Fragments of Grey [Book Five of The Alexis Stanton Chronicles]

by Phelps, J. C.

“I have no idea. Fall off the grid. Move to Alaska and live off the land. Go to some foreign country and turn myself in for crimes against the state. I don’t know.” If only he knew how serious I was about the last statement he might decide to buy my plane ticket to Romania.

  The next morning at breakfast, Jake took me aside and led me back to the main office.

  “Ms. Grey.” An older gentleman stood from the office chair and came around the desk to shake my hand. He looked somehow familiar, but I was certain I’d never seen him before.

  I took his hand. His grip was firm and brief.

  “Sir.” I assumed I was speaking to my current boss, Mark Posner.

  “Sit, please.” He motioned to a chair as he sat on the corner of the desk. Jake held back near the door.

  “Jake here tells me we are going to lose you if I don’t switch out your jobs.”

  “Yes, sir. I plan to finish out the week.”

  “What makes you think you can pressure me into what you want?” He raised his eyebrows and his look became almost sinister.

  “Sir? That was not my intention. I was just stating a fact.” I stood from my chair.

  Who the hell did this guy think he was?

  “I had every intention of staying until the end of the week. However, I am prepared to leave you to your facility effective immediately. I’m not cut out for teaching classes in the same place all day, every day. It’s a waste of my time, and your resources. I don’t need a job. Least of all a job that’s a waste of my expertise.” I held out my hand. “I appreciate you allowing me to kill some time teaching at your facility.”

  He looked me up and down. “Put your hand down, Ms. Grey. You have more balls than most men. I was prepared to accept your apology, but I see you aren’t the type to be—”

  “Bullied, sir?” I finished his sentence. “Not at all, sir.” I gave him a sterile smile.

  “Maybe you are cut out for more than I thought you were. What is it you’d like to do, Ms. Grey?”

  “I’m game for most everything except contract hits.”

  “Everything except contract hits?” He laughed. “Do you think we do that kind of thing around here?”

  “I have no idea, sir, and I don’t want to know. Just know I won’t do them.”

  “Have you performed that service in the past?” His look became amused.

  “You won’t find it on my resume, sir.”

  The room was quiet for a full minute as Posner walked back behind the desk and took his seat.

  “Would you be interested in a retrieval mission?”

  “Depends, sir.”

  “So it would.” He took in a deep breath. “I need someone to retrieve payment from a former client. Do you think you could do this?”

  “It’s highly likely. Will I have a crew or will I be doing this alone?”

  “Alone? No, Ms. Grey. I’ll send you with Jake and his crew.”

  “That’s acceptable to me, sir.”

  “Are you sure? You seem to have a problem with authority.”

  “No problem with authority, just a problem with waste, mismanagement, and stupidity, sir.”

  “Don’t start stepping on those big balls of yours, Ms. Grey.”

  “Of course not, sir.”

  “Jake’ll fill you in on all the details.” He dismissed me.

  Once Jake and I got a sufficient distance from the office, he stepped in front of me and backed me into the wall with his advance.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “What do you mean?” I wasn’t comfortable with him in my face like this.

  “Posner isn’t a guy to play with. Don’t piss him off.”

  “I won’t kiss anyone’s ass. I refuse.”

  “If there was anyone’s ass you need to kiss, it’s Posner’s.”

  I laughed.

  “I’m serious, Alex. He’s not someone to take lightly. Piss him off and things can go bad.”

  “I seriously doubt Posner cares if I quit working as an instructor at his facility. That position is easy enough to fill.”

  “Maybe not if that’s all you were. Posner called you in because he doesn’t want you working anywhere else. That much is obvious.”

  “He has no choice who I work for, Jake.” I glared.

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “You might be surprised, yourself.”

  He backed away, and the two of us made our way back to his suite where he gave me a short briefing of the job.

  Chapter Eight

  The streets were quiet and dark. None of the street lights were working. I assumed that meant the people who lived here didn’t want their after dark behavior to be observed.

  “You ready for this?” Jake asked as we pulled up to the curb.

  “Yep. You?” I looked in the side-view mirror and watched as the rest of the crew pulled up behind us.

  “Let’s go.” He put the car in park and shut off the engine.

  I stood in full view of the peephole and Jake stood with his back to the wall near the door so he’d not be seen. I knocked.

  “Look lost,” Jake ordered under his breath as he stood with his back to the wall beside the door. The two other men had worked their way to the back door.

  I heard the deadbolt being unlocked, and tensed.

  “Yes?” I heard a man ask through the small crack in the door.

  “I’m sorry. My car broke down, and I was hoping you’d let me use your phone?”

  “Sure.”

  The target slid the chain lock and I fidgeted until he opened the door wide enough for me to step in. I smiled and stepped passed him and into the house. As he was shutting the door, Jake muscled his way in.

  “What the hell is going on?” The target tried to throw a punch Jake’s direction.

  I grabbed his arms and pulled them behind him.

  “Wanna let the rest of the guys in?” I asked Jake.

  “You got him?”

  “Yep.” I pinched the pressure point on his neck and he went to his knees. His ball cap fell to the floor and skittered across the dull hardwood.

  Jake stepped past us to let the other men in the back door and I pulled out my pistol.

  “Let’s go find a seat, shall we?”

  “What the hell is going on?” he demanded again.

  “You’ll have to talk to my boss. I’m just the muscle,” I said as I pushed him toward his table. “Sit. Hands flat on the table,” I ordered as Jake, Eric and Joe joined us.

  “Jake. Dude,” the target said then. “I didn’t recognize you earlier. We can work this out.”

  “The last two times I’ve been here to work this out you didn’t answer the door. Here’s how we’re going to work this out. You pay cash now or I’m calling a moving van and we’ll do a little house cleaning. We’ll take everything, especially the dust. Any cash we find in this sweep goes to our cleaning fees. You’ll still owe.”

  “I don’t have it, man. I swear.”

  Jake nodded at Eric who turned around and made a call from his cell.

  “Start searching, Joe,” Jake said. “You’ve got maybe fifteen minutes before the movers show. Any drugs you find need to come back to me, here.” He pointed to the table.

  “You got it,” Joe said and headed out of the room.

  “Man. Don’t do this. If you take those drugs I’ll never get you the money and they’ll kill me.”

  “Your problem. Trying to screw your current contact by trying to get a better price elsewhere when you’ve already promised the shipment is never good for your health.”

  “How’d you know that?”

  “Why else haven’t you made your sale? Not just that, you weren’t upfront about the cargo. You turned us into drug smugglers.”

  “No one knows you guys helped me out. I swear it.”

  “Posner knows. He knows you used his company to smuggle drugs and now you know he won’t stand for it.”

  “Man. Please. Don’t take my stash. All I have to do is schedul
e a meeting. Then I’ll have Posner’s money, I swear it.”

  Jake shook his head. “Where’s the stash?” He chambered a round and pointed his pistol at the target.

  The man cringed.

  “Hands on the table!” I chambered a round of my own.

  “It’s in the couch, man.” He was visibly shaking.

  “Joe. Check the couch!” Jake hollered as he holstered his weapon again. I kept my pistol at the ready and pointed at the target. It gave me a sense of security. Jake hadn’t told me drugs were involved, and what the hell did we want with drugs, anyway.

  We waited for Joe to respond and I wondered what the hell I’d gotten myself into. I was in the house of a drug dealer and we weren’t trying to get him arrested. We were just trying to find his stash and take his money.

  At this point, I had no choice but to remain exactly where I was, doing exactly what I was doing. This was more than a little sketchy and I didn’t know if we were the good guys or the bad guys.

  Joe walked toward us and dropped a large plastic bag of white powder onto the table. “The couch is full of it.”

  “See. That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” Jake told the man. “Eric, you can call off the movers.”

  “Jake, you can’t take it,” Danny pleaded.

  “What do I want with drugs? If I take it, all I have to do is dispose of it. We aren’t drug dealers or drug smugglers. Oh, wait. Yes we are. Because of you. This isn’t the first time you’ve pulled this bullshit, Danny. But, it is the last.”

  “Yes. I swear. I’ll never do it again.” He held up shaking hands in a gesture of surrender.

  “Hands flat on the table!” I reminded him.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen, Danny. First, you’re going to call your contact and schedule a meet in about an hour. Then, you’re going to get up and clean out that couch and move the contents to the back of that Dodge Durango parked out on the street. You’ll do the deal, get your cash, and we’ll take our cut.”

  “Okay. That’s fair, man. My phone is on the coffee table.” He pointed.

  “Damn it! Hands on the table!” I smacked him in the back of the head hard.

  “Ow! Shit!” He reached toward the back of his head so I grabbed him by the hair with my free hand and pushed his face onto the table.

  “Hands on the table,” I said into his ear with the muzzle of my gun pressing into his side.

  The men all gave me looks of approval as Danny was allowed to make his call. With that one small gesture, I’d won their respect, for the moment.

  Jake made him use the speaker phone on the cell for the call. Danny had to practically beg to get his meeting set up before tomorrow. But, he told his contact that he had some bills that had to be paid before the day was done. I suppose they’d found themselves in similar situations because they finally agreed.

  “Good. Get it loaded up.” Jake told him after Danny had hung up the phone.

  Eric and Joe followed him to the couch and tore it wide open, exposing nothing but the white plastic bags. Danny bent down, grabbed an armload, and walked toward the door. Eric followed him out and Joe remained near the front door, weapon in hand.

  “We’re going to do a drug deal?” I asked Jake as we watched Danny hauling the packages to the SUV.

  “No. Danny is. We’re just going to be there to take our cut when the deal is done.”

  I still wasn’t sure how I felt about this. We should be turning his ass in and keeping the drugs off the streets. But, I knew now that not everything in life was black and white, good and bad. The concept of Helix and his gray hat status was much more clear to me. Maybe that’s what he’d been alluding to when he seemed surprised I was going from White and Associates to Mesa. One was a gray hat operation and the other was a white hat operation.

  Besides, it sounded as if this Danny guy had deceived Posner’s guys into helping him smuggle drugs. What else could Mesa do, now that they’d helped him bring drugs into the country? About all they really could do was get their money and get as far away as quickly as they could.

  Eric and Joe kept Danny moving at a steady pace until the SUV was loaded.

  Eric shoved Danny into the passenger’s seat of the vehicle and then took the seat behind him, making sure Danny saw the pistol in his hands.

  Jake tossed Joe his car keys. They shared a nod and Jake got behind the wheel of the Durango.

  “Let’s go.” Joe told me as he walked to the Charger. We sped off in the direction of the meet before the other vehicle was even running.

  Two blocks before the chosen address, Joe turned into an alley and parked the car. He got out, so I followed.

  He was pulling a rifle from the trunk.

  “Here.” He handed it to me and pulled out another one.

  “What’s this for?”

  “We’re Jake and Eric’s protection. You take this roof and I’ll take that one.” He pointed.

  The chosen meeting place was a midsized city park with plenty of darkened areas. From my rooftop I could see Joe setting up and I did the same. I placed my rifle on the edge of the rooftop so I could see as much of the park as possible. When I looked through the scope I realized it had an infrared setting. That would come in handy if they met under the trees.

  Within five minutes Jake, Eric and Danny pulled into the parking lot. The three of them stepped to the back of the vehicle and waited.

  About ten minutes of watching Danny pace in front of Jake and Eric, who stood at the two back corners of the vehicle, was enough for me. Thankfully, an identical Durango to the company vehicle pulled into the lot. They parked five parking spots away. Three men exited that vehicle as well.

  Danny and one of the men from the other vehicle met in the middle. A short exchange of words had the man following Danny to the back of our SUV. Eric opened the liftgate and the new man did a quick inspection. He gave Danny a nod of approval and the two of them walked back to the middle ground where one of the other men had brought forward a briefcase.

  He placed the case on the ground and backed away a step. Danny had the moves memorized and waited for the men to move back before he opened the case.

  More nods of approval led to all six men meeting in the middle of the lot where sets of keys were exchanged. I didn’t realize what was going on until I saw the three drug dealers enter our Durango and drive off, leaving the other SUV in our possession.

  Jake held out his hand and Danny willingly gave up the briefcase. The three of them walked to the SUV where Jake inspected the cash as well. It was too dark to see what was being said, but it obviously irritated Danny. He started pointing his finger into Jake’s chest and then made a grab for Jake’s gun.

  Eric had already gotten into the passenger’s seat and was looking straight forward. Why wasn’t he getting out to help his partner?

  I watched as Danny and Jake scuffled. Danny got control of Jake’s 9mm and leveled it on Jake, who stood there as if he were merely annoyed and not in fear for his life.

  I could tell Danny was making some kind of demands because he kept pointing at the ground in front of himself with his free hand. Jake only slowly shook his head and crossed his arms. Still, Eric wasn’t getting out of the vehicle, but at least he was turned around in his seat with his weapon pointed at Danny.

  The argument went on for two full minutes and the only change in the scene was how irritated Danny became. I caught a few words in the darkness. Danny repeatedly said mine, now, and the f-word, but Jake only said one word, no. He stood there, stoic and unmoved.

  I waited as long as I could, but when Danny slipped his finger onto the trigger I pressed down on my own. I barely noticed the pop of the rifle or felt the kick. I was focused on Danny. He hit the ground and the only movement was the blood pooling around him. I watched Jake retrieve his 9mm and get into the SUV. As soon as he was inside the vehicle I picked up my weapon and made my way to the edge of the building. Joe was still looking through his scope when I reached the fire escape.

>   “Let’s go. Now!” I hollered across to him.

  He jumped up and followed my instructions without question.

  We met at the car, placed our rifles back into the trunk, and sped back to the Mesa facility. The only words exchanged during the drive came from Joe. Shortly after we got onto the main road he said, “Nice shot.”

  I worked the scenario over and over in my head. There had been no other outcome, except for one. Eric. He hadn’t taken the shot. I hated that I didn’t know more about what was going on down there, but his hesitance made me wonder if my shot was completely necessary.

  Joe pulled directly up to the front doors of the facility.

  “Go ahead and go in. I’m going to put the equipment away,” he said.

  I stepped out of the Charger and took a seat in the waiting area. The man at the front desk only gave me a nod and then went back to his business.

  Joe joined me before Jake and Eric pulled in.

  “They’ll be here soon.” He took a seat in the chair across from me.

  I nodded.

  “I have to admit I didn’t think you had it in you. Your first is always the hardest.”

  His assumption that this was my first kill made me giggle, but it wasn’t out of glee. I put my hand to my forehead and rubbed. Suddenly I had a terrible headache.

  A few deep breaths helped. I put my hand back in my lap and looked him directly in the face. “This isn’t my first.”

  “Then why look so depressed?”

  “I used to ask the questions before pulling the trigger, but now the questions come after I’ve pulled the trigger.”

  “No need to worry about this one. You saved Jake. I would have taken the shot, but I didn’t have the best line of sight.”

  I sighed and shook my head.

  “It’s best to check your conscience at the door with this job, Alex.”

  I didn’t respond. The two of us sat in silence for more than half an hour. Finally Jake and Eric came in the door carrying the briefcase. Joe and I stood to greet them.

  “Thanks, man.” Jake held his hand out for Joe.

  “Not me,” Joe said and hiked his head my direction.

  “You saved my ass out there?” Jake directed at me.