“You replaced what other group?” AJ said carefully.
“The kids that were here when we came in. There were some boys in that group, and the minders were a man and a woman.”
“Was Donna here, when you came?” Maddie tucked the paper in her pocket.
“Yes. I’m not sure if she actually owned that motel, but she said she did, and a house in the country. We played games at that house and helped her clean the place. She said she and the two women, the minders, were from Tennessee but had lived in Chicago for five years with Tattoo Man, then lived Milwaukee for a while. She’d worked with him for years. Kept track of the money. You’ll have to ask her for more than that.”
“I can’t, Frog. Someone killed her yesterday at that house in the country. That’s where we were last night.” AJ put her hand on Frog’s shoulder.
Frog looked down at her feet and took a deep breath.
“What did the chief say, when you told him about Frog and her cops?” Tag turned to AJ.
“He’s doing a happy dance and said Jock will too. Two birds with one big frog.” AJ grinned at Frog.
Maddie’s phone rang. She answered it and made a face, swearing softly. After she hung up she said, “The team is going to be delayed until tomorrow. Damn. I’ve got to notify Sam and Richard.” She punched a number on her phone. When she finished, she pulled a chair close to Frog, holding the paper in front of her. “This list is genius, thanks. Tell us what you know about the kids you replaced. Anything will help.”
“I only saw them that first night, and I think there was about as many as our group, but they were older. A man that Donna called ‘the lawyer’ drove them north the morning after we got there, but we didn’t see them leave. We were still asleep. The other girls might be able to add something.”
Maddie inhaled sharply and gave AJ a hard look. Tag looked angry.
“That’s what Clint Weeks described when we met with him. Remember the video he claimed he turned in to the police, the one we could never find?” Grace said.
AJ stood. “All right. We’ve got some extra time. Frog, do you have a bag anywhere? Extra clothes? You could use my room to shower and clean up. Let’s go. I’ll wrap up some odds and ends while you’re cleaning up. We’ll come back up here when we’re done. If Lawrence Kelly calls, I’ll let everyone know.”
Maddie went toward the door. “I’ll work with Richard and Sam for a while and connect with my office. AJ, stop by our room and introduce Frog to them before you come back here.” She looked at Tag and Grace. “Will you girls keep watch on the motel?” She checked her watch. “Two hours. Is that good?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The room was quiet after everyone left. Grace took her place in front of the computers. “Where are Jeff and Greg? Their vehicles are gone.”
Tag was standing at the window, watching a crow wing its way over the lake. “I heard AJ send them to work at Clint’s since we thought the FBI was going to recover the girls today. I’m sure she thought it’d be better if they were out of the way.” Tag poured coffee and sat down beside Grace. “I’m confused about Jay. Do you think he’s playing us?”
“Honestly? I don’t. Of course that was before Frog mentioned ‘the lawyer.’ Both AJ and Maddie were surprised, and you didn’t look too happy either.”
“Where did you find the connection between his office and Seesom?”
“On the computers at his office. It’s under Clients.”
“Damn it. I should have looked.” Tag looked at the computer in front of her. “I don’t know about you, but I have a hard and fast rule. Never research your friends.”
“You’ve never researched any of us or—”
“Never,” Tag said firmly. “It’s a point of honor. Only what’s publicly available or what I heard from Charles and Lawrence Kelly. Or others.”
Grace stared at her. “I don’t either. I didn’t go any deeper on you until AJ asked me to look at your trafficking ops. That’s as far as any of us have gone.” She grinned. “That’s why I asked you about your parents and how you grew up.”
“Because we can, we don’t. That’s what it is, isn’t it?” Tag watched Grace’s mouth curve into a smile and thought about how it tasted. “Which reminds me. Where did you get my Dragons poster?”
“A friend of yours that works for the FBI. Ellen DeNeave. She sent it to our office in Milwaukee with some of the papers our group needed to make your transfer. Since I do all of our mail, I snapped it up. I love that poster.”
“She’s an ex-Dragon.” Tag straightened. Ellen was also her contact in the current FBI probe working with Maddie. “Did you write her back?”
Grace looked at her, uncertain. “Is there something wrong?”
“Not at all. I just haven’t seen the poster in a long time. I was surprised.” Tag tapped her fingers on the desk, wondering if this was a good time to talk about what else she’d seen. “There are things about each other that we don’t know. Remember what my therapist said to me? The right time. The right person? I still feel that way, Grace.”
They stared at each other silently.
Grace took a deep breath. “This is one of those things that I don’t know how to talk about. There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.”
“When I was looking at the poster I looked at your books. And the addresses, all those doctors you have written down. The phone numbers.” Tag held her breath.
“Oh,” Grace whispered. “I’ll be right back.”
Tag watched her graceful body move away. She was named perfectly. Grace.
Grace laid the wine-colored leather address book on the desk between them.
“You’ve probably noticed a lot of my books are about survival? Abuse?” Grace was pale but held Tag’s gaze.
“I noticed them in Milwaukee too.”
Grace cleared her throat. “My father and his brothers, my uncles…” She finally looked away.
“No,” Tag said, fearing what was coming.
Grace nodded. “From the time I was nine. My mother got me to my grandparents when I was eleven. That photo you found? I was leaving our house for my grandparents’ that day. About a year later, he killed my mother and went to prison. He’s dead now…not that it makes any difference. I miss my mother. Every single day.” She took a deep breath. “These people…” She ran her fingers down the list of doctors’ names. “They’ve helped me.” She smiled, looking down at the names. “Sometimes I call them.”
Heart in her throat, Tag didn’t know what to say. She took the book and looked at it. “What are the dates?”
“The day I decided their name should go into this book.” Grace inhaled. “Rape is about power, not sex, and this doctor was the first to explain that to me, in a way that I could understand and live with.” She leaned back in her chair. “Would you pour me some coffee?”
Tag stood, poured a cup, and handed it to Grace. “I thought you might be doing some sort of online education with all those books.”
“But that’s what it is, isn’t it?” She pointed at two highlighted names. “I’m actually helping these two with books they’re writing. It helps me as much as it helps them.”
Tag looked into Grace’s incredible eyes and remembered AJ saying it’s like there’s a step missing. “Does AJ know?”
Grace gave a little shrug. “That was crazy. Both she and Charles knew, but we never talked until we had to come up here. Maddie brought it up because the FBI was concerned that I might have a problem with trafficking. My records are public if you know where to look. These days up here have opened up a new part of me, and I have to watch myself. Those little girls down there…” Her voice trailed off.
“And Happy and Sandra.”
“That too. That day you told me about your therapist and the helicopters? I thought about it. It does feel right to talk to you.” She placed a finger on the name on the list. “I called this doctor, and she said to talk to you. We know good people, Tag.”
Tag se
arched for words, but failed, and so leaned in and kissed Grace with all the unspoken words in her heart.
“I know you. That’s enough,” Tag said softly.
“I didn’t expect you.” Grace’s eyes shone with tears.
Someone rapped on the door and Frog and AJ came inside.
“What’s happening at the motel?” AJ said.
Grace blinked and turned to the computers. “Nothing,” she said but then leaned closer. “Wait. The truck is moved. It’s backed up to one of the center rooms.”
AJ moved to the desk and picked up Grace’s address book. “What’s this?”
“It’s mine.” Grace took it out of AJ’s hand and closed it.
“Okay.” AJ slid a look at Tag and reached for her phone. “I’ll notify Maddie about the truck.”
“Look. The girls are taking things into the truck. They’re moving them.” Frog pulled a chair close to the computers.
Everyone was in the suite in about ten minutes, watching the surveillance. Tattoo Man was outside in the motel parking lot, pointing and talking.
“I should have left one of the boys there,” AJ said.
“No, you did the right thing. It left them feeling confident,” Richard said. “We’ll follow, and let’s take Frog. The girls know her.” He turned to leave then stopped. “Wait, a better idea. Tag, AJ, and Grace, get out on the road ahead of them. We’ll sandwich them between us, and keep in touch on the phone.”
“Tag and I bugged that truck. We can follow it anywhere,” Sam said.
“Good idea, Richard.” AJ picked up her jacket and pulled some bottles of water out of the refrigerator.
Maddie was on her phone to the DHS group in Iron Mountain, and she nodded the okay.
* * *
Tag drove because she was familiar with the area and went north toward the Michigan state line. AJ rode shotgun, on the phone with Maddie. Grace was in the back seat tracking the GPS. She kept them miles ahead.
“Look at the sky. We’re going to hit rain, maybe a thunderstorm,” Grace said.
AJ looked through the Dodge Charger’s front window. “You’re right. Maybe it’ll slow them down.”
“What is that?” Tag said, pointing at the steel fence on their right, to the east.
“I’ll check it out,” Grace said from the back seat. “It’s Marine Bio-Tech. Remember what Jay told us that night at the sheriff’s when the helicopter flew over?” Tag nodded. “He said it belongs to the state. No. He said the state built it and Clint Weeks is the major investor. I never followed up on that, and I should have.”
“Slow down, Tag.” AJ was listening to Maddie on the phone. “The truck took a right, went east on that county road we just passed. Let’s take the next right and run parallel. Do you know a way to get ahead of them from here?”
Tag slowed and did a right turn at the next county road. “If I remember, there’s another county road that does just that. Look it up, Grace.”
“You’re right. This intersects with the main highway and we can go south. The road they’re on will pass in front of that big plant.”
Thunder rattled over them, and a few drops of rain hit the windshield as Tag gunned it. They followed the road and made another right turn. “Look. There they are, just topping the hill down the road.” She looked to the right. They were about almost to the big gates and guard shack in front of Marine Bio-Tech. “I’m going to do something. Hold on. AJ, you and Grace get into the trees across the road.”
Tag did a half one-eighty; the car tires screamed and the wet pavement smoked. AJ and Grace were out of the car and into the woods quickly. Tag took her time and got out of the car, looking underneath as if something was wrong.
The lumbering truck slowed and stopped, its rusty brakes squealing. Tattoo Man was driving and the other man following in the black car. They stopped both vehicles, and the man in the car got out and approached her.
“Damn,” Tag said to him and bent down again to look underneath. She stood up, brushing the water off her jeans. Her car completely blocked the road. “I blew a tire, but I’ve got a spare. I’ll have it changed in a minute.”
“Want some help?” the man asked and she shook her head. Tag saw Richard’s and Maddie’s car stop behind them. He started back and spoke to Tattoo Man in the truck’s cab. Tag checked the trees. She couldn’t see either Grace or AJ. Tattoo Man climbed down from the truck, and she saw Richard pull his car across the road behind the black car as if he was going to turn around.
Tag opened her car’s trunk, faking a look for a spare tire. She took her time, moving things around. She saw AJ and Grace leave the tree line and move to the other side of the truck, away from both of the men.
Richard was out of the car, walking toward the truck. She threw up her hands as if stymied and started toward Tattoo Man. He crawled down from the cab and leaned against the truck, trying to light a cigarette in the rain.
“What’s going on? Can I help?” Richard said just as AJ came in from the back. She took the other man down, knee in the middle of his back, fist across his head. Tag heard something crack on his body. At the same moment, Richard hit Tattoo Man and had him down. They bound their wrists with plastic ties and stood them up against the truck. Frog scrambled inside the back of the truck and the girls screamed, yelling her name. It was over in what seemed like seconds.
AJ stood, hands on hips, and cocked her head at Tag. “That was too easy,” she said and looked toward the plant. She straightened and shouted, “Look out!”
A gun went off, then another, and AJ was down on the pavement in the rain.
Years of training kicked in for all of them. Grace slid left, returning fire, and Tag shot too. One man behind the factory fence toppled sideways and the other ran toward the big factory. Tag’s shot hit the running man but he kept going. Richard ran, following Grace, gun drawn.
Maddie was on the pavement beside AJ with her phone and giving instructions to 911.
“Keep the girls inside,” Tag yelled at Frog.
Maddie ran back to their car, returning with T-shirts. She held them against AJ’s head.
Tag kept her gun on the two men.
Grace was back, breathing hard, down beside AJ. “She’s hit, twice. Give me one of those T-shirts and I’ll hold it against her shoulder. Richard went after that man you hit, Tag. There’s blood on the driveway.”
Maddie looked over her shoulder. “Here comes the DHS. Tag, send them inside.”
Three vans broke the wooden driveway barriers to the plant and sped to the entrance. Agents spilled out, running inside. Tag turned back to the two men still standing against the truck. Tattoo Man gave her a greasy smile and Tag knew why. She should have seen the shooters.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The familiar scent made her heart jump. Katie.
Eyes closed, AJ tried to inch closer to the warm skin against her, but pain shot through her head and across her shoulder. Her eyes popped open. Katie was asleep, her head resting on AJ’s hip, a hand firmly on her arm. What the hell was beeping and why was their bedroom all white?
She looked up. An IV ran down into her arm.
Suddenly, Grace was leaning over her, whispering. “Quiet. It’s the first time she’s slept since she got up here.”
The pain was horrible, and AJ closed her eyes again. “My head.”
“You got shot. Twice. Head and shoulder.”
“No crutches this time,” AJ managed. Her throat hurt.
“You’ve had surgery, so don’t move. Lie still while I get the nurse.”
“Katie?” AJ breathed out.
“Maddie flew her up here yesterday with the neurologist. She wouldn’t sleep. That’s a pile of exhaustion lying on you.”
“Everyone else?”
“Fine,” Grace said, and spoke to someone.
A tall, dark-haired woman in scrubs stepped inside and adjusted the IV, checking the beeping machines. “How are you doing?” She bent over her.
“Been better,” AJ
said. “How long?”
“Two days. How’s the pain?”
“Terrible.”
“Okay, let me give you something for that.” She turned away as Grace moved to the other side of the bed. AJ tried to remember but couldn’t get past the pain.
“Catch me up,” AJ whispered.
“It was crazy.” Grace leaned closer. “The DHS arrived and went into the plant. Then the ambulance and cops were everywhere. Tag and I went inside after they got you into the bus and on your way here. The cops took the two men from the motel.”
Grace stopped talking as the nurse fed something into the IV. She looked at Grace. “She’s going under again, so talk fast.”
“They got Frog and the girls to Milwaukee. Everyone’s safe, but you’re not going to believe what they found at that plant.”
“Damn,” AJ mumbled and her mind fell away.
* * *
Tag sat at the table in the suite across from Lawrence Kelly. They’d gone over the time up here for what seemed like hours and her brain felt mushy. Her phone beeped with a text from Grace.
“AJ was awake briefly, but they put her back under,” she said and kept the rest of it to herself. Grace had added that Katie was still asleep.
Kelly gave her a tired smile and shuffled papers, dropping them into his briefcase. “That’s enough, Tag. You need to sleep. We all do.” His phone rang and he answered, listening to the message. “My plane’s in Green Bay, so I have to go. The helicopter’s waiting to take me to the airport.” He knotted his tie. His expensive steel gray suit matched his hair and fit his tall frame impeccably. “All of you did a good job. I’ll send the plane back to Green Bay for Maddie. Tell her to let me know.”
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