Broken glass crunched under my feet as fear shivered own my spine. Even with Geri and Freki, my Right and Left Claws, on lookout outside the warehouse, I felt exposed. The boss had worked over Pearl for hours until she gave up her brother’s hiding place. With a few guys, I was tasked with grabbing our missing man Percy. The streets had to know kingpin Lupine would not tolerate snitches. Tala, the boss’ mate, insisted on coming to the warehouse for the retrieval and she insisted the woman be bound and bought to the scene to encourage Percy to come out and play.

Littered with booze bottles and butts, Falada Warehouse was a shell of an old textile mill storehouse. The stale air smelt greasy. I put on my phone’s flashlight to cut the darkness. I saw nothing. According to my research, the old warehouse is under Percy’s mother maiden name and was used for excess stolen auto parts storage. Miles from nowhere this was a good hiding place. He had to be here and he had to be behind the recent attacks on Lupine Black’s nightclubs. Still something didn’t sit well in my gut.

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” Ashina joked in a Robert DeNiro accent.

Fang who laughs at anything laughed. I continued searching the trash strewn building for Percy. We’d nabbed Pearl a couple of weeks ago. We’d put the fear of God into their family and friends. We’d shook the tree and still no Percy. Dry-rotted canvas trolleys leaned in the darkness. Massive spools of once bright yarns were randomly stacked in the building. Ashina and Fang fanned out to search. Hand on hip and scrolling her phone, Tala looked beautifully bored.

“Wait, I found some burger wrappers over here. They seem fresh. Could we have missed him?” Fang asked.

“Wolfgang can’t go home without Percy. If that rat testifies we are all doing long time,” Tala answered. “Bring in the girl to draw him out.”

“No worries, if that dog can’t hunt, Mrs. Black, I will sniff out Percy Pigg and make him squeal,” Ashina said.

Fang laughed at Ashina’s snarky comment until he caught sight of my bared teeth. Quickly lowering his eyes, Fang snapped off his laughter and disappeared down a dark hallway. I called Geri to see if the twins had seen anything on the perimeter. Ringing, ringing then nothing. My heart stopped. Where are my Claws? I hurried over to the door. Through the door window I saw our vehicle in the dying light. Freki bloodied was slumped over the steering wheel and the trunk was opened. It was empty. Where was Geri? Who took Pearl? Why would she tell us to come to this remote location? I took my gun from its harness and watched the night. The darkness looked back.

“Fang, come back and check out these nasty magazines. We know what Percy was doing in here,” Ashina called out. “Fang? Fang?”

I wished I could go back. A faint scent of burning fabric teased my nose. I wished I had been an average, good man instead of what I had become. Tala and Ashina began to cough. I wished the darkness shrouding us could hide us from the hungry gazes of our predators. But I am a predator and I know better.