The air was cool and sharp as I stepped outside. I climbed into my car and tires crunched over gravel as I backed out of the driveway.
The docks were twenty minutes away. I drove with the windows down, the wind whipping through my hair as I tried to calm the storm in my chest. I wasn’t sure what I was about to walk into, but I knew one thing — I couldn’t sit at home and let this opportunity slip through the cracks.
The docks loomed ahead, cranes reaching toward the moon like giant metal fingers. The air smelled like diesel fuel and secrets. I parked my car up the road, in the shadows, far enough from the flickering streetlights that no one would notice it. My heart pounded in my chest, a steady drumbeat that echoed in my ears as I stepped out into the cold night air.
The unmarked contai
