“Why all the secrecy?” he asked, pulling the pickup truck door open and sliding into the front seat. Hurricane sat in the driver’s seat and Yonkers hopped into the back.
“Because we can’t be too careful,” Hurricane said.
“Careful of what?” Reacher asked. Hurricane looked around as though expecting to find someone standing outside of his pickup truck. “You’re starting to worry me.”
“Good, you should be worried, man,” Yonkers warned.
“Okay, how about one of you tell me what’s going on and I’ll decide if I’m worried or not.” Reacher was pretty sure that he was going to do a whole lot of worrying with the way that the guys were looking at him.
“You’re in danger,” Yonkers said.
“How am I in danger?” Reacher asked.
“Those warehouses that you’re clearing chemicals from—they are being used to hold women who are being trafficked,” Hurricane said.
He had been in the warehouses every day since he started his job, weekends included, and he saw no signs of human trafficking.
“I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary,” Reacher insisted.
“I’m in those three warehouses every day, and I’m pretty sure that I’d notice a bunch of women in cages, guys. ”
“Wait—you’re only working on three warehouses down at the docks?” Yonkers asked.
“Yes,” Reacher said, “why?”
“Because your boss’s records show that he owns five warehouses, not three.
Why aren’t the other two buildings in your contract?
” Hurricane said. He had no idea that Tom had five warehouses, and not just three.
He always felt as though the guy was a little bit shady, but why wouldn’t he tell Reacher about the other two buildings?
“No, I don’t have a contract for the other two warehouses,” he admitted. “Do you think that my boss is involved in human trafficking?”
Hurricane shrugged, “Not sure, but we do think that one of his five warehouses is being used to hold women until they can get them to auction.”
“Shit,” Reacher breathed. “I finally get a job that I like, and my boss might be a fucking human trafficker.”
“Yeah, that does suck, but if we can prove that he is grabbing these women off the streets to sell them off to the highest bidder, we’ll be able to take him down.
I’m sure that the company will still need your services.
” Yonkers seemed confident in his assessment, but Reacher wasn’t sure that it would be that easy.
“Can you tell us which two buildings aren’t included in your contract?” Hurricane asked. He handed him a map of sorts with most of the warehouses from down on the docks on it. He looked it over and shook his head.
“I can’t tell you which ones aren’t in my contract, but I can tell you which ones are in my contract.
” Reacher pointed to the three buildings that he was currently cleaning barrels of chemicals out of.
“I’m in charge of these three warehouses.
” He handed Hurricane back the map and he pulled a pen from the glove box and marked the three buildings that Reacher had pointed out.
“We’ll do some research to figure out which other two also belong to your boss,” Hurricane said.
“In the meantime, be vigilant. If you see anything out of the ordinary, let me know. We think that the Vipers are involved, but we’re not sure how they fit into this mess.
They are notorious for kidnapping women, and this sounds like their kind of party.
We just need to find out if your boss is involved. ”
“I can try to help with that,” Reacher admitted. “I’ll keep my ear to the ground and let you know if I hear anything.”
“Thanks, man,” Hurricane said.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Hurricane insisted.
“That’s not the way to do this, man,” Yonkers scolded.
“Do what?” Reacher asked. He could tell that he wasn’t going to like this part of their conversation either.
“I want you to be my Vice Prez,” Hurricane admitted. Well, at least that didn’t take as long for him to say as the part about the Vipers human trafficking women through the warehouses he was cleaning up.
“I thought Yonkers was your Vice Prez,” Hurricane said.
“Yonkers only agreed to be my VP until I could find another suitable candidate to be voted in. The rest of the guys like you, Reacher, and I think that they’d all agree that you’d be the perfect Vice Prez.”
“I appreciate you saying that, Hurricane,” he said. “But I just started a new job and a new relationship with Brandi. I’m not sure that I can handle much more being added to my plate.”
“Will you at least give it some thought before you make a decision?” Yonkers asked.
“Of course,” he agreed. “If you give me some time to think it over, I can give you a better answer. I just need to wrap my head around your offer and talk to Brandi about it. I know it sounds corny, but I want her to be a part of my life, so I like running big life decisions past her.” When they both agreed that she should move into his house, they talked it out—the pros and cons of living together, and when they came up with more pros, she agreed to move in with him.
Her place was in a scary neighborhood, and there was no way that he wanted her living there—not after she agreed to be his.
“Thanks,” Hurricane said.
“In the meantime, make sure that you watch your six,” Yonkers said.
“Will do,” Reacher agreed. “I’ll be in touch when I know more. I’ve got to get back to work now,” he said.
“Right, no problem,” Hurricane said.
Reacher got down out of the truck and looked back at his two friends. “Thanks for keeping an eye out for me guys,” he said. “It means a lot knowing that I can count on you guys and the club to keep me safe.”
“Not a problem,” Hurricane said. “Stay in touch.” He nodded and checked his watch.
With any luck, he’d have just enough time to get across town, and then, he’d start snooping around the warehouses for any sign of human trafficking.
If the Vipers were involved, he needed to get a head start because they were going to be hard to pin anything on—especially human trafficking.