Marcus

Chapter Forty Five

Marcus ~

Marcus and the rest of his teammates had been planning and strategizing all night. The plan they had created was good, but it was risky, really fucking risky.

The problem was, Alyssa's contact didn't know where Caroline was being held, only that she was scheduled to be sold the next day at the slave bazaar. They toyed with the idea of ambushing the entire bazaar, but they would be severely outgunned. There would be over one hundred buyers each having their own private security and coaxing them into a fire fight would result in bloodshed on both sides.

The consensus from the night before was that someone would need to pose as a buyer and purchase Caroline, but again even that plan had its risks.

Marcus tossed and turned in his bunk as he ran through the plan again in his head, picking out every single hole and risk, going through all of the possible outcomes.

He looked at his watch and realized the team was going to meet in an hour anyway so he might as well get up. He stretched and groaned as he sat up and heard the rest of his teammates starting to rustle around.

A few were already up, as indicated by their empty bunks, probably getting in some morning PT before their meeting.

Marcus threw on some clothes and made his bed before heading over to the meeting room.

As soon as Marcus entered the building a deep familiar voice echoed from around the corner.

"This coffee tastes like shit." The deep grumpy voice muttered from the next room.

Before Marcus could investigate the voice, Hunters large frame rounded the corner, fully dressed and ready as if he'd been working for hours before the team had woken up.

"Mornin." Hunter said casually.

"Didn't know you'd be joining us on this op, Sir," Marcus said with the corner of his mouth lifting into a slight smile.

Hunter opened his mouth to respond, but Pierce, Caleb and Declan entered the room, stealing his attention.

"I knew you couldn't stay away, Sir." Pierce said with a grin, slapping Hunter playfully on the back as he passed.

"Didn't think I was gonna let you have all the fun, did you?" Hunter returned with a small smile as well.

Hunters presence caused mixed emotions to rise in Marcus' chest. On one hand Marcus was relieved to see his Handler, knowing Hunter had the most experience and the most strategic mind he'd ever encountered, but on the other hand Hunters presence alone only spoke to the gravity of the situation which put some worry in Marcus' gut.

The rest of the teams started to file in, greeting Hunter with surprised expressions as they passed. The only one who hadn't been shocked to see Hunter was Caleb, who looked much more relaxed than everyone else in the room as if he knew something they didn't.

What do you know Caleb?

"Been combing through your plan all night. It's solid, but I made some changes to mitigate risk." Hunter started as everyone got situated.

"What kind of changes?" Axel asked.

"Your buyer. The buyer needs to be legit and believable and to be honest, even though Nate and Lainey could provide a fake paper trail and bogus credentials for one of you, they would sniff it out as a sting immediately. One of you posing as a buyer that's brand new to the industry, appearing out of nowhere all of a sudden just to purchase Caroline screams military op."

"What choice do we have? You got any millionaires that could pass as criminals laying around?" Viper scoffed.

Holy shit. We do.