Sasha’s hands tighten on the steering wheel as he speeds up. “It’s an old textile factory.”
Sasha didn’t even needthe blinking dot to lead us to the abandoned factory by the water. I don’t see any lights in the building from where we sit in the quiet car up the street, but I can see some cars parked on the far side of it.
“I’ve got a very bad feeling about this,” Sasha says.
“Me too.” I pick at a hangnail and click my tongue against my teeth when I pull too far and start to bleed.
Every part of me is itching to rush in there guns blazing, but I remember the creature in my abdomen that my app has informed is now the size of a kidney bean. Nate’s lecture about not doing things alone bumps around my brain.
Because I indeedcanbe taught, I force a calm exhale and dial Leo. He answers on the third ring. It’s loud as hell through the line, though, so I know he’s out somewhere.
“Give me a sec,” he says and I try my best not to snap that I don’t have a sec and wait.
“Where are you?” I ask when it grows marginally quieter on his side of the phone.
“Just got to Leroy’s, why?”
“Have you been drinking? I need you to come to the textile factory by the East shipyard. I think there’s trouble.”
“Shit,” he mutters, but I hear footsteps and the beeping of his car so I know he’s already on his way. “Did you call Sean?”
“No, I need you to. I’ll call Ness.”
“Where’s Max?”
“That’s the problem,” I say. “Get here.”
I hang up before immediately calling Ness, whose phone rings all the way to voicemail, and Nate’s is the same. They’re probably already sleeping because they’re boring and go to sleep early. I call Nate’s phone again, and on the second try, he answers.
“Yellow,” he says in that way of his.
“Where are you?”
“Bubble bath,” he says, and I can’t tell if he’s joking or not. I’m suddenly gripped with fear at the prospect of telling him the situation. He’s so good, the best Morelli, I think, or at least the most wholesome. He’s so excited to be a father, he’s such a baby hog as is, it’s going to make his whole life. And Vanessa ispregnant, for Christ’s sake. More pregnant than me. I shouldn’t bother them with this.
It’s not safe for them. It’s?—
“Mar?” Nate asks. I blink, closing my mouth and swallowing. Sasha looks at me with ducked eyebrows.
The entire world doesn’t have to be on your shoulders. You can share the weight.
I take a long breath. Nate’s about to hang up when I finally speak. “I’m sending you an address, I need you to get there as soon as you can. It might be nothing, but?—”
“Should we call in more guys?” he asks without missing a beat.
I take another breath. “Yes.”
“Drop the location,” he says, and then mutters an abbreviated form of the message to Vanessa. “Okay, I’ll be there soon. Love you,” he says before the line goes dead.
I sit in the quiet for a moment before looking to Sasha and giving a nod. Backup is already on the way, from the two I called and the messages Sasha sent. Maxim is probably in there having a meeting and it will be fine, no drama, no dead bodies, just a normal Sunday night.
I lower my window and force myself to relax in my seat. “Now we wait.”
We are a solid fifty-five seconds into anxiously waiting when the unmistakable sound of a gunshot goes off in the direction of the building.
“Shit.” I’m already pulling open my door, and Sasha is doing the same. No more time to wait.
He leads the way down the block and I peer around his big shoulders, my hands holding my gun ready and pointed to the ground. He keeps one hand on the Glock at his hip.
