Savior

“I’m not.” One raised his hand with a smile.

“Shut up, Aarons,” Jack said, slapping the young one on the head.

I lifted on my toes and gave Erik another kiss, pulling back to whisper in his ear. “You know I only want you, but I like the caveman act.”

“I’ll show you more caveman later,” he’d growled, slapping my ass.

It turned out, it was going to be much later. The men had their plans and began packing up to head out.

“Are you sure you have to go?” I looked to Erik with hopeful eyes, wanting him to stay back with me.

“I have to go.”

“But they’re expecting you.”

“Yes, but they don’t know that I know. I have the upper hand. This is personal. I can’t let this go on anymore. It has to do with more than just your sister.” His hands framed my face and he pressed his forehead to mine. “Please stay home and wait for me. I need to know you’re safe. I promise I will be back.”

“You better be.”

I didn’t care that four other men’s eyes were on us, I held him to me and kissed him with all I had. I pressed my tongue to his lips and demanded entrance. He slid his hands down to grip my bottom and pulled me to him so every inch of us touched, his tongue tangling with mine.

“Be good.”

And then he was gone.

28

Erik

“Once you’re in, try to figure out who the lead is. If this is as personal as they made it sound in their chats, he’s going to want to confront you,” Jack explained, loading a magazine into a gun and passing it off to me.

We sat in a large black SUV in the shadows running through our plan one more time. From our vantage point, we watched a few men stumble in and out of the warehouse. One man stood at the door collecting money and my stomach rolled each time a new male came out.

“We have squad cars a couple blocks away picking up these guys,” Shane let us know. His face was dark and showed the same anger each man in this car felt. It was hard to believe that a slave ring had been here for who knew how long, right under our nose. In our own city while we went on about our lives.

“You don’t have to do this,” Jack reminded me.

“I do. They’re expecting me.”

He sighed in resignation and nodded. “Ames’s crew is already in the back setting up. We’ll be planted in the front and trap them in. We have a few men watching any other possible exits, but the main ones are guarded. Go in and try to spot Leah, but something tells me they’ll take you right to her eventually.”

I had no doubt, but we were going to run this the same we would if it was a rescue. I slipped the black baseball cap on my head and looked to Jack to make sure the camera was working.

He held up the small screen that relayed the feed and currently showed his face. “We’ll be able to watch from here.”

“You ready?” Jared asked, the blue screen of his laptop illuminating his features.

“As I’ll ever be. I’m ready to end this shit.”

I left the car and made my way across the street into the light from the front door. I tripped over my feet and fumbled my money to appear clumsy and drunk as I approached the guard at the door.

“How much for a good time?” I slurred and smiled. He studied me up and down with furrowed brows. “Come on man, I just want to get laid and my buddy told me you have the best girls. He even mentioned a new one I’d love to try out.”

“Fifty for an hour.”

I handed him wadded up bills and held up my fist for a bump like a douchebag. “Gonna use every second.”

He tapped his knuckles to mine. “I’ll take you to a good one. I fucked her earlier and she’s still tight as can be.”

I balled my hands into fists and breathed through the rage to keep from sucker punching him right then and there.

We walked into an open factory, the machinery large and imposing in the shadows of the dimly lit room.

A burly man appeared from the double doors we were approaching on the other side. “Hey, Tony. I’ll take him from here. We don’t want to miss any customers.”

Tony turned back after slapping my back. “Enjoy that hour.”

I followed the new guy through the doors and entered a long hallway, almost like a shitty hotel. We walked down and I tried to look around as much as possible to give MacCabe’s team as much info as I could. We usually went in with blueprints and intensive plans with even more intensive backup plans, but tonight we didn’t have that luxury.