Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 122609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
She tossed her camera aside and grabbed a different one, without the flash. She came across an electric fence, and sighed. She’d seen these before. It looked like a normal fence, but if you looked closely, you could see ol’ Sparky in the form of silver wires. Looking back at the building, she saw several men with flashlights moving about. Yeah, the power must definitely be out. She grabbed a pebble and tossed it at the fence. Nothing. She pitched her bag over the enclosure, then climbed the fence. Careful. Careful. Careful. Maybe that one year of gymnastics in the 10th grade paid off after all. She jumped down from the top, praying she didn’t break her damn ankle on the way down. Perfect fucking landing. She snapped more photos, then dropped down on her belly, crawling closer to the building. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She felt the sting of where her clothing had been torn on a jagged piece of fence she hadn’t noticed until it was too late. Reaching for her keys in her leggings pocket, she sawed the clothing away, leaving a hole in her pants. Grabbing her camera from the ground, she continued to snap pictures.
There were big trucks. More barrels. A bunch of boxes, one after the other, were being carried in and carried out…
Then she noticed the sign: WILDE PACKING MATERIAL.
Disappointment set in.
This is just some freaking warehouse for Styrofoam and boxes! I can’t believe that, for a split second, I thought I had come across something that could save my ass! I should’ve known it was too good to be true. Now I have to get out of here.
Still worried about making a disturbance, she began to shimmy back, crawling away until she reached her car. She waited inside until the men walked away, then started it up and rolled back in reverse. Once it was safe, she put her foot on the gas and went back towards town. She found herself laughing her head off, though the disappointment was still palpable, too.
I did all of that for a box shop. Well, the building was still pretty cool, and… wait though… hold on. She smashed her foot on the brake. Thinking. Why would men with guns be guarding a building full of damn boxes?
Maybe there’s a lot of packing box theft? She sighed. That didn’t sound or feel right. She turned up the radio, bobbing her head to the sounds of 6IX9INE’s, ‘Billy,’ while she wracked her brains.
Well, at least I left the hotel and got some good shots of the city. Now I’ll go back and drink myself into a stupor. Tomorrow’s grunt work takes place at a college. A Geology conference. Yeah…
CHAPTER THREE
Three power outages—that’s all it took. A wicked windstorm had rolled through, and the backup generators used all of their muscle to produce electricity for the entire building. A perfect window for opportunity, for a perfect storm, on the wrong damn day. How could she time that so seamlessly? She’s one lucky lady. Once the storm had cleared, the power remained unreliable for many days afterwards, but they’d made do. This was one of the drawbacks of being in such a remote place.
James sat in one of his favorite vehicular toys, one of many: a cocaine white Rolls-Royce Ghost, with blood red interior. Earlier in the day, he’d looked at scarcely distinguishable photos of a woman crawling about in the dirt, snapping photo after photo of his establishment, his men totally oblivious to her presence. She hadn’t been on his property long. Seven minutes and fourteen seconds to be exact, but damn did she move quickly.
When the power had returned, and he checked his footage as he always did to ensure his men weren’t stealing product, fighting, or whatnot, he saw way worse. A bombshell. The exterior cameras always kept rolling due to the server—storm or not—even when the power was off. He was relieved he’d ensured there was always backup for such matters, and this time he was able to see how an infiltrator had crawled into his nest and disrupted the peace. The consequences could be catastrophic.
I’m doing this on my own. I want her identified and detained before I blow the whistle.
Until the situation was tackled and resolved, he had no plans to discuss it with the public, not even Billy. This was to be kept under wraps until further notice. He’d spent the entire day doing his own detective work. Her parked car was partially out of frame, but from what he saw, it was more than likely a Hyundai Elantra. No doubt a rental. He did some calling around and Googling, things he would normally leave up to Billy, but decided it was best that he deal with it this time. After over an hour of digging around, he managed to get the VIN number with the partial plate information. It was in instances such as this that it paid to have employees, runners, and connections at the DMV, in the police department and almost everywhere else, too. He also found the local leasing place the car was from. Enterprise, out by the Denver International Airport.