, as the walls and ceiling were filled with bullets and cracking of thunder.
The bartender at the mini bar barely got a curse out before a spray of automatic fire spread into the mirrored shelves, glass and whiskey splitter into the air raining down on the now-hiding bartender.
The spray continued down the bar into a DeLuca's enforcer, who reached for his piece, instead, he caught a bullet to the shoulder spinning him, crashing over a table, and sending drinks and money flying.
Men ducked, tables flipped, and bullets shredded the air. The singer at the piano screamed, bolting for cover as a stray shot ripped through the music stand. The chandelier overhead rattled from the gunfire, lighting the brass casings, clattered against the floor.
The gunmen moved fast, cutting a path toward the exit, the guards returned fire, their pistols drowned out by the automatic gunfire.
"Get down Kid." Robert grabbed me from the side and through me behind the table as James flipped it over, it quickly splintered as shards of pine wood pelted us from a random bullet.
James peeked over the table with his pistol drawn as Robert blocked me before he too rose and fired some shots. Whilst lying on the ground I drew my pistol and fired around the side of the table. My shot pinged off the floor hitting nothing.
"Move it, move it." One of the assailants shouted. As I continued to fire, I got a better look at them.
They ran across the room with gleaming cast metal masks, the light perfectly capturing their inhuman expression of perfectly moulded faces. Narrow slits revealed the white of their eyes, beady covering every inch of the bar, as rasped breath pounded metal masks like a concaved echo.
Like their dress code, they moved sharp and in a timely fashion and made it through much of the room taking down another guard who covered the boss after the gunmen tried to shoot at him.
"Protect the Boss." The guard who we chatted to before shouted.
"Move it!" The leader of the heist shouted.
In the back of the group, one of them hunched down whilst clutching a bulging leather bag against his chest. He was quickly grabbed by one of the men and dragged on as the three others continued to fire at the family guards.
James turned to Robert. "What do you want to recon our wanted documents are in that bag?"
"Pretty high, I'm betting that they cracked a safe upstairs took a bunch of money, and what else was in the safe, which would include our documents."
James smiled. "A yes would have sufficed." He quickly popped up again and fired into the fleeing gunmen whilst Robert sighed.
The leader, slammed himself into the door as he led his men out into the corridor, gunfire followed him as he shot down the hallway, causing screaming to come from the bar.
The rest of the thieves followed; the last pushed the cowering gunman before following, firing blind over his shoulder. A bullet ripped through a waitress's shoulder, sending the woman sprawling behind her table, blood streaking down the polished wood.
One of DeLuca's enforcers rushed through the door, "Drop the bag," he shouted as he fired into the retreating thieves. Gunfire filled the hallway until the guard enforcer fell back into the doorway and to the ground.
James quickly tapped us. "Come on." James charged after the men as Robert, and I quickly followed. We stepped over the down enforcer, unfortunately catching his eyes, the fire still alight in them, I offered him a prayer and quickly made our way to the bar.
We arrived just in time to see one of the thieves kick the main doors open, spilling the group out onto the street.
But they were one short.
One of the thieves lay sprawled near the bar, blood pooling under his body. A DeLuca soldier holstered his pistol, exhaling slowly.
Out in the street, tires screeched against the pavement. A black sedan roared up the curb, doors already swinging open. The thieves threw themselves inside before the door slammed shut as the tires screeched and burned rubber already wafting into the bar, the car lurched forward before racing down the street.
I looked around the ruined bar stepping on crunching glass. Littered blood smeared around like a child learning to paint. A bullet-hole bottle of Macallan was pouring whiskey onto the counter, dripping its liquid gold.
Salvatore DeLuca stepped out the back and watched the doors swing shut, his face smouldering.
He turned to his men. "Where the hell is medic, I want our men patched up immediately."
The only guard we talked to turned to the Boss. "Marco is already calling him whilst trying to stop Francos's bleeding, he should be here any minute."
"Good, get word to Cas to get a bounty on their head, standard reward for information." Quickly a guard ran in from the back, whispered to the Boss, and handed him a fresh cigar.
The Boss nodded as he lit it up. The boss turned to all the guests. "My apologies ladies and gentlemen for today's affairs. All your Tabs are on me and if you are injured Medic will be here to see you soon. Vince, get the word out that we are paying good money for any information on those men."
Vincent stepped out from behind his table and nodded dropping a bit of blood from a cut down the side of his face. The boss then made his way towards us.
"Sorry for that but sadly it get worse for you, the men that came just stole the documents that you and everyone else were bidding on. As a courtesy, I am telling you now."
James nodded. "Appreciate that Salvatore, I hope your men are fine, but this does mean that our business here is done. Just so you know we will still be going after that document but if we get information on those gunmen, we will update you on what we find."
"Get me information on those gunmen and you can keep the document no bad blood, I'll even still pay you for it. Just get me those men." After that, he left taking a big puff on his cigar and turning to one of his men shaking his head whilst standing over one of the guards. He made a sign on the cross before following his guard that dragged the barely conscious thief into the back.
Robert signed. "Come on, let's get out of here. Before the cops rock up." We quickly got to our car, driving past the blaring sirens.
"I recognised the guns they were using." Robert started. "They were Swedish K's, some good hardware and good for these kinds of jobs if they go bad. They had some training and seemed to know what they were doing even as it turned into a gunfight. Wasn't there an argument a bit before the gunfight?"
I rubbed the back of my head. "Sure was, they were arguing about what to do with a guy named David."
Robert and James looked in the mirror. "What?" They both said.
"Um, they said something about dealing with David after he finished his job and then there was a bit of stomping, so I didn't get anything else."
Robert raised an eyebrow. "You heard what they were saying through the floor above us."
"Yeah, I have really good hearing, always have, it was one of the reasons that I was so helpful and wanted in the black-market trade. I was great for spying on their groups without them realising."
James just smiled brightly. "Haha, I knew it was a great idea to bring you on this team nice one Kid. Alright, let's go off that." A slight bubble of joy builds in my stomach but is quickly quenched by Robert's odd look. James continued. "Sounds like David was a new addition to the team and outlived his usefulness. In a team of heist men looking to get into a crime family safe, you have to access some serious safes. So, he was probably a safecracker for these types of safes they were using."
Robert give me a look before speaking. "If we are trusting Cooper then there are only so many safes that high-end places can use. They probably had some insider help if they knew everything so well to get what they needed. To crack these top safes, you need some serious equipment and skills, and not too many of those kinds of people around. We can get the agency to look into people in the area who could do this kind of work."
"Alright then that he was we will start, let's find this David. Nice work Kid."
I smiled before giving Robert a bit of a miffed look. "Thanks." I didn't appreciate his sly comment.