by Julia Bright
“Brother, Kelsey and I will keep you safe. I get that you want to do some damage, but give us time to get this right.”
“Nothing will ever be right again.” His stomach turned at the thought of Marissa being tortured and set on fire. God, how much pain had she been in before she finally died? He needed to do something active, or he would risk tearing the house apart, but he wanted to stay here and investigate.
An hour in the computer room turned into three and then it was dinner time.
Jackson didn’t think he could eat, but Kelsey made him go into the kitchen and sit at the table. She’d cut his steak already and told him to sit. He lifted the fork and put food into his mouth and chewed because she said to. This was how it had felt after the deaths of his buddies but worse. Back then, he’d fallen apart. He didn’t want to go back to that. Too much pain resided there. He needed to focus his energy on getting revenge. No way would he allow Marissa’s death to go unpunished. The men who’d taken her from him had to die.
The next forty-eight hours were lost in a haze of looking on the commuter and sleep. Jackson ran with Adam and worked out, but he wasn’t sure how much they’d done.
Sanity seemed to be fading, and he feared what he would become. This was why he didn’t build relationships. They were painful and messy. He’d known something bad would happen if he got involved. Nothing in his past had prepared him for this. The loss of his friends was nothing compared to the loss of Marissa.
Somehow, he dragged his ass into the computer room for a third day of searching for information about her and the men who had killed her. They’d found nothing. No one was bragging about killing her.
Adam came in and settled in the chair next to him. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m not.” He met Adam’s gaze, and a shudder ripped through him. If only he’d not fallen for Marissa, he wouldn’t be feeling this pain, but he also wouldn’t have known Marissa. He closed his eyes and let the pain slide through him, burning his soul.
“Don’t give up on everything yet.”
“I don’t have anything to live for without her.”
“Buddy, I know it feels that way, but this isn’t the end of you.”
Anger churned, and he pushed away from the desk a little too hard. The computers shook, but nothing fell over. “The hell. What would you do if Kelsey died?”
Adam didn’t blink as he stared at him then leaned in, moving his face about an inch away. “I’d put on my boots and kick some ass.”
He didn’t want to cry, but he knew he was going to. It was too hard to be with anyone who cared about him, so he raced out of the house and ran. He didn’t stop as he climbed the canyon wall, taking the most challenging path. He kept moving until he reached the top. Once up where he and Marissa had sat and watched the sunset, he fell to the ground. Everything hurt. How could he go on living? The best person he’d ever known had been tortured and killed.
Puffy clouds floated above, and the sun warmed him. The chilly wind felt good on his overheated skin. He would do anything to have Marissa here with him. The thought choked him, and he rolled to his knees, his stomach rebelling against the pain. His breakfast came back in a rush.
He heard the sound of the truck and stood, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Adam had pushed, and he’d had to run away. Maybe his dad was right, he couldn’t deal with anything difficult and had to run. He wasn’t strong, he was a wimp.
When the truck stopped, and Kelsey got out, surprise filled him. He’d expected Adam. Maybe he’d sent her to smooth over his rough edges.
“Hey.” Kelsey lowered the tailgate of the truck, and he moved to help her, but she already had it down. He helped her up to get on the tailgate since she was pregnant, and it was a big step.
“What are you doing out here?”
She shrugged. “Adam wanted to come, but I told him I needed to talk to you.”
He sat beside her, taking the travel mug of coffee she offered. “Why you?”
“When I got word my brother and dad had died, it damn near killed me. I didn’t even begin looking for the person responsible for weeks. It took me a long time. When Zaeim died, I was free. I know you want results now, but you may have to wait a year or more to find the bastard and kill him.”
He took a sip of the coffee before speaking. “How did you deal with it?”
“I cried and screamed at the wind. I was alone out here, and I ranted and raved at God, cursing everything under that big, bright sun. You didn’t know me back then. I was hard, angry. It wasn’t good.”
“What changed?”
She shook her head. “I won’t lie, the pain is still there, but I changed my focus. I love this ranch, and I want it to make money, but you know what I like?”
“What?”
“The night we drove to Fort Collins and took care of that freaking pedophile, that’s what I live for. You two made a difference in Mexico, and I helped with the computer stuff. I know I can’t get into a fist fight with someone, but I can find the information to even the score. I may just be one person, but that asshole in Colorado, he used kids and threw them away like trash, and I took him down. If I can keep a few kids from being thrown away, I think that’s worth living for.”
He drew in a deep breath, thinking about what she said. What if he dedicated his life to killing jerks who abused others? Could he do that?
“The pit of pain is so deep. I’m not sure I can survive. I want to stop breathing and just give up.”
“I get that. You’re going through a lot of emotions. Let them come. Go scream at the sky, workout, lift weights, run, but know we care about you and are going to come looking for you when we haven’t seen you in a few hours or days.”
Her words made him want to cry. He had friends who were good people, and though it should make him feel better, it hurt.
The pain bit at him and made him need to move. He hopped off the end of the tailgate and paced a few feet away before turning back to her. “I’m trying, okay, I’m really trying not to lose it all.” Images of Marissa hit him hard. Why hadn’t he insisted she stay here? Being understanding was great, but he would have rather been a dick and insisted she not leave this ranch. Her work was nothing if it killed her. God, he didn’t want to be that type of jerk, he wanted to be a good guy, but being good, being kind got him in all sorts of shit he hated.
She moved to hop off, and he went to her, helping her down.
“Thanks.” Kelsey squeezed his arms before she let him go.
“You’re welcome.”
“I get what you mean about losing it all. I truly do. Just hold on to something even if it is a silk thin thread.”
He felt he was already doing that and wondered when the thread would break, sending him tumbling into the abyss.
Kelsey drove them back to the ranch house in silence while he stewed in his anger. The should have and what ifs were driving him insane. He bit down on his finger, the pain clarified his thoughts.
Giving up wasn’t an option. Jackson vowed to search for the people who took Marissa and find them. Then he would make those bastards pay for what they’d stolen from him.
14
The pain in Marissa’s arms and legs had eased off a little, but still, the pain across her back where they’d punished her with twenty lashes stung like a bitch. Hell, the stripes were probably still oozing blood.
Some woman had come in after the punishment and poured something on her bare skin that stung like crazy. She’d passed out from the pain.
The punishment had come because she’d dared to say no. She wasn’t even sure what she’d said no to. That had all been lost in the pain. Now, she wondered if she would become docile like the other slaves she’d seen. The agony from the beating had almost been enough to break her. She closed her eyes and thought of Jackson. They’d gone up to the top of the canyon wall and watched the sunset in a glorious display, but what had been more glorious was watching Jackson. The man was huge, his body packed with muscl
es. She felt safe in his arms. He was the type of man who could inflict maximum damage and yet be so delicate.
The sound of the door opening made her flinch. It was the woman again. “Levántate.”
She processed the word, having to go through the languages she knew. Get up. Marissa slowly moved her arms, wincing as the pain in her back flared. It took her almost a minute, but she was up, shuffling slowly behind the woman. She moved like she’d aged sixty years and was ready for the grave.
The woman opened a door and shoved her in. The pain brought her to her knees. Death couldn’t come soon enough.
“Levántate,” was shouted again.
Slowly, she rose to shaky legs that almost had her sinking to the floor again. She reached out and held the wall. The woman prodded her, pushing her forward to a shower stall. Luckily she was already naked, or she might have had to go in fully clothed.
Icy water sprayed from the spigot, but after the initial shock of the chill, she enjoyed the cold on her back. Then the woman did the evilest thing possible. She used soap on her sliced up skin. The scream wrenched from her echoed around the room and died as she sank to her hands and knees.
Pain pulsed from her torso all the way to her toes. The shaking in her arms and legs so violent she thought for sure she’d die right on the spot. Her stomach rebelled from the pain, and she emptied the bile and spit down the drain. Maybe death would take her, and she’d be free.
Thoughts of Jackson washing her in the shower filled her mind. He’d been such a kind man. Why had she ever left the ranch? The FBI didn’t care about her. How long had she been here? Time didn’t seem to track the way it should. A week, maybe a month. She knew a year hadn’t passed, but it was impossible to keep track of the days.
Suddenly there were boots in front of her. When had this person entered the room? Had they been there the whole time? Her mind couldn’t keep up with what was happening around her.
“Clean her up. She goes on the block next month,” the man with the English accent said.
The words meant nothing at first, then they sunk in. Marissa had one month before they sold her. In those few weeks, she had to find a way to end this. There wasn’t any way for her to escape, and even if she broke out of this house, she had no clue where they were. Her situation was hopeless.
She prayed for death as the woman poured more of the medicine on her back. The pain won, and she slumped to the cold tile floor, not caring about the chill or the hard tiles. She drifted on thoughts of Jackson, praying he moved on and found happiness. He deserved something good in life.
15
Jackson rolled over, realizing sleep wasn’t happening. Thoughts of Marissa played front and center in his mind. Since he wasn’t sleeping, he got up and headed out to the kitchen to start the coffee. It was only three, but he was awake.
He grabbed a laptop and fired it up so he could search as they sipped his coffee while seated in one of the comfortable chairs in the den.
The search started the same way his other searches began, then he realized there was a new topic in a forum he haunted. He clicked on the discussion topic and saw it was for an auction.
He read over the offering, thinking these people were sick fucks. He got hung up on one word. Imperialist. Why would they use that word to describe a new slave they were trying to sell? He read slowly, starting from the top.
New Offering. What better way to get revenge than to take it out on the Imperialist? Prized Slave though untrained, and raw. She is highly valuable. Photos only for serious inquiries. This is the enemy you’ve all been waiting to have at your disposal. It will take a firm hand and a secure compound to hold her. Auction starts in 20 days. You do not want to miss out on this opportunity.
He read over it again, then another time. Could this be Marissa? His mind churned over the information. That word, imperialist, what did it mean? They had a woman who was prized, someone who would require lots of security.
The buzzing in his brain grew. This had to be his girlfriend. The seller wouldn’t make such a big deal unless she was a big target, and what bigger target than Marissa?
He looked at the name of the person posting. HakimThueban. It meant nothing to him, but he needed to look and see what that person had been doing on this forum and other forums in the past.
After an hour, he moved to the kitchen and had brought in another laptop to help him search.
By the time Adam stumbled in, he had a list of post HakimThueban had made. The man sold people, lots of people. If he had to guess, whoever owned this account was the person who ran the slave ring Ryan had been captured by.
“Hey, have you been up long?” Adam asked.
“Yeah. I think I found Marissa.”
Adam put down the coffee pot without filling his cup. “What do you mean?”
“There’s this new post I found that leads me to believe it’s her.” He’d stunned his friend. Adam blinked three times then nodded slowly.
“Let me get my coffee first. I want you to show me everything.”
Adam filled his mug with coffee and topped off Jackson’s cup. They settled the kitchen table where he showed Adam his evidence. After his spiel, Adam sat back, his eyes narrowed as he sipped his coffee.
“Okay, so let’s say this is Marissa, what do we do?” Adam asked.
Kelsey stepped in and gasped. “You found her?”
“I don’t know, but I think so. Read this first message and tell me what you think.” Jackson pulled up the message he’d found and let Kelsey read.
He glanced up, watching her face. She didn’t look convinced, but she also wasn’t dismissing him out of hand.
“Okay, let me get some coffee. Then I want to see what other evidence you have.” She moved to the coffee pot and poured a cup before she started making another pot.
Jackson got up and waved her off. “Listen, I can’t sit still until you catch up. You two investigate. I’ll get the coffee and breakfast ready while you discuss this and figure out if I’m crazy.”
She nodded and turned to the table before she spun back around. “You know they claimed to have found her body. She could be dead, and this could be nothing.”
“I know, but what if that wasn’t her body? Whoever that was had been burned to an unrecognizable state. They haven’t come out with the DNA results if they’ve even tested the body. What if she’d alive and about to be sold and we can prevent it?”
“Okay, we’ll see what we can find out about this person,” Kelsey said.
“You two, I want you both to know that even if we don’t have proof, it’s Kelsey, if we find this asshole’s location, I want to go rescue the person he has for sale, and then shut the fucking jerk down. He doesn’t deserve to live if he’s selling someone.”
Kelsey nodded, and so did Adam. At least they understood his desire to help. If it wasn’t Kelsey, he’d keep looking for the jerk who took his lover and killed her.
After cooking breakfast, Kelsey and Adam said they were about halfway through with their investigation. When he took his last bite of eggs, Kelsey jumped up and gave a shout.
“I found him.” Her eyes were bright, her smile wide, giving him the best bit of hope he’d had since finding out Marissa had been taken.
“Where?”
“He’s in a small town called Tagadirte. It’s an oasis in the west section of Morocco off the N12 near Akka,” Kelsey said.
“Show us on the map,” Adam said.
Kelsey pulled up the map on the computer, and they stared at it, Adam reaching around to zoom out.
“Middle of nowhere,” Jackson said.
“I can get you on a plant to France, then you can use your fake ID’s we have for France, and you can fly into Marrakesh from there.”
“We’ll stick out.” Jackson knew he couldn’t pass as Moroccan, and neither could Adam.
“We fly in and sit tight until evening and then drive at night. How far is the drive?”
“Let me look.” The computer keys cli
cked as Kelsey’s fingers flew. “Six hours.”
“Okay, what do you think?” Adam met his gaze, his brows lifted.
“How long will it take us to get there?” His stomach twisted as excitement bubbled up.
“Let me look.” Kelsey kept typing, her fingers moving fast as she looked at the plan. “Okay, here’s the deal, we can get you on a flight today at four thirty out of Denver. You’ll get into Paris about twelve hours later. You’ll have five and a half hours until you can catch a plane to Marrakesh. That will take about three hours, so you’ll be in Morocco at night. It will take you six hours to drive to the compound. That would put you raiding the place deep in the morning. I think you should wait a night and go in for the raid the next night.”
“I don’t know,” Adam said.
“What?” Kelsey asked.
“What if they hear of two Americans coming in for travel? Won’t that mean they’ll be prepared,” Jackson asked.
“You’ll be flying in as English citizens. They won’t think you’re American,” Kelsey said.
“We should plan on doing the raid the next day. That way we can get sleep and scrounge for supplies. No way we can get any weapons over there. We’ll need to buy a few guns to take them down.”
“Fuck, I feel like it’s taking too long, and she’ll slip away.” He hated this feeling. If he lost Marissa because they hadn’t moved fast enough, he would never forgive himself.
“Jackson, I know you want to jump in there and find her, but we need to wait for the right time. We go in unprepared, and if it is her, she’ll die alongside us. The goal is to get her out.”
He nodded, wishing he had a different answer to their problem. “Okay, let’s plan this.”
Kelsey turned to look at them. “I’ll get you both booked. You’ll travel from here to Paris as yourselves. Once there, you’ll switch your documents and travel as those identities. You should probably leave the airport then come back in a different taxi.”
“Kelsey, you make up our plans. You’re a master at this,” Adam said. “We’ll pack our bags and get everything ready to go.”
“Okay, let’s get everything ready,” Jackson said.