24. Zoe

Steppingfoot back in the fire station felt like returning home. The ten men who I cared about so dearly spent just about most of their lives here, and this was the place where my investigation flourished. Where I felt hope, determination, desire, and happiness.

It was good to be back home.

I never thought I’d say that after all the pain I endured here in my past, but a lot had changed since I first came back to work on this case. This town wasn’t just full of sad memories anymore. It was a battleground where justice could prevail and evil could fall. A headquarters where good, honest work was done. A home where feelings could flourish and desire could be shared.

“Zoe!”

I smiled as the other firefighters spilled into the apparatus bay to greet me. A surprised squeak broke from me as Cohen pulled me into his strong arms, nearly squeezing the breath right out of me.

“I’m sorry for leaving without saying goodbye,” I apologized as I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him back.

“You scared the hell out of us,” Paolo said as I hugged him next. He stroked my hair as I pressed my cheek against his chest. “You can’t do that.”

I tilted my head back to gaze up at him, a guilty expression adorning my face.

“I know. I’m sorry,” I told him sincerely. “I was scared that I was going to lose you guys.”

Angus took my hand and drew me over to him and Jae.

“We’re not going anywhere,” he assured me as his lips brushed my temple.

Jae slid his hand around to the small of my back, pulling me closer so that he could kiss my cheek.

“Yeah, we’re in this together, remember?” he reminded me.

“You fought so damn hard for that,” Cohen said from behind me.

I smirked and playfully rolled my eyes as I turned to face Tobin, my heart aching at the sight of him on crutches.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I walked closer to him.

Tobin offered me a small smile as he nodded.

“No broken bones. I just need to stay off it,” he assured me before moving closer, his lips gracing my forehead. “I would’ve run across the country to find you, though.”

My heart fluttered as I placed my hand on his cheek, my eyes starting to sting. I could’ve lost him. I could lose any of them, but if we took the cartel down, we would all be so much safer. This threat could come to an end after all these years.

“You all have to be very careful if we’re going to do this,” I warned them as my eyes shifted to every single one of them, my throat clenching. “Please, I can’t… I’ve already lost my mom to these guys. I can’t lose any of you too.”

Faces softened all around me as a wave of emotion swept over us. This situation felt all that more real, along with its risks. Even the thought of going to more funerals made an empty, gaping hole fill my chest. It couldn’t be filled without all of them.

“You won’t lose us. We’re going to fight like hell,” Kit promised.

“We’re ready for this,” Paolo assured me with a determined look on his face. “We’ve been trained to handle dangerous situations. Granted, not cartel-related ones, but we can hold our own.”

Cohen stood next to Paolo with his arms crossed.

“He’s right. We don’t back down from danger. We run toward it,” he reminded me.

They were the bravest men I knew, and if I had to pick anyone to be by my side while I ran into this blaze, it was them. We fed off each other’s energy, and I could feel the anticipation in the air as we longed to end this.

“Hello?”

I whipped around to see Detective Jennifer poking her head into the apparatus bay, my eyes growing wide.

“Detective! Any news?” I asked as we quickly swarmed her.

Obviously, our patience had run out at this point.

Detective Jennifer froze as we hurried toward her. Once we all crowded in front of her, she adjusted the lapel of her black blazer and straightened up.

“Yes, after going through your mother’s notes and cross-checking with what we already have, we suspect that the cartel is expecting a large shipment of illegal drugs on Friday at their main headquarters. We believe that’s the abandoned gym after going through nearby street and surveillance and cameras,” she explained.

My eyes widened. I drove past that gym when visiting my dad! All of the cars parked outside struck me as weird, but I was so focused on going back home that I barely spared more than a few seconds thinking about it.

“Woah, woah. Wait,” Gabe said as he blinked a few times in shock. “How big of a shipment are we talking?”

“Are you really sure that’s the headquarters?” Matty asked.

“How many cartel members are there?” Tobin questioned, adding to the swell of noisy confusion.

Paolo lifted his hands, quieting everyone down in an instance.

“Let her talk,” he demanded before motioning to Detective Jennifer. “If you have any extra information, we’d be grateful.”

Detective Jennifer crossed her arms.

“We’re about ninety percent sure that the gym is their main headquarters, which is a big enough building to house a lot of illegal product. Pounds and pounds of it. We had an officer go undercover and scope out the area, and he saw a lot of suspicious characters entering and leaving it. Unmarked trucks. Vans with tinted windows. Odd activity,” Detective Jennifer described. “We’ve seen about fifteen to twenty unique people come and go.”

I released a slow, uneven breath. Twenty possible enemies? How in the world would we take them down?

“How did you find out about the shipment?” I asked her.

“Clockwork,” Detective Jennifer stated with a small smile. “Your mother made note of certain patterns when she was investigating the cartel. She noticed that activity increased at their bases, especially their headquarters, once a month. The last day of the month. She mentioned seeing a large, unmarked moving truck on that day every time.”

“A shipment,” Garrett murmured. “Are there always fires on the last day of the month?”

Detective Jennifer’s smile broadened.

“Yes, it was hard to notice that pattern until now,” she replied. “They’ll probably set a building on fire to distract everyone while they complete the shipment.”

“If we can check the times of the fires, we can beat them to it,” Kit suggested. “We can stop them at their headquarters before they destroy anything else and before they drop off the shipment.”

Detective Jennifer nodded.

“It’s a big job. Given how small the police force is in this town, we’re willing to work with the fire crew to take this threat down,” she said before looking at me. “You’re a civilian, but we wouldn’t have gotten this far without you and your mom. If you stay out of harm’s way, you can assist.”

I was already in harm’s way, but I didn’t argue. I needed to be part of this!

“Thank you,” I told her. “Where do we even start?”

Detective Jennifer placed her hands on her hips as her eyes moved over everyone, taking in their unwavering determination and figuring out how to put it to work.

“We come up with a plan, and we execute it without failure,” she stated. “Think we can do that?”

At this point, we had no other choice. If we failed, the cartel would flood the town and others nearby with their dangerous, illegal product, and they would continue burning down buildings to cover themselves. This plan had to work, or the cartel would retaliate.

I didn’t want to see what that would look like.

After sharing a firm look with the crew, I looked back at Detective Jennifer and gave her a strong nod.

“Absolutely.”

It was time for war.