32

By the time the judge signed the search warrants, Avery had ensured that their teams had detailed instructions and were geared up to carry out the search. There were two planned raids coordinated with SWAT. Tory and Carlos rode with the team to the Sourns’ private residence, while she and Mitch joined the second team headed for the complex that housed the warehouse and the import company’s main offices. They might have video evidence that linked Sourn to the kidnapping of Malaya, but Avery needed more—a connection to the human trafficking ring they’d stumbled across and, if Sourn was their killer, answers to Tala’s murder.

She sat in the back of the van transporting their team and tried to keep her mind focused. The combination of the dull ache pulsing in the back of her head and the reality of the risks involved in executing a raid had her distracted. She’d warned Tory of the lethal combination, but sometimes, the opposing strains of responsibility were hard to ignore.

She shifted in her seat and felt a bruise on her hip she hadn’t noticed before. She let out a low sigh. This morning’s attack wasn’t the first time she’d found her life in danger. Sometimes her need to pursue justice clashed with her concern for Tess, making it hard to justify the former. They ended up being two desires that simply weren’t compatible. But counting the cost was not a foreign notion. Serving her community through the police force had become a family tradition and was how she’d learned firsthand about both sacrifice and the pain of loss.

God, you know the risks to take down men like this, and while part of me doesn’t understand why you don’t just wipe them off the face of the earth, I also know that you allow us to make our own decisions. It’s just hard to see the fallout when girls like Malaya are paying the price for someone else’s greed. Which is why I need your protection today. For my team, the SWAT guys, for the girls out there we still need to save . . . for everyone involved in this game.

“We’re going to get this guy, Avery,” Mitch said.

“I know.” She stared out the window at the oncoming traffic. “He’s already gotten away with too much.”

He’d taken these girls’ lives, taken away their hope, and left them in a wake of despair with nowhere to run. No one deserved that.

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand what makes these guys tick.” Avery pressed her fingertips together. “Power, control, sex, greed? How do they look in the mirror every morning, straighten their tie, and head off for work like nothing’s wrong?”

“That’s a good question and one I don’t have an answer for.”

“Sometimes I just wish I could find the victims before they end up nameless in some back alley.”

“Life can’t be controlled. Life can’t be bottled.”

Avery raised her brow.

“Superman versus Brainiac.”

She chuckled softly and shook her head. “You have an answer to everything, don’t you?”

“Think what you like, but there is truth there. You can only control a small fraction of what goes on around you. But every criminal we help convict puts us one step closer toward making this world a better place.”

Avery shoved away the conflicting thoughts and tugged on the bottom of her bulletproof vest as the vehicle pulled into the parking lot of the warehouse. Through the tinted window, she refocused her mind and studied the scene. Outside was quiet. A few scattered cars in the parking lot, trucks pushed up to the loading docks, but no sign of workers on this side of the building. No sign of Sourn.

The van door slid open. Avery took in a slow, deep breath and checked her weapon. Ideally, she preferred waiting until after dark or early in the morning for a raid, but the risk that Sourn would destroy evidence relating to the case was too great.

She jumped out of the van ahead of Mitch, and as her team members filed into position, she mentally rehearsed the plan she’d laid out to each of them. Their initial entrance had to be both quick and precise as they relied on designated teammates to ensure the perimeter was contained, leaving no avenue of escape for anyone inside. They’d conduct their preliminary search, detain and cuff everyone, then search for evidence that would aid in Sourn’s conviction.

Avery felt the familiar rush of adrenaline spread through her as the SWAT team burst through the heavy side door of the warehouse ahead of her. The wooden frame groaned at the impact, then splintered as the metal hinges popped lose.

The moment they stepped inside, chaos erupted.

Someone shouted from across the room. Weapons pointed at her team. Gunfire exploded. A bullet smashed into the wall behind Avery before she had a chance to react. They’d landed in the midst of an ambush.

There was no time to figure out what had gone wrong. Avery took aim at one of the men and shot. He dropped his weapon and grabbed his arm. A bullet whizzed past her ear, pinging against a metal plate on the wall. She ducked behind a row of crates.

It was over as quickly as it started. Someone shouted for them to stop shooting. Three men on the other side of the warehouse were surrendering. They stepped out into the open, then froze with their hands held high.

Avery was barking an order to the team when she saw him. The gunshots had ceased, but Mitch lay on the ground in a pool of blood.

“Mitch!”

Avery was only vaguely aware of what was going on around her as seconds ticked by in slow motion. Someone called for medical backup, while the SWAT team rushed to secure the warehouse.

Silence filled the aftermath of the gun battle. She crossed the cement floor to where Mitch lay and dropped onto the ground beside him. Everything around her faded until all she could hear was his raspy breathing. If the bullet had punctured a lung . . .

Oh God, please . . . No . . . no . . . no . . . Not now. Not this way . . .

“Mitch?”

This should have been a routine raid. Take the search warrant, secure the premises, and find their evidence. No one, especially not one of their own, was supposed to have gotten hurt.

She leaned closer and started searching for the bullet hole. “Mitch. Talk to me.”

He looked up at her, his pupils dilated. “I . . .”

“Listen to me, Mitch. The bullet hit your vest. You’re just stunned. You’re going to be okay.” Why was there so much blood? If the vest had stopped the bullet, there shouldn’t be any blood. Avery fumbled to find the bullet hole. “We’ve got an ambulance coming. We’ll get you to the hospital, and they’ll patch you up.”

“Kayleigh . . .”

“Stop it, Mitch.” She found where the bullet had entered his side, pulled on the Velcro closure to loosen the vest, then pressed her hand against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. She searched for an exit wound with her other hand. Nothing. Her mind struggled to compute what had happened. The vest hadn’t stopped the bullet, and there was too much blood. “You’re going to be fine.”

Mitch caught her gaze. “Please. Tell her how much I love her.”

“I said you’re going to be fine.”

“You’re a lousy liar, Avery. But a very good partner.”

Not if she let him die. How could she forgive herself if he died after she let him walk into an ambush? She shook her head. She wasn’t ready to give up. Because he had to be okay.

Tears burned her eyes. She blinked them away, pressing harder against the wound, her hands shaking, and started praying. “What was it that Spider-Man said to Mary Jane? You have a knack for—”

“For . . . for getting into trouble.”

“Which is why you’re going to have to tell Kayleigh that yourself. Just hang in there.”

“Tell her, Avery . . . tell her that I’m so sorry.”

Sirens wailed in the distance. All they needed was a few more minutes and there was a chance he could make it.

Someone from the SWAT team knelt down beside her and handed her a pressure bandage. “The ambulance is almost here. We’ve secured the scene, and your team has begun their initial search.”

Avery nodded her thanks, then turned back to Mitch, but something in the background pulled her away for a split second. Her mind struggled to focus. Mason Taylor stood against the back wall, hands cuffed behind him. The man who’d betrayed her family. The man responsible for her brother’s death.

She couldn’t breathe. She shook her head and turned back to Mitch. Mason shouldn’t be here, but for the moment it didn’t matter. Taking down Sourn, Mason’s presence, and everything else swirling around her seemed insignificant. None of it mattered compared to losing Mitch.