Chapter 15
TARA
“The idiot ruined my entire mission,” I screamed at the screen as the five of us watched the three burning buildings in the Bronx and Brooklyn via the street cameras I’d hacked into.
Lena pinched the bridge of her nose, Naomi stared at the burning buildings, and Samaira looked at me with a deranged smile while Sloane chewed her gum, pinging her eyes between us all.
“Stop smiling, Sami,” I shrieked. “This is fucking serious.”
A chuckle escaped her as she raised both her arms in the air. “I agree. But I’ve never seen you so animated and manic. I’m loving what you’re doing with your personality.”
Sloane popped the bubble of her gum and nodded. “Right? She used to be a shadow. All dark and broody. And look at our Tara now. All fire.”
I glared at the monitor and back at her.
Her eyes widened as she met Sami’s eyes. “What? Too early to be joking about it?”
My eyes widened, and my brain was about to bleed out of my ears at their nonchalance when Lena interrupted, “Quiet, everyone.”
Naomi met my eyes and softly asked, “Any casualties?”
I shrugged. “None that I know of.”
Lena nodded. “That’s good. Now, Tara. Calm down. What’s the next step?”
I clutched my hair in my fist and squeezed it till it hurt.
“Fuck. I had spent months locating the fucking hideouts. Weeks of our recon down the drain. Now that the NYPD has set three of the hideouts on fire, the Russians aren’t stupid.
They’re going to shut them all down and find new hideouts. So much time wasted.”
Lena was a paragon of patience. “And you know I’m just as mad. But we knew the risk. It could’ve happened any time by any cop.”
I scoffed. “But it didn’t. It happened because Knox Steele is showing off. He’s instigating me directly.”
Samaira’s lips twitched in a smile, but I pointedly chose to ignore her and faced Lena. “The only thing we can do is start back again. One hideout at a time. Fucking hell.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll add more time and resources to locating them.”
I bit my lip as I stared at the burning warehouses. “All this because he stole that kidnapper from me. If I had him captured, I’d have made better use of that asshole. We need to kidnap a Russian lackey. We need to know the key players here. Without that, we’re just taking blind shots.”
Naomi nodded. “Let’s focus on that. Getting the key players. If we find them, we’ll locate the hideouts.”
A spark of hope lit back up in my heart. “Fine.” I gave her a small smile. “But I’m going to need to kill someone now.”
Sloane popped her bubble gum. “You’re in for a treat, babe. You, me, and Sami. Six businessmen who raped and abused four young girls.”
A real, vicious, ruthless smile slipped across my face. “Sounds like a party.”
“Let’s fucking go,” Sami yelled, banging on the desk, making us all chuckle.