“Negative,” he said softly. “Moving inside now.”
Looking around, Caleb saw that he’d been right about the second floor. It was filled with boxes and other crap that looked like it hadn’t been touched in a decade. He weaved his way through the mess, heading for the nearest railing so he could get a look at the lower level, praying all the dust up here wouldn’t give him a sneezing fit.
The first floor was much neater than the loft where he was currently hiding, though it was difficult to tell what kind of business they conducted in the place. All he could make out were several worktables loaded with four heavy-duty wooden boxes. Each of them was about forty inches long, maybe half that wide and deep. You could definitely get a B61 warhead in a box that size, particularly if you stripped the nuclear package out of the bomb. He had to admit he was a little disappointed by the lack of Warning—Nuclear Warhead on Board stickers on the box. But he guessed that might be expecting too much.
“I have eyes on the targets,” Caleb murmured softly into the radio. “Surinda Lestari is down there with the other men from the restaurant, including the Sri Lankan revolutionaries. There are another eight to ten men scattered around the perimeter of the warehouse that look like muscle for both sides of the deal.”
“What about the weapons?” Jake asked.
“There are four wooden crates on the tables in the center of the warehouse,” Caleb answered. “The size is right for the nukes, but no way to know for sure.”
“I’m not picking up any radiation signatures yet,” Misty said.
Caleb snorted. Only Misty would think to bring radiation detection equipment on a raid.
“We’re close enough to hear them talking,” Brielle said softly, and Caleb felt his gums tingle at the knowledge that she was inside the warehouse with all these armed men. “They’re discussing the final payment being ready to transfer once they’ve inspected the weapons.”
Down below, Lestari stepped closer to one of the boxes and popped the latches as the other men gathered around. A second later, Lestari flipped open the lid.
The moment Caleb got his first look at the weapon inside, he realized something was wrong. He wasn’t exactly sure what a B61 warhead looked like because he hadn’t paid all that much attention during the tech briefs, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t this. The things in the box Lestari had just opened were barely six inches in diameter and pointy at one end, painted dark gray with two green stripes around the middle.
“Guys, I think we have a problem,” Caleb said.
But before he could explain that the weapons Lestari was selling weren’t the stolen nukes, Forrest’s urgent voice came over the radio, interrupting him.
“Yeah, a big problem,” Forrest said. “Four heavily armed men just slipped through the back door and are heading for the exchange. I think they’re planning to make a move on Lestari and the others.”
The words were barely out of Forrest’s mouth when the four men in question stepped into the dim glow that filled the center of the warehouse, shouting instructions in what sounded like at least half a dozen different languages. English was the only one he understood.
“Drop your weapons and get on the floor!” one of the party crashers shouted, swinging a submachine gun to cover Lestari and the Sri Lankans.
Caleb barely had a second to wonder if Lestari and his people were going to comply before bedlam broke out as everyone on the first floor started shooting at once. As the first of the four newcomers hit the ground, Caleb decided that, nope, that had definitely not been a good idea. It wasn’t until he heard shooting outside that he realized their whole plan had gone sideways.
He was more than ready to let the various players in this clusterfuck bleed each other dry before intervening. But then a three-round burst of automatic gunfire slammed into one of the weapon crates on the table. Okay, maybe letting these idiots wipe each other out might not be such a good idea.
Jake must have thought the same thing because he and Jes popped out of the shadows and began taking down the goons who’d arrived with Lestari. That would have been cool if Brielle hadn’t popped out with them, still wearing that sexy dress and holding a damn weapon. She obviously meant to help but had completely missed the fact that she’d put herself squarely in between the two groups of combatants.
Brielle was in danger.
Caleb didn’t pause to think—not that he ever did—but jumped to his feet and launched himself over the railing, cutting loose a wall-shaking roar as he dropped down into the anarchy below.
He ended up landing directly atop Surinda Lestari. There was a grunt, the sound of crunching as a few bones broke, then Caleb was up and moving toward the next threat. He didn’t lose control this time—not completely, anyway. But that was only because he’d put himself between Brielle and everyone with a gun.
The sounds of gunfire faded away as the third man went down under his swinging claws and fists, and Caleb thought the fighting was over. But then, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw someone point a weapon in Brielle’s direction.
He definitely did lose it then.
Letting out a growl, he ran across the room toward the tall, dark-haired man he’d seen yelling at everyone to drop their weapons and get on the floor earlier. Eyes going wide, the guy swung his weapon away from Brielle and aimed it at Caleb instead.
Bullets tore through his shoulder—bullets that would have hit Brielle if he hadn’t gotten in the asshole’s face. Snarling, he grabbed the guy by the front of his shirt and slung him aside, bouncing him off a column. Then he strode toward the guy, determined to finish him.
“Caleb, no!” Jes shouted from somewhere that seemed extremely far away. “Don’t kill him!”
He ignored his teammate, continuing toward his prey. But before he could reach his target, Jes jumped in front of him, putting her body between him and the man he intended to kill.
“I said you can’t kill him,” she said, actually having the nerve to put her hands on his chest and shoving at him in a feeble attempt to stop him. “Caleb, he’s one of us. Stop, dammit!”
The message still wasn’t making it through the fog of anger surrounding him or the omega hell-bent on destruction, and likely wouldn’t have, until he felt a sharp sting across his face, only to realize that Jes had smacked him. Well, it wasn’t the first time she had to do it to get his omega to back down.
“Snap out of it!” she said, looking up at him with an expression that made it obvious she wasn’t gonna move out of his way until he showed her that he was back in control of his inner wolf and in a communicative mood.
Caleb took a deep breath, the act working his shoulders, the sting in the left one reminding him that the man in question had shot him. Despite that, he let his fangs and claws retract.