by T. K. Leigh
Olivia closed her eyes, Tyler’s words like a knife to her heart. He was right. Alexander wouldn’t stop until he had all the answers and found Melanie. She had a feeling she was the one who held the key to getting her back. She’d always done what she thought was right, constantly giving her time to causes she believed in. Now, she feared she would have to choose between saving one life and twelve, but that one life… She treasured it more than her own.
When footsteps rang out, Olivia released Tyler, both of them turning toward the door leading to the garage. Olivia’s heart caught in her throat when Alexander stepped into the kitchen, their eyes meeting. Feeling like a prisoner awaiting her sentence, she remained motionless as she stared at her husband.
Chewing on her bottom lip, she didn’t know what to expect from him. Disappointment. Anger. Frustration. Instead, there was something completely unanticipated etched in the lines of his face. Respect. Admiration. Understanding.
He strode toward her, his steps deliberate. His eyes cut into her soul, ripping her open, leaving her secrets bare for the world to see. Only he could read her fears, her regrets, her personal demons, assuring her with just one look that it was okay, that he would chase them away.
Pausing mere inches away from her, the heat from his body warming her skin, he locked his gaze with hers. Their chests rose and fell in near synchronicity. In an instant, his strong hands grasped her face and pulled her toward him, his lips crushing against hers.
Olivia stilled, caught off guard by the moment of sorrow-filled passion. Then she melted into the kiss, molding her body against his, allowing them to become one. The world disappeared around them. Nothing else mattered at that moment. Not the lies and secrets of their past. Not the troubles and heartache of their present. Not the uncertainty of their future. For that one brief sliver of time, all that mattered was the love they shared. In that one kiss, Olivia knew they would get through this. That their devotion would help navigate through the stormy waters, and the sun would eventually shine on them again.
Alexander pulled away and stared down at her, not saying a word.
“You know,” Olivia stated softly so no one could overhear.
Remaining mute, he folded Olivia’s hand in his and led her down the hallway and into his office, pulling her onto the leather sofa in front of the large windows. When her eyes caught the snow falling, the dread and unease she’d been able to chase away momentarily returned.
Facing her, Alexander ran his fingers across her knuckles. It comforted her, reminding her of their early days together when a simple touch like this would send shivers throughout her body. Despite the passing of years, his touch still had that spark.
“Maleek killed Mischa,” Alexander informed her.
She closed her eyes, allowing the truth of what she’d already assumed to wrap around her. The second he shared that he was an Afghan national, she knew he had killed Mischa.
“How do you know? Did Dave tell you?” she asked.
He narrowed his gaze at her, as if unsure how to respond. She could sense he was waiting for her to finally admit to what he already suspected, but she couldn’t…not yet. She needed more information first.
“There was a room in his basement,” he said in an unsteady voice, briefly closing his eyes. He bit his lip, and Olivia knew he had seen something he wished he hadn’t. “There was a chair with blood on it. In the corner was a bucket full of rocks. The FBI and local LEOs are probably still there, but I’m sure we’ll find a match to her blood type.”
Olivia covered her trembling chin. “Why?” She shook her head. “Why would he—”
He fished his cell phone out of his coat pocket and handed it to her. “He thought she knew where these women were and tortured her to make her talk.”
With shaky hands, she took the phone from him and began to scroll through images of a dozen women she had just visited. With each face, she recalled their unique story, reaffirming her belief that what she had done was right, was good, was necessary.
“All of these women lived at my company’s shelter in Afghanistan at one point or another. After the explosion, they disappeared,” Alexander explained when Olivia failed to show any signs she recognized them. “Landon came to see me several weeks before that.”
Olivia met his eyes, remaining silent. She knew the story. She was an unspoken part of it…until now.
“It was a week or so after the first attack on the shelter,” he continued. “He asked me to use my resources to help smuggle these women out of Afghanistan and establish new lives for them here in the States. He was convinced it was the only way they’d be free from their pasts.”
She dropped the phone onto the couch and grabbed his hand in hers, squeezing. She didn’t know if she could ever admit she went behind her husband’s back to help Landon when he wouldn’t.
“I refused, told him it wasn’t our place to interfere.”
“Landon never did like taking no for an answer, did he?” she commented, releasing her hold on his hand.
“He didn’t.” His eyes remained glued to hers. “When he believed in something, he would stop at nothing to see it through to the end.”
“Just like his sister,” Olivia added, narrowing her gaze at him, hoping he would understand.
“His sister…” He drew in a breath. “Of course.” Running his hand over his face, he turned to Olivia once more, looking at her in a way he never had before. “How…? I mean—”
“I only agreed to help with the financial side of it all,” she finally admitted. “Mischa told me about your conversation with Landon. When that didn’t go the way he hoped, he reached out to her. Her organization had clinics and aid workers in Afghanistan, but it didn’t have much in the way of funding. To arrange something of this magnitude would pretty much deplete their resources.”
“So they turned to you.”
She nodded. “She didn’t fill me in on the specifics, just that something else needed to be done. Up until that point, I was pretty clueless about what your company did over in Afghanistan anyway.”
“I didn’t tell—”
“You usually don’t talk about anything work-related with me.”
“Olivia, I—”
“It’s okay. I understand a lot of the stuff your company does is classified. And, to be honest, I don’t find it all that interesting anyway. But this… I had no idea. When Mischa told me a few of their stories, my heart physically hurt, Alex. These women had no one. They were scared to go home. They were scared to stay in the shelter. No matter where they went, they would always have to look over their shoulder to make sure no one was coming after them, always wondering if everything would come crashing back down again. Some of these women were pregnant, for crying out loud! And the person who should be keeping them safe, their husband or their father, was the one who wanted to harm them!”
Alexander’s expression remained fixed, absorbing her story.
“So I agreed to help them with the financial part of it.”
“All those girls who we believed were abducted from the shelter around the time of the explosion…” He looked at her, questioning.
“Landon and Mischa relocated them. There were too many to move all at once, of course. From what I was able to glean, it appears they moved one girl at a time, waiting several days between transports. I don’t know where they hid them, but Mischa was finally able to get all the girls out and resettle them here.”
“So you were just the money behind it? You weren’t involved in any other way?”
“I—” she began, then the door opened.
“I apologize, sir,” Martin said, stepping into the office and heading toward where they sat on the couch. “Agent Moretti is here and has requested to speak with Mrs. Burnham regarding what was said on the FaceTime call earlier.” He raised his eyebrows.
Olivia looked at Alexander. “What FaceTime call?”
He sighed. “When we were at the house, one of Maleek’s computers started ringing with
a video call.” He took a deep breath, placing his hand on her leg. “It was Melanie.”
“What?” she cried, tears filling her eyes. “Was she…?”
“She’s okay. She’s alive. After seeing that room in the basement, I feared…” He swallowed hard. “But she’s okay, just really scared. Before I could get her to tell me where she was, the camera shifted and I spoke to whomever is behind all this. His face was obstructed and he spoke into a voice modulator, which leads me to believe I know him somehow.”
“What did he say?” She leaned closer, hanging on to every word.
“That I’d get Melanie back when I returned what he was after.” He narrowed his eyes at Olivia. He didn’t have to spell it out for her. She knew what this guy wanted.
Closing her eyes, she let out a slow breath. Her stomach churned at the thought of willingly handing over a dozen lives to a man she assumed wanted to return them to their families so they could carry out these barbaric traditions. She didn’t know if she could live with that knowledge on her conscience, knowing she could have done something to prevent it, but sent them to their graves instead. There was no guarantee this guy would keep his promise to return Melanie. How could she be certain he would be true to his word? He’d already killed. What was stopping him from doing it again after he got what he wanted? Olivia wasn’t an expert in these types of situations, but she was smart enough to know he was using Melanie as leverage. She had a purpose. But once he had what he wanted and she no longer served that purpose, Olivia didn’t want to think about what he would do to her. She was certain it didn’t involve returning her.
“He made it sound like you know where they are, but it appears he was wrong,” Alexander said, breaking through her thoughts.
She opened her eyes, remaining stoic, her back straight.
“Or was he?” He raised his brow. “Olivia, talk to me. Was it more than just giving them money?”
“No,” she exhaled, avoiding his eyes. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to meet his determined gaze. “Well, yes. At first, it was just money, but Mischa knew getting them here wasn’t enough. They needed to be a completely new person on paper.” She gave him a knowing look.
With wide eyes, he turned from Olivia and stared at Martin, who remained impassive, then met her gaze once more.
“I knew I couldn’t go to you with it, not when you had already turned Landon down, so I guess I went to the next best thing.” She shrugged and glanced at Martin, smiling slightly at their odd arrangement.
She didn’t know what had compelled her to trust Martin with everything. All she knew was something had to be done and he was the first person she thought of. He’d always been fiercely loyal to Alexander and her. He knew how to get things done discreetly. When she’d approached him with her plan, she had expected some hesitation on his part, but was instead met with enthusiasm. He was a man willing to do everything within his power to keep those women safe.
“Without Martin, these girls wouldn’t have been able to work, to better themselves. Some of them have started taking college courses. One of them is even in nursing school! And none of this would have been possible—”
“I know. I know,” Alexander interrupted, his face turning red.
“I apologize, sir,” Martin said in an even tone. “I shouldn’t have gone behind your back, but these were special circumstances.” He lowered his voice. “If one of these women were my daughter, I’d hope someone would stick their neck out for her.”
“When I asked you to look into whether any of these girls were smuggled out of the country?”
“I withheld the truth from you, sir. Again, I believed these to be extraordinary circumstances.”
“Where are they now?” Alexander sighed.
“In a temporary safe house.”
“Together?”
“Yes, sir. It’s not ideal, but when Mrs. Burnham raised her concerns regarding Mischa’s death, we thought it best to get all the girls into a safe house until we could figure out what was going on.”
“Where?”
Martin and Olivia shared a look. She had a feeling Alexander wasn’t going to like this. She didn’t like it much, either, but it was the best she could do on such short notice.
“Kiera and Mo’s guest house,” she replied sheepishly.
“Are you out of your mind?!” Alexander roared, standing from the couch and pacing the room. “They have kids! And another one on the way! Did you not think—”
“Of course I did,” she shot back. “We needed someplace safe and fast while we looked into other options. Kiera and Mo were more than willing to help.”
“We used every precaution to ensure we didn’t raise any suspicion,” Martin assured Alexander.
“They’re in the guest house. Their boys have no idea the girls are even there,” she added, although it didn’t ease his worry.
“Why didn’t you just use one of the company’s safe houses?” he asked. “That’s what they’re there for and are set up for this kind of thing!”
“The thought crossed my mind, but I didn’t want any of this coming back to the company,” Martin replied.
“It’s a little too late for that now, isn’t it?”
“It appears so.”
Exhaling, Alexander ran his hands through his hair, tugging at it in obvious frustration.
“What are we going to do?” Olivia asked, looking up at her panicked husband. It was clear he hadn’t expected her to be this involved. She wouldn’t have expected it if she were in his shoes, either.
He stopped pacing and addressed both Martin and Olivia. “We’ll do the right thing,” he stated. “We’ll tell Moretti everything we know. From the beginning. We’ll get Homeland Security involved. These girls aren’t exactly here legally.”
Olivia shook her head. “It’s not as simple as that, Alex.”
“You know as well as I do it won’t end well,” Martin intervened. “They’ll be in the system. Anyone will be able to track them down.”
“We’ll make sure they get put into protective custody while all of this gets sorted out.”
Martin approached Alexander. “With all due respect, sir, I understand you’re willing to do anything to get your daughter back, but have you lost your mind? Protective custody? People come to us, to your company, because they don’t feel safe in protective custody. A lot of these government agencies are stretched thin and have limited resources. Sure, they may feel safe for a minute, but after a while, there will be more important cases. And that’s assuming Homeland Security doesn’t ship them back at the first opportunity, just for them to meet the same fate Landon, your friend, your teammate, tried to save them from!” He took a breath, steadying his voice. “If you do this, it will all be for nothing. Landon’s death. Mischa’s death. Rayne’s death. All these people you once held dear… Their sacrifice would have been useless.”
“It wouldn’t have been for nothing,” he replied, always stubborn. “If we do this, maybe we’ll get Melanie back.”
“How can we get her back if we have no bargaining chip?” Olivia interjected.
“All this guy wants is to know the location of these women. We turn the information over to the authorities and let them deal with it while we find Melanie. That should be our focus. Nothing else.”
“You’re right,” Olivia responded. “It should be, but it’s not. Does my heart ache from her absence? Of course. Have I wanted to scream and cry and wail every minute since she’s been taken? Yes. She’s my daughter. The love I have for her, the bond I’ve shared with her, no one in this room could possibly understand.”
She looked from Alexander to Martin, then back at her husband. He would never be able to truly comprehend the spectrum of emotions she was going through. Yes, Alexander was a wonderful father, he grew into that role with an excitement she never expected, but he didn’t have that connection to Melanie like she did.
“She grew inside me for nine months,” she continued, placing her hand on her stomac
h. “I would do anything to get Melanie back, but I can’t, in good conscience, sentence a dozen women to death in doing so.” She grabbed Alexander’s phone off the couch and scrolled through it, landing on a photo of a woman with dark hair, dark skin, and deep chestnut eyes.
“This woman’s name is Hope.” She held up the phone, forcing Alexander to stare into those haunting eyes, wanting him to see the person who would suffer from his plan. “I don’t know what her name used to be, but the name she chose when she came here was Hope. Her uncle raped her. When she reported it to the authorities in her village, instead of arresting her uncle, the town elders came after her for no longer being a chaste woman. She was damaged goods and had brought dishonor on her family. Her mother helped her escape. She believes her father most likely killed her mother when he found out she was missing.”
She scrolled through photo after photo, relaying each woman’s chosen name and story, each one more horrifying than the last. Alexander needed to see the scars of their past on their faces, although some had faded with time. Still, the emotional scars of what these woman had endured would never fade.
“This woman…” She held up the phone. “She goes by the name Selena now. She has a son. A six-month-old little boy she named Landon, after the man who saved her life.” Her fiery gaze bore holes into Alexander. “She was pregnant when she ran away from her abusive husband. Her father was a teacher who was killed by the Taliban. Her brother became the patriarch of the family and sold her to a man fifty years her senior when she was only thirteen! Thirteen! Melanie will be thirteen in a few years. Could you imagine anyone forcing her to marry a man fifty years older than she is? Once Selena turned eighteen, she finally had the courage to run. Now, she works at a daycare where she can spend all day with her son and not live in fear that either one of them will be killed.”
Tears she had held at bay began streaming down her face. “Look at these women. Look into their eyes,” she sobbed. “Look at their scars. Their bruises. The burns on their faces. This is what their future holds if we do what you’re suggesting and get Homeland Security involved.” She took a steadying breath. “I want my daughter back,” she said through her tears. “I want to hold her in my arms. I want to tell her how sorry Mommy is and assure her I’ll always be there for her.” She shook her head, wiping tears from her cheeks. “But not like this. Not knowing I’ve sent a dozen women to their deaths.”