The speaker laughed. “I think we leave that little surprise for later. Do we have a deal? Or do I get to have more fun with your sister?”
In the background, Naomi cried out in pain.
“I bet she can take a lot before she breaks, but I’m up to the challenge.”
Link’s jaw ticked.
Everyone around the table tensed.
I saw red. I opened my mouth, but Havoc put a hand on my shoulder, reminding me that I couldn’t react. This asshole was looking for a reaction. My words would never be enough, so I’d have to wait and give it to him in person.
“We have a deal,” Link ground out.
“Good.” Brass was back on the line. “Link, I know you don’t trust me, but don’t fuck with these guys. If you screw this up, they won’t just kill Naomi. They’ll make her beg for death.”
The line clicked off.
“Fuck!” Link shouted, turning and punching the wall behind him. Plaster fell away, leaving a big-ass hole.
I understood his frustration, but I had no intention of wasting my anger and energy on plaster. I was bottling that shit up to unleash on these bastards.
“Tell me you got something, Tap,” Link growled.
“It didn’t pinpoint his exact location, but it did give me a radius.” He angled his laptop toward us so we could see the screen. There was a red circle around the South Park District. “He’s somewhere in this area.”
“Did you get his number?” Link asked.
“Yes.” Tap hit a few more keys. “But his phone’s already offline. Brass knows a little too much about what I can do.”
“Goddammit. I wish I knew who we were dealing with,” Link replied.
“I ran face recognition software, but the images I pulled from the city’s cameras were too grainy. They didn’t come back with shit.”
Link glanced at his watch. “We have fifty minutes. You guys ready to head out? We need to get Eagle in position.”
I patted the left side of my cut, finding comfort in the metal of my pistol against my chest. In addition, I had two knives on me, and my best rifle was already loaded in the back seat of Havoc’s truck. Link wanted me to find a perch and cover him and Havoc, but I wanted to be closer to the action. I wanted to be the first person Naomi saw when she was released, and the last person these motherfuckers laid eyes on before they died.
But in the end, Naomi’s safety trumped any of my own needs or wants.
I grabbed the bag of cash from beside Link’s desk and slung it over my shoulder. Then Spade, Stocks, and I followed Link and Havoc to the vehicles. I stuffed the bag of cash in Link’s saddle bag as I gave him and Havoc directions. As the two of them talked amongst themselves, the rest of us piled into Havoc’s truck and headed out. Stocks drove with Spade in the passenger’s seat while I sat in the back, affixing my new Nightforce NXS sight to my rifle. The sight had cost me a pretty penny, but it was second generation and the best on the market. I couldn’t wait to see what it could do.
“Where are we going?” Stocks asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
“There’s a storage facility across the street from the piers. Orange and white building, four stories high. It has a fire escape on the back of the building with roof access.”
“How do you know this?” Spade asked, turning in his seat to watch me.
I double checked my rifle, making sure everything was ready to go. “Old habit.” I shrugged. “I work not far from the pier, and I’ve walked by the building a few times.”
The look he gave me said he thought I was crazy. I don’t know what Spade did in the service, but he clearly hadn’t been a scout sniper, or he’d understand. Whenever I frequented a place, I made damn sure I knew how to get up high and take out threats. I knew of four sniper nests surrounding the fire station. If we were ever attacked, I had plenty of spots I could pick off our attackers from.
We arrived with twenty minutes to spare, so I directed Stocks to park on the side of the storage facility and shouldered my rifle case. It was dark, and not much was going on in the South Park District. At least, not much that decent, law-abiding folk would be interested in. Residents of the South Park District knew how to mind their own damn business.
With Stocks and Spade watching my six, I quickly climbed the fire escape up to the roof and set up my rifle. The two of them would stay on the ground and make sure nobody ambushed Link and Havoc or surprised me.
Once my rifle was in place, I used the sight to scan the area. There was nobody hiding in the bushes, no nefarious looking vehicles idling nearby, nothing looked out of place. I texted Link and Havoc an all-clear before settling in to wait.
***
