Page 58 of Mob Star

“I think so.” Nate hands me the heat seeking binoculars. There’re at least a dozen people in the building. I can’t tell how many might be out back at the loading dock. We’ll check before we pull into the parking lot. My informant said they’re moving the cargo today. It’ll sit here until Rowan finds a buyer. The rugs are nice and all, but I want our motherfucking nanochips back.

It takes another fifteen minutes for Chatty Cathy to finally head inside the building. We wait five more minutes before we head out and make our way closer. We’re not dressed in our full fatigues like we are for some missions. We’re dressed in casual street clothes, but each of us has at least one gun holstered to our back and knives in our pockets and our boots. You can never be too prepared. We split off into two trios. Three guys head around back to look at the loading dock to see what’s going on there. My other two men and I creep closer to the front door.

I wish I still had the heat-seeking binoculars with me. But those are impractical if I have to run or fight. We’ll have to make do without. You’d think they would have tinted the front wall of glass, so you can’t see inside. Since it’s not, it's much easier to get a glimpse of what's happening than I expected. More fool are they as we get closer.

The reflection off of the glass makes it harder to peek inside than I want to admit now that I’ve assumed it would be so easy. There’s a lobby area, but nobody’s there. It’s obviously a fake front for whatever they have going on in the back. There’s some type of pass code door I see when I put my hands to the glass and peer inside. We’ve already looked to see if there were any surveillance cameras in the area attached to trees, posts, or the building. There’re none. Now that actually is foolish of them. My two guys and I turn around and head to the back of the building and meet up with my men who’re waiting there.

“What’s going on?” I whisper as I join the others at the building’s corner. I peer around the side but duck back quickly.

“Something to do with weapons they’re selling across the border. They have buyers in Mexico City.” Peter fills me in as I risk another glance at the loading docks.

“There aren’t any cameras back here either.” Tom nudges his chin toward the roof as he speaks.

“They’re the only property owners in the area. Half these places are vacant, and the other half are businesses they own.”

I checked out all the deeds when I woke up this morning. It wasn’t hard to hack into the city clerk’s system. I only got three hours of sleep since I wanted that done before we headed out at dawn.

“Get this. We heard them talking about a bunch of iguanas they have waiting for them at some rich fecker’s house in Brookline.” Tom smirks and rolls his eyes as if to say stupid, rich people.

Brookline is one of the most expensive communities in Boston. The average home costs one-point-two-mill. Not surprising there’s an exotic animal trade running out of there. I’m not into lizards, but they are easier to transport than most animals. We’ll snag those and take them to the MSPCA. They’ll know what to do with them. That’s a nice little afterthought to add to my retribution list.

“What do you want to do, boss?” Nate glances over his shoulder at me.

He and I are the same age. We hated each other growing up. We were super competitive, but I always had an edge on him with anything academic or athletic. It used to piss him off like nothing else. It wasn’t until our sophomore year of high school, and we got in a fight with Pablo and Juan Diaz that we decided we had to put aside the hate, or we’d both end up dead. Thanks to him, I cracked Pablo’s collar bone. He crushed Juan’s hand and broke three ribs. We made peace after that.

“I want two of you inside. We need to know what else they have here. I noticed the fire escape on the far side of the building and a roof hatch. Luke and John, you head up there. Text me once you’re in. If you can, call me on video.”

You couldn’t find two brothers who look more different. Luke has almost black hair with blue eyes, and John’s hair is nearly bleach-blond. He has dark brown eyes instead. Luke’s almost six-and-a-half feet tall while John barely makes it to six feet on his best day. But their mannerisms are so damn similar, you can’t doubt they’re siblings. I watch them head back the way I came.

It surprises me that no one’s noticed us yet. They would if they had security cameras. The guys in the loading bay haven’t glanced in our direction. Makes life easier for us.

John

We’re in

It’s a few more minutes before my phone vibrates again, and it’s a video call from Luke. I answer, but no one makes a peep. He has the camera facing forward as they inch their way down a hallway with closed doors. With their guns drawn, they test each one. They’re all unlocked, but there’s nothing there. Once they clear all of them, they continue forward. The hallway had carpet, but it turns into a metal walkway over the main warehouse floor.

Both lie on their bellies as they inch toward the end of the carpet. Luke tilts his phone down, so I can see through the slats. There’s a shite ton of stuff stashed here. I spot crates marked with a caduceus— the international symbol for medicine. My guess is surgical supplies and prosthetic devices. It’s shite that should go overseas as humanitarian relief. I recognize a logo on a crate.

Luke pans his phone around the warehouse, so we can see more crates. I also notice burlap sacks. Grain, rice, and seeds. Those’re legit imports from Asia, so that’s what I want to get first. I prioritize taking their legal shite over everything else. Once we clear out what we want tomorrow, I’ll tip off the feds. What we don’t take, law enforcement will confiscate. I want them left with nothing, so the legal goods have to come with us.

The camera angle shifts, and I can tell Luke is commando crawling with one elbow. He’s silent as his head and shoulders move over the grated walkway. He’s opened his chest to be a target. He rolls to his side, and I can see the other half of the warehouse. Motherfucker.

There’re a dozen animal carriers lined up against a wall, and they each have a spider monkey in it. Iguanas and monkeys. What other exotic animals are they dealing? Is Luke going to turn around and find tigers waving?

He zooms in. Riley O’Malley, Rowan’s younger brother, appears on camera. He must have come from an office underneath the carpeted hallway. Since Luke and John are probably holding their breath, waiting to get shot, it’s easy to hear Riley when he speaks.

“The buyer’s in Florida. We need to get these guys to the airfield tomorrow night. Rowan’s going to meet us there with the lizards and birds.”

Birds? They have a fucking menagerie going on. It could be Miami, but my guess is Tampa. That’s the largest port in the state, and with undomesticated rare animals, people are far less likely to suspect Tampa than Miami.

We haven’t seen Rowan since he went inside. Did he slip out the front? No. We would have heard the car, and he definitely would have spotted us. Summoned like the devil, Rowan walks over from I don’t know where. The brothers move to a spot where Luke can film them, but he doesn’t have to lie on the walkway. He inches back into the darkened and carpeted hallway’s protection.

“Finn’s in town.”

I grin. Didn’t take him long to hear. My informant’s doing her job. Heidi was a regular fuck buddy, but we weren’t even exclusive about that. I’ve been with Rowan and Riley’s sister, Cady, every time I’ve come up here. The thought that I could fuck her while I’m here didn’t come to mind when I sent her a text, telling her to call her brother in a panic. I’m going to have to explain to her there’ll be no more sneaking off for a quickie any chance we have. There will be no chances. It won’t go over as well as it did with Heidi. She’s always believed I’m way more into her than she is me. She thinks that gives her power over me. I haven’t corrected her because I haven’t cared.

“What? How?” Riley fists his hands as though he would punch anything in reach. He puts them on his hips as Rowan explains, repeating what Cady told him, which is verbatim what I told her to tell her brother. Supposedly, I stopped in town to see her on my way up to Montreal.

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