Hopefully, we didn’t scare any farm animals, but at this time, they’d likely be in the barn. Assuming whoever was here actually gave a shit about the animals, which was very wishful thinking considering they were literally selling humans, fae, witches, and other sentient creatures.
The van was parked right outside the barn, and I had a really bad feeling about what we were going to find in there.
We both froze when we heard voices, but they were too indistinct to understand, so after a few seconds, I signaled for Oak to go around the back while I went around the front, both of us removing our dragonscale swords from their sheaths, just in case.
Sure, it was likely that these people had bullets or spells to fling at us, but that was the great thing about dragonscale—all of that would simply bounce back off. And our reflexes were quick enough to knock a bullet off its track if need be.
Although I kind of wished I’d made Oak grab their shield, but here we were, and we couldn’t risk running back to the car now.
I made it to the front door that was left wide open. The van was sitting backed up to the barn with its doors open as well. The three victims were no longer inside.
I pulled out my borescope again and used it to record everything inside, watching on my screen while listening through my ear mic.
The woman was speaking to a group of four men. I sniffed the air, parsing through their scents, ignoring the smell of the farm and barn as best I could—farms didnotsmell good. From what I could tell, there was one vampire, one incubus, another witch, and one tiger shifter.
I winced at that last one, praying he wasn’t paying attention and wouldn’t catch the scent of Oak or me. His nose wouldn’t be as good as a dragon’s, but I had no doubt he’d be able to smell me if he paid attention.
Although, one thing in our advantage was that dragon shifters were very rare these days, so even if he caught our scent, he might not recognize what we were.
One could only hope.
I could smell an array of other beings, both sentient and animal, but they were fainter so I couldn’t tell if they were farther away or if they were… well, dead or no longer here. I’d need a closer inspection to parse it out.
“…set up for Friday night. We need to get ten more in, or Chambers is gonna be pissed,” the incubus said.
The woman sighed in frustration and took her beanie off, running a hand through her blonde hair. “Yeah, I know, but I don’t know what y’all want me to do about it. This is the haul for tonight.”
“Yeah, well, you got four nights to get the rest.”
The vampire said, “Three, actually. You won’t have time on Friday. They need to be evaluated and tagged before the clients arrive.”
I grimaced at that because that was… disgusting. How could these people talk about others that way and just… sell other people like this?
As they continued talking about how to get ten more people for their… event or whatever it was on Friday, I used my borescope to scan the barn as best I could.
I could see a few people chained up in the middle of the barn. They were different people from those in the van since they were in different clothes. But every one of them was filthy, shivering from the cold, and likely starving.
I counted them. Fifteen.
There were fifteen people there already, and I didn’t think the three from the van were in that group yet.
I scanned more of the barn, and I was pretty sure there were more people in a few of the stables.
Shit. Was this entire barn just filled with kidnapped victims these disgusting perps were about to sell? What the actual fuck?
We’d been following this trafficking ring for months and months, and this was the biggest number of victims we’d seen so far.
Did that mean we were nearing the end of the ring? Were we close to the leader?
Was that Chambers person they mentioned the head of the trafficking ring? Could we be so lucky?
I recorded for another hour before the little group broke up, and I knew we needed to get out of there before we were caught.
So I tapped my mic three times to signal we needed to retreat, waited for Oak’s responding three taps, and headed back the way I’d come. Relief flooded my entire body the second I saw Oakley safe and sound.
They shot me a small nod, and I could see on their face how disturbed they were by what they’d seen. I was sure my expression wasn’t much better.
On silent feet, we made it all the way back to the car.
