Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Riding in the limo with Ace once again behind the wheel, Trixie noticed there were now two cars with guys in them now at the storage shed, though not next to each other, as if covering different angles.
Smart, she thought.
Watch multiple doors and then they couldn’t miss her.
Or so they thought.
Ace finished circling the place and pulled up near one of the storage facility’s doors. “Okay, are you all ready?”
“Ready!” Trixie offered eagerly.
Isaiah smiled. “I think we’re ready, Ace.” He looked at John. “You sure you’re good with all this?”
“It’s the only way. Dragging that safe out would be too noticeable. Especially with those assholes watching.” His eyes darted to Trixie. “Excuse my language, please, little darling.”
She giggled. “Quite all right. They are buttholes!”
Looking back at Trixie, Isaiah said, “And you’re absolutely sure you’re comfortable with this. I know what you just told Ace. But please, truly think about it. This might be dangerous. We can find another way.”
“I want to nail these guys! And my Daddy is here. He’ll keep me safe.” She squeezed John’s strong, bulging arm. “You all will. I trust you!”
Isaiah nodded. “Then let’s do this. Everyone stick to their parts. Be careful. In and out. Let’s end this.”
Trixie remembered what the Daddy Guard guys had told her and tried hard not to look in the direction of the bad guys.
From her vantage point, only one car was visible. The other one was parked around the back of the large storage facility, covering the rear exit.
But it was hard enough not to stare at the two guys who sat in the one car. After all, they were there to watch for her. Or worse.
Would they kill her?
Certainly seemed like that was their plan. They’d basically tried when they staged the mugging. There was no doubt they’d make another attempt now. But this was different.
She had Daddy! She had the Guard watching her back. Plus, Stryker and Harrison.
Trixie felt darn near invincible.
Playing her part, she felt ultra professional in the pant suit and blazer she wore. She’d dressed nicely for her accounting job, but even the mafia-controlled company she’d worked for allowed jeans.
Now, with her hair pulled back and the large glasses framing her eyes, she felt almost like a different person.
“Maybe this is what Harrison feels when he makes his movies,” she noted.
“What’s that?” John asked.
“Nothing.”
Daddy smiled. “Just don’t wander too far away. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Stryker had shown up in a separate SUV that was now parked behind the limo. There’d been room for him in the giant luxurious vehicle the others had arrived in, but the team had decided the more vehicles, the better as they blocked the view a little more.
The group acted naturally and started their “business”.
“I think we need to frame some stuff right here,” Stryker said, pointing to an area outside of the building. “That’ll be perfect for the escape shot. But I think most of the work will be on the inside.”
The door opened and a security guard stepped out. “Can I help—” His eyes lit up as they landed on Harrison. “Hey! You’re him!”
He hurried forward, his hand outstretched, clearly eager to shake.
Harrison pumped it. “Nice to meet you. Harrison Trent.”
“Man… I’m… what’s going on?” He looked behind him at the building and then back to Harrison. “One of your movies is literally playing on the TV in our security office. You gotta come see it!”
“That’s awesome,” Harrison said. “Movies are why we’re here.
We spoke to the owner about possibly doing some pickup shots here for an upcoming project we’re filming on the Strip.
But we need a storage facility for a couple of scenes and, looking online, we think this one fits the bill. Is it cool if we look around?”
Stryker nodded and stepped forward. “We aren’t filming anything today. Just doing some initial scouting.”
Trixie watched as the security guard scratched his chin, looked behind him again, and then back at Stryker and Harrison. “Man, the boss didn’t let me know you were coming.”
“Crap,” Stryker said, looking at Harrison. “Dude, we might have the wrong spot.”
“You said the storage facility about half a mile off the Strip,” Harrison said.
“Uh, guys,” the guard said. “There’s probably a dozen facilities that fit the bill.
” It was evident, based on the look in his eyes, that he was trying to decide rapidly what to do.
Trixie felt a little guilty that they were lying to him.
But he was still getting to meet a world-famous movie star.
This was probably more excitement than he’d ever encountered on the job!
“Tell you what,” he finally said. “You’re already here. Why don’t you just do your thing. I mean, you’re just having a look around. Potential customers do that all the time. Plus, we’re better than that other facility. Guarantee it. You should stay right here.”
“Hey, thanks!” Harrison said, shaking the guy’s hand again.
“Don’t mention it.” The security guard looked a little sheepish as he added, “Hey, you mind dropping by the office in a minute to sign some stuff for me and Brett? He’s the other guard.”
“Don’t mind at all.”
The guard seemed elated as he held the door open for them all and then hurried off, seemingly eager to tell that Brett guy who he’d just met and what was going on.
“That worked out perfectly,” John said in a low voice as he walked beside Trixie. “We could’ve used your access to get inside, but the guys in the car might have grown suspicious at you having a keycard.”
Trixie nodded but kept silent. She wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like the guys watching were close enough to hear her voice and figure out who she was. But now that they were so close to pulling this off, her nerves were on edge.
She wiped the bead of sweat from her brow and tried hard to keep her mind from spinning a thousand different directions.
Just stick to the plan, Trixie. Daddy is there. The other guys are here. This will work!
Inside, she found a long, semi-dark corridor lined with orange garage-type doors all the way down. Every now and then, they came to crossways where one could venture right or left and find identical hallways. With the lack of windows, it was somewhat discombobulating and eerie.
“Man, they need to have better lighting in here,” Isaiah noted.
“Yeah. Are they just trying to give this place creepy Silence of the Lamb vibes?” Ace asked.
“Hey, it’ll be perfect for our shots!” Stryker announced.
Trixie smirked as she remembered their parts. Which, for Stryker, wasn’t very far off from his real life. As a movie director, he probably worked with location scouts all the time to find just the right spots when building a set at a studio wasn’t practical.
Even though the guys were watching in their cars, it was important to still keep up appearances.
They’d decided it was possible guys were stationed inside, but that would be difficult, as there weren’t many hiding spots down those long hallways unless someone was inside one of the units. But that wasn’t very likely.
Their footfalls clacked loudly on the concrete floors. The sound of the wheels on the equipment some of the guys rolled echoed off the vast, tunnel-like space.
“Perfect! This is it,” Stryker finally announced. “Let’s see what we’re working with here.”
Trixie couldn’t help but laugh a little. This spot looked exactly like every other spot they’d passed, but oh well. The plan wouldn’t stand up to much scrutiny but it didn’t have to. This was just about creating a distraction long enough for her to get the files and get out of there.
Trixie pointed to the right unit, even though she’d told John and the other guys the number earlier.
John got to work unlocking it. The others stood like sentries, looking up and down the hallway.
It seemed to take forever. Trixie held her breath the entire time.
She expected to hear someone approaching at any moment.
What if they’d hacked the security camera feed or what if those guards actually worked for them?
Were a ton of mafia guys about to come around the corner, guns drawn, ready to execute her, John, and the others?
But instead of hearing footfalls rushing toward them, she heard the door rolling up on the tracks as John opened her storage unit.
Everything was just as she’d left it.
Some extra furniture stacked neatly, barely taking up any room beyond one of the back corners. A hutch she’d inherited from her great-grandmother that she didn’t have room for in her place pressed against the wall.
And the small safe resting on top of it.
She hurried inside, put her hand on the reader, and waited.
It was nearly instantaneous. A chirp told her the prints were accepted. She felt a quick vibration as the door locks retracted. She was shaking as she put her hand on the black rubber-lined handle and pulled it down.
The door swung open with a slight squeak. Trixie reached in, grabbed the documents, and said, “Got ‘em!”
John looked satisfied. “Then let’s move.”
Less than a minute later, the safe was closed, the unit’s door was down and secured, and the gang was moving toward the exit.
“Crap. I need to drop by the office and sign some stuff for that guy,” Harrison said. “I don’t want to leave him hanging.”
“We’ll have the limo running and ready,” Ace said.
“If it looks like anything crazy is happening, just leave without me,” Harrison told them. “I’ll be all good.”
“What if they hurt you?” Trixie cried.
Harrison shrugged it off. “Not to sound arrogant, but I’m famous.” He blushed, realizing that it had still sounded conceited. “What I mean is they wouldn’t hurt someone high-profile. That would bring a lot of heat down on them.”
“He’s right,” Ace said. “Trust me, I’ve dealt with these types a lot during my police days.”
“We all did,” Isaiah noted. “Most criminals don’t want to draw attention to themselves and attract the cops. Not the smart ones, at least.”
Trixie figured they all knew more about this than she did, so she didn’t protest as Harrison split off from the group and she walked beside John, the others in front, through the winding maze of identical storage units.
Outside, the car that had been watching them was gone.
Trixie didn’t know if that was good or bad.
The question must have been evident in her eyes, because when she looked at Daddy, he smiled reassuringly. “They probably saw that was Harrison Trent and figured this place was about to be swarming with people. It’s not every day a limo rolls up and a movie star gets out.”
That made sense to Trixie as she slid into the back of the car while Daddy held the door for her.
That part was kind of fun, she noted silently. She felt like a movie star!
Ace got behind the wheel. Before John got in, Stryker said, “Are y’all going back to the hotel or just heading out of town?”
John ducked down to peer inside the limo. “Stay right here.”
“Yes, Sir.”
She shifted a little so she could watch as he strode toward Stryker’s SUV behind them. The guys’ conversation filtered in through the car’s open door, but she couldn’t really hear what they were saying. Bored, she turned her attention to the left, out the window of the door she’s slid close to.
Beyond the strip of parking lot was a treeline, and she assumed behind those trees were more businesses. Vegas didn’t allow any square inch of property to go unused. If there was a chance to make money, they’d shove some building on it and open for customers.
Whatever might be on the other side of that greenbelt wasn’t on her mind right now, though.
It was the flash of light she’d seen in the trees.
Something reflecting a glint of sunlight.
“What is that?” she asked aloud.
Ace didn’t answer. The way his head was angled down, Trixie figured he was on his phone.
“Probably texting the Guard guys back in L.A.,” she muttered.
Important Daddy Guard stuff. She didn’t want to disturb him.
Maybe it wasn’t anything. People were always dumping trash around town. Someone had probably just discarded an old bike or maybe furniture back there. Couldn’t afford the storage bill anymore, so they just dragged it out back, ditched some stuff, and left.
But what if it was something bad?
It seemed to be moving positions. Like the flash would be in one spot one time she saw it, then another the next.
Hmm.
What if her ex-employers had realized it was her who was there and they’d surrounded the place? Ace could be driving into a trap! She needed to know more. Maybe she could get some intel and relay it to Daddy, Ace, and the others before things got out of hand.
“I’ll be right back,” she called out to Ace as she opened the door and bolted from the limo.
“Trixie! Wait!” Ace yelled back.
“Hey, where are you going?” John hollered.
It was as if Trixie didn’t even hear them. Her brain did that thing where she got tunnel vision and just couldn’t help herself until her curiosity was sated.
She was so focused, in fact, that she didn’t even hear the squeal of tires until the car was right up on her.
“What the…”
Trixie didn’t get to finish her question. The car skidded to an abrupt stop right in front of her, swinging wide and nearly causing the driver’s side door to plow right into her.
The smell of burnt rubber made Trixie cringe. That wasn’t nearly as bad as what happened next, though.
The back door opened. A large man jumped out, grabbed Trixie, and threw her in the back.
“Hey! Daddy!”
But it was no use. The vehicle was already speeding away.
“Oh boy,” Trixie said with a whimper. “This is bad.”