by Dale Mayer
She nodded slowly. “And I don’t know how to get out of here,” she said, with a motion directed at the mess they were in. “If they find out, what will they do?” she asked.
Brenna had no answer because she didn’t know. But it was obvious it wouldn’t be anything good. “I’m so sorry. It should be one of the happiest times of your life.”
“I knew before I left,” she said, “but we weren’t staying long. It would be a five-day trip to celebrate. He has been asking to start a family for a long time. I’m the one who held back, and, now that I’m pregnant, look at us.”
“Do you know how far along?”
“No,” she said, “not very far at all. Matter of fact, it may not even survive the stress of this.”
“Let’s not even think about that right now,” she said. “That would be just a little more than we could all handle.”
“I don’t have any choice,” she said. “I can hardly breathe sometimes, as … as panic sets in about what they would do to my child.”
And, for that, Brenna had absolutely no words of encouragement—outside of what she had already said, which was that they would get out of here and to stay strong and to have hope. She couldn’t imagine being in that situation. She had wanted a family so desperately a long time ago and then had pretty well parked that dream. It was not that she didn’t still want it, but she just never had anybody to want a child with.
She’d had a lot of relationships, and then she stopped having any, when she realized just what a terrible person she’d been. She’d gone through a couple years of heavy counseling, a couple years of doing various workshops, trying to work on herself. But now she was who she was, and she liked who she was, but she wasn’t sure who she was when it related to other people anymore.
And she was a hell of a long way away from wanting a family and hadn’t considered—and didn’t want to consider—that maybe being a single parent would be one of those avenues in her future. That would just suck. Big-time. But she didn’t have a whole lot of choice. So she had pushed off those thoughts.
As she sat here, she thought she heard an odd sound off to the side. What the hell was it? An animal would know enough to stay away from this many humans. Frowning, she turned to look around, twisting as much as she could to see behind her. But then she would turn back and make sure that the guard wasn’t watching her. She didn’t know what was out there, and, when she didn’t hear it again, she relaxed once more.
Feeling something land against her back a few minutes later, she rubbed it, and her fingers found a rock.
She froze, shuffled ever-so-slightly so that she sat sideways, staring in the opposite direction, down the hill with Jessie at her back, and then Brenna snuck a glance behind her. Something had kicked a rock her way. Had it been thrown? Had it been deliberate? She was desperate for it to have been for any of the good reasons but was terrified if it was for any of the bad. She didn’t see anything in the darkness and slowly relaxed again. The guard walked around, and she ignored him. If she ignored him, maybe he would ignore her.
Finally he went back to his station at the gate and turned to watch the goings-on below them. Even if she asked what was going on, he couldn’t explain to her because he didn’t speak English, or at least he wasn’t letting her know if he spoke any English. And she doubted that she mattered enough for any gunman here to talk to her.
As soon as the guard was gone again, another rock hit her on the shoulder. She immediately turned and studied the area around her. That she couldn’t see anything was the problem. No light was in the sky tonight. The moon was dark and made it so hard to see anything. Just this sticky soupiness in front of her. As she sat here, another rock hit her.
Finally she picked up the rock and threw it backward. If somebody were there, then at least they would know that she had noticed. But if they weren’t there, they could damn well stop throwing rocks at her. Even that logic was so convoluted she wanted to laugh, but she knew any hilarity would come out completely hysterical.
Instead she groaned and dropped her head onto her knees and just rocked in place. Hearing a different movement, she looked over and watched as the guard stepped away a few feet. He spoke to several other men, and they gestured at the water below them. The guard moved toward the mess going on down below.
She watched, trying to figure out just what was happening. And a hand snaked around through the wooden posts and clapped over her mouth. She froze, her eyes pure white in the darkness.
She heard a voice that she recognized, or thought maybe she recognized, as the man whispered in her ear, “Close your eyes. Stay calm. This is a rescue.”
She immediately stiffened and then sagged in place. A rescue? Who? And did she dare believe them? She had seen all kinds of shenanigans going on here and didn’t trust any of the guards or any of the people who had come with any of the women. It seemed like anybody would cheerfully slice the other’s throat to take over their captives.
As she sat here with this hand over her mouth, she wondered about the closed eyes order, when he whispered again in her ear, “Close your eyes. They’ll think you’re sleeping. The whites of your eyes shine in the darkness.”
She gave an ever-so-slight nod and slammed her eyes shut.
His hand eased back, and he asked, “You’ll stay quiet?” She nodded again. “There’s room for you to slide through the fence slats,” he said. “Can you do that?” She shook her head. “Why not?”
In as low a voice as she could, she whispered, “All these women need to go too.”
“They will,” he said, “but it’ll take us a little bit longer.”
She thought she recognized the voice but just something about it was very different. She shook her head. “I can’t leave them.”
“That’s good news,” he said, “but you’re just making it more difficult.”
She shook her head again, but she reached down with her left hand and squeezed Jessie’s shoulder hard. Jessie shifted back and up, looking at her. “What’s the matter?” And she pointed behind her. Jessie turned ever-so-slightly, and her eyes widened, and her mouth opened up. But Brenna slapped her hand over Jessie’s mouth. Brenna just stared at her, their eyes white, staring at each other.
Jessie leaned forward and whispered, “Who is it?”
“US SEALs,” she said.
At that, Jessie’s eyes opened wide in joy.
Brenna shook her head. “We’re not safe. Hang on. It’s … It’ll get ugly.”
With more understanding than she’d expected, Jessie immediately nodded, looked back at whomever was behind Brenna, and asked, “What do you want us to do?”
“I need you to slip through the wood railing here, so that we can pull you up and off to another area, where we can defend you.”
“But all these women are in trouble,” Jessie said.
“And the plan is to rescue everyone, but I need to get some of you out.”
At that, Jessie immediately slipped through the wood without any issue and, at his order, raced up and over the hillside, keeping quiet and low in the shadows.
“Now will you come?” asked the man behind her. She immediately slid through the wood, trying desperately hard not to make any noise. Then the man said, “Stay down on the ground, don’t run, go very quietly.” And, with that, she slipped up in the same direction that Jessie had disappeared to. What she didn’t realize was the man followed her.
As soon as she got over the hill, she saw a whole pile of shadows on the far side. She raced toward them, only to come up against a solid wall. Arms immediately wrapped around her from behind, pulled her to a stop, and she was told to sit.
Not knowing if she was being taken captive yet again by somebody else, she sat, grateful she was no longer down in the auction house corral but not sure that she wouldn’t be ordered to go right back there.
A small flashlight was turned on and shone into her face. “Brenna?”
She gasped. “Yes,” she said. “Who are you?”
The fla
shlight turned on the man in front of her.
She took one look, burst into tears, and flung her arms around his neck. “Jesus, Jerricho. I was so hoping someone would contact you.” And she hugged him tight.
Jerricho hugged her close. “We have to go back,” he whispered. “We’ve got an ambush happening. I just didn’t want you to get caught in any random bullets. You stay here. We have one man staying with you. I’ll go in, take out a bunch of the perimeter. We’ve already taken down four. They just haven’t noticed it yet.”
“That leaves at least eleven gunmen out there,” she said. “And you can’t leave somebody here to guard us. You need him. There’s only two of you. You need him out there with you.”
Jerricho hesitated.
She shook her head. “Remember? I’m from Texas. I know how to shoot. Give me a weapon.” He immediately handed her a small handgun from his boot. She nodded. “Go. Get the other women. Even if it means getting rid of these assholes,” she said. “I know that that boat has them very confused. I just don’t know what the deal is.”
“We set it adrift to come in this direction,” he said. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Just as he went to withdraw, she flung her arms around his neck once more, squeezed him tight, and said, “Thank you. Oh, my God. Thank you. Thank you.”
“We’re not out of danger yet,” he said, “so stay safe. We’ll be back.” And he disappeared into the darkness.
He raced down the hill, and, with Killian sliding off onto the opposite side, they each took out one of the outer rim guards. And moved in. By the time they had taken down two more, and all four men were moved out of the way, they knew that they had at least seven more. But now Jerricho and Killian were fully weaponized.
Jerricho should have left her with another set of weapons. One single handgun wouldn’t do much. Hopefully he’d make it back before any issue arose. As he swept in past the pens of women, his heart was sickened. They looked to be of all ages, all colors, and all sizes. They were female. That was the only requirement.
Refusing to dwell on it now, he moved forward until they came up against two more gunmen. It was important that they try to get as many out of the way before anybody even knew and set off an alarm. He came up on one; Killian slid up on the other, and they took out both men, dropping them where they stood and moving on. As they came upon three men down at the docks, Jerricho realized the last two were on the boat still. Those two stood on the deck of the boat, talking animatedly to the trio on the shore.
And then Jerricho and Killian were seen.
One of the men on the boat lifted a rifle and yelled. Two of the other men turned, both grabbing for their weapons. But the good guys popped three, and then, with gunfire shooting in all directions, Jerricho took out one and launched himself at the other one, trying to bring his weapon to bear on Killian.
With him down, Jerricho immediately knocked him out and realized that this one would at least provide some answers. Maybe. At that, they tied him up, then Jerricho handed his prisoner off to Killian, while Jerricho loaded the dead bodies into the boat. With that done, Jerricho returned to the corral; all the women stood silently looking at him. He took a long slow deep breath. “Does anybody here speak English?”
Several of the women stepped forward.
He said, “We’re from the US. We came here to rescue you.”
At that, the women, several of them that understood, burst into tears.
He could understand the feeling. “We’re not out of danger yet.” He explained further. “All of the people coming for the auction and the agents are en route. We have to get you out fast.”
The women clustered around, and he led them up to where he had left Jessie and Brenna, Killian following, carrying their unconscious prisoner. The two women hopped to their feet, and Brenna immediately raced toward them. He wrapped her up close and whispered, “Now you have to move, and we have to move fast.”
He led the large group, thirty-eight he counted in total, and, with him and Killian and the prisoner, then forty-one, up over the hill. “We’re too big a group,” he said to Killian.
He nodded. “We’ll attract too much attention.”
“So we have to move fast.” And that’s what they did.
Chapter 5
When Jerricho said they had to move, he meant move. Brenna didn’t know where he disappeared to after that last hug. She was roughly shoved to the front of the group, leading the other women. She didn’t even know where she was going but followed directions from the man that Jerricho introduced as Killian, who appeared to be staying behind but uphill ever-so-slightly where he had a better view. And she kept running, the women beside her, Jessie helping some of the slower women, while Brenna led. But talk about the blind leading the blind. It was dark. It was dangerous. Several women fell and were slow to get up.
By the time Brenna stopped, with a stitch in her side, heaving, she saw a cliff ahead of them, and that wouldn’t be something she wanted to navigate. Especially in the dark. At that, a whistle came behind her. She stopped, raised a hand, and everybody slowed to cluster around her. Only as Jerricho came in sight, holding a young woman in his arms, did Brenna realize they’d all made it this far. As he approached, she said, gasping for breath, “How far have we come?”
“You’ve done well,” he said, with a beaming smile. “You’ve come a couple miles.”
“But that’s nothing,” she said, “if the gunmen are behind us.”
“The men we left behind won’t be coming after us,” he said quietly.
She looked at him and gave a clipped nod. “Good. So what is the problem?”
“The buyers and agents are on their way,” he said. “We don’t want them to think that they get the same amount of goods and just don’t have to pay for it.”
She snorted at that. “And these women probably have no clue what’s going on anyway.”
“We’ve got a couple women who speak English, who have been working on translating, and the word is passing around.” He added, “We’ve got a ship down there, but this is a treacherous path.”
She looked and nodded. “I don’t know how you expect us to even make it down there off a cliff.”
“You’ll follow me,” he said, “carefully.” And, with that, he stepped forward, carrying the same woman in his arms.
“What happened to her?”
“She fell. Looks like she’s already got some issues with her leg,” he said, “and she couldn’t follow at the same speed. When she fell, I picked her up.”
She shook her head. “Most people can barely even keep up.”
“I knew that you used to be a runner,” he said. “That’s why I put you in the front.”
“I don’t know if I should say thank you or not,” she said, “but we’re all panicked enough that we didn’t slow our steps. Believe me.”
He nodded. And then, moving slowly, one at a time, he led them down what appeared to be cuts in the rocks. Not steps per se but Mother Nature had complied, and then people had taken advantage over the years, so that somewhat of a path existed. Leaning into the cliff the whole way, and with Killian bringing up the rear, still toting their unconscious prisoner, the women slowly made their way down the cliff face. By the time they got to the bottom, Jerricho waited again to make sure everybody arrived safely. She couldn’t even watch as the women came down, petrified someone would fall.
He looked at her and said, “Still don’t like heights, do you?”
“And still you made me come down that cliff,” she said accusingly.
“Like you said, panic will let you do things that you wouldn’t normally do.”
“I still can’t believe I came down that,” she said, refusing to look backward. “I’m so afraid somebody will fall.”
He nodded, his gaze hard, as he watched the progress of everybody behind him. “Sometimes we have no choice,” he said.
“Believe it or not, I do realize that.”
He looked at
her in surprise.
She shrugged and said, “I’m really glad to see you for a whole lot of reasons.”
“Oh, what’s that all about?”
“I’m not the same person I was,” she said. “I’ve changed.”
He just looked at her, but enough doubt was on his face that he probably wasn’t even close to believing her.
“I know you don’t have any reason to believe me,” she said, “but I did finally figure out that I was an absolute bitch.”
He chuckled at that. “That you were,” he said. “You have no idea how much the guys in the navy told me day in and day out what a lucky escape I’d had.”
She winced at that. “I know. They were right,” she said bravely.
He studied her for a long moment. “What brought on that revelation?” He motioned at the nightmare behind him. “This?”
“No,” she said, “it happened a long time ago.”
“Tell me more.”
“Not right now,” she said.
At that, he looked up and realized that the last of the women were on their way down, and when Killian and the last gunman joined him, Jerricho asked, “Ready?”
“Yes.”
He looked at her and asked, “How’s your swimming?”
“I’ve always been a strong swimmer. Why?”
“Because we need to bring the boat back in. And, if I don’t bring it back, you’ll need to.”
Brenna gasped.
Jerricho carefully helped the woman he carried onto her feet again and parked her beside Brenna. “I’ll go get the boat, but that’ll leave you with only just one male.”
“It’s not the lack of men,” she said. “It’s the lack of weapons.”
Immediately he unloaded the rifle over his shoulder and put it on hers. “You’ve still got the handgun?”
She nodded. “I do.”
He said, “Then you’ll help Killian keep watch, while I go in and get the boat.”
“Why can’t you just walk along the shore?”
“Because it’s hidden across the water.” And he pointed to a small island just offshore.