by Via Mari
“Roger that,” Matt says, grasping the cuffs and pulling me none too gently out of the cabin and down the hallway, but we don’t go down the stairs we came up. When we reach the bottom of the ramp, he continues half-dragging me to the cover of the trees.
The truck has been backed up to the dock, and a group of men jump out of an SUV, open the trailer, and a ramp is thrown down over the existing ramp.
“Move, move, we have minutes,” someone yells as a huge crate is pulled forward on a sort of skid, and then the crane picks it up, hoisting it in the air and loading it onto the boat.
The teams won’t stop now, and the bleakness of the situation sets in as I lift my hands in a show of covering my heart, settling over the little button and pushing, an action intended to bring a reign of hell and fury down onto those that are a danger to our society.
There is nothing else that I can do but watch helplessly as they are loaded onto a boat that will take them to a fate, that for some, will be worse than death. I can’t control the stream of tears that flood down my face as the helplessness of their situation settles in, but my training will not allow me to let it rest.
If I don’t do something, I’ll be no help at all to those people. They will ship out and be lost to anyone that loves them and everyone that is looking for them. Matt lifts a hand to touch his Bluetooth and gives me the only opportunity that I may get, and I’ll be damned if I don’t take it. One of his hands leaves my cuffs and accepts the call and I use all my strength to knee him in the groin. When his hands go to his privates my cuffed arms go around his neck, spinning to pull him back tight against me.
The thought that this is the last time I will ever feel his body against mine crosses my mind, but I have a job to do, and saving these people is it. I walk backward, pulling him with me toward the cover of the woods, but he gets a finger and then a hand under the cuffs, even though my training and hold technique shouldn’t have allowed it. His agile body swivels, easily overtaking me, and his steely grey eyes flash as he frog-walks me backward into the privacy of the overgrowth, his eyes never wavering, holding mine captured with the intensity of his own.
As soon as we reach the safety of the treed canopies, the distinct point of a gun is placed to the small of my back and someone whispers in my ear. “Don’t move or draw attention to yourself. Watch and you will learn, Marenah,” Scottie says.
“Dereck and Nate have the ground crew covered,” Matt says, and my heart sinks with the reality that all along, not only Matt, but his entire crew has been involved. “The men are getting anxious, how much longer?” Matt says to Scottie, but he doesn’t reply and just gestures ahead to the shoreline where the ramp has been closed, and the boat begins to move slowly and then quickly, leaving the port.
“We’ve got ‘em boys, take the bloody arseholes out,” Scottie says from behind me and I watch from our secluded spot as a fleet of Interpol helicopters swarm down, encircling the boat, shining their spotlights on the massive boat. The captain doesn’t slow the boat’s speed at first, and a fleet of men lower onto the ship to ensure that he will, and ten long, excruciating minutes later the boat comes to a complete halt and begins the progression of turning course and heading in our direction.
This time, when the ramp is in place, Nate and Derick lead at least a hundred people down it as sirens fill the night and police cars begin swarming the dock area.
“We’ve got the bloody arseholes,” Scottie says into his headset. “She’s safe, she’s with us, just getting some loose ends tidied up,” Scottie says as he begins to uncuff me and gives me a wide grin.
I grab Scottie by the shirt. “You need to tell me what the fuck is going on. I thought you were the leak, the one on our team helping these sons of bitches get past the checkpoints. All this time, you kept showing up, time after time in the same ports these people kept disappearing from,” I say, looking up into his intense eyes.
“Then we did our job and you did yours, Lass. You were supposed to think it was me. They were being too careful, and we needed them to let their guard down. Once Interpol assigned you to the mission and leaked the information, they got more confident and thought I had a trafficking deal on the side, which helped open the lines of communication.”
I was the one assigned undercover to take these bastards down. He grins widely at me, but when I look at Matt, the look on his face makes my chest tighten.
Matt
I do this for a living, in and out of situations like this every day. It’s part of our training, the job, but my heart is still beating like a fucking freight train. When Marenah put her life in jeopardy, jumping into the water to gain entry to the boat, when she left the safety of my arms to yet again make a play to save those people, it brought back too many feelings. If only someone like her or Scottie had been there years ago when Alyse was taken, she may have survived too, but my heart is warmed when the ambulances, police, and social workers arrive. I know the people that have just been taken from the boat are going to make it. While they may have scars from whatever trauma they’ve dealt with leading up to this, we were able to keep them from being transported into another living hell, and for that I am grateful and feel good about the work accomplished tonight.
When I got the message that Scottie had been called in by Interpol to run ops from the outside, I was relieved and thought we could wait it out until he did what he needed to do to make sure the men had begun to leave port with the people.
But no, Marenah. What the hell to do with Marenah, my little undercover princess. My heart is still pumping at the near escape we had. If I hadn’t known Scottie was running ops, she could have taken him out, and any chance in hell of convicting the people responsible for this could have gone out the window. They could have murdered my princess. She could have been killed right before my very eyes if I hadn’t taken her hostage in front of them, but damn the look in her eyes when I held that gun to her, the look of betrayal and hurt.
This is what getting involved with someone means in my business. You no longer have the upper hand. The people you love can always be taken from you or used against you at a moment’s notice.
I am only half-listening to Scottie and Marenah as my cell signal is restored and I send a message to Jay, but the next words out of Scottie’s mouth stop me dead in my tracks. She is not a double agent, like many of my team thought, she’s fucking Interpol. Jesus, just the fact that she’s been inside Chase’s Italian villa and has seen the setup sends chills down my spine. I know the Italian Mafia were appreciative of our help stepping in to save the next don of the Larussio family, but that credit’s only going to go so fucking far. Even Chase and Brian aren’t going to be able to explain how one of the owners of their security team, privileged to all the comings and goings of the Italian Family, is literally in bed with an agent of Interpol. Fuck!
“What possessed you to get on that boat without backup or to storm that cabin? You could have been killed,” Scottie says. Marenah hangs her head slightly at the chastisement of a man clearly her senior and who with one call could end her career. “I know your heart was in the right place and that things were not as they appeared. I tried to send you a message by putting your cuffs on you in front, but you were so emotionally involved, you didn’t even catch it, Marenah.”
He looks like he’s going to say something else, but I look at her face, and I don’t think so. I hit the send button on the message I was texting and drop the cell into my pocket, slowly walking toward her. “I’ll take it from here, Scottie. If you don’t mind, I’ll borrow these for a while,” I say, taking the cuffs from his hands as the grin on his face spreads, and he heads out to meet with Nate and Dereck.
“What don’t you understand about staying put, out of danger? You could have been killed or taken right along with those people.” As soon as I say those very words, I know that’s the exact feeling I can’t seem to shake: the absolute horror of losing her. I am pissed tha
t she put herself in that situation intentionally, but she is also the most passionate person I’ve ever met. She cares deeply about others and is someone that acts on her emotions, and that type of person is clearly a danger to herself and to my heart.
She looks up at me, and if I think my little spitfire is going to break down and apologize, I have another think coming. Her blue eyes flash with anger. “You could have found another way besides pointing that gun in my face,” Marenah says, so low only I can hear her even if anyone was hanging out in the trees with us.
I reach out and grasp her nape and pull her to me, tilting her chin so she needs to look up at me. “If I hadn’t been there, Scottie would have had to do it. I didn’t realize he was finishing up a couple assignments with Interpol until we were on the boat. I knew you weren’t in danger from him, which is the only reason I let him put handcuffs on you. I just wanted you out, and so did he. We were trying to protect you, Marenah,” I say.
“I don’t understand why they didn’t send backup in,” she says, pulling her necklace out and showing me the button I’m pretty sure is a confidential asset of Interpol. “One click of this and they’re supposed to come and get me, and I pushed it twice.” Marenah’s emotions are beginning to show in the shine of her eyes. Tears she’s trying to hold back. My little spitfire is all fire and toughness on the exterior.
“Remember the rules, Marenah. Only if it doesn’t endanger the mission or cause more casualties,” I say, and the dam breaks.
“They didn’t come for me because I’m expendable,” she says, and her tears begin to flow.
“No Princess, they didn’t come for you because they knew Scottie was on board, and as the most senior, he would have been waiting for his alert to come in. If he felt there was a chance to keep the mission intact and get us out of there, he wouldn’t push that button. He also had the advantage of knowing that, if I was on the boat, my team was on the ground and we wouldn’t be there without a plan.”
She takes it all in and nods, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.
“So now that we’ve got that out of the way, you owe me a few explanations. I get that you couldn’t tell me that you were with Interpol, but surely you could have given me some other reason for a relationship between the two of us not working out? I mean, something, before I took your virginity, Princess,” I say, rubbing my finger over her lip, wondering if what she tells me will be enough to get her out of the punishment I already have planned for her.
She doesn’t say anything at first, and then the conversation turns deeper than I thought it would. “I wanted it to be you, and I don’t regret anything. I know this is impossible for us, but I still wanted my first time to be with you, and I still would have done whatever I could to get those people out. All I could think about was that they were being ripped from their lives, that loved ones would always be devastated, like you for your friend Alyse. I had to do everything I could with the knowledge I had. I have no regrets,” she says, looking down before I lift her chin to see her eyes sparkling with unshed tears in the moonlight.
She turns from me, looking out onto the beach at all the helicopters and police cars that are lining the otherwise normally quiet dock, before looking back at me and stepping on tiptoes to press her lips against mine. “I think my ride’s here,” Marenah says, and I look down at the handcuffs I have swirling on my fingers, intending to treat her to a night of punishment for making me worry and putting herself in jeopardy, but she is right. That would only prolong the inevitable.
Marenah
The walk to the beach and toward Scottie is probably the longest I’ve ever taken. The heat of his gaze penetrating me as I leave sears into my senses and causes me to slow. If I turn to look, I will never be able to leave, so I continue walking toward the helicopters. Dereck and Nate are talking to Scottie as I approach, and they both look out over the distance behind me. “Matt’s fine, lads,” Scottie says. “Marenah needs to come with me and clear up some paperwork,” he says.
Nate nods, but Dereck doesn’t. A man of few words, he looks beyond the cover of the clearing, and my eyes follow his to the lone man standing in the shadows of the protection. “Take care of him for me,” I say, as Scottie leads the way to the helicopter, and I hoist myself into the machine and buckle into the seat. “Headquarters, Lad,” Scottie says as he climbs in, gesturing overhead to get this bird in the air as quickly as the pilot can.
“Roger that!” the pilot says as the whirring starts overhead, drowning out everything around us. We are soon in the air, and I don’t miss Dereck and Nate walking toward the man in the shadows. He hasn’t moved at all, watching as the chopper hovers and then turns, moving out toward the lake.
I swallow hard, trying my hardest to keep my tears at bay at one of the hardest decisions that I’ve ever had to make. His team, the only family that has ever really cared for him, will pull him through. They are more than a security team, they are like brothers, and Matt doesn’t deserve to have to leave the only family he’s ever known outside of orphanages and gang runners, just to be with me. He should have so much better, and I and my family, along with my job, will only cause him suffering and pain in the long run.
It seems like forever when the helicopter finally lands on the deck of a ship and the whirring sound begins to fade to the point where we can hear each other speak. “Interpol satellite headquarters,” Scottie says to me as the pilot jumps out, leaving us in the machine by ourselves. “Two things. You will give a statement and let them know that you got on that ship and charged that room because you thought I was in trouble. Nothing else is acceptable, understand, Lass?” he says, taking me completely by surprise.
I slowly digest what he intends and nod my agreement. “Lastly, nothing, absolutely nothing about Matt and his team. If asked, and I highly doubt you will be, you don’t have any idea who it was that dragged you out of that room,” Scottie says, and again I nod before he jumps down. I follow suit as he leads the way to the stairwell that takes us into the main deck of the ship, down a large hall, and through a door that opens into a spacious main cabin that has windows all around it and allows a view of the ocean for miles around.
Scottie heads to the desk, and the man behind it stands and extends a hand first to Scottie and then to me. “I’m Captain Lyons. Congratulations, I wasn’t sure for a while if you were going to be able to bring them in. We were following things from below when things went south,” the large burly guy says, and I barely see the flick in Scottie’s eyes, but it was there. I didn’t imagine it, and when he turns and introduces me and swipes his finger, just briefly across his lips I understand exactly what he’s telling me.
“Sit down, you two,” Captain Lyons says, gesturing to the large high-back leather chairs across from his desk. I take a seat as Scottie slides into the adjacent one, stretching his leg toward me, lifting his pant leg ever so slightly, letting me know exactly where a piece is secured, and I in turn touch my chest, pretending to pick a piece of fuzz from my sweater, gesturing up and down to let him know that it’s right in between the crevice of my breasts, where most women keep a small extra piece, just in case we need it fast.
“So, let’s get the preliminaries over. I know you folks are tired, so we’ll get this done as quickly as possible. I’ll let you guys fill out the paperwork sitting here together. Just no talking. Once you’re done, we’ll take you into separate rooms, ask you some clarifying questions, make sure there’s nothing our teams don’t need to provide closure on, if you know what I mean,” Captain Lyons says, handing us both an official document that is in triplicate. “These pens will work,” he says, sliding one to each of us. “I’m going to get some coffee. I trust you not to talk. Either of you want anything?” he says.
I nod. “It was cold out there. I would love a hot cup of coffee to warm up with,” I say.
“Coming right up,” he says.
“Remember what the man said, no tal
king,” Scottie says, pretending to begin filling out his form, letting me know to keep quiet in case they have mics on us, which I have no doubt they do.
Moments later Captain Lyons saunters back into the room with two steaming cups of coffee and slides into his desk chair, pushing an aromatic brew toward me. I continue writing and hope we are just being paranoid after the events of the evening, until we hear the distant chopper coming in. Interpol is a global operation, and I’ve almost convinced myself that these satellite ships are used for multiple purposes and we are just being overly cautious, but when four men covered head to toe in black gear walk into the room, my body’s response is all I need to know that we are in trouble. “Alrighty, Scottie, Marenah, let’s collect your summaries, get you split up with the interrogation teams, and then we’ll get you on your way home,” he says with a smile.
They say you should trust your body’s natural instincts, and that, I do.
Matt
I watch her walk away under the moonlight, the gentle sway of her hips moving toward the beach. She has a commitment, a highly confidential and stringent one. She has pledged herself to Interpol, and my lifestyle prevents me from being a suitable partner, not even close. If they dig deep enough, they will find my connections to the mob years ago. Hell, they may even be able to pin me to the murders of the people responsible for the rape and trafficking of Alyse, and after the last month, they will sure as hell be able to pin me to both the Chicago and Italian Mafia.
If I were her, I would walk away too, but that doesn’t stop the ache in my chest as I watch the only woman that I have ever wanted to claim as my own walk away from me and board a chopper that will lead her to the other side of the globe. Even though our security team is well intentioned and we consider ourselves on the right side of the law, we slip into the opposite side of the law and take things into our own hands when we need to.
