Chapter 7

Viper's POV...

Hot damn these women are going to be the death of me. It took Shelly and Kristen to take both these girls under their wing and be a bad influence on them. I just hope that they don’t start playing pranks on us too because then we’re screwed. “What are you thinking so hard about Pres? From the grim look on your face, I’d say it isn’t anything good.” Tank asks and before I can answer him, the doors fly open for the umpteenth time today and a tall black man walks in.

“There my girls are. Shadow, Silence. How are my two favorite extraction specialists?” He asks as both girls run up to him and he wraps them both in a crushing hug. Jealousy instantly rears its ugly head as I hear Ainsley squeal in delight.

“It’s been forever since we last saw you and we are both just fine. Thanks for asking Moses.” She says when he finally puts her down.

‘How dare he touch my little sprite like that?’ I think as I clench my fists and looking to my right I can see Tank doing the same.

Ainsley's POV...

“It looks like someone has some admirers. And they did not like me hugging you at all.” Moses whispers in my ear and the laughter in his voice tells me that he finds this extremely funny.

“I doubt that.” I say, looking over my shoulder.

“They are probably debating all the ways they could kill my arse after I disrespected them on the day we moved here.” I say, my voice laced with sarcasm.

“Honey, believe me when I tell you that those two fine pieces of meat want your ass. From the daggers they’re staring at me, it’s obvious that they’re jealous. Wanna put on a show for them and see what happens?” He asks, still not getting that I don’t buy it at all.

I’m convinced that they’re just biding their time until they find the perfect way to kill me. Still shaking my head I say. “We don’t have time for that Moses, we have work to do remember?”

“Fine, but we’ll be sticking around for a while after the job is done. Promise me that we’ll put on a show for them then? Pretty please?” He asks, sounding like a whiny kid and I laugh.

“Sure, but we really have to get to work right now. We don’t have much time and I’m hoping that this time Elspeth will be among the girls we save. I can feel she’s close, really close.” I say and his face instantly morphs into a look of pity. I hate those looks. Dad left shortly after she was taken to search for her and after three years of searching, it feels like Shannon and I are the only ones who haven’t given up hope.

Two years after she was taken, Shannon and I met stinger while scoping out a possible new location one of her clues led us to, but we were too late. Stinger and his men were there on a rescue mission and we helped them get the girls out. He trained us and we have been working for him on extractions ever since. During our time working for him we have saved over three hundred girls in total. When Stinger found out I was expecting Scarlet however, he insisted that I take time off to care for my baby and I’ll be forever grateful to him.

Even though he insisted I take the time off, he still sends Shannon out on extractions with leads on Elspeth. “You know.” Shannon brings me out of my thoughts.

“She might not be among the girls we save tonight. So I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high okay?” She says sympathetically.

“I know.” I sigh.

“But until we find her body there is still hope. I can’t give up on that and I won’t give up searching for her until we find her. I failed her once, I can’t fail her again. I won’t fail her.” I say and Shannon leans her head on my shoulder as Moses wraps his arm around me.

“We know girl, which is why we’ll be there with you every step of the way. You hear me?” Moses asks and Shannon nods in agreement. I stand up and clap my hands.

“Alright ladies, listen up! Enough procrastinating, we’ve got a whole hell of a lot of girls to get back to their families so let’s roll out!” I yell out and everyone gets moving right away.

“Okay ladies, this is all you. Everyone is in position and we’ve got your backs. Time for my girls to shine!” We hear Moses in our earpieces and I look to Shannon seeing her nod. Let’s get this party started.

“Shadow, you ladies have three hostiles heading your way. They are rather large, are you sure you girls don’t need extra backup?” Techno speaks into our ears and we nod at each other, knowing that by now he can see us and just as they walk past us, we strike.

I make quick work of the guy closest to me while Shannon plays with her guy. Quickly taking the middle guy out before he can do anything I look at her.

“Enough playing around babe, we still have a job to do.” I say and she quickly finishes him off. Three down and a lot more to go.

“All clear on our end, how’s it looking everywhere else?” Shannon asks and we’re rewarded with an ‘all clear’ from everyone else.

“So status report says that the outside is all clear. That leaves sixteen inside. Any ideas on drawing them out?” I ask and immediately I hear a ‘leave it to me’ from someone.

“Show me what you’ve got.” I reply and we hear a big bang, drawing ten of the men outside and all hell breaks loose.

Ten minutes later and we have most of them taken out. Shannon and I quickly slip past the fight to go inside the building. It isn’t long before we have five of the remaining six taken out when the boys finally make it inside. I slit the throat of the last one just as Viper and Tank come running toward me.

“Nothing to see here boys, time to send in the ladies and hide yourselves so you don’t spook these girls.” I say as I slowly make my way to the first door and Shannon shortly follows me, with Shelly and Kristen hot on her heels.

As I open the door all of the girls start screaming and we quickly assure them that they’re safe. “It’s okay, you’re all safe now. We are here to take you all back to your families.” I say to them and one girl comes rushing over to us.

“I knew you and Shannon would come for me! I never gave up hope that you’d find me. I kept leaving little clues on what I overheard. I just knew that you’d come and save me.” She says and I just start crying.

‘We’ve found her! We finally found my other half.’ I think as I hug her tightly. “Don’t you dare leave us ever again, you hear me?” I scold her and looking over her shoulder I can see Shannon holding back the two men. Good thing she did, because I just can’t deal with them right now.

“We’ll take you to meet Stinger and get you trained so this won’t happen to you again and you will also be moving in with us so that Shannon and I can keep a close eye on you.” I say to Elspeth as I hand her to Shannon so she and the rest of the girls can get to the vans. I take a last look through the place to make sure we’ve got all the girls when I spot the two younger girls.

Instead of coming out with the rest, they’re cowering in a corner. I kneel down a little way from them and the bigger of the two asks me something that shocks me. “You’re not sending us back to our mother are you?” Her younger sister still hides behind her as I assure them that they will only be going back to their home once I have personally made sure that they’ll be safe there and they run over to me and hug me.

“Thank you.” The smaller one says in a teary voice.