Nothing so new about that. I ignored him, which I hoped just pissed him off more.
A shiny black sedan entered through the main gates of the warehouse. Could Colt be in it? I’d love for him to be inside when we blew it up. But we couldn’t move from our place. We had to wait.
Finally, a man showed up a few blocks down the street in the opposite direction from the warehouse. I didn’t know this guy who looked to be in his early to mid-twenties with shaggy brown hair. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, and I caught the tattoo of the demon skull over his right wrist.
He nodded in our direction even though I was pretty sure he couldn’t make us out in the darkness.
“I still kind of feel iffy working with Jasper’s men,” Wylder admitted under his breath.
“Maybe you should have thought of that before I went to him,” I said sarcastically.
He looked at me, his eyes narrowing. “Wouldn’t want your efforts to go to waste now, would we?”
“Oh, fuck you,” I muttered as I turned back to face the Demon’s Wings man who was slowly making his way towards us.
“You already have,” Wylder said in a matter of fact voice. I had the intense urge to hit him, but I wasn’t going to compromise the mission over his dickishness.
The man stopped when he reached the car. Wylder motioned him closer. “Did you bring everything?”
He ducked down across from us and nodded. “Enough explosives to take this whole thing down twice over. Everything’s in our truck. But how are you going to take it inside?”
I met Wylder’s eyes before we stepped out of the darkness. I wore a sleeveless hoodie with the hood up to cover my hair and a red bandana on my arm. Wylder was dressed in a similar way.
We were going in as the Steel Knights ourselves—or at least the underlings pledged to them. We were counting on there being so many new recruits that any regulars we couldn’t stealthily kill would be used to unfamiliar faces. The bandanas weren’t even official Steel Knights ones, just mocked up to look that way with red fabric and black sharpie.
Wylder made a signal, and the rest of the Noble people on the job moved toward the Demon’s Wings truck, slipping through the night’s shadows. Then he and I parted ways.
I followed the Demon’s Wings guy back to the truck, and he ushered the last few men into the back. I was bringing in very dangerous cargo tonight, but it would only be deadly to the Steel Knights. A slight smirk played across my lips at the thought.
I got into the driver’s seat. A few moments later, Wylder appeared at the passenger side of the cab. “All clear.”
I drove around to the side entrance, a narrow passageway that led out to the large compound around the warehouse. Wylder had disposed of the two guards he’d dispatched there. As we got out to lay down the first set of explosives, I spotted one of the bodies, which he’d dragged behind a storage container.
After we were done, we slunk toward the main building and hid behind a couple of old steel drums to observe our surroundings. A few Steel Knights men were patrolling around the building, with more no doubt inside. The black sedan was parked out in front. I wondered again who’d come inside it.
Wylder checked his watch. “Where the hell are they?” he murmured. “They were supposed to be here a minute ago.”
As if on cue, the front gates to the warehouse burst open, and a shiny blue Range Rover Kaige had picked out for the mission roared inside. It crashed into the sedan, which sent the other car’s tail spinning away to smash into the boundary wall.
Shouts carried from inside the building. As planned, the crash had caught the Steel Knights’ attention, which meant the guards wouldn’t notice the rest of us just yet.
Wylder tugged on the side of my shirt. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”
I nodded. We had several key strategic places we needed to plant the explosives if we were going to blow this place to the ground, all plotted out by Gideon using old blueprints of the warehouse he’d managed to dig up online.
At the end of this mission, there’d be nothing left but cinders.
Wylder sent a quick text on his phone. A swarm of people—both Nobles and Demon’s Wings—poured out of the back of the truck. A handful of them ran to join us, while most came around the building to pick off the guards as they raced out to confront Kaige.
Axel was in the bunch who came to a stop beside us, his expression grim. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d insisted on being part of this group just so he could grumble to Ezra afterward about all the issues he had with Wylder.
I sent a worried glance toward the Range Rover, where Kaige was just climbing out, semi-automatic rifle in hand, ready to meet the enemy. But I had to keep moving. That was the last thing I saw before we slipped past the warehouse door.
Inside, we found ourselves in thicker darkness. Only the faintest light from the city streetlamps seeped through the grimy windows. Wylder shone a small flashlight ahead of us as we hustled past the crates between us and our destination. He motioned to the men carrying some of the homemade bombs to plant them in various nooks and crannies.
There was a dull roar outside and the sound of running footsteps. Wylder yanked me down behind one of the crates, flicking off his flashlight. His hot breath ruffled the hair on the back of my neck, and an unwelcome tingle shot through my nerves at his closeness.
It didn’t last long. The hallway outside quieted, and we could hear the distant blare of guns firing. I itched to be in on the action, but this was more important. And chances were we’d be doing at least a little fighting before we were out of here.