Chapter 27 - Willow
WILLOW
Asign welcoming me to Virginia is the only indication I’ve crossed the border into a different state. No highway patrol waits for me, and no one checks for suspicious vehicles. I huff out a long breath, but it does nothing to ease the knot in my stomach.
I follow the highway until the GPS tells me to take the off-ramp. Turning into an industrial area, I cruise down a wide street, and with one hand on the steering wheel, I pull out the phone and check the recording app is on. I slip the phone back into my pocket and take the next turn.
The address is a warehouse with a broken window and a rusty skip outside. It looks abandoned, so I pull in slowly. A roller door opens, and a man steps out, indicating for me to drive inside.
Anxiety spikes. If I drive in here and they close the door, no one will know where I am. With no cars outside, it looks like any other abandoned warehouse. But I don’t have another choice. They want the car inside so they can get the goods out of it.
I swallow my fear, think of my brother, and drive into the warehouse. My eyes take a moment to adjust to the dark. The man gestures to me to drive forward and then puts his hand out to stop when I’ve gone far enough. I turn off the engine, and the warehouse falls silent around me.
With trembling hands, I step out of the car, trying to stand tall and not show the fear that threatens to leave me frozen in place.
My eyes dart around the room. There are stacks of packing crates along one side, and four men stand like guards in each of the corners.
I blink in the darkness, and then I see him. Tyler is tied to a chair by the crates. His head is slumped forward, and his hair falls over his face.
He looks like a child again, like when Mom passed and I comforted him because he was nine years old and didn’t understand yet that the world was unfair.
I gasp and step toward him, but one of the men steps forward to block my path.
“Tyler!” I yell instead.
He looks up, and our eyes lock. His widen with fear, and he gives a slight shake of his head.
I try to dodge around the big man in front of me, but he blocks my path. I lean back on my heels and fold my arms, trying not to show my frustration and fear.
“Let them have their reunion,” a familiar voice says.
Mani steps out of the shadows. His boots click on the concrete floor, and the sound echoes around the warehouse.
I repress a shiver at the sight of the leader of the Street Kings.
His dark hair is slicked back, and his black trousers are too tight; the buckle polished to a high sheen.
On his hip is a holster with a handgun, and there’s another telltale bulge in his pocket.
The man must have trust issues if he’s carrying two handguns.
“Hello, Willow.” His gaze rakes over me like it does every time I’ve had the unfortunate experience of meeting him. “Nice to see you again.”
He’s smirking, and it should be a warning, but when the man in front of me steps aside, I run to Tyler.
He shakes his head as I crouch next to him. “You shouldn’t be here.”
I run a hand over his hair, brushing it off his face. “Mani’s going to release you. We’ll be free.”
But even as I say it, I realize it’s not true.
We’ll never be free of Mani and the Street Kings.
It will always be one more run. They’ll always find ways to intimidate us and make us comply.
And one day, one or both of us will get caught, and it’ll be more than a slap on the wrist. It’ll be jail time, and they’ll move on to the next people they can extort to do the dirty work.
Hudson was right. The only way to stop them is with enough evidence to take Mani and his cronies down for good. But I was too damn impatient.
My only chance is to get some solid evidence on my phone and hope it might be enough to at least exonerate myself.
I stand up slowly and turn to Mani. I’ve got to get him to admit to what he’s doing. “I drove the car here like you asked, Mani, so you’d let Tyler go.”
Mani cocks his head at me. I’ve used his name, but I need more. “It was a stolen car, wasn’t it?”
He shrugs, too shrewd to admit anything out loud.
I lick my lips. “You made me do it so you’d release my brother.”
He chuckles. “You and I need to have a chat about what happens next. But first …” He gives a sharp nod to one of his men. “Search her.”
The man grips me by the arms as panic rises in my chest. His rough hands pat down my body, my arms, my torso, and then my hips. He pulls the phone out of my pocket and tosses it to the floor. Then he stomps on it.
“In case you’re being tracked.”
Every last hope leaves my body as the phone shatters into a hundred pieces. There will be no recording, not that I got anything useful. And if Hudson was tracking me, he can’t now.
“Check the goods.”
One of Mani’s men walks to the car, and my heart sinks even further. They’re about to find out the package is gone. And I’m the one who lost it.
I tried to help, and I’ve gotten us even deeper in trouble.