Page 40 of Lost (Powertools: The Shields 2)

15

Knox had no doubt this was going to be one of the worst nights of his life. Now that he’d found something worth hanging around for, the stakes had skyrocketed. Whereas before, he hadn’t really given a shit about what happened to him, now he had two compelling reasons to keep his hide free of more bullet holes.

Then again, maybe all he was doing was putting Marcus and Kennedy in danger. He might never be able to escape his past or outrun the Vipers. He’d keep bringing this bullshit to their front door over and over unless he did something to change that.

So there he was, driving a box truck full of legit hundred dollar bills toward the rendezvous point the Vipers had been supposed to approach. Meanwhile, Nolan had been deployed to make sure the original couriers never arrived. How exactly he was going to manage that hadn’t been explained to Knox, but he was pretty sure it involved some of the assholes he used to work with becoming unalive.

Knox focused on his role in this mission. He had one task: get the delivery crew to trust him enough that they handed over the drugs and any information they had on the location of the recipe. And if he couldn’t get that out of them, help Marcus and the Shields get them into custody so they could do more investigating while he took their stash off the streets.

Again.

If he wasn’t good for anything else, he considered that his new personal undertaking. Keeping some stupid seventeen-year-old out there from wrecking their life, like he had his own.

If he managed to make it back to Kennedy, and proved to her that he deserved her trust when it came to sharing more than just her body, well…that was almost too much to hope for when he likely wasn’t going to survive this encounter.

Knox looked over to Marcus and said, “Last chance. You want out?”

“Fuck off.” Marcus didn’t even bother to meet his gaze.

“You really do shit like this all the time?” Knox shook his head. “Maybe you’re dumber than I am.”

“Maybe I have a low tolerance for injustice.” Marcus shrugged as if it was no big deal that he was so damngood.

“We’re almost there.” Knox glanced at the GPS and the route James had programmed remotely for him.

Marcus grunted and sat so still Knox knew he was looking in every direction at once. They rolled through a dilapidated chain link fence and into a parking lot behind an abandoned factory. He parked in the spot immediately next to an identical unmarked white vehicle. Knox slid from the driver’s seat, hoping that the Shields were the only people lurking out in the shadows beyond the ring of patchy illumination tossed onto the cracked pavement by the flickering florescent lights above.

“What the fuck?” the driver of the other truck said as he drew his gun. “You’re not Dino.”

“No shit.” Knox shrugged. “You know who I am, though?”

“The guy who bailed on the Vipers. Why the fuck shouldn’t I blow your head off and send your body back to Vex for a bonus?”

“I’ve got about six million reasons right here.” Knox rolled up the back door of the box truck and let them see the cash piled inside. He hoped they didn’t look too closely at a couple of the crates in the corners where Sola and Liam were hidden.

“There’s a new boss in town.” Marcus crossed his arms and angled his head so his diamond studs flashed in the overhead light. He impressed the hell out of Knox, and apparently the manufacturers too.

The two guys looked at each other and then back to Knox, who shrugged. “Let’s be honest, you’re smart enough to understand that if we’re here instead of the Vipers, we’ve already secured the distribution end of this supply chain. No reason why we couldn’t make you two obsolete and keep the delivery if we want. So you might as well do the smart thing and take what we’re offering. There’s more to come if we partner long-term on this new project.”

There was a long pause and then the taller of the two delivery guys shrugged. “Yeah. Okay. As long as you’re going to keep selling what we’re making. Not only for this one shipment. And we need to check the cash.”

“That’s the idea. Go grab some at random to verify. But there isn’t time to go through it all.” Knox thought of their teammate cargo, more precious than money. James had promised the crates were lined with bulletproof panels, but it still made him nervous to have Sola and Liam bundled up like sitting ducks back there. “Besides, how do we know your haul is as quality as people are saying? I guess we’ll both have to take it on faith.”

“Nah. You’re about to sample some while we look at the money. No one’s gonna come back on us saying it’s bullshit stuff.” The driver planted his feet.

Knox’s heart rate spiked and he nearly stumbled backward, but he bumped into Marcus. He knew then they weren’t getting out of there without one of them testing the drugs. That’s how they always did things during these major transactions. And no way in fucking hell was he going to let Marcus touch that shit.

Over the comms, Kennedy shrieked. He desperately tried to block out her sobs, begging him not to do what needed to be done. When he glanced back at Marcus, he saw a million different things in the other man’s eyes, but in the split second they had it would have been impossible to formulate any sort of alternate plan. In the world Knox was from, taste testing wasn’t a big deal. If they didn’t do it, they were both likely to end up killed.

So Knox agreed. “Yeah, give me some.”

“I have them in my sights. I can take them out instead. Say the word.” Aarav had set up sniper shop on some nearby building.

“Hold.” Jordan’s voice rang through. “We need them alive to find out the location of the factory and info on the recipe. Unless Marcus can get it out of them right now, we’ll have to move forward.”

Marcus cleared his throat. “We’ll take your word for it if you can tell us more about where it’s being made or what’s in that shit.”

“Nah, man. We ain’t dumb. You already trashed a bunch of Vipers, why not us next? What we know about that is the only thing making us useful.” The guy shook his head, glancing over his shoulder as he rummaged through the wads of cash, apparently satisfied with what he saw. “One of you hit that shit, then let’s get the fuck out of here before someone else makes a better offer or decides to be less civilized about it, eh?”

---