Chapter 3
TARA
A panoramic view of Central Park and Midtown Manhattan greeted me the moment I set foot inside the main lobby.
“Good morning, Tara.” Hazel, our receptionist, sat behind a sleek, high-end black desk, the Wildcats logo of a lunging panther embossed on the black wall behind her.
Her words were kind, and her smile was polite, but her gaze was probing.
I knew it wasn’t mean-spirited. When you walked around with half your face covered in a mask, people got curious.
Their imaginations ran wild, and their eyes couldn’t help but validate their assumptions.
In my case, the reality was actually far worse than any of their imaginations.
I gave her a tight smile and walked into our operations area. Beyond the lobby, several new faces greeted me as I walked past the training area. Apparently, when we decided to expand the Wildcats, it didn’t just include a state-of-the-art facility. It also meant bringing in more people.
I didn’t do people well. Or at all, if I was being completely honest.
When Dominic Park, Samaira’s boyfriend, gifted us the top ten floors of his building—yes, his fucking building because he was a billionaire—he also handed us an unlimited supply of weapons, technology, and money. With that came greater responsibility. Bigger targets. More missions.
And that meant we needed more people. The five of us could only do so much.
We needed to grow.
We now had ten new women working with us full-time. Each woman was vetted for her skill, her compatibility with the five of us, and her reason for joining us.
To put it mildly, I had ten new women to make friends with.
Making new friends was the most difficult thing in the world when half your face was scarred, and you hid it from everyone.
But I’d take all of that for our brand-new, kick-ass headquarters.
Something I’d never imagined in my wildest dreams.
The entire main floor, which originally housed two empty apartments, was completely gutted and converted into a massive open-concept floor plan. It was divided into four distinct zones.
Technology and hacking hub. My domain.
Weapons and training zone. Samaira’s domain.
Investigation and strategy zone. Lena’s domain.
Costumes and undercover inventory. Sloane’s domain.
I bypassed the weapons zone, where Sami and Sloane were training the recruits in combat, and headed straight to my tech hub.
My office was separated from the weapons area by floor-to-ceiling glass partitions.
With just a flick of a switch, the smart glass turned opaque for privacy.
Usually, that was exactly how I kept the setting.
I dropped into my chair behind the large mahogany desk, facing the six large monitors that took up almost the entire opposite wall.
My massive desk was large enough to fit eight chairs comfortably around it. All of our team meetings were held in my office, which had enough space to accommodate all ten recruits. They just grabbed spare rolling chairs and settled in around the desk, filling the open space.
I’d just turned on my computer, which was connected to all the monitors, when the glass door opened. Lena and Naomi walked in.
Lena was dressed to slay in a sharp black suit over a navy-blue corset, flared pants, and five-inch heels. Naomi, on the other hand, was in her standard scrubs. She planned to do an annual checkup for all of us.
We exchanged nods in greeting before I turned to Naomi and asked, “Could you get my blood first thing after the meeting? I need to run to my therapist right after.”
Naomi nodded as she took a seat across from me. “Sure thing.”
Right then, Sami and Sloane strolled into the room, carrying their protein shakes.
“The recruits should be in soon. They’re taking a breather and having a smoothie,” Sami said, taking a seat on one side of Lena.
Sloane dropped into her chair on her other side, chuckling. “Sami beat all of their asses.”
A smile stretched across half of my face as I turned to her. “So a great start to the day for you, then?”
Sami flashed a mischievous smile and winked. “I always have a great start to the day, thanks to Dom.”
“Lucky bitch,” Sloane muttered, a wistful smile playing on her lips.
Sami blew her a kiss. “You’ll find yourself a Daddy too, babe.”
Sloane simply rolled her eyes, as if she truly didn’t believe there was a man out there for her. “Maybe. Someday.”
Lena cleared her throat. When I turned to her, her eyes were already on me.
I raised my eyebrows in question, and she said, “I wanted to check in to ask how you were doing with the new additions. You were finally hanging with us without your mask, and I feel like the presence of the recruits is pushing you back into your cocoon.”
I looked around at the rest of my girls and saw the sharp glint of concern in their eyes.
My heart squeezed painfully in my chest. I hated that I still cared what my face looked like.
Hated that it wasn’t easy for me to shrug off my mask and show my true self to the people around me.
To the people I worked with. To new people, especially.
But I hated it even more that my best friends, the women who gave me life, still had to worry about me.
I met each of their gazes and couldn’t help but shrug. “I don’t wear it when it’s just us hanging out at the Den. But you know it takes me some time to…uhhh…gather enough courage to deal with people’s reactions. I hate when they stare. And the ladies…they don’t mean to, but they can’t help it.”
Sami’s eyes softened. “You take all the time you need, Tara. All we care about is your comfort and happiness. If you never want to remove your mask in front of anyone, you do that. I want you to do whatever makes you happy and be unapologetic about it.”
“Exactly,” the rest of the women echoed.
“And if any of the recruits make you uncomfortable, they’re out,” Lena added, her tone holding no room for argument.
My nose tingled, and tears threatened to spill over before I quickly took a deep breath. “I love you, ladies.”
A chorus of “I love yous” followed when the door to the room opened, and the ten recruits entered, each of them sweating and groaning and living their personal hell of pain. Lena, Naomi, and I burst out laughing at their tired forms and nearly dead state.
Lena glared at Samaira. “The day has just begun, Sami. They all have work to do. Tasks to accomplish. Tone it down a tad, would ya?”
Sami immediately turned to the screen, and with a stubborn smile on her face, she said, “No promises.”
She might just make their training harder because of that little request. I bit my lip to stop the smile from slipping on my face and opened the extensive Excel sheet that tracked all our cases.
The first case was mine. It was the one about the cop abusing his wife and burning her with cigarettes.
“Well, that’s done with. The body’s gone.
The wife, April, and the daughter have relocated to Texas.
April didn’t have any family, so she had no one to go back to.
With the risk of being questioned by her husband’s fellow detectives, it was better for her to disappear. ”
Lena bit her lip. “And you’re sure they’ve disappeared? They won’t be found, even if the detectives put all their resources into it?”
I nodded. “Affirmative. New names. New identities. New credit cards.”
Sloane took a sip of her smoothie. “Wouldn’t the cops just assume that April killed her husband if she’s missing as well?”
Sami caught the hint of a smile tugging on my lips. She immediately leaned forward, her tone teasing. “What did you do, Tara?”
Every single one of the women stared at me, their eyes glittering with the same kind of mischief that had me breaking into a grin instantly.
“I might have planted damning evidence on what the cop was doing to his wife at their house. Discreet enough that the cops would think they’re the ones discovering the evidence.
But not so discreet that they wouldn’t find it. You know what I mean?”
Lena groaned, dropping her face into her hands, but I could see the smile on her lips. “Tara, they might figure out that there’s some vigilantes at play here. Or, at the very least, that the wife had some help.”
“And they would trace that back to us, how?” I challenged.
Lena sighed. “I just hope they don't.”
“Moving on, then,” Sami said. “Next up is my case. The survivor’s name is Holly.
She was coming home late from work up in the South Bronx when five men jumped her.
She was raped and beaten. Multiple broken bones.
She was in critical condition for three days, but thankfully, she pulled through.
She wants them dead. She gave us the location where they jumped her, and we’ve got their facial descriptions as well. ”
We were all silent but fucking fuming. Despite dealing with such cases every single day, it didn’t get easier. Each case just solidified my belief that a man’s ego would always trump his respect for women.
Lena was the first to break the silence. “What do you need?”
Sami looked at the recruits. “I need two of you, Arya and Jenny, to go to the location we’re given and scout the area.
I need as many photographs as possible. All the intel on the men, who they hang out with, how they look, where they go, any hideout spots they have, and their routine.
I need you to monitor them for a week and report back to me. ”
Arya was Sami’s younger sister, while Jenny was one of the women who regularly attended our self-defense classes at our previous headquarters, the basement of Thunder Claw Bar and Restaurant. Both women listened to Sami with rapt attention, nodding and taking diligent notes.
Sami turned to Lena. “I want them dealt with by the end of next week.”
“Sounds good.”
We, then, went through the cases Sloane and Lena were working on. While Sloane predominantly worked on recon missions for our more time-consuming, high-profile suspects, Lena focused on talking to new victims, bringing in new hires, and her lawyer work, where she fought cases for women in court.
Once we were done with all the active and upcoming cases, Lena looked around the room. “Anything else?”
I cleared my throat, and all eyes turned to me.
I opened the files I’d been working on for the past few weeks, pulling up the map of New York City, marked with several yellow circles across the five boroughs.
“As you know, we took down one of the Russian hideouts in the Bronx three months ago. We also know that wasn’t the only one. ”
I met the gazes of the women around the room.
“New York City has massive operations of predominantly two major Mafia mobs. The Italians and the Russians. Up until now, we have never interfered with the Mafia operations. The Italians mostly deal in drugs and weapons. The Russians do too, but they also run one of the city’s largest sex trafficking rings. ”
Everyone was listening with rapt attention.
“Now, I personally don’t give a fuck about Mafias and their illegal dealings if it doesn’t concern women getting kidnapped and raped and sold from our streets.
I believe the city has at least ten hideouts dedicated to sex trafficking, if not more.
They target mostly undocumented women, selling them locally, nationally, and overseas. ”
I looked at Lena. “I want us to take them all down.”
Sami slammed her fist on the table. “Fuck yeah. Let’s get those bastards.”
Lena scanned the map. “Are these the possible locations?”
I nodded. “These are the top areas where most of the women have been kidnapped in the past ten years. If we follow that trail, do some recon, I believe we have the woman power and the means to find the exact location of all these hideouts.”
“It’s very dangerous,” Lena warned.
“Since when has danger stopped us?” Sloane piped in.
Naomi also leaned on the desk, her eyes glued to the screen. “I’m in. Whatever you need, Tara. Happy to jump in the field and help with recon if you need me there.”
“Fuck yeah, Doc,” Sami cheered. “I love having you in the field with us.”
Naomi smiled, shaking her head. “You guys keep me way too busy for me to jump in the field too often.”
Naomi also handled a lot of patients, mostly all the women who had been abused.
It was a sad reality, but not all women chose to fight back and leave their abusive partners.
Some chose to stay for several reasons. And all we could do was help them survive, help them regain their strength to fight for yet another day. And Naomi helped them do that.
Lena turned to the four of us, her expression serious.
“This is a massive operation. I know we can take out one hideout. But over ten might be extremely dangerous. We could have the Russians after us if they figure out who we are. We could become their targets. Our lives could be put under a constant state of danger and uncertainty. Everything that I don’t like for us. ”
I held Lena’s stare. “Lena, we love you for caring about us first. But Dominic has given us all the resources in the world. We always wanted to do something big. Help as many women as possible. Make this city safer for them and us. Now, we have been given this incredible opportunity to do just that. We can’t let our fear overpower our principles, our sense of justice, and the mission of the Wildcats. ”
A proud smile stretched across her face. “Alright then,” she said and turned toward the ten recruits. “None of you are obligated to be a part of this mission. If any of you chooses to stay out of this case, you can always help with another. Like I said, you are my priority.”
She didn’t need to say that, because all at once, their voices rang out loud and clear. “We’re in.”
Sami, Sloane, Naomi, and I banged our fists on the desk loudly, cheering their spirit and their promise.
I might be worried about their reaction to my scars, but I definitely wasn’t worried about their commitment to the Wildcats.
We were ready.