Remy nodded. “Fine.”
Shaking off Max’s hand, he strode out of the room, into the hallway. His friend fell into step beside him, concern in his blue eyes. “Maybe you shouldn’t go on this mission.”
“I’m good,” Remy said, still trying to get a sense of where the sudden overwhelming sensations had come from, and more important, why he didn’t feel them now. “I’m tired because I didn’t sleep last night and I’ve been humping through cold water all day.”
It didn’t seem as if Max bought that any more than Remy did. His friend continued to regard him worriedly as they left the building and headed to the motor pool.
“Do you think this has something to do with breaking up with Triana?” Max asked.
Remy didn’t even try to answer that one. Scowling, he climbed into the back of one the NOPD SWAT operations vehicles while Drew and Brooks headed for another. Max closed the door behind them.
Zane held out their tactical gear, and Remy focused on getting the stuff on as the truck drove out of the enclosure, wishing like hell he had a dry uniform. What if Max was right? What if his decision to walk away from Triana was causing all this weird shit to happen to him?
“Did Brooks tell you that Cooper and Alex are on their way?” Zane asked, holding on to one of the truck’s equipment racks as the vehicle turned right at an intersection.
Remy was feeling a little out of it, so he wasn’t sure he’d heard that quite right. “No. Why are they coming here?”
Zane shrugged. “The NOPD SWAT guys who were in Dallas for training are coming back early because of the storm, so Gage sent Cooper and Alex with them in case the city needs some extra first responders.”
Remy nodded. Even if the storm didn’t get any worse, that was probably a good idea. Maybe they could give him some advice while they were here. While both men had found their soul mates recently, neither of their relationships had been smooth sailing. If anyone knew whether this crap he was going through had something to do with him breaking up with Triana, it would be Landry Cooper and Alex Trevino.
Chapter 14
Triana sat in Dominic’s beat-up old Chevy Nova, staring through the rain-covered windshield at the big, white warehouse a couple of blocks down the street, wondering what the heck she was supposed to be looking at.
“How do I know there’s anyone even in there, much less the man who killed my father?” she finally asked. “No one has come in or out the whole time I’ve been here.”
“You’ve only been here a few minutes,” Dominic said from beside her, his sleepy eyes locked on the front door of the Mardi Gras krewe warehouse. “It looks like you’re just going to have to take my word for it unless you plan on getting out of this car and peeking in a window for yourself.”
As terrifying as that idea seemed, it was starting to look better and better with every passing second. She’d already been in Dominic’s Nova far longer than she wanted, certainly more than a few minutes. The interior of the ancient car smelled like booze, cigarettes, oil, and a few things Triana didn’t want to imagine. She was also getting the distinct feeling Dominic was starting to think there was going to be something more to this arrangement than the payment of five hundred dollars for services rendered. He’d already asked twice if she’d like to go out for a drink—in the middle of a hurricane.
“Did you at least get a better look at the guy?” she asked.
He’d given her a rather generic description the other day when they’d met at the bar, so she hoped he could tell her more now.
Dominic regarded her suspiciously, probably afraid she was going to run off and find the guy without paying him the five hundred dollars.
“He’s a big guy—six three, maybe 280 pounds. He looks like a frigging defensive end for the Saints.” Dominic scrunched up his face as if trying to remember what the man had looked like. “He had a shaved head and a tattoo of a snake or lizard running up the side of his neck all the way to his ear. I think I already told you about the tattoo of an anchor on his right arm. Didn’t I?”
Triana nodded. Okay, it didn’t sound like she was going to miss this guy.
Before she could think about whether what she was going to do was a good idea or not, she reached for the door handle. A part of her wished Remy were there. It was hard not remembering how safe she’d felt with him. Of course, if he were there, she probably wouldn’t be doing anything this crazy.
But Remy wasn’t with her right then. If anyone was going to catch the man who murdered her father, it would start with her, and she wasn’t going to learn anything sitting in that car. She’d just snoop around and look for a window, take a quick peek then bail. She’d be able to give a good description to Bodine; then he would be able to take it from there. She hoped. She only prayed she wasn’t taking a crazy risk like this for no reason.
“Whoa, what are you doing?” Dominic squawked in his raspy voice, reaching out to grab her arm as she cracked the door and got hit with a gust of wind-driven rain. “Are you crazy? If I’m right, and I am, that guy in there is a stone-cold killer. Which means the people he’s hanging out with are probably just as whacked. Why don’t you just stay in the dry car and wait?”
Triana stepped out into the rain and looked back at Dominic, stunned to see genuine concern in his eyes. “I’m just going to take a quick peek. I’ll be right back.”
“What about my money?” Dominic asked urgently, and Triana had to wonder if perhaps that was where the man’s sudden concern started and stopped. “If you get killed, I’m out five hundred dollars.”
Triana reached into her purse, leaning into the car a bit so her bag wouldn’t get filled with water, and dug out her wallet. She counted out $250 and gave it to Dominic. “Here’s half. I’ll give you the other half once I’ve seen Quinn.”
Dominic opened his mouth to complain, but Triana closed the car door. Turning, she darted across the street and huddled close to the building, hoping the overhang would shelter her from the worst of the rain. She would have used her umbrella, but it was currently on its way to the French Quarter after getting ripped out of her hands by the wind when she’d first gotten out of her car and into Dominic’s. Not that an umbrella helped much in this weather. The rain was coming sideways more than down.
When she reached the big white building Dominic had pointed out, she slowed, wondering how she should do what she needed to. She supposed she could always walk in the front door, pretend she was simply trying to get out of the weather. The problem with that approach was that Quinn might recognize her. If he’d known her father, that was certainly a possibility. That meant trying to peek through the glass in the door was a bad idea too. So instead, she turned down the alley that ran along the side of the big warehouse. While there were windows, they were all positioned too high for Triana to see into.
