Page 70 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

Katrina nodded as Rochelle hurried back upstairs.

Annabelle made her way over to Evan. “Where are they?”

“Gimme a sec.” He tapped away at his keyboard, his fingers flying. “Got it! They’re… in the middle of nowhere.” He looked confused.

“Send the coordinates to Rochelle’s cell,” Katrina said. “Violet, make sure the building’s secure. We’re down half the team while she’s gone.”

Violet turned on her heel and went off to do as she was told. In the meantime, Annabelle stared at the point on the map where Noah’s vehicle sat, wondering what they were doing out there in the middle of the night.

Chapter Twenty-Three

According to their intel, a big rig was due to meet with Demon members under one of the many motorway junctions dotted around the city. There was no sign of it yet, but a brand-new pickup sat on the hard shoulder with three men inside.

“Gotta be the gang,” Rodrigo muttered as they watched the pickup from where they sat—behind a bush big enough to hide their SUV.

A train track cut across the road nearby, and there was nothing but grass, overgrown bushes, and the odd abandoned building for miles. It was as isolated as you could get while still considering yourself in Houston.

“Our intel says they change drivers and license plates here before heading on to San Antonio.” Abasi cast them a glance. “I say we take their place and meet the rig ourselves.”

In silent agreement, the men left their vehicle and crept along the grass verge beside the road. It took them no time at all to deal with the gang members. Within minutes, they were hog-tied, gagged, and stashed on the ground beside the pickup, out of sight of the road.

“Truck coming,” Noah said as headlights appeared in the distance.

They casually leaned against the pickup to wait for it.

The massive truck rolled to a stop behind them, and two men jumped down from the cab. They approached Noah, a swagger in their step. It was only when they drew close enough to see their faces clearly that the driver hesitated.

“I don’t know you,” he said.

The gang members still had their weapons tucked into the waistband of their pants. Without saying a word, Noah and Rodrigo were on the men. Noah tightened his arm around the driver’s neck and felt him struggle before losing consciousness. Once he went limp, Noah let him fall to the ground instead of carefully lowering him. He retrieved the vehicle keys from the man and tossed them to Abasi, who strode for the back of the rig.

“Better disable their phones.” Noah removed the battery from the one belonging to the driver.

“Already on it,” Rodrigo said. “I’ll go check we got all of them from the other guys too.”

Noah gave a nod and then dragged the unconscious man over to join his friends. The gravel was rough under his captive, and Noah hoped the asshole got road burn. The rattle of the truck’s roller door opening was loud in the night. Noah heard a scuffle followed by a thud and knew Abasi had found and dealt with another gang member. Made sense there’d be three to match the number waiting in the pickup.

By the time Noah and Rodrigo rounded the back of the truck, Abasi was securing the final gang member’s feet. Noah investigated the open trailer. It was full of boxes packed into the top of the rig.

“Think Elle got her info wrong?” Rodrigo eyed the boxes.

“Elle doesn’t make mistakes.” Abasi grabbed the back of the gang member’s shirt and dragged him to the grass verge, where he dumped him unceremoniously.

Rodrigo, who’d already climbed into the truck, was busy opening a box with his pocketknife.

“What’ve we got?” Noah eyed the cargo.

“Paper towels.” Rodrigo held up a two pack for them to see.

“Anything else?”

“Nope. Gotta be a cover for the drugs they’re hauling. We’ll need to pull all the boxes out to see what else is in there. Unless…” He ripped open the plastic packaging and licked the paper towel.

“Dude, gross.” Noah winced.

“Came across a smuggler once who infused paper with drugs. This is just paper.” He lobbed it onto the road before grabbing another box. “We need to get this baby emptied. Catch.” He tossed the box to Noah.

At least it wasn’t heavy. Noah threw it onto the grass verge.