Roger had more than saved her cover, he’d protected her—even in his death.
“I told Hirsch early on not to let his people grab girls off the street,” Bella said. “It is sloppy.”
“Almost got yourself killed,” he said. “Mr. Hirsch doesn’t like women telling him what to do.”
“And I don’t want to go to prison. A cop, Damien. This is fucked and you damn well know it.”
Damien looked marginally worried, but it passed. He wasn’t an idiot, but he had no emotions. He didn’t get angry or sad or happy or worried. Not for long. It was like his genes were poorly wired and nothing got to him. Nothing. He didn’t even take pleasure in screwing the girls, and Hirsch always gave him “pick of the litter” as he called it.
Disgusting.
“Help me roll him over,” Damien said.
The ravine wasn’t a long drop, but it might take days before someone found him. And chances were, predators would do serious damage to his body before a person came across him. They were on a little used road, south of the county landfill.
But Bella didn’t know when she’d be able to make contact with Simon, this might be her only chance. She couldn’t contact Declan, on the chance that he’d been compromised. She didn’t think so—Roger would have given her a sign, something. Hirsch would have mentioned a partner. But because there was a slim chance, she would only reach out to Simon until she knew for certain that Declan still had a solid cover. If Declan found her note—and she had no doubt that he would—he’d know she was in trouble.
Bella and Damien pushed Roger’s body over the edge.
I’m so sorry, Roger. You didn’t deserve any of this. I’ll kill him. I’ll find Hope and kill Hirsch. Forgive me.
“Let’s start cleaning up,” Damien said.
New location meant change in protocol. She had to dump her burner phone because if Damien found it on her, he would grow more suspicious.
“I need to pee,” she said.
He waved over to a grove of trees.
“I’ll start bleaching the truck,” he said.
He might not fully trust her, but he didn’t think she was working against them. If anything, he’d believe she was out for herself.
She peed behind a tree just in case Damien was watching. She took the slim burner phone she’d stashed in her bra, under her breasts, and sent a single text message.
She turned off the phone and buried it in case Damien came looking, then went back to the truck to help him clean up Roger’s blood. Thirty minutes later they headed back to Scottsdale and ditched the truck at one of Hirsch’s facilities.
Damien said, “Look, Doc, I like you, okay? But you’ve got to back off of the boss. Don’t get in his face like that, it really pisses him off. I’d be upset if I had to whack you, got it?”
She nodded and considered herself lucky.
She was alive.
And so was Christina Garrett.
CHAPTER TWO
Tuesday
Declan Cross spotted Laura Dixon as soon as she stepped out of the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. “I got her,” he told Adam Dixon, Laura’s husband, over the phone. The last hour of conversation with Adam and Bella’s brother JT Caruso had been uncomfortable, to say the least. “I’ll fill her in.”
“Do you have someone on the hospital?” Adam asked.
He was irritated that Adam even asked. “Yes. I’ll call you when I learn more.”
He ended the call before Adam could make him feel more like shit than he already did. He stopped the rented black Town Car as close to Laura Dixon as he could. She was an attractive middle-aged woman who dressed conservatively and had an air of peace wherever she went. Even now, when everything was going to hell, Laura remained calm.
He got out and called out, “Laura.”
As soon as Laura recognized him, she smiled widely. She hugged him tight, and he kissed both her checks. “It’s been too long,” he said, emotion choking his voice. Three years. Ever since Adam gave Bella the ultimatum and she walked away.
At one time Adam and Bella had been very close. Adam was the father figure Bella sorely needed, and Bella was the daughter Adam and Laura could never have. After her brother JT rescued young Bella out of a forced prostitution ring, she came to live with the Dixons because JT didn’t know how to help her. Hell, Declan couldn’t blame him—though he knew that Bella had been hurt, that she thought her brother somehow thought less of her. Declan told her nothing was further from the truth, but it still bothered her.
“It has been far too long,” Laura agreed. “I saw Adam’s text message that you were picking me up when I got off the plane. Is Bella okay?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. He wouldn’t lie to Laura. He took her overnight bag from her shoulder and put it in the backseat, then opened the passenger door for her.
“You don’t know where she is?”
“Get in, we’ll talk.”
Laura sat down and brought her hand to the small gold cross she never took off. Declan shut the door and took a moment to control his emotions.
Three years ago, Declan had walked away from his two closest friends when he went with Bella to work for Simon Egan, a multimillionaire who had made it his personal mission to rescue underage girls from sex trafficking. At the time, he thought it was the right thing to do. He was tired of the rules that Genesis Road, the organization Adam and Laura ran, insisted on following. Rules that none of the bastards who trafficked in people ever followed. Declan had been swept up by Egan’s charisma as well as the need to keep an eye out for Bella. After all, she was JT’s sister, and JT was his brother in every way except blood.
But as he and Bella had gone deeper down the rabbit hole with Egan, Declan realized the guy was borderline crazy. Bella didn’t see it. Not because she was an idiot, but because she was a bit crazy too when it came to stopping predators like Martin Hirsch.
But being a bit crazy was not being stupid. Bella might put herself on the line, but she was the smartest field operative he knew. Now she needed help.
Declan got back into the car when he spotted a cop start toward him, circling his finger in a gesture to move along. He pulled away from the curb, uncertain how to tell Laura. It was one thing to explain to Adam and JT about Bella’s undercover activities, but Laura was different.
“I knew as soon as I got the call yesterday that Bella had rescued the girls,” Laura said. “But she didn’t call me. Even though our relationship has been strained, she always calls me with information.”
“I would have called you, but I didn’t have an opportunity.” Adam wouldn’t shelter Laura and Declan couldn’t, either. “A local cop, Roger Beck, and I rescued the girls early Monday morning. I knew immediately there was a situation when only two girls came out without Roger. There was supposed to be three. I took them to the hospital, made sure they knew to call you and talk to no one else, and then went back to find Roger.” He paused. “I didn’t want to leave him in the first place but the girls were in danger. And now Roger is dead.”
Laura squeezed his arm. “I’m so sorry about Roger.”
Declan felt the peace Laura shared, and while he was still angry and worried, he breathed a bit easier. Laura had that way about her, that even in the middle of chaos, everything would turn out all right.
“I got back to the house, not even an hour later, but it had already been cleaned out. There was blood inside, no body. I couldn’t risk Bella’s cover, so went around to Hirsch’s other houses to see if there was any activity. They were moving some of the girls. I traced them to a warehouse, but couldn’t find Roger. By the time I got to Bella’s crib, she was gone.” He took a folded paper from his right breast pocket and handed it to Laura. “She left that.”
Laura looked at the torn Bible page. “The first book of Samuel. A code?”
Declan quoted from memory:
“And David inquired of the Lord, ‘Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?’ ‘Pursue them,’ he answ
ered. ‘You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.’”
Declan glanced at her. “It means she’s in trouble, I need to find her. I must have just missed her. By the time I got back to her motel, she was gone.”
“When? Yesterday? And you waited until today to call for help?”
The slight accusation in her voice made Declan feel guiltier. He shouldn’t have waited twenty-four hours, but he didn’t think Hirsch could move his operation that fast.
“I thought I’d found her, wasted half the day following one of Hirsch’s trucks, but Bella wasn’t inside. I backtracked when I got a message from Simon that she’d contacted him, gave him the location of Roger’s body and said she was going dark.”
Declan merged onto the freeway and navigated through the late commuter traffic. He glanced over at Laura. A small frown marred her unadorned face.
“What happened to Roger?” she asked.
“Tortured and murdered. My guess is he was shot at the house and they kept him alive long enough to get information out of him. But he didn’t talk.”
“How do you know?” Laura asked.
“Because Bella’s body wasn’t with his!” Declan said sharply. He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Laura. I fucked up. Worse, Simon thinks her message to him about going dark supersedes her message to me about extracting her from the operation, so he’s not doing shit.” He paused, then mumbled, “Sorry.”
Adam and Laura didn’t swear. Declan wasn’t a big believer in religion, but his mother was devout, and so were the Dixons. Declan had the utmost respect for Adam and Laura, and he tried to live up to their standards. But he’d never quite felt like he had, even after he left the Navy and started working for them. It’s how he met Bella, then a cop in Seattle. It’s how he learned about the multibillion-dollar worldwide sex-trafficking business and the innocent young girls who were forced into it. How his former commanding officer could remain calm in the face of such evil, Declan didn’t know.
“Who is Martin Hirsch?” Laura asked. “I don’t recognize the name.”
“You work primarily overseas, so I’m not surprised. Hirsch runs the pipeline along the I-10 corridor. Originally, he ran the circuit between L.A., Las Vegas, and Phoenix, but in the year Bella’s been undercover they’ve expanded into Texas, and we believe their goal is to run the entire southern network.”
“A year?”
Laura knew just as well as he did that a year undercover was soul-breaking work.
“How did Bella get in?” she asked.
Declan didn’t say anything.
“Do we have a trust issue?”
“Of course not.” He just knew Laura wouldn’t like it, and he couldn’t figure out a way to sugarcoat the situation.
“You know I don’t approve of Bella’s work with Simon, but I need to know what I’m getting into, Declan.” Her voice was firm. She didn’t need to raise it to make her point.
“The only thing you’re going to do is get those two girls to Seattle and keep them safe. Adam already started the ball rolling when I filled him in this morning.”
“What are you not telling me? I will call Adam, but I want you to tell me.”
“I didn’t just speak to Adam this morning. I called JT.”
That had been the fucking hardest call he’d made in a long, long time.
“JT? You talked to him?”
He glanced at her. “Bella and JT may not have spoken for the last three years, but I didn’t cut off all ties.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t tell Bella. Look—I’m not trying to justify what we’ve done. We did what we did and saved dozens of young girls over the last three years. JT didn’t trust Egan, but he and Adam built a brick wall and told Bella to stand down. You and I both know Bella isn’t going to stand down, especially when she can do something.”
Laura sighed and rubbed her eyes. “This has been difficult for everyone. Adam and Bella were both right—and both wrong.”
“And both stubborn.” He hesitated, then added, “Bella was hurt when JT sided with Adam and not her. And she drew her line in the sand. I told JT he was being an ass, but both Carusos are stubborn.”
Declan had two years’ service in the Navy when JT Caruso enlisted, and they both served under Adam’s command. They were Navy SEALs—bonded for life. Declan could no more turn his back on JT than he could turn his back on an innocent child suffering under the hand of evil.
“JT trusted me to have Bella’s back, and for three years I did. Until yesterday. I finally got information out of Simon, but I had to promise him I would locate her, not extract her.”
“She’s in danger. You know it!” Laura didn’t lose her temper often, and she might as well have slapped Declan.
“Laura, I told Simon what he wanted to hear because he’s the one Bella will contact when she can, and I need any information he has. My role has always been to back Bella up—but by necessity I have to stay in the background to best protect her. I promise you, as soon as I can, I will pull her out. This has gone on way too long, but the only way it works is if I stay inside Egan’s operation. JT concurs, but he’s going to light a fire under Egan anyway. We’ll see what happens.”
“You didn’t tell me how she infiltrated a major trafficking organization.”
“She went in as a doctor who lost her license. Isabella Carter. Simon set up a brilliant identity, we were playing the long game.”
“What for?”
“To find a missing girl sold by her stepfather into Hirsch’s network. Hope Anderson. She’s been missing for fifteen months, but we had evidence that she was alive and created the undercover plan.”
“More than a year?”
“We knew it’d take time.”
“This isn’t going to end well,” Laura said. “Bella has never been so deep for so long. With a sex trafficker? What has she had to do to prove herself?”
“Laura—I have her back.” Until now. Declan would never forgive himself for this fuckup. What had happened? Why had she left? Did they threaten her? If she’d known that Roger had been shot, she would never have disappeared. He hoped.
Because the one niggle of doubt in the back of Declan’s mind was that Bella had become obsessed with finding Hope, to the point where she might not be thinking like the decorated cop she had been, but thinking like the vigilante Simon wanted her to be.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m not going to.” Laura didn’t need to know details, but Declan couldn’t lie to her. Bella had straddled the line. Hell, they’d both stepped across a couple of times, but desperate times and all that.
Laura was tense, and Declan couldn’t blame her. “What did JT say?”
“He’s talking to Kane Rogan and they’re putting together a plan, starting with getting information out of Simon.” Declan navigated the exit ramp and after a series of quick turns pulled into the unloading zone at the hospital. He put the car in park, but didn’t turn off the ignition. “Laura, do what you do best. Make those girls feel safe. Everything Bella has done is to save girls like Christina and Ashley. They might have information about where Hirsch was moving the girls. If anyone can get anything out of them, it’s you. I’m going to find her, Laura. I promise.”
CHAPTER THREE
“They couldn’t just disappear,” Damien was saying over the phone. Bella pretended to be half asleep on the couch of the crap-hole house in the middle of nowhere. She suspected they were on the outskirts of El Paso, on the Texas/New Mexico/Mexico border. “The boss isn’t going to take I don’t know as an answer.”
Bella didn’t know who Damien was talking to, but she suspected a police informant. Hirsch had them everywhere; often their best source of information was a disgruntled cop or civilian employee who liked the money that came from sex trafficking or was being blackmailed because he used prostitutes.
Damien listened and then said, “Check every fucking hospital, got it? They’re probably u
nder fake names. Check Jane Does. Bring them back or kill them. No loose ends.”
By this point, Declan would have protection on the girls. For a while she’d been worried that he, too, had been caught by Hirsch’s people, but after listening to Damien for the last twenty-four hours, she relaxed. Declan was safe. He’d get her message and find a way to extract her.
Except Bella wasn’t certain she wanted to be pulled anymore. Leaving the Samuel Bible passage had been a knee-jerk reaction born out of deeply ingrained survival skills. She almost wished she hadn’t. Almost. She was worried, but only because her backup was two states away and had no idea where she was. After what happened to Roger she was more angry than scared for herself, and sent Simon the message instead of Declan because she wanted retribution. She wanted to take Hirsch down hard. And she wanted to find Hope.
Right now, she was safe, but how long would it last?
Hirsch was angry, but he wasn’t as angry as Bella had expected him to be. That bothered her. She’d known Phoenix was a temporary landing spot. He was checking on his business, then planned to continue moving the underage girls east. But she didn’t know what his end game was—other than expanding his organization and merging it with the mysterious “Z.” She had no idea who his partner was. Simon had run Z when she first heard the name, but nothing popped. Nothing. An alias of an alias? A new player? Or someone so entrenched in the business that he knew how to keep a very low profile?
Damien ended his call, sat next to Bella, and closed his eyes.
She wanted to slit his throat. Instead she said, “What’s going on?”
“No one can do their fucking job right,” he muttered.
“I need my own place.”
“We’re not staying. Just a few days here.”
“There’s a card room I want to try out. You should come with me. We both need to decompress.”
He turned his head to look at her. His expression was impossible to read. What would it be like to have no emotions? No feelings about anything? Sometimes, Bella looked at Damien and wished she could be without empathy, without feeling, without regret.
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