“You heard her.” Max barks, trusting me completely.
This gets the man moving faster. He removes his shirt, followed by his shoes, socks, then pants.
I raise an eyebrow at him, “Underwear.” Even though it’s now abundantly clear what is underneath them and taped to his body.
This is when his real fear sets in. A man who knows he has been caught. Not just caught doing something wrong, like cheating. But a man that has been caught stealing drugs from a prolific organized crime family that is richer than God.
“P-please, no.” The man lets a silent tear fall from his eye, and his body is visibly shaking.
“I said, strip.” I step forward with his bare toes kissing the shiny part of my boots.
He closes his eyes and lets out a shaky breath, but eventually he steps from his underwear and there’s about a fourth of a brick of cocaine taped to his hip.
Without hesitation, I pull a gun from the left holster and shoot him between the eyes. There is no need for questions on this one.
The energy in the room shifts, and a few men jump at the sound.
“Let me be clear,” I say as I holster the gun back into place. “If we’re to catch anyone else trying to steal fromus, I won’t be so kind as to do it quickly next time. This is your only warning.”
20
Castle Romeo
Zoe
The warehouse remained quiet, nobody daring to move. Whether it's out of fear of me or the men, I’m not sure. What I do know, is that about eighty people just watched me murder a man with no questions asked.
The guilt and exhaustion never come, and theNumbstays in place.
“Someone take care of the body.” Max snaps his finger before grabbing my elbow gently. A group of five men move to grab the dead body and begin wrapping it in a black plastic tarp.
“You did good, Harpy. However, you may need to explain to the others why you didn’t spare him for questions.”
I nod and turn to see the others with confused or stressed looks on their faces. Teddy seems turned on, but I expect nothing less from him. “I’ll explain it to them later. As long as you know it wasn’t just impulsive.” I look Max in his eyes, so he knows that I’m serious.
“You stopped calling me Maxi pad.”
I snort, “You stopped acting like one.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.” That makes us both chuckle quietly to ourselves.
We pause for a moment to collect ourselves before Max returns to his usual serious demeanor.
Our brief distraction lasted long enough that the body is already gone, and all that remains is a puddle of dark red blood. I take the chance to actually look around the building. I step away from Max and walk around the tables to inspect their operation. There’s an assembly line throughout each table. A table for cutting the drugs, a table to weigh, a table to package, and a table for boxing. Every time I approach someone from behind, they stiffen, which I’ll admit is satisfying.
After inspecting each table and watching over each person, I’ve decided that I don’t suspect any issues in this particular warehouse.
I find Mark in the spot we left him, watching over each of the personnel as well. “It’s Mark, right?” I ask stretching my hand out to shake his. He’s hesitant and looks towards Max before reciprocating the gesture.
“Yes, and you must be Zoe.” He says with a polite smile. I nod then turn back to the workers.
I’ve assumed Mark works as an overseer for this warehouse, I haven’t figured out why yet, because I can tell that anyone in this building could take him in physical combat. “Who else have you seen working closely with Jax?”
“All of the men that were questioned. However, the guy that usually works the same deliveries as him, isn’t here today.” He says.
This piques my interest, and I look back at him, “What’s his name?”
“Deangelo Rossi. He’s been in this warehouse for about nine months now, slow worker, but I haven’t had issues with him.” Mark shrugs.
