by Matt Lincoln
“Eddy mentioned you,” I informed her. “He said that you taught him about dinosaurs.”
“He’s alive?” she gasped. “But, how?”
“They managed to make it to the United States,” I explained. “Unfortunately, only Eddy survived the trip. From what we could gather, they were out on the water for several days with very little to eat or drink. Eddy had bad sunburns all over his body by the time they finally made it to shore.”
“Thank goodness,” she breathed, her clasped hands trembling. “The day that she suddenly took off like that, I didn’t know what to think. I had no idea if she even had a plan. It breaks my heart to hear that she’s… that she’s dead. But at least little Eddy is okay.”
“He is.” I nodded. “And we want to get justice for his mother. That’s why we’re here.”
All at once, she stopped shaking and looked up at me with a hard gaze.
“Are you serious about that?” she asked me coldly. “Do you really know what it is you’re up against?”
“Honestly? No,” I answered. “That’s the reason we came here, to see what we could find out. If you have information that could help us, you need to share it.”
She bit her lip again and looked away from me. I wanted to groan in frustration. We didn’t have time for this. We needed to act as quickly as possible to get ahead of the traffickers. I remembered what Jenny had said, though, about panicking because she didn’t know if she could really trust us. Daniela was probably thinking the same thing.
“Okay.” She finally nodded after what felt like an eternity of silence. “I’ll speak with you. But not here, and not until I’m sure my girls are safe. We’ve already spent too long talking. We need to hurry, or the men will realize what’s going on.”
“Okay, then when?” I asked, my heart racing with urgency.
“Tomorrow,” she replied. “Around midday. The men will still be asleep then, except for one guard. Normally, the girls would be too, but I’ll speak to them tonight and make sure they’re ready.”
“Ready for what?” Holm interrupted, his voice laced with concern.
“Ready to leave, of course,” she replied as though the answer were obvious. “I told you, I won’t speak with you unless I’m certain my girls are safe. Get us out, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. There will be five men in total. They have guns, but with you on our side, we’ll be able to overpower them.”
There were so many things that could go wrong with this plan, but with the clock ticking on our time to speak, I couldn’t find many other options.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll speak to the police captain and figure out a plan. But I--”
“You need to go,” she suddenly interrupted me, her eyes going wide as she looked at something over my shoulder. “Now. We’re out of time.”
She didn’t offer any further explanation before striding confidently out of the small sectioned-off area and back onto the main floor.
“Let’s go,” I murmured to Holm as I walked casually back toward the bar where we’d left Crowley. He wasn’t there anymore, and it took me a moment to spot him standing by the entrance, scanning over the crowd with an annoyed look on his face.
“There you are!” He scowled as I approached him. “Where did you go? I turned around, and you were both gone!”
“Not here,” I muttered out of the corner of my mouth, barely slowing down as I walked past him and toward the door. “We need to go.”
His expression instantly became more serious, but he didn’t question me as he trailed Holm and me out of the bar. I didn’t stop until we had made it back to the car.
“What happened?” he asked me seriously.
“We met with Danny,” I replied. “Come on, I’ll explain everything back at the station.”
“What?” He balked. “We’re just leaving?”
“For now, yeah.” I nodded. “Look, just trust me, okay? We might have a solid plan of attack here, but it’s all going to come crumbling down if we get caught right now. I’ll take the blame if Captain Morris gets upset.”
He shot me a look of clear displeasure.
“Fine,” he sighed after a moment of hesitation. “Let’s get back, then.”
I watched him climb into his patrol car before getting into the driver’s seat of the Impala. Once Holm was inside, I started the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot.
As we drove back, my mind raced with all the ways this could go wrong. We hadn’t had any time to finalize any of the details of the plan with Daniela, and I hated going in blind like that. I could only hope that things would go well tomorrow afternoon.
24
Olivia
Olivia sighed as she sank into the brown leather couch back at the Grace Bay Police Station. She’d just finished getting Jenny settled into her hotel room. The girl had seemed totally fine with everything until it was actually time for Olivia to leave. Then all of a sudden, she’d started to panic.
It was obvious that she’d latched onto Olivia as a kind of security blanket. It was understandable, considering everything the poor girl had gone through. She saw the agent as a beacon of safety, so of course, she felt groundless when the time had come for Olivia to leave.
She’d felt awful about it and had even been tempted to stay for longer, but she couldn’t postpone it indefinitely. She needed to continue this investigation, so after staying just a little longer to help her relax, she’d finally managed to leave and make her way back to the station.
Olivia felt drained. It was always so emotionally taxing interacting with victims of abuse. She loved her job, but having to stay strong in the face of such an awful reality and be someone’s pillar of support took a toll on her. Sometimes she just wanted to break down and cry hearing some of these victim’s stories, but of course, she couldn’t do that. She needed to be the one they looked to for support, not the one making them feel worse by turning into a blubbering mess.
She wondered vaguely how long it would be until Ethan got back. It hadn’t been all that long, so she knew that it was unreasonable to start worrying. Still, her mind kept drifting back to him. She wasn’t sure when it had started. Maybe it had been when she’d watched the delicate way he’d handled Eddy’s interview. Lately, she had found herself more and more drawn to him, and she worried every time he and Holm did something stupid. Which was pretty much every time they did anything since it seemed like they couldn’t go more than a few hours without getting involved in some sort of brawl or gunfight.
She glanced at the time on her phone again and frowned when she realized it had only been two minutes since she’d last checked.
“Get a grip,” she muttered to herself.
Was she really getting all worked up over some guy she had met, what, less than a week ago? Sure, he had those unbelievable baby blue eyes and that obnoxiously cute smirk, and he knew his way around a gun, which she’d never realized until now was actually a pretty attractive feature, and…
She groaned as she realized she was doing it again, letting her mind be consumed by this man. One romantic evening on the beach and suddenly she was acting like a lovesick teenager.
She stood up and walked to the vending machine, determined to keep her mind occupied when the break room door suddenly creaked open.
She snapped her head around to see who it was and felt a wave of relief wash over her when she saw it was Ethan and Holm, both unscathed as far as she could tell.
“How did it go?” she asked as she rushed toward them, vending machine completely forgotten.
“Well, we met Danny,” Ethan replied a little sourly as he stepped into the room and headed straight for the couch.
“Why do you not sound happy about that?” she asked as she took a seat next to him.
“Because she’s kind of blackmailing us into busting her and the rest of the girls out of the bar tomorrow,” Holm replied flatly as he fell backward onto the couch.
“I’m sorry, what?” Olivia asked in surprise.
“Exactly what he just said.” Ethan shrugged as he placed his hands on his hips. “She was just as sketchy as Jenny made her sound. She agreed to tell us what she knows about the traffickers, but only if we help get her and the other girls out tomorrow. Which, of course, we want to do, but she didn’t exactly give us much time to plan.”
“So, what did you say?” she asked as she sat back down on the couch.
“Didn’t have time to say much,” Ethan scoffed. “She dropped her conditions on us and then ushered us out so we wouldn’t get caught by the traffickers. Of course, Morris was a little ticked off that we left without arresting anyone.”
“She told us to come back at noon tomorrow,” Holm added as he sank into one of the empty chairs near the couch. “Apparently, the men will still be asleep around then, aside from one guard. Aside from that, we don’t have much as far as a plan goes.”
“I see,” Olivia muttered as she thought over everything they had just told her. On the one hand, she could understand Danny’s desire to make sure the girls were safe before she did anything. Heck, the thought of leaving the girls there even one more night made her stomach churn, so she could understand why Danny would use their rescue as a bargaining chip. On the other hand, there were so many ways this could go badly for both the women and the agents. If any of the traffickers caught wind of the plan, they might end up walking straight into a trap. If the mission failed, the men might retaliate against the women and kill them.
Olivia looked up, ready to express her concerns to the MBLIS agents, when she noticed just how tired they both looked. It was almost ten now, and the day had been both physically and mentally draining, so it wasn’t surprising that they both looked like they were ready to collapse.
“Why don’t we head back to the hotel?” she suggested instead. “It’s been a long day. We might end up making mistakes if we keep trying to run on fumes like this. We can get up early tomorrow and figure everything out before we have to head down to the bar again at noon.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Holm replied as he stood up from the couch.
“Okay,” Ethan replied with a short nod. “Let’s head back.”
The three of them walked back out of the police station and to the car. Olivia offered to drive this time since both men seemed like they could use a break. It wasn’t the first time she’d driven on the left-hand side of the road. She’d worked on a few international cases before, so she had some experience with it, but Ethan had been right when he’d commented that it felt weird to be on the left side when the steering wheel was also on the left side of the car. The space to her right seemed far too big, and she had a little trouble gauging how close she was to the lines on the road.
She was so concentrated on driving that she didn’t say a single word the entire drive. It wasn’t until they pulled into the parking lot that she even glanced over at Ethan, who was sitting beside her in the front passenger seat. He was staring intently at his phone, typing away with his fingers.
He stayed that way even as the three agents got out of the car and headed into the hotel. By the time they’d made it to the elevator, she couldn’t take the curiosity anymore.
“What are you looking at?” she asked him as they made our way up to the floor all three of them were staying on.
“Oh, it’s nothing, really,” he replied, though the grin on his face indicated otherwise.
His eyes were lit up at whatever he was looking at, and her curiosity only grew stronger as she watched him.
“Alright,” Holm sighed as we made it to his door. “Good night, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He opened his door wearily, and Olivia waited until it was shut before she turned her attention back to Ethan, secretly glad that Holm’s room was the first one they had passed.
“Come on,” she pestered him once more. “What’s got you in such a good mood all of a sudden? You were acting all worn out back at the station, and now you’re all smiles.”
“It’s just Dragon’s Rogue stuff,” he replied, his smile widening as he showed me his phone. It was opened to a text conversation that he had uploaded several pictures of the anchor to. With all the commotion lately, Olivia had almost forgotten about the big discovery he’d made back in the antique shop.
“Who’s Tessa?” Olivia asked as her eyes roved up to the name of the recipient.
“Oh, she’s a friend of mine,” Ethan replied easily. “She’s been helping me with my search for a while now. I always share everything I find with her. She’s probably the only person who gets as excited about this stuff as I do.”
“A friend, huh?” The thought came to Olivia’s mind unbidden. She had no reason to believe otherwise, but something about the way Ethan was smiling down at his phone while texting this woman was filling her with an uncomfortable sensation that she absolutely refused to recognize as jealousy.
“Hey, what do you say we have a couple of drinks before we turn in?” she asked him before she could think twice about it. “I know we said we should just go to sleep and get an early start tomorrow, but you seem pretty awake right now.”
He blinked at her with a look of mild surprise before smiling at her and slipping his phone back into his pocket.
“Sure,” he replied as she changed direction toward her room.
She felt a smug feeling of satisfaction at having pulled his attention away from the phone. She felt a little silly over how jealous she’d gotten over a name in his contact list, but was she really wrong to want his attention to herself tonight? She wasn’t an idiot. She was perfectly aware of the way they’d been flirting with each other over the last few days. The anxiety she’d felt tonight as he and Holm had gone off to the bar had only cemented her desire to do something about it all the more quickly.
She quickly unlocked her hotel room door, and the pair stepped inside.
“I wonder if they have anything good in that little mini-fridge,” Ethan remarked as he stooped down to peer into the small refrigerator tucked beneath the TV stand.
“Forget that,” Olivia scoffed as she walked over to the suitcase at the foot of her bed. “Overpriced beers and tiny bottles of cheap wine? I’ve got something way better.”
She rummaged through her suitcase for a moment before she finally found what she was looking for, a bottle of her favorite whiskey.
“Here it is.” She smiled triumphantly as she pulled the bottle from where it was tucked beneath a stack of clothes.
“Wow,” Ethan chuckled behind her as he moved to sit on the only chair in the small hotel room. “You came prepared.”
“I always make sure I have a bottle of the good stuff when I travel,” she replied as she set the bottle on the table before walking over to where the coffee maker was and grabbing two glasses. “Special victims cases can get pretty… taxing. Rape, child abuse, vulnerable people with no one to stick up for them. I try not to rely on it too much, but sometimes, a nice hard drink is exactly what I need after a long day of work.”
“Hey, I’m not judging,” Ethan replied as he took one of the glasses from her. “Not everyone can do what you do. There’s nothing wrong with taking the edge off once in a while.”
“Oh, shoot,” she huffed after crouching down to get some ice out of the refrigerator. “There’s no ice in here.”
“I think I saw a sign for an ice machine down at the end of the hall,” Ethan replied as he stood up. “I’ll go get us some.”
Olivia sat down on the edge of the bed and watched as he grabbed another glass off of the stand where the coffee maker was before heading out the door. They hadn’t even started drinking yet, and she already felt wired, as though every nerve in her body was on fire. Truthfully, it had been a while since she’d experienced any kind of romantic encounter. Sure, she went on dates here and there, but most days, it was the last thing on her mind after spending all day dealing with distraught victims.
It was different with Ethan, though. Even though they were in the middl
e of an intense case, she still couldn’t keep her mind from wandering back to thoughts of him. Hell, maybe the intensity of the case was actually exacerbating it. She honestly wasn’t used to being caught in the middle of so many exhilarating, life-or-death situations, and there was something kind of exciting about it, especially when there was an extremely attractive man by her side the entire time.
“Sorry that took so long.” Ethan apologized once he returned a few minutes later. “I could have sworn I saw something that looked like an ice machine at the end of the hall, but there was nothing there when I checked. Anyway, I did find some on the next floor down.”
“No problem.” Olivia smiled as she took the ice from him to prepare their drinks. “Now, tell me more about that anchor we found. You seemed really excited about it when you were texting your friend. What’s so special about it?”
Ethan launched into an explanation about why he suspected that the anchor once belonged to the ship he was so determined to find. Olivia couldn’t hold back a smile as she watched how animated he became when he talked about the pirate ship, and she spent the next half hour listening intently as he gave her a full rundown of the ship’s history.
“So, this Grendel guy was bad because he stole the ship?” she asked as she lifted the bottle to pour herself another glass. “But he was also kind of a good guy because he shared his riches with the poor?”
“Something like that,” Ethan replied with a small nod. “Though ‘good’ is kind of a relative term.”
“Well, people aren’t black and white.” Olivia shrugged as she leaned forward to pour Ethan another glass as well. The heavy bottle wobbled in her hand as she poured, and she inadvertently spilled some over the table and onto Ethan as well.
“Damn, sorry,” she hissed as she placed the bottle back onto the table.
“It’s fine,” Ethan assured her as he quickly stood up. As he did, his face came within inches of Olivia’s, who was still leaning toward him.