38. CHAPTER 33
AXL
It’s two in the morning, and we’re back at the same building where we saw David Carter at our last stakeout.
From the road it looks like a boutique hotel or a high-end condo, but there are no signs and all the windows are blacked out so we can’t see inside.
Nothing about this place draws attention from the outside.
The heat signatures confirm what we suspected—women are being kept inside this building. That explains the men we’ve seen coming and going. They’re spread out, which makes us think they are being kept in separate rooms.
After we briefed the Sinclairs this morning on what we had, Tate did not want to wait. None of us believe that this is the only operation. We needed to take this one down now to see what we can learn about the larger network.
I haven’t had a single minute to check the cameras in our room.
I sent Saylor a couple of texts, and I’m fucking irritated that I haven’t heard from her since she called me an asshole earlier.
Her pulling that brat shit is going to earn her a fucking punishment.
But right now I have to focus so we all get out of here alive and get what we came for.
There are two guards on the main level and at least four more inside based on the patterns we tracked. Tonight we’re taking this place apart. We already dismantled the security system and cameras, so we have to take the guards out as quickly as possible.
Tate is running point on this one. Fox is positioned at a service entrance on the east side with Kase.
Thorne is with me at the main entrance. Priest and Crew are stacked with Tate at the back.
The parking lot has three vehicles in it.
One of them is registered to a name Crew flagged as being connected to the list of missing girls.
“On my call,” Tate says through the earpiece. “We need to leave some of these fuckers breathing to pump for information later.”
We use a device that overrides door code security.
The line turns green on the door. Thorne and I walk through the main entrance without having to force our way in.
The lobby is small but it’s clean—tile floors, a desk with a monitor, two chairs.
It looks like a fucking reception area. There’s even a fridge with a clear door that has water, wine, champagne, and energy drinks.
The first guard is sitting behind the desk, scrolling his phone. He looks up when we come through the door, and his hand drops below the desk.
Thorne puts two rounds from his silenced pistol into the man’s arm before he can pull whatever he’s reaching for. “Keep your hands where I can fucking see them.”
The guard cries out and grips his arm, falling from the chair. I’m behind the desk before he can think about being stupid, and I rip the Glock out of his hand. I shove him onto his stomach and use zip ties on his wrists while Thorne keeps his weapon on him.
“The front entrance is secured,” I say into the comms. “One guard down. There’s a desk and a monitor up here. Looks like they run some kind of fucking check-in.”
“The back is clear,” Tate responds. “Crew and Priest have the second guard. The pussy tried to run, but Priest got him.”
“I was gentle,” Priest adds. “Mostly.”
“Our side is clear,” Fox says. “We’ll make our way to you.”
I look at the monitor behind the desk and grab the mouse to scroll through what is on the screen.
It’s a booking system. There’s a calendar view with time slots, room numbers, and client codes.
There aren’t any names. But we’ll be taking this computer with us to see what we can get off of it.
I disconnect it from the internet to make sure that no one can execute any programs to wipe it before we get what we can from it.
Crew and Thorne are both good at that shit.
Thorne and I secure the guard so he can’t move, and we leave him bleeding on the lobby floor. We join the others at the back corridor.
“The rooms are on the upper floors,” Fox says. “There are two levels above this one based on the building layout. Heat signatures show guards moving on both.”
“We clear floor by floor,” Tate says. “Using only the stairs. I don’t want anyone knowing we’re coming until we’re already there.”
We take the stairwell. Priest goes first because that’s who he is, and we let him do it.
The second-floor door opens onto a carpeted hallway with doors on both sides.
There are keypads on every door. Art hangs on the walls with high-end lighting.
It’s the kind of shit you’d see at a five-star hotel.
There are two guards at opposite ends of the hall. The one closest to us turns at the sound of the door and goes for the gun on his hip.
Priest doesn’t let him get there. He charges the man and grabs his wrist and wrenches it sideways, snapping it. The guard drops to his knees, and Priest drives his elbow into the back of his head. He’s out cold before he hits the carpet.
The second guard sees what happened and runs as he brings a radio to his lips. “Alert. We have company.”
Kase takes off after him. “Goddamnit, you fuck,” he shouts at the man. The guard makes it three steps before Kase tackles him from behind. They both hit the floor hard. Kase pins him facedown with a knee in his spine and zip-ties his wrists.
“That’s four fucking down,” Kase says, breathing hard, then kicking the man in the stomach. “And we’re about to have company.”
“Move,” Tate orders. “Now.”
We don’t wait. Tate, Thorne, Priest, Crew, and I take the stairwell at a sprint. Kase and Fox hold the second floor.
Priest hits the third-floor door and kicks it open. The two guards up here are expecting us. One is positioned behind a hallway table he’s flipped on its side, weapon drawn. The other is at the far end of the corridor with his back against the wall and his gun up.
The first one fires. The round hits the doorframe above Priest’s head and sends splinters of wood into the hall.
Priest drops low, and Thorne returns fire from behind him, putting two silenced rounds into the table.
The wood doesn’t stop them. The guard behind it jerks and slumps sideways.
Priest shoots again, killing him. “We don’t fucking need that one. ”
The second guard fires twice. One round goes wide, and the second clips the wall next to my shoulder close enough that I feel it go past.
Crew steps into the hallway and puts him down with a single shot to the thigh. The man screams and drops his weapon, grabbing his leg. Tate walks past all of us, picks the gun up off the carpet, and stands over him.
“You’re going to wish he’d aimed higher by the time I’m done with your sorry ass.” Tate crouches and zip-ties the man’s wrists in front of him. He doesn’t bother being gentle about the leg.
“That’s all six of them,” Priest says. “But there could be men in the rooms with the women.”
Thorne looks down the hallway at the row of locked doors. His jaw is set, and his gun is at his side. “Like I’m worried about any of those pussies.”
Thorne drags the man down to the second floor where Fox and Kase are. Fox has the override device in his hand. He looks at the row of doors and then at Tate. “We’re going door by door to search them all. Be ready in case someone is dumb enough to try to fight us.”
Fox holds the device against the first keypad, and the light turns green. I push the door open with my weapon up.
The room looks like a hotel suite. There’s a queen bed with clean sheets, a nightstand with a lamp, a bathroom through an open door to the left.
The lighting is soft. There’s even a rug on the floor.
We know from our recon that maids come during the day.
We took one of them and questioned her to see what she knew.
That’s how we also learned that a chef is brought in to keep the women fed unless they do something that costs them their meal privileges.
I can only imagine what else they do to ensure the women do what they’re told. The fucks who run this place believe they’ve thought of everything.
A woman is sitting on the bed with her knees pulled to her chest. She’s naked. A chain runs from a cuff around her ankle to a bolt in the floor near the foot of the bed. The chain is long enough for her to reach the entire room and bathroom.
She doesn’t scream. She doesn’t move. She looks at me and then the others, trying to figure out what fucked-up thing we’re here to do to her.
“We’re getting you out,” I tell her.
She doesn’t respond. Her eyes move to Thorne behind me, then back to the chain on her ankle.
Thorne pushes past me and kneels at the bolt. He examines the hardware and then looks back at Fox. “Do any of those fucks have the keys?”
“We’ll find out.” Fox turns and motions for Priest to follow him out.
We keep clearing rooms while they handle the keys. The next three doors on the second floor are the same—a woman in each one, looking terrified and uncertain if our presence is some kind of cruel joke.
This one has bruises across her thighs and ribs, and she cowers in the corner when the door opens. “We’re not here to hurt you.”
When I get a closer look, I see that she’s the girl that David Carter walked into this building, making my jaw tighten. Fuck.
Fox and Priest come back with a ring of keys. Priest has blood on his shirt and hands. We unlock the chain for the woman so she’s free. “We’re going to take you somewhere safe. We have to get the others,” Thorne says, trying to calm her down.
This continues through the remaining rooms on both floors. There were eight women total. And one dipshit who just about pissed himself when we opened the door and interrupted his fucking. He’s dead now.
Crew, Kase, and Thorne help the women cover themselves with blankets since we couldn’t find clothing anywhere. Then we move them out of the building into the van we brought with us. The Sinclairs are taking them to a safe house. Their wives will handle the questioning from there.