AN HOUR before Blaze had determined the flight we were targeting was due to arrive, we were already staked out in the darkness around the private airfield. Blaze was still in the car we’d parked on a side road, out of view of the staff parking lot where a couple of small vehicles stood off in the corner under the beams of the sole security lamp. The rest of us had concealed ourselves around the perimeter, weapons ready, senses on the alert.
Like most private landing strips, this one didn’t have a whole lot of security, relying on its isolated location to ensure there’d be no witnesses. We’d easily scaled the chain-link fence that surrounded fields around the property, dispatching the one patrolling security guard with a few blows and a syringe full of a sedative. The people who handled the “merchandise” obviously knew what they were a part of, but we had no idea how complicit that man was.
That would be for the police to investigate once we got everything ready for them to storm the place.
One of the two cars in the staff lot must have belonged to him. The other I assumed belonged to the guy who’d been stationed in the airfield’s one building, a little cabin near one end of the rectangular runway. Talon had made short work of him and was now lurking in the cabin along with Garrison.
So far there’d been no sign of anyone waiting to pick up the shipment. I knew better than to question Blaze’s information, though. In a situation like this, no doubt the people involved would want to linger here for as little time as possible.
It was nearly midnight now, the sky totally black above us other than a speckling of stars. The only substantial light for miles around was the security lamp by the lot. A line of glinting markers outlined the runway, but their glow only reached about a foot around them, barely penetrating the shadows on the ground.
The night had brought a cool edge to the breeze, but if anything I felt overwarm inside my black long-sleeved tee and leggings. My heart was thumping faster than usual, my nerves buzzing. I had the weird sense that I was somehow both here on the ground and up there in that plane, captured and bound and awaiting my terrible fate.
This was the first job I’d ever taken on that involved women like me. Women the Blood Hunter had stolen and used for his own ends. It could have been me, if he’d decided to take a very different sort of revenge on the Maliks.
And by freeing the women who’d arrive here tonight, I might be taking a significant step toward fully freeing myself from the Blood Hunter’s control. It seemed fitting.
I just hoped we were getting to the girls before he damaged them beyond repair.
Julius stepped closer to me where we were poised by a shed at the opposite end of the parking lot. He had his treasured Beretta in his hand, finger off the trigger but ready for action.
“How are you doing?” he asked quietly, his low voice perfectly clear in the night’s stillness.
My pulse hitched just for a second as the thought of the girl I could have been washed over me again. I swallowed thickly, willing my mind calm and focused the way Noelle had taught me.
How awful was it that I still relied on her lessons even after I knew how horribly she’d manipulated me, molding me into her little killer? Into the Blood Hunter’s little killer. But they hadn’t been bad lessons in terms of survival and doing the job that now felt like a part of me regardless of how I’d come to it.
“This mission is hitting me a little harder than they usually do,” I admitted. “I’ll be better when all the victims are safe.”
Julius nodded. “That makes two of us. And you know, it’s okay to be affected by the things we encounter. Some of the crimes we find out about are horrifying. I don’t want to ever stop recognizing that.”
“Yeah,” I said, not knowing what else to add, but his words sent a deeper calm through my nerves.
Of course it was okay for me to be angry. Okay for me to be sickened by the man who’d shaped so much of my life. I’d let those emotions fuel me rather than distract me.
Blaze’s voice carried through our headsets. “There’s a small transport truck heading this way—looks like military issue. I can’t one hundred percent confirm that its destination is the airfield, but there isn’t much else out here. Get ready. If it continues this way, it should reach us in about five minutes.”
My muscles coiled, prepared for action. I tapped the knives strapped to my waist and thighs and adjusted my grip on the pistol I was holding. Talon slipped out of the cabin, Garrison remaining behind in case he needed to intercept communications from the Blood Hunter’s people on the ground or in the air.
We heard the rumble of the truck’s engine before we saw it. It pulled into the lot and drove to where it’d be closest to the end of the runway, making a three-point turn so it backed into the spot just ten feet from the shed where Julius and I waited.
A couple of men got out of the cab and two more hopped out of the cargo area after raising the back door. They gathered together by the back of the van, exchanging some remarks that had them all chuckling. I heard one say something about the “pretty pieces of ass,” and my hackles rose.
Oh, this bunch knew exactly what they were doing here. And soon they’d regret it.
Julius spoke into his headset under his breath. “It’s a small group, but we want them all down at the same time so there’s no one to sound the alarm to the people on the plane. Talon, can you get in a shot or two from where you are without them seeing you get in position?”
“Roger,” Talon replied, his voice sounding distant in my ear. “I’ve got one of them in my sights right now and I can get another right after.”
“Perfect. You take the ones on the south side, and Dess and I will handle the north.” Julius glanced at me, and I nodded. “On my command. Three, two, one—now.”
We sprang around the side of the shed, guns already raised, keeping ourselves angled slightly to the side of the truck so that we wouldn’t end up in Talon’s line of fire or him in ours. The men were only just starting to turn at the sound of our footsteps when shots rang out through the night.
The Chaos Crew could be neat when they weren’t purposefully maximizing the gore on a client’s request. Julius took down his target with a single bullet to the temple while I caught mine in the back of the head. Talon’s gun boomed twice, the other two men crumpling with similar head wounds. Just like that, we’d cleared the slate.
“Get their phones and any other electronic devices they have on them,” Blaze said over the headset with evident glee. “I’ll have lots of data mining to do tonight!”
“And we’re looking forward to hearing the results of it,” Julius said dryly.
Talon hustled over, and together the three of us heaved the bodies into the back of the truck where they wouldn’t be visible to any incoming vehicles, including the soon-expected plane. Then we patted the men down, pulling phones out of pockets and a small tablet out of one guy’s vest. Blaze would have a field day with this.
We were just clambering back out with the devices in a bag when one of the phones started to ring. I froze up, but Julius immediately jerked his arm toward the cabin.
Garrison sprinted over, holding out his hand for the phone. Working with the people we couldn’t kill yet was his specialty, after all. I fished the phone out and thrust it into his fingers. He yanked it to his ear, managing to smooth the slight rasp of the exertion out of his voice with impressive control.
“What?” he said, putting on a gruff tone that barely sounded like him at all. Even his stance changed to mimic the new tough-guy persona he was putting on for this performance. He paused and then let out a huff. “That’s five minutes later than expected. What’s the hold up?”
I raised my eyebrows at Julius, wondering if we should really be hassling the people we were waiting for, but apparently it fit a strategy our commander agreed with. He shot me a flash of a smile.
“Fine, fine,” Garrison grumbled. “Yes, it’s all clear down here. You’re good to land. Just try not to dawdle anymore. We’ve got places to be.”
He hung up, his aggressive façade falling away with the gesture, and grinned at us. “No problem. They’ll be here in ten minutes.”
Julius motioned to the cabin. “Why don’t you take the rest of the phones in there so you’ve got access to all the communications equipment at once. We don’t want to be caught in the lurch if anyone else checks in.”
Garrison gave him a jaunty salute and then glanced at me with a wicked gleam in his eyes. Without warning, he swooped in and gave me a quick but firm kiss. Then he was jogging back to the cabin. I could feel his smirk even with his back to me, but I couldn’t say the gesture hadn’t sent a flare of heat through me that’d melted even more of my uneasiness.
We were halfway through the job. The Blood Hunter had obviously been running this operation for so long without interference that it hadn’t occurred to his employees that anything could go quite this wrong. But we didn’t know exactly what to expect from the plane’s passengers or crew.
“We’re going to need to approach the plane with more caution,” Julius said as if his thoughts had headed in a similar direction. “We don’t want to harm any of the girls while we’re dealing with the men who are holding them, and they’ll probably come out in a group, making sure the captives are under control.”
“And we don’t know how many men there’ll be,” I said.
“We don’t.” He frowned, considering the situation. “I’ll get in position to shoot the pilot and anyone else in the front. Talon, you and Dess switch to blades. Let them start walking the women out, and when you have eyes on all of the targets and know you can reach them, dive in there. Cut them off from the vehicle and take them down as quickly as you can. I’ll get in as many shots as I’m able to safely.”
His gaze slid to me. “They might try to take one of the girls as a hostage if we can’t get to all of the men fast enough. Are you good to maneuver in a situation like that?”
Would I be able to act with a clear enough head to land a killing strike even when a woman’s life was on the line in front of me, he meant. I nodded with a jerk of my head. “It’d be my pleasure to show anyone who tries it that they can’t get away with using their victims as human shields.” I knew every vulnerable spot on the human body, and no person could cover all of them.
“Good.” He spoke into the headset again. “Blaze, as soon as you see that the plane’s arriving, I want you over here by the truck. We need them to see someone waiting for them so they don’t get suspicious as they’re disembarking.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Blaze said. “That means I’m on my way right now. There’s a small cargo plane just getting in position to come in for a landing.”
Julius motioned to me and Talon. We darted across the runway to the swath of grass in the middle of its rectangular formation and flattened ourselves in a dip approximately where the back of the plane should end up. Julius ducked back into the thicker shadows behind the shed.
The roar of the plane’s engine reached my ears. I spotted its light like a shooting star against the darkened sky, growing as the plane descended. Bracing myself, I tucked away my pistol and pulled out a knife in each hand. Talon already brandished his usual curved blade.
“We’ve got this,” he said abruptly. “They’re all going to fall, and we won’t let one hair on those girls’ heads get hurt.”
“Right,” I said, a twinge of affection filling my heart. Talon wasn’t much for emotions, but he could obviously tell I had a lot of feelings about this situation. It meant a lot that he wanted to reassure me.
The plane soared out of the sky. Its wheels thumped against the asphalt with a couple of bumps before it totally connected with the runway. There was a whirring sound as the pilot hit the brakes. Just before the vehicle blocked off our view of the parking lot, I saw Blaze standing in position next to the back of the truck.
Talon and I stayed low as the plane rasped to a halt. “The hatch where they’ll come out is on the other side,” he murmured to me as our eyes focused on the vehicle in the dim light. “We’ve got to move.”
As we scuttled across the grass and then dashed to the side of the plane, using it for cover, the hatch opened with a creak. We slipped around the tail in time to see three men ushering out a stream of girls and women ranging in age from preteen to twenty-something. The captives’ wrists were bound, their mouths gagged. Their postures were slumped and defeated. Several were trembling.
Another man followed in the middle of the pack. We couldn’t be sure that was all of them, though. Chances were that at least one would be bringing up the rear.
With my heart thumping louder than their footsteps, I held myself still until two men emerged with no more women behind them. As one reached to close the hatch, Talon and I sprang forward as one being.
Julius fired at the same time, the cracking of glass telling us that he’d hit his mark at the front of the plane. I launched myself at the man by the hatch, slamming one knife into his neck and shoving the doorway the rest of the way closed with my shoulder. We didn’t want them having any avenues for escape.
Talon had already ripped his knife through one of the other guards’ chests. I flung a smaller blade at a man who charged at me, and it sank straight into his heart. He keeled over.
The women were pressing close together, frightened sounds seeping past their gags. When another shot split the night, a couple of them jerked with shock. One of the remaining guards lunged at a girl who couldn’t have been more than twelve, and I hurled myself forward. He’d barely gotten his hand around her neck before I was stabbing my blade into the side of his. His arms went limp, releasing her.
I pushed her out of the way as gently as I could and whipped toward the last of the guards still standing. Talon got there first. He plunged his blade into the man’s gut and heaved it upward, carving right through the center of his torso. With a gurgled groan, the man collapsed.
Julius loped over to join us, scanning the runway and the girls huddled together on it. They looked as terrified of us as they had of their captors. My heart sank. I quickly sheathed my knives.
“You’re safe now,” I said, letting my voice ring out for the first time since we’d arrived here. “You’ll never have to deal with men like this again. We’re going to get you help. Get you home, if that’s where you want to go. Okay?”
I got cautious nods in response. The first woman I reached for still flinched when my hands grazed her face, but when I untied her gag, she sighed, her shoulders sagging in relief. As Talon, Julius, and Blaze helped me free the others, Garrison came into the cabin doorway.
“Let me know when I should make the calls.”
As much as I hated the thought of leaving these women alone in the dark, we couldn’t take them with us. They’d be in far more danger hanging out with the Chaos Crew than with the proper authorities looking after them and figuring out where they belonged and what could be done for them. I glanced at Julius, who checked the time on his phone.
“Contact the cops now,” he said. “The local police, the FBI, the CIA, and the DC task force for trafficking victims, as discussed.” The more separate departments we had involved, the less chance there was that anyone could manipulate the investigation or the victims into disappearing.
He turned back to the women. “We have to go, but we’ll be keeping an eye on things from a distance. The people who come for you next will want to help you too. We won’t let anyone else who’d use you get to you.”
“Here.” Blaze had brought out the sack of water bottles and prepackaged sandwiches we’d stashed in the car, not knowing how long it’d have been since the trafficked women had gotten anything to eat or drink. They ended up sitting in a cluster on the pavement, gulping water and tearing into the cellophane packages, their stances starting to relax just a little.
Garrison signaled that he’d made the calls. We hurried back to our car, a pang shooting through me at leaving the women behind. But we were still watching over them. We drove a short distance along the lane and then parked there with our lights off, Blaze scanning the radio frequencies and whatever video footage he could access, the rest of us watching the main road to the airfield.
When the first vehicles to arrive were cop cars with lights flashing, I exhaled in a rush. “Everything sounds legit,” Blaze reported.
The Blood Hunter hadn’t found out that we’d meddled with his operations in time to launch a counterattack. The women were in the hands of the proper authorities now. We’d done everything we could for them.
But we were far from done with the Blood Hunter… and as soon as he found out about this, I had no doubt that he’d be gunning for us even harder.
