Page 68 of Lockout

CHAPTER 27

Lockout

“You sure this is the place?” Hellfire asked, looking skeptical as he sized up the building. It’d taken us about twenty minutes to get here, and it was nearing four a.m. Which meant no one was around when we pulled up.

According to Rip, this was the place the LoS used while they had business here in Tucson. How he knew, I didn’t ask, though I would later. His ability to track information on the internet was baffling to me. I was a pilot. Basically a knuckle dragger when it came to anything but machinery. That was easy. The rest of that shit? Not my wheelhouse.

The lack of guards was concerning, but we’d come all this way. We were checking this place out. Maybe these fuckers were too cocky to post guards. It wasn’t likely, but there wasn’t much to do but move forward.

“Yeah, looks empty,” Smoke added.

Before Rip could defend his hacking skills, Ricochet elbowed Smoke in the gut. He shook his head at them. “One of these days you’re going to doom us right into a grave,” he muttered.

I scowled at Hellfire and Smoke, who at least had the decency to look ashamed. “Quit talking assholes,” I said, pointing at them.

They both took out their guns, grinning while they shrugged, all guilt gone. “Was just pointing shit out,” Smoke said.

Looking across the way, I motioned to Toxic, Hush, Butcher, Warrant, and Priest to go around that way. The rest of us would go to the left. I’d left Warrant and Ruck’s crew behind to watch over the two places and our families.

“It’s too fucking quiet,” Idaho muttered as we crept along.

“Someone should’ve been here if this is their place,” Static added, eyes searching in the darkness for any threats. “Hangman wouldn’t keep people who were this stupid around.”

I didn’t have a good feeling about this, but we needed to clear the building. “They weresupposedto be set up here, according to Rip,” I said in a low voice. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in months.” There was dust on the floor, but I could also see footprints.

“Maybe they’re using the back half of the building,” Rip suggested, pointing to where a faint glow of lights was coming from a hallway. The building was massive, and it was sectioned off into three separate parts. We’d come in through some shipping doors.

“Maybe. Heads on a swivel,” I told them, then looked over and made a motion with my hand indicating for the other crew to move forward into the second section. We’d take the third, where the light was shining.

We moved in tandem, clearing room by room. Now I could see that this building was in fact being used. The back areahad different rooms sectioned off with cots inside. There was an open area that was outfitted as a kitchen. There were bathrooms.

I stepped into an office, the barrel of my rifle sweeping the room. Empty. Moving to the desk, I shuffled through some papers. If they were stupid enough to leave anything of importance behind they wouldn’t be the feared group they were, but I still checked. Like I thought, there wasn’t anything useful.

We met up with the other group at the door to the last room. Butcher waited for my signal, then kicked the door in. We flooded into the room, each group taking a side. It was wide open with only a table and chairs in the middle. This was where they held church.

“Well, shit,” Ricochet said, looking disappointed.

We were all decked out to take on some shitheads. Bulletproof vests, rifles, extra mags and ammo stuffed in every pocket and holder that we had. And there was nothing for us to do.

A loud click echoed through the room and we all turned to see that Smokehouse had frozen, a look of shock on his face. “I think… I think I just stepped on a pressure plate.”

Everyone stood there for a moment, absorbing that. “No one move,” I said, looking around at the ground for any more plates. “They rigged this place to blow.”

“Fuck,” Idaho hissed, glancing around.

“What the fuck do we do?” Hell asked. “Not like we can call the bomb squad.”

“You deal with anything like this?” I asked Butcher.

“Shit, not really. I mean we escorted a couple of the explosive ordinance guys to where they needed to go a few times, but they handled all that shit. The most I’ve done is toss grenades.”

Glancing over, I arched a brow at Rip. “Think you can dismantle it?”

He shook his head. “Not with enough certainty to bet Smoke’s life on it.”

If Smoke so much as shifted his weight off that plate, we were all going to get blasted. The resignation on his face was concerning. “Just go.”

I frowned at him. “Shut the fuck up and don’t move,” I ordered. “We’re not leaving you behind.” Looking over at Warrant, I asked. “How about any of your guys?”

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