Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Beauty (Kindle Worlds Novella) (The Bounty Hunters: The Marino Bros. Book 5) Read Online Free Page B

Washington insider. The FBI, realizing the scope, quickly had pulled in the CIA. They traced the ring leaders of the operation to Greece, Syria and Iraq. The man behind the American operation was a real slime ball, a dirty scumbag who not only purchased the women and boys on the black market, but abused his own son, a kid named Spiro who cleaned the homes and did odd jobs in the various locations. His son was treated like dirt because of a slight deformity.
    But, the international group was evil as well. It consisted of members of terrorist organizations making a quick buck by kidnapping young homeless kids off the street and selling them into slavery without batting an eye. They poured their ill-gotten gains into their sick twisted operations that wreaked havoc on unsuspecting civilians in nations all over the world that didn’t accept their manifestos. He was more than happy to be a part of cutting their revenue to prevent them from making their dirty bombs, but having these victims go unprotected for so long did not sit well with him.
    The greater good. That had been his nightly mantra as he listened in on his surveillance equipment. One of his co-workers, and his immediate superior, had told him that on more than one occasion. His name had been had been Patrick Stoker. He would tell Tex whenever he got down about it, ‘Just remember, what we do is often for the greater good.’ Tex often wondered if he kept repeating that more for himself than anyone else. He saw his face when it was his turn to listen in on the rooms.
    The Makas and the international group of kidnappers were monsters. These animals kidnapped these girls, brought them to the United States, and then sold their bodies for an hour’s worth of pleasure at a time up to eight times an evening. And for the girls it hadn’t been that. It hadn’t been pleasure. Those nights had been filled with rutting men, girls, or boys crying out in pain on occasion, but mostly there had been silence from them, or the fake sounds of pleasure some of the men required and needed for them to make in order to get off. And he had heard it all.
    Even on his evenings off, without his wire still in his ear, he heard those cries coming from the many rooms in the Virginia and Maryland locations, and those cries never left him. But the silence haunted him too. Cat’s room had been the most silent of them all. Rarely did she cry out. Rarely did she communicate with the men who came and went into her room. And that silence to him had spoken volumes. To him it meant they were too late to save her. Too late to make a difference in her life. The damage had been done. It would scar her forever. Of that he had been sure.
    After leaving the FBI, he joined the Navy SEALs. When he had done two tours in Iraq, sometimes the quiet nights there made him think of her. It made him wonder who was being hurt during the quiet times. Who was being hurt while no one came? Whose silent cries were going unanswered? It had practically killed him when Melody had gone silent on him on the computer two years ago. He knew more than anyone that silence sometimes meant more pain, more horror than loud noises and wails ever could. And that was because of Cat. Her silence. Even in the rescue, when the orders finally came and they were allowed to go into those building and rescue those girls, even then Cat remained silent. She hadn’t said a word. She’d just willingly gone wordlessly with the men in black suits. He had taken her arm and pulled her along to the waiting van himself. And she hadn’t said a word or cried out as the others had whether in fear or relief. And her silence haunted him when he was overseas, and when he couldn’t sleep at night. Her eyes, when he helped her into the van had been blank, not even a flicker of emotion. Only when he’d told her, “You’re safe now,” had there been a flicker in those big round grey eyes. But quickly she had masked her emotion, or whatever it was he’d