Chapter Eight
The Dry Cleaners/Laundry
The French Quarter
Thursday
Mid-day
G etting into place took some time, and it was a rarity that Maura was able to run a mission without her captain standing guard over her. In fact, it was something that NEVER happened.
He was always so far up her ass making sure she was safe…
Not that she minded.
Really.
If her husband wanted to hover, she wasn’t saying no to that. It wasn’t like she was batshit insane. After years of denying that attraction to Jagger, at least now, they could act out their feelings.
And it was a marriage built in Heaven.
She was a lucky Marine.
Not having him there made her life a little easier since she didn’t have to worry about Jagger being in danger. Since the two of them switched protection roles, from Mikey O’ to her captain, and from his Doll to his major, going solo was nice.
As for the rest of the team, Dimitri and Heath could handle themselves, and the snakes…well, they were mercenaries.
They were more than safe.
Without Jagger on the scene, she could just get the job done.
The silence of the blacked-out vehicle ended when her husband reminded her for the tenth time in the last thirty minutes to be careful.
So much for not hovering.
Apparently, he could still find a way by using MATE as his medium of worry.
“Is everything clear?” Jagger asked again, as if he wasn’t seeing the exact stuff she was seeing.
They all had eyes on the location.
“Uh, Babe, it’s a street in New Orleans . There are people all over it. We’re just waiting for patrons to leave the dry-cleaning place so we can go in and shut it down. Then, we’ll know more.”
That’s why he made the same suggestion that he’d made a few times in the last hour.
“Maybe you should hold position, and let me show up. I can go in…”
The Major put a stop to that.
“J, come on,” she said, watching the building. “This is literally my job. Do you want to have an argument over this? Dimitri isn’t going to let me get shot, and neither is Heath. We’re good. I have a Russian mercenary, two Snakes, and a Heath with me.”
The big man reassured Jagger.
“We got her, J,” said Heath. “Your love muffin is safe with us.”
Jagger wasn’t amused.
“Uh, only she calls me that. You can call me Jagger, Captain, or to come pick up my wife. You can’t call me J. That’s a private thing. As for my ‘love muffin’ …no thank you. That little term of endearment is not happening.”
Heath shrugged.
“Then stop acting like a bitch. She’s the Major. What’s the worst that’s going to happen? She goes psycho and shoots everyone?”
There was a pause as if he was considering the potential outcomes.
Maura started laughing.
“I’m calm, and not feeling particularly murder-y today. I think we’re good.”
Jagger sighed.
“Just stay on the com,” he finally said, realizing he had to let his wife do this.
This was her thing.
The Major was in control even though he’d give anything to do this for her. With baby on board, he’d rather have her locked down in Area Fifty-Two until delivery.
“Merry, give me everything you have on this business,” Maura said. “I know you’ve been doing a deep dive on it. What have we found that might be helpful?”
The woman did what the Major asked.
She wasn’t questioning Maura because she wasn’t criminally insane.
“It was opened two years ago, and they specialize in dry cleaning and Chinese laundry. You know, drop your shit off, and they iron and fold for you for same day pickup.”
Thus, she got from the name.
“Gotcha. And?”
Merry gave her everything else.
“It was opened by someone named Chuen Yee. I’m currently using MATE to get anything we can on that individual, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
She got it.
“He’s not going to be an American, so I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Fang brought him here via the underground.”
That was looking like a possibility.
Greyson had been quiet.
Well, until now.
“Can we tie Chuen Yee to Fang?” Greyson asked, from where he was standing near Merry. “If we can, we might be able to use anything he knows to keep working this.”
On that, they agreed.
“I’m working on it. It’s going to take a bit,” Merry said. “All I know is that he is DEFINITELY not an American. I can’t find that name in any birth record search. Or school records. Or police databases.”
This definitely looked like something Fang would have been all over.
That was likely the answer.
“What do we think is coming in and out of this business?” Maura inquired. “What’s it benefiting Fang with?” she asked so they’d have something to look for inside.
“Money laundering,” Merry said, finding something. “I just ran the parent company, and there are seventy-nine locations across the country, mostly isolated to port cities in Cali, New York, Baltimore, Boston , and here.”
Heath laughed and looked around when no one else was joining him.
“Is no one going to find it amusing that they are laundering money through a dry cleaner? Or is it just me who is amused?”
Dimitri rolled his eyes.
That said it all.
“I apologize, Major. The little things amuse him, and Greyson humors his idiosyncrasies.”
“What’s that mean?” Heath asked, willing to bust his ass. “Is that what you call that giant vibrator that you and Poppy had?”
Dimitri flushed.
Then, he got bitchy.
“ GREYSON , control your son. I will shoot him in the ass and leave him in New Orleans with his sister!”
The man laughed.
Greyson wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not, so it was best not to go there.
“Heath, don’t irritate Dimitri before he’s going in a door. He’ll do what he said and say it was an accident. Then, you’ll shoot him back.”
Heath just sat there grinning.
Yeah, the crazy was running rampant there.
“Are you sure you don’t want me…,” Jagger began, and they all had an answer for him.
“NO!” they said at the same time.
“Jesus. Fine,” he muttered.
Apparently, he was a bad husband for wanting to watch over his pregnant wife.
As a few more customers left, Maura saw a lull in the foot traffic, and she made the calculations.
“Adder and Mamba, are you in place in the back?” she asked.
Their answer was instantaneous.
“We’re heading down the street now. Give us a minute,” Mamba said, just as two sleek crotch rockets screamed down the street, right past them.
It.
Was.
Loud.
Holy shit!
Someone was trying to die.
On the com, there came a very concerned voice, and it appeared to be the husband of one of the Snakes.
“Tell me that wasn’t my wife,” Dakota said. “Please tell me that my Evie has more common sense than to go fast on a motorcycle with baby on board.”
Maura laughed at the visual in her head. It was pretty amusing.
Well, for her.
“It was your wife, and Rogue’s wife.”
There were grumbles of discontent. Yeah, the men were not amused.
“Remind me to tell Elizabeth Blackhawk thank you for giving my wife a motorcycle while she’s with child,” Dakota stated. “We’re having words. I’m possibly throwing hands too.”
The Snake in question heard him.
“I mean, technically, Honey, it’s anyone’s bike,” Eve said. “She’s fast though. We broke eighty on the straight away, and people were staring.”
Oh, Jesus.
Rogue warned her.
“Dakota’s about to stroke out hearing that about his wife,” he said. “I’m with him. Can we please not tell us things like this?”
Maura laughed.
Ah, some things never changed.
That was for damn sure.
It didn’t take the Snakes long to get to the back of the building.
“We’re in position,” Jinx said. “We’ll breach the back of the building on your command.”
Well, that was their cue.
It was time to do their job.
“Stay quiet,” she warned the men on the com. “We’re going in.”
“BE SAFE!” Jagger warned.
“That’s the opposite of quiet, J. Look it up, Captain,” she added.
Getting out. Maura walked down the street, Dimitri and Heath beside her. They had her back, literally.
At the door, she gave the command.
“Breach it.”
As she walked in, there was commotion in the back, and people began trying to get out through the front, but they were met with a wall of resistance.
And guns.
The three of them pulled their sidearms and held the line so no one escaped.
“Everyone stop moving,” Maura said, as Heath locked the door, turned the sign, and pulled the blinds down so no one could see what was about to go down inside.
That was probably for the best.
When Eve and Jinx came into the room, to corral the people, one decided to get handsy.
He swung at Eve, and she beat his ass, breaking his arms and leaving him on the ground whimpering. Then, she put one booted foot on his head.
Just because.
The only reason she didn’t put a hole in him was the damn police software that picked up gunshots.
ShotSpotter was not their friend.
Maura warned them.
“Now, unless you want to be made an example of, like that dumbass, I suggest you sit down and start answering questions.”
No one spoke.
Oh, well, that was half of the fun for The Hunters. She liked it when they put up a fight.
That made it spicy.
Glancing over, she gave her partners in crime the word.
“Dimitri, look around,” she said. “I’ve got this. Heath will have my back.”
The Russian man wasn’t going to argue. When in Rome …
Heading into the back, he went to retrieve anything that he could find while the Major did her thing.
Walking around the women, and one man, she began asking questions.
In Chinese.
The whole time, they refused to answer her. What she did notice was they kept looking up at the camera as if they were trying to find a way to get someone’s attention.
Too little.
Too late.
Unfortunately for them, the signal was looping. If someone was watching, they weren’t seeing shit. They were seeing an empty storefront.
“Where can we find Shing Reung?” she asked.
And again, nothing.
“When is Alexsandr Dominik landing?” she asked, already knowing that, but she wanted to see their response, and it was very telling.
They looked…
Nervous.
“Mamba, scan their fingerprints,” she ordered, and the woman did just that.
As they stood there, they used some CIA tech from Remmy, and tried to get anything they could.
“Nothing, Major,” Jinx said. “They aren’t from around these parts.”
Maura grabbed the one woman and pulled her behind the counter. There, she pistol whipped her.
Then, she asked the big question.
“How did you get into this country?” she asked. When the woman didn’t respond, she said it in Chinese.
When she pistol whipped the woman again, she broke and began crying. She told her.
Glancing over at Eve, she had her look it up.
“ChinaStar,” she said. “Find me anything.”
The woman began researching it, and while she did, Maura used her knife, and cut the woman’s throat.
The other women began crying.
“Quiet,” she said.
It didn’t take long for Eve to find who owned it.
“Uh, ChinaStar is owned by Fang. He was importing illegals help from outside the country on his own ships.”
They knew what that meant.
“He was either getting paid to let them into the country, and they paid him back by working at his money laundering places, or he was pedaling flesh.”
When one of the women grabbed a pen, and tried to shank her, she grabbed her wrist, broke her arm, dislocated her shoulder, and shoved the pen into her throat, severing her carotid.
“Ewww, Major. That was messy,” Heath said.
She muted her com because that made Jagger lose his mind.
“What did she do? Someone answer me!”
She ignored him.
This was not the time or place.
“Clearly, they are protective of their boss, and they don’t look strung out or like they are being pimped. I’m going to say he made money bringing them here illegally, and they are working his businesses.”
She got her answer rather quickly.
“Agreed,” Dimitri said, peeking his head back into the room. “I found a ledger. Fang has been here. It’s pages upon pages of people who came in on his ships.”
Great.
Elizabeth was going to want to pass that off to Homeland Security for a round up of illegals here doing dirty deeds for the Chinese mafia.
“Get all of the proof that you can,” she said, and Dimitri went back to keep digging.
Only, before she could say anything else, Heath warned her.
“Uh, Major, we got issues,” Heath said, peeking out the window blinds he had previously closed.
Maura didn’t move.
Well, that didn’t sound good.
“What kind of issues?” she asked.
Heath clued her in.
“A police car just pulled up, and the two cops are headed this way. The one is carrying some uniforms. They must be using this place for dry cleaning.”
Well, shit.
Of course, they’d be showing up here and now.
Maura knew she couldn’t let the building get surrounded. They’d be trapped inside, and then, her husband…
Speaking of the devil.
“Do you need help?” Jagger asked, somewhat panicked by the situation that was unfolding. “I can get there and cover you.”
She stopped her husband.
“I got this, Babe. We don’t need a scene. Let me handle this,” she stated. Then, she focused on Heath. “Let them in,” she told the man. We each take one, and if they try to get away, the Snakes will handle them.”
Eve and Jinx ducked behind the counter with the two dead people.
“Like off them?” Heath asked, wanting to be clear. “My dad doesn’t like me taking out cops.”
Oh, well, she had news for him.
“Most of them are dirty here,” she said. “The odds are in your favor that you’re not killing a good cop who is coming into a mafia laundering business. There are a lot of places like this around NOLA. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
When Greyson’s voice came over the com, he was talking to Heath.
“You make sure nothing happens to the Major. That supersedes my rule about killing cops. We’re beyond that now.”
Well, that worked for him.
Sign.
Him.
Up.
Heath shrugged, unlocked the door, and moved out of sight. When the door opened, the two cops came in, and they saw the people sitting on the floor. In that moment, they went for their guns.
And Maura did the dirty work.
She took them both down with her silenced gun, and no messing around.
The bodies hit the floor, scaring the Chinese workers there. They began chattering.
“MATE record and translate,” Maura whispered.
Heath was staring at her.
“Uh, one of those was supposed to be mine. You’re a control freak,” he stated.
Jagger’s laughter came over the com.
“Yeah, she is.”
His wife wasn’t having it. The clock had started the second she pulled the trigger. ShotSpotter was likely reporting the muffled shots fired.
“Not the time, Jagger,” she stated.
When Dimitri came out of the back, he had a bag full of things, and immediately came to a stop.
“Oh, cops. How’d that happen?” he asked.
“Dumb luck,” Maura said.
Immediately, someone whined.
“She hogged the kill,” Heath said. “I’m used to handling the dirty work.”
Both Snakes stood.
Maura was going to ignore Heath.
For now.
“Find anything else but the ledger with the indentured slaves?” she asked, hoping he did.
He shook his head.
“Not much,” he admitted. “I will say this. There’s no clothes back here being worked on. This is most definitely a front for the Chinese Mafia.”
She stared down at the cops.
“Well, then, we got lucky. They most likely weren’t the good guys,” she said, patting them down.
When she found rolls of money in the pockets of their ‘dirty’ clothes, she knew what they were really dropping off.
“Someone is putting pressure on business owners and cops to get kickbacks for Fang. He’s embedded deep here,” she admitted. “This is going to take a while to get rid of that mess.”
They knew she was right.
As for them being dirty…
Thank God.
She didn’t want to kill decent cops.
Not good ones anyway.
“Take their personal phones,” she said, glancing over at Heath. “Then, drag them into the back. I’ll finish talking to these people.”
He did as she asked, and tossed the phones to Dimitri.
As she crouched down, she said his name all over again, hoping it would work this time, now that they saw they weren’t playing.
Alexsandr Dominik.
They all looked afraid. As they began chattering between themselves, MATE was recording and translating to a document.
“What is being funneled through here?” she asked, then asked in Chinese.
Maura could hear her husband asking her questions, MATE telling her what they had been chattering about, and their answers.
Okay, there had to be an easier way.
She needed EVERYONE speaking English.
NOW.
“In English,” she said.
When they wouldn’t speak English, and her Chinese was limited, MATE came to her rescue.
“Major, may I suggest just shooting them in the heads?” MATE asked. “We already have a timer going before the good guys get here.”
MATE was right.
Not only that, but the women looked scared.
“So you do understand English?” she asked. “Thanks, MATE.”
“You are welcome.”
The women began pushing backward to try and move away from Maura.
“I’m going to count to three. Then, I kill you. I’m done playing. One, two, thr…”
“Wait,” the one said.
She held up.
“Yes?”
“Guns. We hold the guns here. The ones that the Russian has purchased from Fang.”
Well, hot damn.
It looked like they had gotten lucky. They’d really believed the people were being loyal because they got brought here.
Now, they knew there were more weapons.
Already, they had a good chunk of them, but now they had more. The goal was for Alexsandr to have none.
From where he stood, Dimitri lifted a brow.
“Are these Uzis?” he asked, curiously.
The woman nodded.
Well, shit.
Dimitri was willing to bet who sold these guns. He did a big sale to the Russians, who had burned them in Boston. He was willing to bet they transported them here.
“Where are they?” she asked.
The one woman told her.
“In the floor under the trap door.”
Maura wanted to make sure that Alexsandr had NO guns when he showed.
That was the last thing they needed.
“Show me, and if you do anything stupid…”
The woman got it.
She got up, and led Maura to a part of the back room. When she pulled it open, there were five cases of firearms. Each case had ten uzis in them.
Whistling, she got Heath’s attention.
“Bring the vehicle around back. We’re loading up,” she said, when he looked into the back room.
The second she looked away, the woman went for a pipe that was sitting in the corner. She swung at the Major, who grabbed it with her one hand, and then shot her in the face with her gun.
She fell into the trap door space.
That’s when MATE warned her.
“ShotSpotter software just activated again. The cops will be coming in multiple cars now. May I suggest you haul ass?”
That was the best idea.
She glanced at Heath.
“You heard my vest. Hustle.”
Heath just giggled.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, grabbing a silk lantern from the wall, and leaving the room.
When she went out front, the other women were looking for their friend.
“Done?” Dimitri asked.
She nodded, and he took out the rest of them with five easy shots. Then, he proceeded to take all of their electronics.
MATE chimed.
“And again, ShotSpotter has notified the authorities of a third incident.”
Oh, she really hated that software.
“How long do we have, MATE?”
“Fifteen minutes at the most. Ten at the worst,” MATE offered.
Well, that said it all.
“Where are we putting them?” Eve asked, leaning on the wall as she ate an apple.
“Let’s dump them in the hole, after Heath gets the guns out. It’ll be smelling really gross in a couple of days, but that’s a city problem, not my issue. Maybe if they see the business closed, they won’t come in here.”
With NOLA’s tech, she was really going to have to find a way to kill without alerting it.
Tapping her com, she knew they also had to worry about something else.
“Babe?”
“Yes?” Jagger answered.
“I can’t do the next location,” she said, and promptly was cut off with his worry.
“Are you okay?”
She was working out the odds in her head, and now, with a vehicle loaded down with weapons, they’d be moving slower to escape.
It was time to tag her captain in.
“That’s going to be more difficult to get away. I think we need to bring in a secret weapon. Someone no one can recognize.”
He calmed down.
“So Remmy?” he asked.
Hell.
Yeah.
“Yep, and Rogue since that’s his thing. I’m bringing all of the tech and weapons back into The Armory . It looks like the next location is yours. Be safe, and watch your ass.”
That worked for him.
Honestly, he knew she was just tired of him asking if she was okay.
“I’ll contact Remmy, and see if he can take a moment of his day to help us.”
She warned her husband.
“Now, don’t bust his balls. He had ten years of celibacy. A man’s gotta man. Ask nicely.”
He snorted.
Well, later, when he got his wife alone, he was going to man all over her.
“Don’t forget it, Major. You better be ready for me later. I’m stressed the fuck out.”
Oh, Maura was aware, and she would be.
Besides, how could she say no to her sexy man?
As Heath hauled out the Uzis, the ones that Dimitri likely sold them back in Boston , Maura and the Snakes rolled bodies into the trap door.
The cops went first, only after losing their guns. They might come in handy.
Then, the Chinese ladies, and the one man.
When the door was closed, Heath had to stand on it to smoosh them down. He was jumping, and the sound of bones breaking was evident.
Yeah, it was a sight to be seen.
When her com beeped, she knew it would be her husband checking in after making his call.
“Yo.”
“Head to Remmy’s. Calyx needs pick up. I told Remmy we’d watch his lady while he’s out doing dirty deeds CIA cheap.”
That worked for her.
“Snakes?”
Eve grinned.
“Let’s go pick up a flower for transport.”
And with that, they headed out.
The bottom line was that at least they got more of the guns out of Alexsandr’s reach.
That meant everything.
No guns meant no ambushes in the streets.
Because they knew the truth. He was going to be hitting the ground tomorrow.
Then, they’d be playing chase.
And that was always dangerous.
For them.
HIS prey.