Memphis may be a ray of sunshine that nobody asked for, but you could count on him to be there when life felt confusing.
“Memphis, any word to settle this? We have more we have to do,” I led him into conversation. I wasn’t also going to leave when there is work to be done. The container needs to be opened and inspected and myself being the only person who has experience in the drug field, my presence is needed here.
My mind races with the thought that I’m choosing the club business over her. But she’s partially the reason why this container is here, finding answers and drawing conclusions. Something to lead back to how they are doing things and how they are getting passed customs to sell on the streets. Which in turn, trying to find the kid.
“Let me ask you, your mind is saying that you need to be here, but your heart is calling to her,” he reads me like a damn book. I nod at his correct assumptions. “Then my friend, let’s finish this and then you can be with her. We do anything for the ones we love,” he starts but the word love travels through my thoughts, I haven’t said those words to her and yet part of me does. She’s like a freight train that I’m happy to be run over by. “Finish this, protect her, and let her tend to the external wounds and feelings.”
Sounds like a plan to me, the sooner we find how they are hiding the drugs in their shipment container, the sooner we can understand how it gets to the businesses and how it’s distributed.
“Can I at least clean up the wound, I don’t fucking need y’all to have an infection and your girl can’t look at your ugly mug then,” D.R taunts, holding up the gauze waiting to clean the blood off my face.
I grumble, for an army medic, he’s not the gentlest. We can all ask Tessa and her shoulder. He comes closer with the gauze, I glare at him, “Come closer with that and you’ll find it where the sun doesn’t shine.” He steps forward, I dodge him walking closer to the containment unit.
“Jesus Doc, wait until we find what’s in the unit,” I growl.
“Keep growling like that and I send you to a vet, fucking animal,” D.R retorts, turning his attention back to Memphis, “Just get your ass back here after you see the unit, I’ll be here. Patching up another brother.”
“Awe, do I get a lollipop?” Memphis jokes, before hissing in pain from the D.R examining him and looking at the injuries.
Coda clips the lock on the unit as the door creaks open. Jackson shines a light on the items. Barrels and crates fill the unit, it looks like Jimmy’s basic items he asks for, mostly illegal contraband items for his dishes, but nothing appears out of the ordinary. But to someone like me, I know what I’m looking for. Items can appear to be normal, if not individually searched.
“We have to check everything. No stone unturned. Customs may have been paid off or overlooked the container.” I step further into the container, shining light on every item. I stomp on the floor boards, trying to find a hollow spot, something that isn’t seen or heard by common folks.
The echoes of my footsteps, until something changes, the slightest creaking of the container. I teeter my steps back and forth, finding the weak point. My heel catches it. I crouch down, shining the light where my heel had caught it, and there’s a sliver of an opening. I place a marker down, instructing everyone to take out the contents of the container.
Once everything was out, I went to the marker and take a crowbar to the floor, and behold, kilos of narcotics. My stomach turns. I haven’t seen this much since the first time the club ran into an on-going bust. The amount the feds were pulling doesn’t compare to the amount that is in this floor. I pry the floorboard entirely and it looks like a field of it. White powder substance. It needs to be disposed of before anyone can get to it.
I’ll leave that to the geniuses. Joaquin or Coda.
“What are you thinking?” Jackson askes once the items are out and I step outside. Everything laid out before us, I wrap my head around it.
“My thoughts, their suppliers hid the drugs within the floorboards. But I think they have hidden them beneath the items. I figure, once they unload it, they have their extra supply and the supply that they have in the business’s crates, well that goes to them as a meeting point.” I explain, feeling like everything is coming together, their base of operations and where we need to strike.
“So the businesses end up being the meeting point between the recruiter and the teens,” Jackson further pieces it together. I nod. “Fuck. It’s looking like the businesses have the supply not the Falcons and technically there’s no trace of it to go back to them.”
“Risky, but effective,” I add. They have learned over the years and it’s apparent that it needs to end.
Find Cedric.
Strike the businesses.
Kill the motherfucking birds.
This ends now.
Chapter 29
Lottie
5-0:All safe, angel, we’re heading back home.
I’m no better than a teenager with a crush. I have been staring at that phone for over two hours, waiting for him to respond back. Not only am I impatient to go out and look for Cedric, but the man has been running through my mind all week, from his touch to his seductive ways to him knowing what I needed without words or emotions.
My legs shake the floor with anticipation, so much that Finn looks at me inquisitively. I can feel him judging me. He was engrossed with his book, but he closes it, “If love is going to make me stare at my phone all day, I don’t want it.”
“Be careful Finn, I can easily get you a little girlfriend,” I joke.
He leans back, crossing his arms, “Careful auntie, you might have a boyfriend.” He gets up to go to the kitchen and continues, “but I’m smarter than he is.”
