Chapter 33

Chapter

Thirty-Three

ALPHABET

F or all that she attempted to hide her reactions, Gracie had been unhappy about the guys taking off to finish the mission. Course, she could be upset about being in a safe house in Mexico. It didn’t have to be one or another, we’d hardly been living up to the expectations we’d been trying to set.

Fortunately, she turned out to be a damn good poker player. The woman had to have tells, I just needed to learn what they were. About an hour out from “go time,” I suggested a walk then I’d set her to getting everything packed here that wasn’t my set up.

Outside, she squinted against the sun. I’d slid sunglasses on but she didn’t have any. “You want mine?” I offered immediately.

“No,” she said, descending the steps ahead of both me and Goblin. “Thank you, though.” Turning, she moved backwards while shielding her eyes with her hand. “You probably shouldn’t be sun blind when you go back in.”

Still… “I’ll have Voodoo bring you back a pair. You can at least have them for the road.”

Her faint, if fleeting, smile didn’t quite dismiss the offer but said she didn’t really believe me either. Who could blame her? My leg ached but that was just the way it went. The walk would be good for all of us.

The fresh air, the sunshine, and the movement were helpful when I was about to be glued to my seat for the next several hours. She didn’t say anything, just walked parallel to me with her hands in her pockets of her jeans. It was odd how much tinier than all of us she was.

“Okay, bad question, but it’s been kind of eating at me,” I said to her as a warning. “Feel free to tell me to fuck off if it’s none of my business.”

Amusement appeared in her smile as she slanted a look toward me. “I can handle that.”

“I assumed.” I told her. Goblin moved on a zig-zagging pattern. He scouted ahead but kept moving back to stay within range of us. Twice he jogged ahead to pee then came right back. “Aren’t you a little short to be a model?”

A snort of laughter escaped her. “That’s been bugging you for a while?”

“Yes,” I admitted, not terrifically proud of it. “Don’t get me wrong, you’re sexy as fuck and gorgeous. But you’re just…”

“Short?” Pure mischief lived in her expression and it robbed me of my breath. It was the most relaxed I’d seen her since meeting her at Doc’s clinic.

I spread my hands. “You are.”

“This is true,” she said, almost too agreeably. “I am short. If all I did was runways… that might be more of an issue. But I do photo spreads, commercials, and the occasional music video.”

“Was it hard to get started since most models are a lot taller?”

She shrugged. “Not that I noticed. There’s always someone else who is going to be something I’m not. Taller. Thinner. Blonder. Darker complexion. Lighter skinned. More toned. Less toned. Better curves.”

I glanced over at the perfect peach shape of her ass. The jeans she was in did nothing to hide it. You had to see her from the side to appreciate the roundness and firmness of it. Straight on, it was missing. Just like her breasts…

“Do you know how many clients have suggested I get a boob job?” The dry comment jerked my gaze back up.

“Don’t,” I ordered immediately. “There’s not a damn thing wrong with your breasts.”

I didn’t try to duck away from her knowing smirk. If anything, I met the dare in her eyes head-on.

“Yes, I notice because I’m a red-blooded male and you’re very beautiful.”

“I’ve also done some nude shoots.” Yep, there was the sting and I almost welcomed it as she gave me a verbal slap.

“I may have found those images,” I admitted, then raked a hand through my hair. “Probably makes me sound like a creeper, doesn’t it?”

She shrugged. “If I didn’t pose for them and you hacked them from my phone or something… Maybe. But I know my body, it doesn’t bother me. I used to worry that it would bug Am…”

All at once, what good mood she’d found fled. The sadness in her slashed at me.

“She doesn’t mind?” I asked even as we shifted our angle to head back to the house. We’d circled the barn and come back up the far side. No movement or changes to the landscape. The guys would have done their own scout while they were here, but since it was just me and Goblin on watch, I liked to see it for myself.

Part of the reason we’d set this as our staging area. We were a solid ninety minutes from anywhere. Even if they back traced us, by the time they would head here, we would all be long gone.

That was the plan.

Her long sigh almost made me regret asking the question. “No,” she said after a long moment. “At first, she wasn’t a fan. She doesn’t want me to do it gratuitously.” A new smirk appeared. “I promised her, I never do it for free.” The last was said very tongue in cheek, and I felt more than saw the look she gave me.

“Waiting for me to ask, ‘how much’?” I teased and her laughter was a real reward for the choice.

“Maybe.” Then she sobered. “But the thing is, when it’s for an ad campaign or the story they are trying to tell with the product, I get it… I’m the canvas. Sometimes, you want a blank canvas so what the customer sees is the product.”

“Not sure I follow that,” I said as we followed the house around to the porch. Goblin was roaming, but the day was already promising to be a very warm one. “No offense to the products, but not sure a car or cologne is going to make me look at your body any differently than as your body.”

“Thank you,” she said with a kind of gracious ease. “But… think about it this way. Is it the cologne or the car that got me naked?”

The minute she proffered that idea, my dick was suddenly a little too tightly tucked. Fuck.

“Your expression right now is all the evidence we need that,” she said as she climbed the steps, “sex sells.”

“I really can’t argue with that.” Didn’t want to either. My phone was vibrating as we re-entered the air conditioned space. It felt a lot cooler and better on my overheated skin. The walk had also gotten the knots out of my back.

“Still can’t tell me what we’re doing here?” She had gone to get fresh water bottles and emptied one into Goblin’s bowl before setting a fresh one on my desk.

“No,” I answered. “We’ll be done soon and I can put some more hours into looking for your sister.”

“Sure,” she said, saluting me with the water bottle. “At least until whatever comes up next.”

That doubting note drew blood from my conscience as she headed down the hall.

“I’m going to repack my stuff. Should I add any of their stuff to their bags?”

I sighed. “They did it before they left.”

“Right, so just you and me. I’ll be back to help you then.”

Then she disappeared down the hallway and Goblin walked over to flop at my feet on the wooden floor, panting. He stared up at me until I met his gaze, then he cut loose with a ripper of a fart.

“Everyone is a critic,” I informed him, but he just wagged his tail. Then I looked back down the hall. Bones wanted to keep her clean. It made sense. She couldn’t betray what she didn’t know.

But we’d taken her home and we planned to keep her there. We didn’t take just anyone there either. Granted, she didn’t know where it was exactly right now , that could change the more trips we took.

Then what excuse did we use to keep from letting her go? Because we absolutely should let her go.

I just didn’t want to.

Somehow, I was also pretty damn sure that Lunchbox and Voodoo were on my side in that argument.

Goblin farted again and I grimaced. “Goddamn, what are we feeding you?” I waved a hand in front of me and settled back at the table. The walk had definitely helped to ease the soreness and the stiffness.

That would have to do for now.

Right on schedule, I pulled my headset on and logged in. “Online,” I answered the call with one flick of the key. “We ready to go?”

“Standby,” Bones said. “We have more activity at El Mal Lugar.” The name of the factory was a dead giveaway or maybe it was just an inside joke. “What did our intel say about their movements?”

“Not as much as we would have liked,” I reminded him. “You wanted us in position sooner rather than later. As far as I can tell, they rotate between these three factories, but in a random-non-random pattern. El Mal Lugar was the prior alpha spot for distribution. Current spot should be El Lugar Agrietado.”

“Yeah, El Mal Lugar is far busier than yesterday,” Voodoo warned. “Like, I think they brought in a whole crew.”

It took me a few minutes to bring up their location. I’d spent most of the day before hacking into the local security systems while we did our scans. Voodoo and Lunchbox had also attached splitters to their landlines which got me in behind the firewalls.

If anyone found the equipment, they could boot me out. But I’d already built a backdoor, so I didn’t need that to be in. The CCTV coverage in this region was in no way thick or useful. So good for exfiltration, terrible for getting on site.

“I’m in, let’s have a look.”

The interior cameras showed the workforce present had more than doubled.

“Fuck,” I swore. “They’re swapping their operations here— today .” That was going to fuck up all our plans. I could picture Bones' expression right now. “They’ve got a full crew in there cleaning the tables, and sweeping out the main body of the warehouse. I’d imagine they are going to bring the trucks in to do the cutting here, then box it to send it back out.”

They processed somewhere between ten and twenty million dollars in cocaine weekly in these factories. That was part of the reason we’d been brought in to remove them. Cartels were always jockeying for control and power. Cut off one head, another would rise up to take its place.

Remove the bones of their operations though? It could force them down a chute of the client’s choosing and give us alternate ways of shutting them down. Right now, the only job we had was to destroy these factories.

“How soon do you think they’ll have the drugs on site?” Bones asked, I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head.

“No clue. It could be five minutes or five hours, depending on when they got started.” I checked the other factories. Both empty and unmanned.

The day before, they’d had a full complement and crew…

“Are we a go or do we scrub?” Lunchbox asked. Goblin glanced up from where he was sprawled, his tail thumping. Grace was back.

“Alphabet?” Bones prodded me.

“We’ve got two empty factories and a third now with a new staff. I’m guessing they are on the way to you.”

“Or maybe they saw you guys were looking and are giving you something else to look at.” The soft words from behind me might have made me jump if I hadn’t seen Goblin’s reaction.

“Maybe,” I answered her.

“Tell her to take a walk,” Bones said without any preamble and for now, I ignored him. He wasn’t here and she couldn’t hear him and they weren’t shooting anything yet.

“We’ve got movement,” Voodoo intervened. “Looks like a half-dozen vehicles about a mile out. If that’s more security, we’re fucked for real.”

More security. I leaned forward and studied the screens. There were definitely women in the cleaning crew. They didn’t look like soldiers or mercenaries. They also didn’t look like they were under duress. They were laughing and teasing each other as they moved.

“Anyone get close enough to hear what they are saying?”

“They are bitching about some guy on the telenovela they are all watching. Saying he’s unreal.” Lunchbox’s tone never varied from easy. “Nothing special, why?”

“Something is off,” I said, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Are they putting on a show?” Gracie asked and I cut a glance to the side to look at her. Our earlier conversation. Did the nudity actually sell? If it made you associate the vehicle or the product with why the woman was naked?

“What would be the point of this show?” To get us to pull the plug. “Guys, I’d advise withdrawing sooner rather than later. We can blow the other two locations, put some delayed timers here. We can blow it remotely when they are done.”

“If we do that, we give them time to keep the product on the move.” Bones didn’t like either option.

“There’s no good answer.” If we’d moved the day before, we could have blown the factory with the product in it after the workers went home. “If we blow it while they are there, we’re going to kill innocents. If we don’t, we risk letting the drugs go and that makes all of this a moot point.”

“Unacceptable,” Bones muttered but I didn’t think he was talking to me. The man hated when our options got slashed.

“These trucks are about to be on top of us,” Voodoo warned.

“Hold,” Bones said. “Hold position, stay low. Alphabet, get me IDs on the incoming. Going dark.”

That shut them all off, they’d be able to hear me if I sent but they weren’t transmitting. For now that would have to work. I checked my watch and then worked to switch my camera views.

A light hand feathered over my shoulder and I glanced up at Gracie. Hitting one button on the keyboard, I muted myself. “This could take a while…”

“Can I help?”

I blinked at her. It was a lovely offer, but…

“I can get you drinks, food, you can even have me read something to you if you need it. You have more than one laptop here. I’m not—” She waved a hand to my setup. “Whatever this is, but I can follow instructions.”

“Not yet,” I said. “But let’s keep that in our back pocket. Water would be great, get some for you and drag a chair over here.”

Her whole expression brightened. “On it.”

Bones would be pissed, but he was there and what he didn’t know wouldn’t get me in trouble. I scratched at the scruff on my jaw. I really needed to shave. She settled into the chair next to me and I went to work. I got images of most of the people coming in.

It was definitely more security arriving. The world faded as I snapped screenshots. The cameras on their property weren’t the best and enhancement would be impossible, but we should have enough to start an ID.

Two hours after their arrival, the larger trucks arrived. The soldiers were everywhere. So far the team had remained silent, but I didn’t see any direction for this to go in that wasn’t sideways.

The longer this dragged on, the more uneasy I became. Outside, the sun was going down. The schedule was out the window.

“Blow number two,” Bones said, the hush on the order giving it a more ominous tone than if he’d yelled. That was definitely one way to test it.

“Standby,” I said, answering in the same solemn tone. They’d been offloading pallets of product. Or at least it looked like product. The cleaners had all changed their clothes and wore plastic gowns over everything and face masks.

The guards were still thick around the edges of the room, they had all the angles covered in theory. Chances were they had eyes on the cameras too and I could see quite a bit.

Tabbing over to the second factory that they’d basically just abandoned, I sent the signal to the bombs they’d wired into place. The first detonation filled one of my camera views with fire. The second took out the camera.

I flicked my gaze back to the location with the full staff. The women were already working on breaking the bricks up…

Several men bolted and activity outside increased.

“They have enough here to field an invasion force,” Lunchbox said in a softer whisper. “If we don’t want to blow everything, we could always throw some bleach into the sprinkler system.”

“I’m so glad you think their buildings are up to code and have sprinklers.” I resisted the urge to snort. Pun intended. “The issue we have here is we still don’t know what they are doing…”

“Making craft cocaine.” Three words that I never thought I would hear from Gracie.

“What?” I asked at the same moment as Bones, though she couldn’t hear him.

“Put her on,” Bones said, but I ignored that order for the moment.

“Craft Cocaine. It’s really popular in some circles. It’s a high end business. You want the organic not the chemical-infused, although they call it petrol-infused. Some of the dealers fancy themselves to be like a sommelier for cocaine the way some are for wine. They’ll tell you if it’s earthy or salty or sometimes if it’s just too stinky. The more chemicals it’s cut with and the cheaper it is and you won’t get much for it.”

“It gets you high either way.” I had to know, cause that just sounded about as stupid as the pharma-parties I’d heard about.

“In theory, I suppose. I’ve never used it.”

“Good girl.”

“Alphabet,” Bones said, interrupting. “Stop flirting with the client and put her on the headset. Now. ”

“The boss wants to talk to you,” I said, then switched to the speakers. “She can hear you.”

“Good.” The snap in his voice made me frown. “Miss Black, I appreciate your expertise on designer drugs, but we’re working. You need to find somewhere else to be. Perhaps in another room and stay out of matters that don’t concern you.”

I sighed.

“Bones, you and I are going to have a very long discussion when we’re done,” Voodoo warned. “Make time for it.”

For her part, Grace pursed her lips. “Fine, I’ll let you all get to it . I think I’m just going for a walk.”

“Take Goblin,” I told her, but he was planted with his head on my foot. Probably because my stress was up. “I’d rather you didn’t go too far.”

“As we already discussed,” she said as she headed for the door. “Where am I going to go?”

Then she was out the door and it closed behind. Goblin lifted his head to look at the door then at me.

Fuck.

“Blow number one,” Bones ordered.

“Just so you know,” I said. “I’m with Voodoo, we’re going to be having a talk. I don’t know what your problem with her is, but get the fuck over it already. Blowing number one.”

The incendiaries went off and it pulled away a couple more soldiers, but the majority of security stayed in place. They weren’t leaving their product undefended. Our options were rapidly dwindling.

Goblin stood abruptly and went on point. I shifted in my seat and flicked to the cameras that gave me angles out front and back. They weren’t the best, but they had night vision.

Nothing jumped out at me.

But Goblin didn’t settle and Gracie wasn’t back. “Guys, exfil. Blow it if you have to, but I don’t think this is just about product. I think they are putting on a show.”

“Why would they—” Bones stopped. “We’re abandoning the vehicle here and getting something different. Shut it down, you three get on the move and head north. We’ll catch up to you.”

“We’re on our way,” Lunchbox promised, but I was already rising. If they’d tracked the van here, they could have used today as bait to hold the team there while they came here.

“Let’s go, Goblin,” I said, then tapped my leg. “Stay close.” I already had my gun out and picked up the flashlight. Stepping outside, I let the door bang shut. Might as well let everyone know what was going on.

“Gracie!” I called and eased my way down the steps. Goblin moved right at my side as I left the lights from the porch and headed out back. I hadn’t seen anything. Not even Gracie on the cameras.

There was one place we didn’t have eyes and that was the barn.

“Come on, Gracie. I know you’re pissed. I’d be pissed too. But this isn’t the time to play these games.”

Goblin let out a low sound, it wasn’t quite a growl but his head was up and his tail had gone ramrod straight. Yes, we had company out here.

Hang on, sweetheart. “Gracie,” I called again, trying to sound persuasive. “C’mon, I promise, I’ll pin the dickhead down for you and you can pummel him.”

That was a real promise, but I could prove that to her later. We were almost to the barn. There was no sign of vehicles or movement, but then I could smell it.

Son of a bitch.

“ Gracie!”

I could smell blood…

The adventure will continue in LURE .