“India doesn’t strike me as the type of woman who loses track of time,” said Drew, arching a brow at Blake. “Instead, cuz, I’d wonder what the fuck they’re up to. Dani already warned us that Indi just might end Rob Kilgore for what he’d done to her client. Even though that bastard might be six feet under now, if she and Brooke found something that implicated the rest of Reflex—inanyway—in the Cask & Canvas office while they were searching it, they might go scorched earth. You know how your woman can get, and the Forrester sisters have already told us not to be misled by Indi’s angelic appearance.”
“Fuck. I know.”
“Scorched earth or not, Indi isn’t about to allow Brooke to put herself in danger, though,” Riley pointed out. “You know that as well as I do. They found something and took extra time to investigate it. Indi isn’t familiar with APS expectations when it comes to the women in our lives, while Brooke undoubtedly didn’t think about checking in. Your woman knows we’re aware she’s safe with Indi, Blake, so I bet it never even occurred to her.”
Blake’s eyebrows raised as she stared at Riley. “You’re telling me Kelly would have gotten a pass if she would have done the same thing?”
“You’re fucking kidding me, right? That ass would be as red as her hair. All I’m saying is that India Lunastar is a damn good security agent. She’ll make sure Brooke is safe,broki, and won’t let her out of her sight.”
The minutes ticked by as they continued to wait. Finally, at long last, Blake’s phone signaled she had a text message. “About goddamn time. ThankChrist,” Blake bitched, clicking on the message. “It’s from Brooke.” After reading the message,however, she cursed violently and jumped to her feet, sending the rest of the APS management team on high alert as they rose with her. “I willkillthat motherfucker with my bare hands if he so much as touches one hair on her head. Get thefuckout of my way, Armstrong, because I have a soon-to-be dead piece of shit to take care of.”
“Broki. Talk to us,” urged Bryn, blocking the door to the Bunker as a coldlylividBlake Seibert stormed toward her. Drew and Casey swiftly flanked the Armstrong twin, forming a solid barrier across the doorway that Blake would have a hard time breaching. “What the fuck is going on? Where’s Brooke?”
“Brooke and Indi are still at Cask & Canvas. However,Clay Langstonshowed up and accessed the microbrewery. No fucking clue how he got his hands on the key or the alarm codes because Gene had everything secured. The motherfucker has agun, Bryn!” None of them had ever seen Blake so angry or ready to destroy. “The two of them have secreted themselves in the back somewhere in the brewing operations section, but he knows they’re in there because he keeps calling out to them while tearing through shit.
“He’s aware they found something he wasn’t able to locate himself, something he is desperate to get his hands on—whatever it is—so he’s searching for it since Brooke and Indi must have hidden it again. I’m assuming anyway, since Brooke had no time to send a lengthy message, she didn’t want to give her position away, she said, so she sent me an abbreviated text to let me know why they haven’t come back yet. No telling where the other two fuckers are, Berger and Norris, but frankly? I would make book on the fact that they’redead, cuz, if they didn’t come to the microbrewery with him. Langston’s sole priority now is finding Kilgore’s information. Nothing is going to stand in his way, as far as he’s concerned.
“And after he finds and steals what Brooke and Indi have hidden?He’ll kill them both. Because Clay Langston plans to seizeevery single thingfor himself alone, without leaving any witnesses behind. No matter who he has to eliminate to accomplish that.”
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“There is nowhere you can run, you know. Nowhere you can hide.” Clay Langston’s voice echoed into the main brewery operations area from where he was standing to the side in the doorway connecting the office and brewery operations, his gun in his hand. “I know you’re here, Brooke. Your car is parked outside. Of course, one of those Infinity Security bitches is probably here holding your hand and wiping your ass, too. You maythinkyou’re important because one of the infamous APS Seven fucks you, but I hear pussy is an easy grab for those dykes. No skin off their nose if a second-string player loses you and they need to start fresh. Hardly a wonder they didn’t bother to expend the energy to guard you themselves.”
He cocked his head, listening for any sound emanating from the quiet, barely-lit space.
“Since your security bitch is likely armed, and I assume she can at least do more than hit the broad side of a barn, I’ll leave you be for the moment while I dig out what Rob had stashed. Ithasto be in this office. There were too many paper files to carry—because Rob was a paranoid son of a bitch and wouldn’t have stored it electronically—and you wouldn’t have had time to lug all those files to another area before I showed up.”
Clay turned to go back into the office, then looked back. “You can’t get past me. The brewery loading dock is locked up, and I can see the two entrances into the brewery from where I’ll be standing: through the office and through the taproom. Noscurrying out like little rats behind my back. Sit tight, ladies, and I promise everything will be all over soon. When you two are no longer a problem, I can have those morons I’ve hired to lift the microbrewery assets take care of APS and Infinite Securitypermanently. Lights out, as they say. And everything will bemine, just as it should have always been.”
Chapter 27
“Gene Wheeler was rushed to Bayfront Hospital with a gunshot wound to the upper right chest. He’s in surgery now, but he’s expected to pull through, thank Christ.” Bryn was reading a text that had been sent to the management team by one of Blake’s associates. She, Riley, Drew, and Blake were heading to Cask & Canvas, a second SUV holding Kenn, Trill, Teagan, and Casey behind them.
“Sandy Wheeler hasn’t left his side since they brought him in. No fucking surprise there, that is one goddamn strong lady. Jaime elected to go to Bayfront with Vince to find out exactly what happened. Kat and Parker are already there to lend support.”
With her sunlit green eyes darker than they had ever seen them, Blake gritted out, “Guess we know how that motherfucker Langston got a key to the microbrewery, don’t we? This is fucking going tofinishBrooke when she finds out. No matter what kind of precarious position she’s in right now, she will find a way toventilatethat dickhead for what he’s done.” She dragged a hand through her auburn hair. “Indi is with her. Yes, I’m worried sick about my woman, but at least she has an Infinity operative there. She doesn’t have to handle this on her own. And she’s armed, just like Indi is.”
Riley, who was driving, said, “Shaelyn and Dani are on the way. They’ll meet us at Cask & Canvas. Indi has her comm on and open, but she’s maintaining radio silence so Langston won’t hear her and zero in on her location. But they can at least feed her intel from their end. We can do the same with Brooke.” Shefrowned as Bryn’s phone started to ring. “Who the hell is that this time of night, calling instead of texting?”
“It’s Vince. As far as I know, he and Jaime are still at Bayfront with Sandy, but he’s also been working with both the Tampa police and the St. Pete police on this Reflex embezzlement and money laundering bullshit going down tomorrow.” Bryn answered the phone as they approached the microbrewery. As Riley parked down the street from Brooke’s car, no one in the SUV missed the dark energy that had started to pour from a nonverbal Bryn as she listened to the speaker on the other end of the line, a deadly look on her face. Continuing to listen silently for another couple of minutes, she finally said, “Thanks, Vince. Just keep me posted. I’m at Cask & Canvas, so I’m going to talk to the officers on duty first after bringing everyone up to speed. Then we’ll decide how we’re going to extract Brooke and Indi from this clusterfuck while securing Clay Langston.” Ending the call, she uncharacteristically growled, then cursed.
Not leaving anyone in suspense, she touched her comm so she could pass the news on to the entire management team at one time. “The bodies of two men, identified as Thom Berger and Jack Norris, were found approximately thirty minutes ago in a rundown motel not far off the Skyway entrance to I-275. They’d both been shot in the head. Clay Langston is nowhere to be found, Vince said.”
“Becausehefucking killed them, went to Gene Wheeler’s house and shothim, stole the microbrewery key and access codes, then took off for Cask & Canvas where he isstalking my fucking woman.” Neither Bryn, Riley, nor Drew hadeverheard Blake Seibert this lethally cold before. “Which means,” she fixed her deadly gaze down the street to the entrance to the microbrewery, “that dead motherfucker is in there with them right now.” She touched her comm. “Baby, we realize you can’trespond because you can’t risk letting Langston know where you are, but most of the APS management team is just down the street from Cask & Canvas.
“We can’t breach yet because we don’t know where you are in the facility, we don’t know where that shit stain is, and the two of you aren’t in a position to communicate with anyone. But you have your comms open so you can hearus. We’ll keep feeding you intel as we can, Shaelyn and Dani will do the same for Indi, and we’ll let you know the minute we come up with an extraction plan. I love you.Stay safe.”
Her face savage, Blake glowered at Bryn, Riley, and Drew as she prepared to exit the SUV. “Now, tell me your extraction plan suggestions before I decide going scorched earth isn’t that fucking bad of an idea after all.”
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Brooke felt a wave of relief when she heard Blake’s voice in her ear. When Indi had sensed Clay Langston at the front door, entering the microbrewery, then fumbling as he disengaged the alarm, she had Brooke on the move before the graphic artist knew it. The two of them had gone swiftly but silently into the brewery operations room, India motioning at a large containment tank in the back at the very end of the row of tanks, and indicated that Brooke should conceal herself behind it. Indi chose a tank in the same row, but more toward the middle, the two of them waiting silently once they were in position.
When Clay had appeared in the doorway to the office, spouting his taunting hogwash, it was all Brooke could do not to yank out the gun secured in her inside waistband holder and fire off some shots at that incredible piece of shit.What does Drew call lowlifes like Langston again? Right. Bottom feeders.However, as hard as it was, Brooke tamped down the impulseto take him out. Langston was standing in the doorway, but he was positioned to the side, so she unfortunately didn’t have the cleanest shot. It would be all too easy for the bullet to ricochet off the doorframe, giving Clay the opportunity to escape. Besides, he would then be able to tell whereshewas, based on the direction from where her gunfire had come at him.
She heard Kenn’s voice in her head, training instruction from the hours she had spent with her and Piper on the APS shooting range. “If you’re ready to pull the trigger, little sis,neverfalter,” Kenn had coached during one of her lessons. “Take the shot without hesitation. But you also need to remember thatthinkingandplanningfirst, if you are in a position to do that, could save your life one day.”
Fine, Kenn, she huffed in her head.You win. Centering her thoughts, she considered the setup of the brewery equipment and where she and Indi were located in relation to that. The brewing kettles, different tanks—fermentation, bright beer for carbonation, storage containment—the cooling system and chillers, raw materials storage, and workspaces like the operating and cleaning areas: most people had no idea how much was involved in crafting a quality artisan beer.
