A cautious welcome.

The trapdoor had been big, but the hole it was covering was alarmingly narrow, and the muscular Hicks felt his shoulders scraping the sides of the tunnel all the way down the clean, metal ladder. Ellis had gone first and Hicks found him at the bottom, exchanging neutral small talk with the burly doorman.

Gabby followed last, closing the hatch with a boom as Ellis had told her to. Hicks swallowed, they were in here now, and though there were agents in the area backing them up, they only knew the building and there was no way to call them down here for assistance. The place was a fucking bunker. He didn’t much like the obvious way the doorman was sizing his partner up either. Gabby was in a simple leather jacket and jeans, but there was little the African-American Federal Agent could do to disguise how attractive she was. Her was pulled back into a bunch behind her head and her makeup was non-existent, but those jeans still clung to her ass like a second skin, and she still had the air of a model.

Hicks and Jones had known each other since first training, and they’d been partners since even before this five-year undercover grind. Still, he thought of her more as a friend now, and hadn’t been entertaining any serious fantasies about her for quite some time. She was tough as nails, he knew she could take care of herself.

Gabby returned the thugs gaze evenly, only breaking off to glance down at his security monitor. She wrinkled her nose in disgust to see he wasn’t watching the warehouse above, but porn – some lithe blonde getting spit-roasted by two strapping young men. No one said anything for a moment and the sound of the girl’s gagging moans could be heard in the dim concrete tunnel.

“Right,” Ellis said suddenly, “let’s get to it. Mr. Butcher doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”