Pete drove the truck around the main house, back behind the shrubbery that hid the large propane tank. He’d been there hundreds of time. No one ever paid any attention to him anymore. Still, even though he was certain his niece had been taken here, somewhere on the property, he’d never dared to look around. The men all were armed and they thought nothing of killing.

Like most people who had to deal with Rafe Cordeau and his men, Pete kept a low profile. But he heard things. He certainly had heard of Elijah Lospostos. There was nothing low profile about him. He was a devil. Worse than the likes of Rafe Cordeau it was said. His name was whispered by Cordeau’s men and they looked at one another uneasily when they said it. Since Rafe’s disappearance, the name came up much more often. Everyone knew a war was coming. Everyone including Pete, so he had tried, like his neighbors, to stay under the radar.

He was shocked when Elijah Lospostos’s men approached him. They were civil. Respectful. They didn’t threaten. They didn’t treat him like he needed to bow down before them. They had a plan and they laid it out. They needed a ride onto the property. They would use one of the propane tanks to get in. They’d construct a place in the belly of the tank to hide their men. He’d drive in, fill the tank as usual and drive away. Seeing nothing. Saying nothing. In return they would pay him very well and find out what happened to his niece. They would also avenge her. Nothing could be traced back to him.

Pete liked them. More, he liked their plan. It was a good one. He wouldn’t know that the gas smell would mask their scents from the shifter guard. He liked the idea of the Trojan horse, driving right onto their property, under the nose of Danny the guard.

Pete’s older rig, one he rarely used anymore, had been completely reconstructed inside. There was space—although cramped quarters—for five or six men and their equipment as well as a smaller tank that he could use to actually pump the gas into Gaton’s propane tank. He liked being part of taking Gaton and his men down. It hadn’t taken much convincing to put him squarely in Lospostos’s camp.