“I want you to have Drake and Finn get her and take her home to Oklahoma right now. I’ll handle it from here on out.”
“You’re talking out your ass,” Clint insisted.
“Do it.”
“No,” Lydia’s voice could cut steel.
“Fine, I’m calling them,” Darius threatened.
“You won’t do it. You feel just as strongly as she does that Albert Liu and those fucking buyers need to be put away or just put down. You won’t endanger this operation.” Lydia argued.
“If it means saving her life, I will.”
“It was a one off,” Clint pointed out. “Lydia’s right, she took care of it, and according to Drake, she has the girls in a better spot. Remember the barn I told you about?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Finn went and checked it out. They’d been forced to live in the root cellar, it was no more than twenty by twenty feet, and he said there were sixteen girls. He said it stank to high heaven. They had two buckets to do their business. It was worse than anything he’d ever seen before, and we’ve seen the worst.”
Darius stopped himself from saying anything else, contemplating what his friend had told him.
“Think about it, Dare,” Lydia went on. “Rylie saved them from that. She got them out, and now they are staying at the farmhouse. They are warm and in a house. She did that for them. She’s going to save them from that kind of horror going forward. She’s going to stop the monsters who did that to them.”
“She almost died,” Darius breathed out.
“But she didn’t,” Clint said.
“Drake and Finn had better stay closer.”
“They promise they will. As a matter of fact, Finn had an idea. Don’t ask me how in the fuck he has managed it, but he is now one of the guys who is guarding the girls.”
“What?”
“Yeah, apparently Rylie demanded they find and hire guys to guard the girls now they moved them to the farmhouse. When one of the guys was driving to the property, Finn and Drake intercepted him. They gently questioned him.” Darius snorted.
“Anyway, he was truly hired help who nobody knew face-to-face, so Finn took his place. He’s now a guard.”
“Un-fucking-believable. I love Finn.”
“I thought you loved Clint?” Lydia teased.
“Today my crush is on Finn.”
***
Rylie couldn’t believe her eyes. One of the guys who was here to guard the girls looked exactly like Finn Crandall, except he had cold dead eyes. He looked much scarier than Klein had looked. Even Howard had stepped back when he’d first arrived.
Howard’s brother Mike stepped up to introduce him to everyone.
“Howard, this is Tibbs. He’s a good man. My old boss recommended him, said we could totally rely on him for any kind of work that came up. Like the stuff you told me today.” Howard held out his hand, and Tibbs just looked at it. Finally, Howard pulled it back.
“Look, Tibbs, you better understand Huan here is the boss for the next six days,” he jerked his thumb towards Huan. “But we all take orders from this woman, Ms. Hessman.” Rylie walked up to Tibbs and held out her hand. Tibbs shook it and fingered her bracelet.
Fuck, it was Finn!
“I expect the girls to be protected and treated well. Is that understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Rylie couldn’t believe the level of relief she felt. Knowing the girls would be watched over by Finn almost brought tears to her eyes. She turned to Howard.
“I’ve met your cousin, now introduce me to the others.”
He introduced her to four other men. She was satisfied none of the girls would be able to escape.
“Look, it’s past midnight, work out your guard schedules.”
“Keep watch, ma’am,” Finn corrected. “We call it keeping watch.”
Rylie lifted an eyebrow. “Whatever,” she called over her shoulder as she walked back in to the farmhouse. Ophelia was waiting for her in the kitchen.
“Is Ursula alive?” Ophelia asked baldly.
“I don’t know.”
“Can you know?”
“I will try to find out Ophelia. In the meantime, I need you to take care of the girls. Don’t let them do anything stupid. If the men try to hurt them, talk to Huan or talk to one of the men called Tibbs.”
“Are you bad?”
“Yes, I’m a very bad person.” Rylie looked the young woman dead in the eye. “Never think I’m good. I’m going to sell you.” Ophelia walked up to her and hugged her.
Fuck!
***
Dinner took so long, Darius thought his legs would go numb, his mind certainly had. Brandon was stoned out of his mind. Albert had allowed the man to blather on about a band he had played in when he had been in college. It had been excruciating to listen to. A country cover band. Darius liked Pink Floyd. At one point, Albert had suggested Brandon play some songs on the baby grand piano. Darius had no idea what songs he played, only that they were about trucks, and dogs, and girls, and trucks. The cherry on top was Brandon couldn’t carry a tune. Darius had kept checking to see if his ears were bleeding.
He got to his room, made sure it was secure and checked in.
“You don’t sound so good, last time we talked you were giddy and in love with Finn,” Lydia said.
“I had to listen to country music,” Darius groused.
“You are fucked up man. If I have to hear Wish You Were Here one more time when I’m driving with you, I will stick a fork in my eye,” Clint complained. “Seriously man, you need to get with the times and listen to Blake, Luke, and Carrie.”
“Over my dead body.”
“Rylie’s from Oklahoma,” Lydia chimed in. “This will probably be a deal breaker.”
“Ah fuck me.” Darius hadn’t even considered that. He hadn’t considered he’d be stuck listening to country music. Still, she kissed like a dream.
“So what do you have to report?” Clint asked. “Have you done more reconnaissance?
“No, I wanted a report.”
“Rylie and Finn have met. Rylie recognized him,” Clint explained.
“What about Drake, what’s he doing?”
“He’s still keeping watch. Rylie’s in the farmhouse with the girls.”
“Okay, that’s good.” Darius was relieved. “I’m going to give it a couple of hours, then go for another hike.”
“Let us know what you find out.”
“Speaking of which, what have you found out about Rylie’s sister? Do you have the intel for me yet?”
“It’s coming together,” Lydia answered. “We’ll have everything for you tomorrow. We’ve also been tracking Liu’s uncle, he should there in two days. Be careful tonight.”
“I will, Lydia.” Darius hung up and settled in for a couple hours of shut-eye. Unfortunately, all he managed was the light soldier sleep because he kept imagining what could have happened to Rylie in the barn. He hated she went to Victoria without him. He tried to persevere with his rest, knowing his body needed it before another run through the forest. Finally, his phone beeped, and he got up and put on dark clothes and boots.
He’d checked out the best way to leave earlier. It was over the balcony, then descending to the shadowed corner of the lower balcony, and jumping to the patio from there. As soon as he got to the yard, he rubbed dirt on his face and hands, so his skin wouldn’t be seen in the dark. He made his way carefully past the house perimeter, avoiding all detectors he had made note of earlier. It took him a half hour to get to the forest, secure in the knowledge he hadn’t been seen.
The forest was dark, but his night vision was pretty good. Still, Darius longed for night vision goggles. He couldn’t move nearly as fast tonight. It reminded him of the five-day hike through the jungle when they rescued Lydia and her family from the Mexican drug cartel.
“Well at least it isn’t raining,” he said to the trees.
He continued to replay everything Clint and
Lydia had told him about Rylie at the farm. It made his gut clench to think she had been in such danger.
Where this afternoon it took him an hour to get to the little compound on the north end of the island, tonight it took him two. The last thing he wanted was to take a misstep and end up injured. When he got to the clearing, he took some time to ensure it was still as quiet as it had been that afternoon. When he ascertained it was, he moved forward to the back of one of the cabins. All he found were barred windows with curtains. Why in the hell have curtains when they were at the ass end of nowhere?
There had to be six bedrooms and a bathroom if he had to guess, all with the curtains closed. He went to the second cabin and finally found a window the curtains slightly open. When he peeked inside, he saw there were two empty twin beds. When he went around to the front of the cabin, he saw bars on the windows and a padlock on the front door. There weren’t curtains on these windows, and he once again saw what he’d seen that afternoon, a stark living area, and dirty dishes in the sink, which was the only sign there were people living in the cabins. They must all be sleeping in the bedrooms with the curtains closed.
Darius crept over to the other building. It was a large one story, more like an office or laboratory. This one had a keypad entry in the front. All of the windows were tinted the same way as Albert’s house, and he couldn’t see in. He did a perimeter check and found there was another entry in the back with the same keypad. Most of these were coded with a default number that emergency workers could use to get in, he tried the number, and it worked. He opened the door a slit and peered inside. He didn’t see anyone.
Going quickly and quietly, Darius proceeded into the building.
In a second, he realized he was in a medical facility. It was the distinct hospital smell, the disinfectant they used. Darius heard the faint sound of voices up ahead on the right. He ducked into the door marked supplies.
It was a man and a woman, and he caught a snippet of their conversation as they passed.
“Due to pop any day,” the woman said.
“Bullshit, she has two weeks.”
“It’s her first kid, they’re always early, care to make a wager, Darryl?”
“Nah, you always win. Anyway, we have to induce, they have a buyer since she’s having a girl,” the man’s voice said before they walked out of earshot.
Darius examined the supply room.
Dammit! Definitely, medical supplies. He didn’t like the picture this was painting at all.
He crept out of the supply room and heard the muffled voices. They were in a room at the end of the hall. When he went to investigate, the door was labeled ‘break room.’ He could also hear the sound of television. Probably a pretty boring job waiting for the woman to ‘pop,’ he thought grimly.
He quickly went through the rest of the facility and saw exactly what he expected. An operating room, an exam room with a gynecological chair, and a birthing room. This whole place was set up around women having babies. Now he knew who were in the cabins. Behind the last door was a sophisticated lab. Darius didn’t know what he was looking at when he looked in the cooler, but he had a bone deep suspicion. He took pictures with his phone.
He had to get back to Clint and Lydia, there was no way they could allow a sale of a baby to happen before they took down this operation. Even if it meant blowing the whole thing. Darius got out of the building.
He took a look at his watch. He still had a couple of hours before dawn. He went back to the cabins, hoping to see something. Anything. He hunkered down in the rhododendron bush growing wild near the cabin and waited to see if anyone would come into the common area. Finally, he saw the faint silhouette of a young woman as she opened the refrigerator. She was wearing pajamas, and her tummy was swollen. Darius guessed her to be about five months pregnant. She looked so sad. He wanted to say something, to tell her help was coming. But knew it would just complicate matters.
Fuck!
This shit had to stop like yesterday.
Chapter Eight
Rylie hadn’t been able to sleep at all. Even though the girls had food, clothes, and mattresses to sleep on, she still heard them crying softly during the night, and she couldn’t blame them. She got up at dawn and rummaged through the pantry to see what foodstuffs the men had brought. She was impressed. There was fresh fruit and the makings for pancakes, bacon, and eggs. When she heard some of the girls moving about, she got to work making a big ole Oklahoma-style breakfast.
She didn’t give a shit if it was a Sylvia thing to do. The men were outside, and if she didn’t do this for herself, she’d shatter into a million pieces. The hug Ophelia had given her made her want to cuddle all the girls like she cuddled Charlotte. Since she couldn’t, she could cook an American breakfast for them instead.
Ophelia was the first to come into the kitchen. The girl was smart, she poured herself some coffee and didn’t comment on seeing Rylie cooking. Ekaterina didn’t handle it the same way as she came into the kitchen.
“Mrs. Hess, you cook for us! Thanks to you!”
“You need your energy,” Rylie clipped out, as she gave the girl a plate of food. “Sit down and eat.”
More women came into the kitchen, but they just quietly took their food. Soon it reminded Rylie of mornings at home. The girls were talking in their native languages smiling and laughing with one another. She was amazed at how resilient they were.
Rylie picked up her purse and laptop bag and then went into the living room where she left her makeup bag by the couch. She sat down and pulled out a clean pair of socks. She put them on before her boots, her knife still in her right boot, and it would remain there until she was safely back in her room on the island. The gun had been in her purse beside her all night. She didn’t want to think about what either of those two things meant. Hell, she didn’t even know Klein’s first name.
There was a knock on the door, and then Huan’s big frame filled the doorway.
“Ms. Hessman, I wanted to let you know I was up.”
“Where did you sleep?”
“In the car,” Huan responded.
“And the others?”
“I talked to Howard. He and I will stay in the house. We’re safe with the girls. Mike should be too, but there’s not enough room. He, Tibbs and Rodney will bunk in the barn, we’ll all coordinate guard duty.”
“I need to talk to the girls, then gather the men, and I’ll talk to them,” Rylie said as she stood up from the couch.
“Got it. Do you want to meet in the barn?”
Rylie shuddered, she never wanted to go into the barn again. “No, have them meet on the porch.” She headed towards the kitchen.
“Ladies, listen up.” All heads turned to her. The two translators translated her words. “I have to leave. Men will be guarding you to make sure you don’t try to escape. I will be back in five days to get you ready for a party.”
There was a lot of confusion at the term party, but it was obvious the translators were able to explain.
“There will be men at the party that you will have to be nice to, each one of you will end up going home with one of them. You must behave.”
“You mean we will be sold,” the oldest woman said bitterly.
“Yes,” Rylie said coldly. “You better do everything you can to cooperate in the meantime and not make trouble. Am I making myself clear?” Rylie stared at the woman, and she finally looked down at her hands.
“Yes,” she mumbled.
“Good. Now I need to leave. I will see you in five days. If you have any problems, talk to Huan.”
Ophelia opened her mouth to say something and Rylie glared at her, then spun around and marched out the door. She swooped by the couch and picked up her things then went out the front door where the men were all waiting for her. Howard approached her first.
“Everything has been taken care of, Ms. Hessman.”
“That’s good, Howard,” she said briskly. She scanned the men slowly, which allowed her to take
in Finn Crandall. Was every member of Midnight Delta good-looking? Was it part of the job description? Granted, right now with the scowl on his face, he looked about as appealing as a rock, but with his high cheekbones and blond hair he probably was a heartbreaker when he smiled.
“I need you to understand that the wrath of God will seem like a picnic in the park if something happens any of these women.” She watched as they fidgeted under Sylvia’s scathing tone. “Every one of those women represents more money than you will make in a lifetime. Guard them well and you will be very well compensated. Fuck this up and I will come after you, and then I will go after your family. Am I clear?”
“Wait–” Mike started to say something.
“Shut the fuck up, Mike,” Howard interrupted his cousin. “I told you what this was like when you signed on.” Howard turned to Rylie. “Everybody understands. We won’t let you down.”
“See that you don’t.” She turned to Huan and handed him her bag.
***
Darius heard the seaplane when he was at lunch with the boy genius. Albert was in the library taking calls so he was stuck with Brandon, who was sober. Darius couldn’t decide which was better, stoned or straight. At least he wasn’t trying to serenade him.
“That must be Sylvia,” Brandon said as they saw the plane make its descent.
“I should hope so. I’m still a little pissed she didn’t think to call,” Darius said.
“The antiquities business can get really tricky,” Brandon said in a condescending tone of voice.
“I wouldn’t know what it’s like. Running a multi-million-dollar company doesn’t get complicated at all,” Darius said sarcastically. “Tell me, Brandon, besides the cover band, what else did you do before meeting Albert?”
Brandon flushed. “Various jobs in sales and marketing. That’s how I met my friend who does the marketing for IPOs.” Darius sorely wanted to find out more about his sales and marketing jobs, sure he had worked as a telemarketer someplace and was trying to act more important than he was, but he didn’t have time.
“I hate to cut short such a fascinating conversation, but I want to greet Sylvia.”
“Oh, by all means.” Brandon daintily wiped his mouth with his napkin and then set it on his plate. “I think I’ll let you two lovebirds have a private reunion. You know your way to the dock, don’t you?”
Her Daring SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 5) Page 10