Soldier's Redemption

by Alice Sharpe

  “I don’t like you going in there alone,” Tyler insisted.

  “I need you out here,” Cole said. “If things go wrong, you’ll need to make them right. And if they go right, I need you to cover my ass. If you don’t hear from me in an hour, then I guess it’s time to call in reinforcements and let the dust settle where it may.”

  “You’ve got an hour,” Tyler said.

  “And if they do go wrong,” Cole added, “tell Skylar I love her and I’m sorry for everything.”

  Tyler walked back to his truck, calling over his shoulder, “You can tell her that yourself.”

  That was the plan, but everyone knew things didn’t always go according to plan.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Cole’s foray into the nearest sporting-goods store had resulted in snow camouflage gear, a spotting scope, good boots, rope, a grappling hook, a lethal-looking hunting knife and a few other supplies that he wore strapped to his body. He’d spent the afternoon preparing his gear and scouting the layout.

  The grappling hook sailed over a spot in the wall where the mortar between the rocks had crumpled, making it a good place to scramble up the face. He dropped down inside the property for the second time that day, taking the major impact on his right leg to spare his left knee, but the pain still jolted him as he hit. For a second, he lay in the snow, chiding the sorry mess he’d become, then got back to business.

  He knew from a daylight excursion he’d made a few hours earlier that the power lines to the alarm system ran to a locked outbuilding near the fence, and he made his way for that now, the limp more pronounced than before. He’d asked around in town, and it appeared that during the winter the only residents were the couple who owned the place and a few servants. No one seemed to know anything about young, foreign-speaking women.

  He couldn’t think about Skylar. Not yet. He had no idea what she was up to, and if he let it, doubt crept in that she was even still here.

  The lock on the outbuilding was no match for bolt cutters. Once inside, he kept the lights off, using a small, bright beam to find the control box. It was an old unit, hardly state-of-the-art, one Cole had experience with from military duty. It wasn’t long before the alarm was disabled, and he was on his way to what he knew from watching the house through his scope for most of the day was the kitchen.

  The lock on that door gave in easily, and he entered silently. He could hear a TV on nearby and followed the sound to a small room beyond the kitchen where a man of about fifty sat in a chair facing the TV. Four empty cans of beer beside him and an open one in his hand helped explain the snoring.

  Cole shook the guy’s shoulder making sure the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the blade of the hunting knife. “Not a peep,” Cole said.

  The guy shook his head vehemently as he lost control of the open can and beer spilled in his lap.

  “I’m not here to hurt anyone or steal anything. Who are you?”

  It appeared the guy had to work saliva into his mouth before he could mumble, “I’m just the handyman. What do you want?”

  “I’m looking for the foreign girl.”

  “She doesn’t speak any English. They keep her locked in her room upstairs when she isn’t working.”

  She was here! “Which room?”

  “End of the hall.”

  “Where’s the cook’s room?”

  “She doesn’t stay here at night.”

  She must have been the woman he saw driving away a couple hours ago. Cole took out a roll of duct tape. “I’m going to make sure you don’t raise the household.”

  “Just don’t hurt me.”

  A few minutes later, Cole left the gagged man taped to the sofa and started toward the stairs. The hall split in two directions at the top and he paused. Something about the paintings on the wall and the fresh flowers on a table in the left passage suggested it led to the owners’ suite so he turned left. He had no intention of alerting anyone else he was in the house. All he wanted was Skylar.

  The lock at the end of the hall was a little harder to pick than he’d anticipated, and doing it while holding the flashlight between his teeth made it tedious work. He was worried about the time. No matter what these people were guilty of when it came to importing and mistreating illegal workers, he’d broken into their home and threatened their servant with a knife. If Tyler called the police, guess who would be going to jail first?

  The lock finally clicked, and it sounded to Cole’s sensitive ears like a bomb exploding. He eased the door open as an innocent scream of surprise could awaken the wrong people just as a warning could. “Skylar?” he said into the dark, hesitant to flash the light that it would blind and frighten her.

  “Cole?”

  He risked the light then and took in the room with one glance. It looked like a windowless cell of some kind with twin beds, each occupied, one by a sleeping girl in the process of waking up and one by Skylar, who sat atop the bedspread, fully clothed, holding a sharpened pencil as though it were a weapon. She dropped the pencil and rose to her feet, her gaze fastened to his. He approached her in a daze.

  “Are you all right?” he whispered, touching her chopped black hair and then her cheek.

  “I am now,” she said, her voice shaking.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I should never have lied to you. I never expected I would fall in love with you—”

  She stilled him with her lips, as soft as velvet, her fragrance as sensual and memorable as always. “I’m sorry, too,” she said. “I should have worked with you. You almost got killed because of me.”

  He closed his eyes for a second, and that’s when he noticed the girl in the other bed was talking a mile a minute, frantic, her voice too loud. He pulled away from Skylar. “Who is she?”

  “Svetlana’s daughter, Malina,” Skylar said.

  “Tell her to keep it down. I’ll stand guard while she finds a coat and shoes. We only have four and a half minutes to get back to Tyler.”

  “Hold it right there,” a male voice said from behind him.

  Cole could have kicked himself. He’d made the biggest rookie mistake in the book. He’d neglected to watch his back.

  * * *

  HOPE TURNED TO DREAD in the blink of an eye as Skylar caught sight of Donald Kester with a gun.

  Cole had turned by then—he stood between Kester and her and Malina. Cole was hard to overlook in his white-and-gray camouflage with a dozen things strapped to his waist, shoulders broad, body big and strong. And he’d said he’d loved her.

  “Hand me the knife,” Kester said.

  Cole shook his head. “No.”

  “Who the hell are you breaking into my house in the middle of the night, threatening my domestic help?”

  “Is that what you’re calling this?” Cole said, his voice relaxed. “Interesting choice. I’d call it slavery, or maybe even something worse.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kester scoffed. “We give these girls a chance for a good life.”

  “Yeah. Right. Why are they locked in this room? Why have you bordered up their windows?”

  Kester jostled the gun. “For their own safety. Come with me.”

  “If I don’t, what are you going to do?” Cole said easily. “Call the police? Go ahead. Call them. Get your wife up. Let’s get this all out in the open.”

  “My wife is out like a light,” Kester said. “Whatever happens next, it’ll be my word against yours, and I dare say my word is worth more.”

  “You’re forgetting about me,” Skylar said, pleased to see the shock in Kester’s eyes as she spoke English. “And I can translate for Malina Dacho.” She’d spent half the day telling Malina about what had happened to her mother, consoling her and promising if Malina wanted to live in the States, Skylar would be a legitimate sponsor on the West Coast. “I just want you to know you are indirectly responsible for the death of Malina’s mother and several other people. Your greedy appetites have helped wreck a lot of lives.�
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  “So say you. This girl was introduced to us as Linda Armstrong from Detroit. First-generation American. Raised in a family where she was not allowed to speak English. I have her passport and papers to prove it. Just as I have papers claiming you are Susan Williams. Obviously I’m being scammed.”

  “Nice try,” Skylar said, “but you’re forgetting I understood every word you spoke to Dasha earlier today.”

  “No one would blame me for shooting an intruder,” Kester said, waving his gun, turning his attention back to Cole. His nerves were beginning to show. “If someone else gets killed in the process, it’s not my fault.”

  All of a sudden the partially closed door banged open and another man appeared. With a thump on the top of his head from the butt of the newcomer’s big silver gun, Kester keeled over into Cole’s arms.

  “I got tired of waiting,” the man said. He looked at Skylar and added, “My name is Tyler Hunt, ma’am, and I’m Cole’s older brother. Well, one of them, anyway. You must be Skylar. I’m very happy to meet you.”

  “Not half as happy as I am to meet you,” Skylar responded truthfully.

  Tyler grinned as he tousled Cole’s hair. “You know, little brother, I knew the day I found out about the past that my life was going to change, but I never guessed just how much.”

  Cole laughed.

  * * *

  THEY SLEPT ALL THE WAY back to Kanistan, wrapped in each other’s arms. Skylar had had to use Katerina’s fake passport, as she didn’t have her real one with her, and time was of the essence. They didn’t want to take a chance that Banderas or anyone else would find out what had happened at the Kester house and destroy the papers that would reveal how many girls were missing and where they could be found. For that reason they’d left Tyler in charge of watching Malina and the Kesters and greeting Dasha when she came to collect Malina. They’d have to figure out the police angle of everything later.

  “How are we going to find Banderas?” he asked Skylar as they got into the rental car. He glanced over at her as he spoke and experienced a little quiver. He couldn’t believe they’d found their way back to one another, and if this Skylar didn’t quite look like the one he’d made love to, that was okay. She was beautiful no matter what, but he was glad the heavy makeup was gone and he could really see her face.

  “I think he’ll probably find us.”

  “Do you have a plan? Let’s remember this man and his cohort have tried to kill both of us and succeeded with at least three others.”

  “I haven’t forgotten,” Skylar said, her gaze fastened straight ahead. “But first things first.”

  He didn’t have to ask what she meant. He knew she had to do this thing her way, and for once, he didn’t need to be in command; his job was to keep her alive.

  * * *

  THE HOUSE WAS VERY QUIET when the butler let them in the door. “Where is everyone?” Skylar asked, and it was a sign of the man’s training that he didn’t react to her radical new appearance. “Master is in his office,” he said. “Madame is upstairs.”

  Her aunt’s nurse came out of the kitchen bearing a tray. When she saw Skylar, she almost dropped it. “Is that you, Ms. Pope?” she asked.

  “Yes. How is my aunt?”

  “Doing better. She’s had a couple of days without treatments, and she’s getting stronger. She was worried about you, though. Didn’t you get her call?”

  “It’s a long story,” Skylar said.

  The nurse seemed to notice Cole for the first time, which was pretty astounding in Skylar’s book. While he was no longer wearing his camouflage gear, he was an imposing man in his quiet, substantial, don’t-cross-me way, and when he was around, she had a hard time noticing anyone or anything else. The nurse hurried away, and the butler melted into the house. As they approached the office, Skylar spoke. “Let me talk to him alone for a moment.”

  “If I’ve learned anything in the past twenty-four hours it’s that you and I work best when we’re together.”

  She paused to look up at him. “I think you’ve changed a little,” she said.

  “Well, I am no longer a card-carrying loner,” he responded as he leaned down and kissed her. “You can handle this any way you want, but let me be nearby.”

  She nodded and knocked on the door. A distracted voice called, “Come in, come in.” They found her uncle standing with his back to the room, closing the safe that was hidden behind the wedding portrait.

  “You’re early,” he said. “And this is the last—”

  By this time, he’d turned and found Skylar and Cole standing inside the room. His eyebrows rose, probably because Skylar looked so different. “Oh,” he said.

  “You were expecting somebody else,” Skylar said.

  “Well, yes.”

  “Ian Banderas?”

  “As a matter of fact...”

  “And what’s that in your hand, Uncle Luca?”

  He looked down at the envelope he held but said nothing.

  “That’s why Banderas is in and out of here all the time, isn’t it?” Skylar said. “I heard him tell someone you were powerless to stop him because he owned you. He’s blackmailing you, isn’t he?”

  “Don’t be absurd,” he said, setting the envelope down on the desk. “What in the world have you done to yourself, and why is this man in my house?”

  “I’m just making sure she’s okay,” Cole said.

  “She hardly needs you to look after her.”

  “On the contrary, Mr. Futura. You’ve been so busy covering up your past that you were willing to sacrifice her future.”

  “And you’re talking in riddles.”

  “Am I? I take it Banderas is expected any minute. Shall we wait for him? He can help explain why Skylar looks the way she does and where she’s been the past couple of days. I think you’ll find his story quite compelling.”

  Skylar’s uncle looked at her. “What is he talking about?”

  “Ian Banderas and a member of your embassy, a woman named Dasha something, have been spiriting away young girls with false passports and identities to America, where they are good as sold to the highest bidder. I have repeatedly tried to get you to acknowledge that something was going on and you have refused. And I have the horrible feeling that you’ve known about it all along.”

  “Skylar, I’ve been patient. But really, this is tiresome and I am expecting Mr. Banderas on a private matter, so perhaps you and—”

  “My name is not really Cole Bennett,” Cole said, and in that moment Skylar remembered that this situation wasn’t hers alone. It belonged to Cole and his brothers, as well. “My real name, the name you stole from me along with the lives of my parents, is Cole Oates. I believe we may have met before, say, when I was two.”

  “That’s impossible,” Luca said after an icy pause.

  Cole moved farther into the room, but Skylar stayed back by the open door. His white-knuckled fists at his sides and the purposeful way he moved betrayed the emotions she knew ate at his heart. It was probably all he could do not to slam his fist into her uncle’s face.

  His voice was very soft when he spoke. “You killed my parents, you bastard, and then you covered it up by shipping their two small children off to America and as good as imprisoned the third.”

  “You are insane.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” Cole warned. “I know you did it. My brothers know you did it. None of us will rest until you’ve paid for what you’ve done. Charles and Mary Oates trusted you, and you betrayed them. You destroyed the Roman family in the bargain, and now you’re about to destroy your own. All because you wouldn’t take responsibility for impregnating Lenora Roman.”

  “What is going on?” Ian Banderas said as he entered the office. Skylar had been so caught up in Cole’s pain and her own biting, wretched disappointment with her uncle that she’d forgotten about him. A small gasp escaped her lips.

  Ian turned to look at her, and as he registered her clothes and face, a little of the smug coolness fell
away. “What in the world are you doing here?” he snapped.

  “This is my niece,” Skylar’s uncle said. “Why shouldn’t she be here? And why do they say you know why she altered her appearance?”

  Ian licked his lips. “I have no idea.”

  “It’s over,” Skylar said. “By now, Dasha is in custody and Malina Dacho is safe. I’ve been posing as Katerina for more than twenty-four hours. I’m the girl you drugged in her place. I’m the one you sold to Donald and Esther Kester. By now, the American authorities are all over this, and your parlay into trafficking humans is over.”

  “So what? Luca will see our police don’t touch me, and Americans have no power here. Besides, I have an escape plan in motion. In fact, Luca, if you will be so kind as to hand me that envelope, I think we can put our association to an end.” He extracted a long envelope from his own breast pocket and offered it as if in exchange.

  Skylar’s uncle looked down at the envelope he’d laid on his desk.

  “What’s in it, Uncle?”

  It took him forever to answer, and when he did, his voice sounded hollow. “Money.”

  “In exchange for what?”

  “For proof,” Cole said. He looked at Banderas and added, “You came across proof that Futura killed the ambassador, didn’t you?”

  “Oh, I came across far more than that.”

  “He found Smirnoff’s records after he died,” Skylar’s uncle said, his voice devoid of emotion. “The man kept scrupulous notes. Mr. Banderas has been selling them back to me while using Smirnoff’s hidden facility to make papers and passports to fund his own operation.”

  “It’s been very profitable,” Banderas said. “Now, hand me the last of the money in exchange for the pages about the death of Lenora Roman.”

  Skylar’s uncle shook his head, but then his gaze focused on a point beyond Skylar’s shoulder and his expression crumbled.