Deadly Exchange

by Lisa Harris

  “I told you this was a bad idea.” The other man said.

  “Call it payback. Your little non-profit has done enough damage to my business.”

  “It’s not a business, what you do,” Kayla retorted. “It’s human trafficking. These girls don’t choose to work for you.”

  “Which really isn’t any of your business. So here’s the bottom line. Where is Mercy? Because I think you’re lying to me, which isn’t going to fare well for your father. Mercy trusts you. She’s not going to just run away from the one person who she believes can help her.”

  Like she ran away from you?

  “Here’s what I think happened,” he continued, his face now red with anger. “She knew I wanted her back, so now you’ve got her hidden in some little village along the sea, or maybe in some house in the country. But where she is really doesn’t matter. I not only have you, but I have your father and now Levi. If you don’t tell me where she is, I won’t hesitate to kill both of them.”

  She turned her head away, fighting back the tears. Even if she did know where Mercy was, she couldn’t just hand her over to this man. Not only were there no guarantees that they would let her father and Levi go, she knew without any doubts that Mercy would be caught in the cross fire.

  There’s no way out of this, God. I have no idea what to do.

  It was like choosing whom to save. And if they happened to find Mercy before she did, she would no longer have the leverage she needed to keep any of them alive.

  “You seem to have all the bases covered.” She didn’t try to hold back the anger in her voice.

  “I always do.”

  Maybe, but one day she was going to ensure his entire operation was taken down.

  “One more thing.” Her abductor took a step back. A wicked smile crossed his face. “In case you’re hesitating on doing what I say. About that girl you saw in the morgue tonight.”

  “I said it wasn’t Mercy.”

  “I know that now. I just didn’t expect them to find her so...quickly.”

  “She was one of your girls,” Kayla said, feeling numb.

  “She’s not the only one who might end up in the canal. Just remember that. You hand over Mercy and no one dies—including Mercy. But cross me and both you and your friend will end up dead. Which means you better cooperate. And for starters, there’s something you’re going to do for me.”

  * * *

  Levi opened his eyes with a start. His vision blurred as he stared above him at the cracks in the ceiling, trying to figure out where he was. He started to sit up, then winced at the sharp pain in the back of his head. Jaw stiffened, he lay back down on the hard flooring. From the curtainless window to his left, he could tell that the sun was already up, but he had no idea how long he’d been asleep.

  The last thing he remembered was trying to fight off two armed men who’d attacked them after they got off the tram. An attack that obviously ended with a blow to his head. He started to reach up to feel his head, but his hands felt heavy. Weighted. Confusion hung over him for a minute, until he realized why he couldn’t move. Both his hands and feet were tied.

  He let out a deep sigh. There was no way to know at this point whether or not he had a concussion. All he did know was that the top of his head pounded and his entire body felt as if he had been in a fight. Which, from the snippets he could remember, he had been.

  He weighed his limited options. The only way he was going to find Kayla was if he managed to get out of the room before the men came back for him. Which he knew they would eventually. Rolling over onto his side, Levi ignored the pain as he sat up so he could maneuver his arms beneath his body. Once his hands were in front of him, he started tugging on the thin cord with his teeth. His frustration mounted as he tried to work through the night’s events in order to figure out where they might have brought him.

  He shivered as he worked to loosen the cords. The temperature had continued to drop outside, filling the room with a cold draft. How had this happened? He’d come here to protect Kayla, and yet no matter how hard he’d fought, it hadn’t been enough to stop their attackers and keep her safe. Fear seeped through him, bringing with it a wave of nausea. He’d come to Amsterdam to protect her, and now he didn’t even know where she was.

  I need Your help, God. I have to get out of here and find her.

  The light from the window was just enough for him to make out the shadows of the room, empty except for a few pieces of old furniture and a couple of rugs. The crown molding and remnants of gold wallpaper told a different story, though, giving a hint to what the room might have once looked like.

  Still working to loosen the cords, he tried to picture the map of Amsterdam and the surrounding area that he’d studied on the plane. To the east of the city was water, and to the west, past Haarlem, was water as well. His mom had given him a list of day trips that he could take outside Amsterdam, assuming his trip was work related and he would want to see some of the countryside.

  There were iconic windmills built to keep the country from flooding, tulip fields ready to bloom after winter was over, cheese markets and dozens of scenic places to bike alongside canals and eat fresh waffles. The in-flight magazine he’d thumbed through on his way here had talked about how rich merchants used to leave Amsterdam for extravagant estates built along the banks of the Rivers Amstel and Vecht in the summertime. And while this place might not be quite as grand, by the architecture he could tell it was both old and large. Which meant they had to be some distance from the city.

  He shivered again. Instead of loosening the binding, he had somehow made it tighter, the ropes digging into his wrists, making his skin raw. He ignored the pain, focusing instead on the question that continued to trouble him. Why had they changed their mind from giving Kayla twenty-four hours to find Mercy, to grabbing them off the street? Something must have happened to prompt them to change the rules of the game.

  But what?

  His mind snapped back to the morgue where they’d gone to identify Jane Doe. The only thing that made sense was that their abductors had seen them go into the morgue, convincing them they were working with the police. Which had him worried. If these men were as dangerous as Kayla said they were—which he believed—they wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone who got in their way. Which also meant that at this point, more than likely both he and Max were simply pawns in this drama. Expendable pawns that at some point in the near future they would eliminate.

  But despite the urgency of the situation, it was the image of Kayla that currently hovered the closest to the forefront of his mind. Because there was no use denying it. Seeing her again had opened up a flood of emotions he hadn’t expected to feel. He thought he’d left behind any boyhood crushes years ago, burying them completely. And yet walking back into her life after all these years had only gone to prove that those feelings were far from dead. There was something about her that made him want to tell her he’d always cared about her. That seeing her again had made him want to turn back time to the day he’d blown any chance with her. That had always been his one regret. The one moment in time he’d never been able to erase.

  The thought caught him off guard. It was ridiculous, really. How could he have feelings for a woman he didn’t really know anymore? He hadn’t seen her for almost two years, and even then he hadn’t really spent any time with her. Neither of them were who they’d been when they were kids. Besides, things could never work out between them. It simply wasn’t possible. She’d once planned on marrying his brother, and it didn’t really matter that she didn’t have feelings for Adam anymore. He wasn’t falling for her again. Not after all these years. He could think of a dozen reasons why it was a bad idea.

  Wasn’t it?

  The cords around his wrists finally loosened a quarter of an inch. Would he have flown halfway around the world for someone he didn’t have feelings for? He tugged harder on one of the co
rds. The answer to the question seemed obvious. He’d always had a strong sense of duty. A need to fight for justice. But as true as that might be, that wasn’t the entire truth. Because no matter how hard he tried to fight it, he’d never completely lost the feelings he’d always had for Kayla.

  It was the reason he’d felt he had to protect her from his brother. The reason he’d come to Amsterdam in the first place. He just hadn’t realized who the enemy was or what lengths they’d go to get what they wanted. But none of that really mattered at the moment. What mattered right now was finding a way to get loose so he could find Kayla.

  A minute later, the cords around his wrists slackened and fell off. Another minute and the cord around his feet was off. Levi slowly stretched out his legs, then stood up, before going to the window. The property was clearly large, even from his limited vantage point. He could see a row of trees about a hundred feet from the house, and beyond that, a tall fence. Movement to the left shifted his attention. A couple of German shepherds roamed the property. Great. But he couldn’t worry about that right now. He was going to have to tackle one problem at a time. Which meant his immediate priority was finding Kayla without getting caught.

  Rubbing the raw patch on his skin, he headed for the door. The handle wouldn’t budge. There had to be a way out. He started pulling open the drawers of the dresser to see if there was anything he could use. He stopped at the bottom drawer, which was filled with a bunch of miscellaneous junk, and dug through the contents. A few photographs, a pile of old newspaper, some coins and a handful of bobby pins...

  Bingo.

  Grabbing two of the pins, he headed back to the locked door. Using one of the pins as a tension wrench and the second as a pick, he started working the lock, thankful—not for the first time—for his military tactical training. All he had to do right now was find a way out of the room and save Kayla. He’d worry about Mercy and Kayla’s father next.

  Shouts from outside the room interrupted his concentration. Levi frowned, unsure if it was the same two men from earlier. Either way, the urgency of getting out of the room was growing. Clearly he wasn’t the only person in the house. He felt the plug move and gently applied more force to the tension wrench.

  Two minutes later, the door creaked open, and Levi stepped into the darkened hallway. He listened for the sound of voices but didn’t hear anything anymore. He was going to move ahead with the assumption that Kayla was in this house, and more than likely Max was here as well. Because Kayla’s life was in danger and he was running out of time.

  Seven

  Kayla hesitated at her abductor’s request. Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes.

  I can’t do this, God.

  “Apparently you didn’t hear me,” he said. “I want you to call Mercy and arrange to meet her.”

  She tugged on the edge of the frayed binding that secured her hands. She’d known it would come down to this at some point. The moment they forced her to choose. They expected her to just hand Mercy over to them. But she’d promised to help keep Mercy safe. How could she betray her now?

  But if she didn’t do what they were asking, what about her father and Levi?

  She needed to find a way to escape, but that wasn’t going to happen with the man standing right in front of her with a gun pointed at her. There was no way out.

  “Nicu—” the other man said.

  “Shut up, Andrei.” Nicu kept his gaze fixed on Kayla.

  “I’ve already called her a dozen times,” she said, “but she won’t pick up. I haven’t found another way to reach her.”

  He took a step forward and pressed the muzzle of the gun under her chin. “Do you think this is a game? That your father’s life isn’t really in danger?”

  Kayla felt her body tremble as she shook her head.

  “Good, because somehow I don’t think you understand how serious this is. I want you to call Mercy and tell her you need to see her. Tell her that you know she’s in danger, and you have a plan to help.”

  “And then what happens? You show up and grab her?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I won’t do it.”

  He let out a low laugh. “You won’t do it? Here’s the thing. You aren’t exactly in a place to bargain here. You have zero leverage. I have your boyfriend and your father, and I’m perfectly happy to use them to get what I want.”

  Kayla dug for every ounce of courage she could muster. Maybe if she stalled, Levi would escape and find her. He was still out there somewhere, and he had combat experience. Even if he couldn’t help her, it wouldn’t be long before someone noticed she was missing. Evi had been expecting her to come to the office to talk to the girls last night, which meant she’d probably already called the police.

  Except no one knew where she was. She looked up and caught Nicu’s stare. By the time anyone found her, it would probably be too late. And she was out of options.

  “What if I don’t help you?”

  He held up his phone, showing her a string of photos. Levi holding her hand. Levi looking down at her beneath a streetlight, his eyes filled with worry. Her instincts had been right. They had been watched. Followed.

  “That’s simple,” he said. “The local authorities are going to find the bodies of three foreigners in one of the canals. Though I’m assuming that’s not what you want.”

  “And if Mercy doesn’t respond to my call?”

  “I know Mercy. She will eventually, because she’s running out of options. She needs someone to go to and she trusts you. She can only run for so long on her own. She doesn’t have any identity documents and little, if any, money... The bottom line is that she needs you.”

  “Why don’t you just let her go? What does she—one girl—really matter to you?”

  “None of those other girls are Mercy.”

  Kayla tried to read his expression. “No, but there are a dozen more girls who can take the place of Mercy. Why don’t you just let her go before this gets out of hand and someone gets hurt? Or you get arrested? All you have to do is walk away.”

  “You’re actually worried about my getting arrested?” He clapped his hands together slowly, his expression mocking her. “That’s quite a performance, but you’re not really worried about me. Because you can’t win this. The only way to save your father—and yourself—is to give me Mercy. And I’m showing you how. It’s that simple.”

  There was something about the way Nicu spoke about Mercy. This wasn’t about just getting a piece of his property back. “You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

  She wasn’t sure what he felt toward Mercy could actually be called love, but she needed a way to connect with him. A way to resolve all of this before someone got hurt. If that was even possible.

  Nicu’s glance dropped. “Mercy’s different from the other girls. We understand each other.”

  “If she understood you, then why did she decide to leave?”

  “We had a disagreement.”

  Kayla shook her head. “I know the kind of girls you target. Girls that don’t have the strength to fight back for themselves. That was Mercy when I found her. You took the spark out of her eyes, because you made her do things she would never have done on her own in order to save her family from your threats.”

  “Everything these girls do is legal here, but you...you’ll never understand what I do for them—”

  “Understand what?” She knew she’d never be able to hold a rational conversation with him, but frustration pushed her forward. “That you’re doing this because you love her? Because what you’ve done to her isn’t love.”

  “Enough.” Nicu slapped her cheek with the back of his hand. “I never asked for your opinion.”

  Kayla bit her lip at the sharp sting. As far as she was concerned, a man like him wasn’t capable of love. He didn’t care about Mercy or any of the girls he hurt. The
lives he’d ruined. Because she’d seen them on the other side of that life. Girls who had been beaten with red-hot coat hangers to be kept in line, locked in hotel rooms and branded.

  And now he wanted her to believe he was somehow saving Mercy. That using things like voodoo to coerce her into working was just another day on the job. And that somehow he’d justified what he was doing and was under the illusion that she would want to come back to him.

  “Here’s your phone.” He pulled the familiar cell from his pocket and held it up in front of her. “I want you to leave a voice message. Tell her you know she’s in trouble, and to meet you at Amsterdam Central at noon.”

  Kayla stared at the phone. The railway station was the second busiest in the country. It was connected to both the national train system and the metro, which meant thousands of people passed through the place every day.

  “And if she doesn’t show up?”

  “That’s why it’s up to you to convince her.”

  Kayla’s mind scrambled for a way out. “And Levi and my father? If I do what you are asking, will you let them go?”

  Betraying Mercy couldn’t be an option. The only way out was to find a way to stop Mercy from showing up. Or to get to her first. But how?

  “Are you ready? Because I won’t hesitate to put a bullet through your or your boyfriend’s head.”

  Her legs shook beneath her. She wanted to tell him that he had it all wrong. That she wasn’t in love with Levi. That she never had been. Never could be. That he didn’t even matter to her. And yet if that were true...then why did her emotions seem in a tangled knot? But the reality was, it didn’t matter how she felt. She didn’t want anything to happen to him.

  “Act natural,” he said, dialing. “No games or you know what will happen.”

  The call went straight to voice mail.

  “Mercy, this is Kayla.” She drew in a short breath. “I’m sorry I missed lunch on Monday.”

  Nicu frowned, but she kept talking.

  “Listen, I know you’re in trouble and I want to help. Please. Meet me at Amsterdam Central today at noon. You should remember the station. We were there in November. I want to help.”