The hell with it. Turning back to the controls for the drone, she sent it diving down into the alley behind the warehouse at insane speed. A split second later, she was rewarded with a long-distance view into the back of the van through one of the warehouse windows. The dark green boxes were definitely military and the stickers on them had universal symbols forDanger,Caution, andExplosive.
“They’re weapons,” she announced. “The boxes are about the right size for shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles.”
She had no idea what a group of people in Glasgow wanted with surface-to-air missiles, but it wasn’t something she liked to think about.
Clayne immediately gave the order to move. A moment later, he, Danica, Foley, and Hightower dropped to the first floor of the warehouse from their hiding places upstairs and ordered everyone to freeze. No one obeyed that order, least of all Kojot. The arms dealer took off in the opposite direction. Clayne and Danica followed, the wolf shifter quickly gaining on the bad guy.
Layla went back and forth from one monitor to the next, looking for Kojot, and caught a flash of movement at the south end of the warehouse as he ran down a flight of stairs. How the hell had he gotten all the way across the warehouse in just a few seconds?
“Kojot is heading down the stairwell on the south side of the warehouse,” she called over the radio.
On the monitor, Danica immediately turned and ran in that direction. Clayne, on the other hand, was standing in the middle of the warehouse, his head tilted to the side and a pissed-off expression on his face. Then he tore across the room, growling so loud that Layla could hear him without the benefit of the radio.
“He’s a fucking shifter!” Clayne shouted as he raced down the stairs ahead of Danica. “Kojot knew we were here all along and still had the balls the go through with the deal. He’s probably been onto us for months.”
Layla’s eyes widened. No wonder they hadn’t been able to catch the mysterious arms dealer. It was hard to sneak up on a person when he could smell you coming. She couldn’t believe the DCO never even had a hint he was a shifter. Just how good was this guy?
In the warehouse, an engine roared to life. She looked over at the monitor just in time to see the white van spinning up dirt and debris as it raced for the exit on the west side. Foley and Hightower were trapped behind one of the SUVs, locked in a shoot-out with the buyers who’d stayed behind. As the van sped away, Foley switched targets, shooting at the escaping vehicle and trying to hit the tires.
“Foley, stop!” she shouted. “That van is full of weapons. You hit something sensitive and you’re going to turn the neighborhood into a combat zone.”
“I know that!” Foley ground out. “But we’re pinned down and those weapons are getting away. If we can’t stop them, you’re going to have to do it.”
Layla expected Clayne to countermand the order as lead agent on the mission, but he didn’t say anything. Maybe he hadn’t heard Foley.
“Clayne, did you copy that?” she called. “Foley and Hightower are pinned down and want me to go after the van full of weapons. Do you copy?”
“Layla, you gotta go now!” Hightower shouted. “We’re okay here. You can’t let those weapons get away.”
She was up and out of the operations truck before Hightower even finished. Clayne would probably make sure she never went on another mission as long as she lived, but if this was the only one she ever got on, she was going to do it right.
She thanked God that whoever was driving the van had decided to escape out the west side of the building. If he’d gone the other way, she would have had to run all the way around the building. She would never have caught up to them, shifter or not. As it was, the white van was already out of the alley and pulling onto Ingram Street. Fortunately, the van couldn’t accelerate very quickly with all those weapons in the back.
Layla ignored the people on the street staring at her and ran faster. It wasn’t until then that she realized she didn’t have a plan for what she was going to do when she caught up to them. Stopping a moving van while on foot hadn’t been part of her field training.
She had her 9mm SIG Sauer, but she’d just berated Foley for shooting at a vehicle full of weapons. Besides, she wasn’t sure she could aim very straight while running flat-out like she was.
Heart pounding, she sprinted around to the driver’s side door. As she gripped the handle and wrenched it open, she realized her claws were out. Crap, she hadn’t even felt them extend.
It was hard to keep pace with the van, but she managed it as she grabbed the surprised driver by the scruff of the neck and yanked hard, tossing him out of his seat and onto the road.
The van immediately swerved into oncoming traffic. Layla quickly hopped in and got control of the wheel just as the guy in the passenger seat finally figured out what the hell was going on. She stomped on the brakes as he pulled his gun, making him fly forward. His head bounced off the windshield, then he slammed back into the seat, leaving him unconscious.
Pulse racing, Layla pulled the van over to the side of the road. Okay, that had been way more intense than any training scenario.
She was just climbing out as the sound of sirens reached her ears. She glanced at the guy in the passenger seat to make sure he wasn’t going anywhere for a while, then looked around for the one she’d tossed out. From the way several people two blocks down Ingram Street were looking underneath a pricey-looking four-door BMW, she guessed that guy wasn’t going anywhere either.
Layla bit her lip, not sure what to do. The sirens were getting closer. Did she stay at the scene or not? Unfortunately, this situation hadn’t exactly come up in her training, and they sure as heck hadn’t talked about it during the mission briefing Clayne had conducted.
The pounding of running footsteps interrupted her musings, and she spun around to find Danica coming her way. Relief coursed through her. She’d never been so happy to see anyone in her life.
“I know I was supposed to stay in the truck, but they were getting away with the missiles,” Layla said quickly.
Danica waved her off as she caught her breath. “Don’t worry about it. The situation changed and you did the right thing. Outstanding job catching these guys.”
Layla smiled, relieved. “Thanks.”
She was about to ask Danica if she and Clayne had apprehended the arms dealer, but right then, three police cars weaved their way through the crush of vehicles crowding the street and stopped in front of them.
