“What?” he whispers back, sounding slightly offended. “It helps me focus.”
“It makes me want to smother you with your own tactical condom,” I growl.
“Fair,” he concedes, taking a single step back to put some distance between us.
We creep to the ridge overlooking the loading bay. From there, we’ve got eyes on everything.
Voorhees nudges me. “I got movement. Four… no, five guys. But no Misfits.”
I follow his gaze. He’s right. The men standing lookout are all dressed in suits and ties. None of them are rocking the cut we’ve learned to loathe.
They stand there for a few minutes before the first item is unloaded. But they’re not moving crates or weapons; whatever they got makes them really fucking nervous. It’s like they know they’re being watched with their constant head swivels and jumpiness.
Outside the building, two black SUVs idle with no plates. Both of them are waiting for further instruction. That’s when my stomach drops.
They aren’t peddling stolen merchandise this time; they’re peddling people. Just like Drac feared.
“Fuck,” I mutter. “He was right.”
Voorhees’ jaw flexes. “You seeing what I’m seeing?”
“Yeah.” My voice drops to a lethal whisper. “Human cargo.”
Gremlin stops his damn stupid humming, his expression darkening. “That’s low. Are you sure it’s Moseley behind this?”
As if we beckoned him by saying his name, Moseley steps out of the first vehicle, his hands folded neatly in front of him.
“Bring out the first one,” he shouts.
We stay hidden, watching as two of the men haul out a terrified young woman with zip-tied hands. She’s wearing a long, tattered white dress, and her hair is matted. She looks to be of foreign descent because her face is a mixture of terror and tear-stained track marks, and her hair is a dark auburn brown. She stumbles as one of the men pushes her hard enough to bring her to her knees. The same man grabs her by the hair, violently ripping her up to look into his manic eyes, causing her to scream.
Voorhees moves forward instantly, but I grab his arm, halting him. “Not yet.”
“They’re hurting her.”
“I know. But if we charge in blind and get caught, we can’t help her or any of the others.” I point at the SUV. “We need proof. Then we can dismantle this entire fucking operation.”
He wrestles with it, but he nods, fury simmering just beneath the surface.
Gremlin whispers, “Look.... there’s more of them.”
And he’s right.
A second group of captives, no more than four or five, are ushered from a van and pushed toward the loading door.
My blood runs ice-cold.
This isn’t small scale.
This is organized… big… and it looks like Moseley is behind it all.
He’s gonna burn for it too
I pull out my phone and discreetly snap photos of everything I see, making sure to capture faces, plates, the warehouse, and what I can of the captives, getting every angle I can.
“Alright. We’ve seen enough. Time to fall back,” I whisper shout.
That’s when I hear Moseley’s voice carry across the empty parking lot, arguing with the tall man who stands in front of him with his arms crossed, looking pissed the fuck off and annoyed.
