Falcon
“Are you sure this is the place?” I asked Nathan when we pulled up to the old warehouse. There wasn’t a single light on, and there were no signs of people hanging around anywhere. The place looked deserted.
It was pretty well lit from the streetlights and the light posts in the parking lot surrounding the building. Plus, there were lights from nearby buildings that were keeping it where we could see.
“I mean, would you want anyone to see you if you weren’t supposed to be here?” Nathan asked as he unbuckled and opened the door.
We didn’t ride our motorcycles out to the warehouse. We didn’t want anyone to hear us coming up. With the businesses that were still in operation along this section of the river, there was still enough noise to drown out our cars as we pulled up. We parked in a darkened section of the parking lot, beyond the lights, so I was confident no one could see us, if there was even anyone there.
Everyone got out of the cars quietly with handguns and assault rifles drawn. We drove two matte black SUVs with everyone in them to the warehouse. We had a total of fifteen men with us between the guys who had been at HQ when the explosion went off and the men Thomson had gathered at Nathan’s.
“All right, guys, this is it,” I whispered to the men as we gathered behind the cars. “Once we leave the shadows by the cars here, we’re targets. So keep your eyes open for anything, anyone. You see someone move, take a shot.”
“But what about Clementine?” Nathan reminded me.
“Don’t worry about her. Leo won’t throw her out into the open like that. He isn’t trying to make her a target. We won’t find Leo until we get inside, and then we’ll find Clementine with him,” I explained to everyone.
I looked around at the men standing with me. We all wore jeans and black t-shirts with our vests on over them. We were going to try to keep from being spotted but we weren’t going to hide. When we went in to take him down, Leo and all of his men would know exactly who it was shooting at them.
I glanced over at the building, sitting in dark, vacant silence. The sound of the river and all of the work that was going on along it filled the night. The warehouse was a blemish, a dead spot in the middle of so much activity. It really didn’t seem like anyone was waiting for us in there.
The whole thing smelled like another of his setups. We were going to be ambushed.
“Before we go,” I said, turning back to everyone. “I need a couple of you to stay out here and train your scopes on the building just in case this turns out to be an ambush. It’s just quiet enough that someone will be waiting for us.”
“Got it,” Thomson said, and he pointed at two of the guys who climbed up on top of the SUVs and pointed their rifles at the warehouse.
“All right, guys, let’s go. Stay tight, stay together, and stay low. We don’t want to be seen until we are right on top of them,” I told them as we walked away from the cars.
We proceeded carefully, trying to avoid the light as much as we could. We had the cover of noise as other nearby warehouses loaded and unloaded freight containers, but that meant Leo and his men enjoyed the same cover. We kept our eyes peeled for moving silhouettes in the night.
With so many open windows, it was like the warehouse was left wide open with no real walls on the outside. Most of the glass from the old metal window frames was missing or broken. In some places, we could see straight through the building. The bay doors for loading and unloading were all wide open along the front.
I nodded forward and pointed into one of the bay doors. We climbed up onto the loading dock. In the darkness, we moved as stealthily as we could have. Again, any sounds we made were drowned out by the sounds of industry around us.
We entered the ground floor and encountered Leo’s first men at the stairs leading up to the second floor.
“Thanks for holding my spot,” I told one of the guys as I grabbed his head and snapped his neck, letting him drop to the ground at my feet.
Thomson did the same to the other man guarding the stairwell.
“I like this,” he said. “No gunshots. Just snap their necks.” He laughed, taking too much pleasure in what we were doing.
“Well, I hope you get to have more fun when we get upstairs,” I told him.
As we went up the stairs, the noise we made became clear, but we were far enough inside that we surely sounded like his men coming up the stairs.
Things were very different on the second floor. It was wide open with an office in the back. There was a small yellow light glowing behind the frosted windows.
“I bet that’s where they’re keeping her,” I told my men. “Let’s go. Mind any gunfire. Make sure you don’t shoot off towards the office. Nathan, Luther, with me. Thomson, you take the guys with you. Kill them all. Save Leo for me if you see him.”
My heart had been pounding as we crept through the ground floor as it pumped adrenaline and anticipation through my veins. Now, finally closing in on my chance to face Leo and get Clementine back, it almost stopped beating completely, as if it were scared to make too much noise or distract me from the task at hand.
Gunshots erupted behind me as my men and Leo’s started shooting at each other. I ducked to avoid any stray bullets as I hurried to the office where the light was still glowing.
Then, I saw the door open, and Leo came out with Clementine. He had an arm under hers and around her chest.
“Clementine,” I called out, but she was obviously unconscious, draped over his arm.
Leo held a gun to her head, a Glock 9mm, probably the same one he’d used to shoot Alan at the pawnshop. He sidestepped around to the corner of the office.
“Drop the guns, Falcon,” he said.
“Man, let’s ice this guy,” Luther said.
“Can you get a clear shot, Falcon?” Nathan said.
It was good to hear the guys on autopilot again and to hear the aggression returning to their voices. They were hungry for it, but I wondered if they were too hungry. If they didn’t proceed with some measure of caution here, they were going to cost me everything I was fighting for.
“Falcon, either they drop the guns or I drop the girl. Your call, boy,” Leo said.
“Guys,” I said, cautioning my men as I raised my hands.
“Falcon, you can’t be serious,” Luther insisted.
“Put the guns down, guys. We can’t risk losing her,” I said. I leaned down and put the gun in my hand on the floor.
Luther and Nathan followed suit. I could still feel the handgun I usually carried stuffed behind my belt in the back of my jeans. I usually only carried one gun, and Leo would have known that, so he wouldn’t have expected another gun behind my back.
“You’re as dumb as you look.” He chuckled as we stood up from putting our guns down.
“Maybe,” I sort of agreed as I started to approach him with my hands held out so he could sort of see them in the dim light. “But I don’t have a gun to my own sister’s head, Leo.”
“Please. You thought she meant something to me? You never stopped to think that it was too easy to get the photos of her? I mean, if my sister meant as much as I made you think she did, don’t you think I would have had someone watching her? And if I had someone watching her, wouldn’t they have noticed a photographer following her around the city suddenly?”
Was he saying that even my idea of revenge was part of the setup? Was all of this planned the whole time? I knew Leo was cunning, but I never would have given him that much credit.
“Don’t get me wrong, Falcon. I knew someone was following her and taking pictures of her. I knew who he was, and I paid him to make sure he got the best pictures he could of her. Don’t think I didn’t notice how sexy my young sister was then. Everybody wanted a piece of her, so I knew it was only a matter of time before you came knocking,” Leo continued.
I was fuming, but in the dim light, I was pretty sure he couldn’t see the look on my face. I was content to let him keep talking, because that was what he was best at, but I couldn’t help how it made me feel to hear what he was saying about Clementine.
“I pretended to be mad when I found out you had made contact. I pretended to confront her so she would want you even more.” He chuckled as he continued. “I mean, how did you think I knew anyway? I didn’t wait for her to tell me. I heard you were getting out, and I put someone on her so I could see how long it would take for you to make contact. I made sure you knew where she worked from your cell, so I knew where you would go to find her. I set you up, brother.”
“We’re not brothers,” I growled.
“Oh, he speaks.” He laughed.
The gun under my belt begged me to grab it. Leo was waving his gun around as he talked, taking his attention off his unconscious sister. I knew it would only be a matter of time before Clementine woke up and made the situation worse.
“I think we got everybody,” I heard Thomson say as he joined Luther and Nathan behind me.
“Tell him to put his gun down,” Leo said, putting the barrel of his gun back to Clementine’s head.
“All right, take it easy, Leo.” I turned around and called out to Thomson, “Good job, brother. Now put your gun down, and tell everyone else to do the same.”
I heard their guns hit the ground, knowing that at least Thomson had more firepower on him. He wouldn’t be caught dead with only one gun on him. And even then, the gun wouldn’t be the only weapon he was carrying. Thomson loved to fight, and he would take it any way he could get it, even provoking members into verbal altercations and fist-fights.
“Looks like we have a good old-fashioned stand-off going on here, Falcon,” Leo said with another obnoxious laugh. “It’s a shame I’m going to win, though, don’t you think?” he continued.
“Yeah, I think it’s a shame you’re that delusional,” I agreed. “Look, we all know you want me, Leo, so let Clementine go. Let someone drag her out of here so you and I can finish our business. Whoever’s left standing gets to go home tonight and soak in the hot tub with a few cold drinks. How does that sound to you?”
“Oh, that last part sounds great. That’s what’s going to happen anyway,” Leo said, “but it’s not going to be that easy, Falcon. See, I gave you my sister for a reason. Now that she brought you to me, I don’t really have any use for her, so what I’m thinking is I’m going to go ahead and take care of both of you tonight so I don’t have to worry about you anymore.”
That was the thing that got me about Leo. I never could tell how much of what he said was genuine and how much was just talk. He talked all the time, and he was good at it. He knew how to get under anyone’s skin, even if they knew what they were in for by talking to him. I knew he was pushing me to do something stupid so he would have an excuse to ice somebody, but I really wasn’t sure if he was going to pull the trigger on me or her first.
That was when she woke up.