“It’s all right, baby girl,” he murmured. “You won.”
Chapter Nine
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I did.”
Marina wondered what exactly he was getting at. She appreciated the way he had validated everything she had been thinking and feeling over the last few months, right in front of her family.
“Are you angry?” he asked, his tone subdued.
“Why would I be angry?” She thought very carefully about her words. “That was why I asked you go to with me. I wanted validation. I wanted them to know that everything I’ve been doing and feeling since my abduction wasn’t just in my head.” No. It was more than that. She struggled to come up with exactly what she needed to say. “I wanted someone to tell them that I was normal.”
He reached over and lightly touched her arm. “You are normal, Marina.”
“Sometimes I really don’t feel it.” She sighed and thought about all of the time she had spent trying desperately to be the person she was before all of this started. “I wasn’t a party girl, but I was outgoing. I was a cheerleader. I was on student council. I was in college studying business, even though I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.”
“And now?”
“I just want these people stopped.” The fervency she felt when she said that was so all-consuming that it made her almost breathless. “I want to see someone pay for what was done to me. I want them to stop hurting women. And I wish I could find my friends, even though there is a part of me that doesn’t believe they’re alive anymore.”
Bones heaved a great big sigh. “The thing about human trafficking is that the merchandise isn’t worth anything if it’s dead.”
“What?” Her gut began to twist with anxiety, and she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like the picture that Bones was about to paint.
“They’re taking these women for a specific purpose.” He rubbed his bare head as though he were trying to put his thoughts together. “They choose their victims carefully. We’ve even found a database online that is only available to a specific list of people with the appropriate credentials. The women they take are listed for sale, Marina.”
“Oh my God.” She could barely form the words. She could barely wrap her head around what he was saying. “So what you’re telling me is that my friends are probably still alive, but they’ve been sold and are now out of our reach for good?”
BONES HATED THAT he had to be the one to tell her this hard truth about the world of human trafficking. He sucked in a breath and tried to be tactful. “There are millions of women all over the world that are victims in this scenario. The US gets dozens of reports every week of women who go missing either in foreign countries or right here in the US. But those are the lucky ones.”
“Lucky?” Her high-pitched tone told him how close to the edge she was.
“Yes. Lucky. Because our government will at least look for them. We can only do so much. There are organizations all over the world that go into brothels in Asia and Eastern Europe. They talk to these women. They try to make deals. Sometimes they flat out steal these women away from their situations. But for every American that gets kidnapped there are dozens of women from Northern India or Pakistan or Asia who are sold by their families. Do you understand?”
Marina’s face had gone bloodless. She was gripping the steering wheel so tightly he could hear it squeak. Then she shuddered out a sigh, and the tears began running down her face.
“So there is a possibility that my friends—that Chessy and Tyra—are alive, but that they are trapped in some brothel in a third world country where men can do whatever they want as long as they’re willing to pay the price.”
“Yes.”
The world was a harsh place. Bones had seen some of these places. He wasn’t about to tell Marina that, though. He refused to paint that picture any more vividly than her imagination probably already was. Then he recalled something that his friend Romero had divulged several days before.
“This trafficking ring is different from the normal run of the mill operation, though, Marina.”
“How?” She sounded almost panicky.
“The website leaves a unique sort of paper trail. One of my team believes that we can actually use this paper trail to track the buyers of these women. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be simple to get them back once they’ve left US soil, but it at least gives us an idea of where to begin.” Bones pressed his lips into a thin line, thinking about the normal modus operandi of these kidnapping rings. “Generally speaking, captives are sold in lots. They go from procurer to dealer in a big container that gives no thought to how many or where they came from. The only thing that matters is the bottom line.”
MARINA COULD BARELY stomach the thought of any of that. How horrible was it to imagine that this situation was better just because there was a shred of hope that there might be a paper trail to tell her where Chessy and Tyra had been taken? But what made it so much worse was the idea that her friends could now belong to some pervert in a foreign country who did not care one bit that Americans had been taken against their will.
“I’m going to find them.” Her voice was shaky at best.
Bones didn’t suffer from her lack of confidence. “I know that you will.”
“How do you know?” She felt so frantic. And she felt helpless. She hated that feeling. It had been her constant companion during her captivity.
“Because you are not helpless.”
How had he guessed? She snuck a glance at him and found that he was staring right at her. The expression on his face was steady. Nothing else could have calmed her like he managed to do with so little effort. There was something so invincible about him. She would have believed anything he said. Not just because he seemed as if he was the type of man that would make things happen, but because she had the strangest sense of knowing that Bones Jackson would not lie about results. He would never tell her something that he did not believe he couldn’t deliver.
“I trust you,” she said softly. The words weren’t hard to say at all, which shocked her just a little bit. “I don’t trust people anymore, but I trust you.”
“Then I hope I can keep earning that trust.” His gruff voice might have put anyone else off, but she could sense the strong emotion behind the rough exterior.
Marina shook off the instant sensation of vulnerability that her confession had inspired. She was not going there. She had said those words because she felt them deeply. She wasn’t going to second guess herself now. That served no purpose.
“So,” she said, forcing herself back to this moment in time. “What do we do now?”
“Now?” A slow smile spread across his face. “We go in search of my friend the lieutenant.”
“This guy you saw coming out of the harbormaster’s office, right?” It bothered Marina a little that she had panicked so badly that she missed this important event. “You said before that you wanted me to help you break into his house?”
“Yes.”
Marina didn’t miss the satisfaction in that one word. “So this guy is a scumbag? Or I guess the better question is, what sort of scumbag is this guy?”
“The kind that makes a bad decision in the field and then sells out his men instead of taking responsibility for his actions,” Bones said grimly.
“So he was your lieutenant?” Marina said slowly. “I’m sorry, but I have no clue about military ranking systems. What sort of rank are you?”
“In the Navy we call them rates instead of ranks.” Bones shrugged. “Makes more sense, really. Rate just refers to our pay rate.”
“Oh.” Marina decided that it really did make sense. “So are you a lieutenant too?”
“No. Each SEAL platoon has two junior officers. There are commanders above them. My buddy Trapp is our commander. He’s an officer.” There was a strange smile playing around the corners of Bones’s mouth. “I’m enlisted. So are the other guys helping me with this investigation. The enlis
ted men get rotated in and out of active duty. That’s why we all have the time to look into this business.”
“Okay.” Marina decided that this stuff was more confusing than she’d first imagined. “So can I call you Sergeant?”
“No. You can call me Bones.” He reached over and tugged at the end of her braid. “My rate is Master Chief Petty Officer.”
She couldn’t help but smile at him. How did he always manage that? “That’s a mouthful.”
“Yep,” he agreed. “Which is why you can just call me Bones.”
It occurred to her that he’d just told her that he was essentially on leave at the moment. “What happens when they call you back to active duty and this investigation isn’t over?”
There was a prolonged moment of silence. She glanced over and realized that he was gritting his teeth. The muscles in his jaw were moving erratically beneath the scruffy stubble of beard on his cheeks.
“What’s wrong?” she asked hesitantly. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No. Not at all.” He sighed. “When Trapp first asked us to look into Rachel’s disappearance, Romero was the first man he tapped to go see what had happened. Apparently Romero really stirred up a hornet’s nest, because less than a few days later he was recalled to active duty.”
Marina swallowed. Considering everything she’d learned already, it wasn’t a big leap to her next assumption. “So you guys think that someone up the chain of command decided they would rather not have your team poking around.”
“Exactly.” Bones gave a hard nod. “And now I find out that Whiteside is involved, and that makes me even more certain that our government is in this thing up to its neck.”
Marina felt a wave of anger that made her want to pound the steering wheel and curse. “That’s not fair!”
“I know, sweetheart, but life rarely is.” Bones sighed. “The best thing we can do right now is go pin Whiteside’s balls to the wall and find out what he’s been up to since the last time I saw the backside of him climbing into a chopper just in time to avoid taking responsibility for his mistakes.”
“So let’s go hold him accountable? Is that what you’re saying?” Marina felt a strange sense of eagerness.
“Yep. Let’s do it.”
Chapter Ten
Bones wondered if he had truly lost his mind. He and Marina were parked very conspicuously on the street right outside Whiteside’s home. It was broad daylight. In fact, the school bus was probably going to be tooling down the road at any moment to bring the suburban kiddos home for the day.
“Okay,” Marina said in her matter-of-fact voice. “So you told me that you wanted my help with a B&E, right? How do you want to do this?”
He was at a complete loss, which wasn’t normal for him. “Honestly? We’re probably walking into a shit storm. I’m thinking this was a bad idea. There has to be another way.”
“Is the guy married?” Marina glanced around the very typical, upscale, subdivided neighborhood. “Because if this whole All American Family atmosphere is to be believed, he is most definitely married.”
“Yeah, he’s married.” Bones felt sour on that topic. “Jacey is a really wonderful woman. I don’t know why she stays married to that scumbag.”
“Either she’s in denial or she’s trapped. It happens all the time.” Marina seemed to wave that off. “I think this is the perfect opportunity.”
“What?”
“Well, if we can talk to the wife, maybe you’ll get more answers than you would from the scumbag himself.” Marina set her jaw. “Especially if I have a go at her.”
Bones had to admit that Marina could most certainly be right. “All right. Let’s just walk up to the front door then and see what happens.”
“Bold.” She actually laughed. “But then, that’s what you did with me last night.”
“I sincerely doubt Jacey is going to answer the door with a gun in her hand,” Bones quipped.
The two of them got out of Marina’s little car and headed right up the front walk. Jacey must have been watching the front of the house—perhaps waiting for that school bus—because she opened the door before Bones had made it up the porch steps.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered urgently. Her dark brown eyes were almost beseeching. “Will is at work.”
Bones cocked his head, wondering if Jacey had any idea what her husband was really like. “And where is Lieutenant Whiteside working these days?”
“He’s at the harbormaster’s office,” Jacey said quickly. “He’s the naval liaison.”
Which put Lt. Will Whiteside in a rather unique position to sign off on all of the cargo coming in and out of Baltimore Harbor. Bones was starting to see how this was shaping up. “Do you realize what’s happening in that harbor, Jacey?”
“Nothing.” Her tone was low, almost fervent. She wanted badly to believe what she was saying.
Marina spoke up. “It’s not nothing. There are women being sold to buyers outside the country. Do you have any idea what that’s like?”
“That’s not true!” Jacey sounded frantic. “Will wouldn’t do something like that.”
“Last year I got abducted at a club here in Baltimore with my two best friends,” Marina informed Jacey. “I was held for six months. My friends disappeared and I managed to escape. I want to know what’s going on, and I want to find my friends.”
“We just need a name, Jacey,” Bones coaxed. “Look. Sparks and Romero found out there is some guy with diplomatic immunity running this thing. He can’t be prosecuted. The only way to stop these human traffickers is to bring the entire operation down at once. Law enforcement has been picking off the low-hanging fruit for months now and nothing is happening. Do you understand?”
“Please,” Marina pleaded.
Bones could see Jacey wavering and knew that they were getting somewhere.
MARINA HAD NEVER felt so close to grabbing a perfect stranger by the shoulders with the hope of shaking some sense into her. It was obvious that Jacey had information. The lip biting and surreptitious glances cast over her shoulder were enough to tell Marina that much.
“Jacey,” Marina said after a deep breath. “Do you remember what it was like to be a college student? Do you remember going out with your friends on a Friday night and flirting with boys?” Something in Jacey’s expression told Marina that she’d hit a nerve. “Remember how you guys used to promise each other that you wouldn’t leave a girl behind? You would make sure that nobody went home with a loser, and there was nothing you wouldn’t have done for those friends. Right?”
Jacey finally nodded after a long pause. “Yes.”
“Last year that was me.” Marina felt her eyes begin to sting with unshed tears. “Then my friends and I went to this stupid club because it was Tyra’s birthday. I stayed with my girls, until I woke up one morning with some man in a black mask yanking us apart. We were in a stinking cage in the belly of a massive ship, and I couldn’t save my friends. I couldn’t do anything about it. But I lived. And I promised myself that I would never stop looking.”
“Oh God,” Jacey whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
Bones picked up the threads of Marina’s persuasive conversation. “Will was always working with those units that got deployed on diplomatic missions, Jacey. Tell me which men he still has contact with. Please?”
“Master Chief Algodones,” she whispered. “But he talks to Captain Paulsen almost every night.”
“Thank you, Jacey,” Bones said softly. “I promise, nobody is going to know you told us anything.”
“It won’t matter anymore,” Jacey whispered. “Will has been seeing someone else. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he decides he’s tired of me altogether.”
Marina’s heart went out to the woman. “Then you leave first,” she suggested. “Nobody deserves to be treated like that!”
“I’ll lose everything,” Jacey whispered. “I have kids to think about.”
“Do you want your ki
ds to think that a woman should look away while her husband treats her like crap?” Marina demanded. She’d always felt strongly about this sort of thing, but since her abduction she’d become almost rabid about situations like this. “Us girls have to stick up for ourselves,” Marina insisted. “God knows nobody else is going to.”
“We do?” Jacey murmured, eyes wide with worry.
“Yes!” Marina insisted. “Get a lawyer. Do it in secret. Tell him your situation. Then wait until the bastard goes to work and change the locks. This is your home. He’s just a squatter if he’s going to crap all over you. You deserve better.” Marina thought of one more thing. “And if he gets snotty, remind him that he’s participating in the sale of American women. That should shut him up.”
“And if you really need help,” Bones added. “Call me and I’ll be up here in a flash to help you boot him out.”
There were rivers of tears streaming down Jacey’s face. She gave Bones an impulsive hug. “You would really do that even after everything Will did to your team?”
“That wasn’t you, Jacey.” Bones gave her a little hug in return. “You aren’t responsible for his actions. But you need to get yourself out of this mess before he goes down for his part in all of this.”
“You’re right.” Jacey took a step back, and Marina was glad to see that her jaw was set with determination this time. “You’re both right. No more playing nice.”
Marina watched the other woman swipe at her tears and felt a sense of satisfaction. Yep. Marina was out to save the world one woman at a time.
BONES COULD FEEL Marina’s stare as they headed back to her loft in the tiny sports car. Still, he wasn’t about to press her about why she kept staring at him. She would get around to telling him what she was thinking when she was ready. That was something he’d noticed about her pretty quickly.
In the meantime he took a moment to process what he’d just learned from Jacey. Will Whiteside was uniquely positioned at the harbormaster’s office so that he could push through questionable cargo with one stamp of approval after another. Worse, he was consistently talking to Captain Paulsen and Master Chief Algodones. Those two had more connections in the Middle East than the State Department did. This was bad. Very bad. If there was a dirty diplomat enjoying immunity, it was quite possible that Algodones and Paulsen were capitalizing on it. The men were completely without scruples.
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