Two Doms For Angel

Two Doms For Angel

By

Holly S. Roberts

§

A Club El Diablo Book

Published by H.S. Roberts

[email protected]

http://clubeldiablo.blogspot.com

Two Doms For Angel

El Diablo: Book V

Printing History

First Edition: January 2013

All rights reserved including the right
to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

This is a work of fiction. ALL
characters are derived from the author’s imagination.

Chapter One

Two years ago…

The gray gun smoke dissipated leaving
the house dark and eerily quiet, though the usual watery burn hit
Lieutenant Zachery Kebb’s eyes. He would take the acrid smell home
on his clothes and his eyes would remain red until he slept off the
effects.

After hours of preparing his SWAT
team’s entry, the violence was over quickly and several
bullet-riddled bodies lay on the bare floor. The underground intel
led them to believe there were only three men inside but where
there was one gun, there were two; and with two, there were three.
Training dictated you never forgot the plus-one rule.

The entry team suffered no injuries
though a piece of sharp splintered wood from the doorframe nicked
Zach’s face. He didn’t notice the sting or the thin line of blood;
his attention was on the safety of his men and finding the
women.

“
Clear, clear, clear.” The
cries sounded from other team members spread out and checking all
the rooms. Their boots made barely a sound on the tiled floor and
the swish of their pant legs was hardly a whisper.

The house was bare; little furniture,
no comforts, and no warmth. It wasn’t what the structure was
for.

Zachery’s gaze flowed over the great
room. His team steadily made their way back to his location. He
radioed for an ambulance as he and his fellow teammates handcuffed
the fallen men and then checked each for a pulse. Only one showed
signs of life, but not much. An unsteady heartbeat vibrated
slightly beneath Zachery’s fingers.

“
Rogers, grab a triage kit
and apply pressure to this worthless son of a bitch. Maybe we can
save him for prosecution.”

“
Yes sir.”

No one relaxed; their job was only half
over. They had to find the women. His informant described a trap
door hidden inside the front closet and then a narrow flight of
stairs. Hopefully, they would find the prisoners below.

“
Loftner, cover that door.”
He pointed to the only closet in the room.

He would bet his intel was accurate but
didn’t trust his men’s lives with the who or what that might be
waiting downstairs.

Rogers took over and Zach lifted his
hand from the dirty jacket he was using to apply pressure on the
bloody hole in the fallen man’s stomach.

“
We’re going to do another
entry downstairs. Everyone ready?”

“
Uh.” The quiet assented
grunts echoed softly.

“
Be alert.”

Chapter Two

The smell hit them when the trap door
opened; human death— sweet, sickening, and intrusive—not quite
overpowered by excrement and urine. The quiet was as absolute as
the darkness. The narrow stairs equaled a tunnel of death. He
signaled two members: high and low. They would go down almost in
each other’s pocket with one taking the top position and one taking
the bottom; only their built-in AR-15 strobe lights illuminated
their passage.

It killed Zach not to be on the entry
but as a new SWAT lieutenant his job was to give direction and hang
back from the action. He waited, holding the rest of his men back.
Moments passed.

The female scream had his foot on the
stairwell before the sound of his teammate’s voice, “Fucking clear!
Get down here, L.T.”

With his flashlight pointed downward so
he didn’t blind his team members, he traveled the stairs with the
remainder of his men following. The smell was stronger as he drew
closer to the bottom. His light illuminated the unadorned cement
floor.

The screaming woman was secured naked
and spread eagle on a plywood table. Lash marks and bruises covered
her bloody body.

His hand swept up and with horrifying
brightness, he saw the cages full of women. No, not women. They
were just girls, God help him; some of them had to be under
eighteen. They hid naked in the backs of the small metal
enclosures.

“
This is fucked up, L.T,”
one of his men murmured lowly over the strangled cries of the bound
woman.

His flashlight went down and off the
females.

“
That’s enough! Campbell,
get on the phone with dispatch and have social services called
along with multiple ambulances. Everyone but Slade and Kip, back
upstairs. When you finish with the calls, Campbell, bring down
another triage kit. Hell, take the one from Rogers too. If the
son-of-a-bitch dies, I won’t put a bullet through his dick.
Michaels, go to the vehicles and bring back every blanket, jacket,
and covering you can find.” His voice didn’t betray the fury
pounding through his blood.

In seconds the noisy sounds of his men
going back up the stairs gave way to softening sobs and Zach’s
light came back up.

“
Slade, see if you can
locate an overhead light.”

He was afraid to touch the woman and
cause her more pain. His knife came out and he made short work of
her leg restraints and then moved to her wrists. The following day
he would have no idea what he said to her as he worked. She rolled
to her side and curled into a tight ball. Zach quickly removed his
outer Kevlar vest, divested himself of his tactical shirt, and
placed it over the shaking woman. He then placed his vest back over
his black t-shirt.

“
We’re here to help. I need
to know if you’re okay or need immediate medical
attention?”

Soft mewling sounds were his
answer.

His eyes followed the flashlight as he
trailed it around the room. Someone was dead down here.

A girl squatting in the first cage
began trembling when his light focused inside her small prison. Her
head tucked down into her shoulder and against her chest. Long
matted hair covered much of her body.

“
They don’t speak English.”
The voice was throaty, trembling, but fierce with a touch of an
accent.

His light traveled, stopping three
cages down on a woman with eyes squinting from his flashlight’s
glare. He lowered it a bit.

“
Sorry, can you communicate
with them?”

“
Yes, if your intention is
good.”

“
We’re here to get you out.
Do you know how many are alive?”

She inhaled then exhaled jaggedly
before speaking, “Sahar is gone but I think that’s it. She’s next
to me.”

Her ragged voice tore at his soul and
his light drifted to the next cage.

Two hands; one belonging to the woman
speaking, held tightly to the lifeless, darkened, dead hand of the
woman next to her. In all his years as an officer he had never seen
anything more horrifying. It must have shown on his face even in
the dim glow of his flashlight.

“
I… I told her I wouldn’t
let go. She was so afraid.” Her voice ended on a quiver but her
face remained stoic.

Even with the discoloration of the
body, he could see bruises highlighting the postmortem lividity.
His light traveled back to the solemn face of the woman speaking;
her own bruises stood out in the illuminating glare.

“
L.T., I’m setting
everything I could find here on the floor. Do you need my
help?”

“
Yes, Michaels. Wrap the
woman on the table in a blanket and carry her upstairs. And for the
love of God, be careful.”

Zach’s head snapped back to the woman
in the cage. “Can you tell her we’re getting her to medical
treatment?”

Her words were soft and lilting, in
what sounded to Zach like an Arabic dialect. The woman on the table
relaxed while being wrapped more completely in a blanket. She
didn’t utter a protest when Michaels picked her up and quickly made
his way to the stairs.

“
Do you need immediate
medical assistance?” Zach attention snapped back to his little
fighter.

“
No.” The word was so soft
he could barely hear her reply.

“
I’m going to help you out
of the cage. If the other women see you’re safe, they’ll be less
terrified.”

“
Please.” Her voice begged,
“I can’t let go. I told her I would hold on.” Her vocal cords
quivered with an echo.

He didn’t focus on her words or her
clasped hand, knowing he couldn’t give into her plea. He needed to
get the women upstairs and then he could see to her friend. Thank
God, he thought, someone else up there would see to this one’s
emotional well-being.

Small padlocks secured the cages. He
used his flashlight and located a string of keys hanging on the
wall by the stairs.

“
Sorry, L.T. No lights.”
Slade’s voice startled him and he realized the horror was getting
under his skin.

“
It’s okay. Keep your light
over here.”

He grabbed the keys from the far wall
along with a blanket from the pile on the floor and made his way
back to the cage. Squatting down, he tried each key until the lock
opened. The soft squeak of the cell door seemed loud as he slowly
placed his hands inside.

“
I’m going to help you let
go. The rest of these women need you.” He put just a touch of
command into the gentle words.

Carefully, he pried her fingers, one by
one, from her dead friend’s hand. The cold from the lifeless body
had seeped into her fingers stiffening them further. Her body began
shaking uncontrollably but she didn’t resist his slight
pull.

“
I’m Zach,” he whispered.
“What’s your name?”

His body was too large to fit through
the cage’s small door, but he reached out to her.

“
Hooriya.”

“
Okay, Hooriya, I’m going to
help you and then get you covered.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Yes, Zach.
Okay?”

“
Yes.”

She didn’t use his name but it didn’t
matter. He was just saying anything calming that came to mind. He
was completely out of his league.

He scooted back but kept hold of her
hands, pulling her toward him. Her naked body scraped the sides of
the small door. She didn’t make a sound, and when she was through,
she didn’t straighten up, but remained hunched over with bent
knees. It took Zach a moment to realize that her posture wasn’t by
choice. How long had she been in that cage so small it didn’t allow
a person to stretch or stand? How long did it take, he wondered
with rising rage, for someone’s muscles to tighten up so badly they
couldn’t stand up straight?

A tangled mess of dark hair covered
much of her body though he could see where her skin was dark in too
many places, and it wasn’t all filth or her own waste. Sharp
purple-to-black bruises covered large areas, contrasting with faded
yellow patches, so he knew her suffering had been ongoing. He
placed the blanket around her naked shoulders and felt her
quivering body lean into his.

“
Do you have any broken
bones or other medical issues I need to be aware of?”

“
No, sir,” she
whispered.

He didn’t bother correcting her this
time. He held her to his side but knew his touch must be
excruciatingly painful.

“
Okay, take all the time you
need and then we’ll get the other women out.”

“
I will do it now.” She
straightened slightly with a soft groan and then began speaking to
the other women in a soothing voice again.

“
What do you want us to do,
L.T.?” This came from Kip.

“
Let’s get the cages
unlocked and the girls covered. We need to assess who can be taken
up stairs and who will need to be treated down here. Kip, go tell
all the men to clear the house so the ambulance crew has a place to
work. Have Stewart snap a few pictures of the bodies and weapons
but just enough to cover our asses. Then get those bodies moved so
the women don’t see them. I don’t care if the third POS is dead or
not, get him out too and then get back down here.”