“First, I have to find a venue and fast. I have arranged to look at two properties as soon as we land. Both are private residences where the owners are on long holidays. They routinely rent them out for parties.”
“Why do you have to view them? Just look at the pictures on-line and rent one.”
“The ambiance for our soiree is critical.” Plus, she needed to give the team a little more time to check them out to determine which one was better to take down the bad guys and protect the women. According to Darius, they should know by tonight.
When the plane landed, her first call was to Darius and her second call was to Huan.
“Huan, I’m going to need a room made up for a special visitor.”
“Is it Albert?” he asked.
“It’s his uncle, Jiang Liu. He has four pieces of luggage for an overnight stay,” she knew it would clue him in on the level of accommodation the man would be expecting at the farmhouse.
“Got it.”
“Thanks. How are the girls?”
“Not bad. I think they’ll be ready for things next week.”
“There’s been a change of plans, it’s going to be the day after tomorrow.” She was met by dead silence.
“I don’t think that will work.”
“We’ll make it work. I’ll see you tonight.” She hung up the phone.
“Problems?” Jiang asked.
“Not at all.” She looked around for the car Albert was supposed to have arranged. It was supposed to have been here at the harbor waiting for them. This was not an auspicious beginning. She saw a large limousine pull up, and an even larger uniform driver step out of the driver’s seat. He popped the trunk and headed towards them. She recognized him. How in the hell had Drake Avery managed to become their driver?
“I recognize you, Ms. Hessman, I didn’t know you were going to have a guest with you,” the man said deferentially.
“This is Mr. Jiang Liu. Our bags are waiting back near the seaplane.” She gestured.
“I’ll get them right now.” He was back carrying all five bags in moments. The man was huge.
“Please follow me.” He had them safely ensconced in the limousine and then asked where they would like to go.
“I’m going to check out two properties here on the island for a party. Here are the addresses, please take me to the one closest.” Rylie handed him a paper printout. Drake pulled out into traffic.
Jiang rolled up the privacy partition.
“Instead of going to the farmhouse tonight, if one of the properties meets with our approval we shall stay there.” Rylie gulped.
“I can arrange that for you, of course. For me, I will need to begin work with the girls immediately. I have forty-eight hours to get them transformed into swans.”
“Have them moved to the property we select.”
Fuck. It would screw up the logistics.
“I have them in an isolated spot where I can keep an eye on them. They are easily contained.”
“I want to stay at one of the properties. I want to see you work with the women. Make this work.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, Uncle Jiang,” she bit out.
***
And here she had thought Little Liu’s house was the most beautiful she had ever been in, this surpassed all of her dreams. It was a castle.
“The main structure of this home was taken stone by stone from a castle in Scotland back in 1885. Twenty years ago, the renowned architect Felix Sykes built this gorgeous home around the structure, and we have what you’re standing in today. Isn’t it breathtaking? It has twenty-two bedrooms, thirty bathrooms, and three kitchens. This is the perfect home for entertaining. The cost to rent this for one day is three hundred thousand USD. It’s a steal. And of course, we haven’t even discussed the waterfront property and the acres of gardens.”
Drake ghosted up behind her while Jiang looked out the main window.
“This is the right property, it’s isolated and easy to take,” he whispered.
Rylie smiled at the real estate agent. “Six hundred thousand for three nights, and you have a deal.” She watched the woman’s smile falter, and Jiang nod his approval.
“I’m sorry, but–”
“A check would be made out to cash.”
The woman held out her hand, her smile bright. “I’ll leave the keys with you today.”
“I would like you or your staff to e-mail me tonight with caterers, party rental places, and other things I will need to host a party on Saturday.”
“You don’t have it all in place?” Her shocked expression was priceless.
“Of course, we will be paying expedite fees, in cash. I was hoping you might have some recommendations for businesses in this area that would be accommodating. There would be a finder’s fee.” Again the woman’s eyes filled with avarice.
“I will personally send you an e-mail within three hours. Again, I can’t thank you enough for your business.” She shook Rylie’s hand, and went over to Jiang and shook his hand, and gave a little bow. She looked at Drake in an appreciative manner and then left. “I’ll walk out with you,” she said to the agent. She needed to make a quick call to Darius.
As the woman got into her car, she called his number.
“About time.”
“Did you know Drake was going to be my driver?”
“Nope, not until an hour ago.”
“So now I don’t have to call every three hours. Good, I was hoping to sleep through the night.”
“I hope you get to. Tell me what’s going on.” She gave him a brief update about the house.
“Sounds perfect.”
“Now I need to call the seamstress.”
“I love you, Rylie, take care of yourself.”
“I–I”
“I know, baby.”
“Dammit, I can say it. I love you too!” He chuckled. She ended the call with his laughter ringing in her ear. She called the seamstress shop and got voicemail, and then tried her cell phone and got voicemail as well. She told her that it was imperative she arrive tomorrow morning for fittings. She left the address.
She went back into the house.
“What’s your name?” she demanded imperiously.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I asked what your name is.”
“Drake, ma’am.”
“Drake. I know you were hired for your discretion. I will need you to arrange for a bus to transfer twenty-one people from a farmhouse to this location tonight. Are you capable of completing this task?” Rylie asked in her most condescending Sylvia tone.
Drake pulled out his phone, scrolled through it, and then looked at her and nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem, Ms. Hessman.”
“Fine, you will take Mr. Liu and me to the farmhouse, and then you will acquire the bus. It is eight o’clock now. We all need to be back here by midnight. I am depending on you to make this happen.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
***
Drake called him, at three o’clock that morning. Apparently it was a zoo at the estate where Rylie had all of the girls. Some of them were treating it like the biggest slumber party known to mankind and others were inconsolable.
“That sick old fuck was in the middle of all of it, watching with a half-smile. You could tell he was trying to figure out who he was going to be selecting. Rylie knew what was going on. She worked to keep the girls away from him.”
“Between the two of you, they should be safe.”
“I put a little something extra in his brandy, he fell asleep in his chair. For a moment I worried I put too much in, because man, who could sleep with all the chaos. It’s like a six-year-old girl’s birthday party on crack.”
“How’s Rylie holding up?”
“She’s a trooper. All of them are coming to Mrs. Hess. They might fear her, but they also treat her like a big sister. I swear she gives off this mothering aura when she is around them, even when she’s
trying to be the big bad Sylvia.”
“Did Jiang pick up on it?”
“Nah, he’s too busy salivating over the girls. Hell, he’s salivating over Rylie too, come to think of it.”
“I noticed that as well.”
“So the property is perfect. It’s surrounded on three sides by a forest. You get to it by one long twisty driveway, it’s at least a half mile. Then there is the beach on the fourth side. We can easily take it. Nobody will get away,” Drake said eagerly.
“So you’ll have Finn, Rylie, and Aiden to lead the operation there at the estate.”
“And now instead of me, it’ll be you and Mason taking care of the baby operation on Little Liu’s island.” Drake sighed.
“What?” Darius demanded. “What haven’t you told me?”
“One of the girls tried to escape. Mike made an example out of her. He knew he couldn’t do anything that would show bruises or broken bones. He was going to rape her, but Finn stopped it. Finally, Howard stepped in and made her drink down a bottle of Hot Sauce. Finn watched. All of the girls were horrified. They know they have to stay in line, or they could really end up hurt.”
“Ahhh shit.” Darius knew hot sauce could result in second degree burns. “How is she doing?”
“I don’t know. She’s staying out of sight,” Drake said. “The girls descended on Rylie like a swarm of locusts. They’re desperate to believe their new lives with their owners will be better than their current captivity.” Darius imagined Rylie trying to cope with that much hope and anguish.
“Who’s on watch tonight, you or Finn?”
“Finn, then me. Rylie is asleep on the couch in the living room right now. She treated tonight like a slumber party, they just got done watching Frozen for the third time. If I have to hear “Let it Go” one more time, I might shoot myself.” Darius laughed again.
“Go get some shut eye. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
***
“Huh, I thought the island was a bird sanctuary, I never saw a plane land there before,” Brandon said.
“What are you muttering about?” Albert asked, clearly annoyed. Darius knew it was Mason who had landed the plane at the nearby island, and he wanted to distract his hosts.
“I can’t wait to finally see Sylvia in action. Tomorrow will be quite the spectacle. How many buyers will be at the silent auction?” he asked.
“We expect at least thirty.”
“Oh, I thought this was the big auction of the year. I guess it isn’t going as well as you and Sylvia had hoped.” Darius took another bite of his salmon.
“You don’t get it,” Brandon set down his bourbon and gave Darius a sloppy smile. “These thirty will spend millions and millions.”
“Shut up Brandon.” Albert glared at the blonde man.
“What? It’s true.”
“I didn’t realize your antiquities were worth that much,” Darius said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he cleared over a hundred million tomorrow night,” Brandon slurred.
“Brandon, leave the table.”
“I’m not a dog!”
“No, you’re a drunk! If you can’t behave like an adult, then you need to leave.”
“Albert, he can’t possibly be correct, can he? A hundred million?” Darius asked.
“No, he’s not correct.” They both watched Brandon exit the verandah. “Brandon likes to feel more important than he really is.”
“If I thought we were dealing with those kinds of numbers, I would insist Sylvia have a bodyguard with her,” Darius said.
“There’s no need. These are well respected people and just dusty old artifacts. I’m going to go over to Victoria Island tomorrow morning, I would like to ask you a favor.” Darius raised an eyebrow.
“Would you mind flying over with Brandon in the early evening? It would be better if I had time to work with Sylvia without him there to distract me.”
“I hope you don’t expect me to keep him sober, that’s beyond my skillset.”
“Apparently it’s beyond mine as well.”
“As long as I can make it in time for the auction, I will be happy to do this favor for you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to in my room.”
Darius went into the bedroom and took out the equipment Rylie had left for him and checked to make sure the room was still free of listening devices. Then he called Mason’s phone, thankful for satellites.
“So did they see me?”
“Yeah, but we ended up talking about the auction instead of your landing. Everything all right?”
“Yeah, I’m going to take the zodiac over tonight. You can guide me in to where you want me to land the boat. Midnight, right?”
“Yep. I want you to get a feel for the layout. Should take you about forty minutes to get here, right?”
“Give or take five minutes. I’ll come back for the plane after they leave for the auction tomorrow afternoon and we’ve secured the hostiles.”
“Mason, you’re going to need to hold me back, I swear I want to take them down hard. Everyone attached to this operation needs to go down hard.” Darius replayed what he saw in the clinic, and how they talked about the mother and child.
“I know that’s how Jack and Clint felt about the Guzman’s, and you were with me when Krill went after Sophia.”
“I know man. I have no idea how you kept your shit together.”
“It wasn’t easy.”
Darius took a breath. “Okay, I’ll see you tonight. I’ve got to check in with Clint and Lydia.”
Darius hung up the phone and then turned on his computer to start a Skype session.
“Dare, I have news about Rylie’s sister,” Lydia started the conversation. She looked really upset.
“What is it?” She shook her head and put her hand over her mouth.
He turned to Clint.
“What is it? What did you find out? Is she okay?”
“It was a lot of bad news. And no, I don’t think she’s okay. If I had to guess, it was her body they found in the fire.”
“Tell me.”
“Pamela Jones aka Pamela Charles was taken in by the Edwards family when she was nine years old, Rylie was twelve at the time. Pamela was deaf. She started running away when she was eleven. She was found a couple of times and brought back to the Edwards house. The last time she had been beaten.”
“Ah God.” Darius was sick at the thought.
“Yes. It was about that time the Edwards’ asked Rylie to come and live with them, the thought was she could be a stabilizing influence. For a time, it must have worked because Pam stayed at the house.”
“Rylie’s has always taken care of everyone, hasn’t she? Didn’t it raise a red flag that Pamela was running away? They should have taken away their license, not given them another child to care for.”
“Here’s the kicker, his brother was a state senator in Oklahoma. So there was never going to be any sort of negative repercussion.”
“Fuck me running.” Darius remembered all too well what Rylie said back in Houston those many months ago about her foster father coming into her bedroom late at night. He must have been doing the same thing to Pamela.
“Finally, when Rylie was fifteen, Pamela took off again for almost two years. The Edwards took in three more kids. Pam became one of those milk carton children. The next thing we knew there was a fire and Rylie Jones was presumed dead.”
“But Dare,” Clint interrupted. “Guzman was operating in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona at that time. Her sister would have been just the type of girl his organization would have targeted.”
“Dammit,” Darius breathed out.”
“Exactly,” Lydia said. “That could be why Rylie has been so intent on taking down first Guzman’s organization and then Liu’s. It’s that personal.”
“That might explain her vendetta, but it doesn’t explain how in the hell she then showed back up at the fucking orphanage as Rylie Jones and adopted Char and Sawyer as
her long lost brother and sister? Shouldn’t she have changed identities? This makes no fucking sense at all.”
“Calm down, Dare, it gets a bit complicated. Her mother’s last name is Charles, that’s how she and Pam were listed in the paperwork. When she came up with the scheme about the ‘real’ dad, she used her real dad’s name, which was Jones. Her death certificate is Rylie Charles. As for how she fooled the orphanage, she worked through an attorney, it’s amazing how much can be accomplished when you have money.”
“Fucking A. She always has the most complicated schemes, and they always work. I love this woman.”
“Yay!” Lydia shouted.
“For real?” Clint asked.
“Done deal,” Darius assured his friend. “I just have to convince her it is for the long term. She doesn’t believe someone will really stand by her.”
“Can you blame her?” Lydia asked.
Chapter Thirteen
Darius snuck out for the fourth time, excited to know that in less than twenty-four hours this operation would be completed. He’d talked to Lydia and Clint for quite a while that afternoon. He knew there had been other girls rescued from the mission with Jack and Beth, and he wanted to know how they were doing. He was gratified to learn many were back with their families, and others were actually doing well in half-way houses.
He had remembered a girl named Joanne, she was so brave working with Beth, Lydia’s sister, to get rescued in Mexico. She was living with a friend of Jack’s mom down in San Antonio and flourishing. He sincerely hoped there would be those kinds of happy endings for these girls as well.
This time, he bypassed the clearing and went around to the beach, flashed his flashlight four times, and waited. Finally, Mason appeared paddling the zodiac. He helped his lieutenant bring the boat onto the beach.
“Damn it’s good to see you,” Darius said.
“Right back at you. What kind of mess do we have here?”
“Every single time you think you’ve seen the worst, they keep finding ways to prove us wrong. There are three buildings. Two house the women, and one t acts like a clinic. The clinic has the girl in it where they are trying to delay her labor.”
Her Daring SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 5) Page 17