He paused outside the door while I unlocked it absently. He moved ahead of me, brushing past me. I blinked.
“What’s the rush?” I asked him.
He held up one hand, his face all business. “Wait here,” he said.
I blinked. “What?”
“Wait here.” He pulled a gun from his pants. I hadn’t even known it was there.
“Okay,” I said, suddenly afraid.
He disappeared up the steps. He waited outside my apartment door before pushing it in and going inside, his gun held ready.
I stood there rooted to the spot, fear coursing through my veins. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to.
There weren’t any sounds, no gunshots or shouts. A minute later, Travis stepped back out of the apartment and waved me up.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I got to the top of the stairs.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said softly. “Someone from the Dixie Mafia is here.”
I went to ask more questions, my heart beating fast in my chest, but he stepped away and into the apartment. I followed him and shut the door behind me.
Sitting at the kitchen table was a man I’d never seen before. He was thin and gaunt, almost too thin. His hair was thinning and there was slight stubble along his face. He wore a dark suit and had a gun on the table in front of him, within reach but not too near him. He smiled as I stepped into the room.
“Hello, Hartley,” he said. “My name is Culver. Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Talk to me, not her,” Travis said, his face hard.
Culver looked at him. “Okay, Travis Rock. I will, although the girl can speak for herself.”
“What do you want?”
“I’m here to check up on the two of you.” Culver leaned back and crossed his legs and arms. “How are you doing?”
“Hoyt didn’t tell me you’d be stopping by.”
“Hoyt doesn’t know everything.” Culver smiled. “Please, sit. You’re making me uncomfortable.”
Travis nodded at me, and so we sat at the table with Culver. He nodded.
“That’s better. Now, Travis, have you made any progress?”
“Some,” Travis said.
“Elaborate.”
“We visited their compound today. I did some preliminary scouting. I suspect they’re keeping the shipment on site, somewhere on the compound.”
“What makes you think that?”
He shrugged. “Logistics. If this shipment is as big as your employers said it was, I doubt they’d take the time to lower it down into some mine shaft. No, they’re likely getting ready to sell it off, and it makes more sense to keep it close at hand.”
“I accept your logic,” Culver said, nodding.
“The place is well guarded. Easy sightlines everywhere, plus a lot of closed-circuit cameras.”
Culver seemed pleased. “This is why we are giving you this job, because it is a difficult one.”
“Yeah, it is difficult.”
“But you have connections to these people, don’t you?” Culver continued.
“I do.”
“We know all about you, Travis Rock. We know about your family, about your brother, about your friend Toad, and about Markus.”
Travis didn’t blink. “I hear what you’re saying.”
“I believe you do, but I’ll spell it out for the girl. If you fail, everyone you know and love will get hurt.”
He nodded and I just stared.
Culver was cold, so cold. He said these things with a small smile on his face, like he was ordering lunch. He was completely cool and calm, a lot like Travis was. But where Travis was warm and intense, Culver was aloof and uncaring. He seemed like he barely cared enough to speak the words he was saying.
“The Dixie Mafia cares a lot about this job,” Culver said. “That is why they sent me. They do not send me on normal, everyday missions. Understand?”
“Understood.”
“Good. I will be your handler from here on out. If you have issues, you come to me. My number is on the refrigerator. Do not contact anyone but me, including Hoyt. His life is on the line here too. You understand?”
“Understood.”
“Very good. I like you, Travis Rock. I believe you have a chance to make this work, if you’re smart.”
Travis nodded but didn’t respond.
Culver smiled at me, making my blood run cold. He stood slowly and took the gun, slowly pushing it into a holster at his side. Once it was away, he raised his hands.
“Well then, goodbye. Be good.”
He walked away without another word, a moving skeleton. He pushed open the door and closed it softly behind him, exiting the room like a whisper.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“It’s okay,” Travis said, leaning toward me. “He was just here to scare us.”
“It worked,” I said. “How did you know he was here?”
“I left a few little traps around here. He tripped one on his way in.”
“Seriously? Like what?”
“I taped a piece of hair on the doorframe. It was missing when we got here.”
I laughed despite myself. “You’re serious?”
“Simplest trick in the book, but effective.”
“A single hair.”
“You’d be surprised what I can do with a single hair.” He smirked at me and I laughed again.
I felt the fear break inside me. Travis was here and he was watching over me. Culver was a terrifying man, but he was nothing compared to Travis. I had the right man on my side in the end, and I knew we’d get through this.
“Come on,” Travis said, standing. “Let’s go grab something to eat. We’ll need our strength.”
“Strength? For what?”
He grinned at me. “I’m moving my timetable up a bit. A man like Culver getting involved is bad news, so we’re going to do some serious scouting tonight.”
I nodded. “Okay then.’
I stood up and followed him back outside. I didn’t know what it really meant to go scouting, but I’d do it anyway. This wasn’t a game, and if Travis thought something was important, then I’d do it.
I was going to get through this no matter what.
12
Travis
Bringing Hartley was a damn mistake, but I knew I couldn’t avoid it.
The girl wasn’t a pushover. I had expected her to be a trembling mess after Culver’s little surprise visit, but she seemed to take it much better than I could have guessed.
Culver was a killer. There was no doubt about that. I knew killers. Hell, I was a damn killer. Culver was a particular breed, a cold-blooded killer, more likely to shoot you in the back of the head in the dead of night without you ever even knowing he was there. That little stunt with the visit, that was just him letting us know that he could break into the apartment and kill us at any time.
Except he underestimated me. When I kicked in the door, my gun ready, I had surprised him. He drew pretty fast, but his face betrayed his shock. He didn’t expect me to know he was there, probably figured I was just some dumbass military boy. Fortunately, we were both professionals, and neither of us got spooked and fired. Most other men might have pulled the trigger in that moment, but not Culver, and that said a lot about the man.
But I had a few tricks up my sleeve, the sort of tricks Culver wasn’t expecting. I wasn’t just some dumb military boy in over his head. I knew what I was about, and Culver and everyone else was going to have to figure that out the hard way.
I had planned on holding off on this operation for another day, but the Mafia was clearly getting a little antsy. I didn’t want them to do anything stupid, and so I decided to move forward despite possibly not being ready.
I parked the car in the woods, about a mile away from the Caldwell compound. I was wearing my dark combat clothing with a combat vest, and Hartley was wearing her darkest functional clothing. She looked nervous, and I couldn’t blame her.
“You’re not getting too close,” I said as we got out of the car. I turned on a flashlight and held a little map down flat on the hood of the car. She got out and looked over my shoulder.
“This is the compound, here. We’re parked over here. The plan is for us to sneak out there, keeping quiet. You’ll stay here, on the edge of the forest, waiting. I’ll do a quick recon through the compound, see what I can see. When I’m done, we head back.”
“I want to come with you,” she said.
I smiled, because I knew she was going to say that. “I know, but you can’t. There are too many cameras, and you don’t have the training to avoid them.”
“I don’t like the idea of just sitting there. What’s the point? I might as well wait in the woods.”
“Here’s the point. If I get into trouble in there, which is possible, I’ll need a distraction. While I’m inside, you’ll sneak to here and here. You’ll set up some fireworks, run the fuses down along the ground to here, and you’ll wait. If something goes wrong and you see something isn’t right, you set off those fireworks, and then you run.”
“That’s it? Just sitting there with fireworks?”
“Trust me, Hartley, those things are going to make a pretty loud fucking sound. Anyone in the compound will be more worried.”
She frowned but nodded. “Okay. I can do that.”