85

Zane was sitting in the dark van which was parked in an alley, trying to be invisible, which was hard for a vehicle of its size. Zane had a hard time sitting still. He was bouncing his knee up and down, staring at the com system, willing it to come to life. Jax, who was sitting next to him, gave him an annoyed look. Zane glared back at him. Zane’s temper was not at its best. Three weeks. Fucking three weeks. They had made him wait. If Zane was being fair, which he wasn’t in the mood to be, it hadn’t been Jax’s, Ryder’s or Tom’s fault that it had taken three weeks. If they had known where Ava had been held, nothing could have kept him from going after her. But that had been the issue. No one could find where Johnson had been keeping her. It had taken Spenser less than three hours to find Ava’s aunt and uncle and drag them back. That had been an entertaining evening, Zane thought. Within thirty minutes of Zane stepping into the same room as Jonas Cobler, he had told Zane everything he knew. It hadn’t saved him from Zane’s wrath. He was keeping the man alive. Partly because he needed someone to take out his frustration on, and partly because his angel should have a say in what happened to him. Ava’s aunt was also alive, not hurting women and all that. She was kept in a cell in the basement. Zane was considering if he would make an exception from the rule for her sake. He would talk to Ava about it.

“Did you tell Gabriel what is happening?” Ryder asked Zane. Zane snorted. Gabriel had been under house arrest for three weeks. It was obvious he would go after Ava if they didn’t restrict him. He hadn’t spoken to any of them since the day he had stormed into the mansion. Ryder had been trying everything he could think of to get Gabriel to forgive him. But he was stubborn as a mule. When they tried to get a response from him, or to get him out of his room, he would only ask one thing.

“Is Ava back?”

When they had to say no, he would just ignore them. The only reason Zane put up with his behaviour was because of his loyalty to Ava. Zane respected it and he was grateful to know his angel had someone like that in her life. Gabriel’s only goal was to get Ava back safe. He didn’t care about mafia politics or trying to avoid a response from the authorities. Zane had been on Gabriel’s side at first. Then Jax, Ryder and Tom had told him if he used brute force to find his angel, there could be no good outcome. He would start a war and if they missed Ava at the first location, Johnson would know how important she was to Zane and he would make sure they would never find her. It had been their idea for him to pretend that the emails didn’t bother him at all. Even if he wanted to tear someone apart and then cry every time he thought about the images in those emails.

For two weeks they had gathered evidence against Johnson. Finally, they had enough to prove that he was behind the attack against Zane and his men. They also found that he was behind smaller incidents that they had written off as smaller thugs trying to test their strength. Zane had called to a meeting of the families, minus Johnson. He had presented the evidence, told them he intended to strike back and it would be nice if they looked the other way, but he really didn’t care. If they wanted to support Johnson, then he would burn them all to the ground like his father had done before him. Apparently, they had seen a glimpse of his father’s madness in him and they had all agreed he had every right to strike back. They would leave it to him and Johnson to battle it out. Zane had no plans to battle it out. He would strike once, with such force Johnson and his organisation would never recover from it. Outwards it was a show of power, but the real reason was Ava’s safety. They needed to find where she was held. They needed to strike fast and hard, so all Johnson’s men were occupied with them and Johnson didn’t have a chance to move her or hurt her. A week ago, Zane had used all his resources and called in most of the favours he had accumulated over the years to try to find where Ava was. No one knew. Yesterday they had finally got a break. Johnson’s son had got drunk in a bar and bragged about how his father would break in a new pet the next day. He had barely slurred the words before Zane knew about it. The information had given Zane hope. Hope his angel was alive, that he could get to her and bring her to safety. It was why he and his men now sat in six vans scattered around the brothel Johnson owned. One of many. Their intel had led them there, but they needed to be sure. Spenser had been sent in as a waiter, in disguise. Spenser liked that shit, making himself look like someone else. Zane was staring at the comm unit, waiting for the confirmation that Ava was inside. He was so close to get to her, he could almost feel her in his arms.

“What’s the time?” he asked Jax.

“Five minutes to check-in,” he replied. It was too risky for Spenser to try to talk to them while in the brothel. Instead, they had a system where he would switch his com on and off. That caused a distinct scratching sound on their end. He was to check in every ten minutes. One scratch was for abort, two for everything is okay but I haven’t found anything, three was target found. As Zane stared at the receiver, it came to life. Fuck, he is early, Zane thought. That could only mean one of two things. The van went dead quiet as everyone counted the scratchings. One, two, three. Relief washed over Zane. They had found her.

“Jax, you and Carlos take your men and go in the front. I will take Ryder and Tom and go through the back. Make sure we have men who watch the buildning, so no one escapes through a window or some shit,” Zane said and opened the door and stepped out. They had a plan. They would come in from two directions, hopefully causing enough of a distraction to where Zane, Ryder and Tom could focus on finding Ava. Zane adjusted the straps on his tactical vest. He preferred his suits, but the tactical gear allowed for more weapons and ammunition, along with other useful things. The men from the vans came together and split up into three teams. One for front end, one for back end and one to keep an eye out for reinforcement, police and people trying to escape. Zane took his team and headed towards the kitchen entrance. The loading dock where the kitchen received their supplies was guarded by two men in suits. They were standing, talking, and smoking. Not paying attention at all. Zane looked at Ryder and nodded. They both raised a gun with a silencer. No need to alert those inside this soon. The two men went down with only the muffled sound of two pops. Zane continued in through the dock door while Tom checked the two men to make sure they were dead. In the kitchen, a couple of his men took charge of the kitchen staff who was there and locked them in the walk-in refrigerator. Zane ran into one of Johnson’s men as he got closer to the door leading to the rest of the business. Zane had switched to his regular gun. No need to hide now. He wanted people to know they were here. The man went down easily. Zane enjoyed the adrenalin hit and the feeling of doing something, getting an outlet for the pent-up frustration, anger and fear.

“No one left in the kitchen, boss,” Ryder reported.

“Let’s keep going,” Zane said. They pushed their way through the corridor which led to the main area. Johnson’s men had been alerted to their presence and there was some resistance. But Zane had brought a large enough team with good men that it didn’t become an issue. Zane kicked in the door to the main room and stepped into the brothel as he tried to take it all in. Jax and his men were coming in through the front door. Johnson’s men tried to adjust to having two forces to fight against. Ryder and Tom were flipping tables to create cover. Zane searched the panicked crowd for his angel. He heard a sound coming from his left. He looked up at the second floor and he saw Ava.