by Elle James
“Well, their message now includes the abduction of a woman who didn’t even know she was living in the house of angels.” Matt paced away from them and back. “What do you know about these people?”
“Just that they’re known for being very ruthless, I’m sorry to say. We’ve been monitoring their trafficking patterns,” Agent McCall said. “They have a kind of corridor through this area. The coyotes bring the product, whether its drugs or people, across the border and hand off here.”
“We haven’t discovered who they’re working with on this side to hand off to. That’s the missing link,” Knowlton said. “If we could find him, we could stop the transfers. They’d be hard-pressed to sell what they have without a go-between.”
“Do you know where they’re hiding their ‘product’?” Matt asked.
Knowlton and McCall both shook their heads.
Matt clenched his fists. “Then what good are you to me?”
“They’re extra sets of eyes to help in our search,” the sheriff said. “I have every one of my deputies on duty and spread across the county. They’re instructed to stop everyone and inspect every inch of every vehicle.”
“They were on ATVs. Unless they transfer her over to something else, they aren’t on the roads. Did you find anything at the train yard?”
The sheriff shook his head. “Nothing.”
Minutes later, Trace, Irish and Lily arrived in Trace’s pickup, followed by another truck he didn’t recognize with another man Matt didn’t know.
Trace and Lily brought the man with them over to where Matt and the others were congregating. “Matt, this is Levi, the guy I told you about from my old unit. He just arrived today, fresh off active duty to come to work with our Outrider organization,” Trace said.
Levi held out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same. Is there a chance you can see in the dark and track ATVs for miles? I could really use someone like that about now,” Matt sighed. “They have Aubrey and they’ll kill her. Members of cartels don’t like to be humiliated by a female and they don’t like it when someone takes what they think belongs to them.” He led them to where the ATVs had disappeared into the woods. “They could be miles away by now.” A rush of hopelessness threatened to overwhelm him. “We haven’t discovered where they’re hiding yet. How are we going to do it now in the dark?”
Levi nodded. “I have a collection of night vision goggles.”
“We’d have to get close enough to humans for them to be of any use. Until we locate their hideout, we don’t have a starting point.”
“I also have a drone with a heat signature camera,” Levi said. “It’s one of my hobbies I just picked up during my time off.”
Matt perked up. “Did you bring it with you?”
Levi nodded. “It’s in my truck.”
“Can you get it up and running?”
“Sure,” Levi said. “Give me a few minutes.”
“The fewer minutes, the better. They already have a twenty-minute head start. I don’t know what good the drone will be, but it’s better than nothing at this point.” Matt ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t have any idea where to start. Between me and Aubrey and the sheriff’s folks, we’ve checked a lot of the abandoned buildings in the area and found nothing.”
“What about the buildings that aren’t abandoned?” Knowlton asked. “These people aren’t moving through this area without help.”
“They’ve been hiding a truck and trailer that can haul ATVs,” Lily said. “Who has a place big enough for them to drive the entire rig inside?”
“There’s a number of barns in the area.” Deputy Jones planted her fists on her hips, frowning. “Who would be most likely to help the cartel?”
“We don’t have enough support staff to block the roads and check all the potential hideouts at the same time,” the sheriff said.
“You have us,” Knowlton said, jerking his thumb from himself to Special Agent McCall.
“And us,” Matt said. “We can’t stand around doing nothing. We have to look everywhere we can.”
“What about the aluminum boat factory?” Trace said. “I was in there as a kid. They have room inside that place to park several boats. That would be enough room for a truck and trailer.”
“There’s the auto body shop, car dealership, storage units and the old five-and-dime store,” Deputy Jones said as she ticked off on her fingers. “Didn’t Rodney Morrison purchase the old shoe factory to renovate and make into apartments?”
“As far as I know, he hasn’t started the renovation,” the sheriff said. “It’s big enough to hide a truck and trailer inside. All of those places could have been used.”
“All of this takes time,” Matt said. “That’s what we don’t have a lot of.”
Knowlton, McCall, Irish, Trace, Levi and Matt exchanged phone numbers with each other and Sheriff Richards.
“Keep in mind, these guys are deadly mean and armed to the teeth,” Matt reminded them. “They’ve already tried to kill us twice.”
Levi hurried to his truck, returned with the drone and laid it out on the ground. With the joystick in his hands, he started the engine and sent it up into the sky. “I’ll keep you all informed of any movement I detect of a truck and trailer, or anything that could be used to transport people. I know what to look for.”
“Good,” Matt said. “I’ll take the storage units and the old shoe factory since they’re on the same road.”
“Lily, Irish and I will look into the auto body shop, car dealership and the five-and-dime,” Trace said.
“I’ll work with McCall and Knowlton to give them directions to the barns I can recall are large enough to hide a truck and trailer,” Sheriff Richards said.
“Call before trying to go into any place and be careful,” the sheriff added.
“Let’s go.” Matt strapped Aubrey’s helmet to the back of his motorcycle and pulled his helmet down over his head. His heart pinched hard in his chest. This was his fault. He should have kept her closer to his side. They’d tried twice now to kill her. He should be glad they hadn’t just driven by and shot her. He held out hope they’d find her before the cartel hurt her. If they were lucky, the cartel planned on selling her into the sex trade. He almost laughed at the thought that he could be glad they wanted to sell her. That would give them time to find and free her. The alternative was that they would kill her and dump her body in a ditch somewhere.
He would never forgive himself if that happened. After what they’d already been through together, he wasn’t ready for it to end. He liked her. A lot. He could see them dating and maybe... More.
Damn it. They would have that opportunity, if it was the last thing he did.
Chapter Fourteen
Aubrey came to when the four-wheeler she was draped over slowed to a stop. She was dumped unceremoniously on the ground, hitting her head and shoulder hard. Pain shot through her temple and arm. For a moment she lay stunned.
Men spoke Spanish, arguing over who would tie her wrists and ankles. Someone was supposed to be there and hadn’t arrived. They couldn’t stay long, or the police would find them.
All their words floated through Aubrey’s head, the translation garbled at best. She wasn’t sure who they were waiting for.
As her head cleared, she knew she had to get out of there, fast. She pretended to be unconscious, studying the terrain. They’d stopped on the side of a dirt road, hovering in the deep shadows of the trees. If she could get up and run, she might be able to elude them and duck out of sight until they gave up looking for her.
Aubrey counted to three in her head, then rolled to her belly, bunched her knees beneath her and launched herself away from the three men, two of whom were still on their ATVs.
She ran for the deepest darkest point in the woods where she hoped she could hide until they moved on. The problem wi
th going for darkness was she couldn’t see the obstacles in her path. She tripped over a branch, falling to her knees. On the ground for only a second, she pushed to her feet and ran again.
Behind her the men shouted. The three guys on the ATVs circled around and raced after her, headlights penetrating the darkness, finding her and making straight for her. Their lights helped her to find her way, but not to hide from them.
Aubrey darted to the right. Her night vision compromised by the ATV headlights, she ran into a briar bush, the thorns catching her clothes and skin, bringing her to an abrupt and painful halt. She backed away, her clothes snagged and her skin torn, but she made it out and ran another direction.
The men on the ATVs caught up with her and cut off her escape, circling her like a pack of wolves. One of them dived from his machine and tackled her, knocking her to the ground. The weight of his body pinned her. Facedown in the dirt, her breathing ragged and her skin bleeding, she struggled but couldn’t shake the man from her back.
Another man approached. In the light from the ATV’s headlights, Aubrey could see that he carried a syringe.
“No!” she said, fighting twice as hard. At one point, she managed to move the man on her back, but not enough to escape.
The needle was jammed into her arm and something burned as it entered her bloodstream.
In the next moment, the world spun and whirled, the lights making her dizzy. The weight on her back lifted. She could breathe better, but she couldn’t move a single muscle. All of them were as limp as wet pasta. Lying in the dirt, drooling, all she could think was that she wanted to see Matt again.
Hands gripped her arms and dragged her across the ground toward the road. A white van stood there with the door open.
Aubrey wanted to fight, to free herself, but she couldn’t muster a single ounce of energy. Even if she did, she wouldn’t know which way to run when her world spun in all directions. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping the spinning motion would subside. Instead of fixing her problem, she’d magnified it to epic proportions. She wanted to put her foot over the side of the bed like she had when she came home after a night of drinking. At least then, she could stop the room from spinning.
Whatever they’d given her had drained her completely and sapped from her body any strength she might have used to get away. The two men swung her up into the van and dropped her on the floor. Her head bounced, but she didn’t really feel it. She lay like a pile of rags on the floor of the vehicle, feeling very disconnected from her body. A man with salt-and-pepper hair spoke in Spanish to the men who’d brought her there on the ATV. Money exchanged hands and the ATVs departed.
Her head swimming in and out of consciousness, Aubrey was vaguely aware of the van moving along the dirt road and out onto a paved road. They bumped over something hard on the road twice and didn’t go much farther before the van pulled into something dark like a cave.
She could hear the sound of an overhead door closing behind them.
The van door slid open, hands grabbed her under her arms and by the ankles and dragged her out, depositing her, none too softly, on a concrete floor. She lay next to what appeared to be a dog kennel.
The sound of sniffling came from inside the kennel.
Aubrey’s head lay beside the grated gate of the kennel. The room was dark, but when someone opened one of the doors on the front of the van, enough light spilled out, allowing Aubrey to see into the kennel.
Instead of a dog, the dull eyes of a child shone out of the darkness. She sat hunched over, her dark hair matted, her body smelling of urine. She was dirty, grimy and terrified.
And Aubrey could do nothing to help her.
She tried to move her hands. If she was moving them, she couldn’t feel it. She focused her brain on wiggling her toes. Again, she couldn’t feel the toes wiggling.
Even opening her mouth to talk was impossible. She lay completely helpless and unable to do anything for the child in the cage.
The child whimpered and stuck her fingers through the grate, touching Aubrey’s hair. “Ayudame, por favor,” she whispered. Help me, please.
Aubrey lay beside the little girl they’d spent the day searching for. She wanted to say something to reassure the child that she would be okay. Not only could she not say a word, she wasn’t sure she could lie to the girl when she didn’t know if they would make it out of wherever they were alive.
A man walked around the van and stood over her.
Because she couldn’t move her head, all she could see were the toes of his wing tip black shoes. Aubrey knew the voice, but her foggy brain was having a hard time placing it. She’d heard it that day. Where?
The man with the voice squatted down beside her. “Because you meddled in my business, you cost me a lot of money and credibility with my contact.” He glanced at his watch. “Fortunately, the trade of you for that baby will make up for some of it. Guess you won’t be needing a house in Whiskey Gulch after all.”
That was it. The real estate guy in the diner. Rodney something or other. Morrison. Aubrey blinked her eyes, the only part of her that would respond to her mental command. Her fingers were tingling but still wouldn’t move. Her toes were beginning to have a little feeling in them.
“Ten minutes. That’s all we need. Ten minutes and you two are on your way to your new lives.”
“Bas...tard,” she forced past her heavy tongue.
Rodney laughed. “Yeah, but I’ll have the last laugh at your expense. You’ve caused enough trouble in this town. I had free run after I got rid of that Hennessey woman. I’ll be damned if I let you pick up where she left off with the house of angels. She cost me too much profit.”
“Won’t...get...away...with this,” she said, slowly getting her tongue under control.
“I can, and I will,” he said. “You won’t be around to squeal on me. You’ll be in a dirty brothel in some city, providing entertainment to men who are willing to pay the price. You and that dirty thing.” He nodded toward the girl in the kennel. “What men see in little girls is beyond me. They’re filthy and smell.”
When you keep them in kennels like dogs, they’re going to be dirty and smell. Aubrey didn’t bother voicing her opinion. The man wasn’t human. No real man would sell women and children into the illegal sex trade. Clearly, all Rodney was concerned about was the money involved in the exchange.
Aubrey willed strength into her arms and legs. But no amount of positive thinking would chase the effects of the drug they hit her with. Time was the only cure. And time was something she didn’t have a lot of.
Rodney Morrison straightened and called out an order in Spanish.
Two men converged on her, flipped her onto her stomach, wrapped her wrists in duct tape behind her back and secured her ankles.
Lying on her belly, her face turned toward the kennel, she could still see the little girl.
The sound of a train whistle blasted nearby.
Aubrey could feel the rumble of the heavy train grow as it moved closer.
Was this it? Was she going to be sold into the sex trade, drugged, tied and unable to fight her way free? She was so close to Isabella, and yet, she could do nothing to help the child. No little girl should have to go through what Rodney Morrison had in mind for them.
Aubrey focused on her fingers. The tingling had spread from the tips into her hands. She flexed her fingers, the feeling starting to come back. At the rate it was returning, they’d be loaded onto the train and gone before she could figure out a way to get out of the tape binding her.
Since her divorce, she’d prided herself on her independence. And, normally, she could handle most situations. But, right at the moment, she needed a miracle. Or a hero.
She looked at the little girl in the kennel and said in Spanish, “Todo saldrá bien. Viene ayuda.” It’ll be all right. Help is coming.
She prayed she was righ
t. The sheriff and others had focused on the train. Were they still doing that or had they started chasing other leads?
“Come on, Matt,” she whispered. “It’s up to you now. Find us.”
* * *
MATT’S GUT KNOTTED as he rode his motorcycle to the first place on his list. The storage unit was on his way, so he pulled in there first. A quick drive around the metal buildings convinced him this wasn’t the place. The only unit large enough to drive a truck into with a trailer on it wasn’t even locked. He got off his bike, pulled his gun and rolled the overhead door up.
The unit was empty. In the field beside the storage units were motorhomes and trailers parked until their owners were ready to take them out on the road. Just to be sure he wasn’t missing anything, Matt drove past the larger recreational vehicles, shining his flashlight, to make certain no one had parked a truck and trailer among them.
Again. Nothing.
Without wasting another second on the location, he shot back out on the road to the old shoe factory on the north end of town. He knew the roads and took some shortcuts he’d learned as a teen, driving through an alley behind several commercial buildings to get to the old factory.
He stopped behind a building that had been a butcher shop back when he’d been a kid. The shop had been closed for years, and the building was boarded up. Matt killed the engine and turned off the headlight, parking the bike in the shadows. From there, he continued on foot.
The shoe factory was just far enough out of town to be secluded, but close enough most people wouldn’t have considered it a logical place to hide a truck and trailer. Then again, the paved road wasn’t the only one that went to the factory. A dirt road led into the woods behind the building and out to another farm-to-market road, if he remembered correctly. He’d thrown his share of rocks at the windows in his youth and run into the woods when he thought someone was after him. No one cared about the building and it had fallen into disrepair even back then.