I had Willow pop the trunk and then I got a few accessories out of the trunk. I didn't know what the situation was going to be, but if my suspicions about these men being some sort of law enforcement were correct, then knives alone weren't going to be enough.

"Keep driving, nice and slow. Pretend you're looking for a parking spot," I told Willow as I held a silenced Sig Sauer P220 Legion in my lap, ready for action.

It wasn't my first choice in guns, it was too bulky, but it had come from Usatov's place, and I was sure it had been used in other crimes before. Any poor soul doing forensics on bullets from the upcoming crime scene would have a nightmare trying to figure out how the same gun did so many things. It was also a large caliber pistol and would put a man down with a shot almost anywhere in the torso. To cap it off, I made sure it was loaded with hollow point bullets for added stopping power. Now I just needed to get those two fuckers in my sights.

Willow was jittery at the sight of the gun, and I couldn't blame her. She probably didn't have a lot of exposure to them, and as a nurse she'd no doubt seen what they could do to the human body. But she was committed. We were close now, and we needed to get Lexie before anything worse happened!

"This place is pretty empty," she muttered.

It was an old motel, the type where the doors opened right to the parking lot. Normally those are less secure for guests, but it would also be much easier to get a prisoner into your room from a car. I guess these guys needed something cheap where they could just crash for a few hours. Even better, it was an old, run down place that wouldn't be too particular about fake IDs and paying with cash. Assuming that the hotel wasn't a place that was on the payroll and paid to look the other way. And Willow was right, it was pretty empty, so there would be no witnesses. There were very few cars in the lot, and it wasn't too well lit. Perfect for what these guys were doing. All they needed to do was wait for dark, park near their room, and bring the prisoners right in.

"Head towards the back," I pointed to the rear where it looked like a light was out, and a bulky SUV was parked. Willow nodded and steered in that direction.

"She has to be here, right?" Willow's voice was soft, but with no other noise it was easy to hear her. There was a little hitch to it, and I knew she was terrified if Lexie wasn't in the room.

"She'll be here. But if she isn't, we'll still find her, okay?" It might take a bit to get answers from these guys, but I knew that if Lexie wasn't in here, then the key to finding here would be.

She just nodded, but there were tears running down her cheeks as she kept trying to wipe her eyes. "Please get her!" As we got closer, I could see that the SUV was indeed a blacked out Ford Explorer, and I felt my body relax a little. We were close.

"Park here." I pointed to an open spot that was 4 spots down from the Explorer. She pulled the car in, and I leaned over, rubbing her shoulder. "You stay here. I'll go get her, okay? I don't want you coming to help, it could get messy. She'll need you to be safe."

"Okay," she replied with another sniffle. "Be careful!"

I nodded quickly, then opened the door. Stepping out, I closed the door quietly, and then put my back to the wall. I walked sideways, both hands on the gun in case I needed to use it fast. As I got to the SUV, I confirmed the Indiana plates and then had a decision to make. How do I get into the room?

I could bust the door down, but if I didn't get it right the first time, I was inviting a firefight. I knew the guys were probably armed, and if Lexie was in there, then I didn't want bullets flying all over. I could try to distract them, but that might mean they ignore it. But a distraction, or a lure, might be the best bet. I assumed that the door that the Explorer was backed up to was where they were, since they could unload Lexie right through the door from the rear of the SUV. But if I was the one planning the operation, I would park a little away from the room so I couldn't be found. I was betting they had done the simple thing, since this was probably routine for them, but I couldn't take that risk.

With a sigh, I pulled out my phone and pulled out another handy app. This one would probably make me very popular with almost any car thief on the planet. It wasn't perfect, but it could mimic a key fob from many car manufacturers that used keyless remotes. It wasn't perfect, since it only had about a dozen manufacturers included so far, but Ford was one of them. What it meant was, I could steal a car with my phone. I didn't abuse it, only once had I been that desperate for a car, but right now it would be handy.

There were many times like this when I really did wonder who my employer was. The things that they had access to, be it apps, money, weapons, were beyond what I had ever heard of. But they hadn't had me do anything I objected to. Obviously, I killed for them, but I knew the people I killed deserved it. I wasn't just a hitman for hire or something.

The app opened up, and I had it scan for vehicles. The only one in range was the Explorer, since Audi wasn't a manufacturer it could mimic, and I pulled up the interface for it. I took two steps to stand next to the doorknob of the room, and then pressed the button to trigger the panic alarm. At a minimum it would wake them up and annoy them, and I'd be able to make sure they were in the room I was in front of.

Sure enough, within 5 seconds, there was a yell from a man with quite the accent in the room. Maybe Russian? Nah. It was similar to Usatov, but not quite. "Turn that damned thing off!" One of them must have used the for in the room to turn the alarm off, because in another moment it turned off.

But only for about 2 seconds, and then I started it right back up.

"Fuck! Stupid car!" Once more the alarm turned off, and this time I counted to 5 before triggering it again.

This time there was a guttural yell and some heavy stomping towards the door, and I slipped my phone back into my pocket to keep my hands free. The door was pulled open, and a large pale hand emerged with a car remote, pressing the button furiously. I gripped the hand and pulled, getting a startled grunt as I stepped into the doorway and smashed the butt of the gun into the bridge of the heavyset man's nose. He stumbled backwards, and I let go of his arm now to let him go. There was another man standing between the two beds in the middle of the room. His hands were on his pants that he was pulling up, and there were two women in the bed on the left.

I didn't hesitate at all. I only needed one man alive, as the two of them alive would be a security nightmare, so I leveled the gun at the man trying to pull his pants up and put two bullets into his chest before pivoting back to the other man who had his hand to his face, trying to stop the blood that was spurting from his nose. In the movies, silencers are miraculous, making guns sound like they were whispering sweet nothings to one another. In reality, especially in an enclosed space like a motel room, they're pretty noisy. A silencer shouldn't even be called that, as they just suppress the sound, but you hear it for sure. Right away, that meant two things. One, the guy with the nose knew his buddy was dead, or would be soon, and two, neither girl had even twitched, which was bad.

"Hands up, and then don't move!" I yelled with my gun trained on his chest. I probably should have shot this one, since he was the bigger of the two, but the other one was too close to the girls. Speaking of which, I moved over behind the bed, so I didn't have to turn my head to look at them. I glanced down, seeing a blonde head, and I moved the hair to the side revealing Lexie's face. I felt her neck, and she had a pulse, and I breathed a sigh of relief before I started sliding towards the door. I backed out of the door, and blindly waved down where the car was, only moving back inward when I heard the car door open.

"What did you give them?" I asked the man, who was looking scared. He was probably not as tough as Usatov had been, but more than Zac.

"Ahh... umm... nothing? They're sleeping!"

Okay, this was pointless. I lowered the gun and shot him in the kneecap. "Try again."

He fell screaming to the floor, blood quickly soaking into the tacky carpet. Picking a room this far in the back worked out well for us, since hopefully we'd stay undisturbed. "Okay! Okay! Heroin! We shot them up to keep them quiet!"

I heard a gasp from behind me as Willow came in, and she heard him admit to that. "Willow, check Lexie. As you heard, she's got heroin in her. Not sure who the other girl is," I called over my shoulder. Turning my attention back to the man, I kept asking questions. "Where were you taking them?"

"Why should I keep answering questions? You're just going to kill me!"

He wasn't exactly wrong, and in this particular case we were in a hurry. "I mean, I could just shoot you now if you prefer." I lifted the gun back to his chest. "You a cop?"

He tossed his head at the soon to be dead man. "He is."

"And you're Yakiv, right?" his eyes opened in fear when he realized I knew his name. "You're not a cop? Someone's private security? Or are you part of the same ring that used to kidnap women and use them?"

"You know of that ring?"

I moved closer, crouching and putting the gun in the middle of his chest. "I'm the one that ended it. But I guess I didn't get you all, so I'll have to start over." I didn't have the time for a long, drawn out interrogation, I'd have to hope that their phones and personal information was enough to give me a lead.

His voice dropped to a whisper. "That was you? I thought you were dead?"

"Sorry Yakiv, that would be you." I pulled the trigger, making Willow scream and sending Yakiv hurtling backwards in a spray of blood. Yeah, I'd need to clean up before we left, his blood had splattered all over me. It was worth it though!

Standing up, I turned around and walked over to the bed. "How are they?"

Willow was sitting on the bed, caressing Lexie's face while tears slowly crept down her face. "Alive. We'll have to see if we can get something to help with the Heroin. There are a few drugs that can help with that. Naloxone is probably what we want. Hopefully they recover okay, but it might be a tough couple of days. Do you know who the girl is?"

"No. I assume they picked her up either before they got to you, or after. Maybe there was another father selling her." She looked like a kid, no more than 18, with black hair and olive colored skin and a slim figure. I couldn't imagine the monsters that would abuse a kid like that.

"We need to get them help, now." Willow picked up Lexie's hand, and I noticed that they were handcuffed together. "Starting with this."

I nodded quickly. "I'm on it."