One of the men moves to the back of the van and swings the door open. Sobs come from inside, shooting ice through my veins. It’s too dark to see inside the vehicles, but I’ve heard cries like these so many times when stumbling upon Iron Sinner trafficking operations that I know what I’m looking at.
It takes everything to wait for backup before moving in.
“Boss really wants to keep them here all night?” one of the men asks another.
“He’s got shit to take care of tonight. He won’t be ready for them until morning.”
“So we’re supposed to just sit around and wait?” The first man sounds annoyed.
Another climbs out of the front, circling to the others. “Who said anything about sitting around and waiting?”
He reaches into the van, and screams echo in the warehouse as he grabs a woman by the hair and pulls her out of the van. She falls to the ground, twisting her ankle with how she lands.
The man laughs, and fire rips through me.
“Might as well entertain ourselves if we’re going to be here all night.”
The woman tries to crawl away, and he grabs her by the hair again, smacking her across the face so hard she crumples to the ground.
That sound has me seeing red.
There’s no more waiting. No more restraining. Thankfully, Steel, Havoc, and the others come up behind me and Venom at that moment because even if they hadn’t, I’d have gone in and put an end to this.
We move forward in a haze of gunfire and shouting.
Bullets rain, and any smart man would run in the opposite direction. I aim straight into battle. Finding my purpose.
Finding my peace.
29
Soul
The bacon has juststarted popping when Emery’s footsteps creak down the stairs. She turns the corner, rubbing her eyes, which tugs the hem of my T-shirt higher up her thighs. Her dark hair is messy around her shoulders.
In my entire life, I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.
Emery yawns, dropping her hands to her sides. “You’re home. I didn’t hear you come in last night.”
“I stayed down here so I wouldn’t wake you up. Wasn’t tired anyway.”
“So you started making breakfast?” Her eyebrow hitches as she pads into the kitchen. “You’re going to spoil me.”
“I like spoiling you.” My grin has her blush climbing her cheeks.
“Well, if you’re getting tired now, I can finish up so you can get some sleep before Charlie wakes up.”
“Still not tired.” I turn back to the pan, flipping a piece of bacon.
I’m still wired from last night and not ready to lie down. Nothing gets the adrenaline pumping like a night of torture, and I’m still riding that high hours later. While Havoc and Legacy took the women in the van to one of our safe houses, the rest of us stayed behind to ask Eli’s men a few questions.
Unfortunately, they were weak and easy to break, making for a somewhat disappointing evening. Eli clearly hasn’t trained his men to withstand anything. They started giving up information after losing their first finger, and we knew the extent of his trafficking operation by the time we reached the last.
I didn’t feel the least bit bad about it.
Anyone willing to buy, sell, and rape a woman deserves every bit of pain we inflict. Which is why I enjoyed watching Ghost flay the skin from their bones. With every piece that left their bodies, the weight on my shoulders eased.
We’re bad men, but the things we do are to worse people. People who deserve the kind of judgment only hell can properly inflict on them.
