Chapter 6
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TEN MINUTES LATER, Radley watched Boone cross the vast warehouse space. They’d secured the back door so no one snuck up on them, and Radley had moved her car next to Boone’s big pickup truck, leaving them both partially hidden from view in the parking lot.
“How’d you get the address to this place?” he asked, looking over to her.
“The original address we had was for a cabin, as you’re probably aware. That was the site of their original weapons cache outside Seattle.”
“Holt briefed us this morning,” Boone confirmed. “I believe we were supposed to search it together,” he said pointedly.
Radley flashed him an annoyed look. “I wanted to get out of my condo early in case I had a tail.”
“And you didn’t think to call? Send a message by carrier pigeon?” he joked. His gaze on her was serious though. “I could’ve met you there earlier.”
“I’ll keep that in mind for next time,” she conceded.
“Not that I can’t take care of myself.” Radley shot him a sidelong glance, noting the way Boone’s sexy mouth quirked up.
Given how quickly he’d disarmed her earlier, she begrudgingly could see why he was amused.
“The place was mostly empty when I checked it out, but I found a scrap of paper with this address written on it. I sent it to Holt and headed straight here.”
Boone frowned, looking thoughtful. “It seems careless of them to leave a new address behind.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Maybe they wanted someone to find it. It was beneath the lone table in the room.”
“Not very well hidden if you found it,” he pointed out.
Radley shrugged. “Maybe it blew onto the floor when I opened the door. There wasn’t much in or outside the cabin. They did have a padlock on the door, which was odd. I assume multiple men were coming and going, and knowing the combination gave them easy access.”
“How’d you get in?”
“I picked the lock,” she told him, noting that sexy smirk flash across his face again.
“I also kept the paper I found. If anyone does come looking for it, it’s gone.
The only guys who’ll show up here are the ones that already know the location.
” Her eyes drifted across the warehouse.
“The stacks of boxes against the wall explain all the sawdust I discovered at the cabin,” she added, further bringing him up to speed.
“I’m guessing they started packaging shipments there but needed a larger location as their weapons cache grew.
” Her gaze landed on the garage door. “They must be assembling or packaging boxes and trucking them out.”
“Let’s see what they left for us to find,” Boone said, striding toward the goods. “We don’t know if they contain explosive material,” he cautioned.
“Understood.”
There was a stack of boxes at the front, and Boone reached up and eased one carefully to the warehouse floor. He hastened a glance at her from the corner of his eye. “See? It pays to have someone bigger than you here.”
Radley rolled her eyes.
The corner of Boone’s mouth curved up, but he didn’t comment. “You want to do the honors?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Ladies first and all that,” he said with a smirk.
Pulling a utility knife from her cargo pants, Radley crouched down beside him. “Such a gentleman,” she said.
“Haven’t gotten any complaints before,” he drawled, looking far too amused by their bantering.
Being so close to Boone once more, she could breathe in his musky scent and feel the heat radiating off his big frame.
Much to her dismay, everything about him was sexy.
Those broad shoulders. The scruff on his strong jaw.
Even the way his deep voice wound its way through her.
The guy had some raw sex appeal. By the few once-overs that he’d given her, Radley could tell Boone was attracted to her as well. Not that a thing would come of it.
For a flash, she thought about how wild her life was.
While she’d had a desk and cubicle back at the agency, she spent little time there.
Radley was a woman more comfortable out in the world, making things happen.
Getting shit done. She sensed Boone was similar.
No one who spent long hours training with his teammates or in position as a sniper would be content to stay indoors from nine to five, typing on a keyboard all day.
And now they were literally searching the warehouse of a homegrown terror cell.
Edging the blade of her knife beneath the top of the first wooden crate, she pried it open. “It’s materials for making explosives,” she breathed, letting out a shaky breath as she peered inside with Boone. “You think they filled every box with this stuff?”
“Nah. Too risky. They’re probably filling the crates as they ship them out.”
“So why are these stacked here already full?”
The realization dawned on them both at the same time as they exchanged a glance. “These are ready to go,” he said, his voice a low murmur. “Son of a bitch. We should try to track them.”
Radley nodded, her mind a whirl of thoughts.
“Agreed. We’ll have to go back to headquarters.
I don’t have any tracking devices with me.
But this....” She trailed off, looking up and counting the boxes.
“This is a lot more than would be needed to attack the targets that we’re aware of.
And the sites in New York? There’s another weapons cache hidden somewhere outside the city.
I doubt any of this is meant for the East Coast.”
“It’s a hell of a lot more than I expected to find,” Boone agreed. “Which begs the question—where are these being sent?”
Thirty minutes later, they still didn’t have many answers.
They’d carefully opened a few boxes, photographing the evidence before repackaging them.
While they could call in the Feds to confiscate all the materials, they still hadn’t gotten more clues as to the identification of all the perpetrators.
Seizing the materials here would only stop part of the plot.
There were other weapons caches and targets out there, and neither of them wanted to risk seeing the big picture by playing their cards and stopping this part of the terror cell too soon.
Boone got Holt on speakerphone.
“Leave the boxes as they are,” Holt ordered.
“The Feds want us to ID the entire terror cell. If we move in now, they’ll scatter like roaches and plot something else.
I want to cripple these assholes and send them all to rot in jail.
Let’s set up surveillance to watch the warehouse in addition to tracking the goods.
I want photos of the men coming and going.
We need to see exactly who is involved in this. ”
“What about the cabin?” Radley asked.
“You said it was empty.”
“Affirmative.”
“Then we’ll focus on this location for now,” Holt said. “I want answers, so let’s make it happen.”
“Roger that, boss,” Boone said, ending the call.
They began to move the crates back to where they’d first found them.
As Boone reached up to place one high atop the others, Radley’s gaze briefly locked on the muscles bunching in his arms. Damn.
He was fit and virile. Gruffly handsome.
And as wrong for her as a guy could be. Radley liked her independence.
Taking care of herself. And a man like Boone wouldn’t ever be content to sit back and let her have her way.
He was a guy who liked being in charge. And her new colleague, definitely making him off-limits.
She glanced away before he caught her staring. “Surveillance and tracking devices will help determine the additional targets. This is a lot more than I expected to find.”
“We’re going to have to head back to headquarters to obtain the equipment. Want to ride in my truck or drive separately?” he asked.
The sound of a car door slamming outside had Radley jolting in surprise. “Shit. Someone’s here.”
Boone stacked the last box, then shocked Radley by grabbing her waist and guiding her toward a smaller storage room in the back of the vast warehouse space. They heard the door to the warehouse rattling as they ran, and she cringed. “They’re going to know we’re in here!” she hissed.
“Nah. We made it look like a pile of boxes fell over and blocked the entrance.”
Suddenly, there was a clanking noise coming from the large garage door. “They’re opening it!” she said urgently.
They’d barely slipped inside the small storage room, Boone closing the door behind them, when the sound of voices carried across the warehouse as several people entered the building through the open garage door. The rumble of a truck followed as it pulled inside.
Radley stiffened, and Boone eased her against the wall behind the door, his body shielding hers.
It was dark in the storage room, and she didn’t dare move, much less turn on a light.
She was clinging to him, she realized, her hands fisting his shirt.
Boone was ripped beneath that soft cotton.
His abdomen was nothing but a wall of solid muscle.
And damn, he smelled good. Musky and clean and pure male.
She had the weirdest urge to bury her face in his chest, soaking in some of his heat and strength, which was all sorts of inappropriate.
His hands flexed on her hips, and she realized he was holding onto her as well.
A delicious shiver raced down her spine.
Maybe she should be frightened, but Boone had literally placed himself between her and the door.
She almost didn’t know what to make of his protectiveness.
Her old colleague had essentially sold her out to the enemy while on foreign soil.
Boone was the exact opposite type of man—one who’d protect her, putting his own life on the line.
The sound of footsteps and voices were still far away, but there was no telling if anyone would come looking for something in here.
She looked up, barely able to see in the dark.
A tiny beam of light came in from beneath the door, and she took in Boone’s strong jaw and chiseled features.
His eyes sliced toward hers in the darkness.
The way they were clinging to each other felt intimate.
She felt closer to him than she had to any man in ages, which was wild given she’d just met the guy.
Radley felt safe with him though. She was attracted to him, yes, but it was something more.
She could sense his innate goodness. Boone was a man who fought for what he believed in, consequences be damned.
Wasn’t that why he’d come out of retirement, so to speak, to join Bravo Team?
Holt had given her the brief rundown, and a new respect for Boone washed over her.
He didn’t have to be here with her. Yet here he was, ready to kick ass and take names, all for the greater good.
“Who made this mess!” a voice yelled, and Radley sensed rather than saw Boone smile as she looked toward the door.
He was right.
They’d assumed one of their own guys had carelessly stacked things by the entrance, the mess of it falling over and blocking the way. The rest of their conversation faded as the men moved to the other room.
Boone ducked his head, his mouth at her ear. “Told you.”
Heat licked through her. She looked up, meeting his gaze in the darkness. She was acutely aware of all of him—his wide shoulders, the rise and fall of his broad chest, even the strength of him as his big hands gripped her hips. Her eyes ran over his strong jaw, his full lips.
Radley released him.
She pressed closer to the door, putting her ear against it to try and hear what the men were saying. The sound was muffled, but Boone did the same, also attempting to listen in to their conversation.
“We need to hurry. Finish loading the truck!”
“We need to get to—”
The rest of the sentence became inaudible as the man turned away, and Radley silently cursed.
Go where?
There was a shuffling sound and hushed words they couldn’t hear. As the footsteps moved in their direction once more, Boone pressed her back against the wall again. His big hands on her waist made her belly flutter, and he didn’t release her—just held her where he wanted.
She tensed as the sounds grew louder, but then there was a curse and the footsteps moved in the opposite direction.
“Doing okay, kitten?” Boone asked, his voice a low murmur at her ear again.
“Couldn’t be better.”
“Uh-huh.”
The smile that spread across his face both irritated her and made her like him all the much more.
He hadn’t exactly called her out, but Radley realized she’d been clutching onto him yet again.
Maybe her old colleagues had shaken her more than she realized.
She was usually more collected than this on operations.
Or maybe the fact that Boone was essentially locked in the closet with her was affecting her more than she wanted to admit.
Radley had worked alone for the past few years—or with her twin sister—and having a big, muscular man protecting her with his body had her feeling all sorts of things she shouldn’t.
The minutes dragged on, but they finally heard the men finish loading up the truck. The engine started, and then it was silent again after the garage door was pulled close, the two of them still hiding in the dark.
“Do you think they’re gone?” she whispered.
“Guess we’ll find out. Stay behind me,” he ordered.
Boone didn’t wait for her reply, just turned and opened the door, confident she’d listen to his direction.
He’d drawn his weapon, and she watched as he slid back into the warehouse.
Boone’s footsteps were silent—surprisingly so, for such a large man.
She pulled her own gun free from the holster and followed him, the two of them quickly clearing the space.
Radley’s heart fell as she realized the men had loaded all the boxes from the stack they’d begun to search. “We need a damn camera in here,” she said. “I couldn’t hear most of what they were saying, and we lost our chance to track that shipment.”
Boone looked equally frustrated. “Let’s head back to Shadow Security to get the necessary equipment and tracking devices,” he said.
“I doubt they’ll be trucking anything else out immediately, but they might bring in supplies to fill the other crates.
Hopefully we can track the next shipment if we get in and get out quickly. ”
“Agreed. How many men do you think were here?” she asked.
His dark eyes slid to her. “At least three or four. It was tough to tell since the voices were muffled. And I don’t know what the excess crates are going to be used for,” he added, once again eyeing the massive stack against the far wall, “but this shit doesn’t look good.”