Too many.

Fuck.

When I didn’t offer mine, he dropped his hand, my mind scrambled for some code to tell Creed and Hawk there was a possibility I’d be made and my eyes went to Nick.

“How many people need to be here for us to make this deal?” I asked, giving Creed and Hawk the information that the bad guys were fully staffed.

“That gentleman is a new recruit, he’s in training,” the dude answered and my eyes cut to him.

“If you were using this transaction for training purposes, I should have been informed.”

“From the background check we did on you, you’re aware we’re exceedingly cautious. We’ve done an equally exhaustive check on him. You have nothing to be concerned about,” he replied.

“I’m exceedingly cautious as well and I don’t like surprises,” I fired back.

He inclined his head. “That’s understandable. Would you like to terminate now?”

Shit, shit, f**k.

If I didn’t see those girls, Hawk’s entire operation was a bust or he had to follow through, maybe not get his girl but definitely get a lot of shit from the Feds and possibly f**k their operation.

I decided to call his bluff, held his eyes, lifted my chin slightly in an affirmative and replied, “Thank you for your time.”

I turned, again lifted my chin to the middle man and began to make my departure, hoping like all f**k they needed a buyer and bad. I didn’t know the market for human trafficking. It could be a buyer’s market. If my luck was bad, it could be a seller’s.

“Collette,” he called.

Thank God.

I turned and leveled my eyes on him.

“Would you be more comfortable if Mr. Cardinal wasn’t here?” he asked, indicating Nick.

Mr. Cardinal?

What the f**k?

“Or,” the man went on, “would you be more comfortable, considering we’re aware that Mr. Cardinal is a confidential informant for the FBI, that we dispatch him in your presence rather than after our deal is done as we’d planned to do?”

Terrific.

My eyes moved to Nick who had gone pale, which probably partially had to do with his obviously having been made but mostly it had to do with the man standing behind him with a gun held to the back of his head.

Shit.

Shit.

Fuck!

God, please, please, God, let Creed and Hawk have heard that in the microphone.

“I’m not fond of mess,” I told the man.

He inclined his head again. “Then we’ll take him away while we see to business.”

To that, hurriedly but trying not to sound hurried, I stated, “I’m also not fond of something happening I can’t see nor being involved even remotely in felonies that have nothing to do with me. I have a business. I’m seeing to business. We conduct our business, we’re done. I don’t want to be dragged into your mess. When I’m not here, do what you wish. That’s your business but I’ll ask you to put a hold on it while we complete our transaction.”

He inclined his head yet again and that was beginning to grate on my nerves but I couldn’t concentrate on that.

I had to buy Nick time and I had to hope that first, Hawk, Creed and the boys were adjusting the operation not only to recover the girl but to extract Nick. And second, that Nick was somehow wired so whoever he was working with knew he was in jeopardy because he sure as f**k needed the cavalry.

“So you’d like him to witness the transaction?” the man asked and I arched my brows.

“I’d like to stop talking about your problems, complete the transaction and be on my way,” I answered.

“As you wish,” he muttered and his whole gentlemanly act when selling humans made my gut clench which was no good since it was already in knots because this shit was f**ked. There were more of them than I expected, I had no weapon and I had no way to communicate to Nick that I would have his back.

Instead, I gave him a blank look as I followed the head honcho speaker of the group deeper into the warehouse.

“It’s surprising you’d come here alone, Collette,” the man remarked as we walked and I felt the others following us.

“Perhaps you can also refrain from commenting on how I conduct my business,” I suggested, not liking the darkness we were moving into.

“A small woman like you, all heels and hair, it seems foolhardy to me,” he noted.

This was not good.

“What I’ve learned is foolhardy is men who see all heels, hair and stature, make assumptions and thus underestimate the situation,” I retorted.

He was silent a moment as he led me into the shadows before he muttered, “Indeed.” Then, “You weren’t followed, no one at your back, patted down and no weapon. I think you can understand how assumptions could be made.”

There it was. Creed, again, genius. He wasn’t made but I knew he was out there.

“What I understand,” I returned, “is that it would be bad business to whack a potential good customer.”

There was a smile in his voice when he repeated his, “Indeed.”

Asshole.

He stopped, so I stopped as did everyone else.

“Flashlight,” he ordered and I saw movement then I saw the beam hitting a massive, wooden, freight crate.

God, they had them in a crate.

A f**king crate.

How did people like this sleep at night? How did they stop themselves from jumping off bridges? How did they not spontaneously combust with guilt and shame?

The middle man I met at the bar scurried forward, lifted the latch and swung the big door open. The seller moved in and trained his flashlight inside.

I got as close to him as I could stomach and looked. I clocked her immediately. I also clocked there were at least two dozen of them. They were barely clothed, clearly not allowed to bathe, had nothing but a few ragged blankets to make that crate even slightly comfortable and all appeared underfed.

They looked beyond miserable. They looked lost, terrified out of their minds and totally beaten.

Blood roared in my ears and it took everything I had to check it and carry out the game.

Therefore, I uttered the code words that would mean the team should proceed with the extraction. “I’ll take two. That one, right side, third in and the one at the back in the middle. The others are too skinny.”

I barely got out the word “skinny” when an alarm sounded and I saw flashing red lights throughout the warehouse. A nanosecond later, I was suddenly blinded when all the lights in the warehouse were switched on, bright and overpowering.