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He opened up the duffel bag and handed me one of the canisters. We took opposite ends of the room, splashing gasoline across the shelves and leaving a trail leading to the door. We created a stream down the hall and then liberally sloshed it across every desk and piece of computer equipment except the station Blaze was working at.
One of the screens I soaked showed an image of a woman much like the videos we’d seen at the auction—the worker lying dead beneath his chair had been editing it. To make her look like a more appealing purchase? To conceal any evidence of who her seller was? My stomach turned, and I kicked the asshole in the ribs, even though he was already gone from this world.
“Blaze,” I hollered. “There are files here on the trafficked women. Grab those if you can!”
“I’ll do my best,” he called from the office where he’d set up shop. I could hear his fingers racing across the keyboard from all the way across the large room. “Unsurprisingly, he’s got some tricky security systems protecting the most vital data. I haven’t quite gotten to the DNA files yet. If you’re done prepping the place, keep watch on the parking lot. We need to be out of here before the regular daytime shift shows up. There’s no way we’ll be able to handle all of them without someone getting away and tipping off the Blood Hunter.”
“Dess, you watch the windows,” Julius ordered. “Blaze, you’ve got to have a dozen flash drives on you. Toss me a couple and I’ll back up whatever I can from the computers out here.”
He hustled over to Blaze’s office and snatched what Blaze threw to him out of the air. As he hurried back to the nearest computers, I stalked to the row of windows that looked over the parking lot.
It was still early, but traffic was starting to pick up with morning commuters. Blaze had said we should be fine until eight-thirty or so, but he’d also cautioned us that we couldn’t be sure no one would turn up before then. If they did, we’d need to take them out before they saw the carnage downstairs and raised the alarm.
Somewhere behind me, Julius made a disgusted sound that told me he’d found more unpleasant material. The gasoline fumes in the air were making me a little dizzy, but they also fueled the anger inside me. I couldn’t wait to see this stronghold of the Blood Hunter’s burn.
Blaze let out a little whoop, so I knew he was at least partway to his goal. I shifted my weight, feeling the seconds slip by us with thuds of my pulse. The sun slowly crept up behind the rooftops across the street, streaking their eavestroughs with a golden glow. More cars zipped by along the nearest street.
My eye caught on movement near the parking lot. A light gray sedan was pulling in. My hand dropped to my gun. I drew in a breath to give the guys a heads up before I headed downstairs to take care of the problem, and then I noticed that the woman behind the wheel wasn’t alone.
A small figure sat in the backseat, leaning close to the window. My heart flipped over. It was a little girl, fine blond hair framing her pale face.
Why would anyone be bringing akidto this building? They wouldn’t march one of their slaves around in broad daylight, would they? And anyway, she looked significantly younger than the other girls we’d seen trafficked, who’d all been at least on the verge of adolescence. I’d place this kid at seven or eight tops.
Maybe they weren’t coming to this building at all? The woman might have preferred to park here when heading to another office or store down the street.
I unlocked my voice just in case. “Someone’s in the parking lot. A woman, looks like a professional, nice suit, and a little girl. They’re just getting out of the car.”
“A little girl?” Julius said, his head jerking toward me in surprise.
“Yes. I don’t understand— Shit.” The woman had opened the back door for the girl, who’d scampered out, and they’d both turned toward the office where I was standing. The girl was wearing a school uniform that only emphasized her youth, a pale blue shirt with a plaid skirt that hung to her knees, stripes of blue, green, and yellow woven together.
A second later, they were heading across the lot to the front door. My stomach lurched.
“They’re coming here. We can’t—I’m not going to shoot a kid.”
Julius swore. “As soon as they see the guard in the lobby, we’re screwed.”
I whipped my phone to my ear, tapping it to dial Garrison’s number. He picked it up on the first ring. My heart pounded so loud I could barely hear my voice.
“We need a diversion in the parking lot,now,” I said. “There’s a woman bringing a kid to the building—we need to stop them from coming in.”
My stomach continued to list as I imagined the little girl walking in and seeing the bloodshed. The nightmares and daytime terrors that might follow. I’d been brought up on violence, but no child really should be. She wouldn’t understand.
Thankfully, Garrison understood without my having to say anything else. “On it,” he said without hesitation. “What car did she come in?”
“It’s a silver sedan,” I said. There was only one of those in the lot right now, thank God.
I heard a squeak of hinges just before Garrison hung up. I didn’t have to wait long to find out how he was going to handle the problem.
Tires screeched down the street. A sports car came zooming into the parking lot and crashed straight into the woman’s sedan. A hoodie-clad figure I knew was Garrison leapt out and immediately dashed off.
At the noise of the crash, the woman had spun around, just ten feet from the door. She clapped her hand to her mouth and then hurried back toward her car, waving for the girl to stay with her. Relief trickled through me, but not enough to settle my nerves completely.
“They won’t be distracted for too long,” I said to the others. “We’ve got to set this place burning and take off before they come back to the building.” I didn’t want to hurt the girl, and that included protecting her from the horrifying sights inside.
Julius sighed. “I was able to transfer a few things that look useful.”
“I’m done,” Blaze announced breathlessly. “All digital files are destroyed, and the triple backups are wiped, too. As far as I can tell, I got it all. I wish I could have grabbed more for our own use...” He paused in the doorway, gazing longingly at the machine. “It’s all on the network, no point in taking the computer itself.”
“There’s no time,” Julius said grimly. He nudged Blaze aside to heave the last of his gasoline over the equipment in there.
We hustled to the back stairwell. On the threshold, Julius held a lighter to a ball of paper he’d stuffed into a mug from someone’s desk. When the paper went up in flames, he hurled it into the middle of the room.
The ceramic sides smashed. The fire licked out across the trails of gasoline, flaring brighter as it crawled across the room with increasing speed. I took in the welcome sight of the Blood Hunter’s hard work turning into ash for a couple of beats of my heart. Then Blaze tugged at my arm.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” he reminded me.
Of course. I turned on my heel, and we rushed down the stairs together. Just as we burst into the back alley, the sound of shattering windows reached my ears. The fire was roaring all through the second floor now.
The woman would see it—she’d know not to bring the kid anywhere near the place now. My work here was done, in more ways than I’d expected.
