1
Adrenaline spiked in Nolan’s system. He took a deep breath and then another as he slipped through the forest under the cover of a moonless winter night. Careful to exhale in a slow, thin stream, he avoided making a puff of frozen mist anyone lurking nearby might spot. The barely audible snap of an occasional twig from his left was the only hint that Sola was doing the same, not too far away. The woman was stealthy as fuck.
“That’s it. Everyone steady. Careful now.” Jordan, their boss, sounded as if they were going for a stroll in the park instead of crawling through enemy territory.
The earpiece Nolan wore was his lifeline to the outside, to a place where everything was safe and bright and sane. His tenuous connection to a world he hoped to return to if he didn’t get himself killed during this mission. At least until the next time he had to descend into some special hell. After all, this was his job. Kicking ass and making things right. Fighting for people who weren’t able to do it for themselves. The goals of the “security” team he worked for, the Shields, were always aligned with due north on his moral compass, even if the methods they used to eliminate targets weren’t always entirely legal.
Nolan deepened his crouch, aware that not even his obsidian cargo pants and turtleneck made of a heat-signature dimming material would be enough to obscure his bulky form if one of the soldiers who worked for the sex trafficking ring they were about to invade got curious and looked a little too closely in their direction.
“I’m in place. Have a visual on the primary target.” Aarav, their sniper, clocked in precisely on time. The man was practically a robot. Unflappable, which encouraged Nolan to try to rile him incessantly while they were hanging out at headquarters. Of course, the only person who really had a chance at ruffling him, and probably not even she could while they were engaged in business, was Sola, though she didn’t seem to realize it. Behind the scope of his rifle, Aarav was a machine, and when it came to looking after Sola’s fine ass, he’d be twice as diligent, even for him.
“The trackers show Sola and Nolan approaching from the south, right on course.” James, their newest addition—a completely adorable former construction worker who’d always aspired to be a superhero’s sidekick—coordinated their efforts from the Shields’ headquarters. He hadn’t much enjoyed his single foray into fieldwork a couple months ago, but the guy was a legend when it came to keeping them in line from the office.
Doubly so tonight. Considering how important this particular assignment was to him, James was on top of his game. His voice was calm and matter-of-fact in Nolan’s ear, helping to keep him focused. He said, “JRad is standing by to cut the power. Scheduled for 253 seconds from now. Let me know if anyone needs more time.”
“I’m good,” Aarav answered for all of them. Nolan and Sola would only break radio silence if something was wrong. Same went for Ransom and Levi, who were mirroring their approach from the other side of the better-days building that used to be some sort of canning facility in the way back. It had been converted into a seedy hideout where women—and apparently underage men as well—were bought, sold, and used.
Nolan thought again of the particular victim they were attempting to find a trace of. Laurel, James’s long-lost sister. They’d gotten a tip that she’d been kept in this hellhole once, though he figured that was a pretty way of saying tortured. Unfortunately, it had been years since any of their leads—who’d been freed with the Shields’ help after a similar raid they’d done not too long ago—had seen her. Someone here would know something to carry them up the next step in the chain. They were closing in on answers, he could feel it. And until they had them, he’d be happy to put an end to the sick bastards who continued to abuse those who couldn’t fend for themselves.
Nolan desperately hoped, for James’s sake, that they got some closure. He’d be lying if he said his own curiosity wasn’t piqued too. Questions had been clawing at him from the moment he’d seen the artist’s renderings of what Laurel could look like today. Maybe it was because he had a very beautiful face to put with the unspeakable crimes. Or possibly, knowing she was James’s sister made her easier to relate to than some of the other victims they’d rescued. Either way, her portrait had struck such a chord with him. He hadn’t been able to get those haunted eyes out of his mind for months.
“I’ve got the entrance locked down.” Marcus had reached his post at the main gate. He’d keep anyone from coming in to provide backup or slipping away from the justice they were about to deliver. Kennedy, their medic, was with him. Far enough from the main action to be protected, but nearby so she could get to the operatives in the thick of things in a hurry in case things went sideways. Marcus seemed nearly as rabid about watching her ass during ops as Aarav was about Sola.
When Nolan reached the edge of the clearing, he glanced over at her. She flashed him a hand signal for ready, which he echoed. Their body cams sent the data to James, who rallied the team. “Ransom, Levi, Sola, and Nolan are all in place. Aarav is set. Marcus and Kennedy are on standby. JRad is on final countdown. Twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven…”
Jordan came over the intercom next, giving orders that set their intricate plan in motion. It took months of planning but came down to moments of action if they did their jobs right. They were a precision instrument working together in what was about to become a cloud of chaos. The next several heartbeats could change Nolan’s life forever.
Silence from their objectionless teammates was as good as a green light. James gave them one last boost. “Good luck, everyone.”
JRad, an honorary Shield, a geek-turned-Dom who worked for an elite police squad called the Men in Blue and did…well, this…with them as a side hustle on occasion, gave the final count. “Three…two…one.”
Everything went black.
The forest erupted into motion and violence, dragging Nolan into its inky depths. He sucked in a lungful of air as if preparing to freedive, then entered the mix with Sola, who set the pace for their spear of the overall attack. Music cut off from inside the building and time appeared to distort, going slow and fast all at once.
His comms picked up a few dull thuds that he recognized as silenced shots.
“The exterior guards are down except for one runner who was grazed. Marcus, he’s heading straight your way. Sola, Nolan, Ransom, and Levi have crossed the clearing and are about to enter through the ground-floor windows.” James gave a play by play so they were all up to date and didn’t accidentally take out one of their own as they made split-second, life-and-death decisions.
Aarav grunted. “Inside they’re slow but moving, herding most of the victims toward the basement, except for those occupied upstairs.”
If Nolan’s boot bashed through the window a bit harder than necessary, he figured no one would notice or care. His blood boiled as he tucked and rolled, popping up with his weapon drawn. It didn’t take long before he’d eliminated three of the fuckwads hurting the young women he saw scurrying toward safety behind couches. He wondered how often they’d faced violence that they had learned to huddle together and keep low as they sought shelter.
That thought alone made it easy to pull the trigger when he needed to. Beside him, Sola was doing her part just as fluidly until there was no one left to take out in the vicinity.