I hid a smile as Suit's jaw dropped down when I opened my arsenal that was behind my stove. He let out a low whistle of appreciation. It was very well stocked. I pulled out two bullet proof vests handing one to Suit then picked up a third for Tank. I secured it on him the best I could since it was made for a human not a dog.
"Looking good, Tank." I said, scratching behind his ears. I looked at Suit as he was securing his vest. Looking good, Suit. Looking good. I pulled my vest on then pulled out a couple of leg holsters, fitting two more glocks in them. Then I reached for my AR 15 tactical rifle, checked it, slinging the strap over my head and one shoulder so that it was resting in front on my right side. I then pulled out a belt fitting it around my lower waist and loaded it with six Browning 122BL throwing knives. I picked up another 3-set and held them out to Suit silently questioning if he wanted them or not.
"I'm already loaded up? Why the Browning?" He asked.
"Made in the USA." I replied.
"A Glock is Austrailian." He pointed out. I shrugged.
"It is a guideline really." I pulled a line from Pirates of the Carribean to reply.
He grunted and continued loading up. He looked a lot like me but instead of the leg holsters and Glocks he chose an ankle holster with a Ruger 1911 Commander and extra clips for his Sig Sauer. Also, his AR was situated so he could access it with his left hand. He asked the cabinet, "You gonna be okay if I take German in with me?" indicating the Sig. I grinned at the counter as I loaded my belt with clips. "Your choice but I am not dragging your butt out of there if it fails you." I said. I would totally drag his butt out of there. I made sure to resupply my zip ties and then asked, "You good?"
He placed a few more clips in his belt and nodded. I grabbed the rope and closed the secret arsenal. I slid back into place and looked once again like an ordinary mediocre stove.
I looked at him as we made our way to the stairs that would lead up to the roof.
"Are you a SouthPaw?" I asked.
"I was not a pitcher nor do I box." Was his very non-informative answer. I rolled my eyes. "You really don't like giving straight answers do you?" I mumbled as we approached the roof. I had a whole set up on the roof. There was outdoor furniture that was more expensive than my living area furniture. I had a firepit and lights strung up around. There was a low cabinet with a refrigerator on the wall that ran along the alley we were just in earlier. Who wants to have to trek down to the kitchen every time you want a fresh drink? Not me. The coolest thing I had up here was the television. It was set up in what looked like a coffee table. With the push of a button on the side, the monitor rose up and locked into place allowing for comfortable viewing from the comfortable outdoor couch within arms reach of the refrigerator. All hidden from the view of anyone not on an adjoining roof by the plethora of plants set up three sides to block any voyeurs. I have an automatic watering system so I don't have to remember to water them. If their life depended on me remembering to water them, they would have died a thousand times over by now.
We made our way to the back of the roof that was adjacent to the warehouse roof. There was a narrow alleyway between with the warehouse roof being slightly lower than mine. Perfect for jumping if you are crazy. I smiled. The problem would be to land softly enough to not alarm the Goons or the Boss. I crouched down below the lip and pulled out my infrared goggles.
"I count twelve in the warehouse below. Three in the office area, one probably at the screen, two in the Boss's office and two in the cages." I said after a moment and handed Suit the goggles.
He confirmed.
I touched his arm to get him to look at me. "I know we are armed for a war but I really don't want to kill them. Incapacitate and restrain." I stated then added, "if possible. The main goal is to get Leslie." He just nodded.
I looked at the gap, then glanced across my roof to see how far back I needed to go to get a good running start then back at the gap all the while biting my lip.
"We could just scale the wall." He pointed out.
"Good idea." I agreed. Today is Valentine's day after all and trying to jump across an alley to the neighboring roof just seems like too easy an invitation for the curse to take advantage of.
As we crested the lip on the warehouse roof. We dropped the ropes to the ground. We may or may not recover them. The skylight was at one time designed to come open but was so rusted I was afraid it would make a terrible noise or not open at all. I was contemplating how to deal with this when I heard a spraying noise. I looked over to see Suit had a small can of WD-40.
"Were you a boy scout?" I asked. He just smirked and kept spraying. I turned the handle and very slowly pried the skylight up pausing every time it made a noise until it was open enough to slip through. Suit touched my arm to get my attention then pointed to himself and held up one finger then held his palm towards me in a stop or wait motion and put his hand to his face with his thumb and pinky out. I pulled out my phone and texted him.
Me: text me when you want me to follow.
Suit's phone pinged. I scowled. He scowled. I checked my phone to make sure it was on vibrate as he adjusted his.
Suit slipped through the light opening and balanced on the shelf closest to him. It was not a straight jump down. He had to use quite a bit of upper body strength to angle his feet and then twist his torso to grab the shelf and laid himself flat. He army crawled his way to the camera that was aimed down the first aisle. I watched him fiddle with it occasionally glancing to see if any of the Goons had noticed him or me. They were mainly walking up and down the aisles looking right in front of them with expressions that belied the excitement of their current job. There was one goon per aisle. That accounts for four of the twelve. I glanced around to find the others. Four of them were seated at a card table in front of the cages playing some card game. Where are the other four?
My pocket buzzed. I pulled out my phone:
Suit: go
I maneuvered in the window just like I saw Suit do. However, I know that I don't have the upper body straight of a linebacker so I swung thinking to use my momentum to land on the shelf. I overestimated the amount of momentum and slid right on over the edge.I turned as I was falling down the other side and grabbed the shelf stopping my doward movement curling my torso so my legs swung back under the shelf and landed on the second shelf with a thud knocking the breath out of me. Ow. Definitely too many men here. I have been outrunning the Valentine's day curse all day and now it has caught up with me. I felt my pocket buzz. Instead of looking at my phone I just held up my thumb to indicate I was okay.
I lifted up on my elbow and looked down to see Suit setting a goon down gently from a choke hold. I scampered down and zip tied his hands around his neck and duct tape his mouth. We did not need one of them to sound a warning if they happened to wake up before we got Leslie free. We silently moved to the end of the aisle and Suit held up one finger and pointed to me and two fingers and pointed to himself. I shook my head and pointed one finger at him and two at me. He scowled but nodded. I dashed over to the next shelf before the goon turned to see me. With my back to the shelves, I leaned my upper body over to look down the aisle. The goon had his back to me standing with his head down. Aw. Is he texting his chic? How sweet. I took advantage of the spread leg stance, running toward him and sliding between his legs punching up as I slid past. He dropped his phone and bent over. I twisted on my stomach and launched myself up bringing my fist up under his chin and knocking his head back. He stumbled back going down hard. I quickly zip tied his hands to the shelving unit. Securing his mouth with duct tape. I was just standing up when I saw Suit at the end of the aisle. He indicated he would get the next aisle. I saw the goon's phone and picked it up reading the last text.
Not the best life choice to make. I will never be able to unread that message. I curled my nose in disgust and put the phone on silent and threw it toward the goon. Suit appeared next to me as I turned to go to the back and use the shelves as cover for our approach to the card players. From the end of the last aisle that was next to the open area, I popped my head around to survey the scene. The four playing cards were still at it oblivious to anything going on around them. I looked up at the office area and found two of the missing four outside the office area. The Boss was still in a conversation with someone and the person at the computer screens had yet to notice anything amiss. I wonder what Suit did to the camera.
I pulled my head back around and whispered. "What next?"
"Duck." He said as his fist came at my face. I ducked, I heard the crunch of a nose being broken. I twisted around to get out from between them, putting my leg slanted behind the goon so that he fell over my legs with the added momentum from Suit's punch. He went down hard. I lifted my foot and kicked his head, knocking him out. We both quickly pulled him behind the shelf and zip tied him to it. I guess that answers where one of the missing goons went.
An idea struck me. I pulled out my phone and texted.
Me: stay here for a moment then follow my lead.
I looked at him for confirmation. He nodded. I crouch-ran to hide under the stairs. There was a space between the stairs and the cages. The first cage held the man we saw in the trunk earlier tied to a chair in the middle of the cage. His head hung down and he appeared to be unconscious.. He looked like he had not cooperated well with the questioning. The second cage held Leslie looking a little worn but not too roughed up. She must have cooperated. She was sitting on a cot criss-cross applesauce style reading. Reading? I stared at her trying to get her attention, willing her to look at me. She finally glanced up. I put my finger to my lips for her to be quiet. She gave a slight nod and put her head back down but her eyes were still looking at the goons. I took a deep breath then sauntered out towards the goons playing cards I got all the way to within a foot of their table before I said, "Hello boys." In my flirtiest voice. They all started to go for their guns. I said, "uh, uh, uh." as I pulled my AR 15 around to aim it at the table in general. "Put your hands on the table please and let's keep this between us okay." I said.
They all complied. I nodded toward Suit who crouch-ran to the area and pulled out zip ties and made quick work of securing them and duct taping their mouths for good measure. I snagged the keys from the belt of one of the guys and unlocked the cage holding Leslie. "Come on Leslie, we are getting out of here." I said.
"Wait." she protested. "We can't just leave him." she said, indicating the man.
"Why not? I didn't come for him, I came for you. Let's go." I tugged her forward.
"He's my husband." she said. You have got to be kidding me. I looked at him then at her then back at him.
"You actually want him to come with us?" I asked emphasizing the word want.
"Yes. It is not what you think." I looked at Suit. He shrugged.
"Fine." I opened the cage with the man and freed him. He was still out cold so I heaved him over my shoulder in a fireman's hold and walked quickly toward the door that opened into my alley.
"Mind getting the door?" I asked Suit. He jogged ahead of me with Leslie right behind him. He did something to the alarm and we slipped out the door. As soon as the door closed we ran down the alley to the Rover.
"Wait!" I yelled opening the back seat door. I whistled and Tank came running around the corner and jumped in the back seat next to Leslie.I kept expecting the goons to burst out of the door and come after us but we drove off with no one the wiser except of course the four card playing goons. Maybe my Valentine's day curse was wearing off. Maybe not, even though we both had masks on I am pretty sure it would not take all three guesses for the Boss to know it was me.