Chapter 28 Wren #2
I reluctantly pull back and turn my head, resting my head against his shoulder as I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him.
“You okay, Little Falcon?” he whispers.
I nod my head. “Just enjoying being here with you right now. I love you.”
“You have no idea how much I love hearing you say that,” he tells me, rubbing his cheek against the top of my head.
“I’ve been obsessed with you since your first letter.
I don’t know when that turned into love.
I think it was the moment I set my eyes on you.
Seeing you cradled in Sly’s arms, I just knew you were it. You were the woman I’d marry.”
“Marry?” I ask, my body growing stiff in surprise.
“Mmm hmm,” he replies, pulling my hand from around his neck and tapping my ring. Oh, right, the engagement ring. I’m not sure if it’s amusing or endearing that the rest of them seem convinced that by wearing Elias’s ring meant I was engaged to all of them.
Technically, nobody had asked me yet, not even Elias. But I don’t want to burst their bubble. At least not until all of this Ivan business is behind us and we’re back in the U.S., or maybe Canada.
I glance at the laptop and let out a long sigh. “I guess I need to get back to work.”
“What else is there to do?” Pete asks.
“You’ve already listened to the last recording four times,” Elias adds.
“Maybe you need to look at it another way,” Dex suggests as we all look at him in confusion. “You know, instead of listening to it, you should write it down.”
“It’s already been transcribed by my software,” Elias explains.
“Oh. Well, maybe you need a cheat sheet!” he says excitedly. “You know, like for a test?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what that is.”
“Okay,” he says, grabbing the abandoned notepad and pen and flipping to a new page. “You jot down the important parts you want to remember.”
I slide off Pete’s lap and move around to sit beside him as I think about what he’s saying. I am more of a visual learner. “Okay, we could start with a list of every time the phone calls mention a shipment.” He nods and writes ‘shipments’ at the top of the page, then underlines it.
“Are there a lot of shipments mentioned in the phone calls?”
“Lots,” Elias answers, also staring down at the notepad.
“So one of those is probably the one we need, right?”
Both Elias and I shake our heads as he answers for us. “They never seem to be about Black Heat. They mention other types of guns.”
“So what do they say about Black Heat if it's not about shipping?” Dex asks.
“It’s about the production of it mostly,” I tell him. “They’ve only mentioned it a couple of times.”
Beside ‘Shipments’ Dex writes ‘Black Heat’. “Okay, that’s easy to write down if it’s only a couple of instances. When’s the first time you remember it being mentioned?”
“The first phone call we heard where they mentioned it was about four days ago,” Elias tells him, but I shake my head.
“But that’s not the first time I’ve heard that phrase.” My mind starts to search for an answer, as if it’s right in front of me, just out of reach of my grasp.
“I heard chyornyy uzhog mentioned when we were at Ivan’s. But I thought they were talking about me being Blackburn’s sister at the time. Most of their words were garbled.”
Dex writes ‘In person at Ivan’s house’ under Black Heat on the notepad. “Did you hear it anywhere else? Or maybe you read it somewhere?” he asks me.
“Read it…” I mutter, so close to remembering.
“That’s okay,” Dex says, rubbing my back as he tries to comfort me. “It’s not like we expect Ivan to have written down the exact date he’s shipping them. Maybe he doesn’t even know yet.”
An image of a shipment manifest flashes in my mind, and I reach out and grab Dex’s wrist as I try to piece it together. “Wait. Say that again.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know yet?”
“No, before that,” I say, excitement filling me as I narrow in on the answer. I turn to him as he tries to remember what he said.
“Uh, I said we can’t expect Ivan to have written down the exact date he’s shipping them.”
“That’s it!” I exclaim, squeezing his arm with both hands as my eyes widen with excitement.
I whip around to face Elias. “Did you ever get a photo of the letter I found in Robert’s desk? The one that said he was selling me?”
He frowns, his eyes bouncing between mine like he’s trying to figure out where I’m going with this. “Well, I got an image of it through the surveillance camera. And it was good enough for me to read your name.”
“But there was more,” I tell him. “I think it mentioned Black Heat, but that name was in Russian, and the handwriting made it look like Blackburn. I need to see it again. Do you have an image of it?”
“I think so,” he says, grabbing the laptop and quickly clicking around. “Give me a minute to find it.”
I tap my fingers on my thighs as I watch him move through his files, opening up different images until he finally pulls up an image taken in Robert’s office. I’m standing there, my back to the camera as I kneel on the floor, clutching a piece of paper tightly.
“Got it,” he says as he starts to zoom in.
At first, it’s blurry, but then the program does its thing, clearing it up until we’re left staring at the letter that changed my life. Pete, Jagger, and Sly move around behind the couch so they can look over our shoulders as we read it silently.
05/28 — $350,000 -transferred
06/10 — 1,000 AK47 -delivered
07/12 — $400,000 -transferred
08/02 — 1,500 AK47 -delivered
08/08 — Wren Rivers - TBT
12/06 — 2,500 chyornyy ozhog
“Holy shit,” Pete gasps. “Is that what I think it is?”
“What’s today’s date?” I ask, my eyes moving to the calendar at the corner of the screen. December fifth.
“But Robert had that letter. Couldn’t that mean it’s the arrival dates?” Sly asks.
“It’s possible,” Elias says in thought. “But considering we were just there yesterday and it was still there, this is probably the delivery date.”
“But Robert’s dead,” Dex says, throwing a very large wrench into my theory.
Nobody speaks for a full minute until Elias finally breaks the silence. “Robert wasn’t running the only mafia in the states. Ivan could easily find a replacement.”
“Besides,” I add, “He had always planned to double-cross Robert.”
“Which means that date might never have meant anything,” Elias adds, pointing at the note.
“Shit,” Pete says on an exhale. “So this doesn’t help us at all.”
“I think it gives us the best shot we have,” Elias argues. “Worst-case scenario, we spend the day waiting for him to arrive, and he never shows.”
“So you think we should go there tomorrow, ready to take him out?” I ask in surprise.
“No, I think we should,” he says, pointing to all the guys as if he means for me to stay here.
“You’re kidding, right?” I ask, then turn to look at the others, who all look a little worried. I push to my feet and turn to face them all. “Guys?” Dex and Pete avoid my gaze as Sly and Elias stare at me with tight lips. I turn to Jagger. “Explain.”
“Nobody wants you to get hurt,” he signs.
“And I don’t want any of you to get hurt. I’m going.”
“Little bird,” Sly says in warning.
I point my finger at him. “No! That’s not fair. I’m part of this team, too! I’m the Falcon! Why have a code name if you’re just gonna leave me at home!”
“You can’t shoot,” he reminds me, making me flinch as he reminds me of my failings.
“I can use a knife,” I remind him. “Remember yesterday?”
“I remember Dex saved you.”
“Well, if I had a gun, he wouldn’t have had to! I could have shot him. I was close. I wouldn’t have missed!”
He raises an eyebrow as if he doesn’t believe me. “Take me shooting,” I demand. “Now. If I can hit over fifty percent of targets that are fifteen feet away, human-sized ones, then I get to go.” I cross my arms over my chest as I wait for him to try to deny my reasonable request.
“Fine,” he says, surprising me.
“Are you serious?” Pete asks, just as surprised as me.
“Peter! Whose side are you on?”
“I’m sorry!” he says, throwing up his hands in defense. “I just don’t wanna get shot.”
“I’m not gonna shoot you.”
“Are you sure?” he asks doubtfully.
“Peter… don’t make me put you on the naughty list,” I say in warning, which only makes him grin.
“Oh, so it’s a naughty list now? Would I be on the bottom or top?” He waggles his eyebrows at me, and even though I groan at his ridiculousness, it helps to break the tension; even Sly looks like he almost-kind of wants to smile.
“Okay, so first we go shooting, then we come back here and plan,” Elias says, setting the laptop down and pushing to his feet.
“And then we party!” I say happily as I smile at him.
“Shouldn’t the celebration come after we defeat the bad guys?” Pete asks.
“That’s not what the party’s for,” I tell them, my eyes meeting Elias’s.
“Then what’s it for?” Pete asks.
“Today is Elias’s birthday!”