Deadly Exchange

by Lisa Harris

  The wind had picked up outside, its eerie howling growing louder as they reached the end of the wing, where there was a large sunroom filled with an assortment of wicker chairs and small tables.

  Levi stepped up to one of the windows that was secured with an iron bar and let out a sharp sigh. Below them, the overgrown property with its tangled brush and trees stretched out as far as she could see. To the east was a tennis court next to an outdoor building. From this vantage point, she could see the opposite wing of the house, its brick exterior covered with ivy.

  She glanced back at the tennis court. It was possible there were more buildings on the large plot. A garage or maybe a shed. From what she could tell, the property covered several acres. How in the world were they going to search the entire plot? But if her father wasn’t in the house, he had to be out there somewhere.

  “We need to keep moving,” Levi said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

  “Where else is there to look?” Kayla followed Levi back down a staircase.

  “There are still a few more rooms down the other side of this hall and then the office downstairs. Then after that, I don’t think we have any options other than to try to leave.”

  “Levi, wait...” She grabbed his arm, unwilling to give up. “My father has to be here somewhere. Where else would they have taken him? There could be other buildings on this property.”

  “I know.” But it could take hours to search the property, and he was pretty sure they didn’t have hours.

  “If we don’t find my father soon—” she tried unsuccessfully to hide the panic in her voice “—they will kill him.”

  * * *

  Levi hurried down the hall toward the next door, uncertain how wise it would be to search the entire property. On foot, a search would be tedious, and that didn’t even begin to take into consideration the guard dogs waiting for them as soon as they found a way out of the house. But they’d have to deal with that problem once they found a way out.

  Something creaked on the other side of the hall. He glanced down the passageway. In an old house like this, noises could come from anywhere—expanding ductwork, rodents, water heaters or pipes. But still, they couldn’t be too cautious.

  He started walking again. Maybe he’d just imagined the noise.

  “Levi...what is it?”

  He glanced at Kayla, not wanting to worry her any more than she already was, as he opened another door. “I thought I heard something.”

  She followed his gaze down the hallway behind them.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said. “This place is old.”

  He could see the fear mixed with disappointment in her eyes. Fear from the situation they were in. Disappointment from not finding Max. He easily could have missed a section of the house, a basement or, for that matter, even a hidden room. From his earlier search he knew that the two-story house had a kitchen, a bar, a library, half a dozen or more bedroom suites, plus a small reception hall. Plenty of spaces to hide.

  He shut the door behind him and turned to her. “Anything?”

  She shook her head. “Just a few pieces of furniture. Nothing personal at all.”

  “We need to get out of here, but let’s look through their office first. Five minutes, tops.”

  He trod softly against the tiled floors, listening for any noises, while they started down a narrow, winding staircase. He’d been impressed by the way she’d dealt with the past twenty-four hours, because he knew it hadn’t been easy. It was clear she’d invested herself completely in her job, in women like Mercy and the others who she dealt with on a day-to-day basis. She’d do anything in her power to keep them safe.

  Now it was up to him to keep her safe.

  Inside the office, he started going through the desk drawers, trying to find some clue as to who was behind this, but so far nothing stood out.

  He glanced at one of the file cabinets. He needed to get inside.

  “I didn’t know they taught you to pick locks in the army,” she said as he started working on the lock.

  He looked up at her unapologetically. “Let’s just say that you never know when covert-entry training might come in handy.”

  He started pulling out file folders and setting them on the desk.

  “What have you got?” Kayla asked, stepping up next to him.

  “I’m not sure exactly, but it looks to me like it could be some sort of a financial paper trail.”

  Kayla opened up one of the files and glanced at the stamp at the top of one of the papers. “This word, inzet, means ‘auction.’ I used to go to them in the States all the time and have gone a couple times here. It’s definitely possible to purchase a house far below market value this way.”

  “So they bought this property in an auction?”

  “About six weeks ago, it looks like,” she said, moving back to the file cabinet. “But it makes sense. Like any big business, they need banks and property in order to operate.”

  “So if they’re not already, they have to be planning to use this house for the girls.”

  “What’s that?” she asked, turning around toward the door.

  Levi’s attention shifted toward the hallway. He’d heard something, too.

  “Someone’s out there,” she said, glancing at the door.

  “If they’re back, it’s not going to take them long to find us.”

  He stared toward the hallway. They should have run when they had the chance. A dog started barking. Something must have alerted them.

  He heard a door slam.

  “Do you think they’re back?” Kayla asked.

  “I didn’t hear a car drive up, but someone’s in the house. We need to get out of here.”

  Another door opened and closed.

  A chill swept over her. “Someone’s doing a systematic search.”

  Whoever was here had to know they’d managed to escape.

  “And my father, or the girls? If they’re here somewhere?”

  “We’ll send the police back, but we can’t do anything if we’re tied up.”

  He glanced at the files he’d just found and wondered if they were risking giving Nicu time to destroy the evidence if they ran. Staying wasn’t a risk he was willing to take, but they could bring the evidence with them.

  He grabbed a small backpack from the floor, quickly dumped out the contents and began filling it with the financial papers and files.

  “You said all the outside doors were bolted shut,” she said.

  “They are, but there was one bathroom window with no bars. I think we should be able to crawl through it.”

  He stepped out into the hallway with the backpack over his shoulder and the fire poker he’d been carrying this entire time, pausing only for a moment to orient himself to where he’d seen the bathroom.

  “Are you sure you can find it?” Kayla asked.

  “Yes. It was on the main floor, on the other side of the house where they had me locked up.”

  They walked through a large living area he’d passed through while looking for her. While most of the rooms looked neglected, this one retained some of its former glory with heavy gold drapes on the windows along with an eclectic mixture of antique furniture. But it wasn’t the decor that held his attention. He heard another door shut. Whoever was in the house was getting closer.

  He signaled at Kayla to head toward the bathroom ahead of him. He’d almost lost her once. He wasn’t going to let that happen again.

  Nine

  Kayla stepped into the tiled bathroom in front of Levi, who quickly locked the door behind them. She glanced at the square window on the opposite side of the room. He was right. It would be tight, but there were no bars, and they should be able to get through it. What she wasn’t sure of was if there was enough time to get out before they got caught.

  “It’s goi
ng to be hard to cover up the sound of breaking glass,” she said, opening up the cupboards under the sink to search for a towel that would help muffle the noise.

  Levi eyed the window. “True, but we can either try to escape this way, or play cat and mouse until Nicu and his brother return, which would greatly lessen our odds of getting out. I just don’t know how I missed whoever’s out there while I was searching the house.”

  She tried not to think about the possibility they were leaving her father behind. Levi had been right when he said there was no way to know if he was somewhere on the property. And that they couldn’t help him if they were both locked up as well. But that didn’t stop the worry over what might have happened to him from gnawing at her gut.

  I’m trying to trust You, God, but there is so much at stake here.

  Trying to focus, she pulled some thick towels from one of the shelves beneath the sink. “It doesn’t matter now what we missed. We just need to get out of here.”

  “I figure we’ve got a couple minutes, tops, before they figure out where we are and they find a way in.” Levi climbed up on the counter that ran beneath the window.

  He hadn’t mentioned it, but she knew what he had to be thinking. Despite strict gun laws in the Netherlands, Nicu and his brother had both been armed. Which meant whoever was outside that door was probably armed as well. A face-to-face encounter would be risky and something they wanted to avoid.

  She glanced at the door. She hadn’t heard any more noises outside the bathroom, but that didn’t mean that whoever was out there wasn’t getting closer. How had they gotten to this point where they were being forced to run for their lives?

  Her mind shifted to her sister, Lilly, which brought with it a familiar panic. A spiraling chain of events had taken a straight-A high school student and thrust her into the dark world of human trafficking. All it had taken was a string of bad decisions and one person who’d taken advantage of her naivety, and she’d lost her sister forever. And now another frightening chain of events had brought her here. She couldn’t lose her father as well. He was all she had left.

  “Kayla?”

  “Sorry.” Her chest heaved as she handed him one of the towels. She had to stay focused, because the men who’d taken them played by an entirely different moral code. The only way to save her father was to get out of this house and go for help.

  “Just be careful,” she said.

  Levi steadied himself on the counter, then jabbed at the window with the end of the fire poker a couple of times. As soon as the glass shattered, he quickly ran the poker around the edges of the window to finish breaking out the rest of the glass.

  “Give me the towel and the glass,” she said.

  She carefully dumped both the towel and the shards into the bathtub, then handed him the second towel to lay over the window frame and protect them from getting cut. Another door shut. Apparently, whoever was out there had every intention of searching the entire house room by room until they found them.

  “I want you to go first.” Levi held out his hand to help hoist her up on the counter. “Just wait for me on the other side. I’ll be right behind you.”

  She took his hand, then froze. The handle of the door rattled behind them, followed by someone trying to kick in the door. The door buckled slightly, and the lock held, but it wouldn’t for long. Kayla caught Levi’s gaze. They’d just run out of time. There was no way both of them could get out of the house before whoever was on the other side of the door broke through.

  Levi jumped down from the counter, motioning her toward the corner on the other side of the door.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Hit them with the element of surprise.” Levi held up the fire poker and positioned himself in front of the door. “I’m going to have about half a second to disarm whoever walks through that door.”

  The third time, the frame split and the door burst open.

  Levi lunged forward in one sweeping motion, taking the tall blond man by surprise as he slammed the fire poker against the man’s hand that was holding a gun. Before the man could recover, Levi struck again, this time swinging the fire poker behind his knees and dropping him to the ground. But neither man had any intention of going down without a fight. The man quickly stumbled back onto his feet and swung the gun, hitting Levi across the side of his face.

  The two scrimmaged until Levi managed to slam the man against the wall, face-first, and pulled back the arm that held the gun. The man cried out in pain, then dropped the gun.

  The weapon skidded across the tiled floor. Hands shaking, Kayla took a step forward and grabbed the gun, then aimed it at their attacker. The man stumbled backward, giving Levi an opening for one more solid punch. A second later, their attacker was out cold on the white tiles.

  “Are you okay?” She knelt down next to Levi, who was still breathing hard from the fight, and handed him the weapon. “I know that had to hurt.”

  “It’s just a few nasty bruises.” He shot her a half smile. “What about you?”

  “I’ll be okay.”

  He didn’t need to know that everything about today terrified her. Or that her heart wouldn’t stop racing. But who in her place wouldn’t feel the same way she did right now?

  “We need to tie him up before he wakes up,” Levi said. “Help me take off his coat and his boots. We can use the laces to secure his hands and feet.”

  A phone clattered out of the man’s pocket as Levi shifted his leg.

  “Wait a minute... This is my phone.” She picked it up, noting the crack across the screen.

  The man groaned.

  Kayla shoved the phone into her pocket and went back to undoing the laces, hurrying to finish before he woke up. “Why would he have my phone?”

  “Good question. Nicu must have given it to him.” Levi finished securing the man’s hands with the laces, then nudged him awake. “Get up.”

  Pointing the gun at the small of his back, Levi managed to get him back into the living room, then tied his feet to a chair as an extra precaution.

  Frowning, Levi stepped in front of the guard and grabbed a ring of keys from the other man’s belt. “I think it’s time you answered a few questions.”

  * * *

  Levi crouched next to the guard, knowing full well that not only did they need information, they needed it quickly. Three deployments in the Middle East had taught him patience when it came to interviewing suspects. His job had been not only to fight terrorist threats, but to neutralize foreign intelligence, which meant gaining trust, conducting security investigations and processing evidence. And just like today, the circumstances were never perfect.

  But right now they didn’t have the luxury of time on their side. He had little to no leverage, let alone solid information that went beyond a pile of files. Nothing that solidified his upper hand and would force the man to give them what they wanted. He couldn’t threaten him with jail time, and there were no deals that could be made to motivate him to talk. But somehow he had to convince the man—before Nicu and his brother returned—that confessing was the best thing to do. Which meant time was working against them.

  “Who are you?” Levi asked, stepping in front of the guard.

  The man turned his head away, as if he were totally uninterested.

  “Do you speak English?”

  No response.

  Kayla grabbed her phone and pulled up a photo of her father. “Maybe he has something to say about this.”

  “Do you recognize him?” he asked.

  The guard stared at the ground, still ignoring them.

  “What about her?” Kayla asked, flipping to a photo of Mercy.

  “That’s okay,” Levi continued. “All you have to do right now is listen. We know that your boss—I’m going to assume Nicu is your boss—is involved in the trafficking of young girls from across Eastern
Europe, Africa and Asia.”

  “And even if you’re not involved in the actual trafficking of these young girls,” Kayla added, “there are stiff laws that include those aiding the smugglers.”

  “Why don’t you elaborate on what kind of sentences we’re looking at,” Levi said, nodding at Kayla. “What kind of future does he have to look forward to?”

  “A maximum sentence of twelve years for a single offense, fifteen if the victim of the crime is a minor. And aggravated human trafficking—which includes recruiting, harboring or transporting someone under the age of eighteen—can mean life in prison.”

  “And this girl,” Levi said, tapping on the photo of Mercy, “this girl is only seventeen years old.”

  The guard looked up and caught Levi’s gaze, but this time the earlier confidence he’d noted was gone. “You found a few papers, so what? You don’t know anything.”

  Levi took a step back. “So you do speak English. Good. I’ll ask you again. Who are you? And by the way, you’d be surprised at how much we do know.”

  The man’s lips furrowed into a deeper frown. “Yes, I work here for Nicu, but that doesn’t mean I’m involved in what he’s doing. I’m just the guard.”

  Levi glanced toward the window and the front driveway and held up the ring of keys he’d procured from the guard’s belt loop. “I have a feeling that Nicu and his buddy aren’t going to be too thrilled when they show up and discover you’ve allowed us to escape.”

  “Except you haven’t escaped. Not yet. The moment I realized the two of you had gotten out of your rooms, I called them. They’re on their way back to the house now and will be here any minute.”

  Levi glanced at a clock hanging on the wall. If the guard was telling the truth, they were taking a huge risk staying here.

  “And on top of that,” the guard continued, “you might have the keys to the front door, but try getting past those guard dogs. They’re highly trained attack dogs that will be happy to eat you for lunch.”