Page 52 of Knight's Journey

“Tonight,” Zane countered.

“It’s not safe, man. I’m not with Singer or the rest of them anymore. It’s not safe. For me or for you either. Once you hear what’s going on, you’ll want to work together. But we have to be careful. If they find out what we’re doing, we’re all dead.”

Zane had no idea what Thumper talked about, and his expression communicated as much to his team. “Why should I trust you?”

“Believe it or not, I’m the only one you can trust. Tomorrow night. Midnight. Usual place. Say you’ll be there.”

Zane hesitated, drawing out the suspense so Thumper was effectively on edge. “Tomorrow night. Midnight. But I’ll send you the meet location.”

“But—”

“It’s my terms, or nothing.”

BB nodded, and Zane ended the call without another word.

“He’s calling from the warehouse.” BB appeared as confused as Zane felt.

“The same warehouse where they confronted Zane?” Tristin moved to stand behind BB and study the laptop screen.

“Yeah. Or somewhere close by.”

Wings swiveled his chair to face Zane. “Where’s the usual place?”

“A loading dock down at the edge of the industrial park. Cell reception is spotty at best. It’s easy to escape by boat, and there aren’t many hiding places for snipers or cops to ambush. It was Elian’s favorite place to schedule meets. Armando preferred more public settings where it would be too obvious if someone tried anything funny.”

“I smell a set-up.” Wings’ voice boomed even when the big man wasn’t trying to be heard.

“Smart move insisting on a new location,” Cole praised. “So what’s the plan?”

“I have to go through with the meet. At least see what he wants. He could be trying to recruit me to help with his revenge plan. I’m curious to know why he’s meeting with me without Singer.”

“So we set up a meet at the abandoned sock mill, right at the edge of town.” Jay started to pace, something he did when he strategized. “Plenty of hiding places, but easy for us to wire. We can monitor the place, lay out traps to catch them if they try something.”

Tristin nodded. “Of course. It’s perfect. You meet with Thumper. If it’s a set-up, we take him down. If it’s not, we listen to what he has to say. Either way, we use him to regain an advantage against De la Peña.”

Jay caught Zane’s attention. “You up for this?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I can do this.”

“Take back-up.” Cole’s suggestion took everyone by surprise, and all eyes whipped over to stare at him. “The last time you met with them, they stabbed you. They can’t be surprised if you don’t come alone. Take Wings. One look at him, and no one’s asking any questions.”

“I think I’m supposed to be offended by that, but he’s right. He won’t suspect we have others stationed around the perimeter.”

“Yeah, fine.” Zane could see from his teammates’ expressions that it was useless to protest. “I’ll text him the location later tomorrow after we’ve had a chance to scope out the location and get our strategy in place.”

“We’ll regroup in the morning. Everybody rest up. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”

Zane didn’t linger after Jay’s dismissal. He felt too keyed up to hang around, so he climbed into his truck and drove with no destination in mind. He was always hyper alert before an operation, but this was different. He thought he might jump out of his skin, and his mind ran through scenario after scenario, considering every possibility for failure. He had to prepare for every contingency.

This was his chance to close this case. Failure couldn’t happen.

Chapter Nineteen

Bridget jerked, her feet slipping out from underneath her and landing on the patio’s tile floor. Her eyes flew open, and her heart pounded against her ribs. Whipping her head around, she felt another jolt to her system to discover a shadowy figure standing between her and the glass doors leading inside the Wilder home.

“What are you doing out here by yourself?”

Hearing Zane’s voice had her sighing in relief. “You scared me, sneaking up like that.”

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