An alarm sounded across the hall, and he almost fell from his chair as he startled. His first appointment would be arriving in five minutes and he needed to unlock the front door.
Taking two steps at a time, Cliff used the interior stairs taking him to the storage area of his shop.
On the way to the front door, he took a glance at the calendar, remembering that his part-time receptionist would start next week along with a second tattoo artist. Their background checks came back clean and neither had any outstanding red flags on the other tests he liked to run.
Cliff used to be able to run the shop by himself, but the last two summer and fall seasons had him turning people away. Not something Cliff wanted to repeat this year. He felt lucky to find two people wanting to move to the small town of Carson. Though he made sure to warn them that once you step inside the town, they may find it hard to leave.
Moving to the door, he flipped the lock and turned on the neon sign signifying that the shop was open.
Back at his booth, Cliff set up the ink and gun he’d need for the appointment then grabbed his camera out of the bag that sat in the corner of his booth. He hadn’t taken many pictures recently, his time spread thin between the shop and renovating his new house. Cliff felt a pang in his chest as the weight of the camera settled in his hand. Photography had a way of relaxing him, making him feel as if he was one with whatever it was he was capturing on display.
Flipping the small LCD screen toward him, he pressed the button that allowed him to scroll through the images. Just as it landed on a picture of a woman’s back, the chime above his door sounded, alerting him to his customer.
Stepping out of the booth, he marched toward the small waiting area and greeted the older man.
“Good afternoon, what can I do for you today?” Cliff asked as he shook the man’s hand.
Together they moved toward the booth as Cliff listened to the man describe the dragon he wanted along his forearm. Immediately he sought out his portfolio for a design he had drawn last week, and the man only asked for a small change.
It didn’t take Cliff long to print it on the transfer paper and line it up how the man wanted. The motions were automatic as he drew the ink onto the needle and swiped it slowly across the man’s skin, wiping every so often with a paper towel to see the progression.
He got lost in the movement, in the flow, as he permanently etched the design on the man. Normally it would have been enough to keep his focus far away from Alexis and her whereabouts, but he had a sinking suspicion that even the mundaneness of his day wasn’t going to keep his desires at bay.
No matter how hard he wished them away.
***
Her breath was steady as she crept along the side of the deserted building. Except, she and her team knew what was lurking beneath the floorboards. Alexis and her team had been working for over a year to infiltrate and gather enough evidence to take down this drug ring.
That was all the mission called for at first, but their recent intel discovered the groundwork for an undercover sex ring.
There was not a single thing that fired Alexis up more than sex trafficking. When she heard the news, she had been ready to rush the entire process with guns blazing. She was so keyed up that her boss required her to take two weeks of personal leave to get her head on straight. Alexis didn’t understand at the time. She didn’t understand how the men on her team could sit back and continue to let this happen, even though she knew they didn’t have enough evidence. All she could see in that angered haze of red were people’s wives, sisters, mothers drugged and carried off to who-knew-where.
“What’s your position?” a voice asked in her ear. The small device sat snugly in her ear canal that Alexis almost forgot that she was wearing it.
“We’re on the south side of the building. Was the picture coming in clear?” she asked Heath of the small camera attached to her bulletproof vest.
Alexis and Heath had been assigned to the same missions since they were both recruited by the FBI. He was the closest thing she had to a brother and she loved him fiercely. She knew, without a doubt, that he would have her back, just as she would have his.
And tonight, she needed his eyes and ears. There was no moonlight guiding them, just a few night-vision goggles and the keen eye of Heath through the camera. The team she was working with were talented, but it was the first time the eight of them had been placed together. These kinds of missions were always difficult, but when you were working with new people, it was hard to gauge if they would have your back. And from Alexis’ standpoint – they didn’t.
Their director had explained the plan to them before they left the New Mexico office. Charlie and Ted were to enter the bunker first, followed by Alexis and the rest of the team. But when they arrived on the scene, Charlie (who had announced himself the mission’s leader) rearranged the lineup.
Which was why Alexis now stood in front of the group, peering her head around the corner to make sure it was clear before they breached the Eastern entrance.
“All clear,” the crackling voice of Heath sounds in her ear.
With a flick of her wrist, Alexis motioned for the men to move around her and stand guard as she pressed her body against the wall slipping inside the door. She held her breath, listening for any movements as she raised her gun at eye level, poised and trained to take anything out that so much as took a step in her direction.
But as expected, the room was empty.
She and the team moved quickly toward the basement entrance. She had hoped that they could have found the outlet on the other side of the Mexican border to trap the cartel in place, but cooperation with multiple teams was futile.
Primed at the base of the stairs, Alexis leaned down slightly to check for clearance and found a barren hallway. The team followed her down the steps and through the narrow passageway. The walls were shrinking around them until
they could only pass through in a single line.
“Something’s not right,” Alexis whispered, knowing Heath was monitoring a surveillance drone they had hovering over the property.