by Julia Bright
He gathered his clothes and found the passport they’d used to get into Italy. Faking documents wasn’t something he liked doing, but in this situation, they really had few options.
Kelsey booked their flights and a hotel in Marrakesh. He gave her a hug before they left, and she promised to keep searching while they were in the air. He hoped she could find something amazing that would help them recover Marissa. They still weren’t one-hundred percent it was her, but they would rescue whoever was being held.
They were almost in Denver when his brother Randy called. “Hey,” Jackson said when he answered, unsure what to say. He’d left the east coast angry and unsure what his brother felt about him. He didn’t want to have a bad relationship with him, but their parents had driven a massive wedge between them.
“I was wondering if I could come for a visit?”
Jackson grunted. “I was taking off for a few days, but I’ll be home soon.”
“So is that a yes?”
“Sure, I’ll text you when I’m heading home.”
“Okay, I may head out that way soon.”
The strain was clear in his brother’s voice. Something was wrong, but Jackson didn’t have time to dig. They should have left their phones at home, but they’d taken them to the airport and would leave them in the truck. It would be too huge of a risk to take them to Europe. The FBI could track their movements, and if they were tracking them, it would look incriminating.
“I’ll be able to spend time without once we get home.” Jackson felt for Randy. The older they got, the more he realized their dad had used his brother.
“Thank you.” Randy sounded too relieved.
“Hey, is Dad doing something he shouldn’t?”
Randy grunted. “I’m fine. I just need a place to take a breath.”
“Tell him he’s welcome at the ranch,” Adam said.
“Come on out to the ranch if you need to. We’ll be back in a few days. Kelsey is there.”
“Okay. I’ll think about it. Thank you.”
He hung up and blew out a breath. “Well, at least he’s talking to me again.”
“You know your parents are a piece of work. He might just need a break.”
“Yeah, I think that’s what it is.”
“Okay, you ready?” Adam said as they pulled into the parking garage of the airport.
“Yeah.”
“Good because I’m ready to get rolling.”
He couldn’t agree more. He only wished it wouldn’t take them almost two days to rescue Marissa. A lot could happen to her in those two days.
16
Their flight from Reykjavik was delayed, and they didn’t get into Paris until almost four that afternoon. The plans for leaving the airport in a cab were dashed. They left the secured area and went to a restroom, changing clothes before heading straight back into the secured section after checking in under their faked passports. He breathed a sigh of relief when they were boarding for their flight to Marrakesh.
Adam had purchased a phone at the airport, sending a text to Kelsey, asking for any updates. She sent a list of information she’d found. The compound where they were headed was lightly guarded. No one messed with the man who proclaimed to be one of the toughest guys that area of Morocco. His compound was locked up tight, but they’d be able to break in. Kelsey had found a dealer to work with in Morocco. They would each get a few guns, knives, and bolt cutters. They could sleep a little the next day, but they had to meet the supplier at midnight. She sent the location before they loaded onto their plane to Morocco.
By the time they landed, his nerves were shot. He forced himself to calm because being upset wouldn’t solve anything for them. They had to play this cool.
The sights in Marrakesh were beautiful in a stark kind of way, but he wasn’t here as a tourist. He couldn’t believe so many kidnappings happened here, but tourist were fair game. When Marissa and Michaels had been run off the road, the Moroccan government had said it was the fourth kidnapping that week. Of course, most of those weren’t US citizens.
This area may look nice, but it wasn’t a place the FBI should have ever sent Marissa, at least not like they had. If they’d been headed to Tangier, they should have flown in or arrived on a ferry, not drive from Ceuta.
They checked into their hotel with no problems and headed up to their room. After taking a quick shower, they dressed to blend in. They headed out, walking to the club where they were meeting with the supplier.
The music was loud, the people dancing like they did in the states. He watched for a moment as he sipped his beer. They were blending in, trying to look like everyone else who was out for the evening.
Adam had purchased another phone when they arrived and had it in his hand, waiting for it to buzz. Jackson’s nerves were riding high because the guy hadn’t contacted him. He was about ready to take matters into his own hands and go searching for an arms supplier when the phone buzzed.
It was obviously Adam had control and wasn’t freaking out like he was. It had to be the idea of Marissa being held captive. That upset him more than he wanted to admit. Adam typed something to reply and hit send then met Jackson’s gaze and nodded toward the hall at the back. They both stood and headed that way.
When they traveled as soldiers, they’d brought their guns with them, but as lone operators, they didn’t have that luxury. He knew it could all be ruined if they met up with the wrong arms dealers.
Down the dark hall were two doors, they took the one at the end and found themselves in an alley. He hated not being armed, but this was why they were here.
A man stepped out from around a corner and Adam tensed. Jackson measured the guy, praying they weren’t about to get shot.
“Money,” the guy said.
“When you show us your merchandises.”
The man stepped forward, making Jackson even more nervous. No doubt this man was dirty to the core, but they needed to have guns, and they didn’t have a way to get them into the country.
“Here,” the man said as he passed a box to Adam.
Adam opened the box and looked inside before passing it to Jackson. He glanced in and pulled out a Glock. It seemed fine, but they had to trust it would work.
Adam handed over the cash they’d snuck into the country. With the transaction done, he and Adam headed back into the club and out the front door. They walked back to their hotel in silence. Once in the privacy of their room, Adam spoke.
“We need to clean those guns before we use them.”
“Sure,” Jackson said as he opened the box and placed the weapons pointing away from them. He pulled out the knives, testing the blade with his thumb. “Sharp.”
“At least we have two good knives. Hopefully, we can do this without having to fire the guns. That will just bring attention we don’t want.”
He and Adam spent an hour cleaning the guns, counting their ammunition, and making sure they had everything ready for the next evening.
After Adam put his Glock back together, he stood and stretched. “We’ll leave at around three. The rental car will be ready for us by two. I have the directions and will drive the first leg. We need to sleep now.”
Jackson wasn’t sure if he’d be able to rest but was surprised when he woke with the sun streaming in. The main door opened, and Adam stepped in and held up two bags.
“I brought food.”
“Ugh, how late is it?”
“Almost noon here.”
“Jesus, I slept a long time.”
“You needed the sleep. You’ve been going hard at it for too many days. Now you’re rested. We may not get sleep tonight at all.”
“I’m not so much worried about getting in, I’m worried about getting out. There won’t be help anywhere close to where we’ll be.”
“No, we’ll need to kill everyone there. It’ll be a difficult mission.”
Jackson nodded. “Thank you for doing this.”
“Hey, you’re my brother.”
�
��And you’re mine. We’ll get you back home to your family, I swear.” Jackson hated that Adam had flown halfway around the world where he could end up in a dangerous situation. He’d been so excited when they found Marissa he hadn’t thought to slow down and see if it would be too dangerous for Adam.
“I’ll be good. We’ve gone into worse situations than this. Plus, I have something very important to live for.”
Jackson grunted. “I’ll watch your back well.”
“And I’ll watch yours.”
They ate their food, showered, and packed up their items before heading out to grab the rental. They had two ten-gallon containers of gas to take along for the ride since the drive was long and filled with nothingness. The landscape was dry with few cars or other people on the road. It was dark before they were close to Akka. When they pulled into town, no one paid them any attention. They gassed up, paying cash, glad everyone basically ignored them.
They headed back on the N12, but Adam turned off in a few miles when he was sure they weren’t being followed. They took almost an hour of winding down streets to find the compound’s location. The city was quiet, and he prayed they could get in and out without making too much noise.
“You ready?” Adam asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Adam had turned off the car’s dome light so they could slip from the car without drawing any attention. The back gate to the compound was locked, but Adam used his bolt cutters, and they slipped in without notice.
Jackson had to force a calm so he didn’t make any mistakes. The fight would be on soon, so he had to be ready for anything.
They were at the back door of the building, his heart thundering. He reached down, surprised to find it unlocked. The ease of getting into the house shocked the hell out of him. The hall was empty. They stepped into a room with monitors that had videos of the whole house and the outside compound. They’d been lucky no one was watching. Otherwise, they would have seen them enter the house.
“We need to delete the videos before we leave,” Adam said.
Jackson nodded as he stared at the monitors, searching for Marissa. “I don’t see her.”
“There are women here being held. Look at this one. She’s chained to the wall.”
“God, she looks awful. Are you sure it’s a woman, the person has no hair?”
“No clue, but we’re breaking these people out.”
Jackson gave a sharp nod before heading out of the room and down the hall. The first person they came upon was asleep in a chair in the den. Jackson moved in close and grabbed the guy’s hair, tugging hard, exposing his throat before he ran the knife across his skin, going deep. The man was dead in seconds.
Adam moved past Jackson and down the hall. He followed a few feet behind, noticing the rooms were padlocked from the outside. He figured the captives were being kept in there.
At the end of the hall, he found a door without a lock. Jackson met Adam’s gaze, and they both nodded. He reached for the knob and turned it slowly. The door opened, and he stepped in, seeing a sleeping man on the mattress. Someone else was with him. The other person moved, sitting up. It was a young boy, a teenager, maybe.
Anger flashed, spurning Jackson into action. The man on the bed was dead in seconds. The boy lifted his hand and Jackson flinched until he realized the boy was showing him a chain holding him prisoner.
Adam spoke in Arabic, a language Jackson had never picked up well enough to speak or understand more than a few phrases.
“He says there is another man who lives here,” Adam said.
“The guy we killed.”
Adam nodded and spoke to the boy again before meeting Jackson’s gaze. “Said other people come sometimes, but they aren’t here right now.”
“Means we need to hurry. Did he say where the keys were?”
Adam asked the boy who pointed to the dresser across the room. Jackson moved fast, finding the keys. He stepped close, swallowing down his anger before dropping to a squat beside the bed. He lifted his night vision goggle and met the boy’s gaze.
“I’m unlocking this,” Jackson said.
The boy glanced at Adam who spoke more Arabic. Then the boy nodded and held his hand out. It took four keys to find the right one. When they freed the kid, he rubbed his wrist. The skin looked raw.
The boy turned and punched the dead man in the face before pushing at his body. Jackson couldn’t take his eyes off the boy as he used the manacle he’d been bound with to beat the dead guy’s pelvic region, including his cock. The anger wasn’t surprising. Hell, he’d do the same thing.
Jackson took the keys and headed to the door. Before he left the room, Adam spoke to the boy again and pointed to the floor. The kid got up and tugged on some clothes. Adam followed Jackson down the hall with the boy close behind.
“Can we trust him?” Jackson asked.
Adam shrugged. “He said he’d help with the other captives. He also said another woman showed up from time to time to take care of stuff, but she was here today so she won’t be back for a few days.”
“That’s good.”
The first room though locked held no one. In the second room, Jackson found a young, frightened girl. The boy talked to her after he unchained her from the wall.
The third room held a woman who was Spanish. She was in her twenties, maybe early thirties. When Jackson told her they’d come to free her, she sobbed.
Two more rooms held captives. One was a young girl who only spoke Italian, and then there was a young boy who was angry and tried to punch him, but the boy they’d freed first came in to talk and calmed him fast.
The last door still needed to be unlocked. Jackson feared Marissa wasn’t in this room. Adam was there beside him, his hand on Jackson’s shoulder.
“You thinking she won’t be here?” Adam asked.
“Yeah.”
“Open it, we need to get moving before someone comes looking.”
“Okay.” He held his breath as he keyed open the lock and pushed the door wide. Fear chilled him. Would he even survive if he didn’t find her?
The lump in the bed didn’t move when he stepped in. Was this one dead? He moved closer and pushed at the person’s leg with his gun, wondering if this would be another young man pissed at the world because he’d been captured and abused. The person had only stubble on their head and bruises spotted their arm. He leaned in to get a better look when one eye flashed open, the other too swollen to move.
Shock made him jump back. The person moved more, revealing more of their face. He drew in a slow breath, his mind working this reality with what he knew of Marissa.
“Marissa?” he whispered, unsure if it was her.
The light in her eye showed the truth. It was her. She tried to sit up but was too weak. He knelt and pulled back the covers, seeing her exposed body marked with burns and bruises. She’d lost weight, and her curves were gone.
“I need to get you dressed.”
She nodded as a single tear ran down her cheek. His heart shattered into a million pieces. The Spanish woman was beside him, telling him to leave Marissa be, that she’d get her dressed.
“No, she’s my girlfriend,” he told the woman in Spanish. “I’ll help.”
They worked together to get clothes on Marissa, dressing her in a something they found in a closet. He picked her up and carried her out. Adam met his gaze and held it. They were both angry, but now they had to figure out a way to take care of the hostages.
“What do we do? There’s too many of them,” Adam said.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure how we can get them all back to the city. Once we’re there, what do we do?”
“Um… Uh, there’s a—” A series of coughs interrupted Marissa. His heart twisted. He wanted to hold her closer, but he feared hurting her.
“Yes, babe, what?”
“Rabat, the embassy,” Marissa choked out.
“We drive to Rabat,” Adam said.
“Excuse me,” the
Spanish woman.
Jackson turned to her, his brows lifted. “Yes.”
“There is a van. The keys are in the kitchen drawer. I know that much.”
“Okay, what is your name?” Jackson asked her.
“Lisa.”
“Thank you, Lisa. We need to get out of here. The drive is long. It’ll take us about eight hours, maybe more. We need to gas up where we can. You all will have to hide until we are far away from here.”
“He has money in the kitchen too,” Lisa said. “I’ve been here the longest.”
“How long?” he asked.
“Three months. They want me pregnant, and they’ll sell me for the baby.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Lisa shook her head. “Don’t be sorry. You saved me.”
The boy who they’d rescued first moved to Lisa and held out his hand to shake. She hugged him instead. The group of captives moved closer to each other, embracing though they didn’t speak the same language.
He followed Adam into the kitchen where Lisa showed him the drawer to open. They had keys and a stack of money, then they were out the door and in the garage.
Jackson would drive the van and Adam was taking the car with both the boys who spoke Arabic. Marissa settled on the second row of seats and Lisa took the spot next to her. The girl who only spoke Italian slumped down on the third row of seats and the woman who spoke Arabic sat next to him in the passenger seat. She realized he understood very little Arabic, and she pointed at things. The Spanish understood a little but couldn’t speak Arabic. They somehow communicated with each other well enough.
The sun was coming up as they drove through Marrakesh. They’d stopped for gas, paying cash from the money they’d taken. At one point Adam stopped for food and brought a bag out to the van. They consumed every morsel of food. Marissa even woke enough to eat some of a sandwich. He worried about how much she slept, but now that the sun was up, he saw she looked like shit. His anger flashed hot. But the bastard was dead. He could calm down
Once in Rabat they stopped at a shopping mall with a McDonalds. They sent Lisa in to get more food, and the two boys who’d driven with Adam relocated to the van. Lisa was driving them to the embassy. He hated leaving Marissa, but this was for the best.