Authors: Sara Schoen
By the time we managed to extinguish the fire, the smoke that still hung in the air caused everyone around me to cough. I ordered someone to open the warehouse doors to help clear the air before someone passed out due to smoke inhalation. Miguel was more interested in finding answers rather than taking care of his workers. He’d become convinced a rat caused it, giving me the task of hunting them down to eliminate the threat. I knew everyone would try to hinder the search to keep themselves out of harm’s way. I had become accustomed to ridding the cartel of members who hindered progress, or revealing their movements. It was Camden’s way of showing his power, and he began by purging everyone who wasn’t one hundred percent loyal.
Since then, everyone had straightened up, but they needed more people because the shipments were being called in from all over. I had started tampering with shipments, and stopped once Camden had been alerted to the possibility of another rat. He took his job in exterminating them very seriously, but this time I couldn’t let it happen because I was certain it had been Camo. She had made yet another rookie mistake, except this one had put the noose around both of our necks because Camden wasn’t going to give up until he found the person responsible. Even if it meant killing someone innocent so the workers wouldn’t consider him weak.
They wouldn’t respect someone who let others walk all over him, someone who failed to eradicate those they couldn’t trust, and Camden wouldn’t lose that respect. He would regain control and make an example out of whomever had started messing with the shipments again.
Camden ordered a couple of us to search for the culprit, which sent us on a wild goose chase. We had to interview personnel who had been in the area during the time the fire broke out, but there wasn’t much to go on. The workers had raced from the warehouse when smoke drifted in and the fire began to rage close by. It would be a long process, because I had an idea of who had done it and hopefully she’d left after engulfing the shipment in flames. Camden hoped we would find the culprit, which meant soon I’d have to take the gun out of storage again.
I had been so focused on trying to prepare for whatever this mission would entail that I had let the rookie walk right into the barrel of a gun. I hoped Demon would take her out of action after this, because if she lit the shipment as a distraction, she should be getting the files right now and then she shouldn’t be needed anymore. She should have been able to retrieve what they need from her, and now she could move on without risking her life further.
I glanced around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her, but knowing her skills, I wouldn’t see her unless she wanted me to. The walkways and catwalks were clear, the doors to all the offices were shut, and the few people who were with me weren’t venturing far from the shipment. I paused for a moment, letting that thought sink in, before I glanced back up to Miguel’s office with a smile on my face. Sure enough, I saw a shadow darting from window to window. The person had a familiar small build like the agent from the park, and walked with purposeful, strong strides, confidence in every step, and determination clear in the grace of her walk. Though that wasn’t how Camo walked. She was more cautious, edgier, as if unaccustomed to sneaking around. That wasn’t Camo.
I glanced around before telling one of the other men I had a hunch and needed to check the old offices. He cast me a curious gaze, but didn’t question me further on it. I guess being next to Camden for the last year had its perks, because no one questioned my motives, at least not to my face.
I made my way up the stairs and headed into the offices. I shut the door behind me and turned around, expecting her to be waiting for me. I didn’t see her, or hear her.
“Hello?” I said aloud. I knew I had seen someone in here, but couldn’t see them now. Stacks of large boxes filled the dusty rooms, at least four to five high, and provided the intruder with enough cover to hide from me. The boxes filled up the room, lined the walls, and even cluttered the hallway between the connected offices. It would be easy to stay hidden if this person knew what they were doing.
When no one answered, I took a few steps into the long hallway, taking time to glance into each room as I passed, looking between the boxes, hoping to see something. I switched on a few lights, illuminating the dimly lit rooms, so I could search more carefully. The nerves were starting to creep in. Instinctively, I reached for my sidearm and flicked it off safety as I turned into one of the rooms.
Camo would have just called back out to me, so I wondered who it could be. I thought for a fleeting moment it might be Night Stripe, but this didn’t seem to line up with what Demon and Whip Lash had said. They each made it seem as if she would be injured. Showing up and standing by the roaring flames of burning cocaine didn’t line up with that. I made it through the last room without finding anything. I brushed off my discomfort, and turned around to leave when one of the boxes fell behind me. I spun around and lifted the gun toward the stack of boxes, which was now one short.
“You have ten seconds to get up and show yourself or I shoot you where you are.” The threat left my lips so easily. Ordinarily, I would have waited for them to show their face before I threatened to kill them. “Get up!”
“Marco,” a voice called behind me. I didn’t see anyone, but I heard someone quickly react and headed into the connecting room.
I tried to follow them, but I lost track of them when I tripped over a few scattered box that had been pushed into the center of the hallway. Cool air blew in through the open window, sending a chill down my spine as I got up and ran to it. I couldn’t see anyone leaving the area, but I guessed they’d escaped. I stepped through the open window, placing one foot onto the fire escape outside when a few of the boxes fell behind me. They had tricked me. They were waiting for me to leave so they could get out without anyone noticing.
I let out a low growl of annoyance before I turned and let a few rounds fly between a few of the boxes. A high pitched, yet muffled scream met my ears as someone jumped out behind the boxes with their arms in a surrendering position.
“It’s just me,” Camo said, fear prevalent on her face.
“What were you thinking?” I snapped. “Why didn’t you answer me when I first came in here?”
Her mouth opened and closed, as if about to answer, but stopped just as I heard footsteps racing up the stairs. The men had heard the gunshots and were coming to help. We were about to be caught.
“Get out of here,” I ordered as I pushed her toward the window. “If they find you in here, you’re as good as dead.”
“But I haven’t finished my—”
“Tell Demon to send you home,” I growled. “You’ve started a hunt, and it won’t end until someone is dead. Let’s make sure it’s not you or Night Stripe. I’ve been ordered to protect you both.”
“She’s already out,” Camo whispered.
I fought the urge to ask if that had been the person I had seen. It explained why Camo hadn’t spoken up earlier. She had let Night Stripe in, and the thief had done her job. She took whatever Camo had prepared for her, and left without a word. Sharp Shooter was really keeping her in the dark if Camo wasn’t even going to let it slip when I threatened to kill Night Stripe right in front of her.
“Good, now you get out too, and don’t come back,” I said as I shoved her toward the window. I turned away as she started to exit, not as quickly as the thief, but fast enough. I made my way toward the door as a few of the men came forward, guns drawn and at the ready.
“Did you find someone?”
“No,” I said, relieving a few and agitating the others. “They escaped before I found them. Quickly, start looking for them outside.” Most of the men followed the order without question, but one stayed behind and looked at me as if I had insulted him.
I could see the hesitation in his eyes, as if he wanted to say something, but instead he let the silence envelope us. I didn’t want to say anything further. He should have followed it the first time, but judging from the incredulous gleam in his eyes, I knew he had seen something. I wanted him to speak first, but the silence became too much for him. The skeptical gaze turned stoic as he turned around to leave.
Before he exited, he stopped and looked over his shoulder at me. I followed his gaze to a few open files on the boxes around me. From the documents on top I could see that they were shipment logs, and a few had high-ranking names on them. This didn’t look good, to find me in here with these documents around the room. He either believed what happened, or he thought I was the culprit and used the fire as a guise and lied about an intruder as an excuse. I could only hope the former was true.
If he went to Camden or Miguel, I knew there would be blood.
“Get back to work,” I ordered, breaking the silence and making it seem as if nothing was out of the ordinary. “I have to tell Miguel what happened here.”
The man nodded his head, still seeming unconvinced, as he walked out and left me alone. I hoped this wasn’t the start of the mission crashing and burning.
***
I made it home a few hours later, after giving Miguel a rundown of what happened and informing him that I couldn’t find the person who’d ruined the shipment. He wasn’t pleased with the news, and it meant that the deal he had been working on with the Son Reyes needed to be postponed until we got more product. Giving the Son Reyes a deal in parts would only bring trouble. They would think we were stealing from them, and if they thought we were stabbing them in the back, they’d shoot us before we could act. They wanted the shipment in one piece. Without that part of the shipment, the deal wouldn’t go through.
Miguel wasted another two hours of my life, walking around the warehouse, taking in the damage caused by the fire, and paying special attention to where the blaze had originated. Judging from the burn marks on the floor, Camo had started the fire close to the wooden boxes to give her enough time to leave before the fire could take over. The grimace on Miguel’s face made his displeasure clear.
“When I find the culprit, they will be punished severely,” he said. Then his heavy hand landed on my shoulder, sending my stomach into knots.
I had the overwhelming urge to grab him and break his hand. I was the best one for the job, he claimed. I balled my hands into tight fists in a futile attempt to control myself so I wouldn’t attack him. “I’ll take care of it,” I said, knowing the person I would catch hadn’t actually done it.
Camo and Night Stripe had caused it so they could gather the information needed while the fire distracted everyone else. Hopefully, Camo had taken my warning seriously, and she wouldn’t be back to receive the punishment. I wasn’t certain she would listen if she took such a big risk just to get Night Stripe to steal a couple of files. There had to be another reason.
I pushed open the door to the loft, but it stopped short. When I shoved the door, a suitcase fell over.
“I’m so sorry,” a female voice said. “I didn’t mean to block you. You must be Camden’s partner, one of the private detectives he works with, right?”
I glanced up to see Danielle in front of me, just as Camden had predicted, but for some reason she was dripping wet, her clothing soaked. I wanted to ask what happened, but as Marco, I wouldn’t care. I didn’t have a way to honestly ask her without telling her to live with one of her other friends instead, which would look bad to Camden. He wanted her here, and had clearly gone through a lot of trouble to make it happen. I couldn’t act differently just because Danielle had joined us. If anything, I had to act according to Marco’s file.
“Yeah, I am. Who are you? The latest girl he’s managed to trick into coming here?” I asked, half-joking, hoping she wouldn’t look too closely and recognize me. “Just what I needed, to be
sex
-iled from the loft. I was hoping to catch some quality sleep tonight.”
Danielle sneered, rolling her eyes at me. “If you don’t like it, you can leave. No one wants you here while we get together anyway.” She offered a small smirk to let me know she was kidding.
I chuckled, letting out some of the tension. “Your attempts at insults never improved. I thought they would’ve at least gotten better with age.” I recalled the times she couldn’t think of a comeback soon enough or didn’t have a clever response. That’s how I won most of the arguments growing up. The others were ended with her biting me, though it eventually stopped, but it didn’t heal the scars.
“What did you say?” she asked curiously, squinting as if attempting to get a better look at me.
I didn’t say another word as I turned around, hiding my face, and went back to my room. She didn’t call after me, and didn’t react when I slammed the door behind me.
I have to be more careful
. I could have blown my cover by reminding her of anything from our past. That would’ve ended this mission before the rookie even showed up.
The last few days had been spent with Camden. We were busy attempting to track down leads on the rat, and I suffered while he spent time with my sister in my only safe haven. She had made herself at home in the loft, and spent most of the day there when she wasn’t in classes. She didn’t have much of a choice because Camden had someone drop her off and pick her up when classes were done for the day. To her, it seemed polite, when really he just wanted to make sure she stuck around and didn’t wander far from his side.
Now that she lived with me, I feared that I might accidently let my guard slip. I had to be careful what I said, or she may recognize my verbal mannerisms. Most of the time I tried my best to stay silent to avoid another slip up, but a few had come out. She realized I still stood up straighter while talking, something I had done throughout childhood from my mom’s teaching, and commented on it. We had been sitting in the living room, her typing away on a laptop while I mindlessly watched television. Camden came in to discuss a missing person’s case with me, which he did to keep our cover as private investigators in front of Danielle. I sat up straight as I talked to him, and once Camden left I felt myself relax into the seat again.
“My brother used to do the same thing,” she stated once Camden was out of the room.
“Do what?”
“Sit or stand a little straighter whenever he talked to someone else. Our mom used to tell us we needed to stand up straight when we talked so no one would walk all over us.”
“Whatever,” I said in an attempt to get her to shut up. If she kept saying, “My brother used to do the same thing,” it would eventually attract Camden’s attention. Then I’d be in trouble.
But it was futile to try to prevent her from commenting. So instead I worked hard to keep Camden busy between the search for the culprit who’d set fire to the shipment, and winning over Danielle, so that he wouldn’t notice the remarks. Which meant diving into the search to find an
innocent
cartel member, if there was one in this compound. Everyone had gotten here the same way I had, proving their loyalty by killing. We spent a majority of the day interrogating a few of the workers about what happened. Some were afraid to talk, most said they hadn’t seen anything, and a few had varying opinions on what happened, but that wasn’t going to stop Camden from pursuing every lead.
By talking to most of the workers who’d been present during the fire outbreak, Camden had managed to narrow down the list of names. There were only about two handfuls of people we could question separately. The others would have to be investigated once the list got a little smaller to avoid a panic. We didn’t want to make a mistake and kill the wrong person because that would send the wrong message, and wouldn’t end the problem. Even though this wasn’t the best way to find whoever did this, it was the only way to do it. No one had seen anyone start the fire, just felt the heat of the flames and the burning of the smoke in their lungs. No one noticed the sound of the fire crackling until it was too late. One person reported a scream, then a cry for help. The scream attracted Camden and me to the scene. I was always glad to have Camden around when something went wrong in the cartel, because it meant I couldn’t be blamed.
When we arrived, most were running from the scene, and only a few stayed behind to fight the roaring flames. One member had been covered in white foam from the fire extinguisher. I guess he didn’t know how to use one. After the initial questioning, the list had been narrowed down to about ten people, all of whom I had already talked to.
My only relief was that I hadn’t been on the list.
Camden had mentioned someone called attention to me, but since I had been with him at the start of the fire, he had crossed me off the list. I wondered who had mentioned my name, and if they’d been talking about the other shipments. I couldn’t fight the feeling I’d figure out who had pinpointed me soon enough.
I had also checked over the list for those who could have been the other agents, but I didn’t know the name Camo had used while in the cartel or if Night Stripe was even a part of it. They could have used any names, but from a glance there were no girls listed. Which told me they hadn’t been included in the rat hunt. If Camo had disappeared as I ordered her to, no one would be looking for her for a while. They always tried to find runaways, but I had a feeling she would escape, especially if Night Stripe helped her.
Camo had gotten lucky, and would need further training if she stayed in this field, because if she had gotten caught she would have been killed on the spot. She had caused too much trouble, but knowing her it could have been a part of a larger plan—a poorly thought-out plan.
I did feel remorse for the names on the list, knowing they weren’t responsible for the destroyed shipment, but at the same time I didn’t feel anything for them. They were involved in the cartel, and they were far from innocent. Whether they had killed someone, broken the law, or joined for the money, protection, or a family unity, they were guilty.
I scoffed at the idea of seeing these people as family. They tried to give that feeling to the new recruits, and they even managed to brainwash a few. I know they did it so that the new people would become blindly loyal to them, and at times it worked, but when it didn’t I had to take care of them. It wasn’t pleasant, and rarely clean. Knowing they weren’t innocent made it a little easier, but sometimes mindlessly killing got to me. What had they done? Why had they joined in the first place? I always questioned my reasons for killing them, but I pushed them back before they could eat away at me.
A few weeks before the Sandtown raid, I tried to warn a few people. I had gone as a bodyguard for Camden and his dad, and met a family who’d been brought up with the cartel. The girl, Tessa, had been brainwashed. It would be impossible for anyone to get through to her. She didn’t see anything wrong with the cartel, and from what I understood was in line to take over trades and runs from her father, but he’d seen through the charade.
He only joined because he had no other choice, and I risked everything to tell him that he should leave soon. I had departed knowing that I had given him something to think about, and I truly thought he would have left to save his daughter. I wasn’t sure what happened, but his name appeared in the listed dead after the raid, as well as Tessa’s. I had tried to save a few, but their need and loyalty ran deep.
They never learned.
After that I decided I had to leave members to make their own choices, and look at them only as cartel members instead of people.
“How are we going to do the interviews this time, Camden?” I asked, wondering about the second round of interrogations. There weren’t many people left, but we had to be careful with how we handled it or they may get spooked and try to leave. We couldn’t have that, especially with Camden wanting to show a strong front for the members and his father.
He looked up at me, but before he could answer, his phone rang. He groaned loudly, annoyed someone had the gall to interrupt him while he attempted to regain control of the cartel. He answered, his tone betraying his boredom and exhaustion. I wasn’t sure how much sleep he had gotten lately, but it didn’t seem like much. He came in most days exhausted, and would need to leave early because he couldn’t concentrate. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what, or who, kept him awake at night.
“What do you mean you’re in the hospital?” Camden cried, letting the folder drop from his hand and onto the desk.
I flashed him a curious glance at the sudden change in tone and what he had said, but he didn’t answer.
His eyebrows scrunched together, as if trying hard to understand the situation. I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but from the fear in his voice when he demanded an answer, it must have been Danielle. My assumption was confirmed when she finally gave him a chance to speak. “Danielle,” he said, probably interrupting her. “You have to slow down, I can’t understand you. What happened?”
I waited for a few moments to allow Danielle to repeat the event that led to her being in the hospital. “What happened?” I asked quietly, trying not to show my worry. Why would she be in the hospital? Camden had ordered a guard to remain with her. But clearly the guard hadn’t been able to keep her safe.
He shrugged, clearly still not understanding what happened, while she explained. I watched his facial features transform from worry, to confusion, to relief. Whatever the story, I knew Camden had a difficult time believing it, but the ending clearly relieved him. He didn’t even bother with questions over the phone.
“Yeah, we will be right there. If she wakes up, tell her not to worry about anything. I will pay for it. She doesn’t need to worry about it after helping you. I’ll cover it.” He paused. “Yes, I am sure. Just stay with her, and I will meet you there with Marco shortly.”
“What happened?” I asked again once he hung up the phone.
Camden shook his head, as if he still couldn’t believe what he’d been told. “Danielle says that she almost got run over by a car,” he explained. I gestured for more information, not understanding how almost being hit by a car led to a hospital trip. He eventually spoke again. “A car sped past and almost hit her, but someone pushed her out of the way at the last second and took the hit. She thinks the car wasn’t damaged, but it didn’t stop either. It’s a hit and run, and the police are looking for the car now. Danielle’s in the hospital with the girl who saved her, and wants us there.”
“Both of us?” I asked, wondering why she had requested such a thing.
I never got an answer. Camden raced out the door without bothering to put away anything we had been working on. Clearly, he wanted this settled now, whether because he worried for Danielle, or worried it would scare her away. I wasn’t sure. I followed, wanting to know who saved my sister. I wanted to meet the person who was willing to push someone out of the way of a car. They were either a remarkable person, or using this as part of a well laid-out plan. And who did I know of who would have a rough entrance to her mission?