Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
ANITA
Three sets of eyes settled on me as I walked into the common area.
"Well, I didn't get notified that a cleanup crew was needed, so I guess that means things went well." Nyx crossed her arms over her chest and stared me down.
"I left Beckett in one piece if that's what you're asking." I wasn't happy about it, but for once, I did the smart thing instead of acting out of haste.
"What did you find out?" Lilith looked almost bored as she asked.
"Nothing and he's not willing to help us. Beckett is keeping things close to the vest. He definitely doesn't trust me."
"Do you blame him?" I glared at Nyx who merely shrugged her shoulder. "Don't give me that look. The man has no reason to trust us after you threatened him."
If only Nyx knew what I did this time. If she thought Beckett didn't trust me before, she would have my ass for how I treated him this time around.
"I threatened him because he didn't listen to me when I said Mason would run," I snapped back.
"Had he taken me at my word, we wouldn't be in this position.
" Nova's body wouldn't be missing, and I would've been able to lay my best friend to rest.
"Maybe so, but once again, you running your mouth caused us to lose a valuable source."
I took a step forward, prepared to unleash the fury I was forced to rein in when I was talking to Beckett, but Sloane was faster. "Enough!" She held her arms out to stop Nyx and I from coming to blows. "We don't have time for this shit right now. Hawk has an assignment for us."
Hawk was the wizard behind the curtain. No one knew Hawk's identity.
Hell, we didn't even know if they were a he or she.
All communication was sent through encrypted channels.
Hawk had come into our lives a year after starting Ghost Team.
Whoever they were, scoured the dark web for contract kills.
They knew we lived by a code. No killing innocents or children.
Everything else was fair game. We were assassins for hire and damn good at our job of removing the scum from the earth.
Hawk was an ally, and if they had an assignment, then it was important.
"Where are we going this time?" I kept one eye on Nyx as I asked Sloane.
"Off the coast of Florida." I waited not so patiently for Sloane to continue. "It's a pro bono assignment. Thirteen-year-old girl was sold to a drug lord who's known to hook his whores on drugs and let his men rape them."
"Son of a bitch!" Lilith hissed. "Why are we just hearing about this guy now?"
"Supposedly he's new to the auction scene. First time bidding on a minor. Hawk ran the guy’s name and discovered the rest. Hawk asked us to do a solid, and I said yes."
Normally we would discuss taking assignments as a team, but in this case, Sloane did the right thing. There was no way we would pass up this opportunity to save a child.
"Did Hawk put together an ops plan for us?" I was already running a few things through my mind in case.
"Yup. Hawk knew it would be a rush job, so everything is ready. We just need to catch a flight."
"Good. We leave in thirty minutes."
I was headed to my quarters before the words fully left my mouth. There was no telling what horrors that child was forced to endure, and it would be a cold day in hell before I let it go on longer than necessary.
I was by no stretch of the imagination a good person. I made my living by torturing and killing people. My official job title was an assassin. I was the thing that went bump in the night. People were rightfully afraid of me, but when it came to children, I might as well be a giant marshmallow.
Was I mother material? Fuck, no.
Did I have a maternal bone in my body? Probably not.
Could I keep a kid alive? I mean maybe. I guess that depended on what they required to survive.
But I did know that I would kill for a child and, as far as I was concerned, that was good enough.
I grabbed my go bag from the hall closet. Next, I went into the study and opened the large wall safe. It was a mini armory and contained a variety of weapons. I barely paid attention to what I was putting in the bag. Muscle memory had taken over, so it was safe to think about other things.
The image of Special Agent Walsh immediately popped into my head before I could push it away. The man was a golden god with blue eyes that a woman could get lost in. He was my opposite in every way. Where I was dark, he was light. Just thinking about him could taint his perfect persona.
I quickly shoved the thoughts into the deepest recesses of my mind where they would stay locked up forever.
It didn't matter that I found the man fuckable; he was off-limits.
Forbidden fruit. Dating wasn't something I did, and the men I fucked were on the darker side like myself.
I needed them to be that way. There was no room for light in my life. Only darkness.
By the time I made my way back into the common area, the rest of the team was already there waiting for me. "Let's roll." Time was of the essence.
We climbed into the Jeep and drove the half mile to the small private hangar we had on the property.
We rarely flew commercial unless it was a necessity.
We owned a Cessna and all knew how to fly it, so we were never left to rely on just one person.
Although most of the time, Lilith flew the plane.
She needed the control, and the rest of us were happy to give it to her.
"I'm just going to run through the preflight checklist, and then we'll be on our way.
" Lilith broke off while the rest of us boarded.
I headed straight for the cabinet where we stored the extra weapons.
From past experience, it was always better to have more than needed because we never knew what we were getting ourselves into.
Once I was satisfied everything was just as we left it the last time we were on a mission, I took my seat.
"What do we know?" I looked to Sloane. She was our main contact with Hawk.
"Hakan Arslan, he's a Turkish drug lord who's made quite a name for himself the past five years. He primarily traffics cocaine, but he's known for purchasing women at auctions to get them hooked on drugs so they will fuck his men for their next hit. Supposedly it's a game to him and his men."
Son of a bitch!
Men like Hakan made me sick. "Is there a reason he hasn't been on our radar before this?"
Sloane merely shrugged. "Hawk's kept an eye on him, but there's been no active hits on him yet."
Which merely meant he hadn't pissed off enough people to warrant an assassination attempt. "I think we need to tell Hawk we want to accept more pro bono cases. It's not like we need more money."
"It's not about the money." Nyx stared at me. "We agreed to minimize how many we took so we didn't draw attention to ourselves."
I hated that she was right. "These scumbags deserve to die though."
"I don't disagree with you, but we will be of no use if we get caught. Especially now with Special Agent Walsh back in the picture. He's going to dig deep when he realizes there's no information on you."
There was nothing to find. We made sure of that when we started the team, and now that we had Hawk, we continued to erase all existence of us.
Our old identities were gone, and only the first names we chose to go by were available.
There would never be a record of our deaths, because Anita wasn't a person, she was a myth.
"We can discuss it again after this assignment. What's the op plan?"
Sloane glanced down at her tablet. Hawk had provided it to us, and it was only to be used for assignments. It was highly encrypted, and only information sent directly from Hawk could be accessed.
"The auction takes place on a yacht out in international waters.
Only approved helicopters can land and only to pick up their purchases.
The actual auction itself is all done online.
Krista"—Sloane turned the tablet so we could see a picture of the girl—"is the only minor in the auction.
Normally these particular traffickers stick to women, so the change caught Hawk's attention. " Which put them on our radar.
"Do we know when Hakan plans to pick up his purchase?"
"All purchases need to be picked up within twelve hours of the auction closing, which was one hour ago. Hawk's got eyes on Hakan's property in Florida until we get there."
I did some quick calculations in my head. It would take us about two-ish hours to fly to Florida. That put us three hours after the auction ended. Plenty of time to stake out the property to see what we were working with.
"Does Hakan have other properties besides the one in Florida?" He was Turkish, after all, so something told me he had a property there as well.
"Yes, he has a few." Sloane's pointer finger moved a million miles a second over the tablet. "His primary one is in Florida though, and that's where he's currently residing along with a small army."
So the chances that he was bringing Krista back to the States was high.
"Get everything you can on Hakan's property. I want to know the layout inside and out by the time we land. And find out what the fuck a small army means."
The motherfucker was going to die today, and I looked forward to taking out as many of his men as possible. Anyone who associated with a child molester deserved a ride straight to hell, and I would be honored to be the one who provided it.