by T. R. Ragan
OTHER TITLES BY T. R. RAGAN
FAITH MCMANN TRILOGY
Furious
Outrage
LIZZY GARDNER SERIES
Abducted
Dead Weight
A Dark Mind
Obsessed
Almost Dead
Evil Never Dies
WRITING AS THERESA RAGAN
Return of the Rose
A Knight in Central Park
Taming Mad Max
Finding Kate Huntley
Having My Baby
An Offer He Can’t Refuse
Here Comes the Bride
I Will Wait for You: A Novella
Dead Man Running
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2017 Theresa Ragan
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 978-1503941410 (paperback)
ISBN-10: 1503941418 (paperback)
Cover art by Melteddashboard.com
Cover design by Rex Bonomelli
The Faith McMann trilogy is dedicated to all who work hard to raise awareness and increase understanding, and who struggle endlessly to supply services and help survivors of human trafficking. Organizations like the Polaris Project advocate for stronger federal and state laws and operate the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline. Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) trains truck drivers to understand, identify, and report instances of human trafficking. We can all do our part. If you see something, say something.
For information about trafficking:
www.traffickingresourcecenter.org.
CONTENTS
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
EPILOGUE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ONE
Twenty-four hours ago, Faith’s son had come back from the dead.
Hudson was alive.
He’d saved another boy’s life.
He was a hero.
And yet there had been no celebration. Hudson’s father was dead, and his ten-year-old sister was still missing.
Faith’s father and brother were also heroes. They had spent too many days in the Mendocino National Forest, but they had survived the elements and brought her son home to her.
Last night, Faith’s father, brother, and son had been examined by doctors at the hospital. Her brother, Colton, was doing fine. Russell, her dad, was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, while Hudson had numbness in his toes and fingers. Thankfully, he didn’t have frostbite. After the hospital, they’d returned to Faith’s parents’ house and gone straight to bed.
Hudson’s first full day back had been filled with lots of hugs and small talk, everyone happy to have him home. He’d eaten well, but overall he’d been quiet and appeared to be in a daze, still trying to find his bearings.
It was seven o’clock at night, and Faith was getting ready to tuck her son under the covers. All he had to do was lay back on the pillows and go to sleep, but he seemed to be fighting it. She could see the exhaustion creeping into his shadowed eyes. Eyes that had seen too much horror in the past two months. She wished she could hold him close and take away all the fear and confusion he must be feeling.
She leaned over and kissed his forehead.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“You haven’t told me about Dad.”
“What do you want to know?” Faith took a seat on the edge of the bed, pushed strands of flyaway hair from his small face, and waited.
“Did he bleed a lot?” Hudson asked.
Her heart dropped to her stomach. She didn’t want to think about the human traffickers who had taken Craig’s life. She couldn’t think about her husband without seeing images of the sharp blade of the knife as it sliced through his throat. She didn’t have to close her eyes to see all the blood as her husband’s life seeped away.
Hudson didn’t blink. “Did Dad suffer?”
“No,” she said softly. “He didn’t suffer. Beth tried to save us both, but Dad was already gone. He went quickly, and he’s watching over us now.”
“How do you know he’s watching us?”
“I just do. I can feel him close by everywhere I go. He was next to me while I was looking for you, encouraging me to never give up searching for you and Lara. He loved you both so much.”
“I miss him.”
“I do, too.”
Hudson pointed a finger at her scar, which ran from one ear, down her chin, and across her throat. “Did they do that to you?”
She nodded.
“Did it hurt?”
“No,” she said without pause.
Hudson took in a gulp of air before he said, “I watched two people die.”
“Oh, Hudson.” She had no idea what he’d been through, and she’d been told not to push him or ask too many questions. She felt as if she were teetering at the edge of insanity. How could those people have done this to her son? He’d never been a fearful child. They had taken his innocence from him without any thought.
“It’s OK, Mom. Grandpa had to see all sorts of horrible things during the war.”
“Maybe so,” she said, “but he wasn’t nine years old. You’re a very brave boy, and we’re all so proud of you for finding a way to stay alive and for helping Joey. I talked to the doctor yesterday at the hospital, and he said Joey is going to be all right and that children’s services have found a family for him to stay with.”
“What about his foot?” Hudson asked. “On our last day in the woods, he couldn’t walk.”
“He might lose a big toe due to frostbite, but it was pneumonia that made it difficult for him to go on. He’ll be in the hospital for at least another week.”
“I’m glad he’s alive.”
“Me, too,” Faith said.
There was a short pause before he added, “His parents sold him to those people.”
She closed her eyes for a long moment, doing her best to stay strong and hold it together.
“They told me over and over again that you and Dad didn’t want anything to do with me. That kids were hard work and I was a troublemaker.” His gaze had fallen downward, but he looked up at her again and said, “But I knew they were lying. They laughed when I said they were liars, but I knew you and Dad would never give us away.”
She rested both hands on his small shoulders. “There was never a moment, let
alone a day, that Dad and I didn’t love you two so much it hurt.”
She hugged him tight, glad when he lay back so she could tuck the soft blankets over his chest close to his chin. His eyelids had been drooping all day, and now, despite his attempts to stay awake, he couldn’t fight sleep any longer. Within seconds of his head hitting the pillows, he was out for the count.
Faith stayed with Hudson for another twenty minutes, watching him, unable to take her eyes off him. He was alive, and he was home.
At the sound of voices downstairs, she found the energy to push herself from the bed. Her family, along with Beast and Rage, two friends who’d been at her side since she started her search for her kids, had agreed to meet to discuss plans for finding Lara. Everyone was in the living room. Jana and her husband, Steve, sat on the love seat. Colton was seated on the stone hearth, stooped over, elbows on knees. Dad was in his favorite recliner. Beast had pulled up a chair from the kitchen, leaving an empty spot on the couch next to Rage.
“How’s Hudson doing?” Jana asked.
“I think he’s doing OK, considering,” Faith told her sister. “He wanted to know if Craig suffered.”
The room grew quiet.
“He also saw two people killed while he was in the mountains,” Faith added, “but he’s trying to be brave like his grandpa.”
“It’ll take some time, but he’ll get through this,” Colton said. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Faith nodded. Her brother had been with her every step of the way. He’d sacrificed so much, and yet nothing would stop him from seeing this through to the end. She glanced around the room. If not for every single one of them, she’d never have gotten this far. Hudson wouldn’t be asleep upstairs. She owed them all so much.
“About this list of yours,” Jana said, her voice filled with emotion. “Steve and I have taken a look at all the names you gave us. It seems so overwhelming. It would take months to figure out who’s who.”
Faith’s heart went out to her sister. She was seven months pregnant, and from the start her hormones had gotten the best of her. Jana could go from tearful to laughing inappropriately to extreme worry in the bat of an eye.
“What do you plan to do with the list of names anyhow?” Steve wanted to know.
The list, Faith thought. Everything now revolved around the list she’d obtained from the sister of a man who had been working for Aster Williams, the alleged trafficking ringleader in Sacramento. “Rage, Beast, Little Vinnie, and I have been using whatever means at our disposal to put faces to names, trying to find out who these people are and what they do,” Faith said. “One thing we’ve discovered is that these are not your run-of-the-mill thugs. The list includes some very important people in the community: doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. Politicians and bankers.” Faith shook her head. “Not only is it overwhelming; it’s not easy to comprehend what many of them are doing out of simple greed. It’s incomprehensible.”
“I haven’t had time to look at the list,” Colton said. “Are these businessmen mostly johns?”
“No,” Beast answered. “The sex industry, at least in Sacramento, seems to be run by a highly structured organization with many key players.”
Faith nodded her agreement. “The names on the list include pimps, recruiters, johns, and guys like Aster Williams who keep things running smoothly.”
“But what is the goal?” Jana asked. “What do you plan to accomplish here?”
Faith thought the reason was clear. “Nothing has changed,” she told her sister. “My one and only goal is to find Lara. So far we’ve come up against nothing but dead ends. Diane Weaver is dead. Her brother and his wife were murdered. Every time we get another name, that person turns up dead . . . including Richard Price. Except in Richard’s case, I was lucky enough to locate his sister, who provided me with the list of names her brother had left behind.”
“I’ve been doing some research,” Rage chimed in. “Trafficked children are often moved around to keep them from being found. Our hope is that whoever is watching Lara is afraid to move her until media attention dies down.”
“Which means we need to work fast,” Faith said. “If Aster Williams is hiding Lara, it seems likely someone within his hierarchy might have her.”
“Instead of walking the streets with flyers,” Rage said, “we figured it might be a good idea if we do some surveillance, keep an eye on as many of these people as possible to see if one of them leads us to Lara.”
“Makes sense,” Colton said.
“I think it’s a brilliant idea,” Jana said. “Maybe we should each start with five names and start going door-to-door? I am certainly capable of sitting in a car and keeping an eye on some of these men.”
“Over my dead body,” Steve told Jana. “Look at you. You’re seven months pregnant, ready to explode. I’ll help with surveillance while you continue to man the phones and keep track of social media.” Before anyone could respond, Steve gestured toward Dad, who had fallen asleep in his chair. “Look at him. He’s exhausted. I don’t mean to be Debbie Downer,” Steve told Faith, “but how are you going to take the time to watch these guys when Hudson needs you here?” He flipped a hand toward Colton. “Your brother has a plane ticket out of here first thing in the morning to go see his wife and kids.”
“I canceled the trip,” Colton said. “Faith needs me, and I can’t leave until we’ve found Lara.”
Afraid for her children’s lives, Bri had decided to stay with her parents in Florida for a while. Although the thought of her brother being away from his family for this long seemed like too much to ask, Faith was filled with gratitude.
“I’m going to call Bri and tell her I’ll come visit her and the kids when this is over,” Colton said.
“I can’t ask you to do that,” Faith told her brother. “You’ve been away from your family long enough.”
“Bri and the kids will understand,” Colton said. “It’s not your choice to make.”
“Jana is pregnant,” Steve went on, “so she won’t be much help. And what about Rage?”
Rage narrowed her eyes. “What about me?”
“I’m merely stating the obvious,” he told her. “You’re not exactly feeling one hundred percent.”
“Who told you that? Are you saying I don’t look right?”
Jana elbowed her husband in the ribs.
“No,” Steve quickly backtracked. “I wasn’t saying that at all.”
Rage chuckled. “Settle down. I’m only kidding. I’m dying, and I look like shit. Thanks for reminding me.”
Beast grunted.
Dad’s snore came out as a long rumble followed by a squeaky whistle.
Colton found a blanket and laid it gently over him. Clearly, Faith thought, during their long trek through the mountains to find Hudson, Dad and Colton had bonded. They both tended to be a little bullheaded, always testing each other. But since their return twenty-four hours ago, it was all pats on the back and friendly conversations.
“Well,” Steve said, “you might as well hand me five names so I can get started. I can knock on a few doors and pretend I’m selling something so I can get a peek inside to see if anything looks suspicious.”
“Nobody goes door-to-door these days, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try,” Colton said.
“Unless they’re armed and dangerous,” Beast said. “In which case, it’s probably better if all of you stay in the car and use binoculars to watch them.”
“How’s your leg?” Faith asked Steve. “Jana said you were supposed to keep off it for another week or two.”
“I’ve got my crutches if I need them. I’ll be fine.”
“We can only do so much research,” Beast said, looking at Faith. “It’s time to start checking up on these guys. At the very least, we might be able to cross a few names off the list. Or better yet, find Lara and bring her home.”
“Rage mentioned earlier that you gave a copy of this list to Detective Yuhasz,” Colton said. “What did he have to
say about it?”
“He’s still in the hospital recovering. I don’t know if he’s had a chance to take a look at it, but he promised to keep everything I gave him confidential until he’s on his feet again.”
“Why can’t the police pay these guys a visit?” Jana asked.
“The police don’t have the manpower or the time,” Faith said. “And even if they did, they would be duty bound to tell the person the reason for their visit.”
“And if Aster Williams discovers what we have in our possession,” Rage added, “every trafficker within a hundred miles of the state capitol will head for the hills.”
“And they’ll take Lara with them,” Faith said as fear and anger threatened to strangle her once more. Those two emotions had been the bane of her existence for so long she no longer remembered what it felt like to be a regular person living a normal life.
“Faith is right,” Rage said. “Another reason why the people on this list should be watched from afar.”
“It’s as good a plan as any,” Colton said. “Give me a few of those names, too. I’ll get started in the morning.”
TWO
Patrick entered the Chinese restaurant in Granite Bay, took a quick look around, and then headed for the back room. Without a word spoken, the owner, a petite woman with straight black hair and a crooked spine, stepped out from behind the cash register and led him down a narrow hallway. Aster seldom asked him to meet in public, but he’d called a few hours ago to tell him to arrive an hour before closing.
Using arthritic fingers to open the door, the woman gestured for Patrick to enter.
Aster and three men Patrick had never seen before sat at a large round wooden table. In the center was a lazy Susan covered with food. Too busy shoving raw pinkish clumps of octopus into his mouth, trying to get the tentacles under control before he slurped it all down, Aster didn’t bother greeting him or making introductions.
Watching Aster eat never failed to cause Patrick to lose his appetite.
Aster swallowed, took a swig of sake, and gestured for Patrick to take a seat in the empty chair next to him. He figured whatever it was Aster wanted to discuss had to be important.
And it couldn’t be good.