Chapter 29

Harry found the NCIS agent working on Rory’s case. The man was in his office, his head buried in his computer. He looked up and frowned.

“Can I help you?” Orin asked.

“Have you found Rory?”

Orin sat back and shook his head. “It’s difficult. Toovey and Laelyn aren’t talking.”

Harry squeezed his hands into fists. “I can get them to talk.”

A chuckle escaped Orin’s lips as he adjusted in his chair. “I’m sure you could. We have to go by legal means to get them to talk no matter what you or I want. Toovey is a commander. There are people in his life who can’t believe he is even being held. We have enough evidence in the form of bank accounts he shouldn’t have and other things that tie him to the operation, so he’s not getting out, but the two of them aren’t talking.”

“Shit.”

“Yes, shit and other words.” Orin glanced at his computer and then turned the screen so Harry could see. “We have information, but we can’t figure it out.”

“Okay, let me see.”

Harry adjusted his chair so both of them could see the screen. Orin showed him page after page of information. After an hour, Harry’s head hurt, and he knew he needed to bring the other SEALs in on this. Lucia had returned to work, and she might be able to help.

“My team should be in on this.”

Orin’s lips thinned, and Harry thought the man would say no, but he finally nodded. “We can meet in the conference room after you all get off work. We’ll order pizza in and spend the evening going over everything.”

Harry sent a text telling the guys the information. In seconds, he had confirmations that everyone was in and they’d be there in about an hour.

“I need to finish work. I’ll be back in about an hour.”

“Sure. And Harrison, we’ll figure out what happened.”

Harry nodded. “I hope it’s soon because I fear for her life.”

Orin nodded as Harry turned and walked out. His head and his heart hurt. There was so much wrong with what had happened. That Rory had found information about a trafficking ring and then been taken by that ring was horrible. Why hadn’t she gone to anyone? Maybe she had, and they’d ignored her. She shouldn’t have been left out in the cold on this, but he knew it happened. He’d heard about those men in Fort Bragg who’d set up a drug operation and then killed some of their customers. Then, there was the possible serial killer at Fort Hood and the potential hiding of evidence. Just because many people in the military operated with integrity didn’t mean everyone did. He’d known sailors on ships who set up gambling rings, and then there was the drug trade and other clubs that participated in illegal activities. Of course, many of them were caught, but not enough that sailors didn’t think taking chances with illegal activities was worth it.

Harry believed laws should be followed. His life was based on always doing the right thing, which he knew meant breaking some laws, but not big ones and not habitually. He hated that someone in the Navy had been doing something so bad, so heinous, that it destroyed people’s lives.

After work, they piled into two cars and drove to Orin’s office. The area had emptied out, and it was just the six men on his team, Orin and Lucia. They set up with computers and read over the information Orin had available. After a few hours, pizza was delivered, and they talked while they ate.

“I don’t know,” Lucia said after swallowing a bite of pizza. “What if the numbers are letters?”

“Like a cipher?” Andy said.

“Maybe.”

Wild and Bear turned to their computers and studied the screen. “Any idea what the cipher is?”

Peach moved back to his computer and stared at it while finishing his pizza slice. “There was something in files that could be a cipher.”

“Where?” Orin asked.

Peach shook his head. “I don’t remember. Let me go back through and look.”

Harry opened up the document and started looking again. He needed to figure this out so he could find out what happened to Rory. The longer it took, the worse he thought the outcome would be.

Neither Toovey nor Laelyn were talking, which meant Rory was in a fifty-gallon drum at the bottom of the ocean, or they’d shipped her off somewhere terrible after selling her. Either option was bad, but the idea of the drum at the bottom of the ocean made him want to kill them.

Peach jumped up, making the rest of them flinch. They all turned to Peach.

“I found it,” Peach said. “The cipher. Let me write it on the whiteboard.”

Peach wrote out the cipher, and the other guys began working to translate the document. It was late, closer to ten that evening, when Bear called them over.

“I think I found it. I may be wrong. Someone needs to check me on this.” Bear moved to the whiteboard and wrote out what he’d found. The rest of the guys and Lucia began working out what Bear’s findings meant.

“I’m checking your findings. They look solid,” Andy said.

“Do you think this is it?” Peach asked.

Orin stood and moved to the board. His eyebrows bunched as he looked at the board and then turned to Harry. “I think this is it.”

“I want in on the team that goes in to get her back,” Harry said.

“We need more intel before we even get to that stage,” Orin said.

Harry felt anger rising. “Come on, Orin. We have to go in and get her.”

Wild stood and moved behind Harry, placing his hand on Harry’s shoulder. “There are probably more women than just Rory at that compound. Surely, there has to be something to move this along.”

Harry blew out a breath, knowing he needed to keep calm. He couldn’t take out his anger here on Orin. The man had done nothing but help them.

“Something, Orin. Give us something,” Harry begged .

Orin nodded. “We’ll figure out something. It is overseas, not here. It may take some time.”

More anger fired inside of Harry. “Dammit!” Wild squeezed Harry’s shoulder, and he blew out a breath, trying to calm down. “She may not have time.”

“We’ll do something. We just have to have a reason. We can’t go in without a reason.”

Harry moved, and Wild’s hand slid off his shoulder. “Maybe I need to go do it by myself.”

“I didn’t hear you say that,” Orin called out as Harry left the room.

He heard someone following and glanced back, seeing Andy. “Fuck!”

“Hey,” Andy said as he caught up and slung his arm over Harry’s shoulder. “Get it together. You know you can’t go off half-cocked and take down this guy. He has to be doing something illegal, and we’ll find it. We know who has her, and we have a connection with human trafficking. There will be something in the file that makes it national security.”

“Fuck,” Harry whispered. “How the fuck do I live with this?”

“The same way we live with everything else.”

“But it’s Rory.”

Andy pinned him with a hard stare. “Listen up, Harry. I know we’re told not to make it personal, but every person we’ve ever rescued or opened a path so someone could go in and retrieve their body had someone who loved them. Few people are totally unredeemable. Everyone deserves to live free. We live with this shit every fucking day of our lives. We aren’t immune to this crap, and you know it. We have boxes. This is a box that you can figure out over time. But put this in a box and work to get her free. Blowing up and doing something stupid because this hurts won’t save Rory. In fact, it might make it worse for her. We know where she is. Now, let’s work on bringing her home.”

The words sifted through Harry’s mind, and it took a second for them to settle enough for him to make a rational decision. Andy was right. They dealt with this every fucking day. They killed terrorists because they would hurt others. They put down evil people and rescued others. They had to make tough decisions, and it hurt people. He could hold himself together for Rory.

He pulled Andy close and held on, fighting the urge to implode and let his emotions run wild. It took a moment, but he was back in the room where everyone was working, trying to find enough evidence to rescue Rory.

Midnight came, and he felt like they would never figure anything out when Jax tapped his computer screen.

“I got it!” Jax declared.

“What?” Orin asked.

“The thing that ties it into national security. This bastard who has Rory is selling arms to a terrorist group.”

“Well, that should help,” Orin said.

“We have to make it so it not only helps but works. We have to go save her,” Harry said.

“We’ll make it happen,” Wild said.

Harry hoped they made it happen, but he wasn’t sure how they could force the issue. The operation would have to be signed off by someone who didn’t care about Rory. He just hoped they cared enough to stop the sale of weapons to a terrorist group.

If this didn’t work, if they couldn’t convince the brass to take this on, he would have to find a path where he could go in and get Rory on his own. He wouldn’t let her spend the rest of her life in captivity. He just prayed they moved fast enough to save her. If they didn’t bring her home, he wasn’t sure he could live with the knowledge that they knew where she was but didn’t rescue her.