Chapter 27
“Gene Wheeler was rushed to Bayfront Hospital with a gunshot wound to the upper right chest. He’s in surgery now, but he’s expected to pull through, thank Christ.” Bryn was reading a text that had been sent to the management team by one of Blake’s associates.
She, Riley, Drew, and Blake were heading to Cask & Canvas, a second SUV holding Kenn, Trill, Teagan, and Casey behind them.
“Sandy Wheeler hasn’t left his side since they brought him in. No fucking surprise there, that is one goddamn strong lady. Jaime elected to go to Bayfront with Vince to find out exactly what happened. Kat and Parker are already there to lend support.”
With her sunlit green eyes darker than they had ever seen them, Blake gritted out, “Guess we know how that motherfucker Langston got a key to the microbrewery, don’t we?
This is fucking going to finish Brooke when she finds out.
No matter what kind of precarious position she’s in right now, she will find a way to ventilate that dickhead for what he’s done.
” She dragged a hand through her auburn hair.
“Indi is with her. Yes, I’m worried sick about my woman, but at least she has an Infinity operative there.
She doesn’t have to handle this on her own. And she’s armed, just like Indi is.”
Riley, who was driving, said, “Shaelyn and Dani are on the way. They’ll meet us at Cask & Canvas.
Indi has her comm on and open, but she’s maintaining radio silence so Langston won’t hear her and zero in on her location.
But they can at least feed her intel from their end.
We can do the same with Brooke.” She frowned as Bryn’s phone started to ring.
“Who the hell is that this time of night, calling instead of texting?”
“It’s Vince. As far as I know, he and Jaime are still at Bayfront with Sandy, but he’s also been working with both the Tampa police and the St. Pete police on this Reflex embezzlement and money laundering bullshit going down tomorrow.
” Bryn answered the phone as they approached the microbrewery.
As Riley parked down the street from Brooke’s car, no one in the SUV missed the dark energy that had started to pour from a nonverbal Bryn as she listened to the speaker on the other end of the line, a deadly look on her face.
Continuing to listen silently for another couple of minutes, she finally said, “Thanks, Vince. Just keep me posted. I’m at Cask & Canvas, so I’m going to talk to the officers on duty first after bringing everyone up to speed.
Then we’ll decide how we’re going to extract Brooke and Indi from this clusterfuck while securing Clay Langston.
” Ending the call, she uncharacteristically growled, then cursed.
Not leaving anyone in suspense, she touched her comm so she could pass the news on to the entire management team at one time.
“The bodies of two men, identified as Thom Berger and Jack Norris, were found approximately thirty minutes ago in a rundown motel not far off the Skyway entrance to I-275. They’d both been shot in the head.
Clay Langston is nowhere to be found, Vince said. ”
“Because he fucking killed them, went to Gene Wheeler’s house and shot him, stole the microbrewery key and access codes, then took off for Cask & Canvas where he is stalking my fucking woman.
” Neither Bryn, Riley, nor Drew had ever heard Blake Seibert this lethally cold before.
“Which means,” she fixed her deadly gaze down the street to the entrance to the microbrewery, “that dead motherfucker is in there with them right now.” She touched her comm.
“Baby, we realize you can’t respond because you can’t risk letting Langston know where you are, but most of the APS management team is just down the street from Cask & Canvas.
“We can’t breach yet because we don’t know where you are in the facility, we don’t know where that shit stain is, and the two of you aren’t in a position to communicate with anyone.
But you have your comms open so you can hear us.
We’ll keep feeding you intel as we can, Shaelyn and Dani will do the same for Indi, and we’ll let you know the minute we come up with an extraction plan. I love you. Stay safe.”
Her face savage, Blake glowered at Bryn, Riley, and Drew as she prepared to exit the SUV. “Now, tell me your extraction plan suggestions before I decide going scorched earth isn’t that fucking bad of an idea after all.”
?ω?ω?ω?
Brooke felt a wave of relief when she heard Blake’s voice in her ear.
When Indi had sensed Clay Langston at the front door, entering the microbrewery, then fumbling as he disengaged the alarm, she had Brooke on the move before the graphic artist knew it.
The two of them had gone swiftly but silently into the brewery operations room, India motioning at a large containment tank in the back at the very end of the row of tanks, and indicated that Brooke should conceal herself behind it.
Indi chose a tank in the same row, but more toward the middle, the two of them waiting silently once they were in position.
When Clay had appeared in the doorway to the office, spouting his taunting hogwash, it was all Brooke could do not to yank out the gun secured in her inside waistband holder and fire off some shots at that incredible piece of shit.
What does Drew call lowlifes like Langston again?
Right. Bottom feeders. However, as hard as it was, Brooke tamped down the impulse to take him out.
Langston was standing in the doorway, but he was positioned to the side, so she unfortunately didn’t have the cleanest shot.
It would be all too easy for the bullet to ricochet off the doorframe, giving Clay the opportunity to escape.
Besides, he would then be able to tell where she was, based on the direction from where her gunfire had come at him.
She heard Kenn’s voice in her head, training instruction from the hours she had spent with her and Piper on the APS shooting range.
“If you’re ready to pull the trigger, little sis, never falter,” Kenn had coached during one of her lessons.
“Take the shot without hesitation. But you also need to remember that thinking and planning first, if you are in a position to do that, could save your life one day.”
Fine, Kenn, she huffed in her head. You win.
Centering her thoughts, she considered the setup of the brewery equipment and where she and Indi were located in relation to that.
The brewing kettles, different tanks—fermentation, bright beer for carbonation, storage containment—the cooling system and chillers, raw materials storage, and workspaces like the operating and cleaning areas: most people had no idea how much was involved in crafting a quality artisan beer.
Clay Langston and the others from Reflex had not had a clue what went on in the operations section of the microbrewery.
She snorted silently. Those sorry fuckers probably thought guzzling Miller High Life meant they knew everything they needed to know about beer.
Pausing for a moment, she thought it odd that she hadn’t seen nor heard Jack or Thom, especially because of Rob Kilgore’s betrayal, but then shrugged and dismissed it.
No matter. They’re probably coordinating something else with their sleazy little embezzlement grift.
Worrying about one of them on-site as opposed to three of them was far preferable in her book.
She and Indi were hidden in a good place at the moment, but she knew that wasn’t going to last. Brooke adjusted the messenger bag draped over her body.
When Langston realized the information he was looking for wasn’t in the office, he would know one of them had the papers on her.
There was a lot of equipment and materials in the operations section, so it would be difficult for her and Indi to defend themselves from where they were currently hidden, even though they were both armed.
Clay Langston would have a much cleaner shot coming through the entrance into the operations room.
Determined to get his hands on those folders, he would come in, actively shooting, and force them to keep a defensive position as he advanced.
How in the fuck were they going to distract him?
She was hidden behind one large containment tank, and India was concealed behind another.
The operations space was large, but it wouldn’t take forever for Clay to locate them.
The tanks were their best chance of concealment in the brewery itself.
But how can the entire setup and layout back here be used to our advantage?
she thought, racking her brain in frustration.
And then, suddenly…it hit her. Utopia.
Brooke remembered the day Blake had explained to her that Drew Hollister was “smoke,” a legendary phantom in Purgatory and amongst the criminal element of the Tampa Bay area.
“If my cuz doesn’t want you to see her, you won’t,” Blake had explained to her.
“Drew calculates where you expect to see her, then makes sure she is anywhere but there. Consequently, no one ever sees her coming, making it much easier for her to take them down.” When Brooke had taken her maiden test drive in Utopia with Blake’s crew, she’d used what Blake had taught her about Drew’s methods to create a disruption that had allowed the APS team to divert the enemy combatants’ attention enough so they could take them out.
That’s it. That’s how we’ll get him!