Vendetta Road (Torpedo Ink 3)

Ice moved into position with Storm, Lana behind them and Savage bringing up the rear. “If the kid isn’t there, we need one alive,” Savage reminded softly.

Ice gave him one look and then stepped close to the door, his lockpick out. He was very quiet as he took care of the rather flimsy lock. Those inside counted on their guards just a little too much.

He and Storm each stepped to a side of the door, leaving Lana in front of it. She hovered her palm a whisper from the door, her hand as steady as a rock. Ice admired her, the way she could go from soft and sweet to kill mode just that fast. They’d counted on her when she’d been just a beautiful, dark-haired child, and she’d always come through. She still did.

She held up her fingers. Six men down in front by where they knew there was another exit and four more guards. One on either side of the door. One up high, on a small balcony behind a curtain. One by the exit on the other side of the room that led to the alley.

Savage indicated for Ice and Storm to take the guards out on either side of the door. He would take the one at the far exit and Lana would take out the one behind the curtain. She was the most accurate when there was no clear shot.

Each had the men they were going to kill. Paul Bitters was the man selling the kid, so he would be last to die. They needed to know where the kid was. “In position,” Savage reported.

“In position,” Reaper said, waiting at the exit directly behind the seller and the buyers.

“Have your package, Savage,” Mechanic said, indicating they had taken the driver of the truck and were holding him, so they could extract more information about the ring and move up the chain to the even bigger fish.

“Transporter and I at back door,” Alena reported.

“It’s a go,” Czar commanded.

Ice glanced over his shoulder one last time and then at his twin. Storm. His heart clenched. Abruptly he shoved open the door, stepping through, as he turned and fired through the wood at his target. Storm moved with him, back-to-back, a practiced move they’d done hundreds of times. His gun blazed as well. Lana was right behind them, stepping in front and to one side to give Savage his shot. She fired three times at the curtain. Savage calmly pulled the trigger, and all four bodies dropped to the floor nearly simultaneously.

Savage reached back and closed the door behind them and strode down the aisle toward the six men. “Gentlemen,” he greeted them softly.

There was no child in the room. Bitters hastily tried to get to the computer projecting the image of a small boy in a dog cage sitting on the floor holding a blanket to his chest. The four guns went off a second time and Jarvis, Kent, Bernard and Churchill dropped to the floor with very loud thuds.

Torpedo Ink used silencers, but silencers only muffled the sound of a shot. The gunshots could still be heard if anyone was close. Bitters looked hopefully toward the exit that was directly behind him. George Durango edged closer to him.

“I’ve got money. Whoever is paying you, I can double it,” Durango said.

Ice shot him through the heart and for good measure shot him a second time between his eyes. Durango fell into Bitters, who automatically caught the falling body and then dropped it with a small squeak of fear.

Ice and Storm moved together right past Bitters to the computer. “Where is he?” Ice snapped, staring up at the screen. “If you don’t tell me the first time, that man right there, standing in front of you, is going to take you apart piece by piece. No one is going to come save you. The back exit is ours. The alley is ours. The front desk is ours. The cameras are not working. Where is the kid, Bitters?”

Storm worked on the computer, using a few keystrokes to allow Code to break in. It wouldn’t take long to find the boy on their own if necessary. “Code’s in,” he said.

Bitters looked around at the dead bodies as if he couldn’t believe what had happened. He was clearly still in shock. Killing nine people inside the room had taken less than a full minute. He took two steps back and held up his hands. “If you want him, of course I’ll take you to him.”

“We have a team that will pick him up. You’re going to tell us where he is,” Ice reiterated.

Savage had shoved his gun out of sight and pulled out a wicked-looking knife. The blade caught the lights from above and gleamed, drawing Bitters’s eye. Savage had no expression on his face, and his eyes were flat. Cold. Dead. It was very clear he could do exactly what Ice had said he would do.