"I love you, too, baby." Turning her attention to Breeze, she gave the nod. "Come on, let's go."
"I don't think..."
"You don't have to come with us, Breeze. I already told you to leave and go back if you want. I never asked you to come along, you know. You made that choice when you caught me taking her." Lily reached for the bag. "There's nothing keeping you here. If it means so much to you to go back, then go." She waved her hand weakly. "We can make it on our own."
Grabbing the bag, Breeze hooked it on her shoulder and settled the weight against her hip. "You know I can't leave you. What if something happens? She'll be all alone."
"Then stop whining about it. For as long as I'm able, I'm going to keep moving."
"Stubborn," Breeze muttered.
"For her? Always," came the soft reply. "I won't let her go back there. I don't care what happens to me, but she's worth the world and anything I can do to make sure she's all right."
"It wasn't that bad," Breeze argued.
"That's because it's all you know. You didn't see how he was. He was hard, abusive and calculating. I could see it in his eyes. I had to get away before he got his hands on her. Breeze, you have to promise me. If anything happens to me, if I don't make it, you promise me you will take care of her. Swear it. Don't you ever let him touch her. Swear it!"
"I swear, Lily. I'll never let anything hurt her."
Lily's face relaxed. "He can't have her. She's safe."
Breeze's brow wrinkled. "Lily, they wouldn't ever hurt her. You know that."
She let out a pained laugh. "There are many ways to hurt someone, Breeze. It's not all physical pain. I could take that. But what he had in mind... No, I couldn't let him. Going back there would have done more harm than you know."
"Who, Lily? Who would ever want to hurt you or her?"
"It doesn't matter," she glanced down at her daughter. "We're never going back again."
"I don't like it there," Gaia's sweet voice rose from where she held her mother's leg. "I want my Daddy."
"I know, baby. You don't have to go back. I promise. We're going to your Daddy now. He'll take care of you." Lily wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. The effort was weak, not even disturbing her short light brown hair that stuck to her sweat-slick face. The bandages were discolored, and there was a faint smell that made Breeze wrinkle her nose distastefully. She didn't know much about healing, but even she knew this wasn't a good sign. With a resigned sigh, she turned and started to walk.
"Breeze, that's the wrong way," Lily muttered then turned away. "You have the worst sense of direction, ever."
Breeze stared ahead for a brief moment, looking back at the way they had come. With a heavy sigh, she turned around and easily caught up with them. After a few stumbling steps, Lily almost fell, taking Gaia with her. With a huff, Breeze lifted Lily's good arm, hung it across her shoulders and wrapped her other arm around Lily's waist. Lily's breathing was already labored, and Breeze could feel the rapid thrum of her heart where she leaned heavily against her. This wasn't good. Lily needed help, and she needed it now. Looking down at Gaia, Breeze smiled gently. "Why don't you come over to my other side so Mommy can walk easier?"
"'k, Bees," the little girl skipped around to her other side and grabbed a handful of Breeze's tunic.
Gaia called her Bees, even though the child knew and could easily pronounce her name. It had become a game of sorts between them. Breeze grimaced wryly. Would those days of carefree playfulness ever return? Something told her they wouldn't, but she would hold on to the promise no matter what.
"Okay, let's go," she told them a little too brightly, hoping to keep the fear from her voice for Gaia's sake. Together the three shambled through the trees, moving further into the wilderness, but each step taking them away from everything Breeze knew.
Texas Highway Patrol Officer, TJ "Rock" Rockwell slid his sunglasses off his face and hooked the earpiece into the neck of his uniform. Ten hours into a twelve-hour shift with the sun sliding toward the horizon meant he needed to find some caffeine, hence this stop at the small mom and pop store in the middle of rural Texas. He didn't mind swapping days with other officers from time to time, but eleven days in a row had him ready for three days off to spend with his family.
"Afternoon, Officer," the kindly grey-haired woman greeted him warmly. "Was a hot one today."
"Yes, Ma'am, it sure was. It's hard to believe we're just a week into spring with the temperatures being so high already."
She nodded to him. "It'll be even hotter tomorrow. The weatherman said to expect temperatures in the nineties. It's going to be a scorcher of a summer this year."
"I'm afraid you're right," he agreed as he motioned toward the coffee pot on the counter. "Mind if I help myself?"
"Not at all. It's fresh. Not many people drink it when it's warm out, but if I don't keep a cup nearby, I about can't function right."
TJ smiled at her. "I know a lot of people like that." He tipped the carafe and filled his travel mug. Turning around, he placed it on the countertop and pulled out his wallet.
"On the house." She dismissively waved her hand. "Thank you for your service. I know it's not exactly fashionable to support the police these days, but not everyone thinks that way. I feel better knowing someone out there cares enough to put their lives on the line every day."
Sliding his wallet back into his pocket, he knocked on the counter lightly with his knuckles before picking up the mug. "Thank you. My fellow officers and I appreciate your support. Have a good evening, Ma'am."
The woman didn't answer. Instead, she stared out the window of the store toward the highway, with a frown on her face. Picking up the glasses hung around her neck on a chain, she pushed them onto her face and peered out the glass. "What in the world?"
Following her line of sight, TJ's heart slammed into his stomach to see two people stumble out of the woods across the road. One of them took a hesitant step then buckled to the asphalt taking the other one with them. His heart collapsed into his stomach when a tiny figure dropped beside them and a faint scream of "Mommy!" reached him through the glass. Dropping the mug back to the counter, he sprinted out the door while simultaneously grabbing his radio from his shoulder. Requesting backup and medical support, he dashed into the road. Anxiety over what he would find upon arrival resulted in a dump of adrenaline into his system. People collapsing onto the asphalt couldn't be good under any circumstance.
Crouching beside the figures, he noticed they were two women along with a small child. One of the women lay limply on the hot asphalt with the second kneeling beside her, wringing her hands with worry. TJ quickly glanced around to assess for danger. Nothing moved in the sparse trees along the side of the road.
"Should I call for someone?" The store clerk stood at the edge of the highway and nervously shifted from foot to foot.
"I've called it in, Ma'am." He turned to the other woman. "What happened?"
"She fell a couple of days ago and hurt her arm. I tried to wrap it up, but I think it's infected."
He noted a stripe of dirty cloth wrapped around the victim's hand and lower arm. From the smell coming from it, she was most likely right. TJ gently turned her over and wrinkled his brow in surprise. The gaunt face of a woman, perhaps in her mid-to-late twenties emerged from the tangle of dirty, snarled hair that was probably once dark blonde or maybe brown. Her eyes were closed, dark lashes pressed against sweat-soaked cheeks. Thin lips opened slightly as she took shallow gasps of breath. TJ gently pressed two fingers to the side of her neck and felt a pulse that was much too rapid to be healthy.
The road beneath her still retained the heat of the day, and that wasn't helping her fever. On top of that, she lay across one lane of Highway sixteen, it was getting dark, and there were no streetlights. This stretch of highway was not as busy as most, but time was not on his side. As if conjured by his thoughts, the lights of an approaching vehicle appeared in the distance.
"Get the girl!" He barked
at the second woman as he carefully slid his arm under the lifeless form at his feet. He lifted her quickly and walked to the parking lot of the store. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the woman looking back at the trees with the child's hand firmly in hers. "Come on," he called out and waited for them to hurry across.
"What can I do?" asked the clerk.
"There's a blanket in the trunk of my car," he told her. "Could you grab it and spread it on the ground for me please?"
"Yes, of course," the woman muttered. When she hurried to his car, an SUV roared by without even slowing. Quietly TJ cursed under his breath. He was glad he had moved her from the road when he did.
When the woman returned and spread the blanket, he carefully laid her down. Grabbing his radio again, he requested an ETA for medical support only to be told they were still five minutes out. He hoped like hell this woman had five minutes.
"Ma'am?" TJ gently touched her shoulder. "Ma'am? Can you hear me?"
"Lily. Her name is Lily," the other woman whispered as she held the child tightly in her arms. "I'm Breeze."
"Thank you, Breeze." He shook the woman a little more. "Lily? Lily, I'm TJ Rockwell. Can you open your eyes for me please?"
Quickly, TJ checked her over to see if she had any obvious injuries. Her ankles were bare over the top of her tattered, thin shoes and contained a myriad of cuts and scrapes caked with dirt and drops of blood. A glance at her hands revealed more cuts covered in dirt with cracked and broken nails. The light grey tunic and knee pants she wore were ragged and torn in places. With a gasp, she began to tremble. Her slick, sweat-soaked brow wrinkled, and her eyes cracked open.
"My baby?" she croaked.
"She's here. She's safe, Lily. Help is on the way. Try to stay still."
"Safe. Don't let her go," she whispered. "Don't let them have her. He's evil."
Her eyes closed and she let out a sigh.
"Go where?" TJ gently shook her. "Lily, what do you mean? Who's evil?"
The haunting cry of approaching sirens filled the air as flashing lights cut the night sharply. Letting out a breath, he stood as two Bandera County Sheriff Department's cars turned into the parking lot. An ambulance and two EMTs followed it. TJ let out a relieved breath as the woman's care fell into the hands of the professionals.
"Bees? I'm tursty," the little girl whimpered.
"Officer, if it's all right with you, I'll take them in the store and get them something to drink and eat? The little girl looks like she's on her last leg." The clerk's face was full of compassion.
"That would be fine. I'll send an EMT in to see about them in a minute. Thank you."
His eyes followed the two women and the little girl as they entered the store then turned back to watch the EMTs take care of Lily. Rubbing the back of his neck, he had a feeling there was something major going down here. Unfortunately, it was going to be a while before he could fathom what it was. Taking out his cell, he made a quick call.
"Hey. I'm sorry, but I'm going to be late getting home tonight. Go ahead and put JT down for the evening. I'll make it up to you both tomorrow... Love you, too."
Sliding the cell back into his pocket, he got the attention of one of the EMTs and relayed the message that two others needed checking. Turning toward the building, he followed the paramedic inside. It was time to find out where the trio had come from and what Lily meant by her cryptic plea.
He found the little girl sitting on the countertop, tiny hands wrapped around a hotdog as the paramedic checked her over. Standing next to them, Breeze gnawed on her bottom lip. Her eyes never left the child. A bottle of water sat unopened beside her slowly clenching fingers.
TJ put his hand on the paramedic's shoulder. "I'm going to talk to Breeze a second. Everything all right here?"
The woman nodded. "I'll stay with her."
"Thanks." He lifted his chin at Breeze. "Ma'am? Could you come over here with me for a minute? I'd like to ask you a few questions."
She hesitated, indecision painting her face. "Gaia," she muttered, not moving.
"She'll be fine. We'll just be a couple of steps away. She won't be out of your sight."
Breeze swallowed nervously and nodded. "I'll be right over here, okay?"
"'k, Bees."
The paramedic smiled at the child. "Your name is Gaia? It's so pretty."
The child shook her head. "I'm Lolly," she insisted and took a bite of her hotdog.
Breeze hesitated but slowly turned away. He could see the indecision clearly on her face. She seemed overly protective of her little charge. Why? Something was going on here, and he needed to find out what.
He took her elbow and gently led her a couple of feet away, out of earshot of the others but where she could still keep an eye on the kid. When he stopped, he got her attention.
"Miss? What's your last name?"
"Breeze."
TJ wrinkled his brow. "I know that's your first name, but what's your last?"
"My name is just Breeze," she murmured, her eyes never leaving the counter up front.
Deciding to leave that for a moment, he dove into the next questions. "Where did you come from?"
"Home."
"Where's Home?"
She looked away for a moment, concentrating as she formulated her answer. "Home is where the Family is." Her brow wrinkled uncertainly. "Stone Home is on the other side of the woods. We walked for several days through the forest. When Lily gets better, we can show you where it is. You'll have to ask her if she wants to go back, though."
TJ nodded slowly. "Now, we're getting somewhere, though I'm afraid that it may be a while before your friend can help us. People around here know most of their neighbors so perhaps they know your people. Who is your family?"
"The Family is all of us who live together in peace and harmony." Breeze tried to smile, but she seemed to sense her answers weren’t what he wanted to hear. "Sorry," she muttered."
A slight twinge behind TJ's eyes made him pinch the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headache coming on. Was she purposefully being evasive?
"Does your mother live there?"
She nodded with a smile. "Mother is always there."
Feeling a bit of a relief, he continued. "Your father too?"
She shook her head. "Only Mother. Well, Mother and all the Family."
He groaned. Deciding to change tactics, he tried again. "All right. Where is your family? Wait, I know. They are at Home." When she smiled and nodded eagerly, he blew out a breath. "How about we try something else. If I show you a map, could you point out where you came from?"
A pained frown formed on her face. "I don't think so. I never left Home before now so I didn't have to learn how to tell directions. I'm sorry. Lily can tell you, I'm sure. She knew exactly where to go."
"Which direction is Home? Can you point to me where you walked from?"
She raised her hand and pointed - straight at the door and toward the trees that were currently being scoured by several officers. "We came through there. Lily told me if something happened to her, to keep moving so that the sun was to my right in the morning and to the left in the evening. She said that would get Lolly help. That's all I knew to do. I wish I could tell you more."
At least she had come from somewhere to the North of where they currently were. That was something at least, if not enough to give them a precise location. TJ slowly closed his eyes and shook his head. His first impression of being a long evening just got confirmed. Tonight was really going to suck.
Chapter 3
The gentle whisper of water drew the SEAL team toward their rendezvous point like a magnet. After more than six hours of trampling through the lush undergrowth of the Cambodian jungle, the end of the mission was finally approaching. They could have moved much faster except for the girls. Although safety was always first and foremost in their minds, they were relatively confident the danger had been left far behind in the ramshackle collection of huts. Now, it was imperative to get to the pickup site quickl
y, but not at the risk of further damaging the children they carried.
Finch glanced over his shoulder for what seemed like the hundredth time, checking on the girls, each dressed in one of the men's extra tee-shirts. The youngest one, Amelia, was clutched protectively in Bruiser's arms while the older, Jillian, had a death grip on Cowboy's neck. Amelia hadn't cried, not a single tear, unlike her eleven-year-old sister. Instead, she had fallen asleep shortly after their rescue and remained so even when the men took turns carrying her. It was obvious she was exhausted.
"What do you think happened to them?" Hick whispered from Finch's side.
Turning back around, Finch shrugged. "I try not to think about it. The fact they were both only wearing underwear and bright red lipstick tells me more than I want to know." His jaw tightened. "Makes me want to go back and resurrect the perverted bastards just to kill them again. For the record, I'm not one damn bit sorry they're all maggot food now."
Hick grunted in agreement.
The American ambassador's two daughters had been kidnapped ten days ago while on their way home from school in Bangkok, Thailand. The car that had carried them was found within hours with both of their handlers executed, but the girls were gone. It didn't take long to realize it was an obvious inside job. That point was rammed home when the ransom demand arrived three days later. In exchange for the ambassador admitting to a long list of secret missions performed on foreign soil, the children would be freed. Otherwise, they would be sold into slavery. The State Department policy was never to give in to terrorists, but they also could not ignore the implications of leaving the children in the hands of their abductors. Within hours, the green light had been given to mount a rescue attempt. Gathering intel took several days with every alphabet agency pitching in wherever they could. Once located, Bruiser's team flew in, hiked through the thick jungle, and reconned the site. The plan was to find out if the children were there or if not, where they could be, who had them, how big of an organization this encompassed and the safest way to extract any hostages with a minimum of damage. It was stressed to them how important it was to bring back at least one member for interrogation. Once they had the information, a plan would be discussed and implemented.
Justice for Breeze Page 2
