35. Ellie
Ellie
Cyrus turns the laptop around so I can see his screen.
It's a satellite image with a long, flat warehouse building circled in red. It's deeply embedded in Southside territory, apparently, somewhere past what's left of the rail yard and the dead refrigeration plants. There are three vehicles parked at the loading end.
I don't even know how he got this, and I'm afraid to ask.
"The tracks Tank found lead here eventually, I'm sure of it," he says.
"It's Southside's warehouse. They use it for storage and the occasional unpleasant conversation.
There's a generator running, which there shouldn't be at this hour considering the place was officially abandoned by the company that left it behind ten years ago, and two men outside who keep walking the same loop. "
"You can see them?"
"I tapped a traffic camera at the intersection. It catches the lot." He pulls up a grainy still. Two figures by the loading door, one smoking. "Kade's inside. He has to be. You don't post guards on an empty building for no reason."
Tank is already moving toward the garage. He's got the mask securely on along with his jacket, my knight in leather armor.
I look at the still on the screen and the guards posted outside the loading door. Somewhere past it, Kade is being held in a room I can't see, hurt and alone, and he has no fucking idea how I really feel about him. Or that I didn't write that damn letter.
"I'm coming with you," I say.
All of them turn to look at me. Jinx, who's been uncharacteristically quiet on the arm of the couch this whole time, sits up straighter.
No, Tank signs immediately.
"Yes."
"El." Jinx's voice is gentle, but I know better than to think he'll be on my side with this one. They're all annoyingly on the same page when it comes to my safety. "This is dangerous, and you've just been through hell. You're barely sleeping as it is. You're not up for this."
"Don't." I hold up a hand. "Don't tell me what I'm not up for. I'm doing this, Jinx. I'm not letting the three of you go after him alone."
Cyrus watches me with that unreadable, infuriating look he wears. "What exactly do you think you bring to a warehouse breach, Ellie?"
Blunt as it is, it's a fair question.
And Cyrus is nothing if not practical.
"Okay, I'm not saying I'm suddenly a fighter.
But if Todd's there—" I make myself say his name and keep my voice steady.
"I've been under that son of a bitch's thumb for years.
He may not have given my mother those pills, but he's the reason she almost died all the same.
The reason she still might. I'm going to face him. "
Silence. There's a generator humming through the monitoring feed on Cyrus's speaker, but other than that and my own breathing, there's not a sound in the room.
"I won't distract you," I promise. "I won't get in the way. But I can't just let you all go in there without me. Please."
Tank hasn't moved. He's looking at me the way he was looking at me before, when his face was exposed. His hands come up, and I brace for another no.
You stay behind me, he signs. The whole time. You move when I move. You stop when I stop.
"Tank—"
Those are the terms. His hands are firm. I've already gotten the blood of one person I love on my hands tonight. I'm not doing it twice.
I cross the room and take his hand. It swallows mine, warm through the gloves, and I squeeze it as hard as I can even though I know he can barely feel it.
"Behind you the whole time," I say. "I promise."
Cyrus is already typing again, pulling up the building's old permit filings, looking for blueprints that include the loading door, and a second one at the rear.
He's our four-star general laying out the battleplan and for once, everyone is at rapt attention.
Even Jinx doesn't have any smartass cracks to make about any of this.
Once we're clear on our positions, Jinx disappears down the hall and comes back with a duffel bag that clinks when he sets it down. There's probably at least ten-k worth of firearms and ammunition in that thing.
"Two cars," Cyrus says. "Tank's bike's too loud for the approach, and we can't risk rolling up with a full army and starting a war.
Jinx and I take the front of the lot, you and Tank come from the rail side where there's no camera.
I'll cut the generator, and when the lights go that's when you move. Not a fucking second before."
I look one more time at the red circle on the map and take a deep breath. "Then let's go get him."
I've been separated from my boys long enough.
No one, not Todd, not even Kade himself, is going to keep us apart.