DANGEROUS PROMISES (THE SISTERHOOD SERIES Book 1) Page 9

  She paused at the base of the hill to wait for him but he nudged her forward. “Don’t wait. I’m right behind you.”

  Toni slowed as they approached the wall, crouching next to a stand of manicured shrubs. “I’ll shimmy up that tree. I should be able to hide in the branches well enough to see if anyone's walking around the back of the building. If so, we’ll figure out another way in.”

  Leo’s lips pinched together. It was clear he didn’t like the risk she was taking. There was a chance of being spotted but Toni refused to until her sister was dragged out. Pressing through the shrubs, she ignored the branches tugging at her clothing. Toni wrapped her hands around a branch, linking her fingers and ran her legs up the trunk, using her momentum to swing one over the limb.

  “Holy shit,” Leo whispered in awe. “Where the hell did you learn that?”

  Toni cocked a confident brow his direction before creeping higher into the branches to survey the back of the shop below.

  “Okay, get your ass up here. It's clear and these branches hang over enough that we can shimmy across them, over the fence and drop right to the ground.”

  “Easy for you to say,” he muttered. Leo pulled himself up to the first branch but it bobbed precariously and she heard a quiet creak as it bowed under his weight.

  “Careful,” she warned.

  “Could you have picked a smaller tree? You weigh, what? A buck ten?”

  Toni glared at him. He knew it aggravated her when he insinuated she was skinny. She was almost one hundred and forty pounds of muscle and she’d outmaneuvered him getting down here. Anger simmered beneath the surface, ready to unleash. Why would he deliberately put himself in the line of her ire?

  “Save your macho bullshit for another day.”

  “Who me? Macho?”

  Leo winked at her and her irritation disappeared as she realized he was attempting to keeping her mind focused on him and their task rather than the fact that their chance of success was slim. Toni took a deep breath, centering herself, calming the storm raging within. She needed to set aside her emotions, to detach herself from this situation and treat it like any other case.

  She didn’t quite accomplish it but she managed to calm the panic threatening to rise up in her. “Thanks, Leo.”

  He met her gaze, his as intense and concerned as hers. “Anytime, babe. Now, go.”

  Toni crept her way down the branch before dropping silently to the ground, scampering to the side of the building and crouching in the shadows where she waited for Leo. He slid along the length of the branch while Toni scanned the area, noting several windows along the back wall. None of them were open, but they’d be easy enough to break. The problem was that they might have an alarm system connected to them. Not one but three doors lined the back of the building – one near the corner where she hid and two more near the other end of the building. Leo dropped to the ground and signaled that he would try the first door. Leo moved to the right side of it and slid his gun from its holster, watching her move to the left, before letting her reach for the handle of the door, allowing him to enter first.

  It swung open easily, without a sound. Leo crouched low, moving into the darkened room and scanning the right half of the room with Toni on his heels, trusting her to clear the left. Both waited for the sound of an alarm to ring out but none came.

  “Weird,” she muttered. “An operation this big should have alarms.”

  He shrugged. She squeezed his shoulder, showing he was clear to move forward, but he hesitated. Music carried through corridors, sounding muffled as if a radio was playing quietly somewhere in the shop. They ducked behind the same kind of delivery vans they’d seen on the surveillance videos.

  "I thought you said all the vans left.”

  Toni shrugged. "As far as we know. We didn't watch all the footage. Maybe they came back."

  “I don’t like this, Toni. Something’s not right.”

  Leo broke away from her, moving toward the back of the van. He peered around it and waved at her to move to the front. Toni slid closer to the bumper, watching for any signs of movement in the other half of the room and made out a long corridor ahead of them.

  "Leo, what about the hall up ahead?" The building didn't look big enough to house more than a few offices, but it only took one room with someone inside to get one of them killed.

  He waved his hands, indicating that they should move to the same location at the next van.

  “We need to get down that hall.” She pointed at the doors lining the corridor.

  It would be faster for them to find Rose if they split up, each taking a side. She opened her mouth to suggest it to him and he cocked his head to one side, scowling at her. “We’re staying together. Too many unknowns to split up.”

  He wasn’t wrong, and she was being impatient and getting tunnel vision. They hadn’t done enough recon for it not to be dangerous. Getting killed before they found Rose would only make matters worse.

  “Go.”

  They worked quickly, clearing the entire building only to find it empty. It was nothing like the rooms she’d toured yesterday. This building, while solid, had an abandoned air about it. Cobwebs littered the corners of the ceiling and dust caked the floors. The offices turned out to be nothing more than storage rooms, the walls lined with metal shelving and filled with items used in the 4Teen Center. One room held non-perishable food items. Another housed extra linens and paper products while the last room was nothing more than old appliances and discarded furniture. Nothing here would get them a warrant, let alone prove kids were being sold as sex slaves.

  “Nothing.” Leo turned toward her as he ripped a sheet from the top of a dresser and mirror, shrugging.

  Toni clenched her jaw. The muscles in her shoulders knotted as the adrenaline the had been pumping through her veins seemed to drain. She rolled them back but it didn't quite alleviate the turmoil quivering within her. There was something here. There had to be.

  A low whistled tune carried into the room, followed by footsteps pounding on a staircase nearby.

  “The music,” she whispered. “Where’s it coming from?”

  There weren't any radios in this room and the other rooms housed no electronics. Toni jumped behind the dresser and mirror. From her vantage point, she saw a tall chest covered with a dingy sheet, across from her. Awareness dawned on Leo, and he ducked behind an old couch where he kept his gaze on the door. The whistling paused, and the sheet moved as if a breeze had ruffled it. Toni held her breath until the door clicked closed and the whistling started again.

  A man, at least six feet tall, appeared from behind the sheet, like magic. Toni watched as he crossed the room, heading toward the door and stepped into the hall outside. Even leaning to one side, trying to look around the dresser, Toni's view was blocked.

  She tapped the side of it lightly to get Leo’s attention.

  "Okay, he's gone.” He rose from behind the couch and moved to the door, locking it from the inside.

  Leo moved to the chest on the other side of the room, where the man had appeared, and pulled the sheet back, almost immediately disappearing behind it.

  “What do you have?” she asked, evacuating her hiding place behind the dresser.

  She heard him moving but he was out of sight. “It's a trapdoor back here. And the music? It’s coming from below.” He tipped his head to one side. “Guess we found something.”

  “I’m going in.”

  Leo blocked her path. “We don’t know what’s down there,” he said through clenched teeth. “We should wait for him to come back.”

  If he was coming back at all.

  “What if someone else to comes out?”

  “Exactly why we should stay here,” he argued.

  She brushed past him, lifting the trap door. “Let’s go down and clear it the same way we did up here. If that guy comes back, we'll know where he's coming from.”

  She could feel his unease. It was going to be dangerous getting down the stairs.
They were sitting ducks if someone was below waiting for them. Surprising them would only buy a few seconds if gunfire started. Her best bet was to get down the stairs fast, weapon ready.

  “Go. Just get down fast.”

  God, she loved him.

  That he must have had the same realization made her more than a little aware of how good he was at his job. They took the short staircase two steps at a time, dropping into a low crouch on the concrete at the bottom. Toni strained to see in the darkness, only a faint light shone in the back of the room but she could see that the stairs had led them into the middle of a wall. She scanned the right half and trusted Leo to take the left, before slinking along the wall to her left. His hand on her shoulder was heavy but confident. The radio was louder down here, coming from the other side of the room, blaring some 80's hair band she vaguely recognized. She could barely make out anything in the shadowed interior room but, as she followed the line of the wall, she could make out what appeared to be walls extending from one side of the room into the center of the space, reaching almost to the ceiling, composed of old brick. Her brain struggled to make sense of what she thought she saw.

  They looked like dog runs, or tall kennels, with a chain link door on each. Cages? Didn't matter. Whatever they were, they blocked half of the room from view and served as a perfect cover for someone hiding on the other side. The sound of footsteps overhead had her jerking her chin at the trapdoor. In their hurry to get down the stairs, they’d left the door open. Leo shook his head and shrugged. She felt the movement more than she could see it.

  Toni eased herself around the brick wall, eyeing the rest of the room. As she moved to the front of the first cage, there was a soft whimper. Toni leaped back from the chain link, squinting into the darkness, she made out a wadded blanket in the shadows at the back of the run. It looked like there might be some kind of animal sleeping inside and she had no desire to rouse any guard dogs.

  “We’ve gotta move,” she warned Leo in a hurried whisper. “We don’t want to wake the dogs.”

  He squeezed her shoulder, ready to move with her. Creeping past the second and third kennels, she peered around the last cage and the dim light grew brighter as she turned the corner. There was a table lining the wall under the faded hanging light, the bulb coated in dust, and doorway at the other end. Did this place ever end?

  Another whine sounded from one of the cages and goosebumps broke out over her arms. If they woke the dogs, the noise was sure to bring down every person on the grounds.

  “Toni, get back here. These aren’t dogs.”

  10

  In the dim overhead light, a young girl crawl toward Leo. She brushed her stringy hair back from her face and he saw the bruises along her high cheekbones, her almond-shaped eyes sunken into her moon-shaped face.

  “Get me out?” Her weak voice was a hoarse whisper, pleading. Her fingers gripped the chain link fence of the door. “Don’t leave me here.”

  “Rose?” Hearing a voice, Toni rushed back, dropping to her knees. “Is that you?”

  Leo immediately turned back toward the staircase, covering the entrance, scanning the room for any surprises.

  “This isn't Rose.” Disappointment rang in her voice but the fact that the girl wasn’t Rose didn’t deter Toni from getting her out. She tugged at the chain link, jerking at the padlock. “How many of you are here?”

  “Hurry up, Toni.”

  The girl's voice sounded uncertain, confused. “I don’t…”

  “Less talking, more escaping,” Leo warned.

  “Call Jones.” She shoved her phone at him, moving to the next enclosure. “Hey." Toni whispered loudly, but there was no answer. "There are three of them but, from what I can see, only two appear conscious. The third one is breathing though.”

  She’d already pressed the speed dial to call Jones and he relayed Toni's message to her partner, hanging up and passing her back the phone. “Reinforcements are on the way but we need to get out before someone comes back down here. As soon as they hear sirens, they'll know something's up."

  “We're not leaving without them. I need to find something to cut it open.”

  Toni moved to the table against the back wall. The light shone down faintly on a variety of tools, neatly organized. In the center was a metal tray with several vials and various syringes lined up. She picked up one of the unmarked vials and sniffed it.

  “What is it?”

  “Probably Oxy.”

  “Son of a bitch," Leo said in disbelief.

  These women were being drugged to keep them quiet until shipping them out. Toni lip curled in loathing as she set the bottle back on the tray.

  Leo’s head jerked to the door at the end of the corridor as it opened. Two men, both tall and lanky, entered the room, laughing. Leo’s first thought was how grateful he was that neither was Monique’s giant bodyguard. His second thought was that they were both closer to Toni then he was and she wouldn't have time to pull her gun before they reached her.

  “Toni, company!”

  At the sound of his voice, both men jumped backward. “What the hell?”

  As they spotted the intruders , they bounced off one another in shock, trying to reach for weapons tucked in their waistbands. Leo had his weapon ready and leveled it at the man closest to the open doorway.

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  From the corner of his eye, Toni had already grasped a needle from the tray. Without waiting for the other man to make a move, she spun backward and jammed it at him. In one swift move, she lodged it deep into the soft tissue between his shoulder and chest, pressing the plunger.

  “You bitch! Do you…” His words grew slurred and he half-heartedly lunged at Toni.

  Leo kept his gaze focused on the man in front of him but Toni’s attacker grunted in pain and, in his peripheral vision, he saw Toni drop to the ground. He had no idea if it was a deliberate move on her part or involuntary and his heart raced as he tried to ease closer to get a better view. A loud thud made his heart leap into his chest and he moved to where she'd been standing.

  It was the brief distraction the other guy had been waiting for. As Leo tried to edge around the side of the cage where Toni was on the ground, a high-pitched zing rang past his left ear before shards of brick splintered, raining over his back and shoulder. Ducking, he aimed, and the room echoed with the crack of gunfire again. The girl in the cage nearest the table screamed.

  At least he thought it was her.

  Please, don’t let that be Toni.

  He army-crawled over the floor, searching for Toni in the shadows of the room. There were sounds of a struggle to his left, in the corner formed by the cage and the long table. The second guy laying on the ground in front of the last cage with a syringe sticking up from his chest, his head bleeding profusely.

  Leo edged forward. The gunman had closed in on Toni, his hand fisted in her ponytail, jerking her head backward. He had at least fifty pounds on her and was almost a foot taller but she used that against him, ducking and spinning to face him, using her hair for leverage. Face to face, she slammed the top of her forehead into his mouth. He stumbled backward, letting go and reaching both hands to his face. The gun clattered to the floor and Toni kicked it aside, even as her hand snapped out sharply, landing against his solar plexus. The man wheezed, the wind knocked out of him. He doubled over in attempt to breathe and Toni locked her hands behind his neck, bringing his face down to her knee. The sharp crunch made Leo cringe as the man’s legs buckled beneath him. With a wail, he slid to the floor, gripping his nose as blood gushed down the front of his dingy flannel on the floor.

  “Holy shit,” Leo muttered as he jumped to his feet and hurried to her side. Toni stepped back into a defensive stance and he dropped back. He jerked handcuffs from the back of his pants and passed them to her. “Remind me not to piss you off.”

  “ I keep warning you.”

  The shadows danced over her face and Leo could make out redness on her cheek whe
re a blow must have landed. “You okay?”

  “Don’t I look okay?”

  She'd be fine. He jerked his chin toward the man with the needle in his chest. “What do we do about him?”

  She didn't bother glancing the direction Leo motioned. “He’s either out cold from whatever was in that syringe or dead. Don’t know which and don’t care.”

  The man in front of her spit blood at her feet. “How’d you get loose? And why’d you come back here?”

  Toni bent down to the man kneeling on the floor, and knocked him off balance, watching him fall. She jerked her gun from her holster and pointed it at the man in front of her. "Where is she?"

  "Fuck you, bitch!"

  Leo kept his weapon trained on the man on the ground, unsure of what Toni would do.

  Her gaze narrowed as she stepped closer to the man, now on his side, unable to get back to his knees. “Where are the rest of them, asshole?”

  When he didn’t answer, she kicked his ribs. “You remember a girl who looks like me. Where’s my sister?”

  He grunted before giving Toni a bloody smile. “Your sister, huh?”

  “Where is she?” Toni pressed her gun into the flesh of his temple. “I’d have no problem blowing what little brains you have on this floor.”

  “All clear?” Jones’s voice echoed down the staircase and, instead of looking relieved, Toni looked furious.

  “Only this room,” Leo called out. “We haven’t gone beyond it.”

  The Vegas SWAT “Zebra unit” thundered down the stairs and right past them to the corridor, calling out orders. Leo holstered his weapon, easing himself closer to Toni and her suspect, and reached for her arm, forcing her to release him before she did something she'd regret.

  “Got a pulse over here.” The SWAT officer inspected the man on the floor, pulling his radio to call a medic from outside. “What was in this needle?”

  “No clue,” Leo answered. “Vials are on the table. Take it all.”

  “Get those cages open and take the girls out first,” Toni ordered, pointing at the cages. “They go out before either of these two.”