I could feel the back of my shirt drenched in sweat as anticipation to attack ran through my mind. My team of six of the most skilled, but ruthless men and I were crouched outside the penthouse of known drug lord Nathan Nabakov, getting ready to finally take the son-of-a-bitch down.
My team and I had been tracking the movements of Nathan for the past 4 months. One of our informants had told us about a drug deal going down today, at this very location. As one of the youngest, but highest-ranking DEA agents, it was up to me to decide if I trusted the information enough to plan a raid. I gathered a group of men I trusted most and went with my gut to attack today. If all went well, this would send the drug market into a frenzy, since Nathan was one of the most well-known drug kingpins not only in the country, but in the whole world. And that is exactly what I wanted.
A little distance away from the penthouse, were more agents waiting for the arrest to go down and give backup if needed.
I pulled at the mask on my face, trying to cool off, and focused on the voices coming through the earpiece. All I needed was the confirmation in Nathan's own voice that he was selling drugs and I would give the signal to go.
"Come on you son-of-a-bitch," I muttered quietly. Through the earpiece, I heard the deal finally coming to an end. I lifted my finger as all 6 men watched it as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. As soon I heard the confirmation I needed, I dropped my finger so it pointed to the door and we attacked.
It took two kicks for my 6 foot 7 frame to knock the door completely off its hinges. My men and I quickly dispersed through out the area as shouts and gunshots began to go off. We had gotten the layout of the penthouse, and the informant had told us that Nathan always enjoyed conducting business in the living room. As 5 members of my team incapacitated the men in the foyer, Ivan and I made our way to the living room. As soon as we entered, 7 different men, bodyguards for the both Nathan and the man he was dealing with, came towards us. I recognized the other man as Boris, a nasty dealer who seemed more into using his supply than selling it. The guards began to charge at Ivan and I, looking for a fight. And a fight was what they got. Even as DEA agents, we trained like athletes and those men were no competition for us.
Emil and Yuri joined in, as the latter went for the remaining guard on my left as Emil went towards Boris. That left me with Nathan.
As I made my way over to the tall and slim blond, I noticed him take a quick nervous glance at a door off to the left side of the living room. It happened so fast that I might have missed it if hadn't been playing such close attention to him.
"Any last words Nathan," I said, as I pushed him, face first into the wall. Roughly grabbing his hands, I took out my cuffs, ready to haul his ass to prison myself.
His arrogance made way as he chuckled in response. "You really think you can get me locked up cop?" He laughed once again, and the sound irked me so much, I grabbed his cuffed arms back and slammed him into the wall again. "I could buy any judge in the state, hell I could buy any judge in the country. I'll be a free man by tomorrow, mark my words cop." I shoved Nathan towards some of the arresting officers coming in. I clenched my knuckles hard, forcing myself not to ruin the whole case by beating Nathan to a pulp. No, I had worked too damn hard on this case and wouldn't let my underlying anger ruin something for me, again.
As Nathan walked out with the officers, I saw him take another glance back at the door, before finally disappearing from my sight.
Cops were all over the place in seconds, bagging up any evidence straight away. I nodded towards Ivan and pointed to the door on the left and we both made our in there before any of the other cops did.
It seemed to be Nathan's bedroom. The room was almost the size of the living room, with a king sized bed, large walk in closet and black, sleek wood cabinets.
What was in here that made him so nervous? I thought to myself. I pulled the mask from over my head, to speak more easily to Ivan.
Ivan and I used our gloved hands to do a quick and thorough search of the room. Ivan went to look in the closet and bathroom, while I checked the cabinets. I opened each one and found nothing that seemed out of the ordinary for a man like Nathan. There was an over-excessive amount of jewelry, weaponry, money, and fancy clothes, but that seemed didn't seem to shocking to me considering the type of man I was dealing with.
I opened up the last cabinet and noticed that the bottom part of it was shut using a lock that required a key. Jackpot.
I didn't even bother looking for the key, and instead used brute force to pull the lock completely off the metal loop. Ivan came up behind me, as I threw the lock to the side.
"What's in there?"
"Something he doesn't want the world to see," I said with a shrug.
I yanked the panel of the cabinet off and a body spilled out of it.
Ivan jumped back in surprise, yelling, "What the fuck?"
I sat there frozen for a few seconds before my mind and body went into overdrive. The top half of the body landed directly in my lap. All I saw a mass of dark, long hair covering the face of a woman.
"Call a medic in here, hurry!" I told Ivan and he rushed out of the room to get help. I gently grabbed the body and pulled it all the way out of the cabinet, laying it down softly on the carpet. The body belonged to a girl, with tan skin that was littered in bruises. In fact, there wasn't a part of her body that looked unmarked. She was dressed in a barely there piece of lingerie that did a horrible job at covering her up. I shook my head in disgust, my body seething with anger.
Nathan was lucky. He was so lucky he walked out of here before I found this girl or he would've been a dead man. Ivan and a few medics came in not even minute later. I was pushed out of the way, as they began checking her vitals and getting her onto the stretcher.
One medic went towards the girl and moved her hair out of her face. My eyes widened slightly looking at her. I guess Nathan thought she was too pretty to take hits on the face, because her skin looked flawless compared to the rest of her body. Just as the medic lifted her body onto the stretcher, she let out a barely audible groan of pain.
"Miss can you hear me?" The medic asked as they led the girl out, with Ivan and I hot on their trails. I barely registered most of the people in the living room coming to a halt at the sight of the girl. My focus was completely on her.
As we rushed out of the penthouse, I kept my ears open, listening closely for any sound coming from the girl again. Finally, she mumbled something incoherently.
"Miss, can you tell us your name?" She immediately mumbled again, moving her head side to side. She kept clenching her eyes shut, and groaning.
"Hurry up, she's clearly in pain," my agitation coming out against the medics. One shot me a cool look.
"If we go any faster, it might jostle her body and cause her more pain," the medic informed me. Ivan quickly shot me a look, telling me to calm down, but I was the farthest thing from calm. The ambulance finally came into view and they began to lift her in.
"I'm coming, too," I said, not even waiting for an answer and climbing in after them. They looked at me annoyed, but didn't say anything else. I turned towards Ivan once again, "Can you handle the initial reports for me? I'll be back for the briefing, I just want to make sure she gets there okay," I said.
He quickly nodded in response and said, "Yeah man, you go." I shot him a quick smile of gratitude and settled in to the seat. The medics began hooking her up, as the girl quietly continued to groan. My hand was itching to reach out and grab hers, but I thought better of it considering she had no idea who I was. She mumbled something again, and I barely heard it. "Miss, can you tell us your name?" The medic repeated once more.
I leaned closer, waiting to hear something, anything come out of the girl's mouth.
Finally, very quietly, she whispered in voice filled with pain and agony, "Rose, my name is Rose.