Page 2 of Leading Conviction
Revulsion and anger coursed through his veins, and he tightened his grip on his gun.
“They died the way they deserved, then,” he replied, taking in the way they’d seemingly tried to hide underneath each other to flee the fire that consumed their wretched souls. “Like cowards.”
“That door in the opposite corner is open.” Devil pointed to the red lighting Hawk could now see glowed dimly from the hallway. “But these fuckers baked in here. If it’d been open, wouldn’t they have escaped?”
“Someone was here,” Phoenix muttered.
“Or still is,” Hawk countered, instantly on high alert again. “Eyes open. Phoenix, Callie, you come with me. Everyone else, see if you can find anything useful about these dead men.”
“BlackStone crew, don’t touch anything,” Callie added. “The FBI will need to compile as much evidence as possible for this case.”
As liaisons, the FBI had consented to Hawk’s team entering the building first so long as Callie, one of their field operatives, was present. He wanted to think it was because they trusted his team of trained former MF7 spec-ops soldiers. But with all the bureaucracy he’d been dealing with lately as BlackStone’s leader, he was more inclined to believe the feds wanted his team to take the brunt of whatever was thrown at them down there. Whether it was bullets or something that could result in bad press.
His team verbally confirmed both his and Callie’s commands as he crossed the room toward the open door, with Callie and Phoenix following closely behind.
The hallway was a completely different story than the disaster they’d just left. It looked untouched with only a damp scent of wet concrete from the water sprinklers to speak of. Once they fully entered the space and found it clear, he hesitated a moment for Callie’s directions.
“Right, then a left at the end of the hallway. The General’s office will be the first door.”
He followed her verbal lead, his eyes peeled for anyone coming their way. When he squinted at the end of the hallway, he could barely make out a lump on the ground. He tensed, bracing for a fight, but Phoenix’s voice settled him.
“Dead. We took those two out when we escaped.”
Sure enough, his flashlight illuminated two men slumped over each other against the steel walls. Blood seeped into the concrete around them.
“You guys didn’t pull punches, huh?”
“Why would we, when they didn’t?” Phoenix grumbled.
“Touché.”
Phoenix and Callie had escaped the underground facility less than twenty-four hours ago. When his team had gotten the all clear to raid the General’s headquarters for his sex trafficking ring, those two had jumped at the chance to join, despite having only just fought for their freedom. Hawk didn’t blame them.
There was a lot of history between his team and General Smithers, the man who’d formed the MF7 unit before attempting to wipe it from existence. Not only had the General kidnapped one of Hawk’s own men, Phoenix, but he’d tried to kill them all several times over. The burning need to make the bastard pay for everything he’d done boiled in Hawk’s veins. To avenge Hawk’s team—hisbrothers—not to mention the countless victims he exploited…
And her.
No.
The logical voice in his head—the wise one that sounded just like his old man’s—told him to move on. He couldn’t think about her now. It was hard, considering he had to work alongside Callie, who looked eerily similar, but he had to let it go.
What was done, was done. Nearly a decade ago, he’d made all the wrong decisions. Now he had to live with them. Besides, she was better off without him.
But is she?
Everything that’d come to light in the past forty-eight hours whispered over that voice of reason, growing louder as it guilted him into trying harder to find her. Two and a half months ago, he’d found out she was a part of a group of women who’d gone missing. That realization had rocked him to his core and he and Snake had been privately searching for her ever since. Before that, he’d thought she was safe. When he’d left her all those years ago, he’d never looked back, believing he and his best friend were making the right choice to both protect her and save the world. But now he questioned everything.
Later. Figure this shit out later. Not right now.
As he rounded the corner, more bodies clogged the hallway, lit by the bright fluorescent lighting in the open office.
Hawk’s heart stalled in his chest, and his feet did the same as he paused to get his bearings. He couldn’t see inside, and without knowing whether there was someone else down there in the bunker with them, he wanted to be sure before he led his teammate into danger.
He stepped carefully and silently around each dead man, trying to hold his breath. The cold basement had delayed decomposition, but the aftermath of death was already ripe and sweet in the air, mixed with the metallic odor of blood.
Finally, after painstakingly slow steps, he stopped outside the General’s office and pressed his back against the wall beside the doorjamb. Not taking his eyes off the door, he held up his hand, signaling Phoenix to wait.
Hawk took a deep, steadying breath before rolling around the doorjamb to see who was inside—
