Wizard’s mouth curved into a humorless smile. “A major pipeline node. Storage, staging, and redistribution. Clean paperwork, but a dirty purpose.”
My jaw tightened as I studied the image Wizard had shown me this morning. I’d driven past that building more times than I could count. We all had. The idea that it had been sitting there the whole time, quietly feeding something rotten into our territory, made my blood burn.
Blaze pushed off the wall. “You’re sure?”
Wizard didn’t respond, just shot him a glare that would have made a lesser man wet his pants.
Blaze held up his hands in surrender and chuckled. “Stupid question.”
“Damn straight,” Wizard grumbled, turning his attention back to his screen.
“Security?” Cruze asked. I’d never seen him rattled by anything. It was gonna be fun watching him lose control when he met the right woman.
Wizard tapped the corner of his screen, switching to a schematic of the warehouse compound. “Front-facing business looks like the typical utilities depot, but that’s smoke. Security is layered. Heat sensors along the fence line, infrared-triggered floodlights, and rotating digital locks on both entry points. No exterior signage. No traffic in or out unless it’s controlled.”
He zoomed in, highlighting camera placements across the perimeter. “Twelve high-res cams with thermal, all patched to a remote loop. Facial recognition on gate access. The night crew rotates every three nights—same faces, different order. They run a four-man rotation from eleven to five, plus an off-site response team on standby two miles out.”
Cruze muttered, “Efficient but not subtle.”
“Exactly,” Wizard agreed. “They want it quiet, but if it goes loud, they’re ready to bury the problem and bleach the floor.”
Cruze leaned forward, his fingers steepled as he studied the map. “Don’t need to go loud. You slip the IR with a blackout field, time the patrol shift on a soft loop, and crack the gate sync with a cloned badge. From there, it’s just a matter of not breathing too loud.”
“Money trail checks out, too,” Ace added. “Payments routed through three shell accounts, then buried under public works contracts. It’s clean enough that no auditor would blink unless they already knew where to look.”
King had been silent through all of it. Watching, listening, and weighing. When he finally spoke, the room went still.
“Let’s get this done. I want to know what the fuck we’re dealing with so we can shut it down.”
“Dunbar?” Rebel asked, sensing there was more to King’s statement.
“All of it. But we’ll start with the motherfucker poisoning our territory.”
“When?” Tomcat asked.
Wizard glanced at me before answering. “Three a.m.”
I nodded.
“Maren gets off shift at two,” Wizard added. “I want her back here before we move.”
King’s gaze cut to me, sharp and assessing. “You staying put with her until then?”
“Of course,” I replied evenly.
“This is a recon-first operation,” Blaze stated. “We get eyes inside, confirm contents, tag anything that needs tracking, and get out. We’re not burning it down tonight.”
Tomcat cocked his head, deadpan. “Guess that’s why you’re not coming along.”
Our VP had earned his road name because he was an expert in fire. During his time in the military, Blaze had earned a Ph.D. in Combustion Science and had become a pyrologist. His talents came in very handy when we needed to fake a death by fire or destroy evidence conspicuously.
Although it didn’t take fire for him to be dangerous. He was a lethal motherfucker with any kind of weapon, something we all respected.
Blaze sipped his whiskey before responding. “I don’t need flames to get shit done. I just like the smell of victory better when it’s charred.”
“I rest my case,” Tomcat smirked.
King huffed in annoyance, making it clear he wanted to return to the matter at hand.
