We were avenging angels coming to enact a profound justice on a monster.
Chapter Nine
Forest
I let my team explore Mitzy’s VR scenario and familiarize themselves with the layout of Snowden’s compound. I took one run through the facility, imprinting every room, hall, stairway, and exit into my memory.
It was the best we could do to control the situation. The Fog of War wasn’t foggy without reason. Things came up no one expected. That would be our challenge.
Adapt and overcome.
I had the best team in the world by my side to do just that.
We weren’t going to adapt and overcome. We were going to be victorious.
After we familiarized ourselves with the layout of Snowden’s estate, we went about how to breach the walls, which entrances to take, and where we thought Snowden would be when we got there.
There had been a time when Xavier would have been on the invite list, but his business with Snowden blew up when Zane Carson went down.
“This is a major event for Snowden’s enterprise.” Xavier shifted beside me.
Xavier and I stood in an inner courtyard where the bulk of the party would take place. I remained in awe of Mitzy’s ability to replicate the real thing in this virtual space.
“Seems a risky endeavor,” I said.
“It is, but understandable. Most of those on the invite list are clients, and others are business associates being vetted for their potential interest.”
Revulsion ripped through me. Sometimes, Xavier had a way of speaking about the slave trade as if it was nothing more than talking about the weather.
Vetted for their interest?
How did that happen exactly? After a board meeting, did these men hang out by the water cooler and casually drop in a mention about Hey, Frank, you interested in fucking a little girl? Or Tom, you like boxing, right? Would you be interested in watching boys fight to the death?
How did that ever come up in conversation?
I knew the answer.
We weren’t dealing with sane men. Unfortunately, Xavier understood this world far better than I ever would. I could only see it through the lens of a previous victim.
Xavier and I pulled off our VR headsets and stood to the side while my men ran several drills. Our conversation would be private this way.
“After we sent him to ground with Carson’s death, his bottom line took a hit.” Xavier scratched at his jaw. “We all but buried his death matches, and he lost business as a result. A lot of his clients are concerned his clientele list got out, and that makes them nervous. Many have cut ties.”
Snowden’s list had got out. I had it, but we hadn’t turned it over to the authorities. Raven, Mitzy, and I launched cyber warfare on Snowden’s clients. I wanted to take them down by hitting their bottom line.
If they didn’t have the cash to feed their depraved appetites, then Snowden lost clients. The goal was to take down the entire organization, and we were working on it, one stone at a time.
“I wish we’d done more to save more kids.” I puffed out a sigh and tilted my head back to stare at the crumbling majesty that had once been present in the estate Xavier appropriated for our headquarters.
Everything decayed with the relentless march of time. I had billions at my disposal and owned several homes that rivaled this place. Someday, those would fade. It was unrealistic to think otherwise.
Everything changed.
“Unfortunately, Josh did little to impact Snowden’s sex-trafficking organization.” Xavier picked his way around my men, who still ran drills in the virtual landscape Mitzy created. I followed in his wake.
“And where is he? Will he be joining us?”
Xavier shook his head. “Josh is out of this. He wants no part in this world, not after what we did to him. Besides, his slave, Clara, is nearly due. Did you hear they’re expecting twins?”
“No, kidding?”
I found that interesting, considering Josh was a twin. His twin brother, Jake, introduced me to Kate Summers, and through her, I found the vivacious Mitzy and stole her for myself.
“I can understand him wanting distance from all of this.” An unexpected twinge rippled through me.
Everyone around me seemed to be finding their one true love and was settling down. Skye and Ash were building their family. Ryker and Tia were engaged. Bent had Piper; no kids yet. Thick-headed Bash found the love of his life. He’d also discovered he was a father to a very feisty teenager. Even Xavier found Raven.
I had no one.
Xavier cleared his throat. “He rescued scores of boys and girls, but the sad truth is that operation in Bangladesh was only the tip of the iceberg.”
“True.”
Josh accomplished the impossible after we gave him no choice. Keeping his distance had more to do with that than the pending delivery of his twins.
Snowden funneled thousands of young girls through his business. He sent scores of boys to their deaths in his death matches. We appropriated Josh, due to his unsavory history, for that job. We saved many, but there were still so many more.
“I’m concerned about how we’re going to isolate Snowden from his guests.” That was my biggest concern.
Xavier gestured for me to follow him. “We know his security plan.”
“How?”
Xavier returned a grin. “Let’s just say I’ve been working at this for a very long time.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, I have a man on the inside. Your team has been briefed on their movements. We’re not separating him from his guests. We disable his security, then take him. Trust me; his business associates will not interfere.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“Because I know what kind of men we’re dealing with. They’re rich, bored, and scared of losing everything. They won’t be a problem and will likely hand Snowden right over. As long as we let them go.”
I wanted to believe him, but it seemed too easy. I trusted no one. That itch between my shoulder blades was acting up. I’d learned to pay attention to what that meant. It was a warning. Xavier, however, seemed unconcerned.
“And how many are we looking at?” I expected resistance. A man like Snowden didn’t get where he was, or stay there, without a robust security detail.
I had two teams of six men. Xavier’s babysitting team added four more. With me, we had seventeen total going up against how many?
“My source says thirty armed guards. A third will be disguised as help. We take out the perimeter guards quietly, cut down the odds, then take out his personal guard.”
“The odds are stacked against us. They’ll outnumber us two to one.”
“We know their positions on the outer wall, outside the main house, and in the garden where the guests will be. Stealth will be key. Take them out and keep moving. Once you have Snowden, nothing else will matter.”
There would be a whole lot more involved, but that was obvious. I had men proficient in black ops, plus we had Mitzy and her team guiding us. We should be able to take down Snowden’s security as long as we weren’t detected along the way.
I needed to have faith.
For that reason, and that reason alone, I gave in to Skye’s concerns…sort of. I wasn’t going to lead my teams. Instead, I was going to hang back at the beach while my men took out the outer layer of security. Moving in behind my team, I’d slowly make my way forward.
I didn’t have to be the one to capture Snowden. We planned for a helicopter extraction when all was said and done. There would be plenty of time to kill Snowden.
“How much time do we have?” Fatigue pulled at my bones. Not because I was tired, but because being this close to my goal had taken nearly a lifetime. Years of preparation and planning would all come into play over the next few hours.
“We take off in ninety minutes. Final briefing on the insertion is right before takeoff.”
Insertion.
It was a fancy term for donning fu
ll scuba gear, climbing into a helicopter, then jumping out of said helicopter to plunge into the dark waters of the South China Sea where we would swim underwater for a mile, using our DPVs.
Easy peasy.
My stomach churned.
I didn’t like swimming. That made scuba diving a challenge. Throw in having to use rebreathers, and a mile swim underwater in the dark, and I was moments from a full-blown panic attack. Not that I’d share that with anyone.
Whatever it took, I was getting this done, even if that meant swallowing my vomit because I felt like I was going to puke. I needed someone to calm me down.
“I’m going to find Skye.” My sister was my anchor.
“I’ll be here.” Xavier leaned against the wall and watched our men who were still immersed in the VR simulation.
I trotted down to where her team had set up.
No Skye.
“Hey, Ryker.”
Ryker looked up from playing cards with Tia and Eli. A quiet man, I had never had a conversation with their trauma surgeon. He gave me a nod, then went back to his cards.
“What’s up?” Ryker pulled a card out of his hand and set it on the floor in front of him. “You guys almost done?”
“Last minute drills in VR. Where’s Skye?”
Tia gestured over her shoulder to a window opening up onto one of the courtyards.
“She said she needed to get some air.”
“Thanks.” I headed out into the courtyard. “Skye? You here?”
“Over here.” Her tiny voice led me to a corner where the once impressive gardens had gone rogue.
“Whatcha doing?” I joined her in the corner and sat on the concrete bench.
She had picked several flowers and gripped their long stems. Skye saw beauty in places I only saw decay. She had a beautiful mind and a wonderful outlook on life.
“I needed to get out of there. I thought it would be easy, but it started to feel a little overwhelming. I came outside for fresh air and to pick flowers.”
“They’re pretty.”
Skye handed them to me. I buried my nose in the petals and inhaled the floral scent. Hesitantly, I placed my hand to her shoulder. The fine hairs on my skin lifted, but I gritted my teeth, pushed past the sensation, and slowly lowered my hand until my palm brushed her skin.
“It’s going to be fine.”
“Is it?” She held very still while I touched her.
The muscles of my jaw bunched as the all too familiar revulsion flowed through me when I touched her. Not that Skye disgusted me.
Far from it.
She was a veritable angel.
I hated the response of my body. I hated the pain I’d caused her. I hated myself. None of it had been my fault, although it took years of self-medicating with drugs and fucking countless men until I realized the truth.
We were both working through our triggers. Skye had no problems with me touching her. She never had.
I placed a little more pressure on her shoulder, and she put her hand on mine.
“We’re healing, Forest. Someday, it will all have been a dream, a nightmare that no longer controls us. Tonight, we slay our demons.”
Our demons.
That’s what we called our foster father, Clark Preston, and John Snowden. The trauma they caused left triggers we were helpless to fight.
She had her triggers, and I had mine. Her husband worked with her on moving past hers. It was the one thing I admired most about Ash. I’d idolized him when he was nothing more than my rock idol. I may be an Angel Fire fanatic, but when he married my sister, I learned the true depths of his heart.
The man had incredible compassion. Not many men would be able to handle a wife who couldn’t have sex without triggering a PTSD flashback. Well, Skye could have sex, but she couldn’t have the kind that brought her pleasure. It took Ash a very long time before he could give Skye an orgasm.
Not that I was all up in my sister’s sex life, but Skye and I were close. Those triggers came from a past we shared. We talked about a lot of intimate stuff.
Skye had her husband to help with her issues, and she tried to help me with mine, but the darkness within me wasn’t something she could fix.
I was left to fend for myself and wrestle my demons alone.
“Tonight…” I squeezed her shoulder then let go. “Tonight, we bring Snowden down.”
“I’m scared.” She turned to face me. “I can’t explain it, but there’s something in my gut—”
“I feel it too.”
There was a churning sense of unease I couldn’t ignore like we were missing something. It was a sense of apprehension that left me unsettled.
“But let’s not give voice to our fears, my summer sky. Let’s not give power to those demons.” I swept my arm out behind us, where my men readied themselves. “We’ve got a top-notch team. From the men on the ground to our tech team in Command. We’ve planned for every contingency.”
“I know. The scared little girl in me is trying to crawl out. I knew there was a risk of regression the closer we got to him, but I thought I was strong enough.”
“You are strong enough.”
“If you say so.”
Snowden had wanted to take me to the death matches when I’d been a skinny teenaged kid, but he planned much worse for Skye. The man had done things to her, forced her to submit, and embrace his power over her. She did it to save me, but something broke inside of her when none of it mattered. She hadn’t been able to save me from Snowden.
All the abuse, the forced sex, the men we’d been rented out to, all of it were things we talked about as a part of our healing. We never spoke of what Snowden had done to her, how she tried to save me, and how she failed in the end.
Chapter Ten
Forest
I felt better after talking with Skye.
This was our journey; we would write the final chapter of a dark past tonight.
As the sun dipped toward the horizon, we headed toward the helicopters. The humidity made the drysuit unbearably hot, and sweat beaded my brow. The sun might be going down, but the Philippine air didn’t care. It held on to its heat with a relentless determination to make my life miserable.
Fortunately, we would fly with the doors open, and I welcomed the relief the wind would bring.
A glance told me I wasn’t the only one suffering. Not that we had a choice. We needed to be ready to enter the water the moment we got to our destination.
“Love you, sis,” I said one final goodbye.
“Don’t die on me.” She wrapped me in an uncharacteristic hug.
Maybe it was my drysuit that insulated me from her touch, but I didn’t flinch. I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist and kissed the crown of her head.
“I promise.”
She looked up at me. “I mean it, Bean. Don’t die.”
“I promise, my summer sky.”
“Please take care of yourself. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Her medical team would stay behind. They would only be activated if one of our guys needed their unique skill set.
My plan was for Skye’s team to be bored to tears.
I climbed inside my designated helicopter and took an outermost seat.
Ben, Chad, Bay, and Mel were right by my side. I expected they wouldn’t be further than arm’s length from me the entire time; me and my nannies.
We split Bravo team between the two helicopters. Three of them joined us, and three went with Alpha team in the other helicopter. The whine of the engines filled the air, kicking up dried leaves and dust as the rotors spun up.
Slowly, we lifted off the ground, and I reminded myself I should wave goodbye to Skye.
It was something Sara would have made me do. Funny how thoughts of my assistant filled my mind.
I bet she was having the time of her life with little Zach. Did they make it to the zoo? Did she take him to the aquarium?
Those were a complete waste on a kid that small, but Sara seemed to think it
mattered.
Was she cuddling with him on the couch? What would that feel like? Cuddling with Sara?
Where did that come from?
I never thought I’d have a family with kids of my own running around. And I most certainly never saw myself with a woman. They were too fragile for the things I craved.
I needed the strength of a man when it came to sex; someone strong enough to beat me, or at least put up a good fight. Sadly, few men fit that bill.
But a woman?
I filed the odd couch-cuddling thought away. Besides, I wasn’t interested in Sara in that way.
I admired her. She never once put her needs ahead of mine. The woman was kind and selfless to a fault. She took care of my sorry ass, and I didn’t make it easy on her.
Part of taking care of me meant she coached me on how to act around people, like reminding me to wave goodbye when heading out on what could be considered a risky operation.
But that’s where it stopped.
It had to. I had nothing to offer a woman like Sara. I had little to offer a man other than a rough fuck, which often left bruises behind.
With thoughts of Sara whispering in my mind, my goodbye to Skye turned more exuberant. Sara would be proud.
Down below, Skye blew me a kiss. I did a dorky thing and caught it. When I placed it over my heart, her eyes widened, then she folded her hands over her heart.
I bet that misted her eyes. Skye was a tough cookie, but she had a sentimental side I kind of liked.
The helicopter spun in the air, taking Skye from my sight. I made a mental note to thank Sara for reminding me that little things did make a difference.
With dusk deepening as the sun sank below the horizon, we flew away from the mainland to our designated insertion point somewhere in the South China Sea.
The wind cooled me down. All around me, my men checked their gear. Ben put on his harness then gave me a look. With a huff, I stopped daydreaming about Sara and got to work prepping my gear.
“Five minutes out!” The pilot’s voice crackled through our headgear.
Ben and I completed our buddy checks, and then he turned to Mel.
Forest's Fall (Captive Hearts Book 3) Page 8
