by Susan Stoker
It was more than obvious the teenager didn’t care for Piper, but that wouldn’t stop her from doing anything possible to make things easier on the girl. The girl’s home had been destroyed, her friends killed, and she’d been ripped from everything she knew. And she wasn’t stupid. Kemala was more than aware that it was likely she and the others would be dumped into another orphanage as soon as it could be arranged.
But for just a moment, while they’d been playing with Rani and Sinta, Piper had felt the girl’s walls collapse. She’d laughed and had actually been happy for a short time. The warm water had done wonders for lowering her shields, even if only temporarily.
The second Rocco left after depositing a stack of clean clothes in the bathroom, Piper stripped off the nasty shirt and pants she’d been wearing for almost a week. She went into the other stall and turned on the water, happy that it was still warm after all their frolicking, and stood under the small stream, trying to pretend it was a luxurious rain-head shower instead. She used more soap and scrubbed every inch of her body, twice, doing her best to rid herself of the dirt and death she felt had seeped into every pore.
When she was finally done, Piper realized that Kemala was still showering. The teenager had pulled the curtain shut, so Piper left her alone to her privacy as she used two of the towels Ace had brought in to dry herself. The clothes Gumby and Phantom had found weren’t exactly the height of fashion, but the cutoff sweatpants and the large T-shirt were clean, so they felt heavenly. They hadn’t brought any underwear, so Piper did her best to wash her undies in the sink.
When Kemala still hadn’t exited the shower stall by the time she was done, Piper cautiously approached the curtain. “Kemala?”
When there was no answer, Piper pushed back the curtain—and her heart hurt at what she saw. Kemala was sitting on the tile floor under the stream of water, naked. Her legs were curled up and her arms were wrapped around her knees and she was crying. She didn’t make any sound, but that made the image all the more heartbreaking.
Piper went back to the sink and grabbed the remaining two dry towels. She went into the shower stall and turned off the water, then kneeled on the floor and wrapped a towel around Kemala’s shoulders. The other towel she draped gently over her head.
Then Piper wrapped her arms around the teenager and held on as tightly as she could as Kemala cried. Neither said anything for the longest time.
Finally, when Piper’s knees began to ache from kneeling on the tile floor, she said, “I’m sorry about your friends.”
Kemala nodded. “They were scared.”
Piper nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure they were.”
“Kalee tried to help them.”
Piper nodded again. “Yes, she did.” Of that, she had no doubt. Kalee wouldn’t have fled the rebels if it meant leaving some of the girls vulnerable.
“I no like city. I want to go home.”
Piper’s heart nearly broke again, and she felt guilt resurface. She’d brought the girl to the capital. But she couldn’t have left her up in the mountains. It wasn’t safe.
She didn’t say anything.
“You need to stop being nice,” Kemala said.
Piper looked into her bloodshot eyes. “What?”
“Rani and Sinta don’t know what is coming. Stop being nice so they aren’t familiar with nice when you leave.”
Piper had nothing to say to that either. Kemala was right…but she also wasn’t. Piper wanted to give the girls—all the girls—as much “nice” as she could before she left. They deserved all the nice in the world, but it was obvious Kemala was much more aware of what awaited them when Piper and the SEALs left.
“Come on,” Piper said after a moment. “Let’s get you up.”
Kemala allowed Piper to help her off the floor, but the moment she was standing, she shrugged off Piper’s hand. “I can do it.”
Piper sighed. Looked like the grouchy Kemala was back. But she couldn’t get upset with her. She hovered nearby as Kemala got dressed in the clothes Gumby and Phantom had bought for her. They were a bit big, but would suffice for now.
She did her best to clean up the water that they’d splashed all over the bathroom floor while Kemala stood by and watched. Then they both headed out of the bathroom back to the room they were staying in.
Piper had actually been very glad they didn’t have to sleep in a room without the SEALs. She didn’t want to be anywhere but by their sides until they’d officially left the country. She knew as well as they did that without a passport or any kind of money, she was as vulnerable here as she’d been up in the mountains.
When they entered the room, Piper’s eyes immediately went to Rani and Sinta. They were curled up in the middle of one of the mattresses she’d pulled off the beds, sleeping soundly.
“After we got them dressed, they just crashed,” Rex told her.
Piper nodded. She didn’t know a lot about kids, but she supposed after the stressful morning, then the excitement of riding in the trucks, along with the warm shower, their adrenaline had finally crashed.
Kemala walked over to the mattress and, without comment, lay down beside the other girls and closed her eyes.
“Did you manage to get a brush through their hair?” Piper asked Ace as he came toward her.
He shook his head. “No. I was trying to come up with the best way to tackle it when they just literally fell over into a deep sleep.”
“It’s okay. We can work on it later,” Piper said, not taking her eyes from the girls. The more time she spent with them, the harder she fell.
“We should get going,” Ace said.
“Where?” Piper asked.
“Our commander found a private home for orphans. We have an appointment to tour it. Then we need to go to the American Embassy.”
Piper froze.
No. She wasn’t ready. She couldn’t give the girls up.
But what choice did she have?
She looked up and saw all six of the SEALs watching her carefully. She was utterly dependent on them. If she told them she wanted to stay and figure out how to adopt the girls, they’d laugh at her. She needed money to stay. A lot of it. She had some saved up in her bank account back in the States, and she could probably get some help from the American Embassy, but she had no idea how long it would take to adopt the girls, or if she’d even be approved in the first place.
A private home for orphans sounded better than a huge government orphanage, she grudgingly thought. The kids would probably get more attention and probably have a better chance of making it…whatever that meant.
Piper nodded, then looked down at herself. “I guess this is what I’m wearing when we tour the orphanage, huh?”
“Sorry we couldn’t find anything better,” Gumby said.
“No, it’s fine,” Piper said immediately. “I much prefer to be in this than in my disgusting, dirty clothes.”
“Which I’ll wash while you guys are gone,” Rex told her.
“You’re staying here?” Piper asked.
Rex nodded. “Me and Gumby will stay here with the girls. Rocco and Phantom will head over to the embassy and meet you there. And you, Ace, and Bubba will head to Amisha’s place to check it out.”
“After we’re done at the embassy, we can all go shopping to find the rest of the things we’ll need to tide us over,” Rocco said.
Piper stared at the floor. This time tomorrow, she could be on her way home…without the girls. Her heart was breaking. “Okay,” she mumbled.
She felt more than saw Ace approach. He put his hand under her chin and lifted her head. While she and Kemala had been finishing their shower, he’d obviously cleaned up himself. His hair was damp, and his beard had some water droplets in it. He’d changed into a clean pair of cargo pants and T-shirt. He wasn’t wearing his armored vest, but his chest looked just as hard as when he’d had it on.
“We aren’t going anywhere until we’re sure the girls will be safe. Okay?”
Piper immediately n
odded. It was the best she could hope for.
“I grabbed her shoes,” Phantom said from the doorway.
Piper turned and saw he had her shoes in his hand. She hadn’t even seen him leave the room. Ace walked to the pack he’d been carrying and pulled out another pair of dry socks.
Piper shook her head in amusement. She swore he was like Santa with that pack. She’d thought she’d been wearing his last pair of clean socks, but obviously she’d been mistaken. His pack was a bottomless pit, and he acted like it weighed nothing at all…when she knew for a fact it was extremely heavy. She found out when she’d tried to bring it to him that morning and could barely lift it.
Once she was ready, Piper took a deep breath. Ace grabbed her hand and Bubba led the way out of the room. She had no idea what the next twelve hours would bring, but with Ace at her side, maybe she could handle whatever came her way.
Chapter Seven
Ace stared at the woman who’d introduced herself simply as Amisha. She hadn’t given them a last name, and he was beginning to understand why. At first, the tour of her home had gone well. They saw the room where the girls slept on pallets on the floor. They saw a few girls in the kitchen cooking what they assumed would be dinner. Amisha even had a small backyard where more girls were playing with a ball.
Everything seemed fairly clean and the area where the house was located wasn’t as rundown as some of the areas they’d gone through to get there.
Amisha had led them into an office of sorts once the tour was finished—and that’s when the tingling on the back of Ace’s neck began. With every word the woman spoke, his “fuck no” meter spiked higher and higher.
“As you can see, I have a safe place for the girls,” Amisha said in her heavily accented English. “They go to school until they are twelve, then they begin learning how to keep house. Cooking, cleaning, woman things like that.”
While Ace and Piper sat in two folding chairs in front of the woman’s desk, Bubba was leaning against one of the walls with his arms crossed. “Where are the older girls?” he asked.
“Older?” Amisha asked. “What mean you?”
“Yeah, you said when they’re twelve, they’re pulled out of school to learn ‘woman things.’ The girls in the kitchen looked to be around thirteen or fourteen. Where are the sixteen, seventeen-year-old girls?”
“Married,” Amisha said with a shrug.
Ace felt Piper stiffen next to him, and he reached out and grabbed her hand. Her fingernails dug into his skin as she held on to him for dear life. So far she’d kept quiet and had let him and Bubba ask the questions, but he wasn’t sure how much longer that would last.
For a woman who’d opened her home to orphaned girls, Amisha sure didn’t seem to like them much. Ace had caught Amisha glaring at a few of the kids when they didn’t do whatever she asked quickly enough, and he noticed the girls in the kitchen did their best to avert their eyes from both Amisha and the guests who were getting a tour of the home.
None of it sat well with Ace.
And he knew Piper was feeling the same way.
“Married, huh?” Bubba asked. “How do the girls meet men? Where do they find the time to fall in love?”
Amisha laughed. It was a harsh sound. “Love? I forget how you Americans think. No love. Duty.”
“Duty?” Ace asked. “How does that work?”
Amisha leaned back and shrugged. “This home not cheap. Takes money to feed girls. Send to school. Adopt some, but most families no afford more children. Girls cannot stay here forever. Young ones, fifteen thousand in American dollars. Middle, ten. Once they start their womanly courses, five.”
Ace stared at the woman in horror. “You’re selling the girls?” He knew that happened in some of the country-run homes, but he’d hoped Amisha ran a legit sanctuary for orphans.
“As I said, running home not cheap. Need money to feed. This not America. If no marry, there’s nothing for girls. They know pleasing man is best way for them to get home of their own.”
“At thirteen? Fourteen?” Bubba asked.
Amisha nodded. “They woman at that time. Can have babies of their own. Time for their own house.”
Piper’s fingernails were biting into his hand so hard, Ace knew he’d have little half-moon-shaped indentations, but he didn’t let go. He knew their commander had no idea the “private home for orphans” he’d sent them to was selling girls as if they were nothing but a commodity. If he had, he never would’ve sent them at all.
It was true that the girls they’d seen looked healthy. The house was clean and none of the kids seemed to be terribly skinny, indicating that they were getting adequate nutrition. Ace and the others had seen a lot of horrible shit in their lives. They were well aware that poor countries typically didn’t have the equality for women that the States did. But to hear this woman calmly talking about selling girls to the highest bidder was abhorrent.
Sex trafficking was sex trafficking, no matter how prettily tied up in a bow it was.
Pushing his chair back, Ace nodded at Amisha. “Thank you for giving us a tour. We’ll be in touch.” Not giving the woman a chance to respond, Ace towed Piper out of the room and down the hall. She stumbled a bit after him, but didn’t say a word. He pulled her outside, into the thick, humid air, and tugged her into his arms. She grabbed hold of his shirt at his back and buried her head into the space between his neck and shoulder. He could feel her shaking, and Ace did his best to hold on tighter.
He waited for Bubba to reappear, feeling bad for a second that he’d left his teammate to explain their abrupt departure and deal with Amisha.
She clearly didn’t know whether they were in the market to “purchase” a child, or if they wanted to drop one off. So she’d been cautious in her comments…until the end when she’d showed her hand and told them how much it would cost to buy a girl. She probably thought they were an American couple on the hunt for a quick adoption.
Piper shivered in his arms. She was probably thinking the same thing he was. How easy it would be to buy a seven-year-old for the sex trade. Or a four-year-old. Or get a “bargain” for a thirteen-year-old. Kemala would probably be sold off within weeks of arriving. And thinking about little Rani or Sinta being bought by some horny old man made him feel physically sick.
Luckily, Bubba appeared within moments and hailed a passing taxi, helping Ace to focus instead of dwelling on what-ifs. He helped Piper into the vehicle and, after he sat next to her, pulled her onto his lap. She went without complaint.
“American Embassy,” Bubba said between clenched teeth when the driver asked where they wanted to go.
“That was bullshit,” Ace bit out once they were on their way. He wasn’t going to say anything detailed in front of the driver, as he had no way of knowing if the man understood English or not and wasn’t going to take the chance.
“Yup,” Bubba agreed.
“I’m not leaving them there,” Piper whispered.
“Fuck no, you’re not,” Ace agreed, at the same time Bubba said, “No chance in hell.”
Of course, that didn’t solve their dilemma of what to do with the children. Ace didn’t know what to say to Piper to reassure her, as he had no idea what their next step was. They’d have to talk to their commander and tell him what Amisha was doing. He might have the connections to get her so-called orphanage shut down for good, but they still had to figure out where to leave Rani, Sinta, and Kemala.
The SEALs couldn’t stay in the country indefinitely. They were there on the US’s dime, and now that their mission was done, they had to get back to California.
Piper had stopped shaking in his arms, but she still held on to Ace tightly. He felt satisfaction well up inside him that she’d turned to him for comfort, but was pissed way the hell off at the situation in general.
The cab arrived at the American Embassy and they all climbed out. Bubba paid the man and he drove off. The three stood there staring up at the white gates of the old building. As far as an emba
ssy went, it didn’t look like much, but Ace knew looks could be deceiving. Inside these walls and gates were the people who could get them home with as little hassle as possible. Dealing with the bureaucracy of an embassy wasn’t his favorite thing to do, but they’d all gotten very used to it, since most of the people they rescued didn’t happen to have their passports on them when they’d been taken in the first place.
“Bubba, give us a second?” Ace asked his friend.
Bubba nodded and stepped up to the gate to push the button that would open the intercom to security.
Ace turned his attention to Piper. “We aren’t leaving them there,” he said firmly, repeating what she’d said in the taxi.
Piper stared up at him. “What are we going to do?”
He liked that she’d said we, but hated that he didn’t have an answer for her. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But we’ll figure something out.”
Surprisingly, Piper simply nodded. He tilted his head and stared at her, trying to figure out what was going on behind her beautiful blue eyes. He’d been able to read her pretty well up until this moment. Right now, whatever she was thinking was locked tight behind an unreadable mask.
“Do you trust me not to do anything that would hurt them?” he asked, needing to know the answer.
“Yes.”
Her response was immediate, which made Ace feel a little bit better.
“Good. Let’s go see if our commander was able to get your passport expedited. The sooner you have identification, the sooner we can get you home.”
She nodded without enthusiasm.
Ace winced. That probably wasn’t the best thing to say, not with the visit to Amisha’s fresh in their minds, but he couldn’t take it back now.
He took Piper’s hand in his and they walked together toward the gate, which had just started to open.
“They’re expecting us,” Bubba said.
Feeling uneasy for some reason, Ace glanced down at Piper. She was staring straight ahead with a determined look on her face. He knew she didn’t want to leave the girls, and had even expressed her desire to keep them at one point.