Chapter TWENTY-THREE
MITCH PARKEDthe Range Rover around the corner from the Fury. A quick glance at the time showed he wasn’t scheduled to meet with Rocky, Stack, and Lucky for another fifteen minutes. Finn was catching a ride to the pub with one of them.
Perfect. Time for a quick call to Ross.
“Well, it’s about bloody time.”
“Hello to you too.”
Ross chuckled, and there was the soundof rustling paper. For a moment Mitch wished he were sitting in the office with Ross instead of waiting for the likes of Rocky and his crew.
“What’s news? Tell me you have something for me.”
“Not enough. But some.” Mitch glanced around, checking activity on the street. “From what I’ve gleaned from Finn and the discussions he’s had with Rocky and the boys, it seems the date’s been set. Fridaythe tenth of February.”
“Yeah, got that info already.”
“Another note?”
“Uh-huh. It arrived this afternoon. It outlines a plan to collect the shipment when it clears customs and transport straightaway. It mentions unloading and reloading at a warehouse around Alexandria before moving the motorcycle parts to the CMC warehouse and getting the drugs heading down south ASAP.”
That information surprisedMitch because, when he’d questioned Pete, trying to get as much detail from him as possible, Pete swore he didn’t know the specific locations, but Mitch knew Rocky wouldn’t be stupid enough to risk bringing that volume of drugs back and having them on CMC premises, no matter for how short a time. “Was there an address?”
Ross’s sigh was clear. “No. Not specifically, just that the warehouse waslocated in Alexandria. I’m hoping you can find out something more. In the meantime, we’re checking out factories and warehouses in the area to see if there’s anything linked to the Soldiers. Plus we’re scouting out vacant premises. I’ve checked in with some confidential informants to see what the word is on the street and keeping an eye on activity with the Brutes.”
“What about just interceptingthe shipment while it’s at customs like was discussed last week?”
“I wish. It would be so much easier. But we know there are others involved in this. We want to broaden the net, catch as many of the parties involved as possible at each point in the distribution chain. The foreign authorities confirmed the presence of the shipment before it left on the ship, and an inspection will take place hereto confirm the drugs have arrived on our soil before the container is released.”
“Yeah, makes sense. Just wishful thinking, I guess. Anyway, I’ve got a few more names for you.” Mitch checked the notes on his phone before rattling off the names of some of Rocky’s associates. “Is Rowena able to shed any more light on Warren Jones, aka Stack? The guy’s really hard to read—cool as a cucumber butdangerous as all hell—and I could do with some help in working out how to crack him. He’s the person closest to Rocky, but he keeps all the information close to his chest. In fact, sometimes it’s like Stack is running the place, as Rocky seems to rely on him a hell of a lot. And Rocky seems really on edge lately.”
“On edge?”
“Rocky’s the opposite of Stack. Where Stack is calm, Rocky seems rattled.From the physical signs and his behavior, I think he’s using, and I don’t just mean dabbling. It’s worrying, Ross.” Mitch took a deep breath. “A guy wielding the kind of power Rocky has, going off the rails, has the potential to cause a lot of damage.” The image of Finn’s face when Rocky hit him flashed in Mitch’s mind.
The sound of Ross’s voice brought him back to the present. “I’ll see if Ican find out anything additional about Warren Jones. But you be careful, Mitch. It worries me that your identity is at Peter’s mercy. What if he slips up and says something? The longer this thing drags on, the more chance there is of that happening.”
“I’ll be careful. We only need to hold out another week and a half. Listen, Ross, I’m going to have to go. The boys will be turning up at any moment,and I need to get inside the pub.”
“No worries, mate. Stay in touch.”
“Will do.”
Mitch terminated the call and shoved the phone deep into his jacket pocket before making his way around the corner to the Fury. He bought a beer and found a table in the beer garden. This area of the pub wasn’t crowded so early in the afternoon—in fact, a few of the tables were empty. He could see the street fromthe table where he sat, and even that was fairly quiet. The afternoon sun beat down on the paved area, so he shrugged off his jacket and slung it across the back of his chair.
The familiar roar of some bikes drew Mitch’s gaze to the road beyond the brick wall that separated the beer garden from the footpath. Out on the street, Rocky and Stack slipped their motorbikes into the space between acouple of cars. Across the road, Pete was reverse parking his ute. A horn tooted, someone too impatient to wait for the large dark blue Toyota HiLux to clear the road. The horn sounded again as the car pulled out and swerved around Pete’s ute, the impatient driver flipping Pete the bird.
“Arsehole!”
Rocky had taken off his helmet and yelled after the accelerating car, and Mitch couldn’t helpchuckling at his outraged expression. As if Rocky were the king of road courtesy. He was more like the poster child for road rage.
Rocky and Stack were securing their bikes as another Harley pulled in. The women sitting at a table across the beer garden from Mitch and obviously enjoying after-work drinks, judging from their tailored outfits and laptop bags, were looking at the guys on the bikes.The loud Harleys always seemed to draw attention, particularly when they arrived anyplace en masse.
Mitch looked across the road to see Finn get out of the HiLux. Mitch smiled wide at the sight of the man he was coming to realize had captured a special part of him. Maybe it was too early to say it was love, but there was definitely something that felt a hell of a lot like it, or not far off—awarmth, a sense of completeness, like something had been missing until Finn entered his life. Something that scared the shit out of Mitch.
Finn looked over the roof of the car, his gaze skirting past his brother and the others, straight to the pub. They locked eyes, and Finn’s smile was bright as he saluted in Mitch’s direction, causing Mitch’s happiness to notch up another level.
Mitch glancedaway and ducked his head, afraid he’d given away his feelings. He reached for his Stella and took a large gulp of the cold beer while he gathered his thoughts and tried to bring his feelings under control. He was a twenty-nine-year-old man, not a blushing teenager, for Christ’s sake.
