“No. You are a very good man.”
“Then why do I feel like crap? Why do I feel like a stinking traitor, like a damned Judas?”
She took his face in her hands and pushed his dark glasses up from his eyes to rest on the top of his head. “Because you have a good heart. You care for a little baby, but you don’t even know her name. We will find her the same as we’ll find LiLi. I promise.”
Mei kissed his lips as sweetly as he’d ever been kissed, but Zack didn’t feel the pleasure of it. His breath caught in his throat. Did she just tell him the same lie he’d been telling her?
The second foster home was different than the first. Cleaner. Quieter. The girls seemed healthier. Not really what he’d call happy, but better.
Zack and Mei walked through the child-filled rooms behind dark sunglasses and a shield of indifference. They didn’t hold hands. They didn’t pretend they were a loving couple. No one screamed at him. Most importantly, he didn’t touch a single little girl.
The only good thing that came out of it happened when Mei asked if there might be any other foster homes to visit. She came away with another address, while he left six Tattle Tales behind. The tour ended quickly. Zack ushered Mei to the passenger seat of the rental and closed the door as soon as she was inside. They were headed to another foster home. He wanted them done and behind him as quickly as possible.
“Did you get that?” He pressed a finger against his ear to reduce the background noise interfering with his comm link. David had the location of the other foster home and Zack needed his senior agent out of his head.
“Yes. Got it. Good job. Now that we’ve seen the inside of Richards’ foster homes, we cannot wait. I mentioned it to Mei yesterday. Alex is working on a plan with the local authorities, the FBI, and Interpol this morning to bring all these homes down.”
“Today?” Zack climbed behind the steering wheel and closed the car door.
“As quickly as they can gather sufficient forces. You’ve just given us another address to follow up on, which makes the operation that much larger. It’s critical we sweep in on all of these places at the same time. We cannot risk endangering the children any longer or allowing the people running the homes to escape. Alex’s plan includes Richards’ office, too.”
Zack glanced at Mei sitting beside him. Their time together was coming to a close, and if the upcoming takedown worked correctly, all those girls would be out of danger. She might find LiLi, although he doubted it. But if the plan of Alex’s didn’t go smooth, there was no telling what would happen. All kinds of bad scenarios filled Zack’s mind, running the gamut between people like Jun running away to save themselves, or blowing the homes sky high to obliterate the evidence. How far would Richards go to save his hide?
Zack already knew the answer. These children weren’t human beings in Richards’ eyes. They were inventory, and the foster homes were nothing but warehouses to store his inventory. Hell, the man would probably burn them down just for the insurance if he could get away with it.
“Ah, Zack, how are you feeling today?” There was a definite note of unsolicited concern in David’s calm voice.
“Fine,” Zack snapped, pulling the earpiece out and tossing it onto the back seat. The last thing he wanted was to talk about his feelings. There was no joy in listening to the cheap economy vehicle’s engine turn over either. He missed his car. He couldn’t kick a rental.
“I have an idea.” Mei’s hand was warm on his arm.
“Yeah, what?” Somehow, since the day before, they’d switched polarities. She was strong; he was falling apart. He was rude; she was patient. “I don’t want breakfast if that’s what you’re going to say. I don’t want anything.”
“I’ve been thinking about the girls lined up in the hall yesterday. It didn’t make sense. It’s not like that man was taking them outside to play. And didn’t Ms. Bradford say they don’t keep all the available children in one place?”
“You need to know the police are going to take down all of these foster homes as soon as they can. Maybe today.” Zack let her have the bad news bluntly.
“But what if there are more?” Mei gasped. “How will I ever find my daughter?”
He gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead. She’d just voiced his own dilemma; how to save one at the expense of so many others.
Mei’s breathing was now audible, short, fast breaths because her heart was pounding as she dealt with the sudden change in her expectations. He tried to soften the blow. “We can’t let any of the girls suffer, not now that we know how bad it is.”
“You’re right,” she agreed quickly, and he had to look at her. She didn’t sound as upset as he expected. “Then we need to go back to the first foster home right now. Let’s get your little girl out of there before they have a chance to move her, or before the police swarm in and overrun the place. You want to get her, don’t you?”
“Say what?” He looked twice. She might as well have told him the sky was green.
“I think they were already moving some of the girls yesterday. Remember the girls in the hallway that I mentioned before? They looked like they going somewhere. Maybe there are other foster homes we don’t know about. This is our only chance.”
Mei’s choice of words did not elude him. Your little girl. You want to get her. This is our only chance.
What the hell was she thinking? It didn’t matter. His mind kicked into high gear. They still had the money. It could work. He’d have to keep David and Todd in the dark, though. Hell, he’d have to go against every correct protocol for The TEAM. It might put the whole operation in jeopardy, but it’s not like he hadn’t done that before. Alex would be one mad bastard, but wasn’t he the one who’d said he’d have done the same thing by rescuing Chai Yenn? Zack would be fired for sure. He weighed the odds. Other than that, it just might work.
He looked into Mei’s eyes and saw the love shining there. She was a different woman since his meltdown yesterday, but he’d been such an ass all morning. He looked away.
“Zack.” She leaned across the console again, turning his face to hers, not blinking even once. “Let’s rescue one baby at a time. We know where your little girl is. I know you will do everything to help me find LiLi. I trust you.”
Great. What a way to kick a man when he’s down. He shook his head, trying to catch his equilibrium. It was impossible around this woman. Either she was crazy, or he was. Right now, he didn’t dare guess.
“Who are you?” he asked, cupping her cheek in his hand. “Just when I get you figured out, you change.”
Closing her eyes, she tipped her cheek into his palm. “Someone who knows what it’s like to lose your child. I can’t let that same thing happen to you.”
“That’s the problem. She isn’t mine.”
Wise brown eyes peered back at him. “She is if you love her.”
NINETEEN
Mei gulped.
They were back at the first foster home. Agent Lennox had parked in the same place they’d parked the day before, and for now, the money was safe in the trunk of the rental. He’d turned off his earpiece and stowed it in the glove compartment. All she had to do was be brave one more time.
“I’ll go in alone,” she said, trying to sound confident.
“I should go in with you.”
“No. They’d see your hands and wonder what happened. Besides, you don’t speak Mandarin. I do.”
He hadn’t taken his eyes off the dismal home. “What if you run into trouble?”
“I won’t.” She hoped. It seemed a more dangerous operation now that they were back and she was really preparing to go inside all by herself.
“Here.” He unholstered one of his pistols from under his arm, checked the magazine and handed it to her grip first. “Take this.”
“I don’t need a gun.”
“Take it,” he insisted. “I’ll feel better if you can protect yourself while you’re inside.”
“I have no place to hide it
.” She didn’t want the weapon near her, much less when she fully planned to be carrying a child with her. “Besides, I don’t know how to use it.”
He frowned, the gun still in his outstretched hand. “Do you ever do what you’re told?”
“I did. Once. A long time ago. Maybe.” She would have smiled if she weren’t so scared.
“I doubt it.” He secured his weapon and faced the house again.
Taking a big breath, she opened the door and stepped outside. The chill wind of the dismal day reminded her to pull her jacket tight. Her knees shook as she made her way back to the front door. As quick as she rang the doorbell, Jun answered, only this time she barely opened the door a crack.
“Why you here? What you want?”
“I’d like to talk to you about one of the babies my husband and I saw yesterday.”
Jun peered past her to the car where Agent Lennox waited. “Where other car? Why he not come with you? He scared?”
“No, he stayed in the car because he has your money.” Mei played her ace in the hole. “We’re willing to pay you for the child if you will let us take her with us.”
Jun’s eyebrows shot up, but she recovered quickly. “How much money you got?”
“May I come in?” Mei resorted to her alter ego. “Or are you going to keep me standing out here in the cold while you ask stupid questions?”
That did the trick. Jun opened the door and stepped aside for Mei to enter. “You want same baby he like yesterday?”
“Yes. Do you still have her?”
“Maybe.” Jun glanced down the hall where a group of older girls stood in a line. All dressed in their orange dresses, they looked like they were waiting for a fire drill.
“What’s going on?” Mei asked.
“We moving,” Jun admitted. “Again.”
“What do you mean, you’re moving?” Mei’s heart skipped a beat. Was the baby already gone?
Jun shrugged and walked toward the hall where the girls waited. “Come. We talk money. Then we talk baby.”
“No.” Mei stood her ground. “I want to see the baby first. Once I have her, we’ll talk money.”
Jun glanced over her shoulder. “I think you come now. We see baby you want.” She lit a cigarette as she walked, so Mei followed. The money was secure for now. She intended to signal Agent Lennox once she had the little girl safely in her arms. There was no way their plan could fail.
Once in the hall, she spotted the man she’d seen the day before. He stood at the back door, his arms folded over his chest. A look passed between Jun and him that Mei couldn’t interpret. He nodded, but Jun kept leading, so Mei continued to follow. Her fingers clenched with worry. Saving this child meant everything right now. Then it was LiLi’s turn.
The smell of the place hadn’t improved. Mei took a deep breath before Jun opened the nursery doors. Once again, every child’s head turned to her. All those eyes. The bleakness of their situation encircled Mei, an invisible snake that constricted the joy out of saving just the one. All of these children needed rescue.
Jun marched over to the playpen where the baby girl lay sleeping on her stomach. With the cigarette bobbing on her lip, Jun reached into the pen and jerked the baby up by her arm. The poor little tyke blinked, her lips puckered up for a cry that never came. Jun shook her once like she needed to shake the sleep out of the baby.
“You want this one?” she snapped. “You like? Yes? No?”
“Yes.” Mei couldn’t take the baby from Jun fast enough. She smothered her to her chest. “She is the right one.”
“How much money?” Jun glared. “You say we talk money when you have baby. How much?”
“What do you want for her?” Mei asked. There were so many others. If Jun asked for less, maybe she could rescue one or two more.
“I think not.” Jun’s face crinkled into an ugly sneer as she glanced over Mei’s shoulder.
Too late Mei saw the young black man sneaking up behind her.
Too late she felt his fist in the side of her head.
Too fast the reeking floor reached up and swallowed her alive, along with the child in her arms.
Where the hell is she?
Zack drummed the steering wheel through bandaged fingers. Every tap hurt. He didn’t care. Mei had been in there too long. Something was wrong. The old dude he’d seen inside with Jun yesterday was out and about today. He’d already made two trips to the dumpster at the end of the driveway, even waved once when he spotted Zack in his car. Still no Mei. Still no signal.
How long can it take to grab one baby and run?
Low gray clouds raced overhead on their way westward. If she didn’t come out soon and at least give him the signal to bring the cash, he’d have to turn the engine and the heater on. His gut screamed. The cold was the least of his worries.
“Come on, give me a sign, damn it.” He grabbed the door handle, rolled the stress out of his shoulders, and watched the front door. “Wave to me, Mei. Do something.”
The door of the house opened, but it was Jun. She waved all right, a fast come-quick kind of a wave, and Zack bolted out the door.
“Come now,” she called to him. “Baby girl sick. You must come now.”
He ran. One step hit the porch before he heard the vehicle screeching toward him. A blue van? That blue van. He froze. Which way to go? Forward or retreat?
“Must come,” Jun screeched. “Hurry. Hurry.”
The vehicle swerved over the yard. There was no time to think. He reached for his cell phone and stabbed the preset number for Alex. Mother answered.
“They’re moving the girls,” he bellowed.
“They what?” she asked. “Zack? Is this—?”
“Hey, you!” Two thugs scrambled out of the still-moving van.
“Mei’s inside,” Zack yelled at Mother. “Get someone here now. Send help.”
4th Street Tigers ran at him, guns drawn, murder in their eyes.
“Where are you?” Mother demanded. “Hold on. I’m sending—”
“We’re at—”
A blinding light exploded in his head. Pain crashed against his skull.
“Mother!”
“Aw. He’s calling his mommy,” someone taunted from very far away.
He dropped to his knees, the phone on the ground beside him. Darkness descended.
Jun lunged.
He grabbed her bony ankle.
She hit him again.
TWENTY
Something smelled bad. Real bad.
Zack squinted through murky vision. He would’ve opened both eyes, but one was stuck shut. Swollen shut. A man shouldn’t feel so damned bad. His whole head seemed swollen shut. Nose. Ears. Mouth. Darkness parted only to reveal more rolling darkness that made him dizzy. Like he wasn’t dizzy enough.
She hit me. Oh hell, did she hit me.
It was hard to make out anything in the cold dark place where he lay. A thin layer of slimy mud cushioned his cheek, offering relief. Breathing would’ve felt better without the burning stone in his chest.
The fog in his head lifted. Both arms were pulled tightly behind his back, making breathing constrained and difficult, but he was alive. Maybe alive was a good thing? Stiff and cold, his bandaged fingertips slid along the plastic zip ties strapped around both wrists. His feet were bound together the same way. Tight.
Details surfaced slowly through the haze in his brain. Jun. That damned mean Jun. The 4th Street Tigers. Even the blue van showed up for roll call. Mei was in there somewhere, lost in his head. Alex, too. Nothing made sense. The cold felt good on his cheek. Sleep beckoned. If only he could breathe.
He lay there gasping like a fish out of water. The ground moved and swelled. Breathing became all-important. Thinking, too. That’s what Alex always railed on. He expected his agents to think. Once in a while, just think. But Zack’s brain pounded inside his skull and thinking hurt. If that wasn’t bad enough, just trying to breathe felt like it was killing him, too.
His needs beca
me more primal the longer he lay there.
Air. I need air.
Someone groaned nearby.
“Mei?” Zack grimaced. He’d have thought of her eventually. And then he knew his mouth was full of blood, maybe a couple broken teeth, too. He spat the clot out and called again, but his voice carried no impact or volume. He croaked anyway, “Mei.”
There was no answer, and the feeble attempt had taken all his strength. He lay listening and shivering. Something at the back of his mind recalled that shivering was a good thing. It was only when a man stopped shivering he had something to worry about. Of course, he probably didn’t care much by then.
Think! Alex’s voice screeched at him from out of nowhere.
“Damn it, Boss,” Zack rasped. “Leave me...alone.”
Think, Zack. Think.
“You’re bugging me. ’Sides...I’m trying...to die here.”
Think.
“Think I’m...losing my mind.”
He stilled. Alex wasn’t really here. Good. A man deserved peace and quiet when he’s trying to draw his last breath.
“Mei?” he asked the darkness. She was here a minute ago, wasn’t she?
He rolled to his back and pushed his hands into the mud. Every muscle screamed to lie back down. Somehow, he managed a sitting position, but that only made him dizzier, like it was possible. The ground moved in a circular wave, up and then down, around and around.
The darkness whispered a word he dreaded. Concussion.
“Yeah. Yeah. Maybe...if I live.” His hoarse voice echoed. Echoed...Echoed....
“Ah, hell.”
Pain slammed his ribcage. Inhaling fire, the blackness took what little breath he’d drawn. Barely able to squeeze a breath in, he tried to think and think fast. Mei had to be here. Maybe between the two of them, they could figure something out.
“Mei.” He groaned like an old man and then he rested and listened. There was no answer. All he heard was wheezing and coughing, choking and spitting. His. Breathing shouldn’t be so noisy.
Another sinister thought joined the last. Punctured lungs. A man could die from that.
Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) Page 16