by Dale Mayer
“I’m analyzing things in my head,” he said calmly. “There’s no way to know what we’ll find, so I’d like to be prepared.”
“Sitting quietly in the darkness prepares you?” She sounded doubtful. He couldn’t blame her. Many competitors did something like he did though.
“What are you, some kind of special warrior who needs a moment before going into battle?”
Her question startled a laugh out of him. “Maybe,” he said, liking that analogy. “Let’s hope it’s not that kind of battle.”
She caught sight of a bulge in his pocket, recognizing the shape. “Did Granddad give you a weapon?”
He turned innocent blue eyes toward her. “And if he did?”
She frowned, not sure what her answer should be. “I guess that’s good then … maybe,” she said with more than a little doubt in her voice.
Chapter 3
“At least I know you are armed as we go into this,” Nikki said.
It was Anders in the back who said, “I’m the other thing North needs.”
She nodded. “You both move like panthers, so definitely some martial arts training is in your background somewhere. If you’re as well trained as Granddad seems to think you are, then there’s a whole lot more than that in your history. And that’s a good thing tonight. I really didn’t like the look of Carl.”
“And they didn’t like seeing you where you didn’t belong either,” North said. “We have to assume they’ll have somebody on watch.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” She studied the road in front of them. “I think there’s a parking lot a block or two down the road before we get to the warehouse. We could park there, so they don’t see us coming.”
“Are you staying in the car while we go in?” North asked with hope in his tone.
She snorted.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” he said cheerfully. “So we’ll take the parking lot, shut down the engine and slip into the warehouse once Anders makes sure nobody’s on guard.”
“And how will he do that if he’s with us?”
“I won’t be with you at that point, will I?” Anders said. “And that’s the way I like it. I will go in, take a look around, see if anybody is waiting for us.”
“What if there’s more than one man?” she challenged. “It could get very dangerous if the two of you aren’t together.”
“We’re expecting it to be,” Anders said. “But, because you insisted on coming, North has to stay with you. So I’m off on my own.”
She wasn’t sure what to make of his tone of voice—if he was really angry with her or if he was trying to make her feel guilty. “You need me,” she said firmly. “Before this night is over, you’ll see just how much.” She shot North a hard look, surprised to see a warm glow in his eyes. It was unexpected and so was the curling response of warmth inside her belly. She gave herself a mental headshake. These were definitely not men she wanted to take a step down that romance path with. They were already dangerous-looking as hell.
She doubted they’d be perfect-partner material. Not that she was looking for perfect, but she was definitely looking for a partner, not just a one-night stand. Of course her hormones leaped up and said, Well, nothing wrong with the odd one-night-stand, especially if you get a trip down this fast-moving train called North. But she shoved that thought deep inside.
She wasn’t perfect. She certainly hadn’t gotten though life without a few short-term sexual relationships. But she hadn’t gone into them for anything other than the need to be held, to connect with somebody on some level. And, of course, if she were to take a step forward with North, it would be the same type of a thing because he wasn’t the kind of guy to stick around.
Immediately the other side of her said, Sure, but you won’t have a job here soon anyway. You were already talking about heading back to the US. It’s only because of Granddad that you’re still here. “That logic is still valid,” she said out loud abruptly.
“Sorry, did I miss something?” North asked beside her.
She was grateful for the darkness inside the vehicle to hide the rioting color heating up and washing over her face. She sighed. “That’s all right. I’m talking to myself.”
Anders chuckled in the back seat. “Glad you do it too. We’re well-known for it.”
Startled, she glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “Really?”
“I think everybody does it to a certain extent,” he said, “although I would really like to know the other half of the argument you were having with yourself.”
“That’s the thing about conversations with yourself. You don’t have to share them,” she said, effectively trying to buck him out of her head.
But Anders was persistent. “Well now, I’ll just have to make some wild guesses about it then.”
A little desperately she said, “Please don’t.” She watched as North lifted his hand in some kind of a movement, like a silent signal, which had Anders subsiding in the back seat. She wondered about the dynamics between the two of them. They obviously were good friends and knew each other very well. But had North suggested that Anders stop teasing her? If so, she owed North one. And, if he got them safely through tonight, she would owe him another big one too.
If he solved this nightmare she’d gotten herself into, the chances of repaying any of that were pretty slim. And how could she possibly leave her granddad for the US, given his health and temperament? Not that she saw him all that often even while living in the same proximity. Then the little devilish imp on her shoulder said, And how many times can you fly back and forth in a year? Probably more times than you came to visit him while you lived here.
And she was ashamed to admit there was some truth to that, but she and her granddad did talk all the time.
The imp responded with You could do that from the US too. Sometimes you have to follow your heart, and you’ve been wanting to go back for a long time now.
She had thought, at times, she’d go to New York, but she had overcome the luster of that landing spot for a while. She just didn’t have any better place to go. She thought maybe Kansas or even Maryland, although she didn’t know anybody in either spot. Her brother was in California and that appealed to just be close to him. There were just so many options available to her that she didn’t know where she would like to end up.
Beside her, North asked, “Where’s the parking lot?”
With a jolt she brought herself back to reality. She was driving toward the warehouse where she’d been threatened once already, in the dark with two men who had no problem with breaking in if she didn’t let them in. She pointed up ahead. “It’s right there.” She pulled in, drove to the far back and shut off the lights as she maneuvered into a parking spot.
“Are you sure we can’t get you to stay here?” North asked, still not moving from the vehicle.
She shook her head. “No, you need me.”
“Exactly why do we need you?” he asked.
“Because you won’t know which is our stuff and which is the other people’s stuff.”
“I’m sure it’ll be delineated somehow,” he said, “otherwise all the employees would be just as confused.”
She pulled the keys from the ignition, adding them to her purse. She turned a bit to better face North as they continued this conversation in the car. “We could have asked Stan. He’s our warehouse manager. But it’s Friday night, and he’s off for the weekend. Normally he checks the manifests, sends the paperwork my way, then arranges delivery to the customers.”
“So who checked off this excess shipment? And, if it was Stan, why wasn’t he alerted to it?”
“That’s a good question. I did ask him, but he had to take off right away. He told me that he’d get back to me. I never really got a chance to ask him again. But I presume because the Only the Best company always orders thirty cases, they assumed it was a second thirty this time. I just figured someone messed up somewhere.”
“Obviously somebody did,” North said
. “The question is who and on which side.”
“I want to know what’s inside those boxes,” she said in a hard voice. “I want to confirm that whatever is being imported and exported is completely legal.”
“Do these come in trucks across the channel, or are they shipped over some other way?”
“Trucks. And we do a ton of paperwork to get it all to happen free and clear. This Brexit stuff will be a nightmare of paperwork for us. So, at the moment, it’s all still operating the same way. If England does eventually leave the EU, I’m sure the paperwork will be completely messed up for a while. But our company won’t be in business by then.” She stared at North. “How long will we wait here? This isn’t what we came for.”
He looked at her and smiled, his white teeth flashing in the darkness. In a gentle voice he said, “We’re waiting for Anders to get back and to tell us the coast is clear.”
Startled, she turned to look behind her into the back seat, but it was empty. She twisted to look at North again. “I didn’t even hear him leave.”
North nodded. “Anders is like that. He’s very good at his job. And so am I.”
She sagged back into the driver’s seat, wondering when Anders could possibly have exited the vehicle without her knowing. “The interior light didn’t turn on.”
“No, it didn’t,” he said. “I disabled it while you were driving.”
She shot him another look. “I didn’t see you do that either,” she said quietly.
He held up a small machine in his hand. “With these new vehicles it’s more computer codes than anything overtly physical. I’ll fix it once we’re out of here. But, if we had opened the door, somebody would have noticed the light when we arrived.”
“We’re still blocks away,” she protested. “Otherwise what was the point of stopping here?”
“We were likely already being watched when we turned the corner back there, as it is a straight shot from there to the warehouse. So, as long as we’re just sitting here, people are likely to think we came here to hang out together.”
She gave a violent head shake. “No way we would use this as a necking point if you were a local. This is not a good area of town.”
“You mean, to cuddle?” He pivoted, snagged her in his arms and half dragged her until she was sitting in his lap. “That’s an excellent idea.”
She gasped and tried to wiggle away.
He whispered, “Don’t. We are being watched. You need to know that.” She didn’t need to know it would either be Anders or MI6.
She sagged against North, wrapped her arms around his chest and asked, “Are you sure?”
“Very sure,” he said. And he kissed her.
*
Of course he didn’t have to kiss her like that, but, since he had wanted to since he had first met her, it had seemed the perfect opportunity to get a taste. As she leaned completely subdued in his arms, he gently smoothed her bottom lip with his index finger. “You’re beautiful like this,” he whispered.
Her eyes flew open, but, in the darkness of the interior of the car, it was almost impossible to read her gaze. There was definitely befuddlement, bewilderment, interest and curiosity.
He could work with those. He leaned over, kissed the tip of her nose and whispered, “Anders will be here in a few seconds.”
Her eyebrow rose. “How can you be so sure? Won’t those in the warehouse see him?”
North’s lips kicked up at the corners. “Either he’s waiting for them to move, or he’s taking them out.”
Instantly her face showed distress.
He shook his head. “We don’t kill unless we absolutely have to, to defend ourselves.”
The slight tensing of her muscles eased, and she nodded. “Glad to hear that.”
Outside was the sound of a hawk crying overhead. North nodded. “It’s clear to go.”
He gently eased opened the door and helped her to stand, though she was still half twisted in his lap. Once she was on her feet again, he stood and closed the car door quietly. There was barely a snick. He grasped her hand and walked slowly but with purpose. He headed toward the warehouse.
“How did you know where it’s located?”
He figured she must still be out of it from the kiss, something that made him feel good. It would probably distress her to know his reply. But he answered honestly anyway. “Google Maps.”
There was a startled moment, and then she nodded. “Right. I should have guessed that.”
He squeezed her fingers gently. “No need to. It’s the details we take care of.” He studied the opposite side of the street and the area ahead. There was no sign of anyone.
At the warehouse, she said, “There’s a door on the side that we’ll come to first.”
As they came up to the side of the building, he was already moving her gently toward the door. “Did you bring your keys?”
She nodded and pulled out a key.
At the door he waited, his gaze searching the surrounding area while she unlocked the door. He glanced down at her. “Any security?”
She shook her head. “No, nothing more than the normal as in a simple alarm system only.”
He frowned and stepped inside behind her. As she was about to stride across the room, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back against him. He closed the door gently behind him and locked it. He didn’t want anyone else coming in without him knowing. He glanced around to see what he could from his position by the door, but there was literally nothing. This whole area at the front of the warehouse was empty and wide open. He leaned toward her and whispered, “Now let’s move, soundlessly, please.”
They stepped as quietly as possible across to the hallway with offices on both sides. He could see different company names on either side. He and Nikki came to a large area where the warehouse opened up into a wide cavern in front of them. One side was full of shelving. Large crates were stacked up in the center; then a space opened off to the left. It appeared to have more shelving. It was a little hard to see in the gloom.
She turned and headed to the right. As he assessed the volume of space in the warehouse, he realized the second business probably had more than two-thirds of the whole space. Following her, she walked down six rows before she turned and headed toward the center of the warehouse. He noted boxes and crates and packages. There seemed to be a fairly organized system in place, everything marked in general, like in a library. The shelving had labels, but he hadn’t seen a computerized system or even an old-style card-catalogue system. In the center, she stopped and motioned in front of her.
He stepped up to her side to see crates, literally dozens and dozens of crates. He pulled out his cell phone, turned on his flashlight, holding it up against the crates. He read the sending company names and the company names for the deliveries. Each one had a bill of sale attached to the top.
“These were the crates. I opened two of them,” she murmured, moving along as if looking for the couple she had opened. She stopped in front of him. “These two.”
He stepped up to her side and gave her the flashlight to hold. He lifted the lid off the crate. On the top, bottles of wine nestled inside some kind of packing material.
In a low voice, she added, “If you go below this top layer, there’s something else.”
He lifted out several bottles. He didn’t have to go down too far to feel a heavier cardboard, or very thin plywood sheet, separating the top layer of bottles from whatever was beneath. He lifted up one corner, and they peered in with the flashlight. He couldn’t see what it was. He reached down with a hand and pulled out a small box. He lifted it through the small opening, and, with her holding the flashlight, he took a look. Inside appeared to be syringes and medication ampules. He stared at it, then whispered, “Bingo.”
He quickly stuffed it into his pocket, and, with her assistance, lifted the corner back up and shuffled the boxes underneath so the space where the one had been removed didn’t appear to be missing. Then he carefully replaced the wine
on the top and then the lid.
The sound of voices coming from one end of the large room reached North and Nikki. North took the phone from her, shut off the flashlight and pocketed it as he brought her down, crouched beside him. He listened to pinpoint where the voices came from, discovering they were coming the same way that North and Nikki had come in. Of course the newcomers had come in the side door with a key, apparently.
North quickly maneuvered Nikki around to the far end of the shelves and back up the other side where he could barely see through the shelving to where the crates were. He wanted to see who was coming and where they were going. He suspected their destination was the crates, but it was possible they were smuggling more than just whatever this medication was.
The two male voices continued to speak, but they were now close enough that North could hear their discussion.
“I tell you—she’s trouble.”
North glanced at Nikki, a question in his eyes. She had her eyes closed as if listening intently.
“But you said she didn’t get into anything.”
Nikki straightened, rose on her tiptoes and whispered into his ear, “I think that’s Carl and Phillip.”
“No, I don’t think so. She was checking a bottle of wine, comparing it to her list.”
“How did we end up with a double shipment this time?” Carl said in anger. “A mistake like this is unacceptable.”
“Hey, I agree with you. We have to move it soon, and then we must get the paperwork changed. That shouldn’t be too hard if there’s no product to match the paperwork. We can just slip in a new manifest.”
“I don’t know. That might be a little harder to do than you expect.”
The men turned down the aisle, coming toward the crates. Hidden one aisle over, North and Nikki could now see and hear them clearly. “Doesn’t matter. This double shipment needs to move before anyone else finds out. Thirty cases every three months is the maximum. That’s the setup, and so far it’s worked like clockwork. I have no clue what happened this time, but we need to fix it fast. We can’t have London Emporium knowing what we’re doing with their shipments. Go get the forklift, will you?”
