Page 62 of Elven Crown

The rumble of the large semi-trucks hauling Eduardo’s cargo grew louder, echoing through the port as the foundation of the docks trembled beneath the convoy’s rolling weight.

Then the first vehicle came into view, its headlights slicing a bright path through the darkness as it rolled at a crawl past Rebecca’s hiding spot.

Beneath the wan glow of the twenty-four-hour exterior lights lining the docks, she confirmed with one look that these were absolutely Eduardo’s vehicles trying to smuggle out Eduardo’s shipment of augmented weapons.

The race of the first vehicle’s driver was unmistakable.

The enormous, buggy eyes glowing a sickly shade of yellowish green. The greenish-gray skin covered in bumps and nodules, even on the creature’s face. The rows of tiny, disturbingly sharp teeth inside his open mouth as he said something to whoever sat in the passenger’s seat.

And, of course, those abnormally long, webbed fingers with claws at the end, both of them gripping the steering wheel like a lifeline.

He was a griybreki, all right. As far as Rebecca knew, Eduardo was the only idiot in the greater Chicago area—probably even the entire country—who employed griybreki in such large numbers for his black-market business dealings.

“Oh, comeon,” Rowan murmured in disgust beside her. “Those things know how todrive?”

She shot him a scathing glare but didn’t take the bait before turning toward Maxwell and whispering, “Everyone knows when to move in.”

“Only once we have visual confirmation of the cargo,” he confirmed with a nod.

“Good. Then we—”

“Hey,” Rowan interjected, “I’d be happy to go ask around for you if you want. You know, make sure everyone’s on the same page. Honestly, I’m getting a little bored out here.”

He started to turn away, as if he was serious about checking in with the rest of the team at the last minute.

Rebecca stepped in front of him to cut him off, pinning the elf between herself and the wall of the shipping container.

“You move one more fucking muscle before I say so,” she hissed, thrusting a finger in his face, “I will put you down.”

His eyes widened as he searched her face, then he leaned into her challenge with another grin splitting his face. “Thereshe is. Ilikethis version of you.”

Rebecca shoved him away from her and resumed her position behind the corner of the shipping container.

Rowan barked out a laugh that sounded more like a scream in the shipping yard’s tense silence. “Well damn. You’re just all kinds of—”

His words cut off with a muffled grunt when she grabbed his face and clamped a hand tightly over his mouth.

“Shut the fuck up,” Maxwell snarled in the elf man’s ear. “Now.”

Holding Rowan like this, one hand pressed hard against his mouth and the other bunched in a fist around the front of his shirt to keep him in place against her, forced them closer together than she’d ever wanted. But she couldn’t let him risk everything by being such a constant pain in the ass.

Fortunately, the rumbling of the cargo trucks covered up the sound of Rowan’s indiscretion, but they couldn’t count on it to stay that way.

The other two eighteen-wheelers pulled to a stop behind the first, creating a caravan in the empty shipping yard, their headlights providing plenty of illumination to see by.

The griybreki manning the first vehicle had already emerged from the truck before the other two came to a complete stop. Two others had headed around the rear of the vehicle to open it up, their wide, flat, grotesquely webbed feet slapping rhythmically against the concrete as they moved.

One of them, however—Rebecca thought it was the first vehicle’s driver, but it was hard to tell with these guys—had stopped along the way and signaled for the teams from the other two vehicles to wait.

“What’s the problem?”

“We’re alreadyhere. I ain’t waitin’ ‘round!”

“Shut your yab gob! Justwait!”

“We’ve been waitin’ all darksies…”

“And you can skiddit some shirkin’ other! I thought I heared somethin’.”

---