Linc went back in the house and turned to find Henry standing there waiting for him. “You have a call.”

“From who?” he asked.

The other man scratched the back of his head and Linc wondered who had sent Henry to find him.

“Diavolos. He’s pissed you took her to public auction,” Henry said at last.

“Well, I’m tired of being under his thumb. I run my merchandise, and he can get in line like everyone else,” Linc said.

Henry held his hands up. “You can tell him yourself.”

“I will. She’s locked in until the auction ends. I took care of the body,” Linc said. “Check the perimeter and make sure we’re clear. I have Jack and Miller coming in later to help us with the transfer.”

“Got it. Where’d you put the dead guy?” Henry asked.

“I dumped him in the trunk of my car. We’ll dispose of him later,” Linc said.

Henry walked out the front door and Linc checked the lock on the panic room again before making sure he was alone and unmuting his earpiece.

“Two here. I’ve got a call from Diavolos.”

“Great news. I’ve got Three setting up a trace on your home network and we’ll see if we can trace the call back to the source,” Mick said in Linc’s ear as he walked down the hall to the room where the computer was set up.

He entered the room and saw that the call was a video one. The image on the screen was pixelated, so he couldn’t make out Diavolos’s features. Linc wondered why he was bothering to hide his identity when it had been leaked.

“What do you want?” Linc asked, channeling Cockram at his most belligerent.

“I sent my man to find you earlier. I asked for a deal,” Diavolos said.

“I’m not in the mood to do a backroom deal, Reece. And what’s this bullshit with the image? Everyone knows who you are, or do you think I’m too stupid to figure it out? Is that why you are trying to cut me out of the profit I stand to make from auctioning her?”

“You are stupid, Cockram. What good is money if you’re not around to spend it?”

“I’m not afraid of you,” Linc said. “I’ve seen your picture and you look like a pussy to me.”

“We’ll see,” Diavolos said, cutting the line.

“Well, that got us nothing,” Mick said via the earpiece.

“What was that about?” Linc asked. “Does he know where we are?”

“Four here, the street is alive. Looks like a damned invading army.”

“Take them out,” Mick ordered.

Linc was already moving toward the panic room. He had his weapon drawn as he eased into the hallway, glancing left and then right. It was clear, then someone cut the power to the house and the lights went out.

Dammit. He closed his eyes to help them adjust.

“Who cut the lights?” Linc asked.

“Not sure,” Frank said. “You’ve got a team of six moving in. Shoot to kill?”

“I want them out of action,” Mick said. “Just remember, the director isn’t a fan of lethal force on domestic soil.”

Who was? But six men.

“I’ll do my best,” Frank said dryly.

The back door burst open, sending shards of wood and glass into the hallway. Linc took a knee and steadied his gun, aiming for kneecaps to take the first guy down. He hit his mark and the first man sprawled onto the floor, the two behind him moving down the hall toward Linc. His shot had given his position away and he felt a bullet graze his neck, burning the crap out of it.

“They’re using lethal force,” Linc said, suspecting that first shot had been meant for his head. Another person entered the room behind the first two.

“Three in the house,” Cory said.

Linc used his position to spring up and hit the assailant closest to him with a roundhouse kick that drove him backward. The man lashed out with a side kick that connected solidly with Linc’s ribs. Linc groaned as he kicked out again, this time when his foot hit the other man’s head, it snapped back and he hit the wall, falling to the floor.

The second man attacked with a knife and Linc was tempted to fire his gun, but the director probably didn’t want a huge body count to explain to authorities.

So he holstered his gun, catching the other man’s wrist and driving it up toward the ceiling, and then forcing him back against the wall. He took a punch to the ribs that took his breath away before bringing his knee up hard between the other man’s legs while punching him in the throat until he crumpled to the floor.

Cory made a startled sound behind him, and Linc turned to find him on the ground and another man coming toward him. He fired a Taser and Linc cursed as pain ran through his body, driving him to his knees and then to the floor.

“Get the girl out of the room. Our intel shows the panic room should be at the front of the building,” a man said as he walked by Linc. Linc grabbed his ankle and, fighting through the pain in his body, yanked hard.

The man stumbled and their eyes met. It was Claude Renard. A mercenary that he’d met in Africa not too long ago. He brought his boot down on Linc’s face. Linc let go as stars danced in front of his eyes and then he heard the door to the panic room open and he tried to watch for Ella. Wanted her to know he was here for her.

She ran out in a blind panic, saw him lying on the floor, before running out the door and into the night.

* * *

Ella hated being watched. This was her worst nightmare. It brought back so many memories of her life before she’d escaped Diavolos. She felt herself starting to freak out and closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing the way that Linc had shown her earlier.

With her eyes closed it was easy to shut out the small room with the dim light shining down on her. She climbed out of the chair and turned her back to the door. Sitting on the floor in seated mediation pose, she put her hands on her thighs and took a deep breath. She held it as long as she could and then let it out when she heard a loud noise and the lights went out.

Jumping to her feet, she hurried over to the door. Linc had given her the code, but she didn’t see a keypad anywhere. She listened, but it was impossible to hear anything. The noise was gone. She felt along the wall, searching for the keypad and her fingers brushed over a panel that shifted as she moved her hand over it. Moving back to the panel she pressed it and it popped open, a small light coming on as it did. She saw the keypad. Should she open the door?

She wasn’t sure if something bad was happening out there. Was she safer where she was, or would it be better if she was outside?

“Pale Twin, I thought you’d died.” The terrible voice from her past came over the intercom.

Reece Hammond aka Diavolos. He’d started calling himself that when he’d learned that the CIA had given him the nickname. Ella wasn’t surprised that it appealed to him. The man she remembered from her childhood had been depraved, creepy and without a soul. Like the devil himself.

“Who are you?” she asked, because she hoped it would tick him off.

The sound of laughter echoed throughout the room and she felt a chill go down her spine.

“You don’t disappoint. Where is your sister?”

“Dead,” Ella said.

“I doubt that, but you can pretend for now,” he said. “I’ve created a distraction while my men work on getting you away from Cockram. He’s determined to sell you to the highest bidder, and I can’t let that happen.”

“Don’t tell me you can’t afford me,” she said. Was Linc dead? She’d decided earlier to depend on only herself, but now she wasn’t sure what to do. Linc had said he was the only one who knew the code to the panic room, so she should be safe unless someone cut through the steel walls.

“I don’t waste money,” he said.

“Good to know,” she said, moving back toward the chair. Could he see her? She realized that if she ever did anything like this again, she was going to ask for a hell of a lot more information up front. But she would never have to do this again. Either they’d catch him or she’d be dead.

“I know where you’ve been hiding all this time, Ella.”

He’d never used her name before. Not that she’d had one that he would have known back then. “Then why didn’t you come and get me before this? You don’t scare me, Reece. I know your name too.”

“Good. It’s about time we were on a first-name basis. You’ve been meddling in my business for a while now, haven’t you?”

“Yup. And I’m going to keep on doing that. I’m going to help as many kids as I can escape you and other men like you,” she said.

She moved slowly around the room, back to the keypad and the door. There was still no noise from outside, but she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“If you say so. My men should have you in a moment,” he said.

She stared at the door but nothing happened. “Or not.”

Just then she heard the sound of the door opening. Ella didn’t hesitate, she ran for the entrance, plowing past the man standing there and running out the front door of the house. The suburban neighborhood had street lights, and she knew she was visible to anyone watching. Linc had said one of his men was on the street watching her and keeping her safe.

She ran as fast as she could, the sound of her own heart beating loudly in her ears and her breath sawing in and out of her lungs as she continued running, not paying attention to anything except getting as far from the house as she could.

The ground shifted under her as she stepped off the sidewalk and tumbled down a small berm, hitting her left side again. Pain shot through her as she rolled further away from the road.

She held herself still, hoping she’d gotten away from whomever had been in the house. She hadn’t seen the man’s face when she ran past him, and now she tried to hold her breath but she couldn’t. She was shaking and cold.

She heard the sound of footsteps moving on the sidewalk she’d fallen from. She was in a retaining ditch. It was gross, muddy, wet and dirty, but beat the alternative of being captured by Diavolos.

A flashlight played over the ground in front of her and then over her. She stopped breathing, hoping that it would miss her, but the light came back.

“Found her.”

* * *

He heard the sound of his alarm going off, along with three others on the street. Sirens screeched in the distance, but Linc didn’t give a crap about any of that.

Blood ran from the cut on his nose down his face, soaking into the mustache he’d affixed earlier, and he tore it off, throwing it in the trashcan under the sink. He also tore off the ripped silk shirt and put his hands on the basin, leaning forward.

He had a cut on his chest above his ribs and it hurt when he inhaled, which meant he’d bruised one of his ribs. He coughed to clear his throat from the blood that was dripping down the back of it from his nose.

The bullet that grazed his neck had left only a burn mark, and he wiped it with an antiseptic cloth from his first-aid kit.

He heard footsteps in the hall, knew it was Mick coming to check on him, and Linc knew he’d say something or do something that would cost him this job, and more importantly, his friendship with Mick.

So he turned on the water, leaned forward and splashed it onto his face. The dangerous cocktail of fear, anger and regret stirred in him as he sensed Mick standing behind him in the doorway. He splashed more water on his face, feeling it burn the raw wound, then he stood up and shook the water from his face, his eyes meeting Mick’s in the mirror.

“We’ll get her back.”

They would, but the damage had been done. He’d made a promise. He’d vowed to keep her safe and now his word had been broken. He was just like every other man that had ever entered her life. He’d allowed her to be used for his gain. To help them draw out Reece Hammond, and it had worked.

As Cockram, he’d hired men who were known to switch allegiances for money. They’d known the best chance to get Reece was to ensure that he was caught in the act.

The act of trying to take her.

Not actually kidnapping her.

Not terrifying the crap out of her.

Not making a liar out of him.

“Linc—”

“Don’t. There’s nothing you can say that will make this right. I screwed up,” Linc said. He’d been raised to own up to his mistakes. His father said everyone was human, but the mark of a man was in how he dealt with both failures and triumphs.

“We screwed up. I never thought he’d come in like that. Frank took out as many as he could.”

“I should have known. I know the kind of man he is. I taunted him with Ella and the promise that Bri might be alive, and now Ella is paying the price.”

Mick didn’t say anything. He had been listening in on the conversation. He knew that Linc had done everything he could to get Reece to come. And he had outplayed them. Sent his best men, a tough squad of mercs that the Ares Team had gone up against before and they’d taken her.

He didn’t bother talking to God—he’d stopped believing in a higher being a long time ago.

“I’m calling the whole team in, we’re going to get her back, and this time we’re getting Reece too. That bastard has messed with us for the last time.”

“The tracker is still in her arm,” Linc said. Methodically going through the pluses was the best recourse he had. He should have locked himself in the room with her, but then he’d probably be dead, or one of Diavolos’s mercs would be. They had killed one of them, but that didn’t satisfy him. That didn’t help the ache in his gut.

Frank had taken out three of Diavolos’s mercs but they’d still gotten her.

He’d fought to keep Ella safe, and in the end, there had been nothing he could do to save her.

He’d been stunned by the Taser and the fistfight. He’d seen the look on her face as she’d run out the front door. It had cut him to see that stark fear. She had clawed her way out of hell and had found a way to thrive and hide. Now she was trapped again.

Mick handed him a towel. “I can give you five minutes to clean up, but we need to do a debrief and then move out. Kaylee’s coming. She’s trying to see if we can find the person who cracked into the secure network you had around the house.”

“She set it up,” Linc reminded him.

“Yeah, I know, she’s taking it personally. And Ella is one of the few people that Kaylee calls friend, so she wants blood, just like you,” Mick said.

“We’re going to get it,” Linc promised.

He grabbed the towel from the bar behind Mick, wiped his face and then walked out of the bathroom, and down the hall to the bedroom, where he had fresh clothes. He dressed for a fight in black leather pants that could withstand a knife, a skintight, black, bullet-resistant t-shirt, and weapons webbing. Then he checked his automatic weapon, loaded the clips and left the room. Diavolos had free reign over the dark web and too much of the real world.

Linc and the Ares Team were going to show him the error of his ways. After tonight, Diavolos, Reece Hammond, or whatever the hell that bastard wanted to call himself would know that there was no escape from them.