Allure (Mercenaries Book 1)

by Tony Lavely

  Beckie, feeling for the blade, found it lying on the floor where she’d dropped it. It would be really good for Jamse to arrive right now.

  Wearying after a few moments, Werner cut the cord at the girl’s ankles, snatching her back from trying to scuttle away from him. He stood, plucking her from the floor. No foreplay this time, Beckie guessed, as he stood her in front of him and then entered her. He held her against him as he had the first girl; one hand squeezing a breast, the other helping keep him inside her. Beckie watched as, satisfied, he moved his arm to cross her throat. It took a few seconds before she understood what he was doing as he pressed his arm into her windpipe, forcing her even harder against him.

  Beckie had never played at choking, but some friends had. In those games, the high was said to be for the benefit of the chokee.

  Covered in her own vomit, she watched, her fingers unmoving, frozen on the sticky side of the tape. Werner was getting the benefit. He held the girl’s throat closed because her convulsive efforts to breathe excited him. Beckie could see it in his face. Just before the girl would pass out, he relaxed, allowing her a few breaths. Repeat.

  Hoping she wasn’t too late as he started to choke the girl for the third and, Beckie was sure, final time, she forced her fingers to pick up the blade again and remove it from its sticky home. She pressed it as hard as she could against the plastic ties holding her ankles together. It slid through and she managed to keep it from slicing off any of her bodily parts. She stood.

  The convulsive exertions, exultation and death throes had turned Werner so Beckie was looking at his back. His foot had slipped in the blood; his legs were splayed as he experienced his pleasure. Beckie kicked as hard as she could, aiming to have her foot, toenails and all, come up between his legs and rip his balls right off.

  Her kick was not quite perfect, but the aim and the force were sufficient to stagger him; he let go the girl’s neck, turning away from her. She fell forward onto a pillow in an inappropriate position, Beckie could see, but Werner was no longer interested in her. He cast about for the knife he’d dropped but his foot slipped in the blood; this time he fell against the girl, who shrank away from him. He reached for her throat, but Beckie grabbed his foot and pulled him away as much as she could. He caught the girl’s shoulder, rolling her over, and Beckie ran around him to get between him and the girl. Still slipping in the blood smeared on the hardwood floor, he fell as Beckie aimed a kick at his face. His fall caused the kick to miss. Off balance, she fell hard to land sitting by the girl.

  Beckie was able to get to her feet before Werner; maybe he’d sprained an ankle. She tried a soccer style kick at his head but he seized her ankle and pulled her down again. They grappled together on the floor, both covered with blood. Beckie felt her hands slip along his head; his hands slid along her breasts; even down her legs, he could find no grip. She could hear the frustration in the animal sounds he made, and she felt his mouth hot and wet on her breast. Sure he was about to bite, she pulled away sharply, twisting to avoid him; this exposed the girl again. Beckie saw him reach for her, getting his feet under him preparatory to standing.

  Before he could get fully erect, Beckie grabbed the girl’s arm and pulled her back. With her out of the way, Beckie rolled onto her back and aimed another kick with her right leg.

  Her heel drove into Werner’s midriff; she could hear the “Ooof!” in stereo. The kick straightened him up. Her follow up was even harder, energized by her urgency. She feared that if he was able to rise, the two of them would stand no chance. This time her foot struck his testes squarely; she could feel funny squishy things beyond her sole. She felt a bone break; her foot hurt so much she wondered if maybe it was hers. Again, Werner doubled over, then fell as his foot slid in the blood once more. This time his head hit against the hard wood, knocking him unconscious. Beckie took a few quick breaths to recover, then reached around to pat the girl clinging to her waist like a thing possessed.

  Beckie pried the girl loose, gathered sufficient discarded, bloody pieces of fabric to fashion temporary bindings for Werner’s hands. She returned to the girl, hugging her again.

  The door opened. Beckie ducked while trying to hide the girl still attached to her waist; she felt the knife under her and bent to pick it up, ready to dispatch Cäcilie or whoever else might show up to protect Werner.

  But Jamse entered the room. As Beckie collapsed, holding the Chinese girl in a hug, telling her they’d be safe now, Jamse took in the scene, calling for Sue as he ran to clasp Beckie to him.

  “My God, Rebecca! This—”

  But Beckie was crying in relief, though, covered in blood, it was hard to tell she wasn’t hurt, wounded in some painful way. She threw her free arm around his neck, pulled him even tighter. “Mr. Jamse, thank the Lord! I knew you’d come, I hoped it’d be in time for her—and me.” A couple more sobs. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be crying, should I?”

  “It is… You may surely cry. Are you well?” Her nod relaxed him a little.

  Sue entered at a run, Willie right behind. Together, they redid Werner’s bonds with more substantial material, then watched the transformation as Beckie calmed herself, relaxed her grip on Jamse and stood, the Chinese girl still gripping for all she was worth. Once her breath caught up, Beckie reviewed the action that had happened in the room.

  She finally observed the missing link. “Where’s Derek?”

  “He’s at the top of the steps,” Sue told her. “When I fell in the jungle, he stepped into a tiger trap, Ian called it, and got a bamboo stake through his leg. In response to Beckie’s look of horror, “He’ll be okay. But it’s kinda like Kevin: if we can keep him off it, it’ll heal a lot better. Anyway, I need to get him someplace I can operate to remove the bamboo that’s left.”

  “So, what else slowed you guys down?” Beckie asked, not completely without reproach. She indicated the girl’s body, as well as the one still clutching her. “Could have been less… traumatic.”

  “True, Rebecca. I am more distraught over this than you can imagine,” but she could, and did, she expected. “We have been in the compound nearly as long as you, but Willie was forced to drive while you had been removed in a helicopter. Fortunately for us, though not for them…” indicating the girls, “Werner was too intent on his pleasure and revenge to completely close out his banking session. Susan was able to move funds from his account to ours sufficient that our goal on that account has been exceeded.

  “The young lady… attached to you?”

  “She’s Chinese, he said, or at least, he said he was speaking Chinese to them. I think she’s going to keep me.” She grinned a little self-conscious grin as she stroked the girl’s head.

  “She’s not like a stray kitten, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know that. But still…”

  They carried that conversation no further. Beckie picked up the throwing knife and the blade. She picked the girl up, too, then let her slide back to stand on her own, still clutching Beckie’s arm. Sue took the throwing knife from her. With nothing in the room wearable, once again Beckie left the scene en déshabillé until she got to the top of the steps where Derek waited. Whether prescient or lucky guess, Derek had sought a blanket for her. But he had only one; she and the Chinese girl would have to share. Willie scrabbled to bring another back for the girl, but returned empty-handed. “Better to get out of here than spend more time looking,” he told them. “But the woman back there…”

  “Ah, yes,” Derek said. “She wanted to interfere, and my leg ‘urt, so I—”

  “She’s safe? Too look at, I mean?” Beckie said.

  “She won’t ‘urt you, that’s for sure,” Derek replied.

  “Then, can I see her?” Beckie asked. “Stay here… No, come along.” She took the girl’s hand. “If it’s who I hope, it’ll help her, too.”

  Beckie identified Cäcilie’s body with more pleasure than she thought possible.

  Sue fairly floated up the steps as Beckie watched. At Derek’s look,
she told him, “Guess I have some gypsy blood in me.” Derek and Jamse both nodded, but Sue was silent, grinning widely as she cleaned first her knife, then Beckie’s.

  “How long should we wait before alerting Kiel Lot?” Jamse asked.

  “I think another five minutes should be adequate.” She chucked. “Let him know that heart failure will be obvious to him.”

  They left, all squeezing into the car Willie had driven. Even with two clad in naught but a blanket, the four in heavy uniforms filled the vehicle almost to overflowing. Fortunately, this car’s air-conditioning worked well. The girl had scampered up onto Beckie’s lap as the car filled, staying under the blanket, holding on as if to make sure no one could ever separate them.

  Even under the blanket, the girl’s body felt chilly, though Sue had said that was shock; her superficial look at injuries from the rape and the crushed throat hadn’t exposed any more serious concerns. The girl blinked once, then tucked her head into the hollow of Beckie’s throat, almost seeming not to cry.

  Entry to the hotel was not as dignified as the management might have wished, but it was very early morning; few people, including staff, were about. In fact, greeting them were a doorman, to unlock the main doorway after they’d waved their room keys through the glass, and the desk clerk, exuding a mixture of suspicion and concern as he greeted them. Beckie held the girl against her, wrapped in the blanket which engulfed them both, but bare legs and feet were visible below the hem, as were more than a few splatters of blood.

  Willie opened the girls’ room first, went in to verify that nothing new was amiss and to close the French doors. He stood aside so they could slip in. “Catch your breath for a minute; we’ll be back.” He followed Jamse and Derek down the hall.

  But Sue had barely stripped her shirt, letting it land atop the equipment belt as Beckie, girl in hand, curled up in the corner of the sofa, when the knock on the door kept her from removing the armor. However, it was Jamse with Kiel Lot, whom they had found waiting in Willie’s room. Lot studied the girls with interest, noting the quality of the equipment Sue wore, and then, the blanket around Beckie and the Chinese girl. In a quick fit of pique, Beckie flipped the blanket open so he could see not only their state of undress, but the spills of blood, then pulled it back into place. The girl looked confused for a brief moment, then confident again, watching Beckie’s eyes flash at Lot.

  “I see.” Abruptly, he turned back to Jamse. “Werner, you say you knew him as? Officially, we knew him as Westcott, an expatriate American with Australian documents. I confirm that he passed due to heart failure, perhaps aggravated by a grotesque injury to his… How shall I say—”

  “You need not; we are aware of Werner’s… hmmm, indisposition. It may be as well to posit that it occurred post mortem?”

  “Yes, yes. That is quite a workable solution. The girl, then.” Beckie pulled the blanket closer. “There were two choices; we believe the one we failed to protect was Wu Ting, and…” addressing Beckie, “if I may speak with her?” Beckie nodded and Lot spoke in the same tongue as Werner had, except that his voice made it much more melodious. However, the girl did not agree; she pulled her head under the blanket, face against Beckie’s breast, as completely out of sight as she could get. Beckie could feel her shake.

  “I think maybe she doesn’t want to talk to you. Or maybe to any of us,” Beckie said. “What did you say to her?”

  “I asked her name. That was all.” He paused. “Well, we believe her name is Li Mei, likely purchased for a few hundred baht by a smuggler. Her family has undoubtedly already forgotten her, as have the other girls’ families. We will have to place them in what you Americans term foster care. Even if their families wished to take them back, they would not come forward; the laws against the sale of children are severe.

  “Fortunately, all of the girls we found seem well fed and cared for, aside for the obvious defect of being used for illegal activities.”

  “Sex, you mean,” charged Beckie, still awake enough to be incensed by his euphemism.

  “Yes, Miss. Sex.” Unyielding to her anger, he showed a flash of his own. “Underage, illegal, illicit, immoral sex between non-consenting children and over-powering adults of both genders. While we try to avoid speaking unpleasantness of which we believe all are aware, we perhaps do a disservice to those hurt.” A deep sigh, then he gathered himself and continued, “We have recovered many girls, and several adults who assisted Westcott-Werner. I believe sufficient facts will come from their statements that your stories need not be told outside this room.”

  “And Li Mei, you said?”

  “Ah, yes, Li Mei. Should she remain, she would be treated as the others; after all, she fared no worse than they. Her family, even if identified, are likely outside Thailand, making any prosecution difficult. Should you and she be willing, it would reduce our embarrassment slightly if, in three or four days, she were to disappear with complete Thai documentation, at the same time you do.

  “However, it is no small thing to contemplate. I will send an interpreter later this morning, a woman this time. Hopefully, you and she can establish a rapport with the girl, and discuss the matter, come to a decision correct for all of you. I believe the woman I have in mind would be willing to travel to the United States for an extended period, if that seems desirable.” His smile said that he hoped to solve several problems at once.

  “Cool,” Beckie enthused. She pulled the blanket off her shoulder, dropping it to expose Li Mei’s face against her. Gently, Beckie took the girl’s chin with her hand; turned her face up. “Li Mei? If you want, we can go home!” She saw a little light in the girl’s eyes, a relaxing as if a smile wanted to come out, when Beckie pronounced her name.

  “Li Meili,” the girl said in a small voice. “Meili.” She followed this with a flow of speech that Beckie looked to Lot to translate.

  “She apologized for correcting you,” he said, “but I gave you the incorrect name. Her name is Li Meili,” emphasizing the difference with a smile. “She says she understands nothing all you foreigners are saying, but she will not leave you.”

  “Why?”

  A short exchange in which Meili participated.

  “She says you are her family, now; you alone protected her.”

  “Oh.” Wow. Wonder what that really means to her. “Okay. Do you need anything else from us?”

  “No. You should know that her family name is Li; her given name is Meili. You should address her as Meili. It means ‘beautiful’ if my translation is correct.” With a smile, he and the other men left.

  Beckie took Meili into the bedroom they would share and filled the tub with hot water for her. Sue came back in before the bath was ready, saying Derek insisted she look at Meili before attending to his leg, “As if I’d forget her!” with a note of disdain. She did a more complete examination of Meili, pronouncing everything physical to be as she expected. The getting over of being raped would occur in due course; the experience of Wu Ting’s murder was more problematic. Sue left to attend to Derek.

  On the bed after their bath, a thought came to Beckie; she placed her hand on Meili’s chest and said “Meili.” The girl turned her head to look up at Beckie’s face. Beckie leaned back, put her hand on her own chest and said “Beckie.”

  Meili’s smile grew a tiny bit; she put her hand next to Beckie’s hand and said “Bay-Ke.” After several repetitions they both could say the other’s name.

  Through the window, the sky was beginning to lighten; they crawled under the covers. Meili kept her death grip of Beckie even while she slept; Beckie luxuriated in the feeling even as she suspected it might soon lose its attraction. Then, her mind started to review the day’s events, the end of the four month nightmare that Werner had brought. The new experiences, friends, dangers, hurts, all the occurrences since April, many of which were positive.

  Those thoughts led to ones of the future, especially interesting if Meili actually returned with her. While she might be able to help take care of
her, it would fall to Mom and Dad to take the real responsibility. Teaching Meili English and learning Chinese; it seemed only fair to Beckie that if Meili had to learn a new language, she should as well. If Kiel Lot was correct about girl children being undervalued, it hardly seemed likely that she’d have been well educated.

  None of these thoughts, she reflected, filled her with the confidence that beating Werner had done, for all that it was his own doing.

  The sun broke through the palm trees in the garden and Beckie finally relaxed enough to fall asleep.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Headed Home

  “WAKE UP! COM’ON, GET UP sleepy heads!” Beckie heard Sue’s aggressive cheerfulness as the woman’s voice woke her. Sue came in to sit on the bed, as she did, Beckie stretched, taking in the morning sunlight through the window. Meili was still embracing her but also waking. Sue continued bouncing on the bed beside them, obviously way too full of some news she was certain they’d both want to hear. “Com’on! Get up!” she repeated as she pulled them up to sit.

  When neither evinced much enthusiasm, she said, “Meili’s interpreter is here.” Sue cast a critical eye at Meili, then said, “She’s too tall for your clothes, and too slight for mine, so we’ll go shopping.” She turned back to Beckie. “Also, Kiel Lot is quite happy; I transferred €450 million to an account he can use to fund relief agencies here in Thailand working to improve conditions.” She shook her head. Beckie and Meili were slowly beginning to move, stretching, swinging legs over the side of the bed.

  “Hold a second,” Beckie said, and went into the bathroom.

  “He is so straight,” Sue continued loudly enough for Beckie to hear. “Ian believes he will handle the money even more carefully than his own.”

  “Is that all we got?” Beckie asked, a little disappointed. While listening to Sue, she was finding underwear for Meili and herself.

  “Oh, no, no, no!” Sue laughed. “After a phone call between Ian and Rou, who handles our investments, we’ve set aside €350 million for taxes, €500 million for other child protection agencies worldwide, another €650 million for expenses and victim compensation and last but not least, €750 million toward our eventual retirements! Close to €2.75 billion. That was a half hour’s work; I might’ve missed some.”