Yes, he’d dated.
Look at Charlotte.
Then, she’d broken him, and he gave up. He’d wanted a relationship so badly, that he’d compromised his needs. He’d not seen the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Since then, he’d been fairly celibate.
Oh, it was hard.
Hell!
He was so damn hard, and Detective Cordelia Harding was to blame. The second he touched her, he felt it. There was that jolt of awareness right to his dick.
Shit!
That was bad, and he knew it.
He’d been thinking about her as he sat at his desk. The scent of her hair lingered, and he wished he could smell her again.
Then he’d heard the storm, and he wanted to watch it roll in. There was something sexy and amazing about a storm off of the gulf. The lightning was spectacular.
It was wild.
It was wicked.
It was…just out of his reach.
When he looked out, he saw her car. It was like he’d conjured her there.
Rogue couldn’t believe it. He was about to go live with Dakota and Zayn as they broke into Carter Foley’s home, and she was still staking out his home.
He wanted to laugh.
What else could he do?
Cry?
What the hell?
Did this woman not give up?
He recalled that scent of gardenias. It was common in the South, but never before had it given him quite the punch to his gut. Rogue wanted that punch again and again. He never wanted to forget it.
The woman confused him and his larcenous personality. He knew he should run, but he couldn’t.
She was pretty.
The blue eyes.
The blonde hair in a ponytail.
Yeah, he’d noticed her. It was hard not to. Rogue loved a blonde. If he was going to cozy down with a woman, she had to have a few simple characteristics.
If he was going to make the effort, she needed to be his type. Yes, he had one.
Blonde.
Tough.
Sarcastic.
While he knew he couldn’t, shouldn’t, have anything to do with the detective, he wished he could watch her.
Well, not now.
They were about to rescue a woman. They were about to do their thing, while he hid from a woman he wanted to find him each and every day.
His phone chimed, and he stared down at it.
‘Let’s roll.’
It was time.
It looked like the detective would have to wait. There was a mission to complete, and his friends needed him.
Rogue put in his earpiece and took a seat behind his antique mahogany desk.
Duty called.
Accessing his tech, he was ready to do what was needed to clear the way for Zayn and Dakota.
It was time to do his real work, and he’d worry about Cordelia Harding later.
“I’m with you,” he said, sitting at his desk and using the body cameras on Dakota and Zayn to be his eyes.
“Copy. We’re going in.”
Rogue got down to business. He was, after all, the best damn burglar the city had ever seen.
Sometimes, it took a thief.
And that was all he was.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Alessandro Anderson’s
Office
Homicide Captain
When he got the call directly from the FBI, he was caught off guard by the whole thing.
The FBI didn’t just call to say hello, and especially not this man.
It was Ethan Blackhawk, and he wanted them to cease and desist on Charlotte Shaw’s homicide.
For some reason.
Honestly, Alessandro didn’t know what the hell to say to that. He never saw it coming.
This was… odd.
So, when Ethan Blackhawk said to let it go, what choice did he have? It wasn’t like he could argue it.
It was that shocking.
He didn’t have words.
When he finally gathered his wits and had the balls to ask why he was being asked to do that, the FBI, true to their nature, gave him very little.
As in NOTHING.
All he did know was the FBI was investigating in his city regarding a sex ring, and somehow, Charlotte Shaw was connected.
Well, that sucked.
The last thing they needed was for the Feds to roll in, take over, and cause a media firestorm.
So, it was decided.
He was to pull his detectives off first thing in the morning. Well, at least the FBI gave him a heads-up. Normally, they rolled in and within seconds wanted compliance.
Now, he could prepare.
He could get ready.
Oh, and he could tell two detectives to back off—not that they would. He knew his people. He’d been a cop, and then he’d been promoted rather quickly. When you played ball with the people above you, they paved the way.
Now, he had a choice.
Did he buck the system or do what the FBI wanted?
If he handed it over, he wouldn’t know what was going on, and that was an issue. Call him crazy, but Alessandro liked knowing what was happening around him.
Being in the loop was paramount.
This was his city.
So, he made his decision.
He sent texts to his detectives to meet him in his office in the morning. It was getting late, and he was going to hang out and think this through.
Why bust balls and make them come in?
Tomorrow would be sufficient.
As luck would have it, one of his detectives was going to take some personal time. Okay, well, that was lucky. Only, he knew who was going to be the tough one.
Detective Harding.
He had to play this just right, or he would have a disaster on his hands.
He knew her.
Leaning back in his chair, he thought about what Ethan Blackhawk had given him.
Sex ring.
Undercover sting.
Yeah, bad things were coming, and Alessandro had to stay ahead of the ball.
It was a priority.
For everyone involved.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Carter Foley’s
Home
Hours Later
It was a fortress.
From what Zayn could see, this was going to be one of the hardest places he’d ever broken into since they couldn’t use brute force.
This was going to be a delicate operation.
There were people inside.
That he knew.
How?
They’d sat there, and eight minutes ago, two armed guards exited the building, locking the front door.
They headed out, and it appeared that they had been the only ‘guards’ on duty.
Well, they’d been right. Whoever the hell Carter Foley was, he was rolling in it. He had enough money to ensure his home was secure.
“I know that one,” Zayn whispered. “The driver.”
“Who?”
“He’s a hired gun. He’s scum. I say that knowing what people consider me, and I’m a freaking saint in comparison. He slit his own mother’s throat.”
Yikes.
That was bad.
“I think the house is empty,” Dakota stated.
Zayn watched it and gauged how long the guards had been gone.
“I don’t think anyone is in there,” he stated. “Why would the guards leave?” he asked.
“If she’s locked up…”
Okay, that is true. Storm was a captive for a year. She was likely in bad shape.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Dakota stated.
“What?”
“The lights are out, and the security guys locked up. We may be too late. She may be dead. If you think she’s dead, I can call Elizabeth?”
Yeah, he did think it was too later for her, but this was a fact-finding mission too.
They needed to stop Carter Foley from buying anyone else if Stor
m had been fed to the gators.
“No, we go in. We have to find out who he is, and how he connects to Rosemary. If he was handed an undercover Fed, there’s a reason. She’d be a liability to Rosemary if she ever escaped. They’d make sure Carter could keep her silent or kill her.”
Dakota agreed.
“Well, let’s get this done.”
“I’m with you,” Rogue said in their ears.
“Copy,” Zayn stated. “We’re going to start the approach. We won’t have much time. If there’s an alert if we break in, those guards will be back here in under twenty minutes.”
Rogue got it.
Time mattered.
“Copy.”
They headed through the thick marsh to get closer to the house. From this distance, they could scan the place, but it wouldn’t be one hundred percent accurate. It would only give them a partial look at any bodies in the house.
“I have no one on the first and second floor,” Zayn stated. “It’s not looking good. She may be gone.”
“We go in,” Dakota stated. “She’s a Fed. We leave no one behind.”
Zayn got that as a Marine.
“Okay, at the door.”
They faced it and made sure their body cameras caught the display pad.
“That’s a hard one.”
That was NOT what they wanted to hear. There were cameras above them, recording them. That twenty-minute window was getting smaller and smaller by the second.
“Make it snappy,” Dakota whispered.
“You didn’t by any chance see the code they entered,” he asked.
“No.”
“Well, I have good news and bad news.”
“And that would be?”
“I can bypass it.”
“Okay, and the bad?” Dakota asked, guessing that was the good news. It sounded like good news.
“It’s only a temporary bypass. That system cost millions. I’m going to guess that there are steel bolts that keep that door secured.”
Zayn dropped down and looked.
Shit!
There were.
“Yep. We have them.”
“Once I deactivate the system, the cameras will not be able to be shut down, and you’ll have ten minutes before the door relocks. The only way to keep them open is to use the correct code. I only have that bypass code from the dark web.”
Oh, hell.
They didn’t even have twenty minutes now.
They had ten.
Fuck!
Zayn was NOT thrilled about this. After all, they weren’t sure Storm St. Clair was even in there. His life for a Fed?
This is why he liked being a bad guy.
It made it easy.
“Well, I don’t like that at all,” he stated.
“Yeah, if you don’t get out in ten, you’re stuck there until someone enters the code. The bypass works once. Then the system resets, AND it alerts the owner. You will have company.”
“Well, fuck me,” Zayn stated.
“Pass. You’re not my type,” Rogue stated, trying to lighten the mood.
“You know what I meant,” Zayn said.
“I suggest you pop in that code, set your watch to countdown, and hustle ass. All security systems are fallible. This one is the one that criminals like me won’t screw with, and here’s the reason why. It’s essentially a jail. Carter Foley wants NO ONE in his space.”
Well, this wasn’t good.
Now they couldn’t look around and find out who the man was. They couldn’t do anything but find Storm—if she was there.
Dakota looked up at the windows.
There were bars.
“The glass is going to be bulletproof,” Zayn stated. “This is a prison to keep people out, and purchased pussy in.”
Yeah, he was aware.
This was a tough call.
“Timing is key. I can’t come and enter the code to let you out. If the man’s coming back, he’s bringing firepower. You’re in his domain.”
They each had one clip and a backup.
They weren’t there to have a gunfight.
“Well, now we know why Storm St. Clair has been MIA. This dude has some power in the city.”
“Yeah, and you have ten minutes to beat the clock.”
Zayn looked at Dakota.
“I take it back. You can make this call. I like just being the bus. I never want to be the boss.”
He shook his head.
Yeah, no one ever wanted that shit job.
At that moment, neither did he.
“We go in.”
Dakota set his watch. They were both wearing masks to cover their faces. They had gloves on, and they were ready to go.
“Give us the bypass,” he stated. “We’ll be out in seven minutes. Those guards left a little more than fifteen minutes ago. I don’t want them turning around and locking us in. They will come back, hauling ass.”
Yeah, Zayn either.
“Seven minutes. We got this.”
He didn’t want to lose his life for a Fed, but he knew his wife saw him as a hero. It was a conundrum.
What choice did he have now?
It was go time.
“Okay, are you set?” Dakota asked.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. We head down to the basement. We scanned the upper floors. She has to be downstairs—if she’s alive.”
Dakota was good with that.
“Let us have it.”
Rogue bought the code off of the dark web and sent it to Zayn’s watch. The message appeared, and he began typing in the ten-digit reset-bypass code.
The steel locks opened, and they moved into the house with no time to waste.
Their lives were on the line.
Together, they began sweeping as they looked for a door that led down. When they finally found it, they had to cut a bolt with cutters. It was a good thing they came prepared.
That took precious time.
“We have five minutes left,” Dakota stated, as Zayn used his brute force to cut the bolt.
“We’re good,” he muttered.
Zayn could hear the security cameras moving as they tracked him. He kept his fingers crossed and kept hoping that there were no booby traps.
That would suck.
Down in the basement, there was a doorway at the end of the hall. It had a steel door, but there was the slot like a prisoner had to get their food.
That was going to be it.
All of the well-built homes of the rich had a sex-slave dungeon.
Right?
Zayn pointed, refusing to talk. They didn’t know if the cameras had audio.
At the door, he looked over at his partner, and Dakota cut the lock.
It was time to see what was behind door number…well, the only door.
As he pulled it open, and moved inside, the motion to his left caught his eye.
That’s when she attacked.
And all hell broke loose.
When she heard the footsteps, she knew they were coming to kill her. She’d heard him talking during her last rape. She heard him telling the other men that she was old news, and it was going to be a game of survival of the fittest.
Well, Storm had some fight left in her.
They were going to take her out, rape her, and let the assholes he had rape her decide if she lived or died.
NO.
FREAKING.
WAY.
They would cut her throat and dump her to the gators in a heartbeat.
Storm couldn’t let that happen.
She had to fight until she had absolutely nothing left in her to fight anymore. She was not going out like that.
She was a fighter to the end.
After pulling her wrists free of the cuffs, bloodying herself, she was ready. Naked, scared, and with only her handmade shank, she got into position. She’d kick someone’s ass or die trying.
There was no tomorrow.
There was nothing for her.
Fuck the
FBI.
She hated their guts, and she hoped she saw them on the other side. Gabe Rothschild was nothing more than a coward who didn’t keep his word.
He’d left her to rot in this perverted cage, and she was not going to wait any longer for them to be her salvation.
Time was not her friend.
If she survived this, and her race through the swamps butt naked, she was going to make sure the FBI paid.
They were public enemy number one from here on out.
They left her to die.
Worse.
They left her to be his sick toy. She’d been forced to be humiliated every day for what seemed like an eternity, and she’d never forgive them.
Never.
As she crouched in the corner, she heard the lock being jiggled. Then she heard something metal on metal as she held her breath. When he entered, that’s when she saw the gun and big, meaty arm.
He was a monster.
Beast.
HUGE.
It didn’t matter. Storm would die by her own choices, and not his.
As soon as the stranger was in the room, she lunged for him, going for his throat.
It was time to be free.
It was time to get them to end her pain.
Storm St. Clair was not going down without one hell of a fight.
And lots of bloodshed.
Chapter Six
S he fought like a hellion. No, that was an understatement. She fought like her life was coming to an end, and that gave her the advantage over both of them. She was fighting to stay alive, and they were fighting to contain her.
“We don’t have time,” Zayn hissed, as she continually tried to cut him with a piece of metal.
So, he hit her.
It broke his heart to do it since he’d never hit a woman before, but the idea of being locked in that house of horrors didn’t appeal to him either.
This was for her own good.
When she stumbled back, she hit the wall and whimpered.
Zayn and Dakota headed her way.
“Just make it fast. Just kill me,” she whispered, clearly unbothered by her nudity.
Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two) Page 18
