Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
Stella walked into the Steel Protection conference room.
The board had grown since the last time she had been there.
The seven case photos were still taped in a row across the top.
The map of the Pacific Northwest in the middle had a red marker dot on Fate Mountain.
There were screenshots of dark-web forum posts.
A satellite image of a Portland warehouse with three black security vehicles parked in front of it.
Stella took the chair beside Blaze on the long side of the table.
Dom was at the head with a folder open in front of him.
Siren was to his right with her legal pad.
Axel was two seats down from Siren with a laptop.
Hunter was at the far end with his arms crossed.
Ryder was beside Hunter, leaning forward on his elbows.
“We believe the women are being trafficked through an illegal fight club in Portland,” Dom said. “We have a location and a way in.”
Dom then laid out the operation. Blaze’s promoter contact would introduce Blaze to the operation as a fighter looking for work.
He would get access. Blaze would fight. They would build a picture of the venue and the trafficking side from the inside.
They would identify where the women were held.
Then they would pull Steel Protection and law enforcement in for the takedown.
He moved to assignments. Blaze went in as the fighter.
Ryder went as his corner man. Siren would go in as Blaze’s girlfriend.
She would move through the social spaces while Blaze was in the pit.
Axel ran tech support from a separate Portland location.
They would have eyes on Blaze and Siren through comms but not in the building.
Dom was about to wrap when Stella spoke up.
“The plan is good. But there’s one piece that won’t work.”
The room went quiet.
“Tell me,” Dom said.
She looked at Siren. “Siren. Nell knows your face. Every staff member at the diner knows your face. My father printed it off the internet two years ago and taped it to the corkboard in our break room under a sign that says Do Not Serve. Nell has walked past that wall for two years. There’s no way she’s going to trust you. ”
She paused.
“Nell knows me. She trusts me. I’m the one who can get her out.”
The room was quiet. “She’s got a point,” Siren said.
Dom leaned back in his chair. “I hear you,” he said. “The point is right. The answer is still no.”
“But…”
“Armed guards,” Dom said. “Trained traffickers. Buyers with money and lawyers. A venue we don’t control.
Civilians don’t go inside operations like this.
Civilians get killed or get taken or get used as leverage against the team that brought them in.
Siren is trained for this. You’re not. If something goes sideways in that building, you become the thing my pack has to extract instead of Nell. ”
“I take the point,” she said. “I’m not arguing it as a civilian. I’m a grizzly bear shifter.”
A beat.
“And I told Nell’s mother I’d find her. I’m not staying behind.”
Dom looked at Siren. He didn’t speak.
“She’s right about Nell,” Siren said. “The restaurant ban will make trust building challenging. I’ll do just as much for this op running intel with Axel as I can on Blaze’s arm.”
Dom turned to Blaze.
“I’d rather walk in there with a bear at my back than without one.” He looked at Dom. “It’s her call.”
Dom watched her for a long moment. She held his gaze and didn’t blink.
“Approved,” he said. “Blaze, Ryder, Stella in the building. Siren and Axel in Portland on a separate location running comms.”
He turned to Stella.
“You take orders from Blaze inside that venue. You don’t improvise. You don’t break from cover. If he tells you to go, you go. If he tells you to stand, you stand. You don’t make contact with Nell until the operation says it’s time. Are we clear?”
“Clear,” she said.
Dom moved to logistics. Stella needed a disguise. The traffickers had scouted Fate Mountain. Anyone who watched Nell could have walked into the diner. Anyone who watched Nell might know the face of the woman behind the counter.
“You don’t look like Stella Keenan in that building,” Dom said. “Wig. Heavy makeup. Different clothes. You’re a fighter’s girlfriend. Siren will handle the makeover.”
Stella pulled into the driveway of her parents’ house and sat in the driver’s seat thinking over the story she was preparing to tell them. She let herself in through the front door. The house smelled like onions and butter. Her mom was on the floor in front of the couch with her nephew Arlo.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, sweetheart. How are you?”
Stella crouched and kissed the top of Arlo’s head. He smelled like baby shampoo and oatmeal. He held up a board book and babbled about it.
“I need to talk to Dad for a minute.”
“He’s in the kitchen.”
Shane was at the kitchen island breaking down a chicken with a boning knife. “Hi honey, what brings you over today?”
Stella sat on the stool at the island. “Dad. I need a favor.”
“All right.”
“I need you to cover the diner. Starting tomorrow. Probably a week. Maybe two.”
She gave him the rest before he could ask. Nell’s mother had called. They were organizing a search effort in her hometown. Stella was going to drive down to Northern California to help Mrs. Meadows coordinate.
“I told her mother I’d find her.”
That part was true. She held on to it.
“You’re driving down there alone?”
“Yeah.”
Shane was quiet for a long second. He didn’t argue. He didn’t push.
“Okay, I’ll open tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll text you the week’s schedule and the vendor calls I haven’t returned. Produce delivery’s Thursday morning.”
She picked up her purse from the stool beside her. The bear inside her was quiet now. Shane would run her diner for a week. It would be fine.
“Thanks, Dad,” she said, leaning in to give him a hug. “This means a lot.”
Stella walked into the living room and sat down on the couch.
“Mom. I’m driving down to Eureka tomorrow to help form a search party for Nell. I’ll be gone a week. Maybe two. Dad’s covering the diner.”
Lily was quiet for a beat. She set her hand on Stella’s knee.
“Drive safely, sweetheart.”
“I will.”