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I give the others a couple minutes to get into position before walking over to a side entrance. The walls are pitted with rust and mold, and I can’t imagine anyone’s used this place in a long time. The door opens without any issues though and creaks loudly as I drag it along its jammed hinges.
Inside, it smells musty and dirty. I turn on a flashlight and hold it in one hand as I aim my gun straight ahead. Niall’s at my shoulder. The uncles are getting prepped and ready, and they’ll rush in the second I send them a signal.
There’s nothing. No sign of life, no stolen pallets of drug-filled hockey sticks, no truck, no nothing. The main warehouse floor is littered with trash and debris, but nothing else. Catwalks loom above us. I turn off my light and look around, shaking my head.
“Looks like we can call it off,” I tell Niall. At the far end of the space, I spot a few men coming toward us and recognize Julien in the lead.
“Hello, friendly Irish pals,” Julien calls out. “Seems like we were misled.”
“Got any idea why your source would feed you bullshit?” I ask as he approaches with five fighters in tow.
“No clue,” Julien admits, and he seems uneasy. “My source has been very solid up until now. I’m not sure what happened. Perhaps?—”
Whatever excuse Julien was about to make is suddenly drowned out by the sound of gunfire.
Bullets slam down from the catwalks. At first, I’m completely disoriented—it’s strange that the shooting is coming from above us, at strange angles. But quickly I understand what’s happening: this is a fucking ambush.
“Run!” I shout as bullets spray at the ground around us. I yank Julien forward just as one of his soldiers gets shredded, his skull exploding as his brain matter and bone pieces get thrown onto the floor.
I’m moving hard. There’s yelling all over. Niall’s with me and Julien’s right behind, and I’m heading for the door. The shooting continues, and it’s obvious our attackers planned a decent surprise, but they didn’t think about the angles.
It’s not easy shooting moving targets from a height. Instead of presenting our whole bodies as targets, they can only aim for our heads. That’s the only reason we’re still alive as I throw myself down the hallway, barely escaping with my life, as two more of Julien’s men get taken out. Their mangled corpses twitch with more bullet impacts, and blood leaks onto the concrete.
“Fucking ambush,” Julien snarls, looking around with wild, rage-filled eyes. “God damn it, they murdered my men.”
“How many are out there?” I didn’t get a good count. I spotted at least three positions, but there must be more.
“Impossible to say.” Niall’s face is white and his jaw works. “What’s the plan?”
“Tell the uncles to back off.”
“Fuck that,” Julien snarls. “They’re trapped on those catwalks.”
“Do you want to storm them? There’s no cover in that fucking warehouse. We’re lucky we’re alive.”
“My men weren’t lucky.” Julien turns around like he’s going to rush back out there at any second, but he doesn’t move. “Fuck. Fuck! We were played.”
“You can deal with your dead soldiers and that lying informant when we get out of here.” I turn back to Niall. “Tell the uncles to stand down and keep the perimeter locked down.”
Niall types it out in our secure messaging app and sends it. The responses are immediate confirmations. I stride back down the hall and through the side door, pausing only to make sure that there aren’t any men stationed outside ready to pick us off as we try to get out.
Uncle Joseph jogs over, looking grim. “We heard the shooting.”
“Ambush,” I confirm. “Killed Julien’s men. We barely made it out.”
“What’s the plan?”
Julien shakes his head and walks off, heading around the edge of the building, angling toward his vehicles and however many men he left outside.
I watch him go before making up my mind. “We sit and wait.”
Uncle Joseph’s eyebrows raise. “They tried to kill you in there, Ronan.”
“And if we rush inside, more of our guys will die. Spread out and watch the building. If anyone shows up, kill them. If anyone tries to leave, take them prisoner. Kill them if you can’t.”
“We can’t watch this place forever.”
“No, we can’t,” I agree. “But they’ll have to come out eventually.”
