Page 43 of Steel

“What up?” Silas asked, slapping hands with us.

“Ain’t shit,” Maceo responded. “Appreciate y’all for rolling through tonight.”

“Don’t mention it,” Booker said, dapping us as well. “Y’all know we hate muthafuckas like this as much as y’all do. Sick bastards.”

Romero nodded in agreement. “All this free pussy, and niggas wanna go after little girls. Shit will never sit right with me.”

Tonight was a sensitive mission. We’d gotten word about someone snatching up underage girls and selling them into prostitution, nothing new for us. Jaeda had been able to track and intercept messages about a drop tonight and get the location. According to her findings, there were about ten girls in the building and at least seven more were on the way to the facility.

“Y’all ready?” Deuce asked, pulling on his night vision goggles.

Everyone confirmed we were ready and followed his lead. Goggles on, guns loaded, and silencers on, we trekked through the woods until we came upon a clearing behind the building.

“Whatchu got, Jae?” Deuce asked.

She was doing overhead surveillance with her drone, while Quaid hacked the security system.

“Five guards around front. Four around back. Give me a second.”

The next thing we knew, bodies started hitting the ground. Left and right.

“Oh shit!” Romero said.

I smirked to myself. Since Smoke equipped her drone to shoot, she’d been showing her ass in the field whenever she could.

“With all due respect, you a bad ass bitch, Jae,” Booker said.

“Watch your fucking mouth,” I heard Quaid say in the background.

He must have been in their ear because all five of Titan’s guys laughed.

“I said no disrespect, nigga.”

“Focus, y’all,” Deuce commanded. “Move in.”

We emerged from the clearing and made our way toward the building. We double-checked the bodies to make sure these niggas were dead.

“Y’all head in, and we’ll pull the bodies from the front around back in case the drop comes before we get out,” Silas said.

Deuce nodded. “Bet. Meet us inside when you’re done.”

With everyone clear on their roles, we headed quietly into the building with our guns aimed. Room after room, we checked but came up empty. As we went to round the corner, Deuce held up a hand to stop us. He signaled that there were two people guarding a door. Giving Smoke a head nod, the two of them stepped out into the hall, and the next thing we heard were hard thuds on the floor.

As the rest of us rounded the corner, we saw the two bodies laid out on the floor. Behind us, Titan’s crew came down the hall to join us.

“There’s an override code for that door,” Jaeda said in our ear. “Five. Two. Nine. Seven. Six. Three.”

Deuce punched in the code, and the light turned green. Slowly, we entered and took the stairs. We got about halfway down; we had incoming traffic. Deuce let off the first shot, and itwas up from there. There were at least fifteen men coming at us, and we took them all one by one.

“Y’all search the rooms. Me, Romero, and Booker handle out here,” Silas said.

We dispersed, each of us taking separate hallways. One by one, I checked the doors. Behind the third one, I found a group of four girls who couldn’t have been any more than ten to fourteen. The room was dirty and had a slight smell to it. When they saw me, they all ran to a corner and huddled together.

“You’re safe,” I said calmly, raising my hands. “I’m here to help. My name is Kerrion. My brothers and I came to bring you home.”

They all looked terrified. One stepped in front of the others, seemingly trying to protect them.

“How-how do we know we can trust you?”