A comfortable silence filled the space between us as I finished setting up the system and tapped into the surveillance feeds for the stopover hub.
A door shut on his end. “I’m here. I’ll need you to pull up the surveillance for me.”
“Already done, Ace.”
A low, husky growl slipped through the speaker, and heat shot straight between my legs.
“You're not allowed to call me Ace unless I'm in front of you. Understood?”
The sudden tone and authority in his voice made me bite back a moan, and I nodded, forgetting that we were on a call.
“Yes,” I whispered. Then in a stronger, more focused voice, I asked, “Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“No,” he whispered. “I’m going incognito. Track me on the cameras. I have my earpiece in. If anyone heads my way, you let me know.”
“I will.”
On my screen, I tracked Avit moving through the hub like a phantom, gun in hand. Sometimes he paused to examine packages or crates; other times, he simply listened in on conversations. A few times, I had to redirect him out of danger zones.
It felt like I was in a live video game, except that if he got killed, there was no respawn. As much as I hated to admit it, watching him in action turned me on. There was so much I didn’t know about him. Sure, I knew he was Bratva, but hewasn’t always in danger like his three older brothers. The only other things I knew for certain were that he managed the books, and the way his mind worked with numbers was out of this world. Maybe I was impressed because I usually saw him as an intellectual, not a Bratva thug. Seeing him in action, I couldn’t deny it—he was stealthy, efficient, and utterly competent.
An hour later, I exhaled as he exited the hub. But it didn’t last. My laptop pinged: the stolen goods had been updated. My eyes stayed glued to the screen. To my surprise, the items weren’t listed with any of the partner companies.
“Avit, we’ve got a problem.”
“What is it, angel?” he asked, and I heard a car door slam shut.
“All the stolen goods have been listed, but not to a corporate location. It’s tagged for a private, unregistered delivery drop.”
“Do you have the location?”
“I do,” I said, biting my lower lip as my fingers flew across the keys. “But I don’t know who owns the property. It’s not anywhere in their system.”
“Send me the location so I can head over.”
“I don’t think you should, especially when we don’t know who owns it. A dangerous person could own that place.”
“You do know I’m also a dangerous person, right?” Avit asked, amusement curling through his voice.
“What I’m saying is that you don’t know what to expect. There’s a reason someone went out of their way to hide who owns this place.”
“Sienna, I—”
“Avit, listen,” I cut him off. “At the hub, I could tap into the surveillance and track you. Here? You’d be going in blind. I can’t access any cameras if I can’t even identify who they belong to. Before you walk in there, you should know how many guards are posted, what weapons they’re carrying, and what kind of security system you’re dealing with. Let me dig deeper first, so you have an actual game plan.”
“Sienna, what if they move the goods tonight? What if this is just another drop-off? This could be my only chance to figure out who Jasper is selling to,” he said, frustration seeping into his voice.
“There have been multiple drop-offs at this same location for over a year. Same unregistered address. They tried to scrub the data, but whoever did it didn’t do a thorough job.”
“This is the first solid lead we’ve had. We need to act now. I’ll just go and see where it is,” he insisted.
“You don’t know if they have sensors hidden along the road, or snipers on rooftops waiting to take out anyone who gets too close. You know better than I do that information is what keeps you alive. Yes, it’s a solid lead, but we could blow it if we rush in blind.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Fine.” His tone was clipped. “I’ll let it rest for now. I’ll be home soon.”
The line went dead.
