THREE DAYS.
As-fucking-if.
There was no way Angel could make me fall for him in that short amount of time. I had spent years closing myself off. Protecting my emotions and sanity against the powers of love. Love. Puh-lease. When Violet left me—my sister, my best friend—I realized then that the world was more corrupt than I thought. I knew it wasn’t by choice. No matter what people had said. No matter what the rumors were. She was taken from me. But a part of me resented the fact she allowed herself to be taken. And then guilt took over. It was soul crushing, but I accepted the weight on my shoulders because I deserved it.
Violet was the wild one. She had no filter when it came to the words that left her mouth. She wore what she wanted. Said whatever was on her mind and had men eating out of the palm of her hand. Even though she was young. When she was taken, I took on the role so to speak. Of course, I could never take over her personality, but having some of her in me gave me peace of mind. We were twins. We could play each other perfectly, having switched places so many times: we were a part of each other.
Violet would laugh and tell me she was proud of me for standing up to our father and having a MC.
“This isn’t you, Nugget. Your sister, yes. But you? Never.” As soon as my father said those words, I started the MC out of spite. I needed something of my own. A sisterhood. Powerful women who could stand up to men and society in general. We would prove that we weren’t the weaker sex. We were equal.
It had been two days since I last spoke with Angel. He gave me three. I knew he was talking out his ass but a part of me hoped, no, prayed, that he would be it. That I would find my one. I was almost thirty. I was ready to settle. With Angel? Who knew?
Sitting in the meeting room by myself was peaceful. I loved my girls, my sisters, but all of the different personalities crashing together grated on my nerves at times.
The room was quiet. Solemn. A serenity of hope washed over it. My thoughts traveled to the missing girls—not even women yet. Daughters. Sisters. Nieces. And my sister was one of them.
I knew it. Deep down in the marrow of my soul. No one believed me. Not even my father.
“Nugget, I am doing everything I can to see she comes home. But she probably ran off with some boy.”
“You honestly believe that, Daddy?” I asked him, determined to make him see that my sister would never do such a thing. She was wild but she wouldn’t leave without telling me first.
“I have to believe that. Then I can move on.”
Those words stuck ever since. I loved my father but his crew, mainly Tyler, brainwashed him into thinking his daughter was a slut and hightailed it out of our Godforsaken town.
Oh, Violet. Where the hell are you?
“Jay?”
I jumped, finding Max and the girls standing in the doorway. I motioned for them to come in, not in the mood, but I knew it needed to be done. The presidency took over, and I found myself being met with anger and frustration. Those women. So young. Most just babies and hadn’t even hit puberty yet. Whether my sister was one of them or not, I would avenge them. I would make it so females didn’t have to be scared to leave their home or place of work. If it was a mass human trafficking job, I wasn’t stupid. There was no way I could destroy them on my own but I could take them out in my town, and I would do it with or without help. I had to start somewhere, and I would take them out one by one.
Three days is what Angel gave me. Fuck that noise. The delicious brooding man could wait. I needed his skills—not the bedroom kind. But of course, if he didn’t show up the next day, which I was sure he would have a good reason for, I would make him stew. A small smile crept on my face. He was adamant I would fall for him. Maybe he was right. But two could play that game. I was the creator of my own story, and no man was going to change that.
***
(Angel)
“You told us three days,” I said, raising my voice at Vega. He was the captain, but at that point, he was the piece of shit on the bottom of my boot.
“You questioning a direct order?” he threw back, rising to his feet.
“I’m questioning why it’s so important that we go in now. You put me on leave, remember?”
“Angel,” Vega slammed a fist on the desk. “I suggest watching the attitude or I will put you on leave. Permanently.”
Chewing my inner cheek, I mentally counted to ten and waited. I loved my job. I lived and breathed for it. But since I met Jay, I wanted a break. A vacation of sorts. I knew going in that I could get called in at any point and there was nothing I could do about it. It was why my brothers and I were single. For the most part. We weren’t married. No kids. No one holding us back. No one making us feel guilty for missing birthdays and holidays. But I wasn’t young anymore. Not in the physical sense of the word. I had been a SEAL for over ten years. Flying through training as fast as I could because I didn’t want to go home to an empty house. My dog, Buck was all I had, but with him aging, call it selfish of me, I couldn’t stand to go home to find him dead.
Those three days were supposed to be for Jay and me. I had every intention of introducing her to Buck and the guys properly. But since getting called in, I had no chance of that. And I knew she would be pissed.
“I called you in and took you off leave because you and Vice-One are my best team. You are Vice-One, and the team won’t work without you. I am man enough to admit that,” Vega confessed, leaning forward on his arms.
“What’s going on?” I asked, swallowing my frustration.
“Those women you found?”
My heart sped up. “Yeah?”
“There’s more.”
“Are you fucking shitting me right now?” Under normal circumstances, my outburst would cost me. Extra training. Cleaning the gutters. Spending an hour in a bathtub of ice. Who the hell knew? But Vega knew I was passionate about the cause. Those women, whoever they were, were taken. Their souls stolen along with their dignity and innocence.
“A couple SEALs from another squad stumbled upon a shack smaller than our barracks,” Vega explained.
“Shit.” He didn’t have to tell me anymore before I already knew what he was going to say.
“There were no survivors, Angel,” Vega said, squeezing the bridge of his nose.
“Why the hell is this happening?” I shouted. “What do these sick fuckers want? They round up these women for what? To kill them? Do they get off on these women dying under their control?”
“This is what I need you and Vice-One to find out.”
“Why us? It’s not our job,” I reminded him, struggling to keep it together.
“Because,” Vega slumped down in his seat, “while you go in to do your regular work, I need you to keep your eyes open.”
“Hush-hush?”
“Yes.”
Now that was my kind of mission. I had been in the Navy since I was eighteen. In the beginning, I played by the rules, but I learned fast that the human race, no matter the type of authority you worked under, were evil and played by their own set of rules.
“Think you can handle it?” Something flashed in Vega’s eyes, but it disappeared before I could question it.
“If you’re asking me if I’ll rat or if no matter what happens, will I say something, the answer is no,” I reassured him.
“You know what I’m asking of you, right?”
“Go in. Find out everything we can, no matter the force, and get out.” I repeated the mantra that had been drilled into our heads through training. “But why did you need to speak me alone?”
“Because,” Vega sat back, brushing a hand over his buzzed head. His tanned face showed signs of defeat. “Your guys won’t go in without you. As long as you have your head in the game, they will be behind you every step of the way.”
“So what if I said no?”
“You wouldn’t.” Something flashed again. He was hiding something. Although he kept his gaze locked with mine, I could sense something was off with him. Vega had been with me every step of the way throughout my military career. But something had changed.
“Is there something going on, Sir?”
He hesitated. “Why?”
“Just asking.” I shrugged. “You’re stressed.” He didn’t appear stressed but feeding him the lie might get me some answers.
“I’m good.” Vega flipped through some papers on his desk, not meeting my gaze.
“What if you couldn’t find someone to replace me?” I asked, taking his silence as a hint.
“I would get someone else.”
“No you wouldn’t, because you have no one else. Vice-One is the squad that will do the dirty work. The one that will do anything to get the job done.” We all had our own qualities, our own shit we were good at, but Vice-One got down and dirty with the bad guys. “So it’s not like I have a choice. I have to say yes.”
Vega nodded once. Reaching for the phone on his desk, he pressed a button. “Tell the rest of Vice-One to join me in my office.” And that, folks, meant the conversation was over.
Ignoring the nagging feeling in the bottom of my gut, I braced myself for the bombardment of questions. The whys. The hows. It wasn’t our job to know what was going on, but Vega also never went against schedule and called us in early. That was unlike him and the guys knew that.
“Angel?” Coby, the quiet one, spoke first.
“What’s going on, Boss?” Asher asked me.
I looked to Vega for an answer, but his gaze hardened. Fine. He didn’t want to assist me in making it easier—the blame would fall back on him. It wasn’t like he was giving me all of the details anyway.
Taking a breath, I turned my attention to my squad. My brothers. The men I had spent the past several years with in the pits of hell and back. “More women have disappeared, leaving no traces behind.” When Vega didn’t say anything, I continued. “From what I have read—” I ran my fingers down the black and white photo of the young girl staring up at me from the thick file in my lap “—eight girls have gone missing within the last month. They ranged in ages from seventeen to twenty-two. We found four survivors last time, but this…” I swallowed past the bile and the anger rushing through my blood. “This time there were none.”
A string of curses sounded around the room.
I waited for them to finish before allowing myself to continue. It felt like we were talking about the females as if they were objects. Bought, used, and tossed away. Those men, if they could even be called that, were the worst kind of monster. A darkness so strong the shadows consumed you. They took everything from those girls, breaking them down and building them back up to service the needs of the bastards.
“Do we know anything about these girls?” Coby asked, his dark eyes showing no hint of emotion, but after knowing him for years, I knew rage was pouring through him. Through all of us. He just hid it well. But the lack of control when it came to his anger nagged at him. I knew it was a problem for him, but I didn’t know how deep that went.
“We know these girls were lost. They weren’t like the others. They didn’t come from prestigious families. They weren’t amounting to anything.” I flipped through a couple of papers, trying my hardest to ignore the faces staring up at me. “All of them were in and out of foster care, thrown into the system right from the beginning. These men made it so no one would miss them. I don’t believe it, though. I think some of these girls did come from good homes but no one is talking.”
“We have to do something,” Dale said, speaking up.
Something was up. Vega had aged in a matter of weeks. Lines had appeared at the corners of his eyes, and a furrowed brow took up residence on his forehead. Every so often he would rub a hand over his head but refused to glance my way.
“You leave for base in half an hour,” Vega rose to his feet. “You’ll meet Vincent Stone there.”
“Who the hell is that?” I asked, my head snapping around.
“He’s new to Vice-One.”
“Excuse you? You added someone to my squad without consulting me?” The day just got better and better.
“I run the show here, Angel.” Vega’s jaw clenched. “You best remember that.”
“You can’t just throw an unknown into this shithole. We have no fucking idea what we’re even up against. Who’s to say this fucker won’t fuck things up?”
“Language, Angel,” Asher nudged my arm. “He signs our fucking paychecks.” He winked at me, a slight grin spreading on his face.
He was right. Vega was a good man, and he was also our boss. I needed to control myself. “I don’t appreciate you not coming to me first.”
“I don’t have to do shit.” Vega walked to the window, opening the blinds to let some sun stream through onto the cloudy mood.
“What happens if we don’t find what you’re wanting us to find?” Dale asked, his deep voice booming through the silence of the small room.
Heads turned his way, no doubt surprised at his question. Dale was the hothead. Jump in head first and not think twice before doing it. But with the females going missing, even he had to take a step back.
“Then keep searching,” Vega bit out, his voice rough.
“Captain…” Asher glanced at the file in my hand. “I don’t know—”
“I don’t fucking care what you don’t know!” Vega shouted, slamming his fist against the wall. An award shook against the wall before falling to the floor with a shatter.
“Sir.” I rose to my feet. “What’s going on?” I had known him for years. He had a temper but his head was always in the game. But in that moment, something was off. And that was when I took in his appearance. His uniform was disheveled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes more pronounced. He was a lost man, hiding from whatever demons he was dealing with.
Vega leaned against the edge of the large window, gripping onto it like a lifeline. I knew him well but not enough. He had a drinking problem but no one brought it up.
“Will you give us a moment?” I asked my brothers.
They nodded in agreement but grumbled under their breath. They knew Vega wouldn’t talk with a crowd. If I could get information, any at all, it would help us with our mission. That shit needed to be dealt with. We needed to move on with our lives and do our actual job.
“Watch him,” Coby mumbled, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “Something’s not right. He’s on edge.”
I nodded once, thankful my brother saw the change as well.
Coby would know since he had lived on that same edge for years.
“You need to talk, Boss,” I told Vega once we were alone.
“About what?” His gaze snapped to mine, bright and shiny.
“What’s going on?” I pushed, knowing it would be the one way to get him to speak.
“What’s going on?” he repeated, shaking his head. A light laugh left him. “Everything is going on. These women, these girls… I’ve never cared about something that had nothing to do with the country we live in. We fight together. We die together. We breathe—”
“Together,” I finished for him.
“Yeah.” He sighed. “We do.”
“So what’s the problem?” My heart pounded against the walls of my ribcage. My hands became sweaty. I had a feeling, a horrible agonizing feeling, that he was closer to the mission than he let on.
“My niece.” Vega swallowed hard. “She was taken during the night last night.”
“Fuck,” I blurted. “And you think it’s whoever took the other girls?”
“It has to be. It makes sense. My sister is broken over this. If I don’t get her back…” His eyes shone. “I don’t know what will happen to her.”
“We’ll get your niece back,” I reassured him. Something else was still bothering him. “Safe and sound,” I added. Yeah, cause I was God and knew all. Shit.
“Don’t you dare sit there and tell me that shit. I’m not stupid. That’s the same line we use on civilians.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” I said. “This is not our job. We protect our country. We get the bad guys who threaten it. Some of these girls aren’t even from the US.”
“I need you to go in because of my niece. I don’t fucking care if it’s against protocol. I don’t care if I get fired over it. I need her back. For my sister.” Vega’s voice was filled with shaky desperation, his eyes moving back and forth, wild and bright. “I refuse to watch my sister lose herself because some bastards get their rocks off by preying on the weak and innocent.”
I bit back a scoff. The women I knew would chew up those men and eat them for dinner. My thoughts traveled to a tall redhead with alabaster skin that I couldn’t wait to feel against my own again and again. Jay and her girls were anything but weak. They each had their own story and learned to live in a world overrun by men. The Alpha inside of me wanted to protect them. Jay was the Queen of her surroundings, and I found myself wanting—no, needing—to be her King.
“Angel?”
My thoughts snapped back to reality. Clearing my throat, I headed to the door. “We will find your niece.” Dead or alive went unsaid.
Vega nodded, slumping in his chair. “Thank you. Right now, I’m willing to do anything and give up what I’ve worked so hard for to see my sister happy again.”
I knew how he felt. Although I had no blood relatives that I knew of, Vice-One were the brothers I never had. They were my family. We fought. We argued. We shot the shit together. We were a unit. We put our lives on the line for each other, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
“Who am I dealing with when it comes to this new guy?” I asked, remembering Vega mentioning a Victor Steve or whatever the hell his name was.
“Vincent Stone. Best in his class. Been in the military for over five years. Needed a change when he saw some shit go down and transferred to the Navy.”
“Makes sense,” I mumbled.
“He’s strong, and he won’t let you down, Angel.” Vega handed me a file. “Read up on him if needed but know that he’s loyal.”
I nodded, leaving the office to be met by my brothers.
They threw question after question at me. What is going on? What now? When do we leave? But the one that stuck out the most was Dale’s question of, How long will we be gone? I was curious to find out as well because I missed Jay. I missed her sass. Her witty humor and the sailor mouth she had on her. Knowing I needed to call her, my stomach twisted.
“Angel,” Coby’s baritone voice snapped me from my thoughts. “What’s doing, brother?”
“We head out in ten. I don’t want to think about home yet because then time will go by slower,” I told the men standing around me. “We will be meeting Vincent Stone at the base.”
“Ooh,” Dale rubbed his hands together. “Fresh meat.”
“I like ‘em raw,” Asher joked a long with him.
Dale sighed. “It was like we were meant to be,” he swooned, batting his eyes.
Asher laughed, clapping a hand on Dale’s shoulder.
“I hope Vincent knows what he’s getting into,” Coby said as Asher and Dale walked away.
Yeah. Me too.