Page 14

CHAPTER 14

We pulled the drug lord’s shiny pickup truck to a stop in the small lot at the back of Hooper’s shack and hopped out. It was hard to believe that a day ago, we’d crawled out of the swamp with only the clothes on our back—and leeches. Now we had a new truck, and looked as though we’d just stepped off a red carpet.

Inside the shack, it was the same island of calm we’d visited prior to Skrinde’s people arriving to bully Hooper off his land. Another baseball game played on the static-obscured TV screen, and Hooper’s friends and family sat around make-do tables, chatting and playing board games. Now we knew they were all frog shifters, it changed the dynamic some, with Zee standing very, very still, his tail wrapped around his right ankle to keep it from causing chaos.

“We brought you a truck to replace the one we wrecked—sorry about that.” I handed Hooper the truck key. “I don’t think Skrinde will bother you anymore.”

“Then I guess he’s going to want his merchandise back, eh?” Hooper said.

“Merchandise?” I asked.

“Yeah, come out back... I’ll show you.”

We headed outside again, and ambled down a winding trail toward another shack, this one larger and unlit, standing on stilts above the water. Hooper opened the double barn doors and flicked on a light, illuminating rows of wooden crates, six deep by four wide and three high. There was a whole lot of whatever was in those crates.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing good,” Victor said, probably already knowing the answer.

Zee’s eyes lit up in... awe? “It’s Tom Collins’s dream warehouse.”

“Alcohol?” I asked.

Hooper lifted the lid on the nearest crate, revealing small wrapped packages of white powder.

“Drugs,” Hooper said.

Zee whistled. “That’s a fuckton of fairy dust.”

“Maybe Skrinde will forget it’s here,” I suggested. Victor and Zee both blinked at me. “No?”

“That haul is worth more than his Miami palace, Kitten,” Zee said.

“Oh. That’s why he wants this land. To store his drugs away from the city...” Which meant Skrinde wasn’t about to walk away, not when he was about to lose a huge chunk of his business. “We could take it back to him? Call it quits.”

“You wanna deliver a truckload of Class A drugs to a drug lord in the center of Miami?” Zee asked.

“Adding drug trafficking to our multiple counts of murder seems rather excessive.”

“Alleged murder,” I corrected. So what did we do with all the drugs? “We could dump it?”

“In the swamp?” Zee squeaked. “Do you wanna get high-as-fuck alligators? Because that’s how you get high-as-fuck alligators.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Clearly, you have not seen Cocaine Bear .”

“There are bears here too?” Why was the Everglades not gated off like Jurassic Park?

“Cocaine bears or alligators are the least of our concerns,” Victor said. “This much cocaine is a public health threat. We cannot let Skrinde retrieve it. In fact, if it were removed , its absence would ruin Skrinde’s business, freeing South Beach from his grasp.”

Okay, so all this cocaine could be a good thing? It gave us leverage to bring down Skrinde’s entire empire. We could use this against Skrinde.

“Zodiac, please refrain from sampling the drugs,” Victor grumbled.

I looked behind us and found Zee had his finger in his mouth, an open crate beside him with one bag removed. Victor hadn’t even needed to turn around to know what Zee was up to.

“Pfft... I’m obviously just checkin’ it’s not flour.”

“Why would flour be hidden in unmarked crates in an isolated building in the Everglades?”

Zee shrugged. “Epic pancakes?” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I can report, it is indeed cocaine. And very fine it is too. Tom Collins would be impressed. I can’t vouch for all the crates, but I could sample a few others at random?—”

“Unnecessary.”

“Ugh. You are no fun.” Zee huffed and folded his arms. “It’s not as though cocaine is illegal. Or bad for you.”

“It is, in fact, both,” Victor corrected.

“To humans, maybe. You see any humans here?”

He had a point. There were definitely no humans here.

“How are we going to make sure this doesn’t harm humans?” Hooper asked.

I had an idea... one that could take the drugs off the market, ruin Skrinde, and see to it that Hooper was finally left alone to enjoy his swampy amphibian paradise.

“Adam?” Victor asked, catching whatever expression my face had just performed.

I smiled. “Hooper, have you ever been to The Peach Pit?”

* * *

After parking the trucks a block from the oceanfront, our troupe of unlikely misfits headed to The Peach Pit. The doorman waved us through, then tried to stop Hooper and his crew as they didn’t really shimmer and shine or jiggle seductively in their casual clothes, but at least they had tried to smarten up for a last-minute night on the town by donning some clean overalls.

Hopefully, we wouldn’t need their additional tongue-muscle, but it couldn’t hurt to have some giant frogs along should my plan get a bit heated.

“Back so soon!” Kat air-kissed Zee’s cheeks. “And you brought so many friends! Fabulous!”

“Yeah, so...” Zee checked me for the final okay, and at my nod, scooped an arm around Kat’s shoulders and led him toward the outdoor bar.

“Check out the inside, see what we’re dealing with,” I told Victor. He dutifully glided off through the crowd, heading out of sight into the club.

I caught up with Zee at the bar, and heard him say, “We’ve got a way to bring down Skrinde for good. You in?”

“You’re going to free the Strip?” Kat glanced at me as I took the stool next to him, then back to Zee. “You guys don’t mess around, huh? You’re in town for a day and you got plans to liberate us all?”

“We saw an opportunity,” I said.

“But we need your help,” Zee added.

“Oh, do tell. I am always up for a good fight. It’s been far too dull around here.” Kat waved over a barman. I ordered a whiskey, and Zee a cocktail, which the barman crafted with flair.

With our drinks served, Kat looked around. “Where did the vampire go? We serve a great Bloody Bitch here.”

“He’s taking a look around,” I explained.

Kat’s demeanor cooled. He thought a moment, pink nails tapping his glass. “You can trust me, you know,” he said. “This place is safe. After... well... I worked hard to make it that way.”

“I know... I didn’t mean to offended you. Safe places for Lost Ones are rare. I know exactly what it takes to keep this place open for everyone.”

“Yes, of course, your hotel...” Kat tapped his glass again. “Then you know it’s a labor of love.”

“You have my word. We won’t put this place in harm’s way.”

Kat didn’t know me from... well... Adam. But when he looked over at Zee, and Zee nodded, Kat relaxed again. He didn’t trust me, but he did trust Zee. “You never did steer us wrong, Lycian.”

“You don’t even need to do anything,” Zee explained. “Just sit back and let our plan play out. You can even say you didn’t know anything about it if anyone asks. Just look the other way.”

Kat nodded. “Alright, you have my attention. What’s the plan?”