Page 226 of Moon's Promise

“Delaney, that makes three, plus the driver.”

Viper took out another mint. “How many do you think are going to be involved? I bet a hundred it’s just the three.”

Rider shook his head. “Nope, not going to take that bet. I’m thinking the same.”

“I bet a rack that there are five of them,” Moon threw his bet in the ring.

“Brother, I’ll take that bet,” Viper accepted. “Rider, you in?”

“I’m in.”

Viper started to tap his foot impatiently. “Fuck, is this going to be another dud? I thought for sure they would try it again. Don’t tell me I wasted a shit ton of money on throwing the masquerade party to get the rest of The Last Riders from Ohio to come down who haven’t even been here since Pace’s death.”

“Be patient.” Moon stole one of Viper’s mints. Damn, he needed a fucking cigarette.

Moon’s eyes narrowed on the monitor where Gundy started to struggle with one of the carts. The worker must have called out to Howie and Delaney to come help.

Moon tensed. “Here we go.”

“You see that?” Rider pointed at the monitor with the trucker. He seemed to be pushing one of the carts inside, as if making room for another cart. “He’s giving whoever’s inside their signal.”

A couple of seconds later, they could see a factory worker come out from behind the trucker, as if they had loaded a cart and was coming down the ramp to get another.

“Is that”—Viper leaned forward—“Charlie?”

“Yep,” Rider confirmed.

“Damn, I liked Charlie.” Moon made a moue of disappointment at the image on the monitor.

Charlie was short for a man, barely four-nine, and couldn’t have weighed ninety pounds soaking wet.

“I was hoping it was one of the women. He’s going to be hard to replace.”

“And Gundy takes care of his mom,” Rider filled them in. “That’s why he always volunteers for overtime.”

“That’s not the only reason.” Dispassionately, Moon continued to watch with the others as the rest of the carts were loaded into the truck. When they were done, the driver raised the ramp and closed and locked the door.

Rider picked up a headset and placed it on his head, positioning the mic near his mouth. “Rolo and Doom, get ready. The rest of you, stay where Shade has positioned you. Everyone keep eyes on Gundy and Charlie. You know what we’re looking for.”

“Have Widowmaker trail Gundy, and Silver on Delaney,” Viper ordered.

Moon understood Viper’s reasoning. Both bikers were in the tail end of their probationary periods. Viper wanted to test them while, at the same time, give them assignments that they could handle on their own without backup, leaving the more experienced Last Riders free.

Gundy, Charlie, Delaney, and Howie went through the door back to the factory area.

Viper’s hands tightened on the arms of his chair, as if holding himself back from leaving the security office. “That’s the last time those fuckers get away with that trick. After today, they’ll have to key their employee identification entering and leaving the docking area.”

Moon was just as pissed as Viper. “I still can’t believe we didn’t catch it sooner.”

“I do. Usually, there are more employees out there. They would create a distraction while the one hiding in the cart slips out of the truck and blends in with the others. It’s the end of the day; they’re ready to go home. The workers inside are just wanting to get the job done and go. We were focused on the IDs going in and took for granted those inside having scanned their IDs.”

“We also don’t know if they’ve been using other methods, and this is the one the fuckers have used to circumvent our efforts to catch them. Hell, we don’t even know why they’ve gone to these efforts to steal from us. With the amount of people involved, it wouldn’t be worth them losing their jobs if they got caught.”

“We’re about to find out.” Viper ordered, “Send them in, Rider.”

Raising the garage bay door, Doom and Rolo walked inside. The driver, who was waiting for someone to come out of the security office to sign off on the load, was confronted with the two Last Riders who moved him away from the truck.

Rolo emptied the driver’s pockets then left Doom to watch over him and went back to the truck to unlock it and lower the ramps. He went inside the truck and started rolling a cart out as Rider gave the all-clear.

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