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The front door slams shut down the hall, and I sigh. “That’ll be Ace.”
“You ready to commit another felony or what?” he calls out from the living room.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” I yell back.
Bianca sits up as I pull out of her, kissing me one more time. When she finally lets me go, I’m hesitant to leave her, but I know that I have to. It’s not safe to bring her back to Texas. Not for what we have in mind.
I clean myself up quickly in the bathroom and grab the duffel, heading for the door. “I’ll check in with you tonight,” I promise her.
“Hey, Madden,” she calls out.
“Yeah?”
She offers me a sad smile. “Be careful.”
Texas is the same as I always remember it. Hot, sticky, and full of bad memories. Ace can sense the tension in me as we wait for darkness to settle in. Even though I’ve been back to Edinburg frequently, it’s been a long fucking time since I’ve been back to TCA. The last time I was here was when I came to tell Adam the truth about Bianca and me. That visit didn’t go over well, and as we camp out in the field watching the building, I find myself dredged back to the past. As I recall those events, I can’t help wondering if what took place that weekend was even an accident. Thinking back on it, with everything I know now, I’m seeing it through a different lens. And it’s hard not to question if that ammo was rigged to blow my head off or if it was a byproduct of Adam’s recklessness.
Nothing about what happened made sense at the time. Adam’s psychotic behavior. The friction I felt between us. Bianca’s terror when she found out where I was staying. I had chalked it all up to more of the usual bullshit. But now, I know in my gut it wasn’t.
Bianca was hiding something from me, and whatever it was is trapped in the recesses of her brain she can’t unlock. Forcing the answers from her isn’t an option, and the only play I’ve got left is to dig them up myself. I just want to get into TCA and get this the fuck over with. There’s no way to know if Adam’s safe is even still here, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Stefan didn’t know about it. He didn’t know a lot of things about his son, and he chose to ignore the things he did know.
“Who’s running the place now?” Ace asks as we watch the last car leave the lot.
“Stefan took it back over,” I tell him. “But from what I understand, he’s hired people who pretty much run it for him.”
Ace grunts an acknowledgment, and we don’t say another word as the hours roll by. There hasn’t been any activity in the parking lot, and I’m fairly certain none of the employees will be coming back tonight, but I’m not taking any chances. We’re only going to have one shot at doing this, and we can’t fuck it up.
When midnight finally arrives, I glance over at Ace and toss him his mask. “You ready?”
He nods. “As I’ll ever be, brother.”
We stalk through the field toward the building, and a sense of uneasiness washes over me. I can’t just punch in the code and walk in the way that I used to. Fortunately, Ace knows his way around a security system, but there’s still that question in the back of my mind.
What if we fuck it up?
“Ace.” I turn to him as we reach the power supply, and he pulls out his tools.
“I know.” He nods. “One chance.”
I keep a lookout while he gets to work.
“He’s still using a hardwired system,” Ace mutters under his breath. “Lucky for us.”
He cuts the power and the phone line, then I lead him to the back door, where there’s an alarm base.
“Hang on.” He grabs his signal jammer from his tool bag and enables it. “Just in case there’s a wireless backup.”
I nod at him and he hands me the tool I’m going to use. It’s now or never. Luckily for us, Stefan went for a clean aesthetic for the office, so the doors are made of glass, and it will give us quick and easy access. The tool shatters it in seconds, and we’re in. Ace confirms the alarm system is disabled while I make my way to the janitor’s closet.
The place smells the same. There are some things that time doesn’t change. It brings back another rush of memories I try to avoid as I open the door and inspect the floorboards. At first glance, I can’t see any noticeable flaws or gaps in the wood. So I start moving things out of the way. It isn’t until I remove the supply cupboard that I find what I’m looking for. There’s an obvious anomaly in the floorboards where they’ve been cut.
