“Senator, why were you talking to Kawa?” Ryan asked.
“My sister. Jules. She’s been held for the last four years by a group in Syria. No one can find her. The State Department won’t send a team in after her. He told me he could save her if I just looked the other way.” Joe stared down at his hands. His sister and his career were gone if this got out. Without his position he could never hope to help her.
“That’s it? That’s the whole deal?” Ryan asked.
“I love my sister, Mr. Scott. She’s a good soul.”
“If you can help me, maybe we can help you. My friends and I work for a company called Aegis Group. We’re men with certain skills. I think we can bring everyone home safe if that’s your goal.”
Joe wanted to believe, but he couldn’t. Not after so long.
CARSON HAD EXHAUSTED her mediocre medical knowledge. Now all she could do was keep Frankie comfortable as she whimpered in pain.
The few things Carson knew were that the bullet must have bounced off the wall or floor, then hit Frankie in the lower back to the left of her spine. There was only one wound, so her television doctor degree told her the slug was still in there and if they didn’t get Frankie help soon she could die. What TV hadn’t prepared Carson for was the slow, oozing way the wound bled. It was always so fast on shows.
“She’s burning up,” Mom whispered. She’d screamed herself hoarse at the door yelling for help earlier.
“I don’t know what else to do.” Carson kept her hands pressed tight to Frankie’s back.
Dad stroked Frankie’s wild hair off her face.
They had no options. No hope. Nothing.
Unless one of them got out of here.
She stared at the impossibly small window.
If there was a will, there was a way.
“Dad? Can you stand for a few minutes? I want to try something.”
“What do you need?”
“I want to see if I can’t fit through that window or flag someone down. We need to get the attention of someone. If we don’t...” She couldn’t bring herself to finish that sentence.
“Let’s try,” he said.
Carson held out her hands and helped Dad to his feet. Together they crossed the large, empty room to stand under the rectangular window positioned at the very top of the room. Her best guess was that it couldn’t be more than six or eight inches tall. Her head might not be able to fit, but maybe she could wave.
“Frankie couldn’t see anything out of it earlier,” Mom said.
Dad leaned against the wall then laced his hands together, forming a step for her. “Ready.”
“Okay.”
Carson didn’t know if she should hope, but she wanted to believe this could make a difference for them.
She planted one hand against the wall and the other on Dad’s shoulder. She then placed one foot in his hands.
“One, two, three.” She stepped up and grasped the edge of the window with both hands.
Carson hauled herself up enough so she could peer out at the water. There was a lot of space between them and the next boat.
“I’ve got you.” Dad grasped her dangling feet and boosted her up farther. “Can you fit?”
“I don’t know.” She turned her head to the side and fit it through the window. “I might be able to fit.”
Carson thrust her arm through, but the wall outside was smooth. She peered down and down and down. That was going to be a long way to go before she hit the deck. If this was their only chance she had to take it.
“Can you get me up any farther?” She wasn’t certain her wider areas would squeeze through, but maybe she could manage.
“I’m here. We’ve got you,” Mom said.
She and Dad pushed her lower body higher while Carson wiggled her chest, willing herself to fit. The tight fit restricted her breathing to the point that her vision began to haze, but she was squeezing through.
Carson got a knee through the window. She shoved her weight toward the ocean. Something ripped as gravity worked in her favor and her lower body dropped out from under her leaving her hanging by her hands.
She was through!
Now she had to survive the fall.
RYAN PEERED INTO THE rearview mirror at Senator Joe Neilson. How had this gone from Carson doing the FBI a solid to incriminating a sitting congressman?
“When will you know if the transfer cleared?” Joe asked.
“As soon as my people text me.” Ryan had one eye on his phone while the rest of his attention was on the comm in his ear.
The FBI were watching the bank too closely for any of them to just drive out. A transfer this large had to be verified, so it wasn’t something Joe could authorize from anywhere. They’d managed to talk a banker into walking out to the parking garage across the street to go through the necessary authorizations.
“Leaving the bank now,” Vito said, his voice more of a rumble than anything else.
“Those two black cars are still there,” Paxton said.
Ryan’s phone chimed. He thrust it at Alec in the passenger seat.
“What’s going on?” Joe leaned forward.
“Our diversion is on the go.” Ryan tilted his head.
“The money has been transferred,” Alec said.
“Good.”
Rather than deal with Joe’s banker directly for this deal and rely on the FBI to keep their hands out of the pie, they’d had him wire the funds to an Aegis account. If they had to go through with paying Kawa, the digital transfer would be the more secure way to go. Using an Aegis account also provided some additional security for Joe’s money.
“They took the bait,” Vito said.
A moment later a bang echoed through the headsets.
“FBI,” someone shouted on the other end.
“Let’s move.” Alec pound his hand on the door.
Ryan accelerated, not too fast; he didn’t want to draw attention to the Mustang. They turned out onto the street and followed the one way traffic.
From the beginning they’d known they couldn’t easily lose the senator’s FBI tail, so the key was to fake them out. Ryan cruised through an intersection and glanced at his left.
A dark blue SUV sat blocked in by two FBI vehicles, lights on. Vito, Paxton and Silas had their hands up, cooperating as the agents all looked the wrong way.
“We are almost clear,” Ryan muttered. He watched the last glimpse of the bogus arrest in his mirror.
“I don’t see a tail,” Alec said.
“Time to drive like we have somewhere to be.” Ryan shifted and accelerated, zipping into an opening between two other vehicles. “Time to make the call, Senator.”
“What am I supposed to say?” Joe asked.
“Just like we talked about. Call him, tell him we are on our way. Do not mention it’s a digital transfer.” Ryan needed to get close to Kawa. Close enough to put a gun to his head and motivate him to return Carson and her family before he made a break for it.
Joe pressed his phone to his ear.
They were closing in on the twelve hour mark. Ryan prayed Carson was still okay.
Joe closed his eyes.
Through the comm Ryan listened to the jumble of voices. Agent Walker yelled at someone.
“Kawa. It’s Joe. I’ve got the money and I’m headed to you.”
Ryan tightened his hands on the wheel. He’d like to hear both sides of the conversation, but they were pressed for time and he needed to know what was going on with the others.
“No, I will not wait. Waiting is what messed this up last time. I’m coming to you. Be ready.” Joe hung up the phone.
“You. Where’s the red head and the senator?” That was Agent Walker’s voice coming through the comm.
“What did he say?” Alec asked Joe.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Paxton said through the comm.
“You know who I mean,” Agent Walker snapped.
“Oh, Ryan? He’s off today. We’re jus
t headed to a job.” Paxton had this knack for sounding utterly at ease. He’d sell that story for everything he could.
Listening to both sides was getting to be too much for Ryan’s sleep deprived mind.
“He wanted to push it back. Meet me later,” Joe said.
There was no way Ryan was letting that happen. They’d slipped the FBI for the moment, but not for long.
“We’ll be there in twenty minute if traffic doesn’t fuck us.” Ryan swerved into another lane and punched it, shooting forward a few car lengths.
“Mute your comm?” Alec asked.
“What?” Ryan reached up and double tapped the unit.
“I’m not getting anything anymore.” Alec pointed at his ear.
“Powering mine off.”
The downside to the comms was that if they fell into the wrong hands, they could be tracked. If they were on. Turning them off meant they had no way of communicating with the others for support. Ryan and Alec were on their own.
Chapter 20
Carson’s head ached, and it felt like there was sandpaper inside her knee. But she was free. Which was more than she could say for her family.
The fall from the window to the deck below hadn’t killed her. She’d managed to land feet first, which in hindsight maybe wasn’t such a great thing. Something was wrong with her knee, but she couldn’t allow that to slow her down. There was a goose egg on the back of her head from where she’d connected with the railing, but her vision wasn’t blurry. She could move, she could hide and maybe she could get off this boat.
She pressed her back against the metal wall. The deck she’d fallen to was an open level below the uppermost deck where the cargo was stacked. Even down here she could see where pallets, crates and containers would be stored. Except the boat had been unloaded, which made hiding harder.
A masculine sing-song voice drifted toward her in a language she didn’t understand. Another man answered him. It wasn’t the same language that Kawa’s people spoke. This was different. She didn’t know how, only that it was.
Come on, leave already.
Carson peered around the corner, but couldn’t see the men.
Until the two moved on she was stuck waiting while her sister slowly bled to death.
Time was not on her side.
RYAN PARKED THE MUSTANG as close to the boat as he could get without catching the eye of the port authority officials. At this early hour there was a lot of activity as teams assembled to load and unload cargo for the day.
“What if this goes wrong?” Joe stared off into the distance at a boat.
“It won’t. He’s in this for the money and what you can do for him. It doesn’t make sense to go back on the deal. Come on.” Ryan patted Joe’s shoulder.
The senator nodded and let Ryan usher him along.
“When we get there, call him and tell him to come down. You don’t want to go into the boat, but if we have to we will. If he asks about us, tell him it’s for both of your safety. Do not mention the FBI or Carson.” Ryan was banking on Kawa having never seen him. Alec would have to hang back, but that wasn’t a bad thing. They didn’t want to play all their cards for Kawa to see.
They strode toward the boat, dodging other traffic as normal business went on. Things grew quieter as they reached the ship where Joe had met with Kawa previously. The decks were empty and there was no crew to see. Considering the bustling activity everywhere else it seemed strange.
“Alec, wait here.” Ryan gestured at some kind of crane tower a short distance from the boat. “Joe, ready to call?”
Joe lifted his phone to his ear and slowed his pace, staring up at the boat.
“I’m here,” he said.
Ryan watched the lower entrance where Kawa had been seen in the photographs earlier.
“No, I’m not coming on the ship.” Joe shoved his hand in his pocket. “As a friend you’ll understand if this whole thing makes me uneasy. Certainly you can meet me halfway?”
Joe glanced up at Ryan.
What was the problem this time?
Joe tapped the phone screen. “He says we either come on the ship or there’s no deal.”
“Then for now there’s no deal.”
Ryan hated saying those words, but he couldn’t walk into a trap knowing full well that was what it as.
THE PHONE WAS HOT AGAINST Kawa’s face. The scent of blood clogged his nose.
What a fuck up.
“Check every part of the ship. She’s here somewhere.” He ended the call and glanced at the young woman lying on the floor, her parents hovering around her.
They were disposable. He didn’t need to concern himself with their outcome now that a fraction of the money he’d lost was coming back. No, it wasn’t the win they needed for Akkadia, but it was something. The senator’s cooperation could go a long way to turning opinions on the world stage.
His phone rang again.
He glanced at the number, but it wasn’t one of his men.
It was the senator.
“Please? Please, she needs help.” The woman reached for him.
Kawa stepped out of her reach. There were casualties in every revolution, on all sides. He couldn’t concern himself with one girl.
He exited the room and secured it with one hand. The man he’d posted out here was gone, as was one other. As far as he knew, they’d fled. That left Kawa with four men at his back he couldn’t trust.
This could still be handled.
He pressed the answer button.
“Good morning, friend.” Kawa did his best to sound relaxed, pleasant, and not sweating his balls off. If the girl got off the ship she could bring the cops here, and he wasn’t certain his arrangement with the captain would hold.
“I’m here,” Joe Neilson said.
“Wonderful news. Would you care to join me on the upper deck? Such a lovely view.” And far away from wherever that woman might have escaped to.
“No, I’m not coming on the ship. As a friend you’ll understand if this whole thing makes me uneasy. Certainly you can meet me halfway?”
The senator was getting scared as he should be. He’d walked into the lion’s den without a clue and now the teeth were around his neck. It was a little late to start pulling back.
“Remaining in America has put me in a bind, my friend. Are you sure you won’t consider the view?”
“No.”
Kawa needed the money, but he couldn’t make himself agree to the plan. He strode across the hall and peered out a window onto the deck. He could just make out two small shadows on the dock.
Joe was not alone.
“If you won’t come on the boat, then I’m afraid we have no deal.” Kawa hung up.
The senator didn’t travel with security. He’d never been escorted by a body guard before. Why was he getting antsy now? Had he been tipped off?
Kawa headed down the hall. The crew was overhead, sequestered for meetings about loading cargo in the near future. He had to find the girl before loading happened or else he ran the risk of her slipping off on her own or someone that wasn’t the crew finding her. He had no doubt the captain would not stick up for him if that happened.
He descended the stairs to the tune of his phone ringing. At this rate the battery was going to die. At least this time it was one of his men checking in.
“Have you found her?” he asked without a greeting.
“No, but the crew said there was an unexplained bang earlier.”
“She went out the window. That’s a long way to fall. It was probably her that made the sound.” And his man leaving his post was the reason no one had known.
“What do you want us to do?”
“Keep searching. The senator is here to make the transfer of funds, so we need to tie up our loose ends and leave.” Kawa was more than ready to be done with all of this even if it wasn’t the win they’d wanted.
He made it to the side entrance without seeing Carson or anyone else. From the depths of the shadows he p
eered out at the senator and his bodyguard. The unknown man was the garden variety tall stocky, intimidating in a black suit. Not the sort of person that bothered Kawa.
But could he trust them?
If he was on the boat he was granted some measure of safety.
Off the boat he was vulnerable.
Then again if he didn’t gamble, he might lose it all.
Joe lifted his arm. A moment later Kawa’s phone rang.
“Hello, friend,” he said.
“We are coming up.”
CARSON WAS GOING TO have to run for it.
She’d only seen two ways off the boat. There was some kind of door a few levels below where she’d hit the deck. She’d tried to get close to it, but there were always people in that area. Which left the forklift ramp at the end of the ship.
She’d made it most of the length of the boat without being seen, but that was by chance. There was too much open, exposed ground from here to her exit. For her to get closer she had to take the stairs up one level then walk herself down the ramp.
Someone would see her.
Would her knee hold up to a run?
Pain shot up and down her body with every step. That would be worse at a run. She could do it so long as she didn’t trip.
All she had to do was get off the boat and find someone. Anyone at all. She’d scream her head off if she thought she’d be heard.
Carson tried to listen for voices or footsteps, but it was difficult to make out subtle sounds.
What she wouldn’t give for a hat or something to disguise her.
She crawled up the metal stairs on her stomach, keeping as low as possible.
The deck was still empty, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was out there.
If this were a nature documentary, she was the nervous rabbit about to take on a bird of prey with sharp, pointy talons.
Where would her threat come from?
There were two sets of what she could only assume were cranes to move cargo set up at two points on the ship. Then there was a kind of tower at the very front.
She was closer to the ramp than the tower. If she didn’t fall, she could make it.
Dangerous Secrets Page 24
