Alisha was similarly clean and dressed when I went downstairs, drinking coffee in the kitchen with Tye there, discussing sothing that sounded like very routine business things.
I helped myself to a cup of coffee and found Alisha watching , thoughtfully.
“Would you like to accompany today?” she asked. “I’m a little tight on guards so it would be best if I could bring Tye with , but I don’t want you to feel pressured.”
“I’ll go,” I said. It was a little easier believing I’d be safe after witnessing the force she could put behind a punch. And Tye had yet to be challenged by anybody. I didn’t know if he was all bark and no bite but if he was able to teach others his skill set, he must be decent.
She nodded and wrapped an arm around my shoulders to pull close. “It shouldn’t be anything bad,” she said. “Just investigating so missing product.”
That sounded like the kind of thing that could go very very bad, but I nodded my agreent. “Okay.” I tried to hide the anxiety in my voice.
She patted my head briefly and set her empty mug down. “I’ll be down in a minute, but you should eat so breakfast, Kitten. I’m not sure when we’ll be back. This could take a while.”
I nodded and took a long draft of coffee as she left, then scrounged in the fridge as Tye continued looking through his phone.
I picked out a mocha flavored yogurt and got a spoon to eat it with. It was bitter, reminiscent of the real thing as I swallowed it.
Alisha ca back, with shoes on and her hair tied back in a perfectly executed ssy bun. A few strands were left free and she curled them to help accentuate and fra her face. It was a very pretty look on her, a bit less of the cold professionalism I had gotten used to seeing her in.
“Ready?” she asked.
I looked down at my standard wear. “Uh, shoes,” I said and put my empty yogurt container in the sink before scurrying to retrieve them upstairs. I threw them on at the door as she watched with amusent when I wobbled unsteadily in the process.
A mont later I stood straight and checked for my phone in my pocket before smoothing out the wrinkles and bunches in my shirt.
“All set,” I announced finally.
She smiled at and pushed a strand of hair from my face , tucking it behind my ear. “Alright.”
Tye had gotten the car already, so we were alone and I put my hand on her arm as she was turning to go out the door.
She turned, worried but I just stood on my tip-toes to peck her cheek. “That’s all,” I said softly and let my heels touch the floor again.
She took my hand for a mont to squeeze it and then turned to go out the door.
“Let's go, Kitten,” she said. Her hand slipped away from mine a few steps away as we approached the car and that softer deanor vaporized.
I climbed in after her and settled onto my usual spot. The car started moving a mont later and Alisha turned her attention to her phone.
“Now, Kitten,” she said. “We're going to be looking at so rather illegal operations today. As long as you're with no one will question it but should you get separated for whatever reason, you are my associate, do you understand?”
I nodded. “But what if they ask for details?”
“You might need to muster a brave face,” she said. “And tell them it's a need-to-know between you and .”
I nodded again. “I see.”
I just had to hope we wouldn't get separated. Or at the very least I'd be able to find her or Tye quickly.
We rode for quite a while, exiting the wilderness just to enter it again from another part of the city. Tye slowed, glancing in the mirror.
“What is it?” Alisha asked.
“We're being followed,” he observed.
Alisha twisted her head to look out the back window. There was a nondescript grey sedan about a quarter mile behind us.
“Sa car was behind us shortly after we left,” Tye explained. “They're keeping their distance.”
“Try going in a loop and see if they catch on,” Alisha said and settled back on her seat.
I fidgeted, unsure what I should do. I felt rather helpless like this.
“Put your seatbelt on, Kitten,” Alisha advised and I did as told. She did the sa.
Tye took a turn into another road, and then followed it for a while.
The car behind made the sa turn making my hair stand up. We really were being followed.
Tye made another turn a while later, and the car behind slowed to stay further back but they were still there.
The next turn was back to the first road we'd been on.
The car behind us didn't appear for a long ti as Tye kept going the sa direction we were before.
Then it did and made the turn onto the sa road.
Alisha scowled. “Are they dumb?” She grumbled.
“Is everyone buckled in?” Tye asked, glancing in the mirror again.
“Yes,” Alisha told him.
His focus turned to the road ahead again.
“Okay, hang tight.”
My back dug into the seat behind as I heard the purr of the engine for the first ti. My stomach squelched unhappy about this treatnt, especially as we went downhill and my organs floated up to my throat.
I gripped the armrest hard, trying to keep the yogurt and coffee down.
Alisha reached over to put a hand on mine as we went around another bend.
Tye made an imdiate opposite turn and I heaved a second later as my insides slithered to the other side of my body, squishing together tightly.
Alisha moved her hand to my back as I put my head down and tried to just breathe.
“It's okay, Kitten,” she soothed.
I shook my head as saliva welled up under my tongue.
The car continued to move back and forth and up and down while my stomach continued to fight it.
So ti later Tye slowed to a stop and I beca aware of Alisha still having her hand on my back.
I looked up. “Can I open the door?” I asked.
Alisha nodded and I hurriedly unbuckled and threw the door open to stumble out. I got to a tree and waited as my head spun. The lack of movent now was worse, everything was muddled trying to understand where the next tug at my insides was going to be.
I heaved and finally released my stomach contents onto the ground, choking a bit afterwards. The pounding in my heart slowed and I stood back upright. After another mont I was more confident I wasn't going to throw up again and went back to the car, pulling the door shut behind .
“You okay?” Alisha asked softly.
I nodded. “Just motion sickness,” I reassured her. “I'll be fine.”
She patted my hand a few tis and Tye started the car moving again. It almost sounded a little cranky now, creaking here and there where it didn't before. I didn't know how fast he had been going, or much about cars anyway but a luxury vehicle like this wasn't built to be speeding down back roads that wound left and right and went over steep and shallow hills in rapid succession.
I also didn't know if the bulletproofing had been added and consequently added a lot of weight to it that it wasn't built to handle.
In any case, the car did move and still did so with relative quiet.
There was no more grey car behind us either, which was good.
My stomach was still unsettled for the remainder of the trip and we entered a manufacturing district of the neighboring town. There were large factory buildings here, many of them were repurposed into offices but not all and the large number of warehouses and car shops and other chanical trade inclined businesses was indicative of a very blue collar atmosphere.
Tye pulled up outside a large warehouse with Takeno Distributing on a pylon sign out front. It was a very plain brick building with a chain link fence topped with razor-wire surrounding the entire property. A gate opened as Tye approached, the security guard eyeing the car with both recognition and wariness. It closed behind us again with a rattle and we finally parked in a space right next to the door.
Another guard was waiting in a vestibule with a tal detector behind him and a second security guard just a couple paces away.
This was probably why Alisha had warned to say I was her associate if we got separated. They took the security here very seriously and if these people were aware of the illicit activities going on, there were probably orders to kill anyone that tried to break in.
I kept close to Alisha and Tye as we were waved through. The second guard had an assault rifle strapped around his back, but wasn’t actively holding it. It still made my skin crawl to think it existed in the sa space as I did.
On the other side of the vestibule, through a secure-looking solid tal door with a very large strike plate for the deadbolt, was a cavernous room. The ceiling was way higher than I had imagined from the outside and a few catwalks crisscrossed above us, so with more ard guards slowly making their rounds. I felt very small, even miniscule in this place. There were tall shelves and pallets stacked everywhere, and lines on the floor marked out a cryptic organization system that made little sense to and probably anybody that didn’t work in this place daily.
I also quickly learned that the caras were absolutely everywhere, watching every possible angle within reason.
Matteo ca from a side door, surprising as he approached us with purpose.
“Tapes are secure,” he inford Alisha. His gaze briefly passed over , but he made no comnt, simply accepting my presence.
“Good,” Alisha said and continued her walk back into the small hallway he had appeared from.
I stayed close still. This was more intense than her usual rounds. I got the sense this was more serious than simple money-collection. I didn’t think I’d ever seen two of her guards in the sa room for more than a couple minutes but Matteo and Tye both stayed close, even flanking her when space allowed as I trailed behind. This was probably the safest place for , to be honest. There was no reason for anyone in this building to want to hurt and many reasons they would want to keep safe, Alisha’s gratitude being at the top of the list.
A few n were sitting on the floor outside another door, also a secure-type which Matteo opened for her without a word and we all piled in.
The room was small and warm with the subtle sll of computers and an old plastic sll I associated with the VHS tapes in my parent’s attic.
Alisha sat in an office chair, letting it swivel so she could look at one of a dozen computer screens flicking through video feeds until she minimized the operation.
After a mont of typing she looked up and gently pushed a chair closer to . I accepted it as an invitation to sit down.
“What was the missing box?” she asked without looking up.
“Fifteen grand of cocaine from down south,” Matteo inford. “It went missing off of Andy’s pallet.”
Alisha nodded and started to pull up new feeds from the record.
I tried to sit still and quiet, feeling a bit like a deer in the middle of the road. There were no cars coming but I didn’t know when one might and it was making restless in a way I wasn’t used to. My instinct here was to not listen and tune out their conversation but at the ‘fifteen grand of cocaine’ statent I had gotten a bit too invested. If one box, going to one business was worth fifteen grand, and it then got sold for more than that, and Alisha did this weekly… that would an her business brought hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly millions every year. So my question wasn’t where did she get all of her money as much as where did she put it? The feds looked for large deposits didn’t they? So they would take interest in a business that just pulled fifteen-grand out of thin air.
There had to be a more complex set-up I realized. The cash flow was more complicated than Alisha’s underlings to Alisha’s business.
It wasn’t until Alisha leaned back with her arms crossed that I noticed she’d been staring intently at a feed for several minutes. It was fast-forwarded on a loading dock, boxes getting hefted into the back of a large van by a few muscular n gabbing away as they did it. There was no audio, only silent images twitching around as they scurried from place to place, stopping to chat several tis in the process.
Matteo was leaning against the door, letting his fra hulk against it as Tye was watching over Alisha’s shoulder, seeking the sa thing she was.
“It wasn’t on his pallet to begin with…” Alisha observed and finally swapped to a new feed, this one a different angle and a different place. I could see now the deconstruction of different pallets to get sorted onto new pallets and the confused ss made my head hurt a little.
The two of them, however, were glued to the screen with an interest people only had when they could understand the complexity.
I tried to relax and looked around the rest of the room. The feeds on the other screens continued to change every few seconds. I could see guards in the catwalks, pacing about as they went about their work, and on the ground so other n going through and sorting out boxes coming off a truck. Unlike the pallets and things Alisha was watching on her feed, these looked like genuine products. The boxes had barcodes and labels on them and when one broke open from being dropped, it looked like french fries spilled out in great numbers.
There were two distinct operations going on in this building, then. The illicit one, which Alisha was currently watching with interest, and the legal one, which probably existed solely to keep the illicit one discreet.
She typed a few keys suddenly and I looked back over to see a well-manicured nail tracing an individual as he walked off with a box from the pallet. His coworker was obviously talking to him, but got flipped off and ended up shaking his head before resuming his sorting work.
She pulled up a new feed, another angle which showed the sa man continuing to walk down the row of pallets and finally pushed the box onto another one.
Alisha’s scowl deepened. She glanced over and made eye contact with . And then she relaxed before looking up at Tye.
“I forgot she should probably drink sothing,” she said. “Do you mind escorting her to the break room?”
Tye also looked at .
“I'll be fine,” I said. I wasn't really thirsty, though my stomach might appreciate a ginger ale.
Alisha gave a second look. “You should drink sothing,” she said.
I sensed more aning behind her words this ti and stood, giving her a nod of obedience as Matteo shuffled out of our way.
The door shut with a loud click behind us.
There was a familiar disturbed feeling trying to get under my skin but I was doing a good job of keeping it under control as Tye led down the hall a few doors and opened another one, letting go in first.
It was a very standard break room. A few tables with a few chairs, all well-worn and wobbly. The difference was the coolers, which were fully stocked with apparently free drinks and snacks.
I silently opened one and selected a ginger ale.
Tye watched the door, a worried look to his eye.
I nursed that ginger ale, aware of a sign on the door reading ‘Absolutely no food or drink to leave this room.’ Alisha had wanted separated from whatever business she had to do now. It again gave that childish feeling.
“What is the punishnt for stealing?” I asked cautiously.
Tye looked at then, his gaze distracted as he did so. “It's typically a finger per thousand or so dollars.”
I nodded then stopped. A person only had ten fingers. And this guy had taken fifteen thousand worth of product.
“Yes, she has to make a difficult decision here,” Tye agreed, reading the expression on my face.
I nodded again, my stomach feeling freshly upset.
This was a difficult line of work, I knew. Even those under her couldn't exactly enjoy this kind of thing. Maybe so of them but there had to be a half dozen guards alone in this building, not including those that loaded and unloaded things. The guy that took the box looked like an ass but I didn't know that for sure. He might've just been having a bad day.
My head was spinning again as I heard people walking out in the hallway. I took a sip of ginger ale. The subtle spice paired with cold helped ground a little.
Tye shifted to lean against the wall more, looking a mix of bored and anxious, a very toxic combination I was familiar with.
“What about who was following us?” I asked him.
“We won't know until we pull the back cara footage,” he said. “It was too far back for to make out a face or anything. But it's highly unusual for us to be followed from the house to a business. Typically it's the other way around.”
From one of the businesses to her house. So whoever it was knew where her house was but probably not about her work.
“What kind of car was it?” I asked cautiously.
“I think a Civil from a few years back,” he said. “In a very mid grey.”
“That sounds like it could be Sophia’s car,” I explained. “But I don't imagine Sophia making any kind of effort to follow us like that.”
Tye thought for a long mont. “But she lives with your parents,” he said.
I blinked, not understanding that significance. “But she wouldn’t spy on like they would.”
“No, what I an is, they could take her car keys,” he explained. “Do you know her plate number?”
“Uhm…” she hadn't had that car for very long when I left so it wasn't like rembering a license plate I'd looked at every ti I was driven sowhere as a child. “I don't think so. I'd recognize it if I saw it but I can't rember off the top of my head. I could just ask her.” I went to get my phone.
“No,” Tye said. “Leave her out of this if she doesn't need to know.”
I nodded. I didn't know the reason why but I would trust him to know better than I did. At least for sothing like this.
Alisha ca in a few minutes later. “We need to pay Sergei a visit,” she inford.
Matteo was behind her, helping a man grimacing from pain as they held a towel to his hand. There was a bright red stain already and the blood rapidly dripped down his arm to the floor.
I swallowed and averted my gaze before the image sunk in too deep.
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