My phone vibrated in my back pocket, and I pulled it out. The caller ID was unknown, but I answered it anyway.
"Yes?"
"Can you tell me, Hades," Lieutenant Jeffries asked, "why I got woken up in the middle of the fucking night by a tipster who claimed you were smuggling human cargo through your fight club?"
My brows hitched. "I wish I could, Jeffries. This tipster seems to be very active lately."
He gave a grunt like he was deeply unamused. That made two of us. "What's stranger still was that not five minutes later I got another call to say it was a false alarm and not to investigate."
I wrinkled my nose as I leaned my back against Zed's car, looking out into the night. "Do you make a habit of doing whatever this prick tells you to do? I didn't pick you for a lazy cop, Jeffries." As much as that would’ve caused issues for me, I was disappointed he didn't investigate. What if that tip had been for real? Was this guy so concerned about his sleep that he wouldn't at least send a squad car?
"The second call came from my boss," he muttered back, "which I thought odd. So I've been sitting here watching a security feed of your parking lot, and so far all I've seen is you, Mr. De Rosa, and your head of security. No suspicious shipments of captive women or drugs or weapons or anything. So I'm gonna ask you again, what the hell is going on?"
I snorted a laugh, looking around until I located the camera he'd been using to spy on us. It was on the opposite side of the street, on public land, but turned away from the traffic to point directly at Anarchy.
"I'd have thought that was obvious, Jeffries," I drawled, opening Zed's car door. "You're being used to harass me. I sure hope you're getting a tasty slice of the pie your boss must be getting to justify all this shitty policework."
Ending the call, I flipped off the camera across the road and slid into Zed's car. I slammed the door behind me and waited for Zed to pull out of the parking lot before filling him in on that conversation.
He didn't say anything for a few moments, his brow creased in thought. Then he glanced over at me. "So someone saw us arrive and realized we'd beaten them to it."
I huffed in frustration. "Sounds like it. They figured out that we had enough head start to make the tip irrelevant and called it off, opting for head games instead. No doubt Chase didn’t expect Jeffries to tell me about the aborted tip, so I'd have been left puzzling over the point of it all."
Zed blew out a long breath, his hands tightening on the steering wheel as he drove. Then he perfectly summed up my feelings in just three words.
"What a cunt."
Blame the stress of the evening, but I started laughing. "That's an insult to actual cunts, Zed," I scolded him between bursts of laughter. "Chase could never compare to the real deal."
Zed snorted a laugh, flicking a glance at me, then down at the body part in question. "Fair point. Speaking of your delicious cunt..."
Grinning, I shook my head. "Later. We need to get over to Wattle Lane and sort out the girls. Hopefully, Doc Greene was able to get there to check them all out. Fuck knows what they've been drugged with or why Diana was awake before the rest of them."
Zed grimaced. "Good question." He ran a hand over his short hair, looking tired, then dropped that hand to my knee.
We drove the rest of the way in near silence, both a bit lost in our thoughts. In my head I was trying to work out what in the hell we would do with nine girls if they didn't want to return to their parents... wherever the fuck they were. I had no clue where they'd been taken from. But I sure as shit wouldn't be sending them back to abusive families who would just sell them again the second we were gone.
"You were really good with that girl, Dare," Zed commented as we parked in front of the friendly suburban house that had long been a Timberwolf safe place. The neighbors on each side were nice, normal middle-class couples, but they were also heavily on our payroll.
I leaned into his touch when he wrapped an arm around my waist on the way up the path to the front door. "I'm not a total monster, Zed. I’ve raised Seph pretty much since she was three, remember?"
He flashed me a smile. "I remember."
Inside the house, Nadia had all the girls in the living room. Most of them were awake, but one girl was still unconscious in a makeshift bed on the floor. The others were all huddled together on the couches while Nadia handed out steaming mugs of hot chocolate. A huge platter of baked goods sat on the table in front of them, and Diana looked like an overgrown chipmunk with her cheeks full of cake.
When she saw me, she jumped up as if she wanted to hug me. Then her wide eyes shifted to Zed, and she stiffened.
I gave a small sigh, shooting Zed a sympathetic look when his shoulders tensed. "Maybe call Hannah? I'm thinking the girls aren't going to want big, scary men around right now."
Nadia grunted, coming over to us with her empty tray in hand. "You can say that again. They won't even let Doc check them out. He's gone to wake his wife up, seeing as she's a nurse." She eyed me hard. "Do I even want to know where you found this lot?"
I gave her a warm smile, shaking my head. "Not really. Thank you for coming."
She huffed another grumpy sound, but her eyes were soft. "No thanks needed, sir. You're practically family." Her wink said it all; she knew exactly what Cass meant to me. And me to him.
Zed sighed, pulling out his phone. "I'll call Hannah and Gen, maybe Maxine too." He headed back out the front door to do that, putting himself well out of sight of the terrified girls.
When the door closed behind him, I turned back to Nadia. "I know you said Doc hasn't checked them out, but how do they seem? That one hasn't stirred?" I nodded to the unconscious girl.
Nadia shook her head. "I kept them all down here together so none of them woke up terrified and alone. That way I could keep an eye on them all as a group, since I'm only one woman."
I nodded vaguely, looking over to find Diana still staring at me with huge eyes. Her hot chocolate was clutched in her hands and crumbs covered her face, but the poor kid was still covered in grime.
"That was good thinking," I told Nadia. "Hopefully, Zed can get some trusted women to come in and help, maybe get them cleaned up while we figure out what in the hell we do with them."
Nadia indicated to Diana. "That one's been asking for you. Go sit with her a minute, and I'll get you a drink."
I did as I was told, making my way carefully over to where the girls sat. I gained more than a few suspicious looks—and I didn't blame them—but no one started screaming or crying. That was something, I supposed.
Diana gave me a tight smile as I sat down but otherwise didn't seem in the mood for conversation—which was fine by me. I was nowhere even close to qualified to talk these kids through what had happened and what needed to happen next. Better that we get some more maternal women here to help as soon as possible.
Nadia returned a couple of minutes later with a mug of the same hot chocolate for me, then crouched down to check the girl on the floor.
"Doc's wife, Maria, should be here any minute," she told me quietly. "She can see if this one needs more urgent medical care."