Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

D etectives Johnson and McMillan stood beside Noah and Rochelle on the sidewalk outside the warehouse. Together, grim-faced, they stared at the building in the early morning light. It didn’t look good. Windows were smashed, soot clung to the brick on the ground floor, and the shop was completely burned out. The stench of smoke and fire extinguisher chemicals hung in the air.

The fire crew were packing up and the chief walked over to join them. “Most of the damage was contained to the shop area.” She brushed back the hair that’d worked loose from her ponytail, smearing soot across her cheek. “The damage is cosmetic, with the worst of it contained to the store—mainly because that had the most to burn. Aside from some isolated patches of fire damage on the other two floors, from the Molotov cocktails before they were doused with fire retardant, it’s mostly smoke damage.” She glanced back at the building. “Helluva clean up, though.”

“But it’s safe to remain in the building?” Rochelle asked.

“I’m not sure why you’d want to stay in there, but yeah, it’s safe.”

“Thanks,” Rochelle said with sincerity.

The fire chief nodded at them before striding off to join her team.

“I’ll get the team to board up the shop windows,” Noah said once she was gone. “No point in replacing the glass right now. We need to look into protecting the sprinkler system too.”

“You reckon they’ll try this again?” Johnson asked, making no effort to hide his skepticism.

“Who knows what they’ll do next?” Noah said. “It’s clear this isn’t the end of it, though. How many Demons do you have in custody?”

“Eleven,” Johnson said. “That includes the ones taken out by beanbags while climbing the fire escape. Of course, we have another three in the hospital with gunshot wounds. No dead. This time.” He shook his head, a grin on his face. “I gotta ask—beanbags?”

Noah inclined his head toward Rochelle. “The boss made the mistake of telling the triplets to use their brains to defend the place, seeing as she won’t let them near a gun until they’ve had some training. They took that to mean they should improvise—hence the megaphone and beanbags.”

McMillan frowned. “Would have been good if they’d stopped at that. Your boy blew up some bikes, taking out a streetlight and windows in the process. You might want to tell Ms. Simmons that she’s pissing off the neighbors.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Noah said drolly.

“What I’d like to know,’ Rochelle said. “Is where was the patrol car that should have been keeping an eye on the place?”

The two detectives exchanged a look, their expressions dark.

“We don’t know,” Johnson said at last. “Somebody gave the order to stop patrols. They pretended to be Mac to do it.”

“Trust me,” McMillan growled. “We’re just as pissed as you are about this.”

“I doubt it.” Rochelle’s eyes were ablaze. “You didn’t spend half the night fighting off people intent on barbequing you.”

McMillan glared at her. “They used my name to put you in danger.”

Rochelle was unmoved. “Again. We were the ones dodging flames.”

“Hey.” Johnson held out his hands, asking for peace. “Nobody’s saying you guys haven’t been through it. Mac’s just angry at being used. We’re all on the same side here, remember?”

“Are we?” Rochelle’s eyes narrowed at them.

McMillan exploded, his head turning purple, which couldn’t have been good for his heart condition. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Unintimidated, Rochelle took a step closer to the man. “There’s a leak, and I’m wondering if it’s in the DA’s office or your department. Where do you think it is, Detective?”

“Okay, enough.” Noah stepped between them. “This isn’t helping.” He looked at Johnson. “You’re investigating that order, right?”

“You bet your life we are.” Johnson swept back his navy suit jacket and planted his hands on his hips. He had a good few inches on them all, but his frame was mainly skin and bone. Didn’t mean there wasn’t muscle in there somewhere. He just hid it well.

“This can’t go on,” Johnson said. “You know that.” He glanced at the warehouse. “Your safe house is falling apart. The smart move is to get Ms. Simmons out of there before things get worse.”

“Worse how?” Rochelle demanded. “So far, they’ve broken in to shoot at her, and now they’ve tried to burn her out. They’re running out of options—and gang members. Plus, you know we can’t move her. As much as I’d like to get her out of here.”

“Maybe you can get one of the guys you picked up last night to turn on their boss,” Noah said, knowing it was a long shot.

McMillan scoffed. “I’d say the chances of that are about the same as you getting your client to leave the warehouse.”

“Surely there’s something you can use for leverage,” Rochelle said. “Some way you can put the pressure on. There must be somebody inside the Demon Brothers who wants out and is happy to snitch on Eddie Hanson to do it.”

“We know how to do our job,” McMillan barked.

Johnson pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do you two need a time-out? We’re all on the same side here, remember?”

“Yet someone inside the police department called off our support.” Rochelle was clearly angrier than Noah had realized.

McMillan bristled again, closing the distance between him and Rochelle. “Are you calling us crooked?”

He’d picked the wrong woman to try to intimidate. “No. I’m asking you outright. Are you in Eddie Hanson’s pocket?”

At this point, Noah and Johnson wedged themselves between the pair, breaking them apart. Noah stood in front of Rochelle. Not to protect her, more to stop her from punching the older cop.

“This isn’t achieving anything,” he said to Johnson.

“No kidding.” Johnson had a hand on his partner’s arm. “I get why you might think we’re dirty in this situation, but we aren’t. All I can tell you is that we’ll find out what happened last night, and in the meantime, we’ll double the patrols. This time, we’ll make it clear that the only order they follow to stop driving by here comes from us in person. Does that help?”

“Yeah,” Noah said quickly, before Rochelle could lose her cool again.

“Come on.” Johnson clapped his partner on the shoulder and turned him toward their car. “Let’s go interview some of those Demon Brothers.”

“You think we can be trusted with that?” McMillan called over his shoulder to Rochelle.

Thankfully, she didn’t reply.

They watched as the two men got into their sedan and drove away.

Noah turned to face his boss. “Okay, why were you prodding those guys?”

“I needed to see how they reacted,” she said, looking weary.

“And did it tell you anything?”

“Yeah. I don’t think either of them is in on this.”

“Then perhaps they can help.”

“Maybe.” She didn’t look convinced.

“I’ll get this place secured,” Noah said.

Rochelle nodded. “I need to have a word with the triplets. There’s using your brain and improvising, and then there’s making a laughingstock of Benson Security. I mean, the beanbags I can buy. But a megaphone? Not to mention, we’re facing a bill for the damage Harris caused when he blew up the bikes.”

“It helped, though. All of it did.”

“This time. Who knows what they’ll do next time.”

She had a point.

“Can you leave it until later? I need them to board up the windows first,” he said.

“Sure.” She glanced down at her ruined nightwear. “I could use a shower and change anyway.”

Noah watched her walk into the building while making a mental list of everything they needed to shore up the place. He hoped Annabelle hadn’t been too emotionally attached to the contents of her aunt’s old shop because they were gone. At this rate, they wouldn’t have to worry about moving Annabelle—the building would disintegrate around her, and she’d be forced to leave by default.

He sent a quick text to the triplets, who appeared almost instantly. Once they were set up, he went upstairs to find Annabelle and Katrina clearing up the latest mess in her apartment.

Annabelle smiled at him. “Abasi and Rodrigo were looking for you. I think they’re down in the office now.”

“You okay?” he asked, searching her face for the truth.

“I don’t know,” she said with a tight laugh. “Ask me again later?”

“You’ve got it.” After one last glance at Katrina, who nodded that she had everything under control, he went back downstairs.

The damage on the second floor was minimal. The Demons had focused on setting fire to the first floor, blocking exits, and attacking the top floor. Although their use of fire, supplemented with smoke bombs, meant the whole building reeked. They’d intended to smoke Annabelle out, literally. Almost succeeded too. But he couldn’t think about that.

He found Rodrigo and Abasi sitting at Evan’s computer station, while he was downstairs helping his brothers board up windows. They looked to be deep in conversation, which stopped abruptly as soon as he entered the room. When they saw it was him, they looked relieved.

Curious.

“Is Violet on patrol?” he asked as he pulled a chair up beside them.

“She’s stationed herself on the roof for now,” Rodrigo said, “and she’s armed to the teeth.”

Noah wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. “What’s up? Annabelle said you were looking for me.”

Rodrigo got up, crossed to the door, and shut it.

Curiouser still.

“We have a plan,” Rodrigo said when he sat back down, keeping his voice low.

“Is it a plan Rochelle wouldn’t approve of?” Noah asked.

Rodrigo smiled with amusement. “Oh yeah.”

“Is somebody gonna tell me this plan, or do I have to guess?”

“Abasi and I have been talking,” Rodrigo said. “We don’t like the current situation. We’re living on borrowed time just sitting here, waiting to be attacked, and we reckon it’s time to change the game.”

Noah frowned at Abasi. “You can’t shoot anybody in the head.”

“This is a new plan,” he drawled, perfectly relaxed.

“You see.” Rodrigo sat forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “We can’t start a war with any of the other gangs because nobody’s dumb enough to take on the Demons. But there’s nothing to stop us from disrupting their day-to-day activities.”

“I thought we were doing that.” Noah rubbed his chin, suddenly aware that he smelled like a smokehouse too. “Aren’t we chasing their money?”

“We’re talking about something a little more immediate,” Rodrigo said. “They have supply chains going through Texas. If we found out the where and when of what they’ve got going, we could sneak in and mess things up for them.”

“No business. No money. No power,” Abasi said. “And a whole lot of pissed-off customers.”

“They’ll have plenty to worry about other than Annabelle’s testimony.”

Noah considered their proposal for a moment. They were right that Rochelle would never go for it—especially if it meant interfering with ongoing official investigations. “I assume you mean for this to be a three man operation.”

“Violet isn’t good at stealth,” Rodrigo said, which was a massive understatement.

“Or at not killing people,” Abasi added.

“The triplets are too young and inexperienced,” Rodrigo continued. “Katrina doesn’t have the training, and Rochelle would stop us. Which leaves us three.”

“How do we find out what they have going on?” Noah didn’t challenge their assessment of the team. “We’d have to bring Evan in on this. If we do it,” he added hastily.

Rodrigo shook his head. “Evan will tell his brothers. Or freak out over whether his mom would approve of whatever he’s hacking.”

“Then where do we get our info?”

“I still have contacts,” Abasi said. “I didn’t burn all my bridges when I took apart the James Family.”

“And,” Rodrigo said with a smile, “we have Elle.”

Noah’s eyebrows shot up at that. “You want to leave our own tech specialist in the dark but call in the one in the London office? Let me count the ways that could backfire.”

“Abasi’s practically her brother,” Rodrigo said. “She’d do anything for him.”

Abasi didn’t contradict him. “At least this time, she’s half a world away from any physical danger.”

“Elle can find trouble wherever she is.” Noah wasn’t joking. Sometimes, he suspected the young, blue-haired hacker went searching for it.

“I’ll make sure she knows the parameters of her involvement,” Abasi said.

“So, what? We dig up whatever info we can get on the Demons’ operations and then sabotage them?”

Abasi and Rodrigo shared a look.

“That sums it up,” Rodrigo said.

“And we do this without the rest of the team knowing? Or even noticing we’re missing?”

“Yeah.” Rodrigo grinned.

“I don’t like it,” Noah said. “I don’t like going behind Rochelle’s back. It doesn’t feel right. Plus, I don’t like the idea of leaving Annabelle alone.”

Abasi was unimpressed. “Told you he’d go all Boy Scout on us.”

“He’s just thinking it through,” Rodrigo said before turning back to Noah. “You won’t be leaving Annabelle alone. We’ll get Violet to watch her.”

Noah cocked an eyebrow at him. “Can’t tell you how reassuring that is.”

“Look.” Rodrigo was earnest. “You don’t know a whole lot about my past, but believe me when I tell you that I have extensive experience dealing with organized crime.”

“And I used to be organized crime,” Abasi added.

Rodrigo shot him a look that said he wasn’t helping. “Noah, it’s nine days until the trial. Last night was only the beginning. We can’t just fortify the place and sit around waiting for someone to shoot at us. We need to take the fight to them. You know I’m right about this. Benson Security isn’t a passive organization. You’ve been on plenty of missions where the job was to undermine the enemy. That’s all we’re asking you to do here. This op’s covert. Disruption only. It will buy us the time we need to keep Annabelle safe, I promise.”

Noah rubbed his sore leg. It was healing nicely, but he still experienced a twinge of pain now and then. They were right. Things would only get worse if they didn’t do something proactive. But he didn’t have to like it.

“No killing,” he said firmly.

“Stealth operation,” Rodrigo said with a nod. “We’re in and out without them even catching a glimpse of us.”

Noah stared Abasi down. “No. Killing.”

He smiled. “I heard you the first time. Scout’s honor. No killing.”

“And if there’s even a hint that Annabelle won’t be safe while we’re gone, we call it off.”

“Agreed,” Rodrigo said readily.

Abasi nodded.

“And you call Elle.” Noah pointed at Abasi. “I need some deniability here.”

“So, you’re in?” Rodrigo asked as the two men held him with their gaze.

“I’m in.” Noah stood. “Don’t make me regret this.”

With that, he left the office. Already second-guessing his decision.