"Max, Owan," Logan continued, "you and the boys cover the stairwells and hallway. Cole and I will take point." He looked at his father.
"You're with us?" Nicholas checked his weapon, a sleek handgun I doubted was legally registered.
"Right behind you, son."
We moved as a unit, silent and focused, entering the building through a broken security door. The stench inside was worse: urine, mould, and the unmistakable sweetness of decay. Syringes littered the floor of the entryway, and the walls were coated in a layer of grime that appeared to have accumulated over decades. The elevator was out of service, a permanent fixture in places like this. We took the stairs, our footsteps echoing in the concrete stairwell despite our attempts at stealth. The housemen positioned themselves at strategic points as we climbed, ensuring no one could slip past us unnoticed.
By the time we reached the fifth floor, my body was humming with adrenaline, a cold focus settling over my mind. Logan and I exchanged a glance as we approached flat 32, the peeling numbers barely visible on the door. I positioned myself on one side, Logan on the other, while Nicholas stood back slightly, his weapon at the ready.
Logan nodded once. I returned it. And then we moved. Logan kicked the door, the cheap lock giving way instantly with a splintering crack. We burst inside; the world narrowing to threats and targets and the pounding of blood in my ears. The flat was a cesspit, trash everywhere, the stench of unwashed bodies and rotting food hanging in the air. But what cut through it all was the sound, screams, high-pitched and desperate, coming from somewhere down the hallway.
"Down there," I hissed, already moving down a narrow hallway, kicking all kinds of shit and rubbish out of my way. The closer we got, the screams grew louder, more frantic. The doorat the end was ajar, spilling sickly yellow light onto the landing. I shouldered it open, Logan right behind me.
The scene that greeted us burned itself into my retinas, adding another horror to the collection that haunted my dreams. Two men, one holding down a woman on a filthy mattress, the other between her legs, pants around his ankles. Her face was bruised, eyes wide with terror and something else, the flat resignation of someone who'd been through this before. Something snapped inside me. All I could see was Cade in that cell, Cade at the mercy of monsters like these. Logan moved first, crossing the room in three strides and delivering a vicious kick to the face of the man between the woman's legs. I grabbed the second man by the back of his greasy hair, yanking him off her with enough force to send him flying into the wall. He crumpled to the floor, dazed but conscious.
"Go," I told the woman as she scrambled to pull up her underwear, her movements jerky with panic. "Get out of here." She looked between us, fear giving way to confusion, then bitter anger.
"Fuck all of you," she spat, gathering her torn clothes and pushing past us to the stairs. I didn't try to stop her. This wasn't about her; we weren't her saviours. We were just monsters of a different kind.
I turned my attention back to the men. Logan had his target subdued on the floor, blood streaming from the man's nose where Logan's boot had connected. My guy was struggling to his feet, his eyes darting around the room for a weapon or escape route. I stepped forward and drove my fist into his gut, doubling him over before bringing my knee up to connect with his face. He went down hard, spitting blood and teeth onto the stained carpet.
"Sit the fuck down and don't move," I growled, shoving him next to his friend. Both men glared up at us, bloodied but defiant.
"The fuck is this?" the first man demanded, wiping blood from his chin. "You cops?" Logan laughed, the sound devoid of humour.
"Do we fucking look like cops to you?"
"That bitch owed us," the second man said, his words slurred through swollen lips. "She didn't pay for her shit, so we were collecting another way." The casual cruelty of it, the entitlement, sent a fresh wave of rage through me. I stepped forward and kicked him square in the mouth, feeling teeth give way under my boot. He fell back, howling in pain.
"Cole." Max's voice came from the doorway. I turned to see him standing there, a laptop in his hands. "Found this. You need to see it." I moved to his side, leaving Logan to watch our captives. Max's expression was grim as he turned the screen toward me.
"I've accessed their files. The videos of Cade are here, along with evidence of an auction they were running on the dark web. I've already shut it down and wiped the listings." I stared at the screen, my stomach turning to lead as I caught glimpses of thumbnails, Cade's purple hair, her tear-streaked face. I couldn't let myself look closer, couldn't bear to see what those files contained.
"Show Logan," I said, my voice sounding distant to my own ears. Max nodded and moved past me to where Logan stood. I heard his sharp intake of breath, followed by a string of curses that would have made a sailor blush.
"Who gave you these files?" Logan demanded, rounding on the two men. "Who the fuck supplied you with these videos?" Thefirst man, the one I'd kicked in the mouth, spat blood onto the floor.
"Fuck off." Max glanced up from the laptop. "This one's ViperChaos," he said, nodding at the man who'd just spoken. "Found his login details." Logan crouched down in front of ViperChaos, his voice dangerously soft.
"I'm going to ask you one more time. Who gave you the videos?" ViperChaos sneered, revealing bloodstained teeth. "What's it to you, anyway?" I saw the muscle in Logan's jaw twitch, the only warning before the storm broke.
"Some college kid," the second man blurted out, clearly reading the room better than his partner.
"Contacted us online, said he was getting revenge on his slut of a girlfriend. Paid us to distribute the videos, said we could keep whatever we made from them." ViperChaos laughed, a wet, gurgling sound through the blood in his mouth.
"I watched 'em all. Could tell the slut was loving it, begging for more by the end."
The room went very, very quiet.
"What the fuck do you care anyway?" ViperChaos continued, either too stupid or too high to recognise the danger he was in. I stepped closer, my voice calm despite the rage boiling inside me.
"The girl in those videos is ours." ViperChaos's eyebrows shot up.
"What, both of you?" He laughed again. "Yeah, seems like a proper whore to me-" Logan moved so fast I barely saw it. One moment, he was standing perfectly still; the next, he had the laptop in his hands and was bringing it down on ViperChaos's head with a sickening crunch. The screen shattered, plastic splintering as it connected with bone and flesh. ViperChaos slumped sideways, but Logan didn't stop. He brought the laptop down again and again, each impact accompanied by a wet thudthat filled the room. When the laptop was nothing but broken pieces in Logan's hands, he dropped it. He continued with his fists, pummelling what remained of ViperChaos's face until it was unrecognisable, a pulpy mass of blood and tissue.
I let him work, turning my attention to the second man, who was now pressed against the wall, eyes wide with terror.
"Please," he whimpered as I approached. "I swear I didn't know what was on those videos when he showed them to me. I was just here to pick up some drugs, I swear to God." I crouched down in front of him, studying his face. Fear had a way of making people honest, and I could see the truth in his eyes, along with the knowledge that honesty wouldn't save him.
