“Quinn, wake up,” Arsen said, giving her a nudge. It was early, well before sunup, but he wanted to get everyone into the compound before the Horsemen realized what had happened.
“What time is it?” she mumbled, rolling over and stretching.
“Four-thirty.”
She groaned and stretched. “I hate mornings.”
“You can nap at the clubhouse. Come on, get up.”
With a groan she staggered out of bed and into the bathroom, patting him on the chest as she stumbled past. He heard the shower start and he grinned as he made the bed.
Twenty minutes later she stepped out of the bathroom. She looked more awake if not exactly alert. “You ready to go? We’re having breakfast at the clubhouse.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
They rode through the cool darkness of the early morning, then paused at the gate. Normally the gate was left open when the brothers were in the clubhouse, but today the gate was secured and Arsen had to enter the code to open the gate. The moment the gap was wide enough he slipped through the opening, the Indian triggering the sensor on the other side to start the gate closing.
There were only a half-dozen bikes there as Arsen shut off the Indian’s engine. The morning silence was once again complete.
“Can you help in the kitchen?” he asked as they walked in. “Everyone else should be here in less than half an hour
She nodded and started to step away, but then stopped, turned around, and give him a quick kiss before continuing on her way. While she worked in the kitchen, he checked the overnight orders. They pulled orders first thing in the morning, then again at three in the evening. It was going to be a light day packaging orders, and that was a good thing. The more men they could free up from their daily tasks, the more eyes they could have on the perimeter. They had full video surveillance, but it wouldn’t pick up a threat until it was in close, but the mark one eyeball could watch beyond where the cameras were pointed.
“Zane!” he called, stepping out of the small room that housed the servers.
“Yeah?”
“You and Phil tell me how many men we need watching. The rest I want to put on packaging to knock this out as soon as possible. We’ll do another blitz packaging after the three o’clock download then run the van out under heavy guard. After the packaging runs, people need to sleep so we can have people on watch tonight.”
“Why would they hit the van?”
“Not the van, the brothers inside.”
Zane rolled his eyes. “Of course. I’m not awake yet.”
“Come on. Breakfast will wake you up.”
After breakfast, while ten brothers watched the fence and another watched the cameras, the rest of the club pulled orders. Most of the brothers weren’t familiar with how to efficiently pull orders, but they had so many hands, they were done in less than two hours. Chet and his team, the brothers who ran the shipping department, carefully checked each box, then sealed and labeled it as other brothers staged the boxes to be loaded into the van after the three o’clock pull.
With nothing else to do, they began to rotate brothers in and out of watch, giving those sweltering in the rising heat a break.
Arsen had just come in from his turn of baking in the Arizona sun when the lunch plates began to appear. He retreated to the bathroom to wash the sweat off his face and arms before sitting down beside Quinn.
“How you doing?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I’ve found clear plastic containers that I think would be perfect for the salts and beads. They come in a bunch of different sizes, and I think you should offer three. The larger the size, the less the price per unit so the customer will buy more. That will save you on shipping and your regular customers will feel like you’re saving them money. I also heard back from a box vendor and she wants to come talk to me about boxes. I put her off until next week because of, you know. Do you think that’s long enough?”
“Probably,” he said, picking up his hamburger and taking a bite. “If they’re going to hit us, I expect it tonight or tomorrow night.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything, keeping her fears to herself. The Blades ran like a well-oiled machine, everyone pitching in and doing their part, but Arsen had enough to worry about without her hanging all over him.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked again, picking up on her mood.
“Just nervous, that’s all.”
He nodded. “After lunch, let’s go someplace quiet, and you can show me the containers.”
She smiled. She knew what he was doing, and she appreciated it. “Okay. As soon as I help clean up from lunch.”
Cleanup didn’t take long since the Blades had a commercial kitchen in their clubhouse. Quick rinse in the sink, then into the commercial dishwasher, and they were done.
When she appeared from the kitchen, Arsen was waiting, and gave her a nod of his head. She picked up her laptop and followed him to the idled production building. “People who are pulling the night shift are trying to sleep,” he explained as they tromped up the steps to the lab. “This way we don’t have to worry about bothering them.”
She nodded as she followed him up the steps. Not everyone was sleeping, not yet anyway. As they passed the guest suites on the way out, she heard the squeak of a bed and the passionate whispers of a couple making love.
“Show me what you’ve found,” he said as he took the laptop from her, sat it on the bench, and opened the lid.
She called up the website and showed him the jars she’d selected, along with the lids, seals and labels. The jars were more expensive than the plastic bags they were currently using, but not as expensive as he expected when buying in bulk. “Everything I selected is off the shelf,” she finished.
“No prices on the boxes?”
“Not yet. I want to use a wax window box with a full design.”
“Sounds expensive.”
“More than you’re paying now, but the impact will be a lot more too. According to Sue, that’s the sales lady, it’ll be about 10% more per unit than you’re paying now, plus there will be an initial setup fee for the artwork.”
He looked at her, his eyes narrowing in comic suspicion. “What did you do before? You seem to know a lot about this.”
She grinned. “Worked behind the desk of a motel. As far as this, the internet is a wonderful thing. You can learn a lot of you are willing to do a little digging. Plus, I know what I like, and I figure I’m about average, so if I like it, I figure most women will like it. We like to think we’re getting a bargain, even if we’re not, and we like pretty things. A pretty box with a fancy jar inside will go a long way to making us want to try your product, especially when the jar contains those colored, sparkling bath salts. They look like decoration, so it’s like we’re getting a twofer. Something we can use to decorate our bathrooms, and something we can use pamper ourselves at the same time.”
He chuckled as he shook his head. “You missed your calling working in a motel. I think you could sell snow-cones to people in the Arctic.”
She smiled as she looked down, warming with his praise. “You opened your house to me, and your club welcomed me in. I’m just trying to do my part,” she said softly.
He waited until she looked up. “I didn’t open my house to you so you could help us in some way.”
“Why did you then?”
“I thought we covered that last night.”
“I’m just having a hard time believing it, that’s all. Nobody has ever done something for me without expecting something in return. Not like this.”
He shrugged. “I got something in return. A little peace.”
She could feel the tears coming and she couldn’t stop them. “Remember what I said about wanting to cry for no reason?” she whimpered as she fought her tears.
“Come here,” he said softly, rising to his feet and pulling her in, holding her tight. “Why are you crying?”
“I don’t know,” she sniffed.
He was holding her, waiting for to her shrug him off, when he they heard the gunshot. “Stay here,” he said, shoving her away.
“Arsen! No!” she screamed as he bolted from the room and pounded down the steps.
She stood, frozen in terror, her hands at her mouth, as gunfire erupted. She ran to the landing outside the door and looked over the edge as Arsen eased the factory door open, then shut it.
He looked up at her. “Go back in the lab and shut the door!”
“Don’t leave me!” she cried, shaking so hard she was afraid she would tumble down the steps.
“I’m not leaving you!” he called, trying to put her at ease. “Just go back in the lab where—” Before he could complete the sentence, the door burst open, hitting him in the back and causing him to stumble. He regained his balance and turned as a huge man rushed through the door, a large, long handled hammer in his hands.
Quinn was certain her heart stopped when Arsen turned to face the man. The thug charging through the door was as surprised to see Arsen as Arsen was to see him. They paused a moment, obviously shocked in having come face to face with each other, then Arsen recovered and grabbed the handle of the hammer.
The door hitting him in the back was bad enough, but when the gorilla charged through with a sledgehammer in his hands, he was so shocked he couldn’t move for a moment. Obviously the attack at the front of the clubhouse was a distraction so this guy could get in and wreck the production equipment. The gorilla slid his hands down the handle as he began to wind up for a swing. A solid blow from the hammer would kill him, and even a glancing blow would disable him. That was the primary threat. Realizing he didn’t have time to clear his weapon, he grabbed the hammer to stop the swing.
Unable to bring the hammer back with Arsen hanging onto the handle, the man charged forward, trying to drive Arsen back and down. Arsen went down, holding onto the hammer and dragging the gorilla down with him, putting a booted foot in the man’s chest and driving him over his head. The thug landed hard on the concrete floor. Arsen released the handle and scrambled to his feet, throwing himself on the man and forcing the handle into his neck.
The man kicked, trying to force the handle back up, but as big as he was, he was no match for Arsen and his advantage in leverage. As his struggles slowed, Arsen kept the pressure on, snarling down at the man, until the handle suddenly dropped lower and crushed his throat.
Arsen rolled off the dead man and looked around for another threat. Seeing nothing he glanced up at Quinn, staring down at him, her eyes wide with her hands at her mouth. She pounded down the steps with reckless speed as he got to his feet, throwing herself into his arms.
He was still holding her, watching the door, as the pops of gunfire ceased and the wail of police sirens approached.