To our dismay, most of the women had been found dead. Their bodies were buried or burned to ash by their tormentors and left somewhere in a place their owner thought would never be discovered. The only reason we had found their remains was because Arturo was creative with that knife of his. It didn’t take long after he took it out and the blood started flowing before each of the men started sobbing the information we were looking for.
Thankfully, Sandoval had only been a seller in the sex slave underground for a couple of years. In that time, however, he had documented the transactions of over a hundred thirteen women, all of which we would have never known about had it not been for Brett ‘Ice’ Grady. He was a former Green Beret who had worked with Lucas. He was the President of the Regulators Motorcycle Club that owned strip clubs, one of which ran a small time brothel out of the back in Miami, Florida. Although, Riley had confided to me after our mission in Miami that he suspected Ice, and possibly the rest of the Regulators, were a hell of a lot more than just outlaw bikers.
Almost a year’s worth of investigation had finally come to a close tonight. An investigation that had started with Belle in Texas, working as an ATF agent on a black market weapons case. If not for Belle’s kidnapping by the Mexican Cartel leader Rivera, the Ex Ops team would have never stumbled on the sex slave ring.
That mission had almost cost me the life of my woman.
From there, we had been led to Ice in Miami, where Riley, Lucas, and Declan had gone undercover to pose as members of the Regulators MC. That leg of the mission had cost us the lives of two of our teammates and put Declan temporarily bedbound with a spinal injury. We ended up leaving Miami to head back to our headquarters in Virginia to bury our dead and regroup without catching the man responsible for both our losses and the missing women.
Ice and his boys had stepped in to figure out the rest. If not for them, we would have been delayed getting the information on the kidnapped women who had needed to be rescued for far too long.
Now it was over, and I could breathe a sigh of relief. I prayed that I would never have to look into another terrified woman’s face again, imagining that was what my fiancée had felt while being held hostage. I had nightmares over almost losing her. And Belle had nightmares over almost dying and leaving our teenage son Seth behind. Between the two of us, we could keep a psychiatrist busy for years. However, instead of going to a head doctor, I chose to show my fiancée and son how much I loved them every day that I was with them. The rest of it would heal with time.
I looked back over to Lucas, who still sat seething over the traumatized and violated women we had rescued out of the Russian diplomat’s house. Besides the woman we had initially saved when Riley had killed the bastard, there had been another nine malnourished women in cells on the side of the house that the other half of the team had split off to cover.
“They’re safe now, man. We pulled them from certain death, and now they have a second chance at life. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to put this mission behind me. The faster we go back to taking out terrorists, the closer I get to leavin’ all of this behind,” I told Lucas.
He nodded his head. “You’re right. I just can’t help thinking of my little sister every time we find these women. Won’t tell you how bad it fucked with my head when we didn’t find them alive.”
“I know exactly what you mean. Made me relive pulling Belle’s half dead body out of Mexico, and I see that shit enough in my sleep. It never leaves me.”
Lucas leaned his head back against the interior of the van. “Fuck. I can’t imagine what I would have done if that had been my girl. You’re right; we need to go back to blowin’ up the bad guys.”
The sound of an irregular beep caught my attention. I turned my head towards the sound to see my Commander pulling a secured satellite phone from his pocket. Jaxon got a weird look on his face as he glanced at the ringing device and then answered the phone.
“Uncle Sam, I hadn’t expected to hear from you while I was on vacation.”
Translation: What the hell are you doing calling me while I am still on a mission?
He was silent for a moment before his brows furrowed and he frowned. “That package isn’t due for another month. Are you sure it’s about to be delivered?”