Salt Kiss novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Yard

The Heyward container yard at midnight was a canyon of stacked steel boxes, red and blue and rust, under floodlights that bleached everything white.

Skye walked into it alone.

She wore her black dress and flat boots, the ledger in both arms, her braid hanging down her back.

Her footsteps rang off the cranes.

Fifty yards behind her, in the shadow of a container, Ford and Nolan moved in step.

They had left their jackets in the truck.

"She said she'd take the front," Nolan whispered.

"She said she'd go alone."

"She is alone.

"We're just not far."

At the end of the aisle stood a ring of men.

Twelve of them, in dark coats, with their breath smoking.

In front stood Cliff Brantley, in a navy blazer and gold buttons, with a tablet in one hand and a smile.

Dutch Sumner leaned on a forklift beside him, one eye swollen shut.

"Miss Pickett," said Cliff.

"Thank you for coming."

"Mr. Brantley."

"The book, please."

"Show me the stream."

He turned the tablet.

A white screen, a countdown clock, and below it a chat window with two hundred names already waiting.

"Four minutes," said Cliff.

"After which a very large number of people will know precisely where their respectable neighbors spend their Tuesdays."

Skye set the ledger on a pallet.

"Stop the clock."

"Hand it over first."

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