She took of in that direction. It was dark and creepy in these woods. The whole place felt deserted and menacing. Scraggly branches pulled at her clothes and hair as she plunged deeper into the woods. The sound of crying drew her on. She would follow the tears and hopefully find Jai.
“Jai?” Isabella called.
Finally Jai’s songlike voice answered back. “I’m here!”
“Who is that?”
“I think its Rachel.”
“What?” Isabella was thunderstruck. “Rachel Trapp?”
“I’ve only seen pictures.”
Isabella wove her way deeper into the forest and saw Jai crouched next to a tree trunk. There was a woman curled up beneath it. Isabella squatted down beside Jai and gazed at the woman who had wedged herself into the space beneath the tree.
“Rachel?” Isabella said softly. “Your brother is looking for you.”
“You know Alex?” Rachel lifted her head. “He’s so angry with me. I know he is.”
“No, Rachel.” Isabella wondered if Trapp had been right. Had he been seeing his sister all over the place? Had she been the one to set the fire at the house where they were staying? “None of that matters right now. Let’s get you home. All right?”
“They need medicine,” Rachel said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the other captives and the rest of Isabella and Jaipriya’s impromptu team. “They’re infected you know.”
“Oh God,” Isabella whispered. “Rachel, we have to get you out of here. We all have to go. Where is Trapp? Where is your brother?”
“Back there?” Rachel made another gesture and then shrugged.
“Help me,” Isabella said to Jai in a low voice. “We have to get her back to her brother. I have a feeling the guys are close.”
Jai made a soft sound of horror. “That’s where all the women came from. Do you think they were all held out here?”
“There’s no way of knowing everything that happened,” Isabella told the other woman. “Just focus on now.”
They both dragged Rachel from her hiding place and then held tight as they took her back to the truck. Cassidy was leaning out the window. Her face went slack when the glow of the headlights illuminated Rachel.
“Rachel?” Cassidy’s voice broke over her friend’s name. “Oh my God! Rachel!”
Cassidy leaped out of the driver’s seat She sprinted toward them and wrapped her arms around Rachel’s waif thin form. She was sobbing and laughing and seemed to be oblivious to Rachel’s nearly catatonic state.
“Cassidy, put her in the truck,” Isabella urged. She looked at the vehicle. There were nearly twenty passengers in the back including Tasha and Marina. “I’ll drive. It’s going to be slow going over this track.”
Jai jumped into the passenger seat as Isabella took a place behind the wheel with Rachel and Cassidy in the backseat. Isabella put the truck in park and began inching down the road. They coasted a little faster, and then faster, and then suddenly the shape of a house came into view.
Isabella peered through the windshield. “What’s this house?”
“Hasim’s house,” Rachel said haltingly. “I stay here sometimes.”
Cassidy hushed her friend, but looked sick to her stomach. God knew what Rachel was going to have to go through for debriefing. The woman had been through hell. Then Isabella realized there were a lot of lights on at the house and in the yard. A big tactical vehicle sat in front of the place and there were two containers with their doors wide open.
“Is that?” Jai muttered. Then she began bouncing in her seat. “It’s the guys!”
“Thank God!” Isabella sighed. “Please let this be over. Please?”
They pulled up next to the SEALs tactical vehicle and Isabella threw the truck in park. She got out and immediately saw Trapp heading her way. She made a beeline for him, arms outstretched and wanting nothing more than to give him a hug.
“Stop!” He held out his hands. “I’m infected.”
TRAPP WANTED NOTHING more than to hold Isabella close to his heart. He could not believe he had been such an ass. He had left her behind. He had been suspicious of her and accused her of horrible things and all because he had his head so far up his ass that he couldn’t see what was right in front of his face. But as much as he wanted her in his arms, he didn’t want her infected and they were already halfway through their supply of antidote and it was impossible to tell which of the women had been inoculated yet or not.
“I found Rachel!” Isabella told him. “So if you’re infected, then so am I. Because she claims that she is.”
“You have Rachel?” He could not believe the news. “Where? How?”
“We were being held in a barn further back. We caught a bunch of loose ones on our way out. What happened?” Isabella glanced around. Trapp couldn’t even imagine what it must look like to her.
“We have to hurry. The news already has the story. They’re on their way and the FBI will be here in minutes to claim jurisdiction.” Trapp knew he was talking rapid fire, but there was not time to waste. “These women were infected with something called Mr. Trip. It was the bio terrorism agent. They were going to be sent home with their families and would all become patient zero.”
“Shit!” Isabella fumed. “And DOJ is just going to waltz in here and pretend it’s a big bust?”
“That’s their plan.”
Around him, Trapp saw his entire team—including their recently added female counterparts—struggling to inoculate the captives. Everyone who had had a shot was being sent into the house. Those who were still waiting were milling about like crazed lunatics. They were all in bad shape. Yates had already called for an entire medic team. They were mustering a military medical field unit from a nearby post and scrambling the resources to deal with this many POWs. It was a complete madhouse.
“I love you,” Trapp called out to Isabella. “I need to tell you that. Well, and I need to tell you that I’m sorry too.”
She looked startled. “I love you too. Even when you were being a total dick.”
He grabbed one of the syringes that Yates was loading in a frenzy of activity. Fortunately Tasha had joined him and it was now going twice as fast. Trapp stabbed himself in the arm and then grabbed a second syringe. He stabbed Isabella and then pulled her into his embrace.
“That’s what I needed,” he groaned. “God you feel so good! I think I could stay like this forever.”
“Alex?” He heard Rachel’s voice behind him.
Keeping Isabella in his arms, Trapp turned to face his sister. She looked horrible. Haggard and emaciated, she still had those deep circles and looked even more bedraggled from her run through the forest.
“I’m sorry I let them all out,” Rachel told him softly. “I couldn’t leave them in there anymore.”
“I know.” Trapp did not add that they could never be sure if they had found everyone. There could still be women wandering those woods carrying a disease they knew nothing about. It made the media all the more important, if Trapp and his men could get to them before DOJ got involved.
“I see a van!” Tasha was jumping up and down, pointing. “It’s a news van. How typical. They totally beat the cops.”
Trapp grimaced. Isabella snuggled closer. “Are you ready?” she asked him. “You have to tell them the truth about the possibility of disease.”
“Not exactly,” Trapp mused.
He took Isabella’s hand and started walking toward the news vans. He had parked his vehicle beside the containers. With the addition of the truck the women had brought, it created a sort of barrier. Now he stood there with Isabella at his side and waited.
The news vans skidded to a stop and reporters piled out. Someone shoved a microphone in his face. “We’ve had a report that a huge international human trafficking ring has been busted by the Department of Justice. Is that true? Are you a member of the DOJ?”
“I’m a Navy SEAL,” Trapp said calmly. “A few weeks ago my sister was abducted from a club in Richmond, Virginia. I
’ve been searching for her ever since. What I discovered was that there were a lot of abductions from clubs on the east coast. A man named Hasim ibn Armeen al Saud was responsible.”
“Have you apprehended this man?” another reporter shouted.
They were gathering en masse now. Probably ten vans and trucks all told with their satellite equipment and crews. Behind them, Trapp spotted the black on black vehicles of the FBI. His moment was almost over.
“These women were found in shipping containers,” Trapp told the media. “They were infected with an unknown agent by Armeen al Saud. My SEAL team and I have inoculated everyone of them that we can find. It is possible that there are others wandering these woods. If the general public finds these women, please call your local authorities immediately! Do not engage with them. Do not touch them. Do not talk to them. Do the best you can for them until the proper authorities arrive! Please! They are not criminals. But they have been abused more than you can possibly imagine and they will act like wild animals!”
“Thank you!” An FBI agent walked on scene and raised his hands to the news crews. “I’ll be handling any further questions. The FBI has been working this case in a joint task force with the DOJ and Homeland Security for over a year now. We will be answering any and all questions that you have. Thank you!”
Trapp and Isabella clung to each other as they were manhandled into a black vehicle and driven away from the scene. The flashing lights faded from view and soon there was only the inky black of night outside the window.
Chapter Nineteen
Isabella remained silent. There would be no point in speaking. Not yet. For now they were just trying to intimidate the hell out of her. Unfortunately it was totally working. She set her jaw and looked around with active interest while trying to stay calm and appear unruffled.
The room screamed vintage interrogation. Not that she was even going to think about the possibility of those two things going together at this point. The sterile white walls and stark overhead lighting were designed to make her feet hot and uncomfortable. She knew that because she’d been trained to interrogate prisoners in just these circumstances.
There was a one way mirror in front of her, and in her peripheral vision she could see cameras in every corner of the room. There were only two metal chairs and the table between them. Her hands were cuffed to the tabletop and she could not even sit back in her chair without extending her arms at an uncomfortable angle. It was all designed to make her want to get out of there as soon as possible.
Too bad she already knew their game. She just had to stop worrying so much about Alex—or Trapp—or when had she started thinking of him in her head as Alex? It was a very serious shift in her personal thinking. Although did it really matter? She’d told him that she loved him. Granted, it had been in the heat of a very intense moment full of danger. She’d just seen her whole damn life flash before her eyes. And he had reciprocated. That had to mean something right? It wasn’t like she was throwing herself at a man that didn’t want her.
Ugh! Why was she thinking about this now? It was ridiculous! She was sitting here waiting for some asshole from the Department of Justice to come waltzing in and start asking a bunch of redundant or even just plain idiotic questions. She could not even begin to imagine where they would start. Nobody had bothered to tell her why she’d gotten picked up in the first place. They hadn’t been allowed to speak in the car, and they could only hope that in the chaos of that house and the captives and the media circus that the other SEALs would notice they were gone.
The door opened, the creaky sound bringing Isabella rushing back to the moment. She straightened up in her chair and tried to smooth her expression. She could not imagine what they had been watching on the cameras as she sat there ruminating on all of the drama in her life. Did they think somehow that this moment was the perfect moment to get her snap?
Then a man appeared in the doorway and she had to blink several times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. “Hello Isabella.”
She could not speak. She could only stare at Ryan Fullerton as he grinned at her as though he was a naughty boy who had pulled off a marvelous prank. What. The. Hell?
*
Alexander Trapp could have sat in an interrogation room all day. In fact he was betting that the assholes observing him were probably considering the need to come in and see if he had a pulse. He was a SEAL. The prisoner and interrogation training they experienced was fierce. He could sit here all day, all night, all weekend. Whatever. It was the niggling voice in the back of his head worrying about Isabella that was driving him to distraction.
He kept having to reset his brain. He would shove every emotion in the kill box and then slam the lid shut. He could not afford to get nervous or stupid right now. Isabella was an experienced field agent. She hadn’t gone through the same rigorous training he had, but she knew the drill and she was strong. They weren’t going to flip her on him. He didn’t have to worry about that. He trusted her. No matter what they said.
“Hello Commander Trapp.”
Trapp looked up and found himself staring straight into a face he’d never thought to see again. “Captain Oliver, I wish I could say that I was surprised.”
“You know, I would think you might be a little more cooperative considering we have your sister.”
“You’ve had my sister since she went missing,” Trapp said flatly.
Oliver drew back, looking wary. “What do you mean?”
“Well if you’re here interrogating me, that means you’re in this thing way over your head.” Trapp wondered if Oliver could possibly be a patsy without even knowing it. The idea was ludicrous and yet showed a certain amount of genius that wouldn’t be unexpected from a man like Jabar ibn Armeen al Saud.
“I’m in this over my head?” Oliver said drily. “With the FBI’s help I just solved a case that’s been ongoing for over a year. We had a resounding success!”
“And you’re not wondering why we were trying to vaccinate all of those women before you got there and let them loose like walking petrie dishes full of death?” Trapp could not hide his sarcasm. He shifted in his seat and glared up at the captain. “You’re an idiot. Hasim was using all of you and everyone was too arrogant to see it. How much did he pay you to look the other way?”
“Does it matter?” Oliver smirked and perched on the end of the table. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You and your team are going to go down for this anyway. You fell so hard for our little Homeland Security agent’s ruse that you’ve given us everything we need.”
The voices inside Trapp’s head were screaming in protest. No. He would not believe that Isabella had set this whole thing up. It wasn’t possible.
*
“Ryan, I saw them take your body away.” Isabella could not help but gape at him. “You look remarkably well for a dead guy.”
He laughed. The fucker had let her think he was dead and he just laughed about it! What. An. Ass! Then he stopped laughing and took a seat in the chair opposite her at the table. “Look Izzy. We know that Trapp and his team are the ones behind the terrorist plot to unleash a biological weapon on US soil. Just come clean and tell us what you know and we won’t even consider you an accessory. You can retire quietly from the agency and go about your normal life.
“Are you on crack?” If she could have covered her mouth with her hands to stop herself from saying stupid things, she would have. “I’m sorry, Ryan.” Isabella took a deep breath. “But you have no idea what you’re talking about. Hasim planned this whole thing. Hasim executed the attack. The man murdered his brothers in the process. He’s a complete nutcase and you guys seem completely oblivious.”
“We’ve gotten emails from Jabar explaining the whole thing.” Ryan looked smug.
“You mean the dead guy whose lying on a slab in a Baltimore morgue sent you email? Wow. Their facility must be really fancy. And I’m sure nobody has considered the possibility that Hasim was using Jabar’s email account or a
nything?”
“It’s confirmed,” Ryan told her firmly. “Our sources are impeccable.
“Who?”
“Captain Oliver, Commander Trapp’s own commanding officer.” Ryan shook his head. “I never expected you to have your head turned like this. He’s really gotten to you, hasn’t he?”
“Gotten to me? Really?” Isabella snorted. She leaned in close, bracing her cuffed hands on the tabletop. “Ryan, you’re a freaking moron if you believe that you know anything that’s going on. That’s all I can say. Start with that crime scene in the woods. Did you even notice that we were shooting them up with an antidote? Did you test them? Did you even bother asking them about it? Or were you too busy receiving accolades for work you didn’t do?”
Ryan’s expression faltered. It was for just a moment, but it was enough to tell Isabella that they hadn’t tested the women. In fact she would have bet good money that they hadn’t even thought to do it. They’d had their minds made up before they arrived.
Isabella glared at him. “This is a dangerous game to play when you are running around with blinders on.”
Ryan stood abruptly. “Obviously you’ve been completely brainwashed.”
“Go find Rachel,” Isabella insisted. “Talk to her. Be nice about it, but ask her about Mr. Trips.”
“Mr. Trips?”
“That’s what the biological agent was called.”
Ryan was really looking spooked. “She’s here. I can talk to her anytime I want.”
“So go do it and stop pissing away your time threatening me,” Isabella snapped. “And by the way, Trapp’s commander is dirty. Remember when I told you that they were blocking his request to come back here and deal with his family issues when his sister went missing? It was Captain Oliver that signed those denial papers every time.”
*
“Come on Trapp,” Oliver urged. “Just tell us where the rest of the stuff is.”
Trapp cocked his head to one side. “So that’s what this is about,” Trapp mused. “I was wondering why you were bothering with me. You could have had me court martialed by now and thrown in a hole so deep I’ll never see daylight again, but you want the rest of that bioterror shipment.”
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