Our legacy. I suppose that’s what it is now. I like the sound of that.
Taking her hand back into mine, I give it a hard squeeze. “I promise you the same. Until my dying breath.”
21
ZAHRA
“Hmm, that looks a little off. Do you mind if I adjust it?” I reach my hand up, pausing right before I reach Declan’s face, and brace myself for the rush that will come with our skin finally making contact. The fact that my body always had some kind of response whenever I came into contact with Declan is an incredibly irritating development. Especially given the fact that very soon we’ll be living together.
“Go for it.” He leans his head to the side, giving me full access to the small speaker slightly falling from his ear.
With our height difference, I have to stand up on my toes to correctly place the earpiece. “Okay, you should be all set. Let's test it out.”
I walk away, putting a few yards between us and whispering into the mic embedded in my watch, “Declan? Can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear.” His thick accent fills my ear. “Do you want to come back so we can go over the plan one more time?”
That would be sensible, though it did make my personalplan to put some physical distance between us a bit harder to achieve. I debated telling him we’re all set, but our mission is too valuable to have it go wrong. I’m embarrassed to admit that I keep feeling this magnetic pull toward him.
I walk up to Declan, leaving no less than six feet between us. “Alright. So we’ll scan the perimeter first, checking for any unknown vehicles or workers. Once we’re sure that’s set, Azula and Aidan will do a final check of all security cameras in the building. Then we’ll go in.”
I had contacted my Uncle Fergal, who’s been overseeing various trade routes for us, but he denied hearing or seeing anything suspicious. Once we hit another dead end, we decided to finally clue Aidan into the rat problem. He had refused to stay home, which is good, given that we shouldn’t barge into our warehouse without some sort of backup. If one of our own has chosen to betray us, odds are high that they’re not working alone.
Azula’s voice comes through both of our speakers. “For the record, I still think I should be the one on the ground while you two are miles away in the surveillance van.”
“They won’t push back on two bosses coming in to check on their shipments. They will try to stall our seconds, though, in the hopes of covering their asses. We’ve discussed this.”
“Just because we’ve discussed this doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Azula retorts before going back to being silent.
My eyes lock with Declan’s and we give each other a nod before heading toward the warehouse. One thing we agreed on is to stay as close to each other as possible during this time. We’d only split up once we were inside, once he ensured all our staff were located in the main level, allowing me time to install additional high-camouflage security cameras in the loading dock.
We take thirty minutes to check the outside of thewarehouse and install a set of cameras that would cover any blind spots the preinstalled cameras were missing. From what we could tell, nothing on the outside was worth our attention. Every vehicle and loading pod is set in place, which means whoever was stealing was smart enough not to leave any traces behind.
Walking side by side, we approach the two security guards at the front door, who immediately let us enter.
Declan’s voice booms through the warehouse a moment later. “LISTEN UP, I need everyone in this building front and center in the next five minutes.”
Few things were funnier than seeing a bunch of six-foot, two-hundred-plus-pound men scramble like headless chickens in front of us.
Marky, an Irishman who’s the acting leader of this group, is the one to greet us a moment later. “Boss, Boss.” He nods to me and Declan. “What’s going on? We didn’t receive a call that you were dropping by.”
“Nothing you need to be worried about. We’ve started doing surprise drop-ins at all our sites. Just to ensure quality control,” I lie. They didn’t need to know the real reason we were here. “I’m counting nineteen workers, but there’s twenty assigned here. Right, Marky?”
“That’s right, Boss.”
“Any idea where our missing soldier is?”
“No, Boss.”
My eyes lock with Declan. “Alright, nobody move until I find who’s missing.”
I pull out my Glock and turn off the safety as I enter the first storage room—empty. Rooms two and three are the same and I’m starting to believe that whoever our rat is long gone.
The final room I enter looks pristine. A little too pristine. As if someone has tried their best to scrub any evidence of thembeing here. Throwing the storage lockers open, I come up dry. Wherever the final soldier is hiding, I will find him and make him regret crossing me.
I walk to the first shipment box in the center of the room that appears untouched. Sifting through the materials, I realize dozens of computer chips and a handful of guns are missing.
“Motherfucker.” The curse is out of my mouth when a sharp stinging pain hits the back of my skull and I fall to my knees.
