Chapter 33
SAMAIRA
I t was a new day and a new mission. Tara, Sloane, and I had just returned to Thunder Claw from the safe house.
The mission was quite straightforward. A woman had caught her husband sexually abusing her seven-year-old daughter, who was his stepdaughter.
She’d found us through another one of our networks. It was an in-and-out mission.
Greg was an unemployed, alcoholic fuck. We’d found him drunk on his couch.
It had taken Sloane half a second to slit his throat.
She had a special kind of hatred reserved for abusive stepfathers and foster fathers.
All Tara and I had to do was help her take the body to the safe house.
Lena had already called the cleanup crew when we arrived there.
Once they’d taken care of the body, we’d cleaned up there and returned when it was dark outside.
The moment I stepped foot inside the Den at Thunder Claw, I rushed to my phone.
I hadn’t even stopped to change into normal clothes and was still decked in all my Wildcat gear sans the mask.
I’d dropped Dominic a message when I’d left for the mission, and I was sure I’d find at least a few texts from him.
We never really carried our personal phones on missions, just in case we dropped them somewhere and got compromised.
So it was surprising when I didn’t find a single message waiting in my inbox. What the fuck!
That wasn’t like Dominic at all.
Immediately, I placed a call to his phone. Nothing.
Something ugly churned in my stomach. All my senses started to ping, and fear skittered down my spine. “Tara,” I screamed.
She came rushing out of the bathroom in the middle of putting on her sweatshirt. “What is it?”
I dialed Dom’s phone again, panic making my fingers shake. I looked at her as his phone rang in my ears. “Track Dominic. Now.” I screamed the last word, which had her rushing to her setup.
Sloane, Naomi, and Lena rushed to the Den’s living room, their eyes going between Tara and me. “What’s going on?” Lena asked.
“I can’t reach Dominic.”
“Maybe he’s in a meeting?” Naomi asked.
I shook my head. “He would pick up my call.”
“Maybe his phone isn’t with him,” Sloane piped in.
I looked at her. “Why?”
She shrugged weakly and mumbled, “I don’t know.”
I glared at Tara as my heart started to pound so hard that I was afraid everyone around me could hear it. “Did you find anything? I last saw him when he dropped me at my place with his driver, Maxim.”
Shadow apparently sensed my distress because he bounded to me and started running circles around me. I rubbed my hand lightly on his head, but it did absolutely nothing for me.
She bit her lip as her fingers furiously worked at her keyboard. “I’m hacking into the system. Give me two minutes, Sami.”
“Fucking hurry.” Speaking of Maxim, I was glad I’d grabbed his contact number when I was Dom’s bodyguard.
I dialed his number, and after just three rings, the call connected.
My heart dropped when it wasn’t Maxim who answered.
“Good evening, this is Dr. Brown from Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. Are you related to Mr. Maxim?”
My voice shook as my knees gave out. “I’m his friend. What’s wrong?”
My eyes met Tara’s, and her face was sheet white. My mind was frozen, but my body moved of its own volition. As my legs moved toward her desk, the doctor spoke, “He’s been shot.”
My step faltered as I reached her desk and looked at the screen. A man just shot the driver, and Dominic jumped out of the back seat of their car, which was surrounded by three other cars. The man who’d shot Maxim pointed his gun at Dominic, making my heart stop in my chest.
I threw my phone at Lena, who caught it midair and pressed her ear to the phone.
Her conversation was a dull noise as my eyes zoned in on Dominic.
It was mere minutes after he’d left my place, and I hadn’t even known.
I was busy watching Sloane kill a loser when the love of my life was in fucking danger.
“Location. Now,” I barked, my vision turning into a red haze as I stormed to the locker to grab my mask.
A million thoughts circled my mind. I had just told him I loved him. How could something happen to the man I’d just given my heart to? How could I not protect him? How could I let him be taken away?
Lena immediately jumped off the couch. “We need to strategize before you storm out, guns blazing.”
I pulled out my brass knuckles, jammed three guns in my holsters, and retied my shoelaces .
I stormed into the living room, where I found Sloane, Naomi, and Tara huddled around the computer.
“Where the fuck is he? And who the fuck took him?”
Tara’s fingers were flying on the keyboard. “I’m following the street cameras to locate where they are. I ran a search on the guy who was pointing a gun at Dominic. They’re Russians.”
Lena turned to me. “Call Dominic again. Maybe his kidnappers will pick up.”
I immediately dialed the call and put it on speaker. I stared at Lena as the call went unanswered. My glare moved to Tara. “Two more minutes and I’m going out to find him.”
She didn’t respond to me, just started clicking and typing faster, biting her lip furiously.
Sloane, Lena, and Naomi rushed to their respective lockers and started changing.
As they changed, Tara gasped.
“What is it?” I rushed and went to stare at her screen.
“They’re at a warehouse in the Bronx.” She zoomed in on the screen, and I was looking at the top view of the area. “There are about fifty men here.”
My fist clenched, and my knuckles cracked. “Good. More for me to kill.”
Tara glared. “It’s five against at least fifty, Sami.”
Lena came rushing out, righting her gear. “We need a plan.”
I looked at her. “I have a plan. Kill. Maim. Bury.”
I had no idea if Dominic was alive or dead, if he was being tortured or shot. I didn’t have a minute to spare. I only knew one thing. Protect Dominic.
I plucked on my earpiece that connected me to them, plugged in the GPS on my phone, and, without a glance at the girls, stormed out of the basement. I knew they’d come. I just didn’t have time to plan it.
My bike started with a roar, and I was zipping through the streets of New York City.
My heart raced, and my mind had absolutely shut the fuck down.
If something had happened to Dominic, if there was even a single fucking scratch on Dominic, I was going to destroy the motherfuckers who dared to lay a hand on him.
I sped up the bike, the wind hitting my face and rushing through my hair, doing absolutely nothing to calm my racing heart. Fear was spreading through my body like a wildfire, the mere thought of losing Dominic making my limbs tremble.
Tears slid from my eyes and got swept away in the wind, my mind urging me to go faster and faster.
I was going at a flat-out speed, and every traffic signal “miraculously” turned green at the right time.
“Crimson Tiger, checking in.” Lena’s voice came through my earpiece.
I sniffled. “I’m here. What’d you find?”
“The warehouse belongs to the Russian mob. The only person you and Dominic have targeted is the state attorney. Seems like the attorney might’ve been involved in some shady business with the mob.
They must’ve had some deal in place, and the disappearance of Thomas Cooper must’ve affected him in some way. ”
“Not for long,” I said, imagining slicing the throat of the Russian fucker who pointed his gun at my man.
“You’re not going to wait for us to catch up, are you?”
“Don’t ask me to, Lioness.”
“I understand. One order, though. Do not go in guns blazing. Take out as many as you can without getting noticed.”
“So no guns?”
“For as long as you can.”
“Thanks, Lioness. See you soon.”
“Do not fucking get caught or injured. We’re not far behind you.”
“Yes, boss.”
I parked my bike two blocks from the warehouse. It was easier to conceal myself in the dark. I didn’t waste any time climbing the fence of the warehouse.
With a swift snap of necks, I had two men down. I’d have only injured them if I could have shot them in the knees or something. But snapping necks was the easiest way to silence these men without alerting the others. I hid their bodies behind the car that was parked near the side of the building.
My only goal was to get to Dominic as quickly as possible. I didn’t waste time in killing off whichever men came in my way. I looked up and around the building, trying to find an alternative entrance to the building other than the front one.
As I circled the building slowly, I killed off three more guys who had accidentally seen me.
There were ten other men circling the area around the warehouse, whereas three stood at the entrance with massive guns.
Every man in this building was an enemy.
Four cars had gone and kidnapped Dominic.
If I had to kill every single one of them to get Dominic out of here, I would do it without a stain on my dark, murderous soul.
I finally found an open window on the third floor at the back of the building.
Before one of the men could spot me, I climbed up the pipe at the side of the building.
Luckily, it was on the same side as the window opening.
Considering I’d been climbing up trees and fences for years now, the pipe took me under a minute to climb.
The darkness cloaked me in shadows, and I jumped through the window and inside the building without being spotted.
The moment I turned around to face the room, my feet came to a screeching halt. Eight pairs of eyes stared at me. Not one belonging to the men whom I was about to crush.
These were eight tearful sets of eyes of young women gagged and tied. They all sat in a corner on the floor, their hands and feet tied up, a cloth wrapped around their mouth. Tears streamed down their cheeks, and a few of them had bruises on their faces.
Immediately, I turned to my earpiece. “Golden Lioness, Crimson Tiger here. You copy?”
“Crimson Tiger, copy. What is it?”