by Claire Adams
“Take them downstairs, everyone needs cleaned up and that makeup crap off their faces before dinner,” Stephano yelled as the vehicle PJ was in started to unload in the driveway to his house.
“Why does he care if we have makeup on?” PJ asked Roxanne.
Roxanne shot PJ a stern glare as if to tell her to stop talking. It was obvious that Stephano and his men were very close to them, I couldn’t figure out why PJ kept trying to talk to Roxanne. I could certainly see that it was annoying Roxanne and I just hoped she didn’t slap PJ again. The last thing we needed was our two women on the inside fighting it out; we needed them to work together and get all the girls out safely before Stephano could figure out what was going on.
Ideally, I thought the girls might be able to sneak out in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, we had no way of communicating that plan to PJ or Roxanne so we would have to just observe them and see what might be happening. I hoped once the girls were into the living area, PJ might have a little more freedom to actually talk with Roxanne.
As the girls all settled in at Stephano’s house, Nate, Chase, and I needed to figure out how we could continue to monitor the women, but also get closer to the property. It wasn’t like we could just drive our vehicle into the water or anything.
Then I had a brilliant idea.
“Guys, we need to drive over to the Duck Boat Tours,” I said as I looked at my watch.
It was late afternoon and I didn’t know how late the tours operated, but if we timed things right, I hoped we could enlist my tour friend to help us out. He was the perfect person to help us with the next step of our plan.
When we got to the Duck Boat Tours office, I jumped out of the van and made my way over to George to try and convince him to help us out. I had a good feeling about the guy and I really thought he would help us get closer to Stephano’s house.
“George,” I said as I walked up to my tour boat operator friend.
He knew I looked familiar, but it took him a moment to remember I had been on his tour the other day.
“Oh, hey, how are you?”
“I’m good, but I need a favor. What time do your tours stop?”
“Nine o’clock, why?”
“We need you to drive us on a special operation,” I said as I leaned in close to him.
George had seemed very interested in my military background before, so I thought it might help if I enlisted him in our secret operation. At that point, I was willing to do and say almost anything to convince him to help us. His boat was exactly what we needed to rescue the girls, as well as get us close enough that my surveillance equipment would still work.
“What’s up?” George said as he looked around.
“We need to get close to a house on Star Island tonight. I’ve got to have my tech gear with me and we might have to rescue some people. Do you think you could help?” I asked as I handed him a stack of money.
“Holy shit!” George exclaimed as he glanced at the money and then stuffed it in his pocket. “Yeah, man, I can help. Be here at nine and we can get everything going.”
“Thanks, George. We might be up all night with this mission. Can you handle that?”
“Yes, sir, I can,” he said with excitement.
“See you at nine.”
“That guy seemed overly excited,” Nate commented as we returned to our van.
“He’ll do fine. I think he’s been waiting for some excitement in his life.”
“You think we can sneak up on his property with a giant Duck Tour boat, Jackson?”
“Like I said, he will do fine. The boat will do fine. Everything will be just fine as long as the women can keep their end of things going. We better get back to the monitors and make sure they aren’t beating each other up,” I said as we climbed back into the back of our van.
Luckily, from the Duck Boat Tours office we were still able to get reception on PJ’s video. But we would have to drive around to the other side of the island if we wanted to get to the road that led to the neighborhood. I was happy we had arranged to work with George, because I was certain our signal wouldn’t hold out if we had to go that far on the other side of the island.
The women were all downstairs and PJ was by herself as she walked around the area and looked into each of the rooms so we could see the layout. Although each bedroom had a window in it, when PJ walked up close, the windows appeared to be screwed shut. As far as I could tell, there were only two ways out of the basement. One was through a door to a back patio and the other was through stairs that let up to the main living area. There was a security guard at both those entrances.
“Do you think PJ could take those guys?” Nate asked as we watched PJ walk up near one of the guards.
“Well, if she can take them down and if she should are two different things. Those two guys both have guns and she doesn’t have any backup. None of those other women are going to know how to fight. We need her to wait until we can be in position to help out.”
“Tell me again why you didn’t want her to wear an earpiece?” Nate asked.
“Just because no one checked her for a wire doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have if we had given her some communications. This is what we have – don’t be an ass about it, just work with it.”
Nate liked to give me a hard time, but we had worked together in the military and he knew exactly why I had made the decisions I had so far. The brotherly side of him just insisted on trying to second guess me and make me look bad in front of Chase. But when all was said and done, we were going to work together and get those girls all out safely, including PJ and Roxanne.
“Roxy, give the girls their meds and then I’ll have dinner brought down to them. Get Ilsa in the shower and clean her up good for me,” Stephano bellowed into a speaker that was in the wall.
Through PJ’s glasses, we watched as Roxanne ran over to the speaker and pressed the button to respond.
“Pills again?” Roxanne asked.
I cringed at her questioning anything that Stephano was doing. It was not a good way to deal with a man like him. She should have just told him yes and then not give the girls pills or something like that.
“You take one, too. You’re getting a little too full of yourself Roxy. And remember, I have cameras all over down there so I will see if you refuse.”
It didn’t surprise me that he would have surveillance surrounding the women, but I doubted he had very close observation of it. We had only seen two security guards come back with the girls and they were both downstairs. Unless Stephano was monitoring the screen all night long, we seemed to have a good opportunity for an escape.
My stomach churned as I watched Roxanne grab the bottle of pills and the girls come up to her to get theirs. It made me sick to watch them and I could hardly stand it. The girls already looked like they were zoned out, another pill was just going to make it that much harder for them to participate and help in their own escape.
As Roxanne and PJ took their pills, I watched in the mirror to see if I could tell if they cheeked the pill or not. PJ’s glasses were more focused on her own reflection and I was pretty sure she hadn’t swallowed the pill, but I couldn’t see Roxanne well enough through the camera to know if she had taken it or not.
Suddenly, one of the guards was in the bathroom with the women and pressed Roxanne up against the wall. I didn’t get a good look at him but I thought it might have been the same guy who had strangled Roxanne the night behind the club.
“Don’t ever talk to him like that again,” he said as his arm pressed against her windpipe.
PJ came up behind him and tried to pull him away from Roxanne, but he didn’t move. He kept his arm against her and I couldn’t look away. I was thankful that PJ was there so we could at least see what was going on, but I flashed back to the night I had found her being strangled and I worried that the guy was going to do the same thing again.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Roxanne said as she kept her cool. Her voice was m
uffled and I saw tears in her eyes. Oh, how I wanted to be in that room at that moment. I would have killed that guy for sure.
“Do it again and I’ll shoot you myself,” he said and then turned to leave the room.
Chapter 21
ROXANNE
I was scared. More scared than I had been when he had strangled me behind the club. This guy didn’t seem to care at all that he was hurting me, he actually seemed to want me to die or something. I didn’t know what it was he had against me, but I knew enough to try and make things better. I had to apologize, that was all I could do. I couldn’t wait to get out of Stephano’s house.
I didn’t take the pill like I was supposed to, but I tucked it under my tongue while the security guard was strangling me. When he let go, I inhaled deeply and the pill slid right down my throat. I panicked at the thought of the methadone getting into my system.
When I had had a surgery a few years before, they tried to give me pain medication and it almost made me stop breathing. I really couldn’t risk the methadone getting into my system. If I stopped breathing at Stephano’s house, no one was going to call 911. Stephano would just let me die.
“Fuck, I swallowed it,” I whispered to PJ after the guard left.
“Can you vomit?” she whispered back.
“I’ll try, but there’s cameras in here I can’t stick my finger down my throat.”
“I could do it for you, pretend like we are fighting?” PJ said.
It was pretty incredible that even after the way I had been treating her, she was still willing to help me out. I really didn’t want to feel the effects of the methadone on my body. I hated to take pills and I knew it would make things very difficult for me once the pill was running through my veins.
“It’s alright. Why don’t you get in the shower and I’ll look around to see if there are cameras in the rooms, too? I’ll find a place.”
We didn’t have much time, and I couldn’t waste the little bit of time that I had by trying to find a place to puke. While PJ got into the shower, I looked in each of the rooms to see if any of them were camera free. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much luck. All of the rooms had cameras in them. I had to think of a new plan.
While the rest of the girls were getting cleaned up for dinner, I made my way to the stairs. The guard that was over there was much nicer than the other one. I had seen him around the club before and although I couldn’t trust any of Stephano’s people, this guard was one that I thought I could manipulate a little bit.
“I need to go up and talk to Stephano, I’m not feeling well. I think I’m going to be sick,” I said to the guard.
“Use the intercom if you want to talk to him. He doesn’t allow any of the girls upstairs.”
“This is something I need to say in person and I think he will allow me upstairs. I’m just helping with the girls. I’m not one of them.” I said sweetly.
I liked this guard much better than the guy standing by the back door. He seemed like he wouldn’t hurt us unless we were about to hurt him. I made a mental note to try and get the two guards to switch spots if we could. It would be much easier for us to get out the back door and into the yard than it was going to be to get upstairs.
“Use the intercom,” he said again.
“Never mind, I am feeling sick. I think I need to go lay down.”
I made my way to the bed that they had assigned me and crawled under the covers. I was about to do something absolutely disgusting, but there was no way around it. It was disgusting and I really hoped I wouldn’t have to sleep there that night after I did what I was about to do. But I had the privacy I needed to try and vomit.
With two fingers gagging myself, I vomited into one of my hands and then let it drop into the garbage can. It was absolutely disgusting. I quickly tied the top of the garbage bag and pulled a new one out and threw it in there. I had to hope that there was just too much going on downstairs and no one had actually seen what I did.
As I made my way back out into the main room I tried to find Ana. I wanted to talk to her so she knew what to do when we saw the guys break in to the house. We were going to need to act fast and with all the drugs in her system, I didn’t know if she was going to be very much help to us.
“Ana, how are you?” I said as I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her.
Instantly, she pulled away from me and looked at me like I was crazy. Hugging wasn’t something I was known for, that was for sure. But I reached up and hugged her again.
“I met Jordan, she’s trying to rescue you,” I whispered in her ear.
“Jordan,” she said as she looked at me in her daze.
“Shhh, we can’t talk. Do you want to help me clean up the kitchen?”
I had to think of something that would allow us to talk but keep us as far away from the guards as possible. Cleaning the kitchen seemed like the best option. If we had gone into the back room to do laundry, I thought it would look too much like we were sneaking around.
“We can get plates for dinner,” she whispered.
“Yes, that’s a great idea, let’s get the dishes ready for dinner.”
It was hard to see Ana so drugged up after seeing her doing so much better earlier in the day. I could tell that the more she took the drugs, the harder it was for her to think clearly and I desperately needed her to think clearly if we were going to get out of there safely.
“You saw Jordan” she said as we started to gather the dishes from the cabinets.
“Yes, she is here and hired some people to find you.”
“How did she know where I was?”
“She hired some good people. Jordan was lucky, she found a nice man in Atlanta who she married a few weeks ago.”
Suddenly, I saw something in her eyes that went totally wrong. Something I had said did not sit well with Ana and she was mad. I didn’t really know what it was that had set her off but she totally freaked out on me.
“Who are you?” she asked me loudly.
I noticed both of the guard look over at us and I tried to calm her down. But I suspected the drugs were clouding her mind and making it very difficult for her to think straight. It was probably hard for her to understand what I was saying because Jordan was last in their home country and Ana didn’t know that she had actually come to the United States.
“I’m Roxanne. Remember? You stayed at my apartment before.”
“Why are you talking to me? What do you want from me?” she continued to say loudly.
I wanted to keep talking with her, I wanted to explain everything so she knew we were trying to help her. But her mood swings were out of control and I couldn’t risk talking with her any longer.
“Never mind,” I said as I started to walk away.
Dealing with drug addicts had never been something I was good at. They were nice to you one minute and then when they realized you weren’t going to help them with more drugs, they became belligerent. I had to assume that was what was going on with Ana. In all the days she had stayed at my house, she hadn’t once gotten angry. I didn’t even think she was capable of being angry.
I walked away and made my way back down the hall to see how PJ was doing. She was in a difficult spot and Stephano was going to send for her after dinner, so we did need to find a moment to try and talk about her plan. Going upstairs with Stephano could be a good thing, but it was very likely that PJ would get stuck with him in his room and then she’d have to sleep with him or he’d beat her.
“If you stand over there I don’t think the cameras can see you talking to me,” I said as I peeked my head into the bathroom.
“Alright, but you will still be talking.”
“I know. But that’s alright I have to get you ready for your big night with Stephano. Remember?”
“Should I just pretend to be sick or something? What do you think? When do you think the guys are going to come in here? My best bet is in the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep. So that means I’m going to have to deal wit
h Stephano.”
She was muttering and talking quickly and seemed really nervous. I would have been nervous too if Stephano said he wanted to sleep with me. I couldn’t imagine what PJ was thinking as we got ready to eat dinner.
“I think you should dissolve some of those pills into a drink and bring it upstairs with you. Try and pour it into his drink so he gets all drugged up and passes out,” I said as I thought about what easy access we had to all the drugs.
PJ didn’t seem to like that idea at all and I saw the wheels spinning in her head as she tried to decide a better plan. This was new territory for the both of us, but I really had thought PJ would have had a better idea than mine. She was the one that worked for the CIA. She had all the training.
“I really wish I had some guys,” she said as she held her glasses out and looked right into them.
“Can they see us through those?” I asked although I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.
“Yep, they can see us and hear us, but I have no way of hearing them.”
“Is Jackson mad at me? Tell him I’m sorry, I was just trying to help.”
“It’s not that helpful if I can’t talk to them. We still have no idea what is going on. But they can hear you as long as they still have the feed. But being on this island probably isn’t helping too much. I don’t know if they can even hear or see us right now. Hopefully by nightfall they will have a boat or something to get them close enough to see the video feed.”
PJ was right. They could see us, but we had no way of hearing them so it was pretty useless. I did feel a little more at ease knowing that Jackson was on the other end of those glasses. I knew that he would do whatever was necessary to keep us safe and that he was planning our escape as we stood there.
“Okay, so there are two guards one at the back door and one at the stairs. We can see the water from the back door if you send us a signal at night we should be able to see it,” I said as I tried to think of what Jackson needed to know from us.