I’ve always imagined myself finding a strong woman; I just didn’t imagine I’d fall for a stubborn one who would defy me like this when it comes to her own safety. I’m livid right now, and this long flight isn’t going to help me calm my nerves.
“I’ve got Vice on the lookout for her. I’m also pulling all the flight information from St. Louis to Baghdad. We will find her.” Pierce’s words should make me feel better, but they don’t. She has literally thrown herself into a fucking pit of hell if they capture her. I have to stop thinking about all the possibilities that I know can happen. Things that happen over there make my skin crawl, and to think that she could be in the midst of it all now makes me sick to my stomach.
After we level off in the sky, Jade moves next to me. “We’ll find Grace. Try to calm down and keep focused on the mission. You must concentrate on what we have to do. Don’t let your emotions change your behavior out there.” I hear what she’s saying; I just can’t flip a switch to stop the chaos from swirling around in my mind.
“I’ll be focused.” I keep my response short and to the point. I know what I have to do, but I just hope like hell she comes out of this alive. I can’t imagine the nightmares I’ll have if she doesn’t.
Everyone is quiet as I think about all the things Grace and I have said to each other over the past few days.
“She landed an hour ago. I have the list of passengers and just confirmed that she was on the flight.” I refrain from yelling fuck out loud again, but scream it internally instead. “We still have twelve hours until we land.” That’s hours of hell for me while I deal with this adrenaline coursing through my veins.
I watch Kaleb and Pierce move quickly on their laptops, using every bit of technology they can to find out where she is. I remember not that long ago Kaleb was sitting in my position, worrying about Jade. And I’ll never forget the gut-wrenching sounds Jade made when we were forced to leave Kaleb on the ground. I guess they get what I’m going through right now, not that it makes this any easier.
“Vice just sent in a picture of the house. I’m working with a friend of mine who may be able to get us the layout.” I knew that was all due to come in, since we got the address last night. “One of the suspects is on the move. Do you want me to have Vice follow him or keep watch on the house?” I can’t think straight. If he follows the one on the move, maybe he can stop him from getting to her if that’s where he’s even headed. If he stays behind, he’s sure to come back. Will she be alive if their focus is to make her pay for what happened to the little boy?
“Have him follow.” I sit back in defeat, not knowing if I just made the wrong decision or not. “Fuck, can we move this fucking plane?” I know it’s moving at top speed, but nothing seems fast enough as I wait. I’m not a patient man; I’ve never claimed to be one, either.
“Steele, we’re working our asses off trying to make sure she’s safe.” Kaleb looks at me in warning. “And when we find her, I want you to nail her ass for this. We need to all stop looking for stubborn-ass women around here.” He looks at Jade with a smirk that should make me feel hopeful that one day I can be on the opposite side of this mess and do the same with Grace. I just hope I have the chance.
“Grace, what the hell are you thinking?” I stare at the fucking clouds, my hands clenched in a fist. Shit sure as hell looks different from this point of view.
“I’m not going to ask you if you’re alright, because I know you're not. What I am going to say is, you have one determined woman on your hands and I know exactly what you're going through right now.” Jade sits down beside me once again. Her protective nature always shines through in times like these. “Every time Kaleb leaves on a mission without me, I freak the hell out. I can’t sleep. I worry because my contact with him is limited. The one thing that keeps me sane is I know how important saving someone’s life is to him, and I sense that in Grace.”
“Yeah, she definitely works to save lives first, thinks later.”
“What she did wasn’t smart by any means, but that woman has fight in her. It’s easier right now for me sit here and tell you than it is to be sitting in your seat, but I know a woman with strength like that is powerful. We’ll get her out of there.” Jade’s right. I know she is. And I appreciate her trying to comfort me. It eases my mind in a sense that she picked up on Grace’s strength. I knew how strong she was the first time I met her. But both Jade and I know that strength doesn’t determine someone’s fate.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
GRACE
“Thank you for flying with us,” the stewardess says as I disembark the small plane. The torrid heat, the gritty sand, and the blinding sun cause me to blink when I descend the stairs and make my way inside the airport.
The sights, sounds, and the people hustling about zap my overloaded brain. Reminding me of who and where I am as I look up to read the Arabic language.
The truth is, this country I once considered my home has brought me nothing but pain. It’s taken everything from me, and now someone wants to try and ruin my father’s legacy by kidnapping a woman and a man who have given up so much to come to their country to help the unfortunate. I will not allow it to happen. I wouldn’t care if this were Switzerland; I would still despise that first step onto soil that has done nothing but betray me. Of course, not all the people here are bad. It’s the same way here as it is in any country, the United States included. You have the good and the bad. The people who think that life owes them something when in reality you are owed nothing at all.
Once I was in the air for my longest flight, I stared out the window thinking about my life and the possibility of losing Trevor. He has every right to be furious with me, and in reality, I don’t blame him at all. However, I refuse to believe he will push me away over this.
I also believe he knows by now this is where I’ve disappeared to. I’m surprised I wasn’t apprehended by the staff while I was in the air. I wouldn’t put anything past him.
I slept for hours on that plane ride to Dubai. I had a short layover and then boarded the final flight to Baghdad. My mind drifted away to nothing until I woke up startled and wondering what the hell I’m going to do if something happens to the two of them. All I know is I had to come. I had to do whatever it takes to get Leslie and the doctor out of harm's way.
I pull my phone out of the pocket of my abaya to turn it back on and follow the foreign signs that lead me to customs. Once there, I stand in line for what feels like forever.
“State your business, American,” the older gentlemen demands, his tone clipped.
“I work for The Global Foundation. It’s notarized right there.” I point to the identification card my father embedded in my brain that I needed to carry with me at all times. The man continues to look back and forth between me and my identification. I feel sweat dripping down my back, air filling up my lungs until he finally stamps my passport and sends me on my way.
I cross the corridor and step back out into the blazing heat as I leave all my thoughts behind so I can focus on what I’m going to do, which I have no idea what that will be. I can figure it out once I get there to make sure the clinic is still there and that nothing has changed.
I keep my head down, my feet moving forward, and hope that if by chance Trevor and his team did ask someone to get me, I’m not recognized in these clothes.
I slide into the back of a cab, rattle off the address to the driver, and watch the city roll by.
It’s been built up so much since the war. However, people are still trying to rebuild the rural outskirts.
One of those overly populated areas is where I used to live, where the clinic is. The closer we get, the more nervous I become.
I feel myself breathe again once we pull up outside the clinic. I pay the driver, step out, and take my first step knowing I don’t have much time before Trevor and his team get here or Vice shows up to stop me. He could be inside waiting for me for all I know
“At least I’m here,” I say out loud to my
self.
“Just like I knew you’d be.”
“Rachel, what are you doing?” I spin on her. That tiny hope that she had nothing to do with this is gone in a whirl when I face her to see a gun in her hand.
“Move, now.” She shoves the gun into my temple.
“You won’t get away with this,” I say through the thick lump in my throat.
“Shut the hell up, you stupid bitch, and walk. Don’t say a word.” She shoves the gun into my back, grabs my suitcase and my purse, and drops them to the ground as she shoves me forward toward a waiting car.
She jerks my arm and shoves me inside. Climbs in behind me and unravels the long scarf from her head. Her long, blond hair is piled on top of her head.
“Drive,” she orders Nasim. I simply stare at her. I cannot believe she is doing this.
The sudden urge to gouge her eyes out of her head overtakes me. This is the fight part I was talking about. I won’t sit in the back of this car and be taken to be punished or even killed.
“Did you brainwash her? Promise her things you never plan on following through with, you dirty son on a bitch?” I ask, my voice full of venom.
He rattles off his response in his native tongue. Before she can hit me like he asked her to, I leap for her, the gun crashing to the floor. My fingers go straight to those eyes, and I dig my thumbs in while she slams her fists into the side of my head. The car comes to a jerking halt, causing us to thump to the floor, our positions reversed.
“Timid little Grace grew a backbone in the few short weeks she was gone. Did she lose her sacred virginity, too? Possibly to the soldier,” she snarls. I have never seen a person’s eyes so filled with hate, with malice, in all of my life. The truth stares me in the eyes. He did. He brainwashed her into believing whatever lies he told her. He’s using her.
“They’re going to kill you right along with me. Don’t you see that?” I whisper.
“Get out, Rachel.” She listens to him, grabs her scarf, and exits the car. I’m lying there panting for all of a second until a firm hand grabs my ankle and pulls me from the car. My body hits the ground, my head catching on a metal piece of the door.
“Let go of me.” I kick and scream as I’m dragged across the road, the mixture of sand and crumbled-up asphalt digging into my skin.
“Rachel, you can’t believe him,” I scream, my nails digging into the dirt. I scream and yell for help as Rachel kicks me in the face, while her deranged boyfriend drags me further away. The last thing I remember is thinking I’m going to die just like my parents in this foreign land.
“Wake that bitch up.” I wince as I try to sit up. My hands are tied. Everything hurts. My limbs, my back, my face. My wrists. I push myself up using my legs, lean my body against the wall, and stifle a cry as I try to open both eyes only to find one is swollen shut.
“Ah. The American princess is awake. Let’s make this little talk quick so I can drag out your death the same way your father dragged out my son’s,” he hollers and spits in my face as he grips my jaw in an excruciating way. That day flashes before my eyes.
He yelled and screamed for help as he cradled the lifeless little boy in his arms. My father took him back to a bed right away. Checked him out and determined through the yellowing of his skin and eyes, the vomiting, and the fact that the young boy’s mother had died a couple of years ago, that he was dying from an untreated case of Hepatitis C. Which was most likely passed on to the boy during childbirth.
“His death wasn’t my father’s fault. He did everything he could do. It was too late.” I speak my mind knowing this man isn’t going to listen to a word I say.
“You lie. You Americans come to my country to say you will help. They didn’t help my wife or my son. You're going to die like your father and your mother.”
“Kill her and get it over with,” Rachel’s boyfriend says. I look at both men who are kneeling before me. The father looks feral, while Nasim looks as if he wants to eat me alive.
“She needs to suffer first. She’s all yours. You have fifteen minutes.”
“Wait? Where’s Rachel?” I look around the dimly lit room and scream loudly when I see her dead body sprawled across the floor, her eyes glazed over, her head twisted. He snapped her neck.
“Oh, my god.”
“Smart and stupid at the same time.” Nasim smiles deviously, then he grabs my hair and drags me across the carpet, my flesh burning, my eyes watering.
“No!” I scream, my mind thinking the worst.
“Don’t worry, it will only hurt until your skin goes numb.”
Trevor. All I can see is him. The way he touched me, held me. Promised he would come back to me. I’m going to die before those promises can be made. Before I go to school. Before I fall in love, have children.
He tosses my limp body on a mattress. Hovers over my face and spits. “You disgust me. All of you do.” He sits up, and just when I think he’s going to rip my clothes off, he takes a vial of something out of his pocket along with a needle carefully wrapped in a package with the mission’s global logo stamped on it. I start to kick and scream, knowing it’s hopeless. He laughs, straddles my body, and fills the syringe.
“Do you know what this is?” he says maliciously. “It’s one hundred percent pure cocaine. It’s a shame I have to waste it on you.” I don’t have time to react before he shoves the needle into my neck. I scream until my throat burns.
“You're going to be wide awake, paranoid and restless because you can’t move.” He slips the needle into the vial again. My mind slipping into some kind of clouded high.
“Don’t do this,” I beg. He laughs and shoves the needle into my neck again. My entire body starts to burn. Warmth spreads throughout my limbs. I start to sweat as fear courses through my awakened mind.
“Does your body feel the burn? Does it itch, tingle, and make your skin crawl?” This man is crazy. I’m going to lie here panicking until I have a heart attack. Until this caviar of street drugs pulls me under and stops my heart.
“One more should do the trick.”
All I remember is the final prick.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
STEELE
“I’m going in. You guys can get to the weapons I have stored for you if I don’t get back to you with an all clear.” Vice’s voice is a growl through the speaker as we land and make our way off the plane. Everyone is moving as fast as we can without making us look suspicious. I wish like hell we could have a pass that would get us through fucking customs faster. Those fuckers are going to take forever with this. I know they will.
“Watch your back. We’ll be there as soon as we can, brother.” Pierce ends the call, and just like we always do, we shift into numb soldiers ready for a mission. All of us heading into the airport, going through customs and sliding on the clothing waiting for us, and then climbing into the truck waiting to take all of us out of here. With no weapons, we’ll have to do the first part of this mission the old-fashioned way until we can get to what Vice has managed to hoard for us. It won’t be weapons with the technology we’re used to, but in the end it’ll get the job done. Hell, I think I could go in bare-handed and do the job with the amount of rage flowing through my mind.
I’m trying like hell to differentiate my feelings of hatred for the kidnappers and the anger I feel because Grace put her life in danger by coming here. I guess it all comes down to a simple fix; I just have to get to them before they get to her.
Once we get to the stash of weapons, we split up. Half of us going to the address of the house we know Vice is at, and the other half of us going to the clinic. I expect that’ll be the first place she goes once she gets here. She’ll want to check on the patients; I know this because that’s the kind of heart she has. She’s the type willing to put her own life in danger to save others; plus, she wouldn’t know about the house unless Rachael has told her to go there.
I’ll take my chances at this point and go with my gut feeling. I’m leading Harris and Jackson to the ho
use where Vice has gone in. Pierce, Kaleb, and Jade are going to the clinic to see if they can find Grace when she arrives. If I can take out the threats, then all of this will be over.
We arrive a few blocks from the location, all of us getting out of the truck to approach on foot. It’s a little more difficult to fit in here, but we should dress the part and look the part if we want to have a clean mission. If we walked in here in our military uniforms and killed two men from this country, we’d start an all-out war. This has to be quick.
We surround the house, all of us silently accomplishing what we had planned. When I crouch down to pass the window, I hear a man yelling. My knowledge of his native language is minimal. I can’t make out his words. I point to Harris, who exchanges places with me. His ears are trained and on high alert. “He’s trying to wake someone up, screaming obscenities at them.” He turns and mouths.
And that’s when we hear a blood-curling scream. It’s Grace; they have her in there.
I signal for Harris to move just before I rush through the back door. We surprise them and raid the house in a swift sweep. l slam to a complete halt the second I find Vice on the ground and Grace tied to a chair.
“You’re just in time to watch her die. She’s a strong little thing. Refuses to let go.” He holds up a syringe, squirts the clear liquid out.
“She isn’t dying today, asshole. You are.” I hold my gun directed at the dirty motherfucker crouched behind Grace. Her beat-up face and scared-to-death glare stops every noise except the beat of my own heart thumping through my head. He’s talking, but I can’t hear him.
His hold on her neck gets tighter as I step closer. It isn’t until Harris bursts in that I get to lunge forward and take Grace to the ground with me, giving Harris the perfect shot to take the piece of shit out.
“Vice did a number on the other guy. He’s in here,” Jackson hollers through the house as he checks all the rooms. “Found the hostages alive.” I can hear him rummaging through the room at the back of the house.
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