Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
“Are you ready?” I whisper to Sage as I pull the balaclava over my face.
I tried to leave without him, but it was a little tricky.
With Tristan on one side, Vienna on the other, and Sage next to her, I had to get away from three people without waking them, and I wasn’t successful.
I’m not complaining, though, because I got two delicious goodbye kisses from the ones who stayed behind.
Colton and Xavier were still knocked out, the pain killers the doctor gave them doing their job.
“Let’s do this,” he confirms, his voice slightly muffled by his own balaclava.
We’re both dressed in tight black clothes suitable for breaking and entering and scaling buildings.
I decided a roof ingress was the best option once we dealt with the dogs and guards.
The dogs were easy. I just stole some chuck from Suzy’s fridge and stuck the sedatives in it.
They wolfed it down, and we waited fifteen minutes for it to activate before we climbed the chain link fence.
Thankfully it wasn’t electrified, so it was one less thing to worry about.
Then, it was just a matter of taking care of the guards.
Eight in total all received a tranq dart to the neck.
After that, we could have pretty much strolled into the building, but I didn’t know who or how many were inside, so we climbed the fire escape to the roof and peered down through the skylights.
“Holy shit!” Sage swears as we take in the contents of the warehouse. Cages like dog kennels, but bigger, have been set up, and they are not empty. There appears to be about twenty in total, and at least three quarters have bodies slumped in either sleep or despair.
“Can you see any guards?” I ask him as my gaze scans the area we can see.
It seems the majority of the space is just this one large room, but like ours, there appears to be a reception area and possibly some bathroom facilities on one side.
There is also a large mezzanine level that circles the space.
I can see two men using a money machine to count a pile of cash.
“Only the two there.” He nods to the two I noticed.
“We need to go down there and see if the fed’s sister is there. None of this is helpful to me unless she is.”
He sighs. “It couldn’t just be easy this one time.”
“No rest for the wicked,” I reply as we creep toward the fire escape door. It doesn’t seem to have any security on the outside, which is what I expected. I just hope there isn’t a bar across the inside of it. I try the handle, and it turns easily and quietly.
“Thank fuck,” Sage mutters. “I’m too sore to smash through a window and repel into the building.”
“And it doesn’t exactly scream subtle,” I say sarcastically as the two of us slide through the door, our guns at the ready.
The exit is behind some shelves, and neither of the men counting cash on this level have noticed us.
We both lift our guns and aim, firing at the same time, and the darts hit the guards, who both shout in surprise, but the sedative is fast acting, so before either of them can react, they are out for the count.
“Grab the cash. We will make it look like a robbery so they aren’t suspicious and pack up and shift their operation before the feds can raid it.”
“If we take the money, I bet that will bring Lorenzo running to investigate too, which will make it all nice and easy for the feds to clean up,” Sage says as he hurries over to the table and starts loading the cash into the backpack we brought our gear in.
While he’s doing that, I look through the rest of the stash they have up here. There’s a shipment of weapons, as well as some canisters of nasty looking chemicals. I wrinkle my nose in disgust. The Russos have never dabbled in chemical warfare. It’s despicable.
There’s also an entire shelf filled with little silver foil packets in large bags. I’m pretty sure that’s heroine or fentanyl. I’m tempted to take that too and ditch it, but it will add to the case against Lorenzo when the warehouse gets busted.
“I’m going to call Garcia as soon as we verify if his sister is here or not. Even if she isn’t, this needs to be busted as soon as possible. Once the guards wake, they are going to tip off the bosses. All he’s going to have to do is lie in wait and round them up when they arrive.”
“You think Mario will come too?” Sage asks as he finishes his job, and we start to move quietly toward the stairs leading to the main floor.
“We could only be so lucky,” I mutter, gesturing for him to be quiet in case there are any guards we missed down here.
The steps are creaky, and the lower we get, the more my stomach starts to roll.
It smells bad, like unwashed bodies and fear.
Keeping a sharp eye out, Sage and I creep around the cages.
Most of the inhabitants are asleep or whacked-out on something, and no one really shows any interest in us, even if they do notice us pass by.
I keep a keen eye out for the agent’s sister.
He sent me a photo of her not long after I promised to help him, and her face is practically burned into my memory.
We pass by one cage that has a woman rocking back and forth, muttering to herself, as tears stream down her cheeks.
The sheer desperation on her face almost makes my cold dead heart give a shit—almost, but she’s not who we’re looking for.
Garcia’s sister has dark hair, and this one has matted blonde hair.
“Tori,” Sage hisses from farther down. I hurry to catch up with him. I can’t even promise the woman everything is going to be okay. I don’t want anyone to be tipped off that a raid is coming. “Is this her?”
I get to a cage that has another woman in it. This one looks like she still has some fire left in her by the way she glares at us.
“My brother is going to kill you all,” she spits, her eyes blazing with fury.
“Yeah, this is her.” I recognize those whiskey brown eyes that are so much like her brother’s. She even has the same nose as him. In fact, they could be twins, though she’s a far more delicate version. “Are you Xiomara Garcia?” I ask quietly, and she spits at my feet.
“Charming,” Sage drawls.
“Hang in there, Xiomara, Gabriel is coming.” At my words, her eyes widen, and she jumps to her feet, stepping up to the bars and grabbing them.
“Who are you? Are you cops?” she whispers, looking around to make sure no one is within hearing distance.
Sage scoffs. “Not even close. We’re more like the devil, but better the devil you know, am I right?” She frowns in confusion, and I pat part of her hand around the bar.
“Stay safe for a little while longer. Come on.” I tug at Sage’s shirt, and we move back the way we came. She calls out quietly for us to stop, but we don’t. As much as I would like to take them all with me, they are Lorenzo’s downfall, and I need that more than I need to breathe.
Now that I have confirmation, it’s time to blow this joint. I don’t want to risk staying any longer, even though the tranq darts should keep them out for at least another hour or so.
As we climb the stairs and head back through the fire escape, I pull out my phone and send a message to the number the agent gave me. It contains the address of the warehouse and the code word “Tamales,” which is apparently Xiomara’s favorite food.
They will put an agent on Lorenzo to know when he goes to the warehouse, and then the raid will happen, and Sage and I will be far away.
I just need to practice my shocked expression when I find out my dear old uncle has been arrested.
I also need to instruct the family lawyer not to represent him, so he is stuck with a public defender.
I can only hope that someone will shank him in prison, saving me from having to order it.
“Well, that was a successful evening,” Sage says as we get back to our car, which is parked in a discrete alley ten minutes away from the warehouse. “Wouldn’t you like to be on scene when it all goes down? I want to see the look on Lorenzo’s face when he realizes he’s been busted.”
“He’s probably going to try to pin the blame on us. Thank goodness we’re the ones working with the feds. It will completely exonerate us.”
“I bet he’ll just about have a stroke when they tell him you’re the one who tipped them off to his operation. I wonder if we can get Colton to hack into the surveillance so we can watch.”
I stop dead. “Fuck, the surveillance. I didn’t even think of that. I’m off my game. The accident today rattled me, and Gio and…” I trail off as Sage shakes his head.
“Don’t stress. We’re covered from head to toe, and they saw us steal the money. I would say it probably makes it more plausible that we were just thieves.”
I feel some of the tension drain out of my body. “Maybe.”
“Or we can wake Colton when we get home and get him to erase any trace of us. We have options.”
“Okay, yeah, we could do that.” The ride home is quiet but more relaxed than the ride to the warehouse. When we arrive at the house, it’s still locked up tight, and there are a few hours of night left.
“Come on, princess. You need your beauty sleep if you’re heading to the spa with Vienna in the morning,” Sage says as the elevator travels up.
I groan and slump against the wall. “Ugh, it’s going to suck,” I mutter, but he shakes his head.
“No, it isn’t. You’re going to feel like a ball of mush with all of that tension draining out of you. It will be great, and you’ll get to spend some more time with Vienna. It’s a win-win.”
He leads the way down the hallway to my room. We both pause in front of the door, looking toward the room the others are in. “I should probably wake Colton and get him to hack the warehouse surveillance feed, right?” Despite everything, I’m still nervous about my feelings for the others.