Chapter Eighteen

EIGHTEEN

"We need to find McGrady," Maestro announced to the Torpedo Ink members gathered around the large table where they had carefully planned their mission. Steele was team leader, and he never left anything to chance. Not the slightest detail. They had plans for anything that could go wrong and then more plans just in case those steps went awry as well.

Code looked up from one of the seven screens set up in the room. "Billows had him picked up. The men who took him from his garage weren't very gentle either. I had his place wired, complete with cameras, and I could see very plainly he was in fear for his life. He stepped over a line, and Billows must have decided to take him out."

"Did you follow up on the car's route through traffic intersection cameras?" Steele asked. "I need to know McGrady's not going to be breathing down our necks."

"The car took him to the location I've indicated on this map." Code brought up the map on the largest screen hanging in the room. "We all agreed there had to be a way to bring the women to the training area that we were certain was located beneath the two clubs. Billows would never have been able to get away with trafficking for so long if he brought women in through the club. Someone would notice eventually."

Maestro could easily see the large red X Code had placed on the map. The road was narrow and unpaved, looking as if it was a part of a park or land reserved for a park.

"You believe there's another entrance to the underground rooms?" Steele asked Code.

"There would have to be. How could Azelie work for Billows for seven years and never see evidence of women coming and going if her boss moved them through the club?" Code said.

Maestro nodded. "I suspected as much when she told me about hearing the woman scream. Her boss wasn't in an office, she was certain of it, yet he appeared out of nowhere. How did he get down there without her being aware?"

"When Maestro told us Azelie's story, he mentioned then that there would have to be another entrance," Code explained. "Beneath the city, there's a maze of underground tunnels. It didn't surprise me to see Billows' men taking McGrady to a different location to enter his underground rooms. Suffice it to say, McGrady, if he's still alive, is in a holding room below the Adventure Club."

"Thanks, Code," Steele said. "We're going to run this mission by the numbers. Always be aware of the clock; time's moving fast on us. Billows normally shows up in the underground office around three-thirty or four A.M. Code, do you have eyes on him?"

Code nodded. "At the moment, he's at home with a very accommodating blonde. They never spend the night with him. He doesn't sleep with them. He has very rough sex with them and then sends them home."

"Let us know when he's on the move," Steele said. "We're on the clock. Let's move out."

***

The team was made up of eight members, plus Steele at the lead. Lana, Preacher, Keys, Maestro, Master, Player, Ink and Code trained consistently together. In this case, Savage and Destroyer from team one had joined them because they were the best at interrogation. It was imperative to get names from Billows to continue the quest to find those higher up in the trafficking ring.

They left their transportation a good block away, and, like wolves, the pack circled around the huge building to come at the entrances from several sides. They couldn't take the chance of guards getting behind them.

Cameras weren't normally a problem. Code identified each security camera's location, and he took over the cameras remotely. Code and his information were essential to both teams. He'd never let them down, not once, and Maestro knew the responsibility for the lives of his brothers and sisters weighed on him.

Each had a role to fulfill, and the lives of the others depended on them getting their job done. Lana was a marksman, rarely missing a shot. Maestro had never known her to fail in bringing down a target or protecting them from a distance. She was their eyes on scene, going high and establishing the best place to protect them from any hidden dangers.

Preacher moved around the building to find each security guard. He went to the left and Ink went to the right. If they encountered a guard, they killed him quietly and hid the body carefully so it wouldn't be easily found. There were four stationary guards and one roving. Neither had much time to take the guards out and hide the bodies. Fortunately, when they ran the plan repeatedly, they knew the position of the guards, even the roving one. They had established ahead of time where to hide each body. That was due to Steele's meticulous planning. When he ran a mission, no detail was too small, which was why their missions tended to run smoothly.

The most important guard was the one stationed at the entrance to the private hallway marked For Employees Only . If Billows came into the building via the clubs, he would use that route. A guard had to be present at that door, and one had to be sitting at the desk where Bobby Aspen usually was on duty. His replacement during the daylight hours was a man named Alex Right. It didn't matter which guard sat at the desk, he had to be replaced with a team member. Preacher had that role.

Once he disposed of the security guards outside the building, Ink would remain dressed as one of the outside guards on roving patrol. Preacher would take Bobby Aspen's place. He was adept at adapting his body image to appear however he needed to look. They had taken the precaution of making masks of both guards to be on the safe side.

As a precaution against being recognizable, every member wore a silicone mask. They were used to wearing them, changing their appearances and even their walks, with the roles they played, when necessary.

"Guard is down," Ink reported. "In place."

Preacher made his approach with Maestro toward the employees-only door. A guard stepped in front of the door, one hand on his gun, his chest out. He looked impressive, his features set in lines of command.

"You can't…"

Maestro threw his favorite small throwing knife with deadly accuracy. It didn't take a huge blade to kill a man. One needed to know precisely where on a body to hit, have the training and do so without hesitation. They were on him before his body went down. Maestro dragged him behind a wall of hydrangea bushes, concealing the body. Very little blood seeped down the neck to soak into the shirt and jacket.

Preacher wore a jacket with the security emblem on it in preparation for his role. He removed the keys and small radio as well as a cell phone from the guard's pockets. Maestro opened the door and stepped inside as if he owned the place. The entrance was mostly dark, lit only by a single bulb. Much farther down the hall, he could see the desk was manned by Bobby Aspen.

Maestro stopped just inside the door to lay his hand on the wooden panels that made up the wall. Immediately, he felt the connection in the way he did, the gift he'd been born with. The knot was only inches from his fingers. He felt Azelie's presence strongly, as if she stood right there in that hall with him. The wood remembered her, felt her connection with it.

He found the necklace in the knot, scooping it out with one finger, his body covering the movement from Bobby. He suspected the guard's desk was too far away to see what he was doing. That was why Azelie had chosen—or been given—that particular spot to conceal her key. She was adept at putting it in the hole and retrieving it, which meant she'd practiced somewhere else until she was extremely fast at it.

"Who the hell are you?" Bobby demanded, belligerence in his voice. He stood, gun locked in his fist, aiming at Preacher.

Preacher kept walking toward him, a friendly smile on his face. "New security guard. Weird you didn't get the memo that I'd be introducing myself to you."

Preacher was nearly at the desk by the time Maestro had the key in his possession. Bobby's attention was centered solely on Preacher. It was clear he believed him to be the real threat. He thought Maestro was too far away, Preacher blocking any access to Bobby's body. Neither Preacher nor Maestro had a gun out.

"Stop right where you are. I need to see your ID and scan your prints. This is a restricted area," Bobby continued.

Maestro used Preacher's body as a shield, coming up behind his Torpedo Ink brother in a deliberately slow stalk. Movement attracts attention. Preacher deliberately shuffled his feet, threw his hands up and out while he talked, spoke rapidly and interjected laughter into his monologue to keep Bobby off-balance.

"Isn't it just like Billows to forget to send an important memo? Guess if he loses one security guard, especially a new one, he won't lose any sleep over it." He laughed as if he'd told a huge joke.

Preacher no longer moved forward toward Bobby, but he was the epitome of a very young man with ADHD, unable to stay still. He threw his arms around and punched his fist into his palm and turned this way and that. Bobby's attention was riveted on him.

Maestro stepped around Preacher, putting him to the left side of Bobby. Almost simultaneously, he threw his favorite knife, the same one he'd retrieved from the outside guard. He didn't ever leave his weapons behind if it was at all possible to recover them. Bobby reeled back under the impact, gurgling and choking. One hand came up to his neck as if he didn't quite know what happened. The gun in his hand fell to the floor.

Preacher was on him, snapping Bobby's neck, not waiting for him to bleed out. With the ease of long practice, he dragged the dead guard into the darkest part of the hallway. Billows kept the hallway dimly lit so there would be no chance of an employee seeing where the door was seamlessly woven into the woodwork. Even knowing it was there, the members of Torpedo Ink would have had a difficult time finding it. Fortunately, Lana had counted the steps Azelie had taken from the guard desk to where the opening of the door was.

Maestro measured out the steps while Preacher dragged Bobby out of sight and retrieved Maestro's knife. Maestro placed his hand on the ornate wooden panel, feeling the instant connection. The lock was inches from his palm. He had Azelie's fingerprints on his fingers using silicone, and he mimicked the way she palmed the tiny chip. His hand was much larger than hers. It took a moment to get the chip centered before he placed his fingers carefully on the pad woven into the wood. In all the years they had run missions and encountered heavy security, he'd never seen such a clever device.

"Keys, I'm in," he announced. "Building's as secure as it's going to be."

"Right behind you," Keys assured him. He entered quickly, saluted Preacher, who had pulled on the silicone mask of Bobby's face and a ball cap and sank into the chair Bobby had vacated. He was their first line of defense so no one could come up behind Maestro and Keys as they descended into the lower floors.

Maestro waited for Keys, allowing him to go first. The stairway was narrow, lit only by LED lights. Before stepping onto each stair, Keys patiently crouched low and ran his palms just above the next stair down. Both were aware of time passing, but they didn't attempt to hurry the process. They knew how many stairs they had to descend to reach the floor where the offices and potential prison for the women were. Knowing there were bombs in the floor, both realized bombs could be placed beneath the stairs as well. It was entirely possible Billows activated the bombs when he wasn't there, but if he knew Azelie was coming, he'd have made certain there was no chance of them going off.

"Player said he'll have a main switch in the office he uses," Key said. "And he'll most likely always carry a manual switch on his person. When he's taken, we'll have to strip him to ensure he can't blow us all up."

Maestro wasn't worried about Billows' chances of killing them, not when Savage and Destroyer would be there to take care of the interrogation. No matter what self-preservation instincts Billows had, the two men were guaranteed to get around them. They'd been trained in every aspect of interrogation from the time they were young boys. Both had exceeded the expectations of every instructor.

Keys found four bombs beneath the floorboards in the maze of seemingly dead-end hallways, but none of the four were live. They'd simply been placed there.

"While you find an entrance to the other rooms, I'll check Billows' office for a switch for the bombs and also to see if he has the same kind of chip to unlock the door in the wall."

That was the one thing Maestro was most worried about. If Billows had rested on his laurels and programmed the lock to be the same as the one for the door leading down to the underground floor, it was possible Azelie had access to every lock without realizing it. Billows had her so intimidated she hadn't tried to explore the environment. That was smart on her part. Billows had been lulled into a false sense of security by Azelie's compliance.

Maestro followed the same path Azelie had taken when she had tried to locate the woman screaming. She'd told him how the hallways narrowed and would dead-end straight into a wall. The floor was dimly lit with LED lights along the ceiling in places, but they hung down in a rope, causing shadows to move ominously. It was disorienting and gave off the illusion that the walls crept in, closing in on him as his hand whispered along the wood. It would be a terrifying experience for a young woman alone.

Torpedo Ink had a member, Player, who was a master of illusion. He could create entrances and exits or throw up false walls they could hide behind. The toll was tremendous on him for using that talent, but he'd developed it into a real weapon that had saved their lives on many occasions. Maestro wasn't thrown by illusions. He was good at telling the difference between reality and tricks.

The swaying ropes of light had been set up deliberately to give the illusion of the walls closing in on anyone walking around. It was a good trick and required a professional to manage it. Billows most likely had done it knowing Azelie worked in an office below the clubs. He didn't want her exploring. The illusion hadn't stopped Azelie when she believed another woman was hurt and needed help. Billows didn't know Azelie nearly as well as he thought he did.

The wood panel whispered to him as he made his way steadily toward the wall solidly in front of him. He felt Azelie's presence, although the incident had taken place months earlier. Her fear and determination were impressed into the grains in the wood. That made Maestro love her all the more. She'd been unwavering in her resolve to find the unknown woman even though she was terrified. Azelie was courageous, even if a little foolhardy.

He located the lock in the carvings along the wall. Keys came up behind him just as he was trying Azelie's chip and prints. He did so smoothly, as if just by believing, the chip would work—and it did. Billows hadn't gone to the trouble of removing Azelie's prints and key from the lock. He'd just used the same one.

"He has all this elaborate security, and yet he reused the same door lock," Keys muttered. "Sometimes people make no sense to me, Maestro. None at all."

"It goes with Billows' personality. He believes he's too intelligent for anyone to catch him. Ego tends to be the downfall of men like him. His device is so secret he doesn't need more than one."

The door opened silently. Maestro peered into the darkened corridor. This hall was much wider than the one they had followed to get to the door. Reluctantly, he stepped back to allow Keys to precede him.

We're in , he reported to Steele. They had the small radio earpieces in their ears, but because they had been unable to get audio when they were following Azelie's progress into the underground rooms, they thought it would be better to try to communicate using telepathy. Some were better at it than others, and distance could screw things up. The radios were for backup if telepathy didn't work.

Steele responded, It's quiet out here so far, but clock is ticking.

Maestro knew they were taking a little longer than anticipated, searching for bombs beneath the floor and in the walls. They couldn't afford to take any chances, especially if women were being held captive.

The corridor had several doors leading to rooms. One was slightly open. No light shone through and there was no sound. Maestro stepped to one side and pushed the door open another two inches with one finger. The scent of blood hit him. He was very familiar with the smell. The fact that there were no lights and there was the scent of blood didn't have him jumping to the conclusion that the room was empty. That kind of thinking only got a person dead. They could have accidentally tripped a silent alarm they knew nothing about.

He slid into the room without disturbing the door further. It wasn't as easy as he would have liked. His chest slid across the door frame, a whisper of sound, but that was enough to get one killed. He had too much muscle for tight places. He naturally put on muscle. That sounded good, but in his profession, it wasn't always a good thing.

"It's Andrew McGrady," he told Keys. "He died hard. They didn't just execute him. Billows was pissed as hell over the attention he brought to Azelie. He doesn't want the cops anywhere near her."

Seeing McGrady's dead body worried him for Azelie's safety. Billows easily could decide the job she did wasn't worth the risk to him. She knew more about his finances than anyone else. She had to know the names of his colleagues. Torpedo Ink had already discussed the best way to go about debriefing her, trying to learn other names that would lead to the heads of the trafficking ring.

Steele, is Rock watching over Azelie? Rock—Fatei Molchalin—hadn't gone to the same school as the founding members of Torpedo Ink. He'd attended the school Gavriil had gone to. He had come to Torpedo Ink as a prospect, willing to put in the time and effort so the members would know he could be counted on. That he was loyal and always had their backs. Once made a full-fledged member, he had continued to prove to them he believed in their causes. They had voted to take him along on team two, Steele's team. For now, they used him mainly as a guard. He hadn't trained with them, and when the members of the team worked, they were a smooth-oiled machine. Having anyone new could throw them off their game.

She's still in her apartment. No one has come near the building other than the normal tenants , Steele replied. Rock won't let you down.

Maestro knew he wouldn't, it was just that he would have preferred his woman to be in Caspar, at the clubhouse or at Czar's home, where she could be under guard, eyes on her directly, not just her apartment building. He'd prefer her to be anywhere but in San Francisco. Billows didn't know him or the members of Torpedo Ink. He had no idea they were hunting him. He did know Azelie. Billows had associates and men loyal to him. If he suspected he was in jeopardy, he would get rid of any threats to him.

Maestro continued down the hall, trailing his palm just above each door as they passed it. The rooms were empty until he came to the fifth door. He signaled to Keys, who was going down the hall checking the doors on the opposite side. Keys took his place in front of the door, lifting both palms toward the entrance. He had a gift for seeing through walls. Maybe not actually seeing, but he had developed senses, whether he saw heat imaging or just felt the presence of others. However that gift worked, he could tell how many enemies were in another room and their exact location. He hadn't failed since he'd become a teen.

Two women. Both are hurt. One's in the far right corner, on the floor. Man standing over her. His partner is shoving the other woman away from the first one. Second woman just went down in the middle of the floor. Her assailant is kicking her.

Maestro stood to one side of the door, while Keys was directly behind him. Keys tapped his shoulder and Maestro opened the door, stepped to his right and shot the man standing over the woman in the far right corner. He fired one shot straight to the middle of the forehead. Simultaneously, Keys shot the man kicking the woman. Keys didn't miss when he aimed at someone, and neither did Maestro.

Maestro held up his hand to the women on the floor. "Don't scream. Need to know if there are more of you. More guards. We've come to get you out of here."

The woman in the middle of the floor sat up, looked him over carefully and then crawled across the room to put her arms around the second victim. Keys ignored the torn clothing strewn around the room and handed her a shirt he'd brought with him. "You have decent clothes somewhere?"

"In the holding rooms. They brought us here to have a little private fun, they called it," the woman said, taking the shirt. She began to put it on the woman crouched on the floor. "Paula, it's okay. They aren't going to hurt us. I think they're here to help."

"We're in a time crunch," Maestro said. "I don't want to push you, but we need to get you somewhere safe. You both need medical assistance." The one she called Paula looked as if she'd been in a train wreck. Clearly, she was terrified and nearly comatose. He'd seen that look hundreds of times before. Human beings pushed beyond their minds' ability to accept the trauma happening to them.

"I'm Cecily." She took Maestro's hand so he could assist her to her feet. He wrapped her in a shirt he'd brought. They'd learned victims often didn't have clothes. It was one of the ways their captors stripped them of dignity and made them feel vulnerable.

Maestro crouched down beside Paula. She looked young, still in her teens. "I know this is difficult, Paula." Deliberately he called her by her name. "We're going to get you and Cecily out of here. Can you walk? I'd carry you, but we have to clear the rest of the rooms."

"Everyone else is down in the holding room," Cecily volunteered. "There's a tunnel. They brought us in through that way. We've never been anywhere other than the room they hold us in, the training rooms and now here. This was the first time anyone took us here."

If Maestro had to guess, the two men assaulting the women had most likely been the ones to kill Andrew McGrady. They were probably celebrating.

"How many other women?" Keys asked.

"Six," Cecily answered readily. "Paula, baby, we have to go. I'm right here. I'm not going to leave you."

"I'm putting my hands on you," Maestro said, "but only to help you get to your feet. Think about getting out of here." He sent up a silent prayer that whatever powers might be would give the girl the strength to tolerate his touch.

Paula's gaze clinging to Cecily, she let out a little sob as she gave a barely perceptible nod. Maestro didn't wait. He lifted the girl to her feet. She shuddered with pain and nearly collapsed. Broken ribs for certain , he informed Keys and included Steele. This one can't be out of her teens and she's in bad shape.

We have the hospital we use standing by. Clock is ticking , Steele reminded them. Get them out of there before Billows makes his rounds.

"We've got to go, ladies," Maestro said. He signaled to Keys to lead the way. He'd bring up the rear. Keys was the man who could see through walls. "Tell us where the opening to the tunnel is." He kept his voice soft and compelling.

Cecily wrapped her arm around Paula's back. "You have to go down to the very end of the hallway. There's a lock on the wooden panel." She looked and sounded alarmed. "They have a special way of opening the lock. They shut the door, so it automatically locked."

"We'll get through," Maestro assured her. "Keep moving."

The progress down the hall was excruciatingly slow. He wished he could carry Paula, knowing every step she took hurt like hell, but he needed his hands free.

"You're up," Keys said.

Maestro moved around the women to hover his palms an inch from the paneling. The screams and cries of women mixed with male arousal and ugly visions drowned out the intricacies of the lock. He was going to have to touch the wood. His gut knotted at the necessary decision. He knew childhood memories would flood in, bursting open the doors he'd sealed shut in his mind. He clung to Azelie, using her as a buffer. The lightness of her. The sunshine in her. The joy she had for life and the people she surrounded herself with.

Despite the vicious, brutal memories locked in the grains and carvings of wood screaming at him, he was able to find the lock and open it with the same ease as he'd opened the previous one. After they went through, the door closed automatically behind them.

The tunnel was cold and drafty, the walls dirt and rock with only the occasional two-by-four to hold chicken wire that had been strung to keep the dirt from crumbling. The tunnel was a disaster waiting to happen. One good earthquake could easily collapse the roof, which was leaking and had roots hanging down like poisonous webs.

Maestro exchanged a look with Keys. They'd spent their childhood in just such an environment. Damp. Cold. Miserable. No clothes to help with warmth. Injuries were untreated until Steele, a very little boy, had shown signs of his tremendous talent and ability to soak up the knowledge in medical books they found in the mansion's library. Even then, they didn't have supplies unless they managed to crawl through the vents and steal them. These women had no chance of crawling through vents.

"How many guards?" Maestro whispered to Cecily.

"There were three that I observed when we were brought in. One at the door to the room we're locked in. One in the tunnel just down from the room. Not leading up here but leading to the outside entrance. And at least one guard is at the outside entrance. He seems to stay in the tunnel for shelter. At least, I caught glimpses of a couple of chairs just inside when we were being brought in."

Cecily was extraordinary. She had to have been scared. She was intelligent enough to know what was going to happen to her, but she kept her wits about her and observed as much as she could.

"Nice job, Cecily," Maestro praised. "The information you're giving to us will help."

"We're getting close. The first guard stationed in the tunnel might be able to see us."

"We've got you two, and they'll believe we're bringing you back."

Kill the lights in forty-five seconds. Maestro sent the instructions to Code. "Both of you keep your heads down. We can't afford the guard at the entrance to the tunnel to hear gunshots."

At least one guard just inside tunnel entrance. Come in from that side but be cautious. My source only saw the one when she was coming in.

Maestro took the lead. He was the best at throwing knives. Keys was good, but they would be without lights, and the first guard would have to go down while Maestro was moving on the second one.

As they rounded the bend, Maestro saw that two men were in the center of the corridor talking together. He quickened his pace, noting the position of each as he palmed his throwing knives. The lights flickered and went out. Instantly, without hesitation, he threw the knives, one after the other, the clear vision of his targets embedded in his brain. He sprinted forward, Keys with him as they reached the men, ensuring they were dead or dying, at least unable to draw a weapon. Fortune had favored Maestro in that the two men were facing each other, which made the artery he needed to sever an easy target. On the other hand, it was dark, and reaching the bodies before one of them had time to fire off a round if he was still able wasn't easy.

When he reached them, both men were slumped in the dirt. One was gasping for air and trying to stem the blood pouring between his fingers. The other stared up at Maestro with shock in his eyes. Keys removed their weapons, just to be safe. Maestro drew a third knife that had been resting in a scabbard between his shoulder blades. He drove it into the back of each of their skulls, severing the spinal cord.

"We need those women ready for transport to a medical facility, Cecily," he said as he and Keys dragged the bodies away from the door.

Lights , he ordered.

Code complied almost instantaneously.

Guard at entrance down. Bring them out , Steele said. Player is shadowing Billows. He's on the move, heading this way. Savage and Destroyer are inside the building.

"We've run out of time, ladies," Maestro said, making a show of looking at his watch. "Billows is on his way to the club. Does he always check in first thing?"

Cecily indicated the door. "Open it fast. It has one of those locks. And yes, he's the worst. You never know what you're going to get with him. He's been known to whip a woman nearly to death when he's crossed."

Maestro unlocked the door, allowing Cecily to rush inside, calling out to the women to hurry, that they were being rescued but they had to go now . The other women and girls were in various states of physical distress and injury. They helped one another out the door to stand in a semicircle around Maestro. The room was horrific—no toilets, no shower, just the way he'd been raised. The stench told him there were a couple of women with infected wounds. That was another thing he was well versed in.

"I'm carrying you," he informed Paula. "Cecily will walk right beside us, but we have to hurry. We have medics waiting to help. You'll be taken to a safe house. At that time, the cops will be involved. We prefer you don't talk to them about us. No descriptions; simply say we wore masks." The women would never know they were already wearing masks. If someone did eventually talk, the descriptions would never match a single member of Torpedo Ink.

Maestro was as careful as possible when he lifted Paula into his arms. She gasped and jammed her fist into her mouth. "Sorry," he whispered. He hoped Billows died hard.

Several members of Torpedo Ink met them in the tunnel to aid the women with the worst injuries. They had long shirts to cover them so when they emerged from the tunnel and got into the two vans waiting for them, they wouldn't feel quite so vulnerable.

Billows pulled into the club parking lot , Player announced.

Maestro lifted a hand toward Cecily. Then he turned and jogged back through the tunnel, racing through the maze of corridors to get upstairs before Billows entered the building. Ink's disguise as the outside guard hopefully would pass muster. Billows, as a rule, didn't speak with his guards often.

He's coming up the walkway toward the door , Ink announced.

I have him in my sights , Lana confirmed. You're covered, Ink. Unless I miss.

Very funny , Steele said.

Maestro managed to make it up the stairs and took up a position deep in the shadows behind the guard's desk, where Preacher sat looking bored.

I dropped my cell and had to fish it out of the brush so he couldn't see me clearly , Ink reported. He's going in. Savage and Destroyer are waiting for the door to be opened.

Billows strode straight up to the desk. "You're looking lazy tonight, Bobby," he greeted.

Preacher stretched his arms out and deliberately yawned.

Billows grinned. "You need to visit the rooms downstairs more. You won't be so bored."

Preacher gave him the thumbs-up and then fished for his cell as if he had a call. Billows stepped around the desk, heading toward the concealed lock on the door. Maestro waited for him to open the door before he was on him. The blow to the head stunned Billows. Maestro flung him to the floor facedown, half in and half out of the doorway. He and Preacher searched him after they restrained his arms and legs, tying him as if he were a steer at a rodeo. They removed the switch for the bombs, along with his cell phone and three guns.

Savage and Destroyer entered and followed Maestro and Preacher, who were dragging Billows not-so-gently down the stairs. The entire way, Billows threatened them, mainly concentrating on Preacher, still believing him to be Bobby.

It took less than an hour for them to get the information they needed before they killed Billows. They left the body in the room where his men had tortured and killed McGrady. As usual after a successful mission, they all met back at the Airbnb they had rented to go over every move they'd made. It was considered necessary to spot any flaws in the planning. Thirty minutes into the debriefing, Maestro glanced down at his vibrating phone. 911. That was all, but it came from Azelie's number.

His heart climbed into his throat. "Is Fatei with Zelie?"

"We pulled him off when we took Billows," Steele answered, looking up from the videos they were going through. They always went over a mission while it was fresh in their minds. "He's headed back to Caspar."

Maestro's throat got tight. His phone rang. Doug Parsons calling. "Don't have time, Doug," he barked.

"Billows dragged Azelie from her apartment and took her away in a black SUV. Carlton and I are following. The widows insisted on coming along."

"That can't be. Billows is gone."

"I'm looking right at him. I wasn't the only witness. Several people from her apartment building saw him take her."

"Doug says Billows has Azelie," Maestro reported to the others. "He's following the SUV right now."

Every head snapped up, and all eyes were instantly on him. Code sank into a chair in front of one of his screens. "Tell me streets so I can pick them up."

"Billows is dead," Savage assured everyone in the room. He looked at Destroyer for confirmation. "We fucking killed the bastard."

"Put him out of his misery after he finally gave up a few names and where to locate them. Once he started talking, he couldn't say enough," Destroyer added.

"Someone who looks a hell of a lot like Billows just took her," Maestro declared. "Doug, we need that information now."