****
Shades pulled his cell away from his face and looked over at Ghost who looked back at him with a ‘what-the-fuck’ expression on his face.
“Shades, what the hell are you doing? You just promised to deliver proof she didn’t do it! Proof we don’t have yet.”
“We’re going to get it.”
“Get it where?”
“Atlanta.”
“Atlanta?”
“Scene of the crime.”
“You have got to be shitting me.”
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
“Let’s go,” Shades said starting to rise from the dumpster they were crouched behind. Shades and Ghost had found the place that Skylar had told him about. Maple Hill Condominiums, unit 246. They’d scoped the place out. The first streaks of dawn were just breaking on the horizon, and there were no lights on in the place.
“Whoa, Captain America. What the hell’s the plan here?”
“We bust the door in and get it.”
“Okay, what’s plan B? There is a
plan B, right?”
“Ghost, the place is dark. Let’s go.”
“How about we scope it out first. Maybe I grab a red shirt and ball cap and pretend I’m delivering a pizza,” Ghost strategized, pulling an empty pizza box off the top of the dumpster. “At least see if anybody is in there. And if there are, how many we’re up against.”
‘Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
“Yeah, but I think my idea is the less likely to get us killed.”
“I don’t have time for that shit, Ghost. They’ve got Skylar. Right now she’s scared out of her mind. Locked up, tied up, fuck, who knows?”
“Okay, Brother. Calm down. Take a breath. We’re gonna get her back.”
“This has to work, Ghost, because failure isn’t something I can live with. I need to get her back. I just…I need her, Ghost.”
“Okay.”
Shades pulled his piece from the small of his back where it was shoved in his waist band. He pulled back the slide, loading a round in the chamber and took a breath. “Okay, Ghost. I’m gonna tell you the plan one more time, and you’d better be fucking on board with it.” Shades glared at him. “We’re goin’ in together, and we’re comin’ out together.”
Ghost blew out a breath, giving in to Shades’ insanity, knowing the man wasn’t going to quit until he had Skylar back. So, he did the only thing he could. He nodded, agreeing, “Good plan. I like it.”
They moved toward the back of the building and climbed the back exterior stairs to the second floor unit. They pressed their backs to either side of the door. Ghost bent down and peered into the darkened kitchen window and shook his head at Shades.
Shades tried the doorknob. It was locked. Ghost noticed the latch was not locked on the window. He dug his knife out and jimmied the screen off, setting it quietly on the porch. Shades glanced around, keeping lookout. Ghost slid the window up an inch and listened. There were no sounds coming from the inside. He pushed it the rest of the way up and threw his leg over, ducking inside. A moment later, he opened the back door for Shades.
The two men crept quietly to the hall and glanced around. The place was dark. Shades flicked on a tiny flashlight and headed down the hall locating the bedroom. Shades eyes moved to the bookcase on the wall opposite the bed. It didn’t look like anyone had messed with it. A line of books sat on the top shelf, the one on the end propped at a slight angle. He moved it, and there was the tiny camera.
“Got it, let’s go.”
They went out the way they came and got back to their bikes. They rode a couple of blocks and parked behind a church. Ghost pulled a laptop out of his saddlebag and booted it up. Shades pulled the SD card out of the camera and inserted it in the laptop. A few moments later they had video pulled up and were scrolling quickly through it.