Chapter Eighteen
Neith
“If they aren’t, then that’s what the earpieces are for, well, one of the reasons. If someone needs healing immediately, just call on Doc, and he’ll come,” Reed says.
I nod as I put my earpiece in.
“We need to pick up the pace, so that we can get into position,” Van orders.
We all nod and then head off in different directions with our teams. River and Ransom are with me, and the others are all split up between two teams. Reed’s team is heading to the office to secure it and to locate The Owner and neutralize him by whatever means necessary.
If that means killing him, then they have been authorized by Ty to do so, although it is preferred that he’s brought in for questioning.
Van’s team is on the main level, helping to round up all the people that work for The Owner and stopping anyone from coming down to our level, where the kidnapped prisoners are.
All of the other teams that Ty’s brought through the portal are spread around the perimeter, in the building on the main level with Van, or on the other two levels of the building to help clear it.
It suddenly hits me that this is going to be very different from any of the raids that I’ve done in the past, for more than just the fact that I’m not alone.
There’s going to be magic and supernaturals everywhere, and it's been a hot minute since I’ve done a raid with supes involved.
They are a lot more fun, but I do need to be more aware that the things flying at me could be more than just bullets, knives, or fists.
I grin, doing a little dance as I walk, which earns me curious looks from both of the guys.
“I just realized that this is my first magic and supernatural raid in a while. I mean a proper official kick the door down raid, not a sneak in kill everyone silently kind of raid,” I ramble excitedly.
Ransom grins, “Out of curiosity how many sneak in and kill everyone silently kind of raids have you done?”
“Including with Dimi?” I ask. The nickname slipping out in my excitement.
River nods, “Yeah, including with Dimitri and Coen.”
I think about it for a moment as we make our way through the trees.
“Probably, about twenty something,” I reply honestly.
“Holy shit,” Ransom mutters.
I wince, realizing that they didn’t expect me to say a number that high. Shrugging, I add, “I’m good at what I do.”
“Clearly,” River grins, not looking disturbed at all.
“This is it. This is where we’re sitting, watching an empty expanse of space for the next few hours until the building where the sales are held either appears or doesn’t,” River groans slightly.
“It could be worse,” I say.
“How’s that?” Ransom asks.
“You could not have me,” I say with a big, cheesy grin. “I mean, I know some awesome games to pass the time. Unfortunately, strip poker is out because we need to stay focused, and professional, and that’s not professional at all, especially since the only thing I’ll be focused on is fucking you.”
They both growl, and their eyes heat.
“I think you’re right, no strip poker.” River chuckles. “Eye spy?”
Ransom groans but nods as we settle in and play the longest and quietest game of eye spy ever.
“Any minute now,” Van finally says over the coms.
We worked out, well, I worked out that we have a channel that’s just for us, one just for us and Ty, and one with everyone on it.
I’m really glad that I figured that out before I said something embarrassing to all of the agents that was meant only for my men. The other agents already seem to have a problem with me, it’s not likely that they would appreciate it if I started to talk about how sexy the guys look, all geared up.
Which they do.
I’ve had to pretty much constantly remind myself that we’re on a job and I can’t touch them.
Later.
I can do something about it later.
The three of us stay silent as we watch the space where we think the building is most likely going to appear. All of us are ready to move at a moment’s notice, whether that’s into the building to follow through on the plan, or to another location if the building doesn’t actually appear here.
I wish I was the one going after The Owner for Rana, but I am actually of better use getting the kidnapped supernaturals out.
“Go,” Van says through the comms as the building appears in front of us.
Thank fuck we don’t have to waste any time moving to a new location. River, Ransom, and I all move quickly toward the building, heading toward the entrance, which is exactly where it’s supposed to be.
The building, however, is not what I expected it to be, even though I saw the map of the building, it was a blueprint kind of thing with no real detail apart from exits, entrances, and the layout inside.
I thought it would be a big warehouse type building, all corrugated steel, big and boxy, with a few offshoots that would explain the shape of the map. That’s been my general experience with things like this, but the building in front of me couldn’t be any further from that if it tried.
It looks like a stately home, a mansion, and it's fucking huge.
If I really think about it, then I guess it kind of makes sense. The Owner has a lot of people working for him, and due to the nature of what he does and the fact that the building is always moving, those people need a place to stay. He needs a big fucking house.
Plus, the kinds of people that he deals with are mostly the uber-rich, the ones who want to be wined and dined and made to feel super special as they buy a life like they have the fucking right to own it.
Those kinds of people would not step foot in a warehouse.
It kind of pisses me off more, if that’s even possible. At least with a warehouse, it looks dodgy, it looks like illegal shit is going on, and it looks like a place where people get hurt or worse, this place looks pretty, clean, and very wealthy.
Pain and suffering are made to look innocent.
I fucking hate that.
My hand moves to my pocket just to check, and I grin. I’ve still got the stuff to make the house go boom. Frowning, I realize that actually, that would be a really bad fucking idea. There’s evidence in there that we need, so I can’t just blow it up.
Well, that sucks.
Maybe I can talk to Ty and see if he will let me blow it up when everyone is done processing the place and all the evidence has been gathered? I mean that could take months, maybe even longer, but I’m willing to wait.
Actually, I bet that Rana would love to blow this place up. There’s no doubt in my mind that she suffered a lot here, and I think it would be cathartic for her to destroy it. I’m going to need to talk to Ty about that and see if I can convince him to let me get Rana to help.
If he agrees to let me blow it up in the first place.
Just like Derek’s house of evil, this place needs to go boom. Preferably a big sparkly boom.
I’ve started to toy with the idea of adding fireworks into my explosives to make them pretty, because if I’m using explosives, then subtlety has very much gone out of the window anyway, and it’s really not going to matter if my explosion is full of purple sparkles.
The problem is, I am not clever enough for that, and I don’t even know where to start in order to make it happen.
“Can you make my explosives sparkle like fireworks?” I ask Ransom.
“Right now?” He asks, his eyebrows raised as River chuckles from the other side of me.
“Well, no, we should probably focus on the current situation,” I grin as we run toward the building.
“Good idea, Neith,” River chuckles.
My smile widens. I love that they’re just going along with my crazy outbursts now, even when they are in the middle of a job.
Refocusing, I shift my mind back to the job.
We can’t fuck this up.
If nothing has changed since Rana was kept prisoner here, then behind this door, there should be a short corridor and a set of steps that lead down into the bowels of the building and to the cells.
The keys are in the guard room, but she warned us that the cells also have spells on them, and that the keys not only unlock the doors but also unlock the spells as well, so getting the keys is a must. We can’t just break the locks without releasing the spells.
As we get to the door, it opens, which is rather convenient because it means that we don’t have to worry about tripping any sort of alarm when we break in. The guy’s eyes immediately begin to glow as he spots us, and then with absolutely no hesitation, he shifts into a giant fucking tiger.
I tense, ready for the attack, as I call on Betty.
Asael apparently got a really good workout last night, and he could do with a break, plus I promised Betty I’d bring her out, and now that she’s enchanted and can make her own bullets, I should be able to end any fucker here with her without having to take their heads off to ensure that they are dead.
“Sit,” River says calmly, only a touch of alpha to his voice. The tiger sits with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. “Shift.”
“What the fuck?” The shifter growls, staring up at River with fear in his eyes.
“Tell no one about this,” River commands. He moves forward, handcuffing the guy and then knocking him out for good measure.
Ransom speaks over the comms to one of the teams waiting in the woods, to extract people as and when the opportunity arises.
“One by the side entrance, ready to be picked up,” he says. He then looks at River, “You’re going to have to be careful who you use that around. We don’t want word spreading.”
River nods, “I realized that as soon as I used it. It’s just natural for me to do it now.
Plus, it pissed my kitsune off that he was challenging us, but not enough to shift because he’s so weak.
I’ll keep a tighter hold over it all though.
We’ve already got to see Ahren and deal with the beta soon. ”
We both nod in agreement and then head through the still opened door as we see the team that’s going to take the downed tiger shifter move from the tree line.