Page 89 of What a Wolf Wants
“Sure will. Do you want any of my men to help you?”
Ethan knew they wouldn’t be able to hear anything like the wolves could, but if Kroner and his men were headed for the body shop, they would need some backup to search that shop. “Yeah. I want to search the area for any signs that a tunnel or tunnels might extend from the warehouse to the building closest to this one.”
Adam quickly said, “I’ll go with Renault to back him up.”
Ethan had another six of the officers spread out around the second building to aid Adam and Renault. They needed some indication that there was a tunnel between the two buildings. Renault was on his phone texting someone as he and Adam ran toward the building. The auto body repair shop did have windows, but they were grimy and covered in cardboard. Ethan just hoped that if Kroner and his men were in the building, they didn’t start shooting out the windows. It was impossible to see if anyone was inside.
Ethan and his wolf friends began to move away from thewarehouse, headed for the auto body repair shop about ten feet parallel to one another, listening for sounds of anyone moving and talking in a tunnel belowground.
Then suddenly Tori motioned to Ethan that she’d heard something where she was walking and he, Josh, and Noah hurried over. They could hear talking and then yelling. They couldn’t make out the words, just heard the voices. Then three shots were fired in rapid succession underground.
Ethan called Renault on his phone. “Someone just fired three shots in a tunnel below us.” Ethan was trying to give Renault the benefit of the doubt, though he was still keeping a close eye on him.
“Hell.”
“We’re still following their sounds, but you can see the direction we’re headed,” Ethan said. “It looks like they’ll come out of the tunnel into the auto body repair shop. If they do and we try to stop them, they’ll be ready to shoot it out. We don’t know if anyone’s been left behind in the warehouse either.”
Then Ethan received a text with the blueprints for the auto body repair shop, and the name of the owner from Ty. But Ty also texted:Shop is under investigation for being a chop shop.
Was the owner in collusion with Kroner? Ethan wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he was. He texted back:Thanks.
Ethan relayed the information to his wolf friends and Renault. They reached the building, and the wolves could hear movement and talking inside. Again, they couldn’t make out the conversations, but something was going on.Then they heard the roar of the engines of a couple of cars inside the auto body repair shop.
Ethan called out to the officers, “They’re inside the building, getting ready to take off in a couple of vehicles.”
Some officers scrambled to get to their police cars so they could pursue the vehicles as soon as they left the body shop. Then the garage door rolled up with a rumble. A black Chevrolet full-sized pickup shot out of the building. One man was driving the truck. It looked like no one else was in it, but they could be ducking down, hiding. Ethan suspected the truck was a decoy to draw the police away from Kroner.
Three police cars took chase after the first truck. Within seconds, a dark-blue GMC full-sized pickup truck roared out of the garage headed in the opposite direction and more police took off after it. Again, only the driver was visible.
Ethan, his wolf friends, Renault, and some of the officers went into the auto body repair shop, searching for anyone who might have been left behind. They had to find the tunnel and learn if anyone had been shot.
“Here’s the hatch to the tunnel,” Tori shouted out to the team. “Behind these barrels.”
Adam joined her, but Renault and Josh continued to search every nook and cranny with Ethan, just to make sure that no one was hiding in the shop. Ethan wondered if the six vehicles still in there were stolen. None of the vehicles had any license plates.
A group of officers were still watching the warehouse to make sure no one escaped while others were in pursuit of the escaped vehicles. Ethan figured once the police called in thedescriptions of the two vehicles, they would learn if the cars had been stolen.
They found no one in the chop shop so they went down into the tunnel, Ethan leading the way, hoping he didn’t get shot at. But the tunnel was dark, so he felt like a wolf in shadows. Unless Kroner and his men had night-vision goggles, they couldn’t see to shoot at Ethan and the rest, but they could just randomly shoot at anything in the tunnel coming to get them. They were quiet though, trying not to betray their presence.
Then Ethan smelled blood. Before he reached the body, he realized it was Officer Baker and he was still alive. Ethan hated to do it, but he turned on his phone light, hoping he wouldn’t get shot at, but they needed the light for the other officers with them. “We need to get help for him, pronto. He might still live. He’s a Portland Police Bureau police officer. Lawrence Baker.”
Tori brought out her first aid kit and began to bind Baker’s wounds. Two of the officers carried the wounded man back through the tunnel toward the auto body repair shop.
“Getting an ambulance.” Adam was texting for one as they continued their way through the tunnel.
The money Officer Baker had received for working with criminals wasn’t enough to make it worth nearly losing his life over. He still might not survive the ordeal.
Ethan smelled Kroner and Oakley’s worried, frantic scents in the tunnel. They were recent. They also smelled the other men’s scents, including Agent Ryerson’s and Officer Davis’s.
They continued on their way until they reached a ladder going up into the warehouse, Ethan assumed. He was afraidthat as soon as he popped his head out of the hatch, he would get it shot off.
He opened the hatch and rushed up into the warehouse. Josh swore behind him, and Ethan knew he didn’t like that Ethan was putting himself in danger. But someone had to do it. He didn’t hear any sign of anyone. He was sure no one was in the warehouse any longer. The other wolves and officers joined them, and they spread out, looking for hiding places where any of the wanted men could be concealing themselves. Josh motioned to the others, pointing to another hatch.
“Unlock the door to the warehouse so the other officers waiting and watching the building can come in, search the premises further, and make sure we didn’t miss anything,” Ethan said. Though he smelled heroin hidden in the building.
“Right on it.” One of the officers ran to the warehouse door and unlocked it.
If Kroner and the others went down into another tunnel, and this wasn’t just a storage room, the men were probably long gone. Ethan pulled open the hatch and listened. He didn’t hear any sounds, but he went down the ladder and smelled several men’s scents, including Kroner’s and Oakley’s. They were recent too. The other men and Tori followed Ethan underground.
