Chapter 13

THANE

I’ve been driving for five hours, lost in my own nightmare. Marco clears his throat. “How’d you meet her?”

I scoff. “You know damn well how I met her. You were surveilling her.”

“Honestly, I didn’t read the reports. I just asked my brother to make sure she wasn’t a risk to you.”

I can’t answer. My dark mind searches through all the scenarios she could be living, and my body quakes with anger. I’ll dismember anyone involved in this whole fucking nightmare.

“We’ll get to her. They’ll pick up more people to traffic. Based on the intel, they’ll end up in Mexico. The easiest thing for them to do is to use one of the ports in Florida to get over to Mexico. We’ve got time. She’s no use to them dead.”

I slam my fist against the steering wheel. “That doesn’t help. She’s pregnant, Marco. She carries my child. I need her back.”

He nods with the brother’s warmth he showed me during my time with their cartel in Mexico. “I’m aware how the trafficking works.”

I grit my teeth. “I know. You do it.”

He leans back in his seat. “We do. It brings in a lot of money, and there is money to be made by blackmailing the men who use our product.”

“She’s not a product.”

“I’m know, mi hermano.” My brother. How dare he call me that? He’s not my brother. My brother wouldn’t sell women and children to be used and abused. I steady my nerves. Blowing up at him won’t help Red. The Aguilar cartel knows our feelings about trafficking.

Time drags and every moment I’ve spent with Red replays in my mind. My old friend, dread, has surrounded my heart and soul. How do I live without her? I never wanted a soulmate. I appreciated what my parents had, but never thought I’d find it. What I have with Red looks different from what my parents or Cynric and Isabella created, but it’s real.

Marco’s phone rings. “My men are in Savannah.”

I sigh. “They made good time.”

“Not as far as you’ve driven us in the same amount of time.”

My phone rings, and I answer Anatoly’s call. “Fingers found footage of the truck that has Red. He’s got the plate, and he’s running it to go with the GPS of the cousin’s phone. It’s an eighteen-wheeler with Florida plates. They’re still in the Outer Banks. Must be stopping to sleep or picking up more women.”

I growl. “How many men in the truck?”

“Looks like two. Fingers is expecting them to show up at a rest stop, that’s what they’ve been doing. He’s searching through all the footage he can find around their GPS location.”

Marco nods. “Driving like a bat out of hell has gotten us close. We’ll find your woman.”

I nod. I can’t voice any words.

It takes us three hours to get to the Outer Banks from the interstate. By the time we get to the cheap motel where the truck is parked, I’m ready to explode. I’ve imagined killing both men in the most sadistic ways, settling on removing every appendage for as long as both breathes.

Wystan and I park our SUV’s and step out. I grab my pry bar out of the back of my SUV as the other men and my brothers scour the area for the truck. The cousin’s phone is pinging in the motel, three hundred feet away.

Anatoly points and my eyes dart to the three eighteen wheelers at the edge of the parking lot.

How are they keeping Red quiet in the back of the truck? I’m spiraling thinking about how bad this could be. She could be dead.

“Thane!” I whip my head to Wystan. “Steady.”

His eyes implore me to get my head in the game. “I’m steady. Which one is first?”

Marco speaks. “The white one has the Florida plates.”

We run to the truck, leaving the young soldier to watch for the two men. I jam the edge of the tire iron into the lock on the sliding door of the truck and force it open. I pop off the broken lock, and Anatoly lifts the sliding white door. It reeks of urine and death.

“Fuck. It’s empty.”

Russian obscenities fly out our mouths with Marco growling in Spanish as he runs toward the motel. Wystan meets us at the motel with a key card in his hand. “I convinced the desk guy to give me keys to their rooms.”

Before we hit the door, Anatoly yells to get our attention. “Fingers found footage. Men in a white panel van arrived and took the women out of the back of the truck.”

“Fuck!”

Anatoly’s face falls. “Finger’s loses them at the edge of the property. They knew to avoid the cameras. He’s checking the area surrounding the truck stop.”

Wystan inserts the keycard into the first door, and I shove it open with my gun drawn on the Latino man sleeping on the bed. The light from the exterior shines in just enough to see he’s naked with a woman. Wystan steps away from the door saying he’s going to get to the other room next door.

“Fuck!” The woman isn’t Red, and I’m relieved for a moment, and then the frustration, anger, and worry bubble to the surface as I lunge at the man who’s reaching for a gun. I break his extended arm as my soldier grabs the woman, wrapping her in the blanket and walking her back towards the door.

Wystan arrives, dragging the other man into the room and throwing him down. “Red wasn’t there.”

Marco extends his hand to take the girl, as Wystan takes her from our soldier instead. Marco pulls his arm back as my little brother’s expression forces his hand back to his side.

“Marco. Grab his phone.”

Marco moves to the side table and swipes the phone. “It’s unprotected.” He shakes his head. “Who does that? Everybody locks their phone.” He flicks through and finds the recent calls. “He’s got calls to numbers with no names. Probably burners. I’ll give them to Fingers.”

The man is screaming in the bed, holding his arm. “You broke my arm.”

“That’s just the beginning. Where is the redhead from New Jersey?”

“Oh. Tony said she had a boyfriend.” He pans his gaze around our faces and his head settles on Marco.

The man cocks his head, staring at Marco. “I know you.”

Marco’s grin increases as he hands the phone to Wystan. “Yes. I’m Marco Aguilar. You pissed in the wrong pool. You stole women from our territory. Tsk tsk. Who gave you permission to come into our town?”

The man starts sputtering lies. “I didn’t know.”

Marco yells at him in Spanish, telling the man not to lie. He’s going to die anyway, but maybe he’d like to save his family members.

I jerk the man by his long hair. “Where is she? Who did you give her to?”

“Javier. Javier has her. He liked her. He’ll probably keep her.”

My blood boils, and I press on the man’s broken arm, forcing part of the bone through the skin.

Marco grabs my shoulder. “I’m all for torture, but if he passes out, you can’t get the info. Take his hand.”

The man’s head jerks to Marco as Marco hands me the eight-inch blade he wears on his hip.

“No!” The man screams. “He’s the last call. He has a house on the sound. It’s on Martin’s Point Road in Kitty Hawk. It’s surrounded by trees and has a boat dock. He parks his Land Rover out front because he can’t fit it in the garage. It’s a blue house.”

Wystan relays the information to Fingers, and a beaming smile hits his face as I slice the man’s throat. “Clean up on aisle one.”

The soldier nods as the other man begs while he zip ties him to the bed rail. “Oh God. No. Don’t kill me.”

Anatoly steps back into the room. “I paid the desk clerk to ignore that part of the motel for three hours. I doubt the trafficker is going to last fifteen minutes, but it gives Max more than enough time to clean up.” He points to the soldier, and I nod at Max.

I should have asked him his name but that’s why I’m the hammer. “He’s had her for two hours.”

“We’ll get her.” My brother’s confidence bolsters my hope as I feel Marco’s stare on the side of my face. He doesn’t understand the need for one woman. He has four sons with three different women. I’m not him.

We pull up to the house. My focus catches one single light in the upstairs. It’s probably a bedroom. I motion for my brothers and Marco to enter through the other doors around the house.

Anatoly whispers. “Fingers can’t find access to any cameras in the house. We’re going in blind.”

“God help anybody who’s between me and my girl.”

Heads nod as everyone spreads out. I touch the front window. He’s left it partially open. I hold my breath. Please don’t let there be an alarm. The window is fully open as I extend my hand through the opening, pulling my body through with no sign of an auditory alarm. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a silent one. My eyes scan the expensively decorated room looking for an alarm system or blinking light. I move toward the stairs as Anatoly meets me. Gritting my teeth, I stop myself from looking for Wystan. He is my responsibility. Though he would argue and say he isn’t. I just can’t take my focus from finding Red. Anatoly and I separate at the top of the stairs, each searching. I open the door to the right of the stairs. The light from the full moon outside lights up the room enough that I can see an empty bed.

I hear a muffled voice and slam through the closed door of the adjacent room. Red is lying on the ground with her left hand handcuffed to the bed frame. I scramble along the floor and place my hand over her mouth. She freaks. Not the best plan. I turn her head as she opens her eyes to see me. Her tear-stained, bloody, and bruised face lights up when she sees me. I stare at her face as images of what this man could have done to her flash through my mind. I cringe.

She whispers. “No. He hasn’t done that yet.”

“Oh, thank God.” I whisper. “Where is he?”

“Shower. He let me shower first because I was too disgusting to fuck. He came back in a few minutes ago and then went into the bathroom.”

“Is there anyone else here?”

“There’s another guy and a partial basement off the kitchen. They took the women in there before he brought me up.”

I pick the lock to the cuffs as Marco and Wystan enter the room. “He’s got a partial basement.”

Wystan murmurs. “Found it. Anatoly has the other women, and he’s finding food in the kitchen and letting them get cleaned up. We have control of the house.”

Red sobs. “Thank you.”

Wystan smiles at my girl. It’s warm and caring, like the one he shares with Isabella. “Are you okay?”

Red reaches for the sheet, and I realize she’s dressed in a skimpy t-shirt with no panties. I grab the sheet as I finish unlocking the other side of the handcuffs, pulling her into my arms. I cast my eyes to my younger brother as his hand touches my shoulder. He’ll make the man pay in ways I would never have thought of.

Marco heads out of the room as Wystan forces the bathroom door open. The man screams, and Red shudders in my arms, clinging to me like a frightened animal. Here. I set her down and remove the grungy shirt as I pull my t-shirt off and put it over Red’s head.

“This is a concert t-shirt.”

“Yeah. My favorite.” I kiss her nose. “But I’m giving it to you.

She smiles as we walk out where Marco is waiting. He whispers to Red, whose head rests against my shoulder. “A horrible way to meet, but I’m Marco.”

Red lifts her head. “Scarlet.”

“It’s wonderful to meet the woman who’s tamed the wolf.”

She laughs and dread recedes down my spine. “You don’t know him very well, then.”

He chuckles, and I tighten my grip. Arriving in the kitchen, I find Anatoly doling out food from the fridge. I stride over, selecting a yogurt as Anatoly hands me a spoon. I set Red down on a barstool and survey her face. My shirt is long enough to cover her ass. In the kitchen’s light, her wounds seem much worse. My eyes drift to her belly as she shrugs. “Don’t know. I’m afraid to find out.”

I utter. “Fuck!”

Anatoly offers in Russian that there’s a hospital nearby.

My mind debates whether we want to risk police involvement. Once everyone goes to the hospital, questions will be asked, and one of the women will no doubt share their ordeal and their rescue. A scream from above answers my question. Red shudders on the bar stool. They’ll definitely tell what they saw and heard, but I don’t care.

Wystan enters the room. He’s just gutted the man like a fish, and yet he’s as clean as he was when he dressed this morning. I want to ask, but he steps to Red.

“I’m Wystan. How are you feeling?”

“I’m not sure. I hurt all over.”

I wrap my arms to scoop her up. He leans in to me. “She needs a doctor.”

I close my eyes and swallow. “We’re going.”