Page 67 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

Both men just looked at him, making no promises.

They kept low, moving fast and sticking to the shadows as they approached the property’s fence. There was no sign of any dogs, so they jumped over the wire barrier and into the yard. As the three of them spread out, Rodrigo held up a signal jammer and indicated that he was blocking all communication for the next ten minutes. The last thing they wanted was for the gang to call for reinforcements. He slipped the jammer into the side pocket of his backpack once he was done.

The small group split up, Abasi heading for the front of the house and Noah and Rodrigo for the back. They moved slowly and cautiously, keeping an eye out for any sign of movement. Or any attempts at booby-trapping the place. They found nothing. Either the Demons had become lax in protecting the house or Elle’s information was wrong.

Noah peered around the corner to the back of the building and held up a fist to signal Rodrigo to stop. Two men sat on the remains of an old porch. Both wore vests with Demon Brothers patches sewn onto them. One was vaping, and the other wasscrolling on his phone. From their relaxed postures, neither was too concerned about security.

Looked like Elle wasn’t wrong after all.

Rodrigo gestured toward the guy vaping, and Noah headed for the other one. The gang members didn’t even see them coming. Before they knew what was happening, Noah and Rodrigo came up behind them and had them in matching choke holds. They were out cold within seconds. It took another minute to hog-tie them with the zip ties and slap duct tape over their mouths.

Noah stepped back and eyed the unconscious men, lying sprawled on their bellies, hands and feet bound. They weren’t going anywhere. He signaled to Rodrigo to cover the door with his weapon while Noah eased it open. There was no one in the kitchen.

As they stepped into the disused and filthy room, Abasi appeared in the doorway leading to the front of the house.

“One down in there,” he barely whispered before gesturing to a door that stood ajar. “Basement.”

The sound of a radio drifted up from below the house.

“Only one way in and out,” Noah said, just as quietly. “No way of knowing how many are down there. If we go down those stairs, it will be a bloodbath.”

“Are we sure we got all the guards up here?” Rodrigo asked.

Abasi curled his lip in disgust. “If you can call watching porn on a crud-encrusted couch guarding the place.”

Noah rubbed his jaw. “Rodrigo? Got any flash-bangs in that bag of tricks of yours?”

His smile blinding in the darkness, he took off the pack, dug inside, and withdrew four canisters. “How many do you want?”

“All of them.”

Rodrigo handed out the stun grenades. “This is gonna make a helluva noise. Here’s hoping we’re right about having disabledall the guys on guard duty.” He looked rueful. “Also, we probably should’ve done some recon on the nearby properties to see if any of them were gang-owned before we barreled in here.”

“Elle did a search,” Abasi said. “Do you think I would have walked in here without covering all the bases? What kind of agent were you?”

“The fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind.” Rodrigo grinned. “Ready?”

They pulled the pins, fully opened the door to the basement, lobbed the stun grenades down the stairs, and closed the door hard behind them.

The noise was phenomenal. Even upstairs, Noah’s ears were ringing when it was over. But they weren’t the ones incapacitated. As soon as the noise died down, the small team didn’t hesitate. They threw open the door and rushed down into the basement. Six men lay writhing on the floor, a couple with blood running from their ears. None of them were in any condition to fight back. The noise and bright lights of the stun grenades had rendered their senses useless. One guy in the corner was vomiting.

Needless to say, the group was easy to subdue.

Once they had them restrained, Noah looked around the large basement room. It was in much better condition than the house above. Someone had made sure the place was spotless and given a fresh coat of paint. Although their hard work was ruined now. A couple of tables had been overturned, but there was no mistaking the residue of cocaine and materials needed to cut it for sale. In the corner nearest the stairs sat heavy-duty metal shelves loaded with white bricks.

“They have this much coke lying around, and their security is beyond shit.” Abasi nudged one of the bound and gagged men with the toe of his boot. The man groaned and blinked up at him, trying to focus while still partially blinded by the flash-bang. “Pay attention,” he said to the gang member. “This is what happens when you get lazy and rely on your reputation to protect you.”

“Uh, they might not be as dumb as we thought,” Rodrigo said from the top of the stairs. “I hear motorcycles. Lots of them. Do we have a plan?”

One of the hog-tied Demons started to laugh and shout, all of it unintelligible behind the duct tape covering his mouth.

“Yeah.” Noah stepped over the laughing gang member. “Get the hell out of here.”

He and Abasi jogged up the stairs.

“Well, this was a complete waste of energy,” Abasi said as they ran through the kitchen and into the yard. “The rest of the gang will have them untied and back to work in no time.”

As they sprinted for their car, the distant motorcycle engines were suddenly drowned out by the wail of sirens. Before they’d even shut the doors properly, Noah had the car in gear, and they sped off in the opposite direction of the noise.