“Yes.”
“See zone options? Codes suggest door locks can be manipulated remotely. Confirm.”
He heard her clicking. “Confirmed. All doors are now unlocked. You’ve got the run of the place.”
If only I knew where to fucking run.
“Evans, Lane—wide open access.”
“Yes, sir. Copy.”
Gabe manipulated the schematics, clicking areas he’d spotted as he did recon on the way in. He sorted through video feeds, while keeping his gaze on the monitors.
Feed 2FE-10. Bay windows, west wing. Empty bedroom. No Andi.
Leon typed furiously, then refocused on the monitors over her station. Her harsh intake of air caught Gabe’s attention. A fresh view of rooms. Multiple kids. Naked. Skinny. The monitor that had Leon’s attention showed two young men, naked, erect, and waiting, while another fucked a young girl, who was on her hands and knees. She was crying. Desperately. “Leon, what building is that in?”
“Red barn.”
“Those other rooms?” He gestured with his chin to the views he’d reported earlier.
“Also red barn,” she answered, focusing as she typed on monitors that showed the back end of the security system. Codes. Schematics.
“Ace,” he said.
“Copy.”
Feed 2FE-11. Balcony room. Overlooking paddock with mare and colt. A library. No Andi.
“Barn appears to be the epicenter. You’ll find most of the thirty victims there,” Gabe said. “Hurry. Leon. You okay?”
She nodded, then cleared her throat, but kept typing. “Ace,” she said. “There’s a satellite security station at the red barn. I’m now replaying a loop on their feed of the last ten minutes, so they will not see you or your men approach. Copy?”
“Copy.”
Feed 2FE-6. Balcony room. Overlooking pond. No Andi.
“Given the reporting audio lines into the system, and proximity data,” Leon said, glancing up at a monitor that listed names, “I’m counting at least eight hostiles at the red barn. Maybe more. Plus—Walter Long. Basement room. End of hallway. On left. Medical examination. Copy?”
“Copy. One hostile down,” Ace said. Though the mic, Gabe heard a muffled pop. “Another one down.”
As Gabe’s frustration built, the conversation in his mic receded. Until he clicked on feed 2FW-6.
Bay rooms, east wing.
Andi!
Thank you, God.
Elation turned to dread, because she wasn’t moving.
Sleeping? Dead? Holy hell. He couldn’t tell. Was this another Andi lookalike, or his Andi?
He directed the camera to pan out.
Sonja—smoking a cigarette on a settee. Her gaze on Andi. Shutting her eyes. Taking a deep drag. Leaning back on the couch. Holding in her exhale.
Andi. Easing her legs off the bed. Wary, but focusing her wide-open, gorgeous eyes on Sonja.
Relief propelled him. Lunging to his feet, Gabe started running. On his way out of the security room, he yelled, “Ragno. Leon. Feed 2FW-6. My cell. Now!”
“Copy that,” Ragno said.
Heart pounding, he yelled, “Evans. Lane. East wing. Second floor.” Running up the nearest flight of stairs, he lifted his cell phone and opened the feed.
Andi moved fast. Not towards a door. Not towards a window. She moved towards Sonja. Sonja opened her eyes, at the exact second Andi gripped a silver candlestick. Sonja, startled, kicked at Andi. It was an ineffective kick, barely glancing Andi’s thigh. She repositioned herself, ready to lunge again.
“Holy shit, Angel,” Ragno said. “Get your ass in gear!”
By the time Gabe had the door in his sight, the drama that was playing out on his cell phone video feed indicated he needed to slow down. There was no gun in sight. Sonja hadn’t even picked up one of the many candlesticks that were near the couch. Instead, it appeared she was trying to use words to reason with Andi. Gabe stopped at the door. He didn’t open it.
Andi reoriented herself. Determined sparks flew from her eyes as she planted her feet on the ground. Andi, with a firm grip on the candlestick, had the solid upper hand and, even more importantly, the training to handle Sonja. And the rage to make each strike count.
Evans and Lane, breathing hard, caught up to him. Eyes glued to his cell phone, making sure Andi was on the winning side of whatever fight Sonja threw her way, said, “Stand down.”
Ragno demanded, “Gabe, what the hell are you doing?”
Gabe watched Andi do a running lunge. Stepping up, on the couch and over, she squared off with Sonja.
Hand on the doorknob, he kept his eyes on the monitor. If Andi appeared to be in jeopardy, he was going in with his weapon raised for a kill shot. For now, though, he stood firmly on the other side the door and watched Andi lift the candlestick. “Letting her conquer her demons.”
Chapter Forty Eight
Andi
As she hefted the candlestick, every bit of Andi’s consciousness was reduced to watching her prey. Sonja opened her eyes, breathed out a plume of cigarette smoke, and gagged as she saw Andi coming for her.
Sonja’s eyes widened, an indication that she read Andi’s rage accurately. But she didn’t cower. Instead, a faint smile played across her lips. “Andi! Put that do—”
Kicking out as Andi came swinging, Sonja’s bare foot connected with her upper thigh. Andi stumbled back, but quickly regained her footing as Sonja rolled, then leapt to her feet.
Steadying herself, she lifted the candlestick again, as Sonja screamed and rolled away.
Fight, then flight. Get out of here.
Fear fueled Andi’s strength to a point where she forgot to be afraid. Her focus was Sonja, who needed to be disabled so that Andi could get the hell out of the room. She knew that Sonja couldn’t be allowed to make a move towards the alarm system. Sonja needed to be down.
Dead? Maybe.
Definitely disabled. Unconscious.
Curling her fingers tightly around the slippery silver, Andi planted her feet. Sonja circled behind the sofa, keeping it between them. “Let’s talk.”
Vision tunneling on Sonja, Andi asked, “About how you plan to kill me? I think not, you sick bitch.”
Sonja’s eyes hardened, but her voice softened. “I’m not going to kill you. Come on, Andi. Don’t be ridiculous.”
Talk was wasted breath. Breath was for the fight, because no matter what Sonja said now, Andi knew what she’d heard as she’d been laying on the bed, feigning unconsciousness. With a burst of energy, Andi took several running steps. She leapt onto the seat cushion of the sofa and over the back. Sonja backed away, and Andi hesitated. She had been planning on hitting Sonja in the head.
But the idea of bludgeoning someone to death was damn hard to implement. Andi couldn’t look Sonja in the eyes and swing at her head at the same time. So she aimed, instead, at Sonja’s upper thigh. As she swung her weapon with the full force of her body behind the blow, the candlestick made solid, thudding, metal-to-flesh contact.
Sonja looked shocked that Andi had actually struck her, then quickly recovered and lunged for Andi. Using a move that Gabe had taught her, Andi jumped to her side. Sonja crashed to the floor, then quickly crawled forward, grabbing Andi by the ankle.
Andi stepped on the woman’s hand until she let go. As Sonja levered herself upright by holding onto the back of the sofa, Andi planted her feet and readied herself to swing again. With blue eyes widening, Sonja realized way too late that she’d underestimated the rage that had a hold of Andi. “Andi, what the hell are you doing? I’m here, keeping you safe—”
“You are bat-shit crazy if you think I believe that.”
Sonja raised her arms over her face, as Andi swung. Powering past the sickening crack-thud that came with the contact of metal into flesh and bone, Andi realized that Sonja’s arms took the brunt of the strike. “Jesus, Andi, stop! I love you.”
As Andi absorbed the full sickness of that statement, she lifted the candlestick again. Eyes wild,
undeterred, Sonja stepped forward, arms outstretched, fingers curled into a claw as she aimed for Andi’s eyes. Rage pushed Andi past her reluctance to hit the woman in the face. This time, Andi’s swing struck the woman in the forehead.
Eyelids flickering, stunned, Sonja hung onto consciousness as a gash opened on her forehead, and blood started pouring from it. Her eyes rolled back, and then she fell to the floor.
Unconscious. But breathing. Disabled. No longer a threat. Not going to call for help. Goal: accomplished.
Run. Hurry. Before Walter returns.
Andi spun on her heel, and realized she was too late. The door was opening. With a fresh burst of adrenaline coursing through her body, she charged. Before the door fully opened, she started swinging the candlestick in an arc that would take the now bloody stick where the new threat was about to appear. But the gray-haired doctor didn’t step through the door. Vision tunneling once again, her mind screamed, ‘Not Walter. Not. Not. Not.’
Gabe!
With solid strength, he caught her wrist in an implacable grip. “Whoa. I’ve got you.”
God. Yes, he did. The candlestick bounced to the floor as Gabe yanked her hard against him. Still riding the surge of kill-or-be-killed power, her body rebelled. She pushed away from him. “Walter’s coming back. We have to get the hell out of here now!”
“No. We’ve got him. The Long’s aren’t going anywhere but prison. Look at me.” Gripping her shoulders, he blocked her with his large body. “You’re okay. I'm getting you out of here.”
On the periphery of her vision, around him, around her, she was aware that others were entering the room. “Sonja. . .”
He used his sleeve to dab at the cut over her eyebrow. “They’ll deal with her.”
While her mind told her to listen, her body, still in flight mode, revolted. She slapped away his hands, trying to get away. “You don’t understand.” When he didn’t move, she grabbed his hand, and pulled.
“No, Andi. Breathe. I have you. You’re safe now. We have control. Do you understand me? You’re safe. Breathe for me.”
Her hands, suddenly too weak to lift, started shaking. Her legs could no longer hold her, and her entire body trembled.
“Breathe in, deeply. You’re safe, honey.” He scooped her into his arms, supporting her. The action kept her from falling, because she suddenly lost the strength to stand under her own power. To someone else, he said, “Find Ms. Hutchenson some clothes.” He cradled her against his chest, as he said, “You’re safe. Come on. Try to breathe.”
Leaning into him, she gulped in smoky air, as more energy left her body. “Safe?”
He lifted her chin in the crook of his fingers. “Look at me.”
Focusing, on him, she drank in the glorious sight of him, the dark angel who she’d been worried she’d never see again.
“You’re safe.”
“She was going to kill me. Walter. They’re terrible. Sick people.”
“I know,” he said. “But we’re putting an end to that.”
Energy coursed out of her body. As the world started spinning around her, she saw two agents, throwing blankets over the fire that had started in the carpet.
“Ragno. How much longer till medics get here?” He paused for a second. As she watched him, his face started to blur. “Good. Andi’s in shock. Adrenaline wash-out.”
“I’m not,” Andi said, before her brain switched off. In mental cut-out mode, she felt Gabe cocoon her in his strong arms. Free-floating, she drifted into the safety that he offered, lifting her arms onto his shoulders, clasping her hands together behind his back as he held her. Sounds were muted. All light was gone. Only the scent of him and the feel of him informed her awareness. Male. Powerful. Confident.
Gabe.
Her final thoughts were his whisper, “Safe, Andi. You’re safe. You won, honey. You did it. No one’s ever going to hurt you again. I promise.”
Chapter Forty Nine
Gabe
“Ace. That’s fantastic. Have a medic look at him, then have someone bring him here.”
Heart lightening with the news he’d just received, Gabe turned and looked to where Andi was laid out on a gurney in the farmhouse living room. She’d been out for about a half hour. Ace’s team had control of the farm and was implementing victim rescue. More agents were arriving. A task force of Federal investigators specializing in sex crimes was on its way. Ragno and Barrows were uncovering horror after horror in the Concierge’s databases and sharing the knowledge with the agents on site.
The Concierge. Sonja Long. A conduit straight to hell. For a fee.
He lifted a warm washcloth and slid it over Andi’s forehead. “Come on, honey. Wake up so I can tell you how much I love you.” He’d dressed her in a Black Raven t-shirt and sweatpants, which was part of the supplies that had arrived with the first wave of additional support.
Suddenly sitting up, she gripped the oxygen mask that covered her mouth and nose, and yanked it off. Eyes desperately searching, they rested when her gaze fell on him.
“Hey, you’re safe.”
He watched her fear recede, as she gulped air.
“Do you remember anything?”
She nodded. “Everything. But I don’t know where we are now.”
“Downstairs. At the Longs’ farmhouse, on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. There’s a team of agents triaging in the barn. You’ve been out for about a half hour. That’s it. You had an adrenaline crash. We’re thinking you might still have some of the drugs in your system that Juliette administered.” He hesitated, studying her calm demeanor. “What exactly do you remember?”
Because if you don’t remember, I’ll take the fall out for beating Sonja within an inch of her life.
“Everything. Juliette. Injecting me. I was out, until I was here. Walter was giving me something to wake me up.” She shuddered. “For Sonja. I remembered what you taught me. To formulate a plan. To think. To implement. Is she still alive? Or did I kill her?”
“You knocked her unconscious, but she’s going to live. She’ll spend the rest of her life in prison. You’ve had enough for one day, and I have some pull around here. I can whisk you away, while we’re still in the process of sorting through this clusterfuck. But still, we’re working with Federal agents, and they’ll want to talk to you. Eventually. Will you be okay with that? Because otherwise, anything that happened up there can be blamed on me.”
“Yes. One hundred percent fine. She was going to kill me.”
You don’t even know the half of it.
A steady whump, whump, whump sounded. As the noise built, he said, “Helicopters. Medical support.” Gabe touched his ear, listening for a second. “Ace. Can you repeat that?”
“Your friend Pic’s a handful. He just threatened to cut off my cock and shove it down my throat.”
Gabe laughed, relief pouring through his veins. “Copy. Glad to hear he’s talking his typical trash.”
“There is no goddamn way he’s going to let anyone give him a medical exam until he sees you and Andi and you guys persuade him he needs help. Copy?”
“Given what might’ve happened to him in the last twenty-four hours, I can’t say that I blame him. Have a couple of agents bring him here. Tell him Andi wants to see him. We’ll talk him off the ledge.”
Her eyes wide with hope, Andi said, “Pic?”
Gabe nodded. “He’ll be here in a minute.”
“But how is it that he’s here?”
Gabe explained some of what Black Raven had figured out about Sonja and Walter Long’s human trafficking enterprise. He didn’t sanitize it, figuring Andi deserved to know the unvarnished truth. She’d earned it. He filled her in on how the Long’s profited from the sale of human slaves, how they harvested organs for black market profit, and how they produced and sold human babies.
“From what Ragno’s figuring out with the Federal task force that’s now involved, this has been going on for years,” he explained. “One of the more extensive organ
izations ever uncovered. And damn sophisticated. They preyed upon young, homeless people. Runaway kids, really. We’re now working with Federal investigators. Some of their victims have already correlated with missing persons in the DOJ’s database for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons. Jake was here. A few of the others that we’ve identified as being last seen in New Orleans, as well.”
A shadow crossed her face. “Monica?”
“She’s not here. But we’ve found her, and if we’re reading their records accurately, you saw her abduction. On Esplanade a week ago, yesterday.”
She shuddered. “I knew it. That’s why, when I was painting the scene, the girl I was seeing looked more and more like her.”
He nodded. “Law enforcement agents will soon be implementing a takedown of the person who has her. There are potentially thousands of victims. It’s going to take some time to unravel everything.”
A door opened. Pic, dressed the same way as Andi, entered the living room, flanked by two Black Raven agents. Blue eyes haunted by fresh horror, he nonetheless gave a tremulous smile when he saw Andi and Gabe. Andi jumped off the gurney. “Pic!”
They met halfway. Andi flung herself into the kid’s arms. He lifted her, spun her, then pulled her in, holding her close. Gabe watched the kid start to fall apart. His shoulders shook. He buried his face in her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Andi. I never should’ve left. Jesus Christ, but I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t,” she said, holding him tight. “You’re okay now.”
After long minutes, Pic lifted his face and glanced at Gabe with eyes that were full of tears. “Hey, man,” he said, clearing his throat. “I owe you an apology, too.”
“You owe me nothing,” Gabe said, walking across the room. Andi pulled him into their hug, and then Pic’s tears started again, with chest wracking, hoarse sobs. “I don’t fucking know what’s wrong with me. Crying like a girl. It’s just…I was so goddamn scared, and…they made me…fuck… but this is twisted.” He backed away from them, his face flushed red, as more tears fell from his eyes. “They’re drugging people…and there was a girl…she wanted me to…and hell…I couldn’t stop…Holy shit. What kind of place is this?”
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