The second the doors to the van opened, I lunged for Josie. I wrapped her into my arms and held her close as I flopped against one of the walls of the vehicle. The entire thing rocked on its chassis, and the guys teased me in the background about collapsing the entire thing with a swing of my pinky.
I didn’t give a shit, though.
I simply wanted to dote on Josie.
“Hey there, beautiful,” I murmured into her hair.
She nuzzled against me tightly. “Hi, handsome.”
I kissed the top of her head. “You okay?”
She wrapped her arms around me as best as she could. “Yeah, I’m okay. I promise.”
“I’m gonna kill the man who spoke to you like that.”
She snickered. “Why don’t we focus on doing away with them so they can’t talk to anyone like that ever again?”
Cole chuckled. “I like the sound of that.”
I reached out and gave Cole a hand before I helped pull him into the van. We were perched about three blocks down in an abandoned alleyway, and it concealed our dark-colored van very well. Cole closed the doors softly and I went back to massaging any part of Josie’s body that I could get my hands on.
But then, Tanner’s voice sounded throughout the massive vehicle. “Uh, guys?”
“What? You find something?” Brooks asked.
“Did I get everything you guys needed?” Josie asked.
I stroked my fingers through her hair. “You did amazing.”
Tanner sighed. “Actually, she got exactly what we needed. And we have a problem.”
“Well, spit it out, then,” Porter spat.
Tanner turned his computer screen around, like we could all fucking see it. “The girls aren’t being picked up Sunday, like that one dancer thought. They’re being picked up tonight.”
I whipped my head toward him. “Tonight?”
Brooks’ face hardened. “Is there a specific time scheduled for the pick-up?”
Tanner turned his laptop back around. “The shipment isn’t due to be picked up until one in the morning, but that still only gives us three hours to prep.”
“Fuck,” Finn groaned.
“How can I help? I want to come and help,” Josie said.
I shook my head. “Uh-uh. No fucking way. You’ve helped us enough. It’s time for us to take it from here.”
“But Archer, I could—”
Brooks cut her off, thank fuck. “I’m with Archer on this one. Besides, if you have a shift to finish up, you might as well stay so you don’t blow your cover. We’re going to need a few hours of time borrowed off your back.”
Porter nodded. “Yeah, and you can keep tabs on shit for us in case things get wild in there. Now that we know the time of the pick-up, you might even get lucky enough in there to see a few guys escape through a backdoor or something.”
I glared at them. “No.”
But Josie spoke just as harshly. “Great. I can do that.”
Cole slid toward the door. “I’ll go back in and keep an eye on her. Unless you guys need me at the docks, then I can tag-in Tanner.”
Brooks shook his head. “We need Tanner’s electronic capabilities in case we need to take down their security system while at the wharf. Cole, you go back in with Josie. And Josie?”
“Yeah?”
Brooks pointed at her. “No funny shit. Stick to the script, and don’t get into shit if you don’t have to. All right?”
She nodded. “I promise I won’t.”
I kissed her temple. “Good. And Cole?”
He opened the van doors. “I know, I know. Update you guys if things get weird and get her the fuck out of there if shit gets violent. You act like this is the first time I’ve done this shit.”
I glared at him. “It’s the first time you’ve done it with one of our women, so you better take it seriously.”
He slid out of the van and turned around to face me. “I’ll protect her like I’d protect my own sister.”
Porter paused. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”
Cole shrugged. “Well, you guys don’t know everything about me. So, there. Josie?”
He offered his hand out to her and she looked up. Her lips captured mine one last time, but I still had issues letting go of her. When she was in my arms, I knew she was safe and out of harm’s way. But now, I was simply supposed to leave her here in a strip joint with these assholes while we booked it across town to a dock?
Fucking hell, I want this to be over.
Still, we waved them off and headed on to the wharf. We made a quick stop at one of our many storage units to pick up some heavy gear in case we needed it, and I made sure to holster guns on either side of my hips. I put a grenade in each of my leather jacket pockets just for shits and grins, then we all piled back in once we were stacked to the brim and proceeded toward the docks.
And the closer we got, the more nervous I became.
“Cole just sat back down in the audience,” Brooks said, “Josie’s back in the dressing room with the girls.”
I nodded mindlessly. “Good to know. Thanks.”
The idea of having to rely on someone else to protect Josie made me sick to my stomach. I knew no one could do a better job of that than myself, and it fucked with me that I was leaving her behind. And while the rational part of me knew I wasn’t leaving her anywhere, that didn’t quite resonate with my heart.
My heart felt like I’d left her behind.
Please, Cole, don’t make me kill you over this.
“All right, here’s the game plan,” Porter said as he turned around in the passenger’s seat, “we’re going to park about half a block from the wharf and stick to the shadows. If the Black Knuckle-draggers are doing their job correctly, they’ll already have some sort of hold over the staff and dock hands.”
I shrugged. “We already know they paid off dock hands and are attempting to gain control of the security cameras.”
Brooks chuckled. “And if we’re lucky, we can catch them in between those two points. After they talk with the dock hands, but before they usurp the cameras. Then, we can control the cameras without anyone noticing that shit’s going down.”
I nodded. “Since the dock hands will assume it’s them doing shit and not us. That’s actually a pretty decent plan.”
Tanner puffed his cheeks out with a sigh. “And it requires impeccable timing.”
Finn snickered. “Which we’ve never quite been good with.”
Brooks clicked his tongue. “So, we’ll stick to that plan, but pivot as necessary. The number one thing is to keep ourselves silent and unseen. We need to get those girls, and while we are armed well, we can’t take any chances since we are a man down. Got it?”
The entire van nodded as Brooks rounded the last corner.
“Got the wharf entrance in sight. Diverting to the side road,” he said.
And that was our cue to start mentally getting prepared.
You know, before we had to physically execute.
