I thought about what I wanted to say. I must have been quiet too long. “I can’t effectively help you if I don’t know what is going on,” he said softly, looking a bit hurt.
“I’m not trying to keep things from you,” I said, putting what I hoped was a reassuring hand on his arm. “Truthfully, I’m really not sure if I know why he was killed other than I was questioning his involvement in Jason’s murder.”
“You think he was involved?”
“Yes,” I nodded. I knew he was. “He essentially admitted to knowing what was going on but only after I prodded him a little. He was more aggressive, more confident than usual and got angry that I was questioning him. He grabbed me and I have the bruises to prove it.” I grimaced as I remembered the sour scent of his breath on my face as he shouted.
“He told me I was asking for trouble with my questions and that I had better watch out, or I might find myself just as dead as Jason. He went on to assure me that he would make it a point to enjoy the pleasure of my company first.” Corbin’s nostrils flared in anger at that little tidbit.
“How did it go reigning in your berserker?”
“It was touch and go for a minute or two,” I admitted. Well, at least until my berserker decided she didn’t want both of us to be locked up in a padded cell. “But as tempting as it was, he isn’t the one pulling the strings. He’s a puppet or at least he was. An expendable one apparently, if what happened to him this morning is any indicator.”
“I have to agree about him not being a big enough player to be in charge. I was also struck by the bizarre positioning of the body. Is it supposed to mean something?”
“I wish I knew.”
Chapter 28
Today was the day that the Lassiter Tempest was scheduled to dock and I was a bundle of jumbled nerves and dread. The last few days had gone by in a haze of planning, nervousness and mandated training sessions with Sampson. I would never admit it to Jonathan, but the time in the gym was helping with my stress levels, and I usually left there so physically drained that I was able to at least sleep.
“How are you holding up?” Samantha asked as she sipped her coffee. We were having breakfast around the corner from the office at one of our favorite spots. Afterwards I was going home to settle in and wait for the unloading to begin.
“Truthfully? I’m really nervous,” I admitted. I was worried something was going to go wrong. Yesterday I had forwarded Joey all of the pertinent details regarding the shipment and reminded him to wear the chain with the ring I had given him. I planned on Locating to him using the ring as a beacon. That way I could monitor what was going on in the crane control room.
“I can’t help wondering if we should get Donald involved.”
“No,” I said. “That would just implicate one more person if we get caught. Besides,” I said taking a drink of my tea, “he can’t really do anything to help anyway.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I am right. It’s bad enough we had to get Sal involved.” He was overseeing the loading of the container on the correct truck. I was not taking any chances that this container would slip through my fingers. Once Liam’s truck left the port with the container, it was his problem. His crew was responsible for getting the Sapphire off loaded before the container of bananas was rerouted to its final destination.
“Playing with fire girl.” Sal had grumbled when I had made my request for him to personally oversee the movement of the container. He didn’t know what was in the shipment, and I got the feeling he didn’t want to know. God, I loved that man. The only prickly thing that had come up was when he questioned whether I had uncovered anything about Jason’s killers.
“I’m working on it Sal, I promise,” I assured him. “I can’t prove anything yet but I’m on the right track.”
“I still say you should be letting the ISB do their job.”
“I wish I could.”
All I got in reply was a loud “Humph.”
“You okay over there?” Samantha asked interrupting my thoughts. “I feel like I’m talking to myself.”
“Sorry. I was just thinking about Sal.”
“Yeah well, just be glad he agreed to oversee the loading of the container for you,” she said. “At least we know he is someone we can trust.”
“Have you gotten confirmation on the berth they will be pulling into?” The Lassiter Storm needed to pull into the correct berth, or Joey wouldn’t be running the scanner. Nemesis had done some of her magic to help everything run smoothly, but I was still nervous. I didn’t want to think about how much all of this was costing me, but it seemed prudent to pin down as many variables as possible. Even with all our work, the assignment of berths was something that still scared me. If the berth was changed, Joey would not be running the scanner, and our chances of getting the Sapphire through the port undetected dropped to about three percent. Not my kind of odds.
“Sal confirmed that the boat is scheduled for the correct berth when he contacted Donald for the docking update.”
“Good, that is one less thing to worry about.” I was seriously going to need a drink at the end of this day. My nerves were shot. The thought of doing this ten more times over the next year was more than a little daunting.
By the time the boat docked, I was at home ready to monitor the offloading. It was strange how after all that dread and anxiety, things were running smoothly. The ship was in the correct berth, and Joey was up in the control room running the scanner.
I Located to the crane control room and was hovering behind Joey when our container was finally offloaded. It looked as benign on the scanner as all the previous containers. Shouldn’t it have looked different? I guess I had expected to see flashing lights or something. I glanced over and noticed that Joey looked perplexed too. He approved the scan, and then moved on to the next container.
I slid back into my body where it sat on my couch and immediately texted Joey. “Is everything alright?”
“Confused. Didn’t see anything…,” was his cryptic response. If I hadn’t been there watching, I wouldn’t have known what he meant.
Shit, shit, shit! And I thought everything was running smoothly. Did that mean the Sapphire never made it onto the boat? McCallister was going to freak out and kill someone! He specifically said nothing should get lost this time. I needed to get a grip. All the vampires were still sleeping. I had time to figure this out.
I put in a quick call to Sal. “We have a problem.”
“What type of problem?”
“I have a feeling that the people coming to pick up the container later may not be happy once they open it up.”
“A feeling, huh? Do I want to know why they aren’t going to be happy?” he asked dryly.
“Let’s just say, I’m fairly certain their merchandise isn’t in there.” There was silence on the other end of the line for several moments.
“Sal, you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” he grumbled. “Thankfully they will figure that out once they are elsewhere.”
Another text comes in from Joey. “Looks like we have something. Gonna pass it.”
“Sal, I gotta go. Just act like everything is going according to plan when they show-up, alright? I have a little time to figure this out still.” I hung up before he could respond.
I Located back to Joey again. Without any transition time, the transference was way more disorienting. Everything in my field of vision wavered wildly before snapping into focus. I concentrated on Joey’s terminal. There were two unusually bright spots on the screen amongst the subtler glow of the bananas. That had to be it. I checked the container number on the screen - LSIR3054388. Another one of ours and it was a refrigerated unit loaded with bananas. What the hell?
I slid back to my body at home. I felt nauseous and light headed. I had to lie back on the cushions so I didn’t pass out. Time passed as I struggled to get my mind and body to work together again. When I finally snapped out of it I sat bolt upright and loo
ked at the clock. I had lost nearly an hour. Damn. I frantically called Samantha.
“Sam, the merchandise was not in the container.”
She groaned into the phone. “Can’t anything go right?”
“I think we may still be alright though. Joey saw something in a different container and passed it through.”
“How in the hell did that happen?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Something must have gone wrong when it was loaded. Maybe Lok can explain later. Until then, we still have a couple hours to track it down before the vampires rise for the night.”
“Do you need someone to physically go out there and check the second container?” she asked. “I can call Sal.”
“No, I’ve got him handling the original shipment. He’s going to hand it over to whoever McCallister sent to pick it up. I told him to act like nothing is wrong.” Hopefully he could pull that off. “I’ll take care of finding the other container myself.”
“How are you going to do that?” she asked. Good question.
“My insurance policy,” I said.
“What?”
“I’ll explain later, right now I’ve gotta go.” I could hear her starting to protest as I hung up but I didn’t have time to explain. I just needed to get a look at the other container and figure out where it was headed.
Lok had better have done as I asked and put the envelope I provided into the shipment. I got off the couch and nearly tumbled into the coffee table. My left leg had fallen asleep. Every other step was a jolt of pins and needles as I ran to my desk. Opening the top drawer, I pulled out an envelope identical to the one I had couriered to McCallister. With shaking hands, I slit it open and carefully shook out a pressed tawny leaf. Exhaustion was bearing down on me from all the Locating back and forth but this had to be done.
I moved to the sofa and sat in lotus position with the leaf carefully held in my hand. I took several deep breaths in an effort to calm my racing heart. I felt frantic. I was not going to be able to Locate anywhere at this rate. I took another breath and started counting down backwards from ten. Ten, ten, ten, nine, nine, nine… until I got to one. When I opened my eyes again I felt calmer. More focused.
I looked at the leaf, concentrating on its energy while searching for its twin. When I closed my eyes I could see the outline of the leaf burning in my vision as pure golden energy. My lips part in wonder. The image before me was fleetingly beautiful. In the next instant I was thrust into a dark narrow room filled with boxes of bananas. Everything was cast in a soft pink glow except the two pallets directly in front of me. They had a blue pulse at the center that throbbed sluggishly like some macabre heart. I don’t know why I ever worried that I would have trouble finding the Sapphire amongst the bananas. Anyone who could see energy signatures was sure to spot it.
The sound of traffic outside was an eerie backdrop, as the pallets lurched and swayed around me. The container was already in transit? How the hell had it gotten on a truck so fast? I couldn’t worry about that now. I just needed to figure out where it was headed.
The easiest option would be to go outside the container to look. Hypothetically I should be able to do that, no problem. My physical body wasn’t here, right? I was present as energy and energy could pass through walls when matter couldn’t. But damn if I could get up the nerve to try it. I was paralyzed by the idea that I would somehow find myself stuck within the atoms of the steel container walls while my body withered back on my sofa. I shivered at the thought. Nope, not doing it. I would just have to wait until we stopped and the doors were opened.
Minutes passed before the truck finally stopped and began maneuvering to what I assumed would be a loading bay. When the doors opened, I could see that my guess was correct. The truck had backed up to a loading dock and there was a forklift already heading this way to offload the pallets. I moved into the warehouse and slipped out the next bay door that was open. I had never moved around this much when Locating and I felt a constant tug from the leaf hidden in the pallets with the Sapphire. So far it was just uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure how far I could move from the beacon before the discomfort caused my consciousness to be thrust back to my physical body.
A quick peek at the building’s sign showed that we were at a distribution center for Wholesome Foods. I was unsuccessful at discovering a street or corporate center name. Once I got to the far side of the parking lot the pull from the leaf got downright painful. I wasn’t going any further.
When I went back into the warehouse I spotted a desk I hadn’t noticed before along an interior wall. It was piled with packing slips and bills of lading and the one thing they all had in common was the address. Now that I had what I needed, it was time to go. But before leaving, I watched as all the pallets were unloaded, including the two containing the Sapphire. Thankfully they were all moved to a refrigerated room inside of the warehouse. I checked the temperature gauge just outside the bay door leading into the room. It read 12.5°C. This was a high temperature cold storage room where the ripening process would start before the bananas were shipped to the individual grocery stores. Hopefully that meant the shipment would stay put for today. I was getting tired and didn’t know if I had it in me to Locate anywhere else tonight.
Now that I knew where the shipment had ended up I sought out the comfort of my physical body back on my couch. I sat for a moment or two with my eyes closed. I was physically and mentally spent. When I did finally open my eyes, I blinked in confusion. My hands were at an awkward angle behind my back and when I attempted to move I realized I was tied to a chair in my kitchen, the metallic taste of blood thick in my mouth. Andrei was casually sitting at my island drinking a beer, watching my confusion with delight.
“I thought you were dead for a bit there little elf,” Andrei laughed. “We tried to wake you. Got a bit rough. Sorry about the split lip.” His spiteful smile belied his words. The jerk wasn’t sorry.
“What do you want?” I asked as I tried not to think about Hook Nose manhandling my body off the couch and into this chair while I was completely incapacitated. Minimally, I would guess that he took the opportunity to cop a feel. I couldn’t think much beyond minimally at the moment. I promised myself I would set aside a couple of hours to freak out about that later. Right now, I needed to get out of this chair.
“Now there is a loaded question,” he replied before taking another pull on his beer. He slowly licked the amber droplet that clung to his upper lip while watching me intently. No matter how stoic I wanted to appear, I couldn’t stop the fractional widening of my eyes at the implied threat. Another moment when I had to wonder the purpose of a girl having a Guardian when shit like this was happening. Where the hell was Naris?
“I am here Abigail. I cannot directly interfere.” Not exactly what I wanted to hear at the moment. I tried to find something in there that sounded hopeful. He had said directly interfere. Did that mean he was indirectly interfering?
“I moved the bodies around the side of the house,” Luca said as he entered the kitchen from the back door. Luca eyed me speculatively as he grabbed the other beer on the island. “I see the elf is awake.”
His words took a moment to register. Bodies. I felt a pang of real sorrow as I realized he must be talking about the wolves watching the door. I didn’t know who had been assigned guard duty tonight but I did know that the Lenape pack would soon be mourning two members.
“Yeah,” Andrei agreed. “She was just asking what we wanted. I was about to tell her.” He turned back to me. “You do still want to know, don’t you elf?”
When I didn’t respond, his mouth thinned in irritation. He took another long pull on his beer before coming around to my side of the island. He put his hands on the arms of my chair, leaning right into my personal space.
“I don’t like being kicked in the head, little girl. And I don’t like being interrupted once I’ve gotten my knife out. Sampson will pay for wrecking my fun the other day. But that’ll have to wait. I plan on making up
for lost time tonight.” He smiled before whispering in my ear, “And this time there won’t be any interruptions.”
“Ah Andrei, the boss said…” Luca started before he was cut off.
“I don’t give a fuck what the boss said,” Andrei snarled without taking his eyes off me.
“But,” Luca said, his face worried. “He specifically told us…” He was silenced as Andrei grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him against my refrigerator.
“I know what he told us!” he shouted into Luca’s face. “Do I look like I fucking care! I had my knife out and didn’t get to use it!” He roughly shoved Luca away from him before turning back to me.
“I’m owed this,” Andrei said more softly. The hunger on his face chilled me to the bone. He couldn’t get that knife of his out without gutting someone? What was up with that? Here I had just pegged him as a hired thug. But no, he was a psychopath. Dangerous. Unpredictable. I started to pull at the bindings holding my arms as my beast began to pace, back and forth, back and forth.
“That won’t do you any good,” he informed me with an ugly laugh. “Those zip ties are reinforced with titanium mesh.”
I stilled at his words. Of course they were. This kept getting better and better.
He smiled again. “Ah, I see you are familiar with them. I guess you would be since they’re berserker proof.” They were used to subdue a berserker for transportation, after they were shot full of tranquilizers of course. No one would dare get close enough to put them on while the berserker was conscious.
Andrei reached to his belt and pulled his knife from its sheath. He turned it side to side watching the light glint off the finely honed edge, his eyes alive with anticipation. I could just imagine him sharpening that thing while he envisioned using it on me. The beast was pounding, pounding, pounding. I struggled with her fury over Andrei’s threats. And for the first time in my life I was seriously considering just letting her out. I mean, what was worse? Gutted on the floor of my kitchen after Andrei did God knows what to me, or allowing my berserker to shred him to bits and spending the rest of my life in a padded cell. Not much of a choice there. Hell, I was already in berserker restraints, at least with her free I might be able to do some damage. As if sensing my weakness, she ratcheted up her efforts to get out.
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