He didn’t want to do anything foolish—particularly if it would put Hannah’s life at risk—but he had to be doing something to feel like he was at least trying to get them free. So he persisted, asking every time someone stepped into the cell, that they take him to whoever was in charge. And every day he prayed that they would respond.
On the day when he’d just about given up hope, the door opened to the cell not long after they’d come to take their cups away after breakfast. It wasn’t time for them to come back which meant they either needed Hannah for something, or he was finally getting his chance to speak with someone.
He was hugely disappointed and a little concerned when they took Hannah. It seemed forever before they brought her back, but before Ryan had a chance to talk with her, he felt someone beside him. Without saying a word, they removed his chain and led him from the cell. They passed the room where the bathroom was and continued on down the hallway to a staircase that led up out of the dark hole where they’d been living.
Sudden daylight had Ryan blinking and then squinting as he followed the man, suddenly aware of another person behind him, this one with a gun. Now that he was faced with the prospect of meeting the man responsible for holding them hostage, Ryan couldn’t help but worry that he’d poked the bear. Having not been able to see or talk to Hannah to make sure she was okay, he had to hope that his insistence on meeting the man hadn’t led to any sort of physical repercussions for her.
As they passed by the kitchen, Ryan’s vision had adjusted enough for him to see a woman cradling a baby. She turned away after their gazes met for just a second. It seemed that their cell was part of a home. He supposed that he should have picked up on that when Hannah mentioned that there was a woman present and that she helped with the cleaning.
A nudge to his shoulder prodded him forward into a room. It was stark with just a table and chairs and light curtains over a small window. A man wearing traditional garments sat behind the battered table. His face was weathered and tanned, and his eyes were dark.
He regarded Ryan without any expression for a long moment then said, “I heard you wanted to speak with me.”
Though the man spoke with an accent, his English was still good. Ryan was grateful for that as it would limit misunderstandings due to a language barrier. Out of habit, Ryan shifted his feet shoulder width apart and then gripped the wrist of one hand with the other. Pulling his shoulders back, he met the man’s gaze head-on.
“Yes. I would like to know what it is you hope to gain through keeping Hannah and I. Why are we here?”
Ryan tried to read something in the man’s expression, but it gave nothing away. If anything, he seemed to also be trying to read something in Ryan’s expression.
“Money,” he said with a shrug, as if that made all the sense in the world.
Which, Ryan supposed, it did. But if that was the case, why wasn’t he utilizing Ryan to reach out to BlackThorpe and his family for ransom? “How did you get me? You aren’t the same people who originally took me.”
Again the man took his time responding, making Ryan wait. “That was my brother. He trusts me and my men, so when he needs help, he offers someone in exchange for using them.”
Ryan tilted his head. “Do you have a different philosophy than he does? He is much more…aggressive.”
The man nodded. “I don’t believe in violence the way he does. Especially not for political reasons.”
“But you enable him.”
“I do, but it was supposed to be for the good of my clan. Unfortunately, with the girl, no one expressed an interest in paying for her return, but she has had her uses, so I have not pressed. Will that be the same with you? I’m thinking that my brother gives me the ones he has determined to be difficult to gain anything from.”
“This time, he was wrong,” Ryan said. “I do come from a family who will be interested in getting me back. And Hannah too.”
One of the man’s dark eyebrows rose at Ryan’s comment, and he leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the table. “You will do a video.”
“I’ll do whatever you want to communicate with my family.”
“And they will pay for your return?” Ryan nodded. “How much?”
Ryan hesitated because he had a feeling that given his parents’ friendship with Max Zavardi, the sky might be the limit, but he wasn’t going to say that. “Are you willing to negotiate?”
After another brief pause, the man nodded once.
“Okay. Then give them an amount and negotiate with them when they respond.”
The man said something to one of the men standing behind Ryan. He left the room and returned with a bag that he set on the table. Another man opened a folding chair that had been leaning against the wall.
Once the two men had returned to their stations behind him, the other man opened the bag and pulled out a tablet and a phone. He didn’t say anything as he tapped on the phone and then on the tablet. When he looked up again, he motioned to the chair even as he got to his feet.
Ryan sat down and watched as the man stood, a bit surprised at the height of him. While Ryan wasn’t short by any stretch of the imagination, this man looked like he probably topped him by at least a couple of inches. But he was thin, almost painfully so.
He handed Ryan the tablet, which looked like it had seen better days. “Hold this.”
Ryan glanced at the screen and saw it was from one of the US news sites. He supposed that this was the new way they verified the date.
The man leaned back against the table, his phone lifted toward Ryan. “Say whatever you want, we will fix it if we have to. Just make sure it is enough to get them to pay for your release.”
Keeping in mind that his goal was to open communications between this man and his family, and possibly BlackThorpe, Ryan knew to keep his message short and to the point.
“My name is Ryan Callaghan. Hannah Walsh and I are being held together. We have been treated well, but we want to come home. Please do what you have to in order to make that happen.” When he finished what he had to say, he looked to the man holding the camera and nodded. After he lowered the phone, Ryan asked, “Was there anything else you wanted me to say?”
The man shook his head then went back around the table to sit down. His expression wasn’t as stoic, but it had a seriousness to it. “I hope that you are right, that they will pay. We do not have the food to feed you both indefinitely.”
“Why didn’t you just release Hannah?”
“Like I said, she has proven useful, and if we could not have money for her, at least we would have her help for our people.”
“If you were so anxious to get rid of us, why did it take you so long to meet with me?”
“My clan needs food, and if there is none, sometimes some of us have to leave to find work so that we can buy what we need. I was away when you arrived. My brother’s men dropped you off. Said they did not need you.”
“So you weren’t expecting me?”
“My brother said he would give me someone, but since it had not worked out well the woman, I did not want someone else. I told him no. We do not kill but having one more mouth to feed might mean the death of someone—a child—in my clan. Unfortunately, he did not give me a choice. Clearly he got what he wanted from your group and did not need you.”
Ryan was glad to hear their lives weren’t at risk. Of all the situations he’d imagined being in, this one hadn’t even entered his mind. But he supposed that it stood to reason that just like there were good and bad people in the part of the world where he came from, there would be good and bad people in the part of the world where this man lived. Good—but desperate—people.
All too often, the radicals and militarized factions were the ones the world heard about. And yet there were probably as many—if not more—people like this man who just wanted to take care of his loved ones. They were doing their best to eke out a living in order to feed and clothe their family. Though he still wasn’t thrilled with how things
had started out initially, he respected this man for treating Hannah as well as he had, even though it might have come at a cost for him and his clan.
“I can give you an email address to contact with the video. It will be the quickest way to get a response.”
Though Ryan would have liked the video to go right to his folks, he wasn’t sure that he wanted this man—reasonable as he might seem—to have direct access to his family. Instead, he gave them the email address that BlackThorpe had set up that could be used for communications that were better off not directed to a company email address. He knew that Marcus would be checking it, especially since Ryan was still missing.
Marcus would contact his family with the video. He figured that the man would also have to be part of any negotiations since Ryan was pretty sure that BlackThorpe would be the ones to come rescue them.
“I will let you know their response.” The man nodded to the two men who then urged Ryan to his feet and led him from the room.
For the first time since waking to the realization that they’d been kidnapped, Ryan felt hope. And more than just a little of it. He was confident now that the end was in sight. With any luck, it wouldn’t be too much longer before he and Hannah would be released and be free to go home.
CHAPTER SIX
Hannah woke to the sound of Ryan coming back into the room. As she sat up, she brushed back strands of hair that had escaped her braid then scratched at the scar on her cheek, finding it more itchy than usual.
“You okay, Hannah?” Ryan asked.
“I’m fine. Did you talk to them?” Hannah felt a knot form in her stomach as she waited for Ryan to tell her what had happened.
“Well, the man I talked to seemed amazingly reasonable. Just a guy trying to take care of his family.”
Hannah had figured that out pretty quickly, and it had been hard for her to take food knowing it was so scarce for them a lot of the time. Every once in a while, they’d come into more food, but it had been unpredictable most of the time.
“Anyway, I made a video for them to send to my boss and my family, letting them know that we’re both okay and that they should work with this fellow to get us released. It shouldn’t take long. The man seems eager to have us off his hands.”
Hannah knew that was probably true. Though Kardaar had never been cruel to her, he had made no bones about the fact that he wanted her gone. Unfortunately, though he’d reached out to the aid organization, they’d made it clear that they didn’t negotiate with terrorists. Of course, they didn’t know that Kardaar and his clan weren’t terrorists as such. She’d been concerned that he’d return her to whoever had kidnapped her in the first place, but it seemed her nursing skills had saved her—at least for the time being.
But with the aid organization unwilling to negotiate for her release and having no family who could step in and do it either, Hannah had started to feel a bit like she was in no-man’s land. Given her background, one would have thought she’d be used to that, but it still didn’t make the situation any easier to deal with.
And now she was facing freedom, but the uncertainty was still there. Though she wanted to be free, to have a regular bathroom with a hot water shower as well as enough food to eat, she didn’t know where to go. Sure, Ryan had said she could go to his family, but she didn’t belong with them. Since she’d gotten rid of all her stuff before leaving to serve with the aid organization, she didn’t have an apartment, let alone anything to furnish one with.
She did have a bit of money that she’d saved up while she’d been working, plus she still had a bit of the money she’d inherited from the trust her dad had set up for her. That had been part of what had been supporting her while she was in Afghanistan. She hoped that her account was still there when she got home because she would have expenses that she hadn’t had before. Hopefully. Regardless, her life would never be the same. The things she was responsible for had changed significantly because of this whole experience.
“I would have thought you’d be more excited about this news,” Ryan said, breaking into her thoughts.
“It’s not that I’m not excited, but this has been my life for over a year. It’s kind of scary to think of leaving it behind. I’m used to things here. I don’t really know what I’ll be going back to in Canada. Certainly not the aid group I was with. I understand their position, but I feel like they kind of abandoned me and moved on.”
“I’ve told you that you can come to my family’s home. They’ll take care of you until you get back on your feet. I don’t plan to just walk away once we’re free.” He paused. “You need to leave here, Hannah. Even though I’ve never even seen you, I can tell that your health is suffering. It’s important that you get some medical attention and be in a place where you can eat what you need to in order to regain your strength.”
Hannah knew that Ryan was right. She could feel herself fading away. Mentally and physically, it was getting harder and harder to face each day, but she’d done it because it had been important. Just thinking about being in a healthy place again was enticing. As a nurse, she was well aware of the importance of healthy living, even if she hadn’t always practiced it herself.
Maybe she’d be more focused on that now. She had more reasons than ever to keep herself healthy.
“I know my body has been weakening,” Hannah told him. “It’s just hard because I know that in feeding me, someone else is getting less. There was nothing I could do to improve their situation. They’ve done a lot for me, and even though I’ve been able to help them with medical things, I feel like it’s been a burden for them to have me here.”
“Maybe they should have thought of a different way to earn money other than kidnapping and ransom then,” Ryan said, a slight belligerent tone to his voice. “I mean, I get why this group is doing it, and it’s good that they haven’t hurt you, but the bottom line is that they have impacted your life and probably, at the end of the day, it hasn’t been in a good way.”
Hannah couldn’t argue with him there. Though there had been positives—such as the times she’d been able to share a bit of the gospel with Armeena—they had definitely been outweighed by the negatives. But in the end, she had been able to continue to use her skills to help the Afghan people, even if it wasn’t in the way she’d originally planned. She would always remember the child whose life she’d been able to save, which had been the turning point when the people in the house had stopped talking about the burden she was.
“How long do you think it will take?”
Ryan let out a sigh. “I’m hoping maybe it will just be a matter of days, but realistically, it could take longer. It will all depend on how much they demand in ransom, and how long it takes to negotiate.”
Hannah thought back on the conversation she’d had with Armeena earlier, and she hoped that the woman would be true to her word when the time came for them to be released. If she wasn’t, Hannah wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk away.
Ryan had thought maybe the man would talk with him again, to update him on how the negotiations were going, but he’d heard nothing more. One day had turned into two, and now, he was pretty sure at least a week had passed. Nothing had changed. The food was still the same. Hannah’s time out of the cell was the same.
So it was a shock when the door banged open one night, and lights were shone around the cell while someone said his name.
“I’m Ryan,” he said, still in a daze from his abrupt awakening. He pushed up to a sitting position, groaning at the ache that pulsed down his back. “Who are you?”
“We’re here from BlackThorpe. Arrangements have been made to remove you and Miss Walsh from this location.”
Another man knelt down beside Ryan and used a key to release the cuff on the chain, and then helped Ryan to his feet. He heard other movements in the cell but couldn’t see clearly. “Hannah?”
Before he heard anything from her, someone else came into the cell and said, “Sir. We’ve found a baby crying in a crib in a room upstai
rs.”
“That’s my baby.” The panic in Hannah’s voice, as well as her words, froze Ryan in place. “My son.”
Hannah had a baby? Why had she never said anything about that? It did explain why she was kept out of the cell for longer periods of time, however. But why hadn’t they allowed the baby to stay with her?
“Come with me,” the man who’d spoken to him originally said.
As a group, they left the cell. It was still dark, their way lit only by the lights held by the rescuers. Somewhere in the distance, Ryan could hear the crying the man had mentioned. Had they left the baby alone in the house? What exactly had gone down?
When he reached the main floor, there was more light, and his gaze immediately fell on a thin woman who cradled a baby in her arms. Hannah. Though he’d had a bit of an image in his mind from pictures he thought he’d recalled from when Hannah had gone missing, this woman didn’t look much like her at all.
When she looked up, their gazes met and held, and for the first time, he saw the light blue color of her eyes. It was hard to ignore the wariness there, and then see how she pulled the baby closer to her chest as if she thought Ryan would harm him in some way. He started to move toward her, but a strong arm stopped him. When he looked over, the man dressed all in black with no identifying marks nodded toward the door.
“We need to go.”
The other men were already on their way out the door, Hannah in the midst of them. They were silently whisked out the door into a pitch-black night. Two vehicles waited there, and though he wanted to be with Hannah, they were separated. Ryan couldn’t see anything of the surrounding environment as the jeep he was in bumped along a road, but soon the familiar sounds of a helicopter reached him.
When he followed Hannah into the chopper, Ryan made sure that he was seated beside her. Once the rest of the men were in, the doors were shut, and the bird lifted into the air. Someone handed him a set of headphones which he pulled into place over his ears. He glanced at Hannah and found her bent over her baby, who was obviously crying.
A Little Ray of Sunshine: A Christian Romance (The Callaghans & McFaddens Book 7) Page 5