Perfect Revenge (Prey Security: Delta Team #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

This was the first mission he would go out on where he wasn’t the good guy.

He was the villain of this story.

An unsanctioned op that proved to all of them that they had indeed become the monsters they’d long feared they were.

Yet as Steel led his team down a quiet suburban street, he knew there were no forces on earth strong enough to stop him.

While he did not enjoy being placed in this position, he was responsible for his men. He was the one who had led them like lambs to the slaughter, without doing his due diligence to ensure that what sounded too good to be true wasn't just a hoax.

It was because of him that the five men who followed him with such trust had been changed in ways they never would have expected. Therefore, Steel knew he would do whatever it took to right his wrongs and see if there was a way to save his team, the men he considered his brothers, his family.

Even crossing a line there would be no coming back from.

Shouldering the blame for what they were about to do was something he would never complain about. His men deserved a chance to try to reclaim somewhat normal lives, and if this was what he had to do to achieve that for them, he would do it with a clear conscience.

Mostly clear conscience.

Because deep down inside, he didn't have a single doubt that this was wrong. It could probably even be considered evil.

But desperate times called for desperate measures.

Like the well-oiled machine that they were, there was no need to communicate out loud for them to know they were on the same page. Some people considered their ability to almost read one another’s minds to be extraordinary.

They wouldn't be wrong.

It wasn't like he heard the voices of his teammates in his mind, it was more that his intuition had been so deeply honed that he somehow knew what they were going to say or do before they did it.

Definitely a skill that came in handy for ops that were delicate in nature. Like the one he and his team would be enacting in just a couple of minutes.

Thunder brought the van to a stop outside an ordinary-looking house.

It was a two-story, colonial-style, with a simple but neat garden.

In the summer, Steel was sure there would be a riot of color in the garden beds that lined the front of the house, and the two large trees in the yard would look stunning in all their autumnal glory.

Now a blanket of snow covered the ground, smothering all that beauty. Or rather replacing it with something harsher, but in his mind still carrying a beauty of its own.

Unlike every other house on the block, there was not a single Christmas light strung up around the porch, no wreath hanging on the front door, and no decorations filling up the yard.

It was like this house existed in another universe, one stripped of the joy and peace people were supposed to feel at this time of year.

The barren emptiness the quiet house showed left him with a twinge of guilt in a place deep inside of him. As though he were about to break something that was already broken.

For some reason, that felt … wrong somehow.

Outside of his team, Steel didn't allow himself to feel anything for anyone.

Couldn’t feel anything anymore.

At least not in the normal way most people experienced emotions.

As part of Prey Security’s Delta Team, he respected the hell out of his boss Eagle Oswald.

The man had given them a chance to rebuild their lives, and Steel knew the other man would be both disappointed and furious with what they were doing tonight.

Prey was a family, and Delta Team would do anything to protect any member of that family in any way they could.

However, the only one of them he truly felt any sense of love toward was Beth Lindon.

That woman had been through hell, and Steel and any one of his men would move heaven and earth for her.

The van rolled to a stop, and they all paused.

Dragon, Blade, and Lion used their enhanced senses, and when the three men nodded to give him the all-clear, he slid the door open and climbed out into the night.

Steel had no doubt that what they were about to do would be captured on any number of video doorbells, which was exactly why they’d brought a handy little device along with them.

It would jam all Wi-Fi signals the area around the direct perimeter of the house they were targeting, allowing them to complete their mission unseen.

Handling the device was Thunder’s job, and he felt no need to micromanage the man. His team was as good as they were because they all acted with autonomy. While he was the team leader, he trusted his men implicitly, which couldn’t be explained to anyone outside of them.

When you were dragged kicking and screaming into hell, you learned to trust those who suffered alongside you.

Without making a sound, the six of them crossed the small brick path leading to the porch. The lack of twinkling fairy lights or anything else Christmassy, and the gloominess of the comparison between this house and the others surrounding it, added to the darkness that lived inside him.

Led to a familiarity he couldn’t afford.

Picking the lock was much easier than it should be, and he felt a small pang of pity for the na?ve person inside who believed they were keeping bad guys out.

Inside the house was as undecorated for Christmas as the outside.

It was obvious that the occupant did not feel the Christmas spirit that everybody else seemed to rave about as soon as Thanksgiving dinner was eaten.

The house was, however, a riot of color screaming at him from every direction.

Bright pink and purple walls, vivid blue floorboards, splashes of yellows, reds, and greens dotted about in throw pillows, blankets, and an eclectic mix of armchairs and chairs sitting around a dining room table.

It was like stepping inside a rainbow.

The open concept of the house’s ground floor made clearing it easy, and when Dragon, Blade, and Lion once again nodded to tell him everything was as they’d expected, Steel headed for the stairs.

This was going to be easy.

Almost too easy.

Maybe he’d feel a little better about this if their target had even a chance to fight back a little.

But there was no way anyone could take on the six of them and win. Not even the five of them, because Thunder would be remaining downstairs, ready to move the van if anything changed and they needed to take another route out. Not that Steel was expecting it.

Upstairs, four doors were grouped around an open foyer. Three were open, indicating a bathroom and two guest bedrooms, but the fourth was closed.

It was behind that closed door that lay the answer to all their problems.

All their revenge.

Fair or not, they were getting justice for what had been done to them, no matter how they had to do it.

Creeping down the hall, Steel eased open the door in case the person inside the room was a light sleeper, but he may as well have not bothered.

Sprawled in the center of a king-size canopy bed, wearing a pair of bright pink unicorn pajamas, and partially covered by a dove gray sheet, and snoring softly, was their target.

Like taking candy from a baby, Steel crossed the room to stand on one side of the bed, Voodoo on the other, and Blade at the end of the bed, while Dragon and Lion waited by the door. None of them were expecting any problems, but better safe than sorry.

Waiting until Voodoo held up the syringe that would make transporting their captive easier, once he saw it, Steel reached over and brushed a lock of dark red hair off the sleeping woman’s face.

Creamy soft skin dotted with freckles, red lashes fanned out, a small smile on her cherub lips, the last smile Rose Gardner would ever give. However this played out, the woman would have little to smile about in the coming days and weeks.

Closing his fingers around her slim neck, he felt fear flooding her system as his touch roused her from sleep before her eyes snapped open in terror.

Forest green eyes stared up at him, cloaked in sleep for a moment longer before reality sank in and she began to thrash in his hold.

For a tiny thing who couldn’t be more than five-foot-two, over a foot shorter than his six-foot-four frame, she fought like a wildcat, and he gave her a molecule of respect for it.

Pinning her arms easily, he nodded at Voodoo, who leaned in and pierced the bare skin on the woman’s bicep, injecting her with the sedatives.

“Lights out, little ladybug,” he murmured as the woman put up a valiant fight against the drugs flooding her system.

In the end, it did no good.

Unconsciousness stole her away, and Steel gathered her into his arms, a tiny flicker of guilt lighting in his chest at the knowledge that he had become this woman’s bogeyman.

Not enough to stop him, though.

He carried her down the stairs and out into the cold, binding her wrists and ankles once he had her in the van.

Regret had no place on this mission. And as Thunder started the engine and they took off down the street, he knew that for their captive, hope would have no place where they were taking her either.

December 24th

7:54 P.M.

The soft clink of a lock nudged her awake.

For a second, Rose thought she was a child again. Locked in that hole in the ground that was supposed to build character.

Build character?

Yeah, right.

All it built was major distrust in every person in existence, a whole lot of trauma, and a deep-seated rebellion that no number of beatings could ever dislodge.

Somewhat fearfully, she cracked open her eyes to be met with only darkness, when she’d been so sure she was going to find the tightly packed dirt walls of the old well surrounding her on all sides, and the sticky, muddy bottom rank with urine and feces.