Savage Desires (Black Rose Doms Book 3)

Chapter 25

My irritation growswith every idiotic question out of Nolan”s mouth. The only thing keeping me from snapping is Willow”s strong presence at my side. There”s zero trepidation or anxiety coming from her. After meeting everyone earlier, she relaxed and even teased the big bad bikers who are completely wrapped around her little finger. Shawn”s guys aren”t much better. Not that I”m surprised; she has that effect on men. Tex is the only holdout, but after watching Willow shoot, he at least changed his tune about her being capable of holding her own tonight.

”Enough! We aren”t changing the plans at the last minute. If you have a problem with your part in it… leave,” Willow says boldly.

Everyone looks at her like she”s grown two heads. Chante gives a little whoop of support, and Mauve is very vocal in her agreement. There”s a lot of grumbling from Nolan and Jack, who has always been up Nolan”s ass. I”m not surprised to see them teaming up, which means that Jack and the four guys with him aren”t to be trusted.

There”s no way to know how many Irish will be lying in wait at the mansion, but there are only nine men with Nolan here. Goose confirmed from his hiding spot that the four men who were watching the warehouse are among the nine who came in with Nolan. It makes me think that Seamus isn”t aware of what his son is up to.

”Where”s Seamus?” T.J. asks as if he read my mind. ”He”s normally not one to sit these things out.”

Nolan sneers at him. ”He trusts me to handle business.”

T.J. holds his hands up placatingly and gives me a knowing look. Seems we”re both leaning toward Seamus being innocent of being a traitor, though he is guilty of letting his piece-of-shit son run any part of his business.

The clock strikes two A.M., and the people heading to the mansion leave. It”ll take them about an hour to get into place. The rest of us will head to Mecca in about thirty minutes, and we will wait until the others are in place so we can hit them both simultaneously.

Gunner lets me know they are good to go at the mansion and will contact me when they finish. I hate that we won”t be in constant contact, but having two groups doing different operations on comms would be a hindrance. Hurley is our tech support for the night and will be in constant contact with both of our groups. The original crew that does these rescue missions with me doesn”t use comms. It works to our advantage big time because we can fly under the radar more easily.

I get a text from Cutter that lets me know he and Zeke are in place. They went ahead of us to watch Mecca, and so far, it looks like business as usual. They close the club, and about fifteen minutes later, the regular club employees leave. Twenty more minutes pass before several men they assume are involved in the other side of the business leave out a back door and get into two black SUVs.

So far, Willow”s information is spot on. It”s a little concerning that things appear normal when we know they had advanced notice of our planned attack. I”m guessing everything is not as it seems. Unfortunately, the only way to find out is by getting inside.

Willow holds my hand the entire drive to Mecca. Shawn and Goose are in the back of the SUV. We”re all quiet, mentally preparing for what we”re about to do. I can tell Willow is worried about the women. She confessed that she”s terrified that they might dispose of all the women before we can save them. I tried to alleviate her worries. The likelihood that they would get rid of that many of their slaves is low. Women cost money, and they won”t want to lose such a substantial investment.

The Russians are also overly confident bastards. They will think there”s no chance we can beat them, especially with Nolan and whoever else is on their side feeding them information. They will expect tonight to be an easy win, and they”ll be back to business as usual tomorrow. It”s too bad for them that we”re ready for them.

We park and wait for word from Nolan. He felt important as fuck when we put him in charge of the operation at the mansion. It”ll be so satisfying when he realizes his double-cross has been thwarted, and his dumbass was never really in charge. Almost sad I”m going to miss the moment of realization.

”Where”s Hera?” Willow asks.

She”s the only one that wasn”t included in any of the plans we made. She doesn”t do structured attacks. She”ll decide where she pops up and when bringing devastation wherever she goes. Out of everyone she”s the one I worry about the least. Her crazy ass will outlive us all. She”s like a cat with nine lives.

”She”ll pop up at just the right time. Don”t worry about her.”

”I”m a little terrified to see what she has planned in all of this,” Willow admits.

I laugh. ”Whatever it is will be memorable, I”m sure.”

My phone lights up with a text from Nolan—everything”s a go at the mansion.

”Time to move out. Remember to watch your back. Jack and his guys are not on our side.”

The rest of Shawn”s team joins us, and we move as a unit to the front entrance. Jack and his people are entering through the back. I want them as far from Willow as possible when they turn on us. We do a quick comms check before we head inside. Tex quickly unlocks the doors and disables the alarm. Even though they know we are coming we want to use as much stealth as possible. We don”t know who will be alerted by the alarm, and I”d rather not chance it being a signal for more men to show up.

The club is illuminated only by the lights behind the bar, leaving the room mostly in darkness. It”s the perfect set-up for an ambush. Shawn gives the signal for us to move. Shawn and Goose stick with Willow and me as we take the left side of the space towards the bar. So far, all is quiet. Whoever is hiding in here is being patient.

There are two rapid shots from our right followed by another. That was what they were waiting for because more than a dozen men come out from hiding and start firing at us. Shawn and I flip two tables, giving us cover. Willow is calm beside me. She quickly assesses things and then aims her gun towards the balcony. She fires three shots. A man falls over the edge and lands with a thud on the ground. I”m sure there is another body upstairs with a matching bullet wound in his head. There”s a shouted curse and the sound of someone stumbling upstairs.

”Fucker moved,” Willow growls. ”Ruined my streak.”

There”s gunfire and shouts of pain all around us. Willow has fired three more times, but I”m distracted with my own targets, so I have to trust that she has her side covered. She shifts beside me, and before I can do anything, she runs out from our cover to the right. My heart lurches as I fire in the direction of whoever is shooting at us, trying to provide cover even though I can”t see where the shots are coming from.

Shawn curses when he sees her moving. My girl is clever, though. She stays low and gets to another safe point without harm. Don”t get me wrong. I”m fucking pissed at her even though I”m proud as hell that she”s handling her first gunfight like a pro. Willow pops up from her hiding spot and fires twice, then she”s on the move again.

Shawn motions for us to move. He”s obviously frustrated that his charge has gone rogue. I”m distracted by a man trying to sneak up behind me with a knife. I almost miss his attack when I watch with horror as Willow runs to the bar and jumps on top of it. The guy nearly stabs me because of my distraction. I have no choice but to focus on my problems and pray that Shawn has her back.

I quickly finish off my assailant with his own knife and turn to find Willow. She”s nowhere to be seen. I see Shawn and Goose, but they are pinned down by someone firing from the balcony. Either the man Willow shot rejoined the fight or more people were hiding up there. It”s hard to tell with how shadowed it is.

I move positions, trying to get a better visual on the balcony, but there just isn”t one from this side. Shawn and Goose have the best vantage point, but they can”t do shit about it because of how quickly the bullets are raining down on them. Then, the shooting stops abruptly, and there”s a loud shout from above, followed by several shots. Another body falls from the balcony and Willow peaks over at us and gives us a bloody thumbs up.

Jesus H. Christ.

That woman will be the death of me. I desperately try not to panic over the fact that it looks like her entire hand is soaked in blood. I”m going to strangle her pretty little neck if she gets hurt. She was supposed to stay by my side where I could protect her.

There”s a pause in the gunfire, and Shawn”s voice comes through the comm, asking for an update. Smith checks in, saying their side is clear. No sooner than he says it, there are two more gunshots from their side… ”Take that back, now it”s clear,” he says.

Goose does a quick walk through the area and declares our side clear.

”Balcony”s clear,” Willow says.

”You”re in so much trouble,” I growl in response. ”Get down here.”

She sighs. ”A little thanks would be nice. Not like I saved your asses or anything.”

”If y”all are done with your lover”s spat, Jack and his boys have been dealt with. They were loudly discussing the best place to lie in wait for y”all,” Cutter says.

”Proceed with step two,” I say.

There”s a chorus of affirmatives. I meet Willow at the bottom of the stairs and pull her into my arms. ”Don”t fucking do that again. I aged ten years watching you run away from me.”

”Sorry. I saw an opportunity and took it. I was careful.” Her apology sounds less than apologetic, but I let it go for now. We”ll be discussing it further later.

Hank, Tex, Bomber, Smith, and Goose head up the stairs that Willow just descended to check the private rooms and the secret VIP area. Shawn, Goose, Willow, and I meet Cutter and Zeke at the door to the basement. It”s locked with a keypad that would”ve taken time to unlock if Willow didn”t know the code. The idiots weren”t very careful with security codes around the slaves because they didn”t see them as a threat—an obvious mistake on their part.

Everything is quiet on the way downstairs. I expected at least a little resistance, but there”s nothing even once we”re in the basement.

”The cells are down there to the left. There”s another hallway at the end where the showers and the punishment rooms are. I doubt any guards will be in the cells. They automatically lock when closed and the only way to unlock them is from the outside. The shower room and punishment rooms should be checked, though.”

Zeke and Goose head that way moving quietly.

”The office and rooms the guards and Madame use are this way,” Willow says, taking her first step to the right.

All is quiet this way, too. It”s concerning, but maybe they put all their men upstairs thinking there would be no way we could get through their numbers. Either way it”s weird.

Willow points to the first door and mouths, ”Office.”

Shawn and Cutter continue down the hall to check the other rooms while Willow and I handle whatever”s in the office. We stand on either side of the door and I carefully turn the handle and push the door open, ducking for cover in case someone fires at us. When nothing happens, I peek around the corner and see one man holding a woman in front of his body like a human shield with a gun to her head.

I indicate to Willow that she should stay put. I enter the room, gun aimed and ready, though I wouldn”t dare shoot with the woman so close. The poor thing looks terrified. I hear Willow enter the room behind me and I grit my teeth. The woman is going to get her ass spanked for defying me.

”Put your gun down, or I”ll fucking shoot her!” the man says to me in a thick Russian accent. He must not consider Willow a risk because he”s completely ignoring her. When I don”t move fast enough for his liking, he pushes the gun harder against the woman”s temple causing her to whimper.

I slowly lower my gun and see Willow raise her arm beside me. A gunshot rings loudly in the enclosed space and a neat hole appears in the man”s forehead. The woman collapses to the floor, sobbing. Willow holsters her weapon and rushes to the woman, falling to her knees beside her.

The woman stares at Willow like she can”t make sense of what she”s seeing, then throws her arms around Willow and weeps in her arms. I hate to break up their reunion, but we need to finish our task and get the hell out of here.

”Where are the keys to the cells?” I ask.

The woman points at the dead man. I dig through his pockets finding the keys and his cell phone. I check to see if the phone is locked, and it”s not. The idiot doesn”t have any security on the device. I pocket it in case there”s any helpful information on it and grab the keys.

”Come on, we need to get the other women out.”

Willow helps the woman to her feet. Cutter and Shawn, having cleared the rest of the rooms, are waiting in the hallway for us.

”Why is there only one guard down here?” Willow asks no one in particular.

”T-they”re all upstairs or at some kind of compound. Vlad”s the only one they left here to watch us.”

”What compound, Georgie?” Willow questions.

”I don”t know. The man in the mask came today and argued with Madame. He was pissed about something. I”ve never heard him so mad. He drug Madame out by her arm when she refused to go with him.”

”I would guess they”re at the Russian”s compound where Yuri lives. It”s the safest place for them to hide out while their soldiers fight their battles for them,” I say.

We get to the hallway with the cells and find Goose and Zeke pacing the hallway looking pissed as hell. I”m guessing it has something to do with the sounds of multiple crying women coming from behind the locked doors.