brutal

Chapter 23

VERENA

The sun was shining at its highest point when we arrived at the warehouse. Thankfully, Roman and Seth had come to the house in separate cars which was why I was able to avoid Kai in the entire trip and stayed with just Yuna and Roman for the twenty minutes it took us to get there.

Kai had only given me a passing glance when I got out of the vehicle. He conversed with everyone in our team, with me being the only exception, of course. He acted as if I was the plague itself and pretended I didn't even exist.

Now we stood before a large shipping container in the middle of the packed warehouse. It was full of weapons, gadgets I'd never seen before, and stacks and stacks of records. I didn't know why I expected it to be a drug den, but it was a thought I let linger while looking around.

"When did it arrive?" Kai asked sternly as he perused the container.

The woman straightened and held close to her the wooden clipboard she had in her arms. "W-well it arrived at around four or five in the morning. We were too busy with the arrival of the new shipments that we didn't realize that someone had left the container in front of the warehouse."

"Who was on duty?" he queried without looking at her.

She licked her lips and puffed out her chest, the buttons of her shirt straining to keep together. It was as if she shopped at the children's section at Walmart and and went to work wearing just that.

It was enough to make me look down at my own chest and scoff when I realized how much I lacked compared to her in that department.

"Lawrence Rue. She's currently at her office collecting whatever she could find on the recordings. She'll be out in a while," the woman said with a smile.

Kai finally set his overwhelming gaze on her, his stance completely bored and relaxed.

"She'll be out in a while?" he repeated her words in verbatim, only more drawled out and laced with authority.

The girl swallowed audibly and looked down, frowning and turning away from him. She fidgeted with the edge of the paper attached to her clipboard and hid her shaking hands with the object. "I- I'll call her, s-sir."

We watched the woman skuttle away to a door at the far left side of the room. The sound of her leave reverberated through the cavernous warehouse, leaving us five with the large white container.

"You could be a bit more friendly, you know?" Yuna started as Roman examined the lock of the container.

"Are you seriously asking Kai to be friendly?" Seth remarked with his eyes glued to his phone.

I ignored them and walked to where Roman was pushing with all his strength on the lock. It turned completely after a few seconds, a click audible. He pulled back and gestured for me to go first with a grin. I rolled my eyes at him. A true gentleman to make me open the mystery container.

Without relenting, I grabbed the handle and pulled. Conversation stopped when the large door slowly opened with a heavy sound of creaking. I peaked my head inside when the door was slightly ajar but just wide enough for me to look. The only thing I saw was darkness and the only scent I smelled was something I couldn't discern, but I could tell it was disgusting and pungent.