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TEN
Decima
An hourbefore Blaze had determined the flight we were targeting was due to arrive, we were already staked out in the darkness around the private airfield. Blaze was still in the car we’d parked on a side road, out of view of the staff parking lot where a couple of small vehicles stood off in the corner under the beams of the sole security lamp. The rest of us had concealed ourselves around the perimeter, weapons ready, senses on the alert.
Like most private landing strips, this one didn’t have a whole lot of security, relying on its isolated location to ensure there’d be no witnesses. We’d easily scaled the chain-link fence that surrounded fields around the property, dispatching the one patrolling security guard with a few blows and a syringe full of a sedative. The people who handled the “merchandise” obviously knew what they were a part of, but we had no idea how complicit that man was.
That would be for the police to investigate once we got everything ready for them to storm the place.
One of the two cars in the staff lot must have belonged to him. The other I assumed belonged to the guy who’d been stationed in the airfield’s one building, a little cabin near one end of the rectangular runway. Talon had made short work of him and was now lurking in the cabin along with Garrison.
So far there’d been no sign of anyone waiting to pick up the shipment. I knew better than to question Blaze’s information, though. In a situation like this, no doubt the people involved would want to linger here for as little time as possible.
It was nearly midnight now, the sky totally black above us other than a speckling of stars. The only substantial light for miles around was the security lamp by the lot. A line of glinting markers outlined the runway, but their glow only reached about a foot around them, barely penetrating the shadows on the ground.
The night had brought a cool edge to the breeze, but if anything I felt overwarm inside my black long-sleeved tee and leggings. My heart was thumping faster than usual, my nerves buzzing. I had the weird sense that I was somehow both here on the ground and up there in that plane, captured and bound and awaiting my terrible fate.
This was the first job I’d ever taken on that involved women like me. Women the Blood Hunter had stolen and used for his own ends. Itcouldhave been me, if he’d decided to take a very different sort of revenge on the Maliks.
And by freeing the women who’d arrive here tonight, I might be taking a significant step toward fully freeing myself from the Blood Hunter’s control. It seemed fitting.
I just hoped we were getting to the girls before he damaged them beyond repair.
Julius stepped closer to me where we were poised by a shed at the opposite end of the parking lot. He had his treasured Beretta in his hand, finger off the trigger but ready for action.
“How are you doing?” he asked quietly, his low voice perfectly clear in the night’s stillness.
My pulse hitched just for a second as the thought of the girl I could have been washed over me again. I swallowed thickly, willing my mind calm and focused the way Noelle had taught me.
How awful was it that I still relied on her lessons even after I knew how horribly she’d manipulated me, molding me into her little killer? Into the Blood Hunter’s little killer. But they hadn’t beenbadlessons in terms of survival and doing the job that now felt like a part of me regardless of how I’d come to it.
“This mission is hitting me a little harder than they usually do,” I admitted. “I’ll be better when all the victims are safe.”
Julius nodded. “That makes two of us. And you know, it’s okay to be affected by the things we encounter. Some of the crimes we find out aboutarehorrifying. I don’t want to ever stop recognizing that.”
“Yeah,” I said, not knowing what else to add, but his words sent a deeper calm through my nerves.
Of course it was okay for me to be angry. Okay for me to be sickened by the man who’d shaped so much of my life. I’d let those emotions fuel me rather than distract me.
Blaze’s voice carried through our headsets. “There’s a small transport truck heading this way—looks like military issue. I can’t one hundred percent confirm that its destination is the airfield, but there isn’t much else out here. Get ready. If it continues this way, it should reach us in about five minutes.”
My muscles coiled, prepared for action. I tapped the knives strapped to my waist and thighs and adjusted my grip on the pistol I was holding. Talon slipped out of the cabin, Garrison remaining behind in case he needed to intercept communications from the Blood Hunter’s people on the ground or in the air.
We heard the rumble of the truck’s engine before we saw it. It pulled into the lot and drove to where it’d be closest to the end of the runway, making a three-point turn so it backed into the spot just ten feet from the shed where Julius and I waited.
A couple of men got out of the cab and two more hopped out of the cargo area after raising the back door. They gathered together by the back of the van, exchanging some remarks that had them all chuckling. I heard one say something about the “pretty pieces of ass,” and my hackles rose.
Oh, this bunch knew exactly what they were doing here. And soon they’d regret it.
Julius spoke into his headset under his breath. “It’s a small group, but we want them all down at the same time so there’s no one to sound the alarm to the people on the plane. Talon, can you get in a shot or two from where you are without them seeing you get in position?”
“Roger,” Talon replied, his voice sounding distant in my ear. “I’ve got one of them in my sights right now and I can get another right after.”
“Perfect. You take the ones on the south side, and Dess and I will handle the north.” Julius glanced at me, and I nodded. “On my command. Three, two, one—now.”
We sprang around the side of the shed, guns already raised, keeping ourselves angled slightly to the side of the truck so that we wouldn’t end up in Talon’s line of fire or him in ours. The men were only just starting to turn at the sound of our footsteps when shots rang out through the night.
The Chaos Crewcouldbe neat when they weren’t purposefully maximizing the gore on a client’s request. Julius took down his target with a single bullet to the temple while I caught mine in the back of the head. Talon’s gun boomed twice, the other two men crumpling with similar head wounds. Just like that, we’d cleared the slate.
