"It is. Now get your ass moving. My teammates are likely to have questions since I put us in lockdown."
Lockdown? What the hell did that mean? I would have to wait to ask though. Anita was out of the driver's seat and across the property before I even had my seat belt unbuckled.
"What the fuck, Anita?" A woman who was not the one who broke into my house asked, "Is he the reason for the text?"
"Yes." One word. That was all Anita provided. No explanation. No reassurance I came in peace. Just one word that sounded a hell of a lot like an order.
"You're going to have to give us more than that if you don't want me to shoot his ass right here and now." Apparently whoever this woman was didn't give a flying fuck about Anita's order.
"He has some questions for Alexander."
The mystery woman's eyes bugged out. "So you thought bringing him here to witness what we're doing was a good idea."
Anita looked dead serious––heavy emphasis on the dead part––when she answered, "He knows his life is on the line if he makes one wrong step."
"He's standing right here." I pointed to myself. "And I swear I come in peace."
"Excuse me if I don't believe you, considering you're a federal agent."
I really needed to learn this woman's name if I was going to continue arguing with her. "Who are you?"
"None of your damn business," she snapped.
"It's Sloane," the woman who I recognized from my house answered.
"Shut the fuck up," Sloane hissed at her teammate.
"Well, Sloane. The federal agent part is dependent on what Alexander says. If he confirms my suspicions, then I will be handing in my badge."
Three sets of eyes looked at me like I had suddenly grown a second head. To be fair, I hadn't even told Anita that was my plan.
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then I leave here and forget this ever happened."
Alexander deserved whatever was happening to him. Callahan had been right. Sometimes people needed to take the law into their own hands.
"You really expect me to believe you won't turn us in."
It was safe to assume Sloane wasn't my biggest fan.
"I can't tell you what to believe. I can only give you my word."
"Enough with the interrogation. Hi, I'm Nyx." She held her hand out for me to shake. "We met briefly before Anita kicked me out of your house for seeing you half naked."
"I remember. Nice to meet you."
"Likewise. There's one more of us, but she stayed in lockdown." Then she looked over my shoulder. "Never mind. Here she is."
I turned around to see a woman about the size of Anita headed my way, but it was the young girl with her that threw me for a loop. "Uhhh who's the kid?" The last thing I expected to learn was one of them was a mother. Although the girl didn't resemble any of the four women standing with me, so maybe I was wrong.
"She's none of your concern. Just know she's here of her own free will."
Noted: Discussions about the young girl were off-limits. All four women took a defensive stance, and it was clear, whoever she was, she had a rough go at life because her first instinct was to avoid eye contact with me and hide behind Anita.
I was surprised to find the woman who just joined us didn't ask who I was or why I was here. She didn't say a word or even acknowledge my existence. The investigator side of me wanted to know what her story was.
"Enough with the introductions." Anita's biting tone caught my attention. "Alexander's this way." She hiked her thumb toward the middle building of the compound.
