Caribbean Rescue (Coastal Fury Book 16)

by Matt Lincoln

  The man gritted his teeth and glared at me but didn’t otherwise move.

  “Put your hands up,” Crowley commanded. “And step away from him, slowly.”

  The man did as he was told and continued to follow Crowley’s instructions. I waited until he had the man on the ground before moving forward to check on the one I had shot.

  The first thing I did was retrieve the gun he’d dropped when I’d shot him. The second was to check his pulse. It was extremely faint, and he wasn’t at all responsive.

  “I’ll call an ambulance,” I muttered as I looked over to Crowley and Holm, who were getting the other suspect into a set of handcuffs. Honestly, it probably wouldn’t do much good. I’d shot the guy square in the chest at pretty close range. It would be a miracle if he survived, not that I would be all that broken up about it.

  Before I could call, an ear-splitting bang rang out from the second floor.

  “Dammit,” I hissed as I shoved my phone back into my pocket and took off. Something must have gone wrong. Holm was beside me in an instant, though I didn’t see Crowley. He must have stayed behind to watch the suspect.

  We ran toward the back of the bar where I’d seen the rest of our group headed. There was a wide door tucked into the back corner of the bar marked “stairs.” I pushed the door open just as another round of gunshots went off.

  My heart was pounding almost painfully as we raced up the stairs. I had no idea what was waiting for us at the top. I didn’t even know who it was that was shooting.

  I got my answer as we made it to the top of the stairs and burst through the door that led to the second floor. The door opened into the end of a long hall lined with doors on either side. Just a few feet away, two of the officers that had accompanied us, Davis and Thompson, were down on the ground. I couldn’t see any blood, likely due to their bulletproof vests, but it looked like they were out cold. One other man I didn’t recognize was down as well. He must have been one of the other traffickers.

  Standing further down the hallway, a few feet away from the strewn bodies and in front of an open doorway, were Olivia and Daniela. Behind them, several women were cowering in fear, and in front of them were two other men, their guns drawn and pointed directly at them. The other two officers were further down at the far end of the hall, their weapons pointed at the two suspects. They were all locked in a tense standoff.

  One of the suspects turned at the sound of the door being opened as Holm and I burst in. The moment he did, one of the other officers, Grayson, took advantage of the distraction and fired his gun at him.

  Unfortunately, it missed the man and struck the wall just behind him. He roared with anger and spun on the man as he fired his own weapon. His aim was more accurate, and Grayson was knocked backward as the bullet hit him.

  I lifted my own gun and rushed forward, but just as I did, Daniela began to usher the women toward the stairs. In their panic, some of them ran directly into my path, inadvertently blocking my shot.

  The other suspect realized what was going on and quickly lifted his gun toward the fleeing women.

  “No!” Olivia screamed. She ran forward just as the man pulled the trigger, only barely managing to push Daniela out of the way. Unfortunately, in doing so, she put herself directly in the bullet’s path instead.

  She let out a short, strangled cry of pain as the bullet tore through her arm. I saw red as I watched her fall to the ground and lifted my gun again, firing it three times directly at the man who had just shot her.

  He groaned with pain as he fell back against the wall behind him. He struck the back of his head before crumpling to the ground. The other suspect turned around at the sound of his friend’s yell. He tried to lift his gun again, but before he could, he was tackled to the ground by Hanks, the only other officer still left standing.

  Daniela had turned around in horror when Olivia had pushed her out of harm’s way, but as soon as the suspect was down, she'd focused her attention on getting the girls down the stairs and to safety.

  I rushed to check on Olivia. As I ran to her, I kept telling myself that the bullet had only hit her arm, that she’d be okay. I pointedly ignored the nagging voice in the back of my head that reminded me that even a bullet to the arm could be fatal if she was unlucky enough to have been hit in an artery.

  To my relief, she was completely conscious when I reached her.

  “Are you okay?” I asked as I gently helped her sit up.

  “That stupid little--!” she hissed as she pressed her hand to her injured arm. It came away slick and red with blood. “Ugh. He got me good. So much for not straining my arm.”

  I realized only then that he’d managed to shoot her almost in the exact same spot that the antique shop owner had a few days earlier. Seeing the injury made my blood boil all over again, and if the guy wasn’t already bleeding out on the ground, I might have been tempted to shoot him again.

  “How are Daniela and the rest of the girls?” she asked me through gritted teeth. Of course, even with a bullet in her arm, they would be her priority.

  “I’ll go check on them now,” I replied as I got back to my feet. I was reluctant to leave her, but getting the victims to safety was most important right now.

  As soon as I stood up, I heard Hanks shout behind me. I turned around and found him on the ground, out cold. The suspect that he had tackled had somehow managed to get the upper hand and was now standing over the officer, his gun drawn and ready to fire.

  “No!” I yelled to distract the man as I pulled my own gun.

  Just as I’d hoped, the suspect turned his attention from Hanks and onto me. I fired my gun, but the man dodged, and my shot missed. He lifted his own gun and pulled the trigger, but the gun just clicked uselessly. The man stared down at the weapon in disbelief, pulling the trigger again and again to no avail.

  I saw my chance and rushed forward. He was so distracted by his gun that he didn’t see me coming until I was already upon him.

  I punched him hard across the face. Usually, a blow like that to the head would have been enough to render most men unconscious. The suspect, however, bounced back surprisingly quickly and answered my punch with one of his own.

  I lifted my arms just in time to block his strike. The man was tougher than he looked, and faster.

  He tried to punch me again, but I sidestepped the blow, causing him to lose his balance as he thrust forward. I took advantage of this to kick him hard in the stomach, his own forward momentum working against him.

  He wheezed as the kick knocked the wind out of him, and, not wanting to give him the chance to recover, I reeled back to punch him in the face again. I felt a satisfying crunch as my fist collided with his nose.

  However, I was shocked when the man regained his footing and let out a guttural roar at me, despite the blood now gushing from his nose. He lunged toward me, but it was clear by the way he stumbled that his injuries were starting to affect his performance.

  He grabbed my arm, but I shook him off and delivered another punch to his face, this time hitting him directly in the eye.

  Finally, he let out a short, pained grunt before falling to the ground in a daze.

  I fell to a crouch and pulled his wrists together to get them cuffed. By now, I was huffing for breath. The fight had been tougher than I’d expected from some goon like him.

  “You okay?” Holm asked as he knelt down beside me to assist. “It looked like things were handled up here, so I went down to help Daniela and the girls. What happened?”

  “He overpowered Hanks,” I replied as I looked back at the officer. He was just starting to sit up now, clearly dazed but otherwise alright. “At least we got them all, though.”

  “Wait!” Holm suddenly exclaimed as he got to his feet and looked around frantically. “I count five suspects, including the two downstairs. Daniela said there were six men in total. Where’s the other one?”

  Horror dawned on me as I realized that he was right. We were missing a suspect.

>   “Right here,” an unfamiliar voice rasped as a man suddenly stepped out of one of the rooms between us and the stairwell. He had scraggly dark hair, and a scar shaped like an X over one of his cheeks. Standing just in front of him was a young woman wearing a tank top and a pair of loose shorts. He had her in a chokehold and was pressing a gun to her head.

  “Stop!” Olivia croaked as she attempted to get to her feet.

  “Don’t move!” the man snarled as he pressed the barrel of the gun harder into the girl’s temple. She started crying as he did so. “None of you move, or I’ll blow her brains out!”

  “Just take it easy,” I replied calmly. This wasn’t good. Most of our officers were down. Olivia was injured and clearly unsteady on her feet right now. It was possible that Grayson, Holm, and I might have been able to take him on, but doing anything right now might cause him to pull the trigger. We just couldn’t risk the hostage’s life like that.

  “Don’t move,” the man growled again as he began to move back toward the stairs. I watched helplessly as he disappeared through the door. It had all happened too fast for me to think of any other solution than to just let him leave. Still, I couldn’t just do nothing.

  “Call for an ambulance!” I yelled to Grayson before taking off after the man. Holm followed right behind me.

  I could hear screaming as we moved into the stairwell. A few steps down, the girl was struggling to break out of the man’s hold. He was still clutching the gun, but it wasn’t pointed at her anymore.

  “Let her go!” I yelled as I pointed my gun at him. I wanted to shoot, but the girl was still standing too close to him. The stairs also created an awkward angle, so it was too risky for me to fire just yet.

  He glared up at me before shoving the girl away from him forcefully. She screamed as she fell backward, hitting her head on the concrete steps as she fell. Once the shot was clear, I fired, but the bullet missed and embedded itself into the wall behind him.

  He continued his way down the steps, and Holm and I rushed to the girl’s side. She was unconscious, and there was a spot of blood beneath her head.

  “Go!” Holm yelled as he crouched over her. “I’ve got her. You get him!”

  I nodded and rushed after the man. Neither of us was a doctor, so there wasn’t much point in both of us staying here with her. I could hear screaming as I made it to the base of the stairs. I shoved the door leading to the main floor open just in time to see the man disappear through the front door of the bar. Some of the girls were still screaming, cowering at one corner of the main floor. They’d probably panicked when the suspect had come rushing through.

  I cursed as I raced after him, through the bar, and out the door into the bright Caribbean sun. I looked around frantically as soon as I was outside, but I couldn’t find any sign of him. Tourists and locals alike were milling around, going about their day, but there weren’t nearly enough of them that he could have disappeared into the crowd.

  Suddenly, I heard the sound of tires screeching, and a second later, a black car came tearing around the side of the building, directly toward me. I managed to leap out of the way just as it sped over the spot where I’d just been standing. I watched from the ground as it jumped the sidewalk and almost took out a pair of women wearing wide-brimmed hats before speeding off down the road.

  One of the women screamed and stumbled backward onto the ground as the car narrowly avoided hitting her. She scrambled back to her feet before dragging her friend away from the scene. A few people on the other side of the road were staring wide-eyed at me as well.

  “Damn,” I grunted as I got back onto my feet, bits of dust and gravel stuck to my clothes where I’d hit the ground. My heart was racing, and I could feel adrenaline still coursing through my body as I yanked my phone from my pocket to call Captain Morris.

  “Hello?” he answered right away. “Is everything okay?”

  “No,” I replied hastily. “One of the suspects got away. He’s fleeing in a black car, some kind of two-door sedan, I think. I didn’t get a great look. I was too busy trying not to get hit.”

  “I’m on it,” Morris replied. “Which way did it go?”

  “Left?” I muttered as I tried to find a road sign in this unfamiliar area. “I think that would be south, then. On Bonaventure Crescent.”

  “I’ll send a car out,” Morris replied. “Do you need anything else?”

  “Yeah, a few ambulances,” I answered. “It’s a mess here.”

  “Okay,” Morris grumbled, his voice laced with concern. “I’ll dispatch them right away.”

  “Thanks.” I sighed. “I’m going to go see how everyone’s doing. Bye.”

  I ended the call and walked back into the bar. The women were all huddled at one end of the main floor. Crowley and Daniela were standing over them as though guarding them. I was just about to go back into the stairwell when the door leading to it suddenly popped open, and Olivia stepped through. Just behind her was the girl that had hit her head on the edge of the stairs, being supported by Holm.

  “I tried to tell her not to move,” he explained. “She insisted. Said she wanted to see Daniela.”

  “Danny!” the girl yelled as soon as she spotted the woman.

  Daniela turned at her nickname and stretched her arms out to the girl. The girl’s eyes welled up with fresh tears as she pulled away from Holm and went running to her.

  As I watched them embrace, some of the earlier fury I’d felt after watching the suspect get away ebbed. Things hadn’t gone exactly as planned, and we’d incurred a lot of injury in the process, but the women were safe now. Ultimately, that was what mattered.

  27

  Ethan

  A few hours had passed since the mission to rescue the women from the Oasis Lounge. Holm, Olivia, and I were in the hospital, getting ready to head back to the Grace Bay Police Station to speak with the victims.

  We hadn’t had a chance to speak with any of the girls up until now because we’d been too busy dealing with the aftermath of the fight. Three of the officers who had been assigned to assist us had been hurt. Luckily, they’d all been wearing standard bulletproof vests, so although they’d sustained injuries, none of them were life-threatening. On top of that, three of the suspects had died during the battle, and one had managed to escape. Even though Morris had sent officers out to look for the car, by the time they’d arrived, he was already long gone.

  However, my main concern had been Olivia, who’d been shot in the arm in nearly the same place that the antique shop owner had shot her a few days prior. As a result, the stitches on her old wound had opened up. This time, the doctor had told her that it was imperative that she not use her arm to give herself a chance to recover fully and had even recommended that she stay in the hospital for a few days. Olivia wouldn’t hear a word of it.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” I asked her once again. I was genuinely worried about her. She’d taken two bullets to the arm in less than a week, and this injury had been significantly worse than the last one, enough so that she was now confined to a sling.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to,” she sighed as she looked down at the bandages on her arm. “It’s that I can’t. Look, it’s not that I don’t trust you and Robbie to be able to handle this, but the fact is that things will probably be a lot smoother if I’m there. These women have spent years being victimized by men, possibly for their whole lives if any of them have been here for as long as Allison was. I know that you and Robbie are good, decent people, but they don’t. All they’ll see is that they’re suddenly in a police station, surrounded by more men that they don’t know. On top of that, I’ve already built a rapport with Jenny. That’ll really help when it comes to connecting with the other victims.”

  I knew she was right. After all, she was the expert in this field, but I still wasn’t all that happy about it. I could tell from the way her lip would suddenly twitch and her voice would catch as she spoke that she was in pain. She should be taking it eas
y for the moment, but she was too focused on the victims to think of herself.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” I muttered as the three of us made our way out of the hospital and into the parking lot. “Just, don’t do anything too crazy, alright?”

  “Aww, are you worried about me, Ethan?” She smirked as she bumped her uninjured shoulder against mine.

  “Of course I am,” I retorted. “Seems like you can’t go a day without getting shot.”

  “Funny,” she chuckled. “I was just thinking the same thing about you yesterday.”

  “Oh, were you worried about me, then?” I grinned at her.

  “Eh, maybe,” she mumbled with a slight shrug, her cheeks reddening as she spoke.

  “Guys, I am right here,” Holm groaned good-naturedly. “Not that this whole exchange wasn’t adorable, but could you maybe not make eyes at each other when I’m standing two feet away?”

  Olivia cleared her throat with embarrassment as I reached over to swat at Holm, who ducked out of the way of my attack smoothly. Now that we’d accomplished our mission and gotten the victimized women to safety, we felt a little more at ease, enough to joke around like this at least.

  We couldn’t get too complacent, though. We still needed to find the leader of the group, Samuel, and though we’d rescued several women, Jenny had told us about a house in Cockburn Town where they stayed while they weren’t out working. We still didn’t know how many other victims there were out there, still waiting for our help.

  That was what weighed on my mind as we made the drive back to the Grace Bay Police Station.

  “Remember,” Olivia cautioned us as we parked and made our way inside. “These women have been through a lot. They might react with fear or hostility, just like Jenny did. If that happens, just back off. We won’t get anywhere by pressuring them.”

  This actually wasn’t the first time we’d dealt with something of this nature. I could distinctly recall a similar case we’d handled involving a group of trafficked women who’d hijacked the boat they were being transported on. Several of them had reacted to the presence of law enforcement with aggression as well. Fight or flight was a natural survival response, after all. Some people chose to fight.