ACER: A Stand Alone, New Adult, Friends To Lovers Romance

by A. Hargrove

  With that said, the lead car sped up.

  “I hope we get to him before anyone else does,” someone mumbled.

  “Boss apparently tried calling him back but he didn’t answer,” another agent said.

  Someone else swore, “Fuck.”

  I was worried about him. What if it were my brother? I would not have let him stay out there alone. My legs bounced as I thought about the situation ahead.

  As we sped down the interstate, some of the guys talked about football. I never engaged in conversation. They did it to get their minds off what we faced, but I was solely focused on going through the procedures of getting that man out safely and then handling the rest. If whoever set this whole thing up was there, we may end up with massive gunfire on our hands. Those situations never ended well for anyone. I’d already lost two close friends since I joined the bureau. Losing any more was pretty darn low on my list.

  We arrived at the destination but had to cross the median to get over to the rest area. The highway was busy with traffic speeding by. But then again, when wasn’t this interstate busy? Even at this hour, you’d think the traffic would be thinned out. No, it wasn’t bumper to bumper like I’d seen it before, but it certainly wasn’t sparse.

  After all the vehicles made it across, I noticed the trailer and SUV, but that was it. Everything was dark. We received our orders by radio.

  One group was to cover the other as they approached the trailer. We’d brought in extra lights to brighten up the lot afterward. There were woods bordering the property, making it appear sinister. No wonder the guy had gotten spooked.

  The group approached the trailer with no sign of activity. The other group, which I was a part of, saw nothing. But when the trailer door was raised, I almost screamed.

  The inside was packed with women. Someone shined a light in there to get a better look. There were women of all ages, from maybe early thirties to young children. All of their mouths were duct-taped and their wrists and ankles bound with cable ties.

  The first thing that came to mind was thank God it was fall and nighttime. They could have roasted to death in there had it been the middle of summer.

  “Jesus,” one of the guys swore. “I can’t believe this shit. This is worse than the last case. They treat them like cattle.”

  We’d gotten a call a month ago about a van parked in a strip mall parking lot. When we investigated, we found six women inside who’d been missing for over a year. But this… these women were packed in like chickens headed for slaughter.

  “Anybody speak Mandarin or any Chinese dialect?” the boss called out.

  No one answered.

  “Fuck. Chambers, get in there and try to help them.”

  “Me? Why me?” I asked. I didn’t speak Chinese and wasn’t certain I could help them at all.

  “Because you’re the only woman here. I’ve called the ambulances and an interpreter, but until they arrive, those women are probably scared shitless of us guys.”

  He had a point. The way we were all geared up, we resembled some damn scary creatures.

  After I took off my helmet, I walked up to the trailer and stuck my head in. “H-hello. We’re here to help you. Do any of you speak English?” I figured that was as good a place to start as any.

  From the rear of the trailer, I heard muffled sounds. Then I thought how much of a dumbass I was. They all still had duct tape covering their mouths.

  “Boss, I need help in getting the tape off their mouths.”

  He came over with two other agents and we slowly got that job done. Most of the women were mumbling and weeping silent tears, but what got me the most was how much they were trembling. Their bodies were nearly vibrating. I grabbed the clippers that were hooked on my pants and started snipping off the cable ties, one by one. Some of them had been so tight, they’d cut deeply into their skin. These women were filthy and smelled something awful. No telling how long they’d been in here or wherever they’d come from.

  “Let me try this again. Does anyone speak English?”

  “I speak little,” a raspy voice said.

  I hunted the source and when I located it, I was troubled to see a small child. It infuriated me to think this little girl had been stolen from her family.

  “Hi. Are you alone or is your mother here?”

  Her head moved slightly. “Alone. Man took me.” Then she wept like the young child she was. The woman next to her hugged her and gave me a nasty look.

  “Can you tell me how old you are?”

  Through her sobs, she eventually managed to tell me she was ten. Fucking ten years old. I counted the heads in that damn trailer and there were thirty-seven of them crammed inside.

  Calling the boss over, I told him. “I want to kill the bastards who did this.”

  “They’re nothing but animals, Chambers.”

  He was right. Humans didn’t do this kind of thing, only monsters. And I was going to make it my mission to find them.

  Chapter Two

  ACER

  Reynolds picked me up and we took off. I had never been this frightened in my life.

  “Care to explain everything now?” She took the next exit and pulled into the first gas station.

  At first I couldn’t speak. How could Paulie be involved in something so horrific? When the car came to a stop and she glanced over, she immediately became sympathetic. “Hey, everything’s going to be all right.”

  “I can’t understand what just happened,” I finally said.

  “I want to know who this friend of yours is.”

  “I’m wondering that myself. He used to find odd jobs for me when I still lived up north, but when this came up, I pressed him about it and he said I’d be hauling computer chips.”

  “He’ll be implicated, you know. And we do have to return to the scene, or the FBI will come looking for you.”

  I didn’t have anything to hide. I was just scared that whoever did this would find me, which was why we left.

  “Do you think they’re there yet?”

  “Probably, that is if you called them right away.”

  “I did. We should probably go back then.”

  When we pulled in, the whole place was lit up like an amusement park. They’d closed off the rest area to traffic, but when we explained who we were, they let us through and pointed us to an area toward the trailer.

  Reynolds parked and we got out. A man immediately greeted us and said his name was Art Sanderson, the agent in charge. I introduced myself and then Reynolds and explained why we left. He was cool with everything. Then he hit me with all kinds of questions. “You understand we’ll want you to come in. We need you to make a statement and answer some questions.”

  “Sure. Do you think they’ll be all right? All those women?”

  “I hope so. The ambulances are using triage to take the worst ones in first. But there were some children in there too.”

  “Children? I didn’t see them, but then again, I didn’t spend much time looking.”

  “Yeah. Some were fairly young by what we could tell.”

  “Oh, God. That’s awful.” I couldn’t imagine who would want to do that to anyone, much less a child.

  “Hey, it’s a good thing you were suspicious and had the inclination to look at what you were hauling.”

  Then I thought of something. “What about the warehouse?”

  “Warehouse?”

  “The place I was supposed to take them.”

  Agent Sanderson nodded. “Right. We sent a group over there to check and it was empty. My guess is when you didn’t show up as you were supposed to, they cleared out. They must’ve had eyes on the place and saw us arrive. We’re tracking down who it’s rented to and hope to get a lead there.”

  “And my friend? Paulie McCutcheon?”

  “We called him but no answer.”

  “Let me try.” I pulled out my phone and when Paulie didn’t answer, I left him a message.

  “Do me a favor. Let me know if you hea
r from him.”

  “Sure thing. This has really freaked me out. What do you think was going to happen to them?”

  Agent Sanderson sighed. “My guess is this is just a small part of a larger human trafficking ring. Do you have any other connections with them?”

  My gut clenched as acid burned a path up my esophagus. I was all for making a buck, but not through these means. I shook my head. “No! Like I said, Paulie told me I’d be hauling computer chips.” I crossed my arms to stop them from gesturing as I thought about what happened. I was pissed off at Paulie but more upset by this situation.

  “Hey, you did the right thing by calling us,” Agent Sanderson said as he clenched my shoulder. “We don’t normally get notified in time and when we find these women some of them haven’t made it.”

  “You mean as in died?” I sounded so stupid and naive.

  “Yes. They’re crammed in these trailers with no space, food, or water, for endless hours. Often they’re drugged to keep them quiet and by the time we find them, or if we find them, it’s too late.”

  Reynolds spoke up this time. “How often do you find situations like this?”

  “Like this? Hardly ever, which is why I commended your brother-in-law for calling. Human trafficking is a much larger issue than most people realize. Atlanta is a major hub for it too because of the airport and the interstate system. It’s also close to Savannah, which makes it easy to get them in or out of the country.”

  A woman approached Agent Sanderson and he excused himself.

  “Reynolds, this is just terrible. I never knew.”

  “Neither did I, so don’t beat yourself up over it. I knew it occurred, but not like this.”

  I started to walk away.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I want to see those women. See how they’re doing now that the ambulances are here.”

  She followed me toward the crowd. Art was talking with two women, one was middle-aged and the other appeared to be in her twenties. The older woman was telling him she was fluent in Mandarin and would take over the communication with the women.

  Art seemed happy as he said, “Great to hear. Some of them have been understandably upset and don’t trust us. Having you here will be helpful, especially with the children.”

  The two women walked off and I followed with Reynolds in tow. Some of the victims had been carried out and placed on stretchers where medics were attending them. One young child kept crying and that’s when the woman went over and began speaking to her. The child was so upset, she could only nod. Whatever the woman told her seemed to work, because the girl calmed down and allowed the paramedic to examine her. I watched in awe as she moved on to the next woman. With the help of the two women, they were able to move through all the captives. The worst ones were taken to local hospitals for treatment. The others were taken to local women’s shelters until it could be decided on how to get them home.

  The younger of the two walked toward Reynolds and me, adjusted the baseball cap she wore, and stopped. “Reynolds, is that you?”

  “Yeah. Oh, gosh, Isla. I never imagined running into you here.” They both laughed, but only for a second. “This is horrific,” Reynolds said.

  “It is, but why are you here?”

  “Oh, right. This is my brother-in-law, Acer. He’s the one who called it in.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah,” I said. As I watched her, she didn’t strike me as an FBI agent, although her jacket bearing the insignia, along with the cap sitting on her head, said otherwise.

  “You were really lucky the people who did this didn’t catch you.”

  “That’s true. I’ve never been so freaked in my life as when I opened up that trailer.”

  She gripped my arm. “Hey, it’s a damn good thing you did though. You’re Brax’s brother then?”

  “Yeah. You know him?”

  She and Reynolds both started talking at the same time and then stopped. Reynolds went on to say, “Isla’s brother plays for the same team Brax does. He’s a wide receiver, and Brax’s best friend.”

  A slight chuckle escaped me for the first time that night. “I see. Isn’t this a small world?”

  “I’d say so. I can’t wait to tell Lenox.”

  “Wait. Lenox Chambers is your brother? Oh, my God. He’s amazing. I knew he and Brax were great friends. It really is a small world. So you’re FBI, huh?”

  “I am. And actually, Lenox is my half-brother. His mom died when he was just a little thing and his dad married my mom a couple of years later. Then I came along and he got me as his obnoxious baby sister.”

  “I doubt you were obnoxious.” There was no way a woman this hot could be obnoxious. It was difficult to see her hair because she wore it in a ponytail under that cap, but her face was stunning. Huge green eyes and lips I could gaze at for days. A crooked grin curved her mouth, which made it an even more enticing smile. “Besides, you’re a lot prettier than he is.”

  That got a laugh out of her. While we were talking, Reynolds’ phone rang. It was my brother, aka, her husband, calling. She walked away to take the call.

  When she came back, she said, “Brax said to tell you both hello.”

  “Pretty sure that’s not all he said,” I answered.

  “No, but we can talk about it later. Isla, will you be at your mom’s tomorrow?”

  “Afraid not. I have to work, unfortunately, where I’ll probably see you, Acer.”

  “Yes. I’m supposed to come down and give a statement.”

  Reynolds said she was going to head home. “If you don’t need me, that is.” She gave me a conspiratorial look. What did that mean?

  “No, I’m good. I’ll see you back at the house. Thanks, sis.” I watched her walk away.

  “Um, I probably should’ve said something, but how will you get home?” Isla asked.

  “My SUV. The one attached to the trailer.”

  She sighed. “Let me check with Art. They may have to impound that too.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I wanted to give you a ride.” Then she winked at me. Was she flirting? I hoped so. I could use a little fun about now.

  Agent Sanderson was talking with a group of guys when we approached. Isla told him about our mutual friends and then asked if I could leave.

  “We need to impound the trailer, of course. Usually, we keep both, but we searched the vehicle and it was clean. You’re clear to go. Just don’t leave the area and I’ll call you tomorrow with a time to come in. Here’s a card with my information on it just in case you hear from your friend. Thanks again for calling this in.” He handed me his card.

  Isla walked me to my SUV. “I guess I’ll see you at the office tomorrow then,” she said.

  “Looking forward to it.”

  She laughed. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that.”

  Chapter Three

  ISLA

  The women were a mess—completely traumatized. I’d worked on human trafficking cases before, but this one was different. These women had been sold by their husbands or another loved one. Even the young girls had been sold. Who could do that to another human? My mind refused to accept it.

  But meeting Acer had made this case more interesting. No, that wasn’t the right word. He made it more intriguing, as bad as that sounded. He was a steam-fest to look at. My God, the man was scorching. Those dark bedroom eyes and almost black hair, along with that sexy mouth, were more than a woman—especially one who hadn’t had a man in a while—could take. He had a broody look about him that screamed sex.

  The rest of the night, envisioning his beautiful face, made my job much easier. And all I could hear was his raspy voice.

  After we cleaned up the rest area, and all evidence was removed, we returned to the field office to write up our reports. I didn’t get home until four in the morning. And even then I couldn’t sleep. All I thought about was how those women had been sold into sla
very by people they’d trusted, even loved. How terrible to feel so betrayed.

  An hour later, after rolling around in my bed and freaking my dog, Ruffles, out, I got up and opened my laptop. A search for former human trafficking victims didn’t yield much. I checked the FBI’s website in hopes of finding a special unit dedicated to sex trafficking. I didn’t find much. This was an area I wanted to research further when I went into work. It intrigued me and my heart hurt for these women. I felt an indescribable urge to help people like them who had been trapped and abused by others.

  The sun was coming up, so I took Ruffles for a walk and then showered. I threw on some clothes, put my hair in its usual ponytail, grabbed some coffee, and was out the door. Then I turned around because I forgot to turn on the video camera. I’d bought one so I could watch Ruffles during the day. She was my buddy, my best friend. If something ever happened to her, I didn’t know what I’d do.

  The office was bustling already. There was no such thing as getting here early. Agents scurried around, making jokes, doing paperwork, and grabbing coffee. Art saw me as I headed toward my cubby.

  “Chambers, you’re early today,” he said.

  “Couldn’t sleep. Kept thinking about those poor women.”

  “It was pretty bad. I spoke with one of the hospitals this morning. One of them is in critical condition. Apparently she has a heart problem.”

  “Oh, no. Do they think she’ll make it?”

  Art shook his head. “They don’t know yet.”

  “If she doesn’t, this moves to murder then.”

  “True, but we have to find the perps first. I’m worried about Kent’s friend.”

  “Kent?”

  He was staring at his phone. “The kid who called it in.”

  I wanted to smack myself in the head. Of course that was Acer’s last name. My tired brain needed to wake up. “Right. Why are you worried?”

  “He hasn’t answered or returned any of our calls.”

  That didn’t surprise me, especially if Art identified himself as the FBI. “He could just be avoiding you.”