Page 40 of Shifter and the Succubus (The Pack #1)

“I see four signatures in the warehouse area. Once we are closer to the building, we should be able to sense if they are all supernatural or not.”

“Odds are, Baxter is working with other demons,” Misha said. “Let’s make a plan.”

Ten minutes later they climbed out of the SUV and headed to the side of the building to meet up with their teammates.

A burst of air hit Jason’s face, and suddenly Talia and Jean Luc appeared in front of them.

Kyle was right, vampire super speed was a cool power to have.

Talia handed them all earpieces, which they put in.

“All four are demons,” Jean Luc said. “If I had to guess, I would say they are Dalmot.”

On the demon power scale, Dalmots were at the lower end, so that was good. But if they were the same ones from the alley, they could still be dangerous. “They might be armed though.”

Jean Luc nodded. “Talia and I will go in first. We can disarm if necessary, and then you can follow in behind us.”

For his first time back in the field, Jason didn’t mind being the second string in the plan, especially since he didn’t have any powers any longer and his gun was locked in his safe at his apartment.

Jean Luc and Talia opened the side door and flashed inside.

Misha went in first, followed by Jason and Kyle.

Jason tensed when he heard muffled thumps and shouts farther into the building.

A demon ran toward them, and Misha flipped out his hand, using his telekinesis to send him crashing into the wall.

Another swirl of air and Talia appeared in front of them. “There you are,” she said as she zip-tied the grumbling demon and pulled him to his shaky feet.

They walked into the main area and found Jean Luc and the three other demons zip-tied. There were stacks of wooden boxes and a van parked in the space as well.

Baxter scowled at them. “Who the hell are you?”

“BSR,” Jean Luc said.

Was it Jason’s imagination, or did the demons almost look relieved when they realized who they were?

Baxter shook his head at the other three demons as if to tell them to be quiet. “We didn’t do anything,” Baxter announced.

“So if we open the boxes, we won’t find illegal merchandise, maybe weapons or drugs?” Kyle asked.

“We’re a transportation company. We move product for customers.”

“And you don’t ask them what you’re transporting?” Misha asked.

Baxter’s eyes shifted to the side before he answered. “They provide a manifest.”

“So what are in these boxes?” Talia said.

“Kitchen supplies,” Baxter answered with a straight face.

Misha walked over to the boxes and checked the top of one. He couldn’t open it, so he grabbed a drill and set it to reverse the screws out of the box tops. A few minutes later he had loosened the top and Jason helped him remove it. Inside were knock offs of high-end mixers.

Baxter smirked. “Told ya.”

“What were in the boxes you had in the warehouse downtown?” Misha asked.

“Don’t know. I mean…what warehouse?”

“Really?” Jason asked. “The warehouse where one of you shot me in the back alley. Were you protecting more kitchen supplies?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Baxter growled.

Talia moved toward the front with one of the tied-up demons. “Time to interrogate each of you, separately. Hope you all have your stories straight.”

“Wait!” Baxter called out. “We didn’t know what were in those boxes because we didn’t want to know.”

“Explain,” Jason said.

“We had someone approach us to move some merchandise. I was fine with doing that until they offered us a lot of money.”

“Huh?” Kyle mumbled.

Baxter looked at her. “When you’re dealing with transporting items, the higher the payoff, the more concerning the merchandise is.”

Jason’s stomach turned. “Are you talking about people?”

“That’s what I thought at first. I told them we didn’t deal in human or supe trafficking. The guy laughed when I said that. Told me moving people wasn’t part of the plan. When I tried to back out of things, he told me there was no saying no.

“We took the shipment to the warehouse in downtown Cleveland. The buyers were supposed to pick it up from there in their own vehicles. They must have showed up at the warehouse when you guys were there. They stole the box truck and left with everything.” He looked at Jason. “We didn’t shoot you.”

“Who were the buyers?” Jean Luc asked.

Baxter shook his head. “I never met any of them personally, and that was more than fine with me. They were all cloak-and-dagger, which freaked me out, but now I’m happy about it.

We couldn’t rat them out, and they wouldn’t come after us.

And since we didn’t mess with the boxes, they knew we hadn’t opened them up. I hope we never hear from them again.”

“Is that why you seemed relieved when we told you we were BSR?” Jason asked.

Baxter nodded. “Damn straight. If you had been those guys, I’m pretty sure we’d be dead right now.”

What a mess. “And you aren’t worried that they’ll reach out and try to get you to move things for them again?”

“I got the impression that they were putting other plans in place. Again, I didn’t ask any questions. And that’s why we are moving knock-off kitchen shit right now. We’d like to stay alive.”

“So you truly never looked in the boxes?” Talia said.

His eyes widened. “Hell no. We wanted to keep our heads.”

“Did you call our anonymous tip line in an attempt to have them arrested?” Jean Luc asked.

Baxter shook his head. “No. Again, we wanted to keep our heads.”

“You’re still under arrest for dealing in black market merchandise and probably other stolen items once we have checked the other boxes,” Misha said.

“And we are not done with the questioning,” Jean Luc added.

The team got to work, and Will arrived to help as well.

They had found the smugglers, but they weren’t the real threat.

Jason had a pretty strong feeling that drugs were not the only dangerous items that had been in those boxes.

And if Baxter and his gang hadn’t called the tip line, who had?

Their job was only half done. But the team would track them down eventually. They never gave up.

And he was damn proud to be a part of them.