Chapter Thirty-Six – Warren
Our tech guys work fast. Our company’s network is back up and running with some added security features. They were able to track the location of the hackers after triangulating the… you know, I’m going to be honest here and admit I stopped paying attention when they were going over their findings. All I know is: we know where they are.
And we’re heading straight for them.
Me and Pax were suited up, our team ready to go, when Darius and Nic joined us in the armory. As Nic puts on a bulletproof vest on beside me, I ask, “Are you sure you should be coming?” Who can forget the last time something happened, when Darius and I almost lost him—if we lose him today, I honestly don’t know how we’ll ever recover.
“I have a strange feeling about this one,” Nic says. “A house in the bad part of the city? Something’s off.”
Darius doesn’t say a word, but I know he feels the same, because he nods along with him. Pax, on the other hand, doesn’t hesitate to bark out, “As long as you all know that this is my team and I’m the one in charge, I don’t give a fuck who tags along. We roll up, surround the residence, and bust our way inside. I want as many of these fuckers alive as we can. We need to know why they attacked our system.”
“Understood,” Darius says, while Nic only nods.
Soon enough we’re all huddled in what’s basically an armored van, each of us wearing black, with our own chosen weapons. Me and my knives. Nic and his nine-mil. Darius and his shotgun. Pax has a whole damn arsenal on his body, and the rest of the team sticks to the usual. All in all, we ride in two separate vehicles, a full team of twelve.
We don’t know what we’ll be walking into, it’s true. It isn’t the first time we’ve been sent into the unknown—but it is the first time since Nic’s near-death experience. Maybe his comment about something not feeling right stuck with me, but the longer I’m in that van, staring across at Nic and Darius, the more I feel it, too.
This one’s different. There’s more to it than we know. Something weighs on my shoulders, something I can’t describe. It almost feels like… like the closer we get to this operation’s home base, the closer we’re getting to something else. Like an invisible string has been strung, only I don’t know what’s on the other side, pulling at me.
Pulling at Nic and Darius, too, by the looks on their faces—and if that’s the case, then…
I narrow my eyes at Darius. “What do you know?” We hit a bump in the road, and everyone in the van lurches.
When Darius doesn’t say a word, Pax leans in, “What is it? If there’s more to this mission than you’re letting on, my team deserves to know.”
“I got a call from our mother,” Darius finally relents. “Mercedes was taken when she was grocery shopping.” His words hit me like a knife to the heart, and I’m so stunned I can’t speak. For her to be taken the exact same time hackers were trying to infiltrate our company servers… no way in hell is it a coincidence.
Nic frowns at Darius. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t Mom call me, too?” He glances at me. “You get a call?”
I shake my head no while Darius answers him, “She probably thought we were all together—and we are now, so if this mission needs to turn into a rescue mission, we’ll all be there.”
“You should’ve told us earlier,” Nic says, and I wholeheartedly agree with him, but I’m too pissed off to say a word.
It’s Jay. It has to be. He made a move to get us out of the house, and then he took her. If the fool thought he’d get away with this… he’s more stupid than I thought. I’m going to wreak so much bloody havoc on him he’ll be unrecognizable by the time I’m done with the asshole.
“Fucking hell,” Pax mutters with an annoyed frown. “This mission just got more complicated. You should’ve mentioned it earlier, Darius—if there’s a civilian in there, we can’t go in guns blazing. We have to go fully non-lethal to avoid possible casualties.” The lines on his face harden as he pulls out his phone and, I assume, sends an update to the men in the other vehicle.
The air in the armored van shifts once it’s out in the open. The men around us are busy glancing at each other, while Darius stares solemnly straight ahead, just to my right, at the empty space between me and the guy next to me.
“What if she’s not there?” I ask. “What if he took her to a separate location?” As I voice the question, Nic blanches, his skin so pale it’s practically translucent.
“Then we’ll beat it out of him,” Darius says. “One way or another, we will get her back. She’s ours. I won’t sleep until I know she’s safe.” The vehemence in his tone tells me he means each word.
If things were different, I might laugh at the switch in our stony leader. The silent one, the one who has always been so focused on work that he never had a personal life, is now going out of his mind at the prospect of losing Mercedes, his scent match.
If she was my scent match, I sure as shit wouldn’t have held back like he did. I wouldn’t have had the patience, the willpower. I would’ve gotten on my knees and begged her to accept me, and then I would’ve spent every waking moment I could in my bed with her. Now, Darius probably feels like he wasted so much time, and what happens if we never find her?
I know the answer to that: he’ll go crazy. I’ll go crazy. Nic’ll lose his mind, too.
The rest of the ride drags on into infinity, or that’s what it feels like now that the stakes have been upped. Once we get close, Pax radios the other van so they can hear his spiel. Team A and Team B, blah, blah, blah, and then Team C: us. Me, Nic, and Darius. While the others are busy overpowering and restraining whoever’s in that house, it’ll be our jobs to quickly search it and pray to whatever god you believe in that we find her.
Please, Mercedes, be safe. We’re coming.