Wild Keepers

by Dee Bridgnorth

  His heart lurched. Could it be a shipping container?

  He felt a stab of excitement at the thought. It would make sense. Fitzpatrick could keep the women at the docks, ready for when the ship sailed in to take them. Then he could smuggle them aboard in the dead of night quickly and easily. They would have to be hidden securely before the ship set sail again. If they were close at hand it would make the whole operation that much easier. He could just load the shipping container onto the ship as if it were regular cargo.

  And then there was the word, scratched into the wall of that room below decks. Manta. He had said to Sienna that it could be the name of a ship that transported the women.

  He had to find out. He had to head to the Covenester docks before it was too late. It was the only lead that he had, and he couldn’t afford to waste any more time here.

  ***

  Zach struggled to control his impatience. A few guests were lingering poolside, sharing last drinks for the evening. He needed them to hurry. It was almost twelve at night, and he had to get off this boat quickly.

  He had watched a small boat returning today, with three men aboard it, rowing with wooden oars. It was tethered now against the side of the main boat, rocking gently. His plan was to climb into it and row swiftly away before anyone had even noticed his absence. But to do that he needed the top deck to be clear of people.

  It would be hard rowing and navigating in the pitch black of night. He had little doubt that it was going to be a challenge. He wasn’t a sailor by any stretch of the imagination. But it was the only option available to him other than diving into the water and attempting to swim.

  If only he were a seal shapeshifter, he thought suddenly, grinning to himself. Or a mermaid. Then swimming might be an option.

  At long last the guests downed the last of their drinks and drifted away to their cabins for the night. Zach took a deep breath. It was time.

  He walked slowly along the deck, doing a last-minute check that there was no one about. It looked like the coast was clear. He could see the guard on night duty walk into the bridge, where the captain was steering. He had to act fast. At any moment the guard might decide to come out.

  There was a flimsy rope ladder attached to the side of the boat that lead down to the smaller one. He took a deep breath, placing one leg over the side ready to descend.

  And that was when he felt the cold sensation of metal being pressed against his forehead. A gun.

  “Get back on board,” said the man holding the gun.

  He complied, stepping back onto the boat, and turning around slowly. The guard holding the gun against his head didn’t lower it for an instant.

  He gazed around. Fitzpatrick was standing there, in his dressing gown and slippers, as if he had just gotten out of bed. And two more guards were standing beside him, pointing their guns.

  His heart sank. He was surrounded. Apart from the fact that there was a gun pressing into his skull, there was no way he could fight his way out of this. One of them would fire and he would be dead before he hit the deck.

  “I thought you might do this,” said Fitzpatrick suddenly. “I’ve been watching you all day to see how you would cope with the knowledge that Sienna has been taken off the boat.” He paused. “It shows an impatience. You really should have bided your time until we got back to Covenester.”

  Zach’s eyes narrowed. “I should have known, too, that you suspected me. I should have known it was too good to be true when you promoted me to personal minder.”

  “A nice touch, don’t you think?” He smiled. “I wanted to keep you close and see what you would do. That was the reason I brought you on this little trip as well. I wanted to see how long you could stay away from her.”

  “Where is she?” hissed Zach.

  Fitzpatrick laughed. “She is somewhere secure,” he said slowly. “And as of next week, she will be very far away from you.”

  “I know all about your dirty little secret,” said Zach, glaring at him. “How you imprison women and sell them into slavery overseas.”

  Fitzpatrick raised an eyebrow. “Just one of my operations,” he said crisply. “The women are whores anyway. What difference does it make who they are working for? The only difference is I get a lump sum payment for their services.”

  “You make me sick,” said Zach. “The great Jack Fitzpatrick! I wonder what the world would make of your operation, as you call it? I doubt you’d make it to the White House, you dirty son of a bitch.”

  “But the world doesn’t know, does it?” said Fitzpatrick, approaching him until he was standing a hair breadth’s away. “And I intend to keep it that way. You won’t be around to tattle, and neither will she.”

  “Why did you get rid of her?” hissed Zach. “How are you going to even get up in the morning and know which tie to wear if you can’t consult her?”

  Fitzpatrick looked blank for a moment. “Sienna is of no use to me now,” he said slowly. “You made very sure of that, although I should congratulate you I guess for breaking through her walls of ice. They have defeated braver men than you.”

  Zach stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

  Fitzpatrick laughed. “Didn’t she tell you?” He laughed harder. “As soon as she is—how can I put it delicately?—deflowered she loses her power. She is just a regular woman, now. No longer tormented by her visions. I hope you made it worth her while, my dear man.”

  Zach kept staring at him, completely mystified. What on earth was the man talking about? Fitzpatrick had obviously realised that he and Sienna had made love, but what that had to do with her powers or lack of them he had no idea. And why had he used the word deflowered? Sienna had been a working girl.

  “It will be a shock for her,” Fitzpatrick continued. “Thrust into that rough and tumble world. The other girls like her friend Lola are used to the requirements of the job, but poor Sienna will be all at sea—in more ways than one. A pity that Julia could never persuade her to turn tricks at the brothel instead of being the cleaning girl. It would have helped her so much now.”

  Zach digested the information, trying to keep his face impassive. Why had she never told him that she had worked as a cleaner at Julia’s establishment? He had assumed that she had been one of the girls there. And Julia hadn’t told him anything different, either.

  He couldn’t quite make out what Fitzpatrick was raving on about, but it made no difference now anyway. For some reason, the man believed that because he and Sienna had slept together it meant that she had lost her powers to see the future. Whether it was right or wrong was beside the point. It was the reason why the man had gotten so angry with her when he discovered her missing from her room. He thought that she was useless to him now.

  “Julia told you who I am, I presume.” Zach stared into the man’s face, yearning to smash it to pieces.

  His smile widened. “Indeed she did. Julia is so useful. She was a trifle concerned when you didn’t report back to her, you see. She passed on all your information to me, including your photograph. I recognised you straight away. Zach Byrnes, the new house guard, who was hellbent on saving Little Miss Crazy from herself.”

  “Sienna isn’t crazy,” said Zach through gritted teeth. “You are the insane tyrant who imprisoned her, forcing her to tell your fortune so that you can rule the world. And I will make you pay for what you did to her, if it is the last thing on this earth I do.”

  Fitzpatrick looked bored. “You aren’t going to be doing anything, Zach Byrnes,” he said. “I have a special plan for you. My masters were very interested when I told them I had a live wolf shapeshifter in my employ. A member of the famous Wild Keepers, no less. They desire to make your acquaintance.”

  Zach’s heart started thundering in his chest. Julia hadn’t kept back one shred of information about him. It was exactly as Thad had feared.

  Their secret was exposed. Fitzpatrick knew about them. And if Julia had told him everything—that they were shapeshifters and the name of their pa
ck—then it meant that she had probably told him their address as well.

  The Wild Keepers were sitting ducks. He had to let Thad know that their security was at risk.

  His heart kept hammering in his chest as fear gripped him. And then another thing that Fitzpatrick had said crashed into his mind. Who on earth were his masters?

  “You know them well,” said Fitzpatrick, as if he had read his mind. “They tell me that your pack has been rubbing them up the wrong way for a very long time now. It is the Vilgath who are my masters, Zach. They have ruled my family for over a hundred years. They are the reason we can pretty much do what we want. As long as I appease them, they give me everything. Just like my father before me.”

  Zach’s heart was hammering so loudly in his chest he was certain Fitzpatrick could hear it. This was bad. This was very bad. As evil as Fitzpatrick was, he had assumed that he was acting alone. An insane megalomaniac who couldn’t control his impulses with women and desired to see his future so that he could rule the free world.

  But it was much worse than that. If the Vilgath controlled Fitzpatrick’s entire empire, then it was no wonder it was so impenetrable. No one stood a chance against it, least of all a woman like Sienna.

  “Come along,” said Fitzpatrick, pushing him towards the side of the deck. “You have a date with destiny.”

  A sharp blow to the head took him by surprise, and he felt himself falling.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Sienna leaned against the wall of the shipping container heavily. Her eyelids were drooping. All the other girls had already succumbed to sleep, huddled in a mass together in a corner. Even though it had been a hot day, causing the container to feel like an oven, it still got cold at night. And that cold could be brutal when your captors didn’t even give you one measly blanket to share between seven people.

  She stared at Lola, who was huddled against her. She looked so different without any makeup on, or all her other usual accoutrements. Kind of like the girl that she had first met all those years ago. The girl who was called Jenny back then and who had stretched out a hand in friendship towards her. Sienna blinked back tears as she remembered it.

  Her gaze swept over the others, sleeping fitfully against each other. There was Fiona, who had fierce red hair and a sharp wit to match it. Georgia, a sweet blonde. Helen and Cara already knew each other from before they had come here and were sleeping wrapped up in each other’s arms. Barb was a bit older than the others, and brassier. And then there was Lola.

  Sienna suppressed a sob as she gazed at them all. She hadn’t met any of them before now, except Lola, of course. But they were wonderful women who all had unique stories to tell. Stories that had veered in this terrible direction, all because of Fitzpatrick.

  She shivered against the cold steel wall, desperately wishing that she had a blanket to fend off the chill. She didn’t know how the others managed to be sleeping so well. She was sure she wouldn’t get a wink of sleep like this.

  She closed her eyes in a desperate attempt. But her mind refused to settle. She kept thinking of the stricken look on the women’s faces when the guard had come in with their evening meal of brown, sloppy stew in small plastic bowls and told them calmly that the ship had just docked.

  They had all stared at each other, fearfully. Georgia had sobbed, burying her head in her hands. Barb had stared at her sharply, prodding her, until she had stopped with a whimper.

  “How long?” Lola had fixed the guard with her penetrating gaze. “How long until it sails?”

  The guard had shrugged, handing out the bowls. “Probably tomorrow sometime. It depends how long it takes them to load all the cargo onto the ship.” He paused. “There’s been a longshoremen’s strike, so it could be longer than they anticipate.”

  “Thank the Lord for small mercies,” said Barb in an acid tone.

  The guard had looked at her sharply. “I would have thought you ladies would be glad to get out of this container.”

  “What, and crawl into another rat hole on that ship?” Barb’s voice was heavy with sarcasm. “Yeah, we just love being holed up like this, buddy! I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

  The guard’s face tightened. “It’s none of my concern. I’m just doing my job.”

  “Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” spat Barb, her eyes two narrow slits of hate. “I’m sure it must help you sleep at night.”

  The guard looked thunderous. Lola kicked Barb swiftly, making her yelp. But it did the job. Barb shut up, and Lola smiled at him sweetly.

  “Thank you for the information,” she said, in a high-pitched voice. “We sure do appreciate it.”

  The guard’s face softened, and he grunted, walking to the door.

  “Sleep well, ladies,” he had said before he left. “Last night on shore for a while. Hope that none of you suffer from seasickness.” He closed the heavy steel doors on the container, chuckling to himself.

  “Prick,” said Barb.

  Lola shot her a glance. “Agreed. But you shouldn’t anger them. They can make our life a whole lot worse.”

  “How?” Cara had said, frowning. “How exactly could it be any worse than this?”

  No one replied. Even Sienna had a hard time thinking of how their predicament could get much worse. If all went to plan, they would be loaded onto the ship in this container like cargo sometime tomorrow. They would be sailing to some unknown country on the east coast of Europe, to start new lives as slaves. They would probably all be separated once they got there and never see each other again.

  No, it really couldn’t get much worse.

  “How do they do it?” piped up Helen, staring around. “How do they get us through border control?”

  “Easy,” said Fiona, spooning the brown stew into her mouth mechanically. “They load us on in the container, telling them we are coal or ore or whatever else they are carrying. They don’t check every container. And when it’s time to disembark, they bundle us back up in here and tell the people on the other side the same.”

  Helen shook her head. “I still can’t believe that this crap happens.” Her mouth trembled a little. “My family will think I’ve run off. They’ll think that I chose to leave them.”

  Lola put out a hand, resting it on Helen’s arm. “We all have families, Helen. Well, most of us anyway. Even if we choose not to see them, it’s still insane to think that the choice is gone.” She took a deep breath. “Unless we manage to escape from the places we are sold to when we get there.”

  Barb blinked rapidly. “We won’t escape. Any place that is willing to do this—buy unwilling women—will protect their investment. Believe me.”

  Georgia started to cry again. Barb sighed, putting down her bowl.

  “Honey,” she said. “You have to stop doing that. You have to be strong if you are going to survive.”

  “I can’t help it,” sniffed Georgia, wiping her eyes.

  “We’re all sad,” said Barb. “Hell, I’m as depressed as I’ve ever been in my life. But you can’t give into it. Especially not in front of them.” Her eyes hardened. “Never show those bastards how much they hurt you.”

  “That’s the truth,” said Cara, tilting her head up. “They love it when they see you cry. Makes them feel even more powerful.”

  Sienna had gritted her teeth. “We will get out of this,” she said to them, slowly. “Zach will figure out where we are, and he will come.”

  Fiona stared at her. “Even if this Zach of yours figures out where we are, he is only one man. One man against the whole of Fitzpatrick’s organisation. He isn’t going to save us.”

  “I think you need to let it go, Sienna,” said Barb quietly. “Accept that this is what is happening to us all. Your man might have good intentions, but Fiona is right. He’s just a man.”

  “How do you know he’ll try, anyway?” asked Helen, staring at her. “Most men talk big, but in my experience, they are all cowards at heart. This Zach has probably brushed his hands off you by now.”
/>   Sienna glared at her. “Zach’s different,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “He’s not like other men.”

  The women all howled with laughter.

  Barb wiped tears of mirth from her eyes. “Honey, if I had a dollar for every time a woman has said that over the years, I’d be a millionaire by now.” She stared at Sienna gently. “Most men are the same. They think the same, and they act the same. A little bit of sweet talking doesn’t change that.”

  “My mama told me that no one can save you but yourself,” said Georgia.

  “Your mama was right,” said Fiona. “But I can’t see how any of us can do that now.”

  They grew silent again, contemplating the enormity of their situation.

  Sienna had leaned back against the container wall, fighting back tears. She knew in her heart that the women were right. Even if he had the best of intentions, the chances that Zach would figure out where they were and get to them in time were remote. He would still be sailing around on Fitzpatrick’s boat, unable to do anything. He mightn’t even realise yet that she had been spirited off the boat in the dead of night. How was Fitzpatrick going to explain her absence? He would think of something, of course.

  She was as frightened as she had ever been in her life. But there was another feeling fighting its way through as well. What was it? Ah, yes, she recognised it. Relief. Her self-protective lie to keep Fitzpatrick at arm’s length had freed her, at the same time it had imprisoned her. He didn’t want her around anymore. If she managed to get out of this alive her life would be her own in a way that she had never experienced since she had become an adult.

  And the lie had also finally led her to Lola. She gazed at her friend, fighting back tears again. It had all been worth it to see her and tell her that she had been fighting for her. That she hadn’t forgotten her. Lola deserved that. She had meant it when she had told Zach that she would gladly give up her life to find out where her friend was. She had hoped to save her, but now the possibility of that was becoming dimmer by the second.