Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

G age

There was a practicality to running an organized kill mission.

That’s the way I wanted to think of what we were doing tonight. I was fully aware killing everyone, especially given the FBI’s presence, wasn’t in my best interest, but a guy could have thoughts.

We were in several SUVs, old-fashioned walkie-talkies allowing us to communicate together. While I’d wanted to spend more time watching the beginning of the community’s destruction during a breaking news cycle on pretty much every television station, I’d seen enough to know their world was crumbling around them. And the social media outlets were going insane.

What I doubted anyone suspected was the number of outside neighbors hanging around the outskirts of the community. The story couldn’t have broken an hour before and some had picket signs. I think we were all amused, perhaps with the exception of the lovely woman sitting in the back seat.

“You sure you want her to have a gun, boss?” Jeff asked.

She looked like a badass herself wearing dark clothes, her hair pulled up in a tight bun.

“I can hear you, Jeff. The man who trained me to shoot was not only a former Black Ops member but a decorated detective in the New York police department. He’d just retired, which meant I got lucky. He refused to allow me to sign a permit to purchase a weapon until I knew exactly what I was doing. I can shoot a tin can off a fence post at three hundred yards. Can you?”

Jeff and the other man sitting beside me, the two behind choked in order to muffle their laughter.

“There’s my girl,” I said casually.

Jeff shook his head. “I guess I don’t want to piss in your Wheaties.”

“No, you do not. You don’t fuck with women or their breakfast cereal. My father’s house is on the right. After that, we enter the zone. I suggest you park across the street in the park. It has nothing to do with the community, although they tried more than once to purchase the land.”

“Anything else you can tell us?”

“Look, I’m not one hundred percent certain about this but there are a few basements in the community. They hold more secrets than what I was able to find. When the girls believed I was one of them, we used to play a game of trying to figure out what was locked away in the darkest portions of various houses. That included Ashley. Her father was an accountant. Little did I know he worked for the community. He had a small business operation within miles of his house, but a lot of people did. If you put their businesses on a map, it was like they couldn’t venture out more than two miles. Maybe they were all imbedded with some chip when they were born.”

Her sigh forced me to look at Jeff. He was taking her lead, heading into the park. There were a few lights on but nothing that did more than create ominous shadows ghosting along our vehicles. “Go on.”

“Anyway. We were doing a little sleepover one night at Ashley’s place. Now, I’m talking we’re maybe eight years old. Her parents were at a party next door, which I thought was strange but there was no crime in our neighborhood. We were playing our game when Heidi was the one determined to look in their basement. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. I won’t bore you with the details other than it was locked, the lock used pretty significant but nothing was stopping Heidi.”

Jeff parked and I sensed FBI presence even though they’d promised they wouldn’t be seen until they were ready to advance.

“Anyway. Heidi found a crowbar and broke the lock. She thought she was bold and daring. I’d felt like a chicken shit. We ribbed each other to head downstairs. It was just like you’ve seen in horror flicks where there’s a single bulb light highlighting a tight set of steep stairs. It looked creepy, a slight chill wafting up to us. We made up ghost stories, for God’s sake. Anyway. I did my best to ease down the stairs first, wincing every time one of the boards creaked.”

“What did you find?”

“Nothing at first. A storage area for stuff in boxes and some shovels and picks. But there was a room we almost ignored with another closed door. It wasn’t locked. What we found in there was… surreal. Weapons attached to gun racks on two sides, boxes of ammunition. But worse than that was a freezer. I’ll never forget Rachel decided to be the brave one, opening the damn thing. What I can tell you is her scream was high pitched and we were lucky we were partially underground plus there was loud music next door.”

“What did she see?” I asked her.

“The other four of us didn’t look and it took her six years to admit what she saw. By then, no one believed her. Heidi laughed, telling her it was just the girl’s fabulous imagination, but I’d seen the fear in her eyes.” As soon as the SUV was stopped, I lifted my head, locking eyes with Gage. “A head in a plastic bag. Several other body parts that she said couldn’t belong to one person. Ashley’s father was keeping dead people stored in the freezer until they could be disposed of.”

“Fuck,” Ron hissed from behind me. The other two soldiers had hung on the back of the seat, listening intently.

“No one ever tried to go back into a basement?”

“It was very interesting that about six months later, my father sat me down in his office. He was very kind, his voice soft but he explained that some things within the community were best left in the dark. He tried to scare me with mention of boogeymen and bad spirits, but I knew it was about the horrors of man even at that age. However, the incident was never mentioned again. I just thought of it. The real point isn’t just killing people who get in their way but the number of weapons they likely have. Be mindful of that.”

“Good to know, Evangeline,” Jeff said. “Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do. We are coordinating with the FBI, who is already on the move.”

Valerio had coordinated with an old buddy of his, handing over the controlled reins to Jeff and his men. My two brothers were in the SUV behind us. We were all dressed in dark clothing. We were all tense. The plan was in order. There was no reason to think otherwise yet we remained apprehensive. There was still a chance Damien had been or would be removed from the community. The areas in the forest mentioned by Evangeline early on had been locked down, or so we hoped.

Given what she’d just mentioned about the basements, I wouldn’t put it past these bozos to have a secret chamber under the damn community leading them miles away. It truly did remind me of a commune.

“Stay right with me,” I told her.

“I will. Just so you know. So you all know. I hate my father. My mother is just a pawn. However, I don’t want him to die if at all possible.”

I wasn’t surprised to hear her say that. Blood was thicker than water at the end of every day.

“Don’t worry, Evangeline,” Ron told her. “Your parents aren’t the target.”

We left the vehicles three or four to a group, heading for the community from different angles. Almost immediately, we were bombarded by a group of picketers screaming about cults and zombies of all fucking things. Some held shovels, other heavy axes. What the hell did they think they were going to do?

When some of them shoved signs into our hands, I encouraged everyone to accept them. What the hell? It was additional coverage as we approached.

I felt Evangeline tense next to me when something caught her eye. She placed her hand on my forearm, her breathing ragged. Being here for her was like being taken back to a torture chamber of those imprisoned overseas. I’d heard all about the horrors from Jeff and Ron. PTSD was horrible for a reason.

Doors were burst in, screaming occurring. Within seconds, the place sounded like a war zone.

“Several are missing!” we heard someone scream.

“Check basements,” Jeff called back.

They knew he was being serious. If tunnels had been built, they would have been done through passages in two or more basements. Where no one was supposed to ever see them.

What I hadn’t expected was for my sweet submissive to take off bolting back in the opposite direction, likely heading for her parents’ house.

I motioned for several of the others to follow, racing after her. Her determination was strong and I understood why she hadn’t obeyed me.

This might be the last chance of seeing her son ever again.

I lunged forward, flanking her side and together we closed the distance to her parents’ small house.

No one needed to tell me anything. I kicked in the door, the group of eight or so of us folding in through the front door like true soldiers.

Just then, I noticed she had her hands wrapped around the weapon I’d provided. The look on her face in the warmly lit space was terrifying.

She was prepared to kill if necessary.

Or worse.

Die.

She knew exactly where she was going and we followed her. When she found her father in a den in front of a roaring fire smoking a cigar and drinking cognac, I thought for certain she would go ballistic.

“Well, dear Daddy. How did I know I’d find you here, acting as if you don’t have a care in the world.” Evangeline remained behind him for now, her entire demeanor different than before. She was concentrating, not at all shaking. But she had her arms outstretched, the weapon fully armed.

She’d been right that she knew what she was doing. Jeff had put her through the paces, including firing off a couple of shots. However, when emotions got involved, anything could happen and not usually something good.

When he didn’t say anything, she moved around so he had to look at her, pointing the weapon within inches of his face.

I flanked her side but remained behind her. She needed to do this and I owed her that much. Jeff motioned to the others to search the house. Her mother had to be here somewhere.

“You’re crying,” she huffed. “You’re fucking crying, Daddy dearest? You were part of this horrible group for decades. What did the bastards do, subsidize your practice? Give you money to sock away? What did it take for you to sell your soul to them, allowing them to take my child? Huh? Huh, Dad?”

His hand was shaking as he pulled his drink to his lips, managing to take a sip before she jerked the glass from him, tossing it into the fire. The instant flare was huge but brief. “You don’t understand.”

“Oh, I think I do. You fucking asshole. I loved you. You were my father. You even encouraged me to have my own life, but it was all a lie. A lie! Why was I allowed to leave? What did you do?”

“He has something else on the group. Isn’t that right, Mr. Weathers?” I asked as I stared at him, trying to keep my cool.

To the man’s credit, he lifted his head to look at me. I could tell he’d been drinking for a while. When he nodded, I glanced at Jeff. “I’ll need to know where that information is.”

“They’ll kill me,” he whispered.

“Nothing like what I might do. You will give my protector, the only person who really cares about me everything he needs to bring the rest of his horrible cult down. I was being groomed the entire time, my whole life. Right?”

When he started sobbing, she wrapped one hand around his disheveled shirt, yanking him partially off the chair and shoving the barrel of her weapon against his temple.

“Baby girl. I am so sorry,” he blubbered and I shook my head.

“Where is Damien?” My tone was more commanding.

He shifted his gaze toward me. That’s when I noticed his eyes were bloodshot. Whatever had gone down when the news broke had been damning for a lot of people.

“Where are they all, Dad? There’s a tunnel here, isn’t there?” she demanded.

When he didn’t answer, she acted like she was going to shoot the man.

That’s the moment we heard some commotion, more tears in the forms of sobs.

Her mother was brought into the room and she was hysterical. “Evangeline. I was told I’d never see you again.”

Evangeline looked up at her mother with a measure of contempt. She was starting to move to a different plateau, the very one I’d been on in killing the people who’d attacked her.

“Don’t.” Her mother threw her arms out. “He was being used.”

“So what, Mother? You both allowed my son to be taken from me. How much money did you owe? Oh, that’s right. Daddy killed someone on the operating table. The cult had a bargaining chip.”

Her mother was horrified, placing her head into her hands.

“Where is Damien? Tell me. Now,” Evangeline screeched, shifting her hate-filled gaze back to her father.

Suddenly, several members of the actual SWAT team rushed into the room, all brandishing weapons.

She dropped her father like a rock, heading toward her mother. “Where?”

“The basement. A connected tunnel.”

I don’t know who took off running first but she made it downstairs first. The basement she’d described before was nothing like this one, which was bright given the windows located at the top. Some of it had been finished off, a game room installed.

As the SWAT team filtered in, Jeff and I started searching alongside her. Less than two minutes later, a passageway was found. It was unlocked given it had recently been used. Swarms of people raced inside the area, the light fairly decent for something like this. Thought had gone into building the passage, the tunnel easily sound in structure to keep it from collapsing.

She pushed her way through the group. I could feel her panic settling in and could tell she would do anything to get her son back.

Somehow, she managed to get ahead, acting as if she knew the twists and turns. Call it motherly instinct. Ten minutes passed.

Fifteen.

Twenty.

It felt as if the tunnel was leading nowhere.

Then a slight sound, a cry that wasn’t made from an adult.

“Damien!” she risked, her cry full of love and desperation.

The sudden silence was deafening.

Then there it was, exactly the hope she needed.

“Mommy!”

There wasn’t a man inside the space who didn’t give a collective sigh of relief. She took off running first. “Mommy is coming for you. I’ve got you, baby.”

We all ran a hundred yards and she stopped short.

“You bastard,” she hissed, her voice still strong.

As we skirted beside her, seeing the sight of the man holding his own son the way he was disgusted me. While perhaps anyone else wouldn’t notice, he had a hold around the boy’s neck that could be a choke hold in a split second.

“Mommy!” The little boy reached out.

“She’s no longer your mommy, Damien,” Joseph snarled.

I knew exactly how Jeff and Ron worked. But with a child, everything had to be handled delicately, especially when the mother could become unhinged at any point.

I was shocked when she lowered her weapon, even placing it in the small of her back under her jeans, crouching down and throwing her arms out. “Remember Pinocchio, baby? How brave he was?”

Damien had to think about it but nodded.

“Mommy will always love you. I promise. Nothing will ever take that away from me. But you need to be very brave.” The two had made eye contact and I slowly gave Jeff a quick look. It was time to make a move.

When the little boy started to struggle, trying desperately to get to his mother, his wails echoing in the tunnel, all of us acted at once, which jarred Joseph. He let go of Damien and the little boy rushed into his mother’s arms.

She jerked up, backing away. Joseph snarled.

“Get him out of here!” Ron yelled.

By then, I had Joseph in my clutches, the weapon placed against his head just like she’d done with her father.

Only I had no issue pulling the trigger.

The entire team stopped moving. Meanwhile Joseph was laughing, the stupid bastard.

“You will never take us down!” he yelled in a maniacal way. “We’re too powerful. We’re going to take over the world!”

My God, the bastard really believed it.

“The only thing you’re going to do is to take a one-way trip into hell.”

“Don’t do it, my friend. Don’t. He’s not worth it,” Jeff said very quietly. In his career he’d been forced to try to draw criminals from innocent people, and keep men from jumping off roofs. But he couldn’t understand how I felt.

About her.

About the little boy.

About the situation.

The bastard deserved to die.

The tension was high and the bastard kept laughing. Even the SWAT team wasn’t certain who to shoot.

“Do you remember our walk on the beach?” Her lilting voice floated above the strange hum.

I closed my eyes briefly. “That was eons ago.”

“No, it wasn’t. You promised we’d take the same walk when Damien came home. Home. Don’t forget the word, my love. Don’t let that bastard take it away from you.”

She pushed her way through the group of men and I had to drop the weapon. The child had been traumatized enough.

As I pulled away, the SWAT team was on Joseph instantly. I’ll be damned if the man wasn’t still cackling. He had lost his fucking mind.

Maybe that was the only way of coping with the cult.

But she was right.

I wasn’t one of them.

And she’d just told me she loved me.

It was funny how life could change on a dime.

As I headed for her, the relief in her eyes was palpable. In the next few seconds, we heard more oohs and aahs than I’d heard ever before as I kissed her passionately, the little boy giggling in the process.

“Get a room!”