Page 59 of Escape You

“He’s the one.” I met Mia’s gaze.

She flashed me an I’m-happy-for-you smile. This scheme of hers would have moved forward with or without me. Sliding my finger across the screen, I scanned the rest of the information. “The next shipment is already on its way. Due to cross the Mexican border tomorrow night. I can fly a team out there tonight.”

“No.” Mia glared at the space in front of her. “Too risky. We’ve done deals with the border patrol before. If they already have a deal in place, it would take a lot of money to get them to turn those people over to us.”

“You also have to consider that some of them don’t want to be rescued.” Vic glanced up from his notebook. “Manny mentioned they all paid to get on the truck. Is that right?”

Manny typed for a few seconds, then nodded. “Most of them paid. Not much, but they did. I think that’s part of the ruse.”

“Right. So we have to wait until they all realize that their lives are about to get way shittier. Where are they headed after tomorrow?” The green in Mia’s eyes was almost all gone, replaced by dark determination.

“Hang on. I’m trying to follow the message thread. Even the emails to his dog groomer are encoded.” Manny shook his head, wheeling himself over to where his brother had a second computer set up.

“What are you thinking?” I asked Mia.

“In the first set of files we got, there was a list of clients. Those are the people who are willing to buy from Rossi, or they already put in an order. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that the new shipment coming in is going to go to one of them or maybe all of them.”

“That’s going to require a lot of manpower to hit them all. Maybe we just choose the biggest one. The minute Rossi realizes his clients are being targeted, he’s going to shut it all down. But would that be enough to get the Big 5 to lose confidence in him?” Too many moving parts.

We were in over our heads here. Without the FBI’s help, we had no way to mount an operation big enough to dismantle a supply chain Rossi had taken months to set up.

Mia met my gaze, a crazy look in her eyes. “From a logistics perspective, what Rossi is doing is no different than arms dealing.”

I glanced down because now we were within my jurisdiction, the illegal distribution of weapons. In other words, Mia’s main source of income. Dammit, every time I thought Mia and I could be a team, she reminded me that even though we had a goal in common today, tomorrow could be a completely different situation.

“Rossi’s going to need a processing and distribution center.” In two long strides, she joined Manny and Tom. “Check to see if there’s any chatter on warehouses near the border or between here and there.”

Manny nodded. “Sure. Basically, the whole country. On it, Boss. There’s still a lot of files that haven’t been decrypted. This may take a while.”

“We don’t have a while, Manny.” Mia turned to face me. “We only get one shot at this.”

“So do we wait until they move everyone to one location and rescue all the people whether they want to be rescued or not?” I glanced at Mia and Vic. “How do we do that?”

“Exactly. My guess would be Rossi would get everyone as close to New York as possible. Most of his contacts are in the area. It would make sense to process the shipments nearby.”

“Jesus, Mia, we’re talking about actual people here.”

“I know that. This is why we can’t fail.” She patted my arm.

“I think I found the warehouse they’re using.” Tom shook his head, glaring at the screen.

“You think or you know? We can’t make mistakes.”

“I have a really good hunch. He’s using one of our warehouses.”

“Jesus fuck.” With her face bright red, Mia paced the room twice before she turned her attention to Vic. “This asshole really thinks I’m just going to roll over for him. Doesn’t he?”

“It’s good news if you ask me. You know all the ins and outs of the place. It’ll be easy to stage a coup. He finally made a mistake, Mia.” Vic smiled at her, all calm.

Nothing riled this guy. How did he do that? My phone buzzed in my pocket. A message from Mavell said Rossi had sent someone to fetch us. I didn’t bother to answer his question of why the hell I’d left the penthouse without a security detail. “Mia, it’s time to go. We’ll come back tomorrow and firm up a plan. Okay? We have at least three days to figure this out.”

She blew out air, looking around the room as if she’d forgotten something. “Fine. I guess I can deal with a few more days.” She gave Tom an encouraging pat on the back. “Great work, guys. I owe you a beer. No, make that two.”

“Thanks, Boss. I could use a drink.” Manny rubbed his leg, wincing.

“You’re like on three different pain meds. What do you need beer for?” Tom laughed, not feeling sorry for his brother.

“It helps, okay?”

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