I DIDN’T KNOW how we’d gone from a luxury home built into the side of a rocky hill to a garage in an abandoned house, but here we were, squatting in the dingy space like a group of drug addicts waiting for our next fix. Our efforts at undermining the Blood Hunter hadn’t given us the freedom to settle into proper accommodations yet. I wished I had some idea of what it would take.
But we had another mission ahead of us that might get us closer to the goal of taking him down for good. Blaze was working out the final details on his computer, and the other men were clustered around him in the far corner near the door to the rest of the house, going through our equipment. I’d brought a sandwich and a bottle of water over to Carter, who I’d set up on a blanket we’d scrounged up.
One of the reasons we’d picked this garage was that it appeared that some previous inhabitants had used it for band practice. The walls were heavily soundproofed. I couldn’t hear a thing from outside, which meant that even if my brother decided to holler, no one out there would hear him. We still had his ankles bound together and one of his wrists now handcuffed to a heavy steel bar that protruded from the concrete wall. He wasn’t going anywhere.
Which was a good thing, because this mission required all hands on deck. We were going to leave him here on his own for a few hours, because I didn’t trust him alone in the van out where we were going. There was too much chance of him drawing attention one way or another, or of someone noticing him in the vehicle and getting concerned if we drugged him.
If only we could have trusted him to be on our side in this, to fight with us instead of against us… but I knew that was unlikely. All the same, I sat down across from him while he dug into the sandwich.
He ate in silence for a few minutes. Then he glanced toward the men. “Are you guys going somewhere?”
I inclined my head. “We’ve got another job to do.”
“Looking for more Maliks to kill?”
The snark in his tone didn’t quite land. He mostly sounded tired, like he thought he should be a brat about it but couldn’t put his heart into it. I studied him carefully.
“It’s a job that we’re hoping will get us closer to destroying the Blood Hunter,” I said. “The man who’s really responsible for most of those deaths.”
“You’re responsible,” he retorted. “The person who wields the weapon is the one who made the final choice.”
I gazed back at him. “By that logic, you and the rest of our family are the only ones responsible for the deaths of all those innocent kids. In which case all I did was eliminate a bunch of child murderers from the world.”
“That’s not what they were,” he protested, but that response sounded weak too. He was getting fed up with this debate, and maybe a little worn down, realizing how hard it was for him to justify what our parents and the rest of the family had done. I hoped he was realizing it. I didn’t know how I could be kinder to him without putting the rest of us more at risk.
“I know they were more than that to you,” I said quietly. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to have your family torn away from you, no matter what else they were doing or how cruel they could be. I’m sorry for how you’re hurting. I didn’t do it to hurt you. It was the only way I could save myself and the people I care about. And it’s what the Blood Hunter intended to happen all along. He set everything up so that I’d be in that position.”
“I don’t know why you’re bothering harping on about that.”
I folded my arms in front of me. “I’m reminding you about it because if you’re really interested in stopping bad people, you’ve got the perfect opportunity if you cooperate with us. I’d be happy to give you a part in what we’re doing to crack down on the Blood Hunter’s crimes. If we succeed, we’ll take down the man responsible for your family’s deaths. Hell, I’d say you have the right to be involved in getting justice. I just have to be sure you’re on our side.”
Carter glowered at me. “Why do you care anyway? You might as well just kill me like the others.”
My heart sank. I hadn’t thought it was all going to be okay just like that, but I obviously wasn’t making any more headway right now.
I stood up. “It’s not about caring, Carter. It’s about doing what’s right. There’s a part of you, even if it’s still small, that knows what you all did to those kids isn’t okay. That realizes you bought into a delusion that was about power rather than justice. As long as that part is there, you deserve the chance to shake off the sick ideas the rest of the family indoctrinated you with. I know you’re not a monster. I just hope you get to the point where you can admit I’m not one either.”
I checked him over quickly to make sure he was both as comfortable and secure as we could make him. “There’s no point in yelling after we leave. The building is soundproofed. You might as well save your throat. I’m not going to gag you if I don’t have to.”
“How nice of you,” Carter muttered. He slumped back against the wall, clutching his bottle of water. I walked over to the men.
“Are we ready to get going?” I asked. “Because I’d really like to shoot some perverted assholes now.”
The corner of Julius’s mouth twitched upward. “I think that can be arranged.”
“This should be a good time,” Garrison muttered with obvious sarcasm as we stared down the mansion that was our target from a partly sheltered perch along the top of the stone wall that surrounded the sprawling property. The house was pretty sprawling too, a three-story neoclassical monstrosity that could have swallowed the building I’d grown up in whole, as big as the household had been.
The place belonged to one of the Blood Hunter’s biggest clients in the human trafficking business. We’d determined with the data we’d gathered during our previous missions that Mr. Gordell had bought more than a dozen girls over the years, most of them underage or not much over eighteen. Lord only knew what he’d done with them since then.
Armed guards stood at the main gate into the property, but we’d circumnavigated them completely. If this went well, they’d never know we’d been here until after we’d already left—with the women their employer had purchased.
“No one posted at the back door,” Talon observed.
“No one outside it,” Blaze clarified. “We know Gordell has a contract with a private security firm—one known for not minding getting involved in dirty business. I’d bet he has ten or more men on the inside patrolling and ensuring the women don’t make a run for it. It could be as many as twenty.”
“We can handle them,” Julius said grimly. “We just have to make sure none of the women get hurt in the crossfire. Use blades as much as you safely can; be careful with your aim.”
I nodded, fully agreeing with his sentiment. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally wound or even kill one of the women I was trying to save.
I pointed to the stand of cherry trees just to the right beyond the back of the mansion. “We can get within twenty feet of the back door without being seen by using the trees for cover. After that, it’s going to get trickier.”
Julius slipped off the wall, his boots thumping softly on the grassy ground. “Let’s take a closer look and figure out our best approach from there. Once we’re inside the house, we spread out, take down everyone in league with our target on the first floor. Talon and I will head upstairs and tackle anyone up there as well as sending any of the women we find downstairs. Garrison, you go up too and stand watch by the front windows over the foyer in case they manage to call in back-up before we’re out. Blaze and Dess will get the women ready to run by the back door.” He glanced at me. “You’re probably going to need to do a lot of the talking. We have no idea how much they’ll trust any man after what they’ll have been through.”
“That’s no problem.” I just hoped they believed me when I told them we were here to help.
And not just them but other women like them. Once the Blood Hunter’s clients realized that they were vulnerable too, they should start pulling away from him. Maybe someone would even turn against him to preemptively save their own skin.
We set off across the expansive lawn, keeping the cherry trees between us and the windows of the house. As we stepped between the trunks, my feet trod over fallen blossoms turned brown and rotten. A faint, sickly sweet scent lingered in the air. It turned my stomach, which was already churning.
Stopping in the shadows at the edge of the trees, we studied the back of the house from closer up. I thought I made out a form through the frosted window of the back door, but it didn’t move, so it was hard to tell whether it was a guard or something else. Someone would probably see us if we just marched across the open ground to the door and spent the multiple minutes it would take to break through the lock. Shattering windows would announce our presence more loudly than we’d prefer too.
An idea wriggled out through my mind. My first impulse was to dismiss it, but it wasn’t so different from tactics I’d implemented in the household’s service before. Why shouldn’t I use every bit of training the Blood Hunter had arranged for me to receive against him?
“I’ve got this,” I said, unbuckling the holster at my waist and handing it to Blaze for safekeeping. “Wait until I’ve cleared the doorway, and then run for it as fast as you can.”
“What are you going to—” Blaze started, looking confused, and snapped his mouth shut when I pulled off my black tee as well, leaving me in only my bra from the waist up. Julius had raised his eyebrows. Garrison let out a soft whistle. Only Talon gave little reaction, but I could feel his gaze burning into my skin.
“I know what I’m doing,” I said, glowering at them all, and tossed my shirt to Blaze too. My other gun was concealed at my calf under the loose leg of my sweatpants, my favorite knives in hidden sheaths in my hip pockets. At a glance, I’d appear unarmed. I shoved my fingers through my hair to tousle it as if I’d been wandering in the wind for hours and then stumbled out onto the open grass.
I drifted this way and that, wandering toward the house in a vague zigzag, swaying a little on my feet. For effect, I swiped at my eyes as if I’d been crying.
It took less than a minute before the back door swung open and two men in suits stepped out, both with guns at their hips. They hadn’t even unholstered them. Ha.
“Who are you?” one of them demanded.
I froze, staring at them with widened eyes. “I—I need help. Please…” I let my voice rasp and shake. Then I wobbled closer to them, holding out a hand.
The first guard glanced at the other. “How the hell did she get out?”
The second shook his head. “Fuck if I know. Hey, what’s your name?”
I pretended to swallow a sob. “Delia.”
“All right, Delia. Let’s get you back inside where you belong.”
I hunched my shoulders, which conveniently brought my hands closer to my knives. One man put his hand between my shoulder blades to guide me into the house, the other turning next to me to scan the grounds, and I whipped into action.
I grabbed both knives at the same time. One I jabbed backward at the man partly behind me, carving open his throat. The other I thrust sideways into the second guard’s jugular. Neither of them stood a chance. After a few twitches and spastic gropes toward their guns, they slumped over onto the grass.
Footsteps were already pounding toward me across the lawn. I wiped my knives on the grass quickly before hauling one man over to lie him close against the side of the house where the shadows would partly conceal him, and Julius and Talon joined me to heave the other out of view. Blaze caught up with us on the threshold and tossed me my shirt and holster.
As I yanked them back into place, Garrison leaned close to murmur in my ear. “Has anyone ever told you how hot you are in action?”
I tsked my tongue at him. “Keep your mind on the mission.”
“That’s right,” Julius said in a low voice. “Fan out and take them all down. The faster we work, the less chance a call for backup goes out.”
We marched into the house as if we belonged there. Julius went left and Talon went right, so I strode on straight ahead, my pistol in one hand and my knife in the other.
At a movement by a nearby room, I pressed close to the wall and darted forward. I caught a guard just as he stepped through the doorway. He got out half a shout before I clapped my forearm over his mouth and drove my knife into the side of his neck. He sagged in my arms. Similar thuds from around me told me the men were keeping equally busy.
I glanced into the room the guard had come out of and found myself staring at two young women in dresses that covered little more than their breasts, bellies, and hips. One of them was biting her lip, her stance rigid. The other was trembling, sucking in a breath as if she were about to scream.
“No!” I protested as loudly as I dared. “We’re here to get you out of this place. No one’s going to own you again. No one’s going to use you again. We want to help.”
She blinked at me, looking bewildered, but her mouth closed. I pointed down the hall the way I’d come. “Gather by the back door. If you see any of the other girls who were brought here against their will, get them to come too. We’re going to escort you away from here as soon as it’s safe.”
They clutched each other’s hands without a word, but they scurried past me the way I’d indicated. I ducked back out, picking up my pace as I approached the front of the house.
I paused at the end of the hallway, peering out into a vast foyer with a ceiling that loomed two stories high, a second-floor mezzanine wrapping around the space over the front door. A crystal chandelier glittered overhead. I gritted my teeth against the urge to shoot at it and shatter all the vicious wealth it represented.
Two more security guards were standing by the front door. It was too much distance to cross to hit them by stealth—at least, not both of them. Things were about to get a bit noisy.
I leapt forward, hurling my knife and pulling the trigger on my pistol at the same moment. The blade and the bullet both lodged in their target’s heads, and the men toppled over. Even with the silencer, the bang of the shot reverberated off the high ceiling. I winced as I darted across the room, scanning it.
Another shot rang out elsewhere in the house. Garrison jogged into view, a streak of blood marking his shirt. “All clear that way,” he said. “I’ll take my position upstairs.”
He hustled up to the mezzanine overlooking the front of the house, and Talon and Julius followed moments later. Blaze hadn’t appeared yet. I wondered how many more girls had been on the first floor—were they all waiting by the back door, ready to flee?
A motion near the edge of the room caught my eye. I stepped closer and spotted a girl who couldn’t have been more than fifteen crouched in an alcove, shivering. I walked over, holstering my gun.
“It’s okay,” I said. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
She simply stared at me blankly. I crouched down, a lump rising in my throat. “Can you manage to walk to the back door? I’ll take you if you need me to.”
Her lips parted, but no sound came out. Then her gaze flicked upward with an expression of panic just as a faint creak reached my ears. I leapt up and spun around to find a knife slashing straight toward me.
