"Bosses," he called out as we drew close, stepping out of the shadows near the door in question. "You got here quick."
"It seemed time sensitive," I replied, grim. "Have you gone in?"
Alexi shook his head. "No, sir. As advised, I haven't moved from this spot."
"How'd you find it?" Zed asked, his eyes narrowed at our head of security. Alexi had been with us since before I massacred two-thirds of the former Timberwolves. We'd known him a long time, and I was confident in his loyalty to us. Or... I had been until Agent Hanson had gotten into my head with her suspicions.
"Bulldog drove past here earlier," he told us, his expression serious. "Said he saw people with flashlights inside the park. He figured it was just dumb teens or some shit, but I came to check it out and found that." He nodded to the broken lock on the door that led to our underground storerooms. It wasn't just broken; it had been obliterated, like someone had shot the whole thing out with a large-caliber weapon.
"Anything else we need to know?" I asked, my tone sharp as I drew my gun. It wasn't the same as my Desert Eagle. Lighter. I was going to have to get that gun back from Chase, sooner rather than later.
Alexi frowned. "Yeah. I thought I heard someone crying a couple of minutes ago. But... I dunno. Maybe it was a fox or something." He jerked his head toward the forest that butted up against one side of the old amusement park and shrugged.
My insides twisted with apprehension, though. Somehow, I didn't think it was a fox. "Let's check this out. If it's another setup, then we can expect another visit from SGPD at any minute."
"Hopefully, we got here in enough time," Zed murmured. "Chase wouldn't have expected anyone to come check on things at this time of night, and the venue is closed for another week and a half. He might not be in any hurry."
I grimaced. "We can hope, but I don't think I'll rely on luck here. Stay alert."
Taking the lead, I stepped cautiously down into the darkness while Alexi shined his flashlight ahead to light the steps for me. We didn't turn the main lights on, not wanting to announce our presence to anyone who might be lurking, but I sniffed the air continuously to check for gas.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Zed took the flashlight from Alexi and swept the beam of light over every inch of the wall, floor, and ceiling in the tunnel ahead checking for explosives, now that I'd put the idea in his head.
After he decided it was clear, we started down the corridor cautiously but quickly. I felt the clock ticking in my head, making me more anxious by the second, but I was determined to beat Chase this time.
"There," Alexi hissed, making us all freeze. "Did you hear that?"
I stayed dead still, tilting my head to the side and listening. A moment later, I heard what he was talking about, and a deep chill ran down my spine. "That's not a fucking fox."
Panic clawing at my stomach, I took off running, totally ignoring Zed's shout to wait. I followed the sound of the crying all the way to one of the locked vault rooms. It was a room we kept for interrogations, and a heavy iron bar across the door prevented anyone inside from escaping.
Zed reached past me, lifting the bar before I could get my hands on it. The sound of crying was louder now, and he met my eyes with concern as we shoved the heavy door open.
Inside, my fears were confirmed. The small, dirty, bloodstained room should have been empty, but instead it contained over half a dozen people. Dead or sleeping, it was hard to tell, so I knelt next to the closest body and searched for a pulse. It was a woman, her skin still warm, and there was a steady pulse, which made me release a long breath of relief. Not dead, then.
In the corner, one of the mystery occupants was awake and tucked up in a ball, sobbing. She looked young, from what I could tell. Too fucking young.
"Shit," I breathed, looking back down at the woman whose pulse I'd taken. I rolled her over gently and groaned. She wasn't a woman at all. She was just a child. Horror rolled through me, and my skin broke out in a cold sweat. But I had to push aside all pity and personal feelings. There simply wasn’t the time.
"Alexi, get me some transport here immediately. I need all of these girls moved to a safe house." The rest of that statement didn't need to be said. But they needed to be moved before SGPD showed up and charged me with human trafficking and sex slavery. Hopefully they were all alive. As an owner of brothels, trafficking wouldn't be a difficult charge to make stick, either. Chase had really stepped it up on this one. As the icing on the cake, I couldn’t stop thinking how close Seph had come to being one of these girls. They were just kids.
Alexi was already on his phone in the hallway, barking orders to one of his team about getting a van here, brought to the south entrance. Smart call; the last thing we needed to do was drive right past the cops on their arrival.
"Dare," Zed said softly, his hand on my arm like I'd just zoned out. "What do you want me to do?"
I swallowed hard, blinking a couple of times to find my focus. Then I locked eyes with the terrified girl in the corner.
"Call Nadia," I croaked. "Have her meet us at the safe house, the one on Wattle Lane. These girls aren't going to want a bunch of scary, tattoo-covered men around, and that's all I have who I can trust in the Timberwolves right now."
Zed gave a tight nod, retreating into the hall with Alexi to make his call, and I cautiously approached the crying girl. She was the only one awake, but I had to hope that the other girls would all regain consciousness soon.
"Hey," I breathed as I paused near her. I tried for my most soothing, nonthreatening voice, but I doubted I was fooling her. Everything about me screamed dangerous, and I knew it. "We're not here to hurt you. My friends are arranging somewhere safe for you to go, okay? We'll get you home to your family soon."
She flinched hard when I said the word family, and my heart sank. These girls—or this one in particular—likely hadn’t been stolen. They’d been sold.
"You know what?" I dropped the soothing bullshit and gave her a dry tone instead. "Fuck family, they're usually a bunch of assholes. We'll get you somewhere safe and just work it out from there, okay?"
The girl's head lifted slightly at that, her crying slowing to silent tears, and I knew I'd struck the right chord. But now that I could see more of her face, I could see just how young she was. Maybe seven or eight at best.
Swallowing down all the horror at what might have happened to her, I mustered up my very best nonthreatening smile and held out my hand to her. "Will you come with me? I want to take you somewhere safe."
She hesitated, and I didn't fucking blame her. But the ticking in my head was getting more urgent with every passing second. The unconscious girls would be easy to move, but I didn't want this one screaming and fighting if we forcefully moved her. Not only would the sound attract attention, it'd also scare the crap out of her, and I suspected she'd been through enough already.
"Look, I'll be real with you. The people who brought you here? They might be coming back, and I don't know when. I want to get you out before they do. Will you trust me?" It was a huge ask—I knew that better than most. But sometimes you just needed to take a chance and hope for the best.