1. Chapter 1 #2
The girl’s chest hitched in her throat as her eyes rolled frantically toward the dark corners of the room, looking for any gap in the brick. Then, her gaze caught the threshold of the open doorway, and every muscle in her body went rigid. The tears stopped tracking down her cheeks.
Danni raised a single gloved index finger, pressing it over her lips.
The girl didn't blink. She swallowed the sob building in her throat, snapped her eyes away from the door, and dropped her gaze straight back down to the blood stains on the mattress, locking her jaw to keep from giving the menace behind him away.
The man smiled, thinking his intimidation had finally broken her. He placed his hand on her chest, leaning in. Before he could take another breath, the cold metal barrel of a Desert Eagle pressed hard into the base of his skull, right into his gray hair.
"I don't think she wants to be touched," Danni whispered, her voice devoid of mercy. "Back the fuck up."
The man froze, the skin on the back of his neck turning to ice as the cold, massive ring of the Desert Eagle's barrel pressed hard into the base of his skull. In the reflection of the dirty windowpane, a wide, wicked grin split Danni’s face beneath the black mask, her heart wild with the sudden rush of the hunt.
Down on the floor, the girl violently threw her weight back as the iron links clattered against the ground. Her trembling wrists finally slipped free of the cuffs. She pressed her back against the wall, staring up at the armed figure, remaining still.
The perverted man parted his lips, trying to summon that smooth, silver-tongued cadence that usually got him out of trouble.
It was the same charm he used to host exclusive charity galas and flash blinding smiles for the cameras, playing the beloved community savior while running a human pipeline behind closed doors and pocketing the donations.
Danni jammed the barrel harder into his skull, forcing his chin down.
"Strip," Danni commanded. Her voice was flat, empty, and chillingly calm.
The man’s eyes widened, a flush of burning embarrassment creeping up his neck. The cold steel biting into his scalp kept him from refusing. His hands trembled violently as he began to rid himself of his designer clothes, shedding his status piece by piece until he was shivering in his skin.
"Stop... please. Just think about this," he begged, his voice cracking as he tried to find his footing. "You don't know who I am. My people will come for you. They’ll hunt your dumb ass down and kill you for trying me."
Under her dark mask, a mocking smile spread across Danni’s lips. She dicked her head to the side as her eyes glittered.
"You mean the dead men outside?" she whispered. "The only thing they’re looking for right now is the entrance to hell."
The man’s entire posture collapsed. The confidence that had sustained him cracked right down the middle. When the last of his designer boxers pooled at his ankles, Danni’s eyes flicked down. A visible wave of disgust crossed her face as her lip curled behind the fabric of her mask.
"Put that shrimp back up," she spat.
He scrambled to pull the fabric back over his waist, his hands shaking so violently he nearly tripped over his own feet. He clutched himself, reduced to a trembling, humiliated mess.
Danni tore her gaze away from him and turned to the girl on the mattress.
The silence stretched between them. Danni’s chest rolled with the octane rush of the hunt, but looking at the weeping girl, the engine stalled.
Empathy was a foreign language she’d never bothered to learn.
She didn't offer a hand, didn't say it was going to be okay, and didn't tell her she was safe.
She just stared through the eyeholes of her mask, her expression entirely vacant, before flicking her chin toward the open door in a silent command to move.
Suddenly, a deafening BOOM from a shotgun blast rang out from the floor below. The man jumped, but Danni remained deadly still.
A second later, Kandi’s voice echoed up the grand staircase, booming with furious energy.
"Get the fuck down before I blow your head off too! Come on pussy ass hoe!"
Danni grabbed the man by his neck. "Move," Danni growled.
She escorted him out of the room and down the hallway. The glamorous party downstairs was officially over.
When they reached the top of the stairs, the scene below was a mess.
One of the duffle bags had been torn open, and thousands of distinct blue pills danced across the polished floor like spilled candy.
The rescued women were all huddled together in a terrified group near the entrance.
The woman from upstairs, dashed to them as they all huddled together.
Opposite of them, ten remaining heavily armed guards had their rifles aimed directly at Kandi.
But the moment they saw Danni escort their naked leader at gunpoint, the air left the room.
The fearless woman didn't waste words. She delivered a brutal kick directly into the man’s lower back. He let out a pathetic yelp, tumbling down the steps until he landed face-first on the floor below. Danni walked down the stairs as her eyes tracked the ten gunmen. She saw one of them twitch.
Danni raised her weapon and put a bullet through his head before he could even lift his barrel.
Twhip.
He dropped to the floor like a sack of bricks.
"Put your guns down, NOW!" Danni roared.
The remaining guards hesitated, their eyes darting between Danni and the threshold. She despised followers who were hard of hearing.
Without breaking eye contact with the men, Danni tilted the Desert Eagle down and pulled the trigger.
The heavy slug shattered the leader's back thigh, the impact flipping him onto the marble.
He let out a high-pitched, agonizing wail as his fingers clawed at the floorboards while blood pooled beneath his leg.
Kandi cleared her throat loudly, cutting through his groans. The guards’ rifles dropped instantly, clattering against the floor.
"She shouldn’t have to repeat herself! Keep the line straight!
" Kandi yelled, stepping forward to jack every single one of them.
She went down the line, aggressively grabbing their guns, knives, and hidden weapons, deliberately feeling up their packages in the process just to humiliate them further.
"Lil dick ass bitches wanna try and take advantage of somebody," Kandi muttered, tossing a confiscated pistol in the duffle.
While Kandi cleared the room, Danni stepped over to the bleeding leader, kneeling beside him.
His light skin was a clear blend of black and white heritage. Watching him crawl, it was obvious that the moment he’d built his wealth, he had completely abandoned his black side, trading his roots for a pass into the elite circles that protected his nefarious activities.
"How much did you steal from the Black and Missing Foundation?" Danni asked.
The man groaned, trying to spin another lie. "Listen, I can explain—"
Before the next word could clear his teeth, Danni drove her tactical knife into the meat of his shoulder, burying the blade all the way to the hilt.
The man’s head snapped back, his jaw unhinging as a deafening, blood-curdling howl ripped from his throat, shrieking with the wet, panicked pitch of a stuck pig.
The volume of his agony bounced off the vaulted ceilings, vibrating right in the drywall.
Danni twisted the handle as the screeching grated against her last nerve.
She closed her eyes for a brief second, visibly irritated by his screaming. She leaned into the hilt, twisting the blade just enough to make him choke on his own breath.
"Shut up before you give me a headache," she snapped.
The man choked back another sob before fat tears cut down his face. "Please, please don't kill me!" he stammered. "I'll give you whatever you want. Money, assets, names—just take the knife out! Please, I'm begging you, let me live! I can make you rich, just don't do this!"
As he kept wailing, desperately pleading for his life with every frantic word he could choke out, Danni softly shushed him. She reached down, grabbed his face tightly in her gloved hand, and forced him to look right into her face.
"Did you cry when you stole from them?" Danni asked. "Did you cry when their organization almost shut down? Where was your heart then?"
The man could only sob, blood and tears smeared across his face.
Danni rolled her. "Send the money back along with ten million."
The man looked up at her, bewildered, his mind completely failing to process the numbers through the haze of pain. Danni leaned down closer, staring deep into the hollow space where his soul should have been. Her gloved fingers dug into the bone of his jaw until his teeth clicked together.
"Nah," she whispered, her voice a flat, dead calm. "Make it forty million. Nana needs some more of her allowance."
The man’s face puckered as more tears spilled over his cheeks. Without breaking eye contact, Danni used her right hand to shove a heavy satellite phone against his trembling fingers. The screen was already glowing, displaying the interface of his private, encrypted offshore account in Nigeria.
"Authorize it," she ordered, her grip on his jaw tightening just enough to make him choke. "Or we start taking your fingers off next."
His fingers shook as he punched in the biometric overrides and security codes, completing the massive wire transfer.
The moment the screen flashed green, Danni snatched her phone back.
She reached into her vest, pulled out a C4 charge with a blinking digital detonator, and strapped it to his naked back.
Then, she forced him to tie his own legs together with the discarded zip-ties from her belt.
Danni turned her head toward the huddled group of women, the Desert Eagle still smoking in her hand. "Run outside. Now."