“I’m done,” Asher said. “My two places didn’t pan out.”
“We’ve done our two, but Kane found another one that didn’t show up before. It’s a warehouse near the harbor. We’re going to check that out.”
“Okay, Asher, come to me and help me with this factory. I’m parked on the southwest side of the building outside the fence. You’ll see where I’ve gotten in. Either our factory or Kane and Leo’s warehouse has to pan out.” Ezio prayed to every saint he knew of, ending with St. Jude, patron of lost causes.
“I’ll be there soon,” Asher answered.
Ezio clicked off the mic and got out of his Jeep. He went to the toolbox in the back and got out the industrial-strength wire cutters. He cut a hole in the chain-link fence big enough for a man to get through. When he got to the building, he chose to break the glass of a small window in the back side of the building to get in.
At least this place doesn’t stink like the last one, but it’s just as quiet.
When he got in, he saw it was an open floor plan layout, with rows and rows of sewing machines. Along the eastern side wall were glassed-in offices. Ezio could only hope that every floor was as simply laid out. The only complicated parts were the bathrooms and breakroom along the back southern wall because those were closed off.
Ezio carefully started at the northern end of the room and went by every glassed-in office. They were all empty. He crept along until he got to the men’s bathroom. He went in and checked every stall, not that he expected to see anything, and he didn’t. He did the same thing for the ladies’ restroom. Then he checked the breakroom.
Nothing.
“I’m here,” he heard Asher say into his receiver. “How’d you get into the building?”
“Broken window, first floor, back of the building.”
“Got it. Be there in a second. Are you still on the first floor?”
“Yep. I’ll wait for you.”
Ezio went to the window just as Asher was climbing in.
“There’s nothing on this floor,” Ezio explained. “There are four more floors above. Hopefully, they’ll be just as easy to check out, unless Samantha is here.”
Samantha was trembling. She didn’t know if it was fear, loss of blood, dehydration, or common sense. But she couldn’t stop the tremors. Crates of coffee had now been arranged in a semi-circle and she was propped up in a chair against one of them. So was Harry, but he was tied to his chair. Kevin was tied up to a chair, but not in the semi-circle. He was leaned up against a crate near the audience, and there was an audience. At least twenty-five men were standing around. A quarter of them looked really excited, the rest of them looked really scared.
Lonnie and Ajax were standing in the middle of the semi-circle with a table. They’d turned on some powerful overhead lights, which basically left the rest of the warehouse in darkness. Harry had woken up and started to whimper and beg again. Ajax had shoved something into his mouth and tied a rag around his head to shut him up. His hands were tied behind his back. They didn’t bother doing anything with her because she was a pathetic, quiet mess whose arm was covered in blood and her hair had puke in it.
She looked up at the crowd again and thought she saw someone elbowing their way to the front. Great, some a-hole who wanted to see whatever grossness was going to happen up close. How sick were these people? She decided to stare at him, to let him know what she thought of him, and that’s when she realized it was Jerry, the dealer. He looked like one of the scared ones, but then he threw back his shoulders a little bit and his expression went blank. He stared right back at her. Then he looked over at Lonnie and Ajax, then back at her.
His eyes darted to the left.
She couldn’t mouth any words to him without the other audience members seeing. But what was he trying to say? Was he going to help her? How could he?
“Do you have the knife?” whispered Lonnie.
Samantha’s stomach clenched. That’s when she felt the pain in her abdomen from being kicked.
“I thought you had it,” Ajax answered.
“Ah fuck, it’s in the SUV,” Lonnie said. He sounded scared.
So was Samantha. What was the knife for? She glanced over at Harry and could see the whites of his eyes. If she was scared, he was terrified.
“Go get the fucking knife,” Ajax growled at Lonnie. “Before Mr. Anders gets here and decides to make an example of you.”
Lonnie took off at a run.
This is bad. Very, very bad.
“This is the place. I see the SUV,” Kane said. “There are plenty of other cars and trucks too. It looks like there’s another casino or party or something going on here.”
“I’m going to be there in less than five,” Ezio said as he stepped on the gas. He looked in his rearview mirror and saw Asher keeping up. “Don’t wait for me. Do what you’ve got to do.”
“Absolutely.”
“Wait a minute. Somebody’s coming out of the warehouse at a run. He matches the receptionist’s description and he’s heading for the SUV,” Leo said urgently. “I’m going for him.”
Ezio heard a car door slam.
“Another car is pulling up. Shit, it’s a Bentley. I’d bet
