Chapter 3

Reese Everything is going exactly as we planned. We’ve been inside the casino for a few minutes now. The hostages and the staff inside are being controlled by Chuck and Nick. Keaton is waiting for us in the van right in front of the main entrance, which is being guarded by Billy. “I’m going to replace Nick so he can come and open the electronic lock,” Dad says after leaving the tools on the floor beside the door to the room where the safe we want to access is located. His voice sounds muffled by the balaclava covering his face, just like everyone else’s. “Get everything ready. We can’t waste any time.” I nod, and as soon as he leaves, I get to work. I take the tools out of their cases and quickly assemble them. By the time Nick arrives, all I have left to do is connect the oxygen tank to the thermal lance. “The panel is over there,” I say, pointing with my chin at the numerical keypad beside the door. “I know. I studied the plan, remember?” I ignore him, and after finishing with the lance, I sling it over my shoulder and wait for him to finish with the lock. I’m reasonably good with electronics, but Nick is a f*****g genius in that field. Anything involving wires, electricity, or connected to a computer becomes a challenge for him. Dad and I prefer mechanical work. With a little strength and enough skill, there isn’t a safe that can resist us. The keypad beeps, and I hear the distinctive click of the door opening. I’m about to enter the room when I feel Nick’s hand on my forearm. I stop and turn halfway around to look at him. “What is it?” I ask, suddenly alert. “Last night I went to your room to apologize.” I sigh in relief. For a moment, I thought something was wrong. “I know. I didn’t want to open the door.” “Are you going to be angry with me for the rest of your life? I was only trying to protect you, little one. Can’t you understand…?” “Nick,” I hiss, cutting him off, “this isn’t the time or the place to talk about this. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a f*****g heist. Go back to the main room so my father can open the safe and we can get out of here.” He looks like he wants to say something else, but after huffing, he releases my arm and hurries away. I try to ignore all my problems with Nick and enter the room, which is nothing more than a kind of office with a desk, a couple of chairs, and, at the back, what brought us here. Movies make us believe that safes are enormous, but in reality, for a casino of this size, without a hotel or anything other than a couple of card-game rooms and thirty slot machines, a safe less than a meter high and sixty centimeters wide is more than enough. “I’m back. What do you think?” Dad asks as soon as he enters the room. “It looks sturdy. Judging by the make and model, I think it has about twenty millimeters of steel in the door and ten on the sides. It might be reinforced with concrete.” “Locking system?” I study it carefully. There’s a numerical keypad on the door that looks quite outdated. “Unlikely.” Dad looks at me with a frown as he puts on his gloves and protective mask. “That answer isn’t good enough for me, Reese.” I bite my lower lip as I go over in my mind all the safe specifications Dad has made me study over the years. Every so often, the companies that manufacture them implement new anti-theft systems. If you know the year the safe was manufactured, it’s easy to know how to open it. I bet Dad knows, but he never misses an opportunity to give me another lesson. That isn’t something that bothers me. On the contrary, I like it when he tests me. It’s the best way to learn. “It has an impact-locking system,” I say confidently. I hope I’m right. “Very good, Reeree.” He stretches out his hand and carefully strokes the top surface of the safe. “That’s why we’re going to treat her with a lot of affection. No drills or blows. Just the thermal lance.” I nod and wait for him to take it before lighting it. I immediately step back as far as I can and cover my face so the sparks don’t reach my eyes. Dad takes several minutes to create a square hole around the lock. He switches off the lance, and I approach again with the tools in my hand. I hold them out to him, but after removing his protective mask, he steps aside and gestures with his chin toward the spot he had been occupying. “Are you sure?” “You’re going to do it right, sweetheart. Just ask her nicely to open for you, and that beauty will gladly do it.” I smile and shake my head. I doubt there’s anyone in the world who loves and respects his work as much as my father does. For him, robberies aren’t just something he does to make money. He enjoys them. He’s happy planning every detail of a heist and opening safes, almost as much as a musician is when composing a melody or a painter when creating a work of art on a canvas. After a couple of minutes struggling with the locking mechanism, I finally manage to open the door and make a victory gesture with my fist. Dad immediately approaches with the duffel bags, and we start filling them with bills. “It’s overflowing,” I murmur as I shove all the money into the bag. “Yeah, there’s much more than I expected. We’ve got a long vacation ahead of us after this.” I laugh, and Dad gives me a playful wink. We finish putting away all the money and immediately leave the room. We don’t bother collecting the tools. With what we’re carrying, we can buy new ones, much better than the ones we’re leaving behind. When we reach the main room, I hear Keaton shouting at some of the hostages, threatening them to keep lying on the floor without raising their heads. “We’re leaving!” I exclaim as I pass him. “Do you have the money?” Billy asks from the door. I nod, and I can sense Chuck smiling beneath his balaclava. “Give me the bag, girl. I’ll help you with that.” He tries to take it from me, but I move away and glare at him. That wasn’t the plan. Dad and I take the money to the van and, once we’re somewhere safe, we split it. “I told you to give it to me. Are you deaf?” “Hey! This isn’t the time,” Nick warns him. I can tell Chuck is about to answer back, but he falls silent as soon as the first sirens are heard. “The f*****g police!” Billy shouts. “We have to get the hell out of here now!” Dad pulls me by the hand toward the door, but Chuck drags me in the opposite direction, grabbing me by the handle of the bag. “I’m carrying this!” “Let go of me,” I hiss through clenched teeth. “That’s not the plan.” “Well, I think the plan just changed. Give me the f*****g bag.” He raises his other hand, which is holding a gun, and points it at my father’s head as Dad starts toward him. “Careful, old man. One more step and I’ll put a hole in your kid’s forehead.” He points the gun at me. I hold my breath and look to Nick for help. “Give it to him, Reese,” he whispers. The sirens begin to sound even closer, and Billy shouts again that we have to get out as soon as possible. “Do it,” Dad orders me. “Yours too.” Chuck gestures with his chin, and my father immediately throws the bag at his feet. “Take it all, but get that gun away from my daughter.” “What the hell are you doing?!” Nick shouts, confronting Chuck. “I’m following your orders, friend. Well, I’m doing it my way, but the result is going to be the same.” I can see a kind of evil gleam in his eyes just before he moves the barrel away from my temple and points it toward my father. I hear the gunshot and flinch, closing my eyes. “I’ve done my part. The old man is dead. Sorry I have to take all the money, but you know what they say: He who betrays a traitor…” “Son of a b***h!” Nick tries to lunge at him, but he takes a blow to the face that sends him to the floor. I can’t move. I’m completely paralyzed. I don’t want to move either, because I know what I’m going to find if I look to my left. The old man is dead. Dad…