Chapter 22
TALBOT
“Comm check,” Leighton purred, and I grunted my confirmation.
I sat in the fork of a tree, my eyes trained on the small cluster of trailers around a shed that looked like it was one bad storm away from collapsing.
The fact that my mate lived there, between the piles of trash and rusted cars, in pain and suffering, set my teeth on edge.
I watched the teams diverge, swooping around the darkness.
There were a few outdoor lights, but all it managed to do was create shadows for us to hide in.
In the middle of it all, with all the lights on inside, was a brand-new RV. Beside it was a speedboat. I didn’t need any recon to know that was where the Alpha slept while his pack lived in squalor around him.
Everything was quiet. It was three in the morning, and even the most hardcore partiers were calling it a night by now, especially on a Tuesday.
I watched as Vance and Franklin moved to the front door of the RV and slipped inside.
I waited for the confirmation that Dawn’s old Alpha was dead, but there was silence.
“He isn’t here,” Vance said over the comms, and I swore. Where the fuck was he? I swept my scope around the encampment then cursed.
“Lights incoming from the main road,” I told them. Farther down the dirt road, I could see a beat-up truck. Standing around it were four men, including the Alpha. Fuck.
“He’s out by the gate. He’s meeting with someone.”
“Obviously. They probably aren’t doing a séance,” Leighton replied sarcastically. “Orders?”
“Rien, see if you can count how many incoming. Benson, Maxi, and Leighton, I need you to round up the civilians and move them somewhere safer in case this turns into a firefight. Jez and Vaskar, with me on the east, Vance and Franklin, on the west. Watch and wait.” Vente paused as everyone acknowledged their orders.
“Talbot, watch our six. If anyone looks like they are going to do anything stupid, take them out.”
I breathed out. “Copy.”
Focusing on the scope, I trained my sight on the piece of shit that made my girl’s life a fucking misery. Keeping my finger from pulling the trigger was harder than I expected.
I wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer, but I would avenge every single hurt that Dawn ever had to suffer, and I couldn’t do that if I gave him a quick and painless death.
Both Franklin and I were good snipers, our natural competitiveness making it easy to expand our skills until there wasn’t much between us by way of accuracy.
The only difference is that I was better at climbing trees as an overwatch, and he preferred more urban settings where he could climb some very sturdy stairs to get to his vantage point.
“In position,” Vance murmured, and Vaskar echoed his words.
I could see Jez and Leighton clear out the first trailer, and I was surprised no one had screamed just yet.
They herded a woman with her young in her arms, and Maxi’s words were soft and reassuring.
Maybe they were so beaten down that even strangers appearing in the night couldn’t scare them, or maybe it was that weird cocktail of Benson’s strong Alpha pheromones and Maxi’s smooth beta reassurance.
I strongly doubted it was Leighton, since she had the reassuring vibe of a mountain lion.
The car that was traveling down the road finally stopped, and two big guys stepped out. One was in a leather jacket and ripped jeans like he was some kind of gangster wannabe, and the other guy was just in blue jeans and a polo. He was definitely the money man.
They were almost certainly shifters, but from here, I couldn’t tell what species. We were on radio silence, so I couldn’t even ask, even though occasionally it made a difference in where I tried to shoot, but when in doubt, nothing could recover from a headshot.
They walked up to Alpha Derrick, and they all laughed heartily like they weren’t outside at three in the morning to sell off a child to fuck knew what.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but whatever it was, it had the rest of my team growling low.
If they didn’t get their shit together, they were going to give away their positions, or maybe that was what they were waiting for—for the other fuckers to make a move so we could put them down with impunity.
When one of the Truckee-Reno pack members headed toward the truck bed, I realized it wasn’t a bag of trash in the back of the rusted old bucket, but a kid wrapped in a blanket.
I broke radio silence. “There’s a child in the back of the truck. They are about to make an exchange.”
Vente’s growl sent shivers down my spine. “I’ve seen enough. Go, go, go!”
My team burst from the darkness, specters of death summoned like they really were doing a séance down there. I watched it all through my scope, doing sweeps of the group, looking for a reason.
“Drop your weapons!” Vance shouted, every ounce of his Alpha in his words.
It was only time and practice that stopped me from dropping my own gun at his command.
Franklin went for the kid in the back of the truck before he could catch a stray bullet or become a hostage.
He dragged the kid beneath the truck, holding him tightly against his body, his gun raised.
One of the newcomers reached for the gun at his back, and I took him out.
“Sniper!” someone shouted as they searched the darkness, but there was no way they’d be able to see me.
Like the cowards they were, they scattered like roaches, or at least tried to. My team ran them down. It was over in minutes. Two were dead, but four more were face down on the ground with guns pointed at their heads. Unfortunately, the Alpha was one of the ones still alive.
“Neutralized. Leighton?” Vente asked.
“Got them all rounded up. Had three who took it a little badly, but I knocked them out rather than put them down. They might have had noble intentions.” Her tone suggested it was unlikely.
“Vance, go get your girl. She can be the judge and jury today.”
I swung my scope back toward the SUV where we’d left Dawn. Although I couldn’t see clearly through the trees, I saw her golden hair, washed out in the darkness, clearly enough. She was out of the SUV and talking to someone.
Fear pulsed through my chest. Her shoulders were stiff, and while I couldn’t see her face, I knew what she looked like when she was scared.
“Someone has Dawn,” I shouted down the comms. I abandoned my sniper rifle in the tree, jumped from the branch, and hit the ground running.
Vance had been right. We shouldn’t have brought her. Fear made my hands tremble, and I gripped my sidearm as I ran. She just had to hold on. I couldn’t lose her again.