010
1018 Words
RICOSTA'S POV
While cleaning the open wounds on her waist, all I wanted to do was to grip it and place my lips on them.
Flawless skin, curved body and ... .I shouldn't be talking about this…but I must admit, after changing her dress and cleaning her wounds my body hasn't felt the same way.
Her belly button…stupid to admit that it caught my attention.
My phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket, caller ID “Jacob Wilddroom."
I stepped out to take the call, it was too important to make inq front of the stray.
The call was brief.
I ended it and walked back into the study.
Camillia was standing at my desk.
Both hands on a stack of documents she had pulled from the drawer that was supposed to be locked and was apparently not locked well enough.
She was reading with the focused concentration she usually reserved for shrimp shells.
I crossed the room.
Took the documents from her hands without a word and put them back.
Again, her curiosity was going to get the best of her.
" I…I was…just…”
I pointed at the door."Get out.”
She closed her mouth, walked out and I didn't hesitate to shut the door in her face.
I had work to do.
I sat down and opened the laptop.
The tracker was running across three screens simultaneously.
Fourteen moving points across the city grid. Thirteen were exactly where they were supposed to be. Moving at the right speed. Taking the right routes. Carrying what they were supposed to be carrying to where they were supposed to carry it.
The fourteenth had taken a turn it was not supposed to take.
I leaned forward.
The goods on that truck were not the kind of goods that took unscheduled turns. Diamonds from the eastern corridor. Raw gold from the northern mines. Three other categories that did not have polite names. All of it moving through my supply chain on a route I had designed personally because I did not trust anyone else to design it.
Someone had redirected it.
I picked up my phone. "Location has changed. Track the deviation and hold position until I confirm."
The signal broke mid response.
The landline rang.
I picked it up.
"Same deviation," the voice on the other end said. "We clocked it four minutes ago. It's heading for the railway crossing at bridge nine."
I was already standing.
I grabbed my coat from the back of the chair and walked out of the study. Locked it behind me. Took the stairs fast.
Dante was at the bottom in his underwear.
Just his underwear. Standing in the middle of the entrance hall like this was a reasonable way to exist in a house.
"Same thing?" he said.
"Yes."
"I'm coming."
"No."
I kept walking. Dante followed anyway, talking fast about the deviation and the railway and something about the eastern supplier being compromised. I was already in the car. I pulled the plate off in four seconds and dropped it on the gravel.
"At least wait for me to put on some..…"
The gate opened before I reached it. I took the east road and pushed the speed up immediately. Bluetooth connected before I hit the main road. Updates came through in fragments. The truck was still moving. Still deviating. Three minutes from the railway.
I drove.
The city thinned out fast at this hour. Less traffic. More roads. I pushed harder and watched the tracker on the dash and responded to the updates with the minimum syllables required.
I saw the truck from a distance. Heavy. Moving too fast for its size. Two black cars flanking it on either side like they had rehearsed this.
I counted the other SUVs running parallel. Four of mine, spread across the approach. The truck would be blocked within ninety seconds.
Then a car came from the left.
Fast. Too deliberate to be coincidence. It moved past the other SUVs without touching them. Came straight for mine.
I noted that.
Of all the identical vehicles running this operation with no plates, this car had found me specifically.
I kept driving.
The car pulled alongside me. Close enough that I could feel the air pressure change between us. I glanced at the window.
Not tinted.
A girl behind the wheel. My face turned slightly away. Something deliberate in the angle. Like she knew I was looking and had decided exactly how much to show me.
I knew that profile.
I raised my weapon and fired at her window.
The glass cracked but held. She swerved. I corrected it. We were on the bridge now, the ocean a long way down on both sides, the road narrow and the barrier on my left looking significantly less solid than I needed it to be right now.
She pulled the mask up.
Too late. I had already seen enough.
My phone connected. Dante's voice came through loud and slightly breathless. "I have the driver from the truck. Confirmed it's a setup. Also…Freya landed. She just messaged me from the airport. I'm going to pick her up."
"Don't," I said.
"What?"
"Do not go to that airport."
I wrenched the wheel hard. My car connected with hers at full speed.
She fought it. Good driver. Better than most. But I had more weight and more reason and I pushed her sideways across the last stretch of bridge until her tyres hit the barrier and she lost control of the trajectory.
I came out of the other side of the bridge and stopped hard.
Got out.
She had pulled up twenty meters ahead. Tyres blown from the impact. The car tilted at a bad angle against the barrier. Steam coming from the hood.
I walked toward it. Gun up.
"Get out," I said. "And explain yourself."
The door opened.
I heard it before I felt it.
The shot came from behind. Clean.
Straight through my left shoulder ... .my blood pumped out from my shoulder, my sight began to blur and the pain came up more intense…
"I'm back, brother."
- Writer
