by Beth Abbott
The man stood straighter, obviously pissed at the suggestion he couldn’t do his job properly.
“I can keep them apart.” He insisted. “Although, I know you noticed there were a few older ones. It wouldn’t hurt to let the men have a bit of fun with them, would it?”
“Those older women are the ones who are keeping the younger ones from freaking out.” Niko pointed out. “I don’t want any of them touched. If you can’t follow a simple instruction, I’ll speak to my brother. I’m sure he can easily find someone to replace you, as, I’m sure, can your wife and girlfriends. Your mother might find it more difficult, but, hey… It’s your choice.”
The man’s cheeks reddened, but he kept his temper in check. Drago’s presence probably had some influence there.
“I’ll follow your instructions.” He bit out, and Niko had to turn away from him to hide her smile.
“Make sure you do. I’ve got someone watching the surveillance camera footage, and I’ll know if you fail your task.” Niko pointed to the old security camera high on the wall.
So, what if it hadn’t worked for years? Bogdan wouldn’t know that.
Niko headed out of the building and back to her borrowed car.
“I’ll be back in the morning to make sure my cargo is still in perfect condition.” She called over her shoulder.
Niko started the engine and moved forward, away from the factory, and onto the main road, nodding briefly to Drago as she passed by. He smiled at her, but she couldn’t tell whether it was a genuine smile, or not.
She desperately needed someone she could trust, but she couldn’t risk confiding in her brother’s number two. It could be suicide.
She genuinely couldn’t wait for these auction guys to arrive, so they could finally get on the road, the women packed into the back of the bigger trucks. Once they left the city she would start to relax, especially once they were over the border and out of Turkey.
The numbers of Ilya’s men would drop drastically once they were in transit, and she would feel less like one of the women they trafficked.
Yeah, the irony wasn’t lost on her.
Chapter 17 – Hollywood
Fallout day, plus two.
Hollywood glanced at his colleagues and wondered how many of them were feeling the tension.
As far as he knew, only he and Kellen were aware of the bust up between Hannah and JT, but they were all aware of the friction between Hannah and Logan, and while there hadn’t been any disagreement since, there had certainly been no settling of differences.
Hannah didn’t seem to be any more convinced that Logan could keep his opinions to himself, and Logan didn’t seem any more inclined to say or do anything to convince her.
Hollywood caught Kellen’s eye and his friend glanced towards Logan. He casually changed the way he was sitting so he could get a better look at the Scot.
His tablet was on the table in front of him, but Logan wasn’t paying it any attention. His phone was on his lap, and he was typing away like he was writing a sequel to War and Peace.
Hollywood looked back at Kellen who rolled his eyes. Ok, so it was annoying that he was probably sending messages to that chick he met with the other day, but was it really up to Kellen or him to say anything?
They were team-mates, and as such they were equals, so not one of them was higher in rank than any of the others. Unfortunately.
“So, are your family Ok, Logan?” Yuri didn’t bother to lift his head before speaking. He kept his eyes on his tablet, his finger still swiping the screen.
Logan looked up at the Russian with a puzzled expression.
“As far as I know they’re fine.” He shook his head. “Why d’you ask?”
“Because the only reason I find acceptable for you to have been messaging on your phone for the last hour, is if someone really close to you was at death’s door.” Yuri explained, in quite a friendly way. “Of course, now you’ve said that’s not the case, perhaps you could put your phone down and get on with some of the work you’re being well-paid to do.”
Logan’s eyebrows moved an inch closer to his hairline as he sat back in surprise.
“What the fuck has my phone usage got to do with you?” He scoffed. “Who died and appointed you God?”
“My brother doesn’t think he’s God.” Kris chuckled. “But when he sees someone not doing the job they’re being paid to do, then it’s in his nature to speak out. As it is in mine.”
“So, it’s a Russian thing, yes? This interfering where it’s none of your business shit?” Logan growled. “I’ll have to remember that.”
“Actually, I don’t think it’s something that’s unique to one particular country.” Hollywood spoke up. “Yuri and Kris aren’t the only ones unimpressed with the amount of time you’ve spent on your phone, when you should have been finding out everything you can about the mission. I don’t like putting my life in the hands of someone who may or may not be capable of saving it. It leaves me nervous, and I don’t like being nervous.”
“Have you ever thought that I might have been reading quicker than you?” Logan sneered. “Or that I might have been going over this shit in my free time?”
“Well, you certainly haven’t been spending your lunch breaks doing any reading.” Hollywood shrugged. “Not when you’ve been having your meals across the road.”
He’d spotted Logan with company just that one time, so it was pure conjecture on his part that it might be a regular thing. But judging by the way Logan blushed, it looked like his guess might have hit a bullseye.
“Perhaps you should ask your wee lassie to give us all a test, then.” Logan snarled. “Just to see if we’ve all been doing the job properly.”
“I’m happy to do that.” Hannah’s voice at the door made them all turn around. “Assuming, that is, that I’m the ‘wee lassie’ you’re talking about.”
She turned around as though looking for someone else.
“Judging by the lack of other ‘lassies’ in the room, that’s not an unreasonable guess.” Evan grinned at Hannah. “And you have to admit, the description does kinda suit you.”
Hannah smiled back at the Welshman.
“I can’t argue that I’m a small female. It would be pointless.” She nodded. “But I do have concerns about why you feel a test of your knowledge would be necessary. Is there a reason why some of you don’t feel like everyone is up to speed?”
Hollywood kept his eyes averted, not prepared to be the one to ‘snitch’ on Logan. When nobody else spoke up, he guessed they were all in the same mood.
“Ok, if it’s going to be like that…” Hannah dropped the pile of things she was holding onto the table and pulled a notepad out of the pile. She walked around the table and ripped some pages out of the pad, placing one in front of each of the men.
“I’ve just had word that we may have to split you into two teams of three, rather than have three teams of two as expected.” She explained. “I want each of you to write down the names of two people you’d want on your team, and why.”
“Seriously?” Kris laughed. “Like we’re back in school or something, and we need to tell the teacher who we’d like to sit next to?”
“Not exactly.” Hannah smiled. “It’s more about knowing what skills you bring to the table, and who you think brings skills that complement yours. So, if two of you are expert marksmen, it doesn’t make sense to keep you on the same team. But where one of you is expert in hand-to hand combat, you might be better paired up with someone who has a completely different skillset.”
“And you want us to say who we want to be teamed up with?” Kellen grinned. “You mean, this might be my chance to finally get away from Hollywood after more than a decade? Yee-haw!”
Hollywood glanced up at his friend and flipped him off.
“I said that I wanted your ideas. I didn’t promise that you’d get what you asked for.” Hannah pointed out. “It’s as much an assessment of your observational skills as anything else, to find
out whether you’ve actually learned anything about the men you’ll be working with. Remember, it’s not a popularity contest. It’s about recognising what skills you each possess and figuring out how well different people might work with you.”
Hannah walked back to her things and picked them up.
“I’ll leave you to think about it and will come back in an hour to pick up your suggestions.” Hannah pulled out a small box from her pocket, flicked the switch on the back and placed it in the middle of the table. “In case any of you are struggling with your focus, I’ll just leave that there to help you out.”
Kellen went to reach out to pick it up and examine it.
“What the…?” He murmured when the box started to emit a loud whine.
“Please don’t touch it. It doesn’t like to be tampered with.” Hannah pulled Kellen’s arm back and the whining faded to silence.
“What the hell is it?” Evan scratched his head, possibly trying to come up with some inspiration.
“It’s a little something I came up with to help my daughters with their homework.” Hannah smiled. “It blocks signals to mobile phones, to prevent you making or receiving calls, or sending or receiving text messages. It really helps focus the mind on what you’re supposed to be doing. It’s tamper-proof because you can’t get close to it without it making that awful whining sound.”
Hannah spoke directly to Evan, as he’d asked the question, but you really didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that the message was a clear one aimed at Logan.
The Scot didn’t say a word, but from where he was sitting, Hollywood could see Logan’s neck and ears were turning scarlet. Obviously, Hannah had heard their conversation, or why would she be doing something to get him off his phone?
Hannah turned for the door.
“I’ll be back in an hour to collect your lists.” She smiled. “Let’s see how imaginative you can be.”
Hollywood wondered whether any of the lists would include Logan’s name.
He wondered if Logan was having the same thought.
Chapter 18 – Hannah
Hannah sat in her office going through the last message from her Russian contact.
The traffickers were ready to leave Ankara, having reached the desired number of captive women, so the Guardians had to get their team on the ground by noon on Monday, or the trucks were leaving without them.
At least, that was what the contact had said. Hannah shuddered at the thought of all those frightened women wondering what their future was going to look like, or if they even had a future.
Hannah looked at the last message again, in particular the warning that the group would leave without the Guardians if they didn’t turn up on time. She didn’t believe them for a minute, but had to play along as though she did, just to avoid the contact getting spooked.
Not that her team weren’t ready to go. On the contrary, they’d done all the preparation it was possible to do, and she was confident in their skills.
Correction, she was confident about five of them. Logan still hadn’t proven himself to her, but at least he hadn’t given her any more cause for concern since the other day when she’d put the phone signal blocker on the table.
Sure, she’d pissed him off with that little trick, but he hadn’t said a word, just put his head down and gotten on with his work.
It was strange that they’d all taken her word for it that the little black box did exactly what she claimed it did. Nobody had even bothered to check their phones to see if they were working, they just assumed, what with Hannah being the certifiable genius she was, that if she said their phones wouldn’t work, then they wouldn’t work.
What she didn’t tell them was that the black box was actually the receiver box for her wireless doorbell at home, which her young son Adam had a habit of stashing in his school-bag, so he could tell all his friends it controlled his spaceship.
Hannah had confiscated it, along with several other ‘spaceship controllers’ when she’d searched his bag that morning before dropping him at school.
It was cute that the kid had such a vivid imagination, but not so much when the postman was trying to deliver a package, and nobody could hear him at the door because the box that played the ringtones was missing again.
She always claimed that he got that side of his nature from Danny, but now she came to think about it, Adam seemed to be following in her footsteps. After all, hadn’t she pretended the box was a signal blocker? Was that so far removed from Adam’s spaceship controller?
Hannah picked up the pieces of paper that the men had written their team selections on and read through them again.
As it transpired, they had always been likely to be working in three teams of two, so the question of requesting a third team member had been something of a test on her part. She just wanted to know how the men felt about each other, without actually making them come right out and say it.
The results were quite glaring, but no real surprise, with not a single person other than Evan choosing to have Logan on his team.
Evan had obviously put Logan’s name first, as they were well known to each other having served in the military together. He was either sufficiently confident that Logan would step up when the moment came, or just reckoned that as the only other Brit, it was his duty to support his countryman.
The others had no qualms about picking someone other than Logan, with each of the others being chosen by one other person. Logan himself picked one of the Russians, which was unsurprising seeing as the Americans had been more vocal in giving him a hard time.
Whichever way she looked at it, it was obvious to Hannah that none of the men felt totally comfortable with Logan, with the possible exception of Evan. Hannah felt exactly the same way.
Her phone buzzing made her jump, and Hannah picked it up and checked the screen.
JT!
Hannah scowled, tempted to put the phone back in her pocket and pretend she’d never gotten the message. But then curiosity finally got the better of her, as she wanted to know what he had to say for himself.
She hadn’t spoken to JT since their little falling out, partly because she’d avoided taking his calls or speaking to him for the first twenty-four hours, and then partly because he’d been called out of the office for the next two days on Alpha Company business, leaving Hannah to carry on in his absence with nobody interfering.
Blissful peace and quiet.
She swiped the screen to check the message.
“David has just arrived for our meeting. Can you come to my office as soon as possible, please?”
Oh, so now she was important enough to be called in to give a progress report, was she? How nice!
Not that Hannah was still feeling any malice towards JT, especially after he’d asked Claire to arrange to have such lovely flowers delivered to her. Not at all.
She was just constantly thinking how she’d love to rub his face in cow-shit, and then pour treacle over him, before shoving him into a nest of wasps.
Nope, no malice there at all. No, sir!
She picked up her tablet and papers and made her way down the corridor to JT’s office, not wanting to keep David Roan waiting. She had a real soft-spot for the former police officer, as their paths had crossed as long ago as her second kidnapping, when she’d just started seeing Danny.
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” David’s voice surprised her, as it came from the elevator behind her, not the office in front of her.
“Hey, David.” She smiled, walking back to him to give him a hug. “I thought you were already with JT.”
“I stopped on my way up to deliver some flowers to Claire.” He smiled. “Gotta know which people to keep in with.”
“I always said you were a smart cookie.” Hannah grinned. “You always did know who to schmooze.”
“Since I’ve been coming into the Alpha Company offices, Claire has always provided the best cakes I can remember tasting.” David admitted. “I always bri
ng flowers with me just in case she’s been baking.”
“It’s the end of the week. Claire always brings cupcakes in on a Friday.” Hannah observed. “Did she let you have one, or two?”
David had the decency to blush.
“I think that’s between me and my waistband.” He deflected.
“Well, if you’re planning on coming to visit with us every week, your waistband will be giving your secret away pretty quickly.” Hannah noted as she turned towards JT’s office. “Don’t say you weren’t warned.”
“At least since I stepped down from the police force I don’t have to attend so many official lunches and dinners anymore.” David winced. “Three or four course meals, twice or three times a week are fine while you’re young and fit. But as you get older, they’re much harder to deal with. By comparison, the calories in two cupcakes are nothing.”
“Danny would say there was nothing wrong with three course meals every day.” Hannah smiled over her shoulder. “I’ve never met anyone who could eat like he does and never put on an ounce. It’s a good job we’re not short of money, as my weekly grocery shop costs as much as a third world country’s debt.”
“Your Danny is a growing lad.” David snorted. “Wait a few more years until his metabolism slows down. He’ll soon start cutting back on his carbs when he realises they’ll take half a day to burn off in the gym.”
“Danny is the only man I know who classes any sort of exercise as ‘fun’.” JT appeared in his office doorway. “He’ll still be running marathons after he retires.”
“You’re just jealous.” David chuckled. “He beat you last time by over an hour, didn’t he?”
“I was running with Alice, last time.” JT shrugged. “It wouldn’t have been very gentlemanly of me to chase after Danny, leaving my wife behind, would it.”