I nodded. “I did.”
“Wyatt.”
“Grab a few people.” I checked my watch. “We have an hour.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Springing an illegal gun buy on a girl might be considered rude to some people.”
“You’re not one of those people. Besides, I know you’re up for it.”
“I’m always up for it.”
She kissed me and then left the room. I watched her ass go, grinning to myself.
Louisa readied a few girls, opting to leave the mercenaries behind. I had to admit, they looked pretty fucking intimidating in their full battle outfits. It was easy to forget that underneath all that black tactical gear and gas masks, they were just small, scared women that had no real training, or at least no official training.
“He goes by the Swede,” I told Kasia and Louisa on the drive over. We were in one large tactical armored truck. It was hot as hell, but I was betting that we could survive a direct hit with a rocket launcher.
“Let me guess. He’s Swedish?” Kasia asked.
“German, actually,” I said. “But he likes to pretend that he’s Swedish.”
Louisa laughed and I grinned at her. Kasia did not seem amused.
“Anyway,” I continued, “he’s really paranoid. You’ll have to keep your girls back.”
“Is that why he only meets during the day?” Louisa asked.
“Exactly. He’s an odd guy. But just follow my lead.”
“How do you know an arms dealer?” Kasia asked me. “You’re a lawyer.”
“I wasn’t always a lawyer,” I said. “Plus, I meet some very interested people in my line of work. The Swede needed a little legal help a few years back, and we became good friends.”
“Good friends with an arms dealer,” Louisa said, smiling. “My kind of man.”
“I do what I can.”
The armored truck trundled around a corner. We were about an hour outside of the city in a less populated area of Illinois. Most of the state was hit hard when American manufacturing jobs left the country and went abroad, and there were a lot of little towns all over the state that were essentially empty or close to empty.
We were meeting in one of those towns. Not in the center of it, of course, but in a field adjacent to it. The truck pulled up and parked just off the gravel road, about a five-minute walk from the meeting site. We were early, and everyone climbed out.
“You two, skirt left, watch from the trees. You and you, down low, stay north,” Kasia said, instantly issuing orders. She gave everyone their tactical plans smoothly and crisply.
Louisa smiled at me. “This is why she runs these missions,” she said softly to me.
“I can see that. She’s intense.”
“I like that about her.”
“I do too. I just wish she weren’t so damn suspicious of me.”
“If this goes well, I think she’ll come around.”
I smiled at her. Once Kasia was finished, the three of us began to walk out to the field while the other girls spread out to give us protection and cover from the tree line.
We arrived just on time. The Swede was nowhere in sight, but that didn’t surprise me. We stood around waiting for him for ten minutes before I heard the sound of a helicopter overhead.
We stared up as it got closer and closer and slowly descended into the field. We were forced to back up as the chopper’s blades whipped the air all around us.
The Swede climbed off the helicopter along with two men. The helicopter took off once they were clear, heading up into the sky.
“Hello, Wyatt!” the Swede said.
“Swede,” I responded, grinning. “You like to make an entrance.”
“I truly do.”
“Probably drew everyone’s attention in a two-mile radius,” Kasia complained.
“Who’s this lovely girl?”
“This is Kasia,” I said, “and this is Louisa Barone. They’re the buyers.”
“Lovely to meet you both.”
The Swede was an older man in his sixties. He was thin and grizzled with scars on his arms and face. He clearly had been through some things, though I had never asked him about any of it. He had a dangerous reputation, though he was known as a solid businessman if you didn’t try to mess with him.
“So,” he said. “Wyatt here gave me a list of what you need. Is that right?”
“Yes,” Louisa said.
“And the price we agreed on is half a million dollars, yes?”
“Correct,” she confirmed.
“Good.”
Louisa looked around. “Half a million dollars buys a lot of guns, Mr. Swede. But I don’t see any.”
“Of course not. I didn’t bring them right away.” He pulled out a radio and said something into it in German. He smiled at me. “Well, Wyatt, may I see the money? Just to ensure we’re all in good faith, of course.”