Peyton inhaled and crossed his arms. “What about the whole building a rep for your alias? What if it ends up being a big bust and this Abbot guy spreads shit about you?”
“Hey, it’s an alias. If this goes south in a bad way, then you can use your fancy IT skills and knowledge to make a new alias for me.” Shay marched up to the man and leaned in close till they were nose to nose. “I’m doing this. Stop whining and get on board. It’s my time and my life to risk. Understood?”
Peyton winced, taken aback by the tomb raider’s intensity. He held up his hands in surrender, still staring into her eyes. “Okay, okay, message received. Man-Puppy is on board. Tell me your plan. Are you going after the gold or the mine?”
Shay took a step back from Peyton and let a smile appear on her face again. “The gold. Fuck the mine. That is a waste of time. It might be actually lost or filled with motherfucking zombies or some other mysterious shit. The gold I can locate and pile into a truck and drive it right out of there. I’d rather take the easier road this time.”
“Okay, that sounds good in theory, but do you even have any idea where the gold is?”
Shay gave him a sly grin. “Your little Mexican legend, show and tell the other day kept pricking something in the back of my memory. I knew I’d heard some of those details before. Eventually I remembered that I’d already heard of the Peralta family.”
“You have?”
“Yeah, I have some old books from Mexico that mentioned them, along with the ambush where the main members were killed and gives additional details that I think I can use to narrow down the search coordinates. Details that don’t seem to be readily available to others. I just need to review those books.” She pointed at Peyton. “This time you’re gonna help me with data filtering after I do the initial research. I didn’t save you to be an idea man. I saved you for your technical skills.”
“Sounds good, boss.”
Shay winced. “Don’t call me that. Just call me Shay. It’s either that or Your Most Illustrious and Alluring Imperatrix of the Galaxy.”
Peyton chuckled. “I’ll stick with Shay.”
“Glad we’re in agreement.”
“Do you have it narrowed down at all, yet? The possible location of the gold?”
“Yeah, from what I remember, it should be in Baja California Sur.”
The man paled, and he swallowed. “Baja California Sur?”
Shay laughed. “What’s wrong? Get a bad sunburn on spring break there once or something?”
“I’ve never been there.”
“Then why so freaked out?”
“That’s Nuevo Gulf Cartel territory.”
Shay shrugged “Well aware, I’ve crossed paths with several of them. All dead now. So what?”
“So what?” Peyton shook his head. “They want you dead, Shay. They are the reason you had to fake your own death and ended up in L.A. instead of New York. I kind of think that’s a big deal.”
Shay wagged a finger. “Correction, they wanted me dead and now, they think I’m dead. It’s not like there are gonna be wanted posters of me in every bar in Mexico or something. If I run into anyone who looks like they recognize me, I’ll just kill them. See? Big problem with an easy solution.” She picked a small piece of lint off the sleeve of her pale pink silk blouse.
Peyton scoffed. “That simple?”
“Yep. That simple, especially since I’m not exactly planning to hang out in the city.” Shay smirked, crossing her arms over her chest. “That’s half your problem, Peyton. You’re a rich city boy, who thinks of everything only in rich city boy terms. Hell, I bet your Boy Scout troop had catered meals.”
“Not all the time,” he grumbled.
“Just saying that I’m a tomb raider. My job description often involves me hitting out-there places. This will be no different.”
“The gold’s not under some Walmart or split-level three bedroom?”
“That would be handy, but pretty sure it’s not.” Shay winked, swiveling the chair around to check her phone. No updates on the area where Shay felt certain she’d find the gold. She had set up an alert system using the satellites over the area to let her know if there was unusual activity.
Peyton sighed. “Let’s get this straight. You’re gonna go to, I’m guessing, the middle of the desert in Mexico, passing through territory controlled by the cartel who wanted you dead to begin with, to find some gold that even your client thinks might be cursed, and that’s assuming you can even find this gold.”
Shay nodded. “That’s the long and short of it. Sounds easy and a little fun.” She pursed her lips together for a moment. “I guess I really do like that spice of violence.” She sucked in a breath and chuckled.
“Have I told you today that you’re insane?”
Shay pulled her Spider in front of the gray cement blocks lining the front of Warehouse Four. Unlike Warehouse One and Two, there was no easy direct vehicle access. The cement barriers might not be enough to stop a car bomb, but they could at least cut down on mass damage.
She pulled forward and parked the car under an overhang before walking around the corner toward a recessed back door covered by multiple dome security cameras.
A person of her background might correctly intuit from the excessive security the importance of the building’s contents. Shay didn’t mind. There were enough alarms and alerts that she would know right away if anyone tried to break in. For their sake, she could only hope that any future intruders were long gone by the time she arrived because they wouldn’t leave the warehouse alive.
Before even trying the door, Shay pulled her phone out of her pocket and brought up her custom security app. She tapped the lengthy code to disable the alarms and motion sensors only for the front
