by Ashlee Price
All of the build-up and there was no one on the other side of the door. Even though the room was big, it didn’t take but a moment to see that I was the only one in there. There were a few things on the bed, but that was it. Wherever he had Mariah, it wasn’t here.
Leaving the hotel, I cursed anything and everything that I could think of. Me picking the wrong hotel just gave Mariah more time with Travis. I had to hope and believe that he was at a meeting and that he actually had some work to do as opposed to just bringing her here because it was a country where women’s rights weren’t exactly a big issue.
***
I had Yousef watching the other hotel for me. He had pictures that I’d sent him of Travis and of Mariah. The one of Mariah showed a little too much skin, but I didn’t have a choice. It was the only one I had, save for the one on the website. He was supposed to make sure neither one of them was seen going in or out. If he did see anything like that, he was supposed to give me a call. I called him before I got to the other place to make sure there hadn’t been any movement.
“No, I haven’t seen anyone come or go. I’m watching the front, and it’s the only place to get out of there. Either he’s not there or he hasn’t left.”
“What about the girl? Have you seen the girl?”
Yousef said that he hadn’t seen her and my heart fell a little. I was still holding onto the idea that he was off working somewhere, away from Mariah.
“Thanks, Yousef.”
“Do you want me to come in with you in case you need backup?”
He was a foreigner, but he seemed more than willing to help. He knew the place and all of the police. I might need that, but I didn’t want to draw any more attention. I had already drawn enough calling around about him. I hoped Travis didn’t know I was here, but I wasn’t sure that was the case.
“No, I think I’m going to do this alone. I don’t want to get anyone else involved.”
“You’re not in your part of the world anymore. I know of this man. He does a lot of work here. I’ve seen him before, heard of the things he does. You need some help.”
I should have heeded the man’s warning. I knew that I was out of my element here. I felt that every single moment that I was in Dubai. This wasn’t my town. Here, I didn’t know anyone. It would have been better to take him, but I didn’t know how far I was going to have to go. I might not want a local man there if things went south. Just being associated with me could be bad news for him.
When I told Yousef that I would call him if I had anything else for him, he asked me again if I would like his help. I told him no and waited for a few minutes and a little more advice. The man was almost too helpful. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was paying him so well or if there was another reason he was being this way. Somehow I didn’t think he genuinely wanted to help me, but I was suspicious of everyone right about now.
I worried that I’d picked the wrong man to figure things out for me, but no matter what his reasons were, he was efficient if nothing else. If I found out that he wasn’t trying to screw me over in one way or another, I was going to make sure that he got a bonus. I wouldn’t know until I went in there if it was a set-up or not.
My hesitation was only momentary. It didn’t matter if it was a set-up. It didn’t matter if Elie had warned him that I was coming and Yousef was working with him. All that mattered was that Mariah was somewhere in this hotel and I was going to find her. It already felt like the type of place that Travis would take her. It felt creepy, just like the man, and I had to wonder who else was there with him.
The hotel was not nearly as big as the first one. I’d come to the conclusion that the first place was his showroom for whatever business he had. It was the type of place that a man of his standing would stay. This place in front of me was more like the club. It didn’t look sleazy from the outside, but there was a feeling that something just wasn’t right. It could have been me, of course, but the boarded-up window on the third floor and the general feeling that it needed some upkeep supported my impression. I was willing to bet that Mariah could have been tied up and carted in and no one would have batted an eye. It seemed that everywhere in the world had seedy places like this, and of course a man like Travis would be drawn to them all.
As I walked through the lobby, a clerk buttonholed me and asked where I was going.
“I’m here to see a friend.”
“Who?”
I gave him Travis’s name and the room number he was supposed to be in. That information had been given over the phone, so to be stopped now in the lobby didn’t seem to add up.
“I’ll call his room for you, sir.”
“No, it’s okay. I would like to surprise him. He doesn’t know that I’m in the city, and I want to see his face when he opens the door.”
I made out like we were good friends who hadn’t seen each other for a while. I embellished where I had to, and it wasn’t long until he was willing to help me with my game. He felt included, and I felt closer to finding Mariah.
Once again, Travis had sprung for the best place in the hotel, although the rooms were closer together and no doubt not nearly as luxurious as in the last place. With the line that I’d given the man behind the desk, it was going to be hard to get into the room. I didn’t have a key this time, but I hoped that the doors were old enough that a credit card would do the trick. It had been a while since I’d had to open a door that wasn’t open to me. It had been even longer since a door wasn’t opened to me.
I was out of my element. I wasn’t a spy. I made money. That’s what I did. The club had been an outlet. Now it was the one thing standing between me and the woman of my dreams. I didn’t care what she did for a living. It really didn’t matter to me. What mattered to me was that I found her safe.
The door stood in front of me. I thought about knocking, but the lock did look old enough to slide a card through. It didn’t take long to pop the lock and for the door to open up. The room was dark and there wasn’t any noise except for the sound of soft conversation. It took only a minute to realize that it was not people talking but the television inside of the room making the noise.
As I walked in, there was a half wall blocking out the soft glow from the set. The light illuminated the girl on the bed. I waited a heartbeat before I moved towards her. I was waiting for someone to come out with a gun or jump from the bathroom, whose door was slightly ajar. But no one came. For a girl that he would have paid highly for, it seemed strange to just leave her like this. Unless she wanted to stay and he wasn’t worried about her leaving. Why was that somehow worse to me than her being dragged all the way across the world against her will?
I called her name softly and waited another few seconds before I walked closer to the bed. Every hair on the back of my neck was standing up. I was braced for whatever was going to come. When nothing happened it was kind of a let-down.
When I got closer, relief washed over me. She was untouched as far as her face. There wasn’t a mark on her, and if there was a chance that she hadn’t had to be with him yet, this was all worth it. Even if he had touched her, it didn’t matter. She was okay and right in front of me.
“Mariah?”
I was talking a little louder, but still not using my full voice. It didn’t matter, though. She wasn’t waking up. Finally I moved to touch her and shake her. Mariah wasn’t coming to. A panic went through me. I think for a moment I thought she was gone, but she made a little noise that calmed me down.
“Are you okay, Mariah?”
Her face was turned towards me, but I could tell that she wasn’t with it. It reminded me of how she’d been when I’d gotten her at the auction. She’d been drugged again, and the symptoms were too much like before to be coincidence. This was Elie, I knew it. Had he given a week’s supply to Travis to keep her quiet and complacent? The idea made me angry, but I knew that it might have saved her. All I had to do was get her out of here without being stopped. I didn’t know how I was going to explain it. It was
one thing to let the media get wind of me at the auction. It was another thing altogether to get caught with a drugged-up girl.
The hotel was not the nicest, but I didn’t really have a choice. I got a room on the same floor, and instead of running away with her, I just took her down the hallway. I didn’t think she was ready to move, and I had something else that I had to take care of. I needed to make sure that Travis didn’t come for Mariah again. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I knew that I was going to have to show that man a thing or two. Men like him never stopped until they were stopped. It wasn’t something that he was going to change on his own.
Leaving Mariah in the room with the door locked, I went out to get a few provisions for her. I didn’t know what she was on, but I needed her to come down off of it enough so that I could see the whole picture. It was time that Mariah and I talked. No more games until I’d gotten this all figured out and the men involved were handled.
Maybe I would give Yousef a try. He was seemingly eager to help, and now that I knew he wasn’t working with Travis, I could possibly use him for something else. I needed someone local to help me get a hold of what I needed.
Chapter 35 – Mariah
The room I woke up in wasn’t the one I’d passed out in after the car had taken us from the airport. I only remembered a vague impression of it, and the wallpaper and carpeting were the same, but certain things were different enough that I knew I was somewhere else.
I waited for a moment for my eyes to adjust to the brighter light and then I looked for my captors. Travis wasn’t a client and this wasn’t a job. They had taken me against my will and left no doubt about what they wanted to do to me. I shivered at the thought of what was going to happen. All I could hope for was that I would somehow be able to get home. If I did, I was going to stay as far away from Elie and the club as humanly possible. I’d learned my lesson.
There was no one in the room, though. I looked around and I didn’t see anyone. My things were not there, and neither were the bags of tools that Travis had brought with him. I was trying to figure out what to do next, but getting up didn’t seem to be on the agenda. My mind told me to just get out of there as fast as I could, and I wanted to, but the drugs in my system made it hard to move, let alone run away.
I could feel the draw of sleep coming back to me. I wanted to sleep more than anything else. I needed to get out of there, but where would I go? I was in a foreign land and I didn’t even have my passport. Would I even be able to leave?
The problems compounded and before long I was exhausted just thinking about it. The need to leave was beaten by the need to sleep. I didn’t think about the consequences if I stayed. All I could think about was how I needed to close my eyes for just a little while longer.
***
“Come on, baby! You need to get up, Mariah. We have to get out of here now!”
The voice got through my foggy mind and I woke up to see Scott sitting on the edge of the bed next to me. He looked worried, about as worried as I felt, and I couldn’t figure out what he was so upset about.
“How did you get here?”
“There’s no time for that. We need to get out of here right now. I’ve got a car waiting downstairs. Can you walk?”
I hadn’t even attempted to get up in a while, so I wasn’t really sure about that.
“Come on, Mariah. I hate to rush you, I really do, but if we don’t get out of here before the police come, I don’t know if we’ll be able to.”
The mention of police had me waking up a little faster. I wanted the police there, didn’t I?
“How did you find me, Scott?”
Scott didn’t want to talk about details. He wanted to talk about me getting up and getting dressed. He practically dressed me when he realized how tired I was. “What the hell did they give you?”
I shrugged. I really had no idea. The more I thought about what could have happened, the more I couldn’t stop the tears that were rolling down my eyes. “I can’t believe you’re here, Scott. I didn’t think I was ever going to see you or my country again. Travis brought me here drugged. Elie sold me to him for the week. He drugged me and dragged me to a car and the next thing I knew I was on a plane.”
“We’ll talk about this as much as you want later, Mariah. Right now we have to get out of here or we may not see America again.”
He was worried, and that made me move a little faster. Scott was always so calm, but he didn’t look calm anymore. I looked down at the hands that were pulling back the covers on the bed. They were bloodied and looked like they hurt. He had blood on his shirt, as well as a few drops on his face. I wanted to ask what had happened, but I was too afraid. I didn’t want to know at the moment. I just wanted to get out of there.
I moved as fast as I could, but I was still rushed and helped along by Scott. He pulled me out of the room as soon as I was covered up, and we started towards the stairs. Everything in me felt sluggish, and even with my heart slamming in my chest, I wasn’t able to keep up.
“I’m sorry, Scott. I don’t know what they did to me…”
“It’s okay. Don’t think about it. Let’s just think about getting out of here.”
I did as he said and made sure there wasn’t any room between the two of us. I didn’t want to know what happened if we didn’t get out of here in time. I could hear sirens in the distance. They sounded different from the ones I was used to, but I was sure that it was the police he’d told me about. I was convinced that they were heading in our direction. Relief washed over me when we reached Scott’s car and got in.
Scott told the driver to go to the airport right away. He was a little calmer, but there was still something in his voice that made me sit up and take notice. Scott was not the type to get overwhelmed easy. What had happened that made his face so pale and his hands shake a little as he sat next to me?
My hand went over his to try and calm him down. I did my best to make sure that I didn’t touch any of the wounds, but that was hard, because they were all over the tops of his hands.
“What happened, Scott?”
His eyes met mine for a moment and then he just shrugged. Scott wasn’t going to tell me. Not now and maybe not ever. I had to decide if that was a bad thing or a good thing.
“Let’s just get to the plane. Once we’re in the air, I’m not going to worry about this as much, but let’s get out of here first. I want to get off the ground. The laws here are a mess, and I don’t want to get dragged into anything.”
He was talking in riddles as far as I was concerned. It didn’t set my mind at ease at all. I just sat back in the seat and closed my eyes, sending up prayers of thanks that I was going to go home. I still didn’t know how it was possible, how he’d found me and why he’d done it all, but it didn’t matter. I was going home, and I was well aware of how lucky I was. I was finally going home.
Chapter 36 – Elie
“Scott. I see you’ve found her.”
Scott didn’t look very happy to see me. I’d heard from Travis’s men about what had happened in Dubai, so I can’t say that I was too surprised. I was more surprised that Scott had had the balls to start something, but I knew that it wasn’t going to end there. Travis was going to be back in a couple of days, and I already knew which side I was going to be on.
“She’s here for her money from the auction. Her cut, Elie, and then she’s not coming back here.”
“I think we should let the girl talk for herself. I didn’t know that she was going to be picking up a manager.”
“I’m not her manager. I love Mariah, and I’m not going to let her work here anymore.”
“Is that what she wants?”
“I didn’t want to go to Dubai with Travis, and you know it. You drugged me and forced me to go.”
I put my hands up like I was innocent. I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but it was clear that she saw it that way. I would never admit to it. I didn’t have to. She knew that, and even though Scott was by
her side now, that didn’t mean anything. He would get sick of her. She was only a whore, after all.
“I gave you an opportunity to make money. I don’t remember any kind of force being involved.”
Mariah was red in the face, and I could tell she was about to lose her cool. I didn’t blame Scott for wanting her. She was magnificent when she was mad, and the only regret I had was not buying her at the auction myself when I had a chance. Things could have been different if I’d ponied up the money. Maybe I could have made her want me like she did Scott. I was just as much of a man as he was.
“You’re lying!”
Scott calmed her down. He was less emotional. After what he’d done to Travis, there was nothing that I wanted to start with him. I could end him like I’d done Greg, but there were too many witnesses who’d seen him come in, and he was too big of a name in this town to just disappear. Lisa and Greg were different because there hadn’t been any loved ones to really press a search. They were just written off as missing tourists. Scott was too visible for that.
“Now, Mariah, I can tell that you’re not ready to have a conversation about this yet.”
“Just give her the money that you owe her, and the money that you owe her roommate Sasha, and they’ll be out of your hair for good.”
I was losing both of my best girls in one swoop. My body was tense, and I wanted to do something about it. Who the hell did this man think he was?
“It will take me some time to get the money together.”
“The check cleared my bank, Elie, so I know that you’ve got the money.”
“I don’t keep that kind of money lying around. You know what kind of girls work here.”
Mariah made a face and I smiled back at her. “Are you sure you want to give this up, Mariah? Here you’re a star. In the streets you’re just another woman who’s getting older.”
“Yes, I’m sure. I hope you get closed down. No one deserves what you put us through.”