“If we take the money, I bet that will bring Lorenzo running to investigate too, which will make it all nice and easy for the feds to clean up,” Sage says as he hurries over to the table and starts loading the cash into the backpack we brought our gear in.
While he’s doing that, I look through the rest of the stash they have up here. There’s a shipment of weapons, as well as some canisters of nasty looking chemicals. I wrinkle my nose in disgust. The Russos have never dabbled in chemical warfare. It’s despicable.
There’s also an entire shelf filled with little silver foil packets in large bags. I’m pretty sure that’s heroine or fentanyl. I’m tempted to take that too and ditch it, but it will add to the case against Lorenzo when the warehouse gets busted.
“I’m going to call Garcia as soon as we verify if his sister is here or not. Even if she isn’t, this needs to be busted as soon as possible. Once the guards wake, they are going to tip off the bosses. All he’s going to have to do is lie in wait and round them up when they arrive.”
“You think Mario will come too?” Sage asks as he finishes his job, and we start to move quietly toward the stairs leading to the main floor.
“We could only be so lucky,” I mutter, gesturing for him to be quiet in case there are any guards we missed down here.
The steps are creaky, and the lower we get, the more my stomach starts to roll. It smells bad, like unwashed bodies and fear. Keeping a sharp eye out, Sage and I creep around the cages. Most of the inhabitants are asleep or whacked-out on something, and no one really shows any interest in us, even if they do notice us pass by. I keep a keen eye out for the agent’s sister. He sent me a photo of her not long after I promised to help him, and her face is practically burned into my memory.
We pass by one cage that has a woman rocking back and forth, muttering to herself, as tears stream down her cheeks. Thesheer desperation on her face almost makes my cold dead heart give a shit—almost, but she’s not who we’re looking for. Garcia’s sister has dark hair, and this one has matted blonde hair.
“Tori,” Sage hisses from farther down. I hurry to catch up with him. I can’t even promise the woman everything is going to be okay. I don’t want anyone to be tipped off that a raid is coming. “Is this her?”
I get to a cage that has another woman in it. This one looks like she still has some fire left in her by the way she glares at us.
“My brother is going to kill you all,” she spits, her eyes blazing with fury.
“Yeah, this is her.” I recognize those whiskey brown eyes that are so much like her brother’s. She even has the same nose as him. In fact, they could be twins, though she’s a far more delicate version. “Are you Xiomara Garcia?” I ask quietly, and she spits at my feet.
“Charming,” Sage drawls.
“Hang in there, Xiomara, Gabriel is coming.” At my words, her eyes widen, and she jumps to her feet, stepping up to the bars and grabbing them.
“Who are you? Are you cops?” she whispers, looking around to make sure no one is within hearing distance.
Sage scoffs. “Not even close. We’re more like the devil, but better the devil you know, am I right?” She frowns in confusion, and I pat part of her hand around the bar.
“Stay safe for a little while longer. Come on.” I tug at Sage’s shirt, and we move back the way we came. She calls out quietly for us to stop, but we don’t. As much as I would like to take them all with me, they are Lorenzo’s downfall, and I need that more than I need to breathe.
Now that I have confirmation, it’s time to blow this joint. I don’t want to risk staying any longer, even though the tranq darts should keep them out for at least another hour or so.
As we climb the stairs and head back through the fire escape, I pull out my phone and send a message to the number the agent gave me. It contains the address of the warehouse and the code word “Tamales,” which is apparently Xiomara’s favorite food.
They will put an agent on Lorenzo to know when he goes to the warehouse, and then the raid will happen, and Sage and I will be far away. I just need to practice my shocked expression when I find out my dear old uncle has been arrested. I also need to instruct the family lawyer not to represent him, so he is stuck with a public defender. I can only hope that someone will shank him in prison, saving me from having to order it.
“Well, that was a successful evening,” Sage says as we get back to our car, which is parked in a discrete alley ten minutes away from the warehouse. “Wouldn’t you like to be on scene when it all goes down? I want to see the look on Lorenzo’s face when he realizes he’s been busted.”
“He’s probably going to try to pin the blame on us. Thank goodness we’re the ones working with the feds. It will completely exonerate us.”
“I bet he’ll just about have a stroke when they tell him you’re the one who tipped them off to his operation. I wonder if we can get Colton to hack into the surveillance so we can watch.”
I stop dead. “Fuck, the surveillance. I didn’t even think of that. I’m off my game. The accident today rattled me, and Gio and…” I trail off as Sage shakes his head.
“Don’t stress. We’re covered from head to toe, and they saw us steal the money. I would say it probably makes it more plausible that we were just thieves.”
I feel some of the tension drain out of my body. “Maybe.”
“Or we can wake Colton when we get home and get him to erase any trace of us. We have options.”
“Okay, yeah, we could do that.” The ride home is quiet but more relaxed than the ride to the warehouse. When we arrive atthe house, it’s still locked up tight, and there are a few hours of night left.
“Come on, princess. You need your beauty sleep if you’re heading to the spa with Vienna in the morning,” Sage says as the elevator travels up.
I groan and slump against the wall. “Ugh, it’s going to suck,” I mutter, but he shakes his head.
