Chapter 3 Watch & Wait
Lily
I was still pissed. Not murderously pissed anymore. That had faded somewhere between Jinx physically dragging me out of the clubhouse and him informing me... three fucking times, that threatening a sweet-butt with a knife probably wasn't considered appropriate behavior for an officer of the club.
Whatever. She touched Knox. Consequences existed.
"You're still thinking about it."
I turned my head toward Jinx. "Thinking about what?"
"Stabbing her."
"I wasn't going to stab her."
He glanced at me. "You threw a knife between her fingers."
"Exactly. If I wanted to stab her, I would've."
Jinx stared at me. I smiled and turned back toward the windshield.
We'd been sitting in his truck for almost two hours. Two. Fucking. Hours.
When Knox told me I'd officially become Shadow, I'd imagined sneaking through buildings. Following people. Breaking into places I wasn't supposed to be. Maybe dangling some asshole off a roof while asking him questions.
Apparently, being Shadow mostly involved sitting in a shitty truck beside Jinx while my left ass cheek went numb.
"This sucks."
"Yep."
"How long do we have to sit here?"
"Until something happens."
"And if nothing happens?"
"We continue sitting here."
I slowly looked at him. "I hate this job."
"You've had it for a month."
"And?"
"And you've threatened to quit six times."
"Seven."
He frowned. "When was seven?"
"About thirty seconds ago."
"Ah."
He reached into the bag between us and pulled out another handful of chips. The crunching started again. My eye twitched.
"Could you chew any fucking louder?"
"Probably."
"Don't."
Crunch.
I turned toward him. Crunch. "Jinx." Crunch. "Do you want to die?"
He swallowed. "Not particularly."
"Then chew with your mouth closed."
He grinned. I fucking hated him. Unfortunately, I also loved him. Which seemed to be becoming a recurring problem in my life.
I looked through the windshield again. The warehouse sat across the street. Ugly thing. Gray concrete. No signs. No company name. Three loading bays. Two cameras that Jinx had already identified. One side entrance.
According to the ledger we'd recovered from Rourke, the building had been used repeatedly over the last two years. For what? We weren't entirely sure. But considering what else had been written in that fucking ledger, nobody was optimistic.
Knox had given us very specific instructions. Watch. Document. Do not engage.
I hated the third one.
Jinx shifted beside me. "Do penguins have knees?"
I slowly turned my head. "What?"
"Penguins."
"What about them?"
"Do they have knees?"
I stared at him. "We are watching a suspected human-trafficking warehouse and you're thinking about penguin anatomy?"
"We've been sitting here for two hours."
"So?"
"So my brain needs enrichment."
"You're not a zoo animal."
I looked through the camera again. Nothing.
"I think they do."
Jinx perked up. "Really?"
"Probably."
"Where?"
"Inside the penguin."
He stared at me. I stared back. "You're fucking useless."
"So are you."
"Mine was a legitimate question."
"Google it."
"I don't want the government knowing I'm looking up penguin knees."
I lowered the camera. "You're a hacker."
"Exactly. I know what the government knows."
Movement caught my attention. "Shut up."
"I wasn't—"
"Jinx."
Something in my voice did it. He immediately straightened.
A white cargo van turned onto the street. No company markings. No rear windows. I raised the camera.
Click. License plate. Click. Driver. Click. Passenger.
The van stopped beside the loading bay.
"Got it?" Jinx murmured.
"Yep."
Two men climbed out. Click. Click. One smoked while the other approached the warehouse. Click. Time. Faces. Clothing. Tattoos. Everything. This was what Caleb had taught me. People lied. Details didn't.
The loading door started rising. I zoomed in. Darkness. Crates. A man. Then... my finger froze against the camera.
A woman.
My stomach dropped. She was only visible for a second. Bare feet. Oversized shirt. Hands behind her back. Then another woman appeared behind her. And another.
"Jinx."
"I see them."
I reached for the door handle. His hand slammed over mine. "No."
"There are women in there."
"I know."
"Then let go."
"No."
I turned toward him. The goofy asshole who was just debating penguin knees was gone. Sergeant-at-Arms stared back at me.
"Knox said we watch."
"Fuck Knox."
"Normally I'd enthusiastically support fucking Knox."
My eyes narrowed. "Not what I meant."
"Still."
I pulled against his grip. "Let me go."
"Lily."
"They're right fucking there." My chest tightened. The warehouse disappeared for half a second. Concrete became cages. Metal. Blood. Women who had been dead long before we'd found them. Too late. We had been too fucking late.
Not again.
My free hand moved toward my gun. Jinx looked down, then back at me. "You're reaching for your Glock."
"I'm watching."
"With a Glock?"
"I can multitask."
"Lily." His voice softened. That was worse. "If we go in now, what happens?"
"We get them out."
"Maybe."
"Not maybe."
"Maybe," he repeated. "We don't know how many men are inside. We don't know how many exits they have. We don't know if there's another vehicle waiting behind the building."
I clenched my jaw. "They could move them."
"Which is why we're documenting everything."
Another man emerged. I photographed him automatically. Jinx continued.
"We go charging in there, somebody starts shooting. Somebody runs. Phones get wiped. Records disappear." His grip loosened. "And then maybe we save those three." He nodded toward the warehouse. "But lose thirty more because we never find where they were going next."
Fuck. Fuck him. Fuck Knox. Fuck being Shadow. Because he was right. I hated that most of all.
I released the door handle. Jinx released me.
"We're getting them out."
"Every fucking one."
I raised the camera again. Click. Another plate. Click. Another face. Click. Another woman.
For the next forty minutes, I watched. I didn't move. Didn't reach for my gun. Didn't kick open a fucking door. I watched.
And when the van finally disappeared inside the warehouse, Jinx pulled out his phone. "Sending everything to Darius."
"For the FBI?"
"Yep."
"How fast can they move?"
"With this?" He glanced at the photographs. "Fast."
I looked at the warehouse one last time. "Then tell them to fucking hurry."
