Zero Trace

by Cara Carnes

  “Vehicles,” Zoey said into the com. “None of them are leaving. Someone’s going to get suspicious.”

  “On it,” someone said.

  “On it,” someone else added.

  “Good thought,” Vi said.

  The interior portion of the auction moved quickly, as if the people inside knew the longer they hung around the higher their chances of getting caught. Too damn bad they were already deep within a net.

  No one was walking away from this free.

  Zoey’s breath swooshed from her lungs as Addy and Jade were left as the two remaining auction “items.” More than half the potential buyers remained.

  “Move into position,” Mary ordered.

  “Roger,” Jesse said.

  “Roger,” Gage said.

  “Secondary assume primary exterior position and standby,” Zoey said.

  “Roger,” Nolan said.

  “Roger,” Marcus said.

  She looked over to Cord, who’d taken full command of the compound concerns. “You good?”

  “We’re clear. Jud and Kamren are on cleanup. Riles will notify authorities when we clear her to.”

  The enemy teams just taken down wouldn’t be reporting in, which meant their timeframe had just narrowed. This needed to end.

  Now.

  Gage and Addy’s team made their way inside. The stench of urine and feces filled the stagnant air of the warehouse. The scents mingled with the filth of unwashed bodies and sweat as they headed further inward and circled behind where the stage was set up.

  Jesse’s team would enter from the other direction, thereby surrounding the enemy once the teams fanned out. The plan was solid, one they’d practiced for hostage situations many, many times.

  But this wasn’t a typical hostage situation, and the vile stench was far stronger than it should be if all the “auction items” had been cleared. Something was wrong. “Shep, circle back. Search the back portion of the holding area. Something’s wrong.”

  “Roger.”

  “Roundabout, do the same,” Jesse ordered from his side.

  “Roger.”

  A small swatch of thin, white gauze was on the floor up ahead. Gage’s gut tightened. He signaled Johnny to take the upward path via the ladder, while Thunder, Cracker, and Beast would fan out along the other side of the stage. Beast paused, though.

  The order would leave Gage alone to handle the immediate back portion of an area they hadn’t cleared. He repeated the motion and waited until the man moved to catch up with his teammates. Gage reached down and picked up what’d caught his gaze moments earlier.

  The thin strips of gauze-like fabric that’d been around Addy’s breasts and mound were lying on the ground in tatters. The bastard had dragged her onto the stage naked.

  Rage struck Gage hard, but he shoved the emotion aside as he swept the area behind the stage.

  “We’ve got five packages secured in the back. Need ordnance assist for door.”

  “En route,” a voice said—one of the other team’s ordnance because that hadn’t been Thunder. Gage filed the information away in his brain, even though the visual display of his headgear already warned of an incoming friendly via the area he’d cleared.

  “Overwatch one in position,” Johnny said.

  “Overwatch two in position.”

  “We have overwatch position along the eastern wall,” Dallas said.

  “In position,” Gage said. Adrenaline surged in his veins. The primary objective was securing the assholes closest to his position. Whether they were dead or alive was optional. Given his current mood, it would be dead.

  But he wouldn’t let anyone see Addy naked and restrained. He wouldn’t let anyone see any team member like that. More importantly, he didn’t want Zoey seeing it. She’d assumed enough guilt for the woman going in in the first place.

  “Standby. Drones inbound,” Vi said.

  Gage watched as the first few darts found their targets without notice. By the second round of shots, however, pandemonium had taken over.

  “You’re clear for entry,” Mary ordered.

  Fish. Meet Barrel.

  Gage struck. His destination was in one hundred fifty yards and contained ten targets. He fired at the armed ones and downed the nearest ones with well-placed strikes meant to kill. A crunch of his boot to each of their throats and their necks snapped.

  He shot without second confirmation, trusting both his aim and the fact that his team members knew to stay out of his way. They may not be his team, but everyone in The Arsenal knew to give him a wide berth.

  He made his way onto the platform and flung a KA-BAR onto the stage so it slid straight to Addy, but he kept his gaze off the woman directly. No one needed to see her in that condition. From his peripheral vision, he caught her cutting her restraints.

  Gage made a quick decision and removed his shirt, which left him with a bullet-proof vest. He tossed it onto the stage and continued to fight. He hoped it was better than nothing.

  By the time he’d made his way to Ian, the entirety of the three Arsenal strike teams had cornered the remaining people.

  “Jesse,” Addy’s voice called over the den of activity. “Medical. Stat.”

  Fuck. Jade. Gage glanced back at the female operative beside a thin black man who had collapsed onto the floor. Blood seeped from an untended gash along his side.

  Jesse sprang onto the stage. Gage focused his attention on the smarmy bastard smiling up at him like he’d just won the lottery.

  “Guess tonight’s not your lucky night, Ian.”

  “You’ll never make charges stick,” the man taunted.

  “By the time I’m through with you, you’ll be begging for us to charge you with anything we want,” Gage whispered in the man’s ear. “You aren’t going into federal custody. Your ours until we decide otherwise.”

  “You can’t do that.” The man visibly paled.

  “Watch us.” Gage struck. The blow impacted the man’s jaw and knocked him out with one punch. It wasn’t the pain he deserved, but that’d come later, when the question and answer session began. “Vi, Mary, Zoey. Please tell me we’re done playing nice with that dick on the stage clapping because I’d really like to shoot his ass.”

  Kristoff applauding like they’d performed a play for his amusement pissed Zoey off, too, but they were nowhere near finished with the op yet.

  “Stand down,” Zoey said. “Though, for the record, I’d totally like you to.”

  Gage glared at Kristof as the man continued the slow, rhythmic applaud. Like they’d performed a circus act. Perhaps they had because thanks to tonight, the bastard was the strongest leader of the dark web.

  “We’ll get him,” Zoey promised. “Not today, but eventually. You eat an elephant one bite at a time. Tonight, we had our bite. Tomorrow, we’ll take another.”

  “Get our targets into the transports and away. Vi’s notifying authorities,” Mary ordered.

  “Roger.” Gage clicked off the com.

  One by one Addy’s team arrived at his side. They all glanced at the stage where Addy helped Jesse stabilize Jade. Gage wished to hell he could help get the man patched up, but medical wasn’t his thing.

  “He’ll be okay, Little Bit. Jesse’s the best field medic I’ve met,” Gage said into the com. It was the only reason the man had survived in captivity with the injuries he’d sustained.

  “I know,” she said softly. “Are you okay?”

  “Everyone’s fine,” he said.

  “Addy’s wearing your shirt,” she whispered.

  “Later,” he said.

  “Okay. I’ve gotta go deal with Jud’s mess outside anyway.”

  “You secure?”

  “Yeah, though I think Weathers might need to hire more people,” she said.

  “Weathers is out of business after tonight,” Gage said. “The feds will clear up the rest of the mess we didn’t. It’s over. Once and for all. Ian, the Hive, the Collective. They’re through. We’ll confirm with
HERA’s facial recognition, but there’s no way they didn’t show up for Addy. She was too big of an active risk since Hive was a huge part of the Collective’s day-to-day.”

  “Okay.”

  “Later.” Gage clicked off and looked at the five men gathered around him. “Hell of a job.”

  “Back at you,” Thunder said. His gaze slid toward the stage.

  “You had her six and kept us from seeing her however she was,” Cracker said. “Whatever you need, man. Whatever. Whenever.”

  Beast clapped Gage on the back hard enough to reposition his bones. “Appreciated.”

  Seeing the appreciation in the men’s faces that he’d covered Addy’s six when she needed it most firmed Gage’s realization he was ready for a team of his own. He wanted the camaraderie with a cohesive unit like Addy had with hers and Jesse with his.

  It was time he moved on.

  Because he had a beautiful, vibrant woman waiting for him.

  “Jade’s stable,” Addy said into a com. Gage wasn’t certain who’d given theirs up, but he was grateful for the message.

  “Thank you,” Zoey whispered. Then a breath later, she rolled into the next problem. “Okay, who knows Russian? I think that’s what the kids are using. We need to find out which of them live in the States. My guess is none. They’ve been through enough. They aren’t getting red-taped by ICE. Fallon needs a translator.”

  “Tell him we’re on the way,” Addy said.

  The woman jumped off the small stage and made her way to Gage and her team. She offered a slight lift of her chin when their gazes met. The small acknowledgment of what he’d done was more than he’d expected.

  “Come on, let’s go sort the kids out.” Addy reached up and hit the com. “We need to sort the other group out as well.”

  “Appreciate the assist, guys, but you might want to hurry it along. I’ve got some new arrivals who are pretty determined they’re handling the kids.” Fallon’s voice wasn’t the even-toned sound Gage had grown accustomed to.

  He charged out after Addy and her team.

  Zoey stared at the display in front of her as Fallon and his team stood between a cluster of children and…

  Nadia?

  She barely recognized the woman she’d helped years ago, back when she’d first started the network. Three other women were with her. Some of the mysterious six other identities?

  “Stand down,” she ordered Fallon and his team. “I think they’re friendlies. Give the one in the front a com.”

  One of Fallon’s team held a com out. The woman put it into position, but kept her gun trained on Fallon and his team the entire time. So much for standing down. No one had holstered their weapons.

  “Nadia?” Zoey paused a second. “This is you, right? It’s Zero.”

  “Hello, my old friend. We will help the children. Tell your men to stand aside.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “The system chews them up,” the woman said.

  Zoey squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

  “We will help,” the woman repeated. “We do what you do now. We’ve come to pay you back.”

  “Friends of yours?” Mary asked. “HERA isn’t locking onto identities.”

  HERA wouldn’t. The women had been cargo aboard a vessel on a Mexican dock very similar to the one they stood on now. They’d been a bit older than the children huddled behind Fallon and his team, but not by much.

  “Can you get them identities and give them safe, loving homes?” Zoey asked.

  “They will have what they need.”

  “That’s not what I asked, Nadia. I appreciate that you care and want to help, but I can’t have my men stand down until I know you are capable of giving them what they need. Do you have the ability to give them a new life and keep them safe or not?”

  “Yes, but our identifications are not as good as yours.” The woman looked past Fallon to the children. “We would have to take them back to Russia.”

  “Is that where you’re at now?”

  “No,” the woman answered. “We’re U.S. citizens now because of you. I want the same for them. We want to help.”

  Sirens blared in the distance. The time for a decision had arrived. “Then help Fallon and his team get those kids secured and away from the location before the authorities show up. Work with us. We’re capable of giving them what they need. You can help, but we need to oversee this. If you want, I’ll help you establish a network of your own and I’ll show you how to do what I’ve done.”

  “Nadia died that day. I am Brigitte.” The woman looked back at the children. “We have a deal.”

  The woman spoke, her voice low and soft. The children must’ve trusted whatever she said because they scampered past Fallon and his team and straight to Nadia and the other three women, who’d all put their weapons away.

  Fallon and his team did the same. The man’s voice growled through the com. “I hope to hell you know what you’re doing on this one, Z.”

  Zoey hoped so, too. “I’m patching Rhea through. She’ll talk you through getting the kids to a safe house until we get everything sorted.”

  17

  Warmth. Zoey sighed into Gage’s arms and moaned as he nibbled her earlobe. “Wake up, Zoey.”

  She pounded her pillow with her fist and flopped half over. Even a dream Gage was growly and demanding. A woman couldn’t catch a break. Her leg struck hard, warm flesh. What the heck?

  She blinked and peered into Gage’s intent gaze. Damn. She could wake up every morning seeing that sexy face with those full lips that promised unspoken delights. Those lips curled upward.

  The realities exhaustion had dragged her away from returned with full force. “You’re back.” Arms wrapped around him, she claimed his mouth.

  He ran a hand down her back and pulled her deeper against him with the other. Awareness pulsated between her legs when he ran a finger across her slit. “You’re wet.”

  “I was thinking about you,” she admitted. She ran her hands through his hair. “I’m glad you’re back,” she whispered with a semi-sleepy grin. Then the rest of the realities slammed into her brain, and she shot up to a sitting position. “How’s Jade? Can I go see him? Did he come back with you or is he in a hospital? I should get a plane ticket.”

  Gage’s half-hooded gaze slid from her face and settled on her breasts. In her haste to sit up, she’d forgotten to cover herself. “You sleep naked.”

  “It’s liberating.”

  He ran a finger across a nipple. Back and forth. Zoey’s heart rate spiked as her nipple hardened beneath his deft touch. “I wouldn’t have wasted time getting here if I’d known that.”

  As much as she wanted to spend a few hours wrapped around Gage, worry kept her honed in on the fact that he hadn’t answered her question. “Jade. How is he?”

  “Not good. Marcus and his team stayed back. They’re keeping him secure in the hospital in case there’s any backlash from tonight.” He looked up at her as he stroked down her stomach. “He’ll be fine, but there’s internal damage that’ll need to be corrected in surgery.”

  Relief filled her. Jade would be okay.

  She’d have to make sure Jade knew they’d found Gwen and Cecilia. The two girls had been part of the group of minors Fallon and his team rescued. Since the two had already been staged to go into the network, they’d been housed in a nearby safe house with a couple of Marcus’s team on protective detail. Once the dust had settled, Zoey would show Bree and Rhea what she did to get someone into the network.

  “You okay?” Gage asked.

  “Yeah, just thinking I need to show Bree and Rhea what I do. Gwen and Cecilia need a new family.”

  “It’s hard, isn’t it?” He ran a thumb across her cheek. “Sharing what you do is hard.”

  “Yeah.” She swallowed. “I’m not used to having that part of me in the open for everyone to see. It’s scary, but I’m hoping this will all be over soon.”

  “You aren’t
alone with this anymore. Ian’s downstairs, along with a few other key players HERA identified,” Gage commented. “He’s not messing with you ever again. Marshall and Nolan turned everything over to the authorities about an hour ago. They’re taking Josiah Weathers and the rest of his crew into custody.”

  “Holy heck. I slept through a lot.”

  “It’s only been a few hours,” Gage said. “Things move fast when the alphabet soup is trying to cover their ass. There’s a lot of potential exposure with this. A head NSA leader was caught buying people at an illegal auction.”

  “And the Collective? Is that done, too?”

  “Doubtful. We have a couple Jud recognized from the footage he reviewed. He’ll get answers from them so we can dismantle the new regime. There’ll always be someone sprouting from the ashes, no matter what we do,” Gage commented as he stroked her thigh. “All we can do is rip them out before they take root.”

  A moan escaped her when his hand delved between her legs. “Are we done talking now?”

  They were so done talking, but that didn’t mean they were going to play by his rules. She shoved on his shoulders until he was sprawled on the bed. She straddled him and reached for his cargo pants.

  “I love the way your ass looks in these pants. And your thighs,” she whispered as she leaned down and kissed his stomach. “You have a problem keeping shirts on.”

  “I took it off when I came in. I wanted to feel your skin against mine.”

  The admission shot an arrow of need and carnal awareness through her body. She continued the foray to his waistline as she undid the button to his pants and then brought the zipper down. A fine smattering of hair arrowed toward her target.

  “Zoey,” he growled.

  “You owe me playtime,” she said as she dragged the pants past his lean hips. “You stopped me before I was finished last time.”

  Her breathing was labored with anticipation and excitement by the time she got his pants and boxer briefs off. Cool air from the overhead ceiling fan whipped across her skin. The visual made her heart clench. She couldn’t ever remember being this comfortable around a man.