Page 6

P hoenix converged stealthily behind them, Noah aka Ghost, Fear, Lash, and Storm brought up the rear.

Their fearless leader, Roscoe was somewhere outside, securing the perimeter along with Seth, Asher, and Wild.

There were victims somewhere inside and they took turns simultaneously kicking in doors as they went down the upper-level hallway.

Coming to the door at the end, Wolf took the lead, but there was no way in hell Caleb was sitting this one out. He stood on the other side of the closed door and met his husband’s silvery gaze.

With a wink and smirk, Caleb nodded and Storm kicked the door in with his reinforced steel-toed work boots. It caved like a toothpick, the sound loud.

Gunfire within the room echoed and bullets flew at the opening.

Storm was already on the move, dodging back and out of the way, but a touch too slow, and the big man grunted under the impact of a bullet. Ghost lunged after Storm and grabbed the giant beneath his arms and pulled him back out of the way completely.

Caleb went low and dodged out taking a look inside the room.

Sure enough, their main suspect held a slender girl in front of him. The fucker should have chosen a bigger shield.

Firing, Caleb’s bullet hit the man in his gun arm. The suspect yelled and the girl screamed. Wolf’s bullet caught the man in the throat and arterial spray showered the kingpin and the girl.

At a run, Caleb entered the room, sliding across the floor on his knees. Wolf was right behind him. Caleb snatched the girl up and kept going until he took shelter behind a large over-stuffed recliner.

Two gunshots came from someone near the far end of the room. One bullet hit the wall and the other the floor as a second perp opened fire.

“Fuck!” Wolf shouted and everyone flew for cover.

Caleb pushed the girl to the ground. “Stay still,” he said and was gone, moving. He flanked the perp until he could get a bead on the perp and put a bullet in the asshole.

Ghost had secured Storm and was coming in from the doorway.

“Careful!” Ghost ordered.

Everyone kind of hesitated at the order and it became clear why when they saw a young boy shakily holding a nine-millimeter handgun with the business end pointed at them.

The kid couldn’t be more than fifteen, at that. Curly dark hair, wide eyes, wearing only a pair of white briefs.

“It’s okay,” Caleb said because he was the closest.

The boy swung the gun his way, holding it with both hands. Wolf crept up behind the boy, waiting for Caleb’s signal.

“We’re here to help,” Caleb continued softly, taking slow steps closer, holding his hands out at his sides. “He’s dead.”

“Where’s Shannon?” the boy said.

It was probably the little girl behind the chair.

“She’s safe,” Caleb said just as the girl flew up from where she was hiding and ran across the room.

The two children clutched each other, faces ravaged from abuse. Their innocence shattered by a madman, both children cried and Caleb clamped down on the knot of grief welling up in his throat.

Wolf took that moment to take the gun from the boy and secure the scene.

“All clear,” Wolf called it into Roscoe.

“Roger that. We’ve secured several victims on the lower floors. Get your perps cuffed and bring them downstairs,” Roscoe said.

Caleb made his way to the door, only to find Storm on his feet in the hallway holding a fully automatic rifle.

“You good?” Caleb asked Storm along with Lash and Fear.

“Yeah, caught the vest,” the big man rumbled, rubbing at his chest with his free hand.

“Good damned thing too,” Lash said. “Otherwise, Wild would fucking kill us all.”

“And then flay us alive,” Fear agreed.

Perps were secured and brought down with them and Caleb guided the boy whose name was Ryan and the little girl down the stairs.

Rescuing victims gave him a rush of satisfaction that was hard to describe.

Caleb walked slowly behind Ryan and Shannon as they tentatively walked down the stairs. Relief and tears at the thought of finally being free covered both the kids’ faces.

This right here was what Phoenix did.

Some might think they should branch out and do other things, but in all honesty, bringing down sex traffickers was their main priority.

And Phoenix was fucking good at it.

Taking down sex offenders had always been the primary function of their specialty team. Once in a while, Phoenix took down drug lords, but those were just afterthoughts. And usually where there were drugs, there was underage sex.

It was one of the reasons the team had been created by Rossi so many years ago.

And Caleb was proud to be a part of it.