Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
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.
Chapter 25
Angus
“Go, go, go! I need to see some hustle!”
Sweat dripped down my face as I quickly climbed up the ladder with a hose draped over my shoulder. Every muscle in my body ached, my legs threatening to give out. With gritted teeth, I scaled my way up the remaining portion of the ladder, reaching the top of the fire station.
“Holy shit. I’m going to die,” Matty gasped as he flopped down on the rooftop next to me, his chest heaving from lack of breath.
“Come on, guys. We need to keep training!” Kieran called out to us from the other side of the roof.
I watched him, Kit, and Garrett climb back down their ladders, sweat stinging my eyes. Part of me was so tired that I wanted to lie down and give up, but all I had to do was think about Zoe and my crew to get my motivation back. All of them were my family. My main motivator.
That meant I had to fight like hell, and I had to train to match.
After gathering my breath, I climbed back down the ladder, my boots hitting the asphalt. I hauled the hose off my shoulder and grimaced as my back ached. The pain didn’t matter, though.
These criminals deserved to be thrown in prison for all they had done. I’d broken laws when I was a teenager, and I faced the consequences. I became a better person afterward.
I didn’t expect the same outcome for cartel members, but they still deserved to be put behind bars.