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Dex shook his head. “Apollo looked into it. Hasn’t been a working alarm on that house in two years, since the last renter moved out. Sign’s just for show. So Jay breaks the window, unlocks the door, and we’re in.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier if we just all went in through the back?” JJ asked. “I mean, there’s nobody in there, right?”
Dex focused on JJ. He liked the kid, but he didn’t like the way he always had a complaint or a challenge. You had to earn the right to use your voice, and JJ had not gotten off on a strong foot. “We don’t know what we’ll find in there. Could be guarded. Could be booby-trapped. Could be a dog—we saw them carting in a stack of those plastic igloo doghouses last week. The way you handle the unknown is you stick in small groups and spread those groups out so if somebody gets hung up, there’s somebody left to handle it.”
JJ heard the harsh edge on Dex’s tone and sat back in the seat with a look that was too close to a pout for Dex’s liking. “I was justaskin’.”
“There’s a time for asking questions like that, Jay,” Gargoyle said. “And it’s not right before we move. You ask those questions while we’re making the plan, when there’s time to explain and a chance to move things around if we need to. Not now, when we’re ready to execute. Only reason to change a plan this late is if you see aproblem.”
“Igotit,” the kid barked. He definitely needed some seasoning.
“Any other questions?” Dex asked, his attention narrowed on Rad’s youngest son.
“No. I’m good.” JJ said, and the others echoed.
“Okay. We go in, we do a clear check first thing. Look for cameras, in case they’ve got a closed circuit.”
“You think these assholes know how to use that kind of tech?” Gunner asked.
“I think three of ‘em were in our clubhouse, so they might.” When Gunner nodded, Dex went on, “Then Dunc’s on lookout, and the rest of us do a thorough reconnoiter. Blinds are closed on every window, so we can use flashlights or phone lights, but keep ‘em low. We want to know what these assholes are up to, as much as that house shows.”
“And then we fuck them up, right?” JJ asked.
“And then we fuck them up. If there’s crystal or H in there, Eight wants it for the Hounds. If there’s guns, we take ‘em. Anything else we want is at our discretion, but Eight doesn’t want us to clean them out. We take the stuff that steps on Hounds and Bulls business, and anything else we take is a nuisance fee.”
“I’m making a mess,” Gunner said with a grin. The dude was in his fifties but still got giddy as a little kid at the chance for mayhem.
“If you can be quiet about it, go for it. We want them to know it was us.”
“I want her to know it was me,” Duncan said in a high-pitched, shaky voice like an old lady. Everybody in the van laughed but Dex. He didn’t get it.
He put the van in gear and took it around to the alley.
~oOo~
They got in without a problem, and the house was clear. No cameras, no alarm, no trip wire, no dog, no guy on watch. Real amateur bullshit here. With Duncan posted outside, Dex and the others split up and moved methodically through each room, making sense of what was there.
It was definitely no one’s home. The kitchen had been gutted—no appliances, no countertops, few cupboards, no sink or taps. Gaping holes in the walls, where copper pipes might have been. The bathroom was a stripped carcass as well. The other rooms—two bedrooms, living room, dining room, laundry/utility room combo—were all arranged like mini-warehouses, filled with cheap plastic shelving units, some full, some empty, some somewhere in between. All the merchandise was new-in-box, of course.
Each room seemed to have a particular designation: one bedroom was full of personal appliances, like hair dryers, electric razors and trimmers, some kind of foot bath. The other bedroom was mostly empty shelves, but the one unit with anything on it had stacks of small cardboard boxes. Dex lifted a few lids and found pieces of jewelry, mostly sterling silver.
The dining room was electronics—laptops and desktop computers, televisions, gaming consoles, two whole racks of Blu-ray players—and DVDs and Blu-ray discs. And the living room was major appliances—fridges and dishwashers, washers and dryers, two tankless water heaters and five wine fridges.
He’d seen it last week, but Dex checked the garage anyway. It was full of all the shit inside the house and some other shit as well—like a tall stack of those cheap-ass plastic doghouses and a whole pallet of fifty-pound bags of cheap-ass Alpo. These assholes were all over the place with their inventory. It looked like they rolled any truck that passed them by.
What Dex didn’t see anywhere was drugs or guns.
The four men inside the house all met up again in the space between the living and dining rooms which served as a front hall.
“Pretty obvious what turf they’re trying to stake for themselves,” Gargoyle said. “I don’t see how this is a problem, though. We don’t fuck with hot goods, and it’s not a big part of the Hounds’ portfolio, either.”
“It’s not stolen goods that put them in the Hounds’ way—or in ours.” Dex looked around, unsatisfied. “They must have another location where they’re rebranding. Or—” he looked around again. “Did anybody come across a basement?”
“There’s a cabinet in a weird place, right off the kitchen,” JJ said. “I bet that’s it. I thought it could be hiding something, but I think it’s bolted to the wall.”
Gunner slapped him up the back of the head. “Call that shit out when you see it, idiot.”
JJ gave him a petulant look and rubbed his head. “I just did.”
