“You alright?” Maverick asked as he flanked my side. I’d found the port easily, making several phone calls after dropping Reese off at Hudson’s house where she’d remain under Valentina’s watchful eyes.
At least Hudson’s wife knew what to expect and how to handle Reese while I was gone.
And I planned on returning within the hour with Briana as my passenger, safe and sound. Nothing would stop me from making that happen. Not a single man or any thought of following the letter of the law. I was past that moment in my life and in my profession. Tonight, I was a vigilante. Maybe I was working with the good guys, but I certainly didn’t consider myself one of them.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. We’ll get through this. Chase is on his way. The warehouse was all but cleaned out, but they were messy. Which means DNA.”
“Where’s your cavalry?” I barked out.
“Stop worrying,” Hudson growled.
“I can’t. We’re talking about young girls here.” God, I was hot.
Just then several vans pulled up. We crowded the shadows, waiting patiently.
“They’re here, Kendrick. All twenty-five of them.” Maverick grinned like this was merely a formality.
“Don’t put anything past them. We go in when we see the women.”
I wasn’t certain I’d heed my own advice. I was trigger happy and angry. A dangerous combination.
“Slow and easy,” Gabriel said from behind me.
Hearing his voice, I turned. He’d brought four of our other men with him, highly trained in the art of reconnaissance.
That we didn’t need as much as we did firepower and the ability to protect the poor victims.
There were events in a man’s life that changed him. Emily’s death had been one. Meeting Reese another. Now this.
The vans were parked, a group of men getting out and canvassing the area. A huge cargo ship was docked at the berth. From what I’d been told on the way over, filled in by Ruger, the ship was owned by an Arabian sheik, another member of the group.
As far as Steven Powell, his identity had also been finally discovered. Russian mafia. With crime syndicates usually at each other’s throats, the fact they’d found an alliance in the capture and auction of innocent women was beyond cruel and horrific.
But par for the course.
You couldn’t trust a criminal. They always found new methods of acting on their greed and fulfilling their twisted needs.
So here we were, waiting like good soldiers, determined to do the right thing.
No matter what happened, I was beginning to doubt in the justice part. Maybe what we were about to do was simply acting on our collective desires for revenge for all the cases we’d encountered and had been forced to watch crumble into dust.
And the strangest thing of all was that I’d preferred to do it this way. Vigilante style. Did that make me no better than a criminal? Maybe.
But I was okay with that.
For now.
The first sight of a girl being dragged from one of the vans was our cue to move in.
That’s exactly what we did. We swarmed the area, coming from every angle, every shadowed position.
Dozens of men and several women, a collective force of good versus evil.
One directive was to be followed.
Protect the women.
