by Kylie Brant
The words struck a frigid chord that vibrated through his system. Declan shot across the yard, nearly falling in the wet grass. But when he drew near he could already tell that the still figure in the grass wasn’t Eve. Too tall. Too wide. He stopped in midstride and turned around. “I think they’re the gunmen.” Kell continued to the unmoving figure. Jumped the fence to search it. “No ID.”
Zupan dead in the living room. Two strangers dead in the neighboring yards. And Malsovic, Royce and Eve gone.
The siren that sounded in the distance could have been coming from the alarm sprinting up his spine. Seizing his heart. “He got to her.” The certainty was like a blade in Declan’s chest. “Malsovic. He’s got them both.”
_______
Malsovic went through the wallets and items he’d taken from the gunmen as he drove. The money, what there was of it, he shoved into his own pocket. The names on the IDs meant nothing to him. He tossed them in a pile with a set of car keys. The only other thing of interest was a scrap of paper with two numbers. He turned on the dash light to look at it. Frowned and wondered why one of them seemed familiar. Easing the car to the curb, he pulled his own cell from his pocket and brought up his recent calls.
The same number showed on his screen. He sat and contemplated for a full minute why Umar Megat’s phone number would be carried by a man who’d broken in and killed Zupan.
The most likely explanation was that Megat had thought to acquire the boy without making payment.
Malsovic started the car again. The rage that ignited inside him then was so great it threatened to swallow him whole. Half a million dollars. Gone. His dreams of riches. Vanished.
But all was not lost. He turned around and pointed the car north, in the direction he’d traveled earlier tonight. This was why he’d had an alternate plan.
He drove for thirty minutes. In the darkness it was more difficult to find the rundown rural address he’d visited earlier that day, despite the fact that the rain had begun to let up. As helpful as the women had been, they wouldn’t be happy to be awakened at this hour. Malsovic didn’t care about that. He cared only about finishing this thing.
And now there was revenge to consider. Because after tonight, Malsovic was going to make damn sure bin Osman never got his son. He should have paid the money. Malsovic’s hands clenched and unclenched on the steering wheel. He should have realized a powerful man had enemies who would be happy to gain leverage against the people they hated.
Rizqi bin Osman’s son would be sold for that leverage. And the money, although likely not as great as what Malsovic had hoped for, would be no small sum.
He had to backtrack several times but finally found the place he’d visited earlier. He remembered the roof and door that had been painted a vivid pink. As he’d expected, the women inside were not glad to see him, but they opened the door for him all the same when he offered them the money he’d taken from the gunmen.
Then he went back to the car. Drew his gun and raised the trunk. He pulled his head back just in time to avoid the fist the woman swung as she sprang to a sitting position. “Get out, or I shoot the boy.” Because he’d said it in Serbian, he repeated it in English. Then yanked the woman out of the trunk by a fist wrapped in her hijab.
He left the boy for the two Malay women to tend to and shoved the female inside the small home. In the darkness one couldn’t see the scruffy patch of land around the place with its fence and chickens and goats. And no close neighbors, which would come in handy.
There was a lamp on in the house. He shoved the female to her knees and she turned a defiant face up to his. Malsovic stilled. That face. So familiar. But surely not. He yanked at the hijab, pulling it from her head and stared, dumbfounded at the blond curls he’d uncovered.
It seemed impossible, but there was no denying it. The woman on the floor was the same one he’d failed to kill in DC. The one Shuang had called Eve Gallagher.
Chapter 14
Even as the sirens drew closer, Declan refused to leave before searching the neighboring yards. A hot ball of despair had lodged in his gut at the thought of Eve in Malsovic’s hands. But then it had occurred to him that as bad as the possibility was, there was a fate worse. The two dead bodies in the neighboring yards were silent testament to that.
Kellan went for the car while Declan and Finn split up, jumping the fence on either side of the yard, the beams of their flashlights cutting arcs through the driving rain. He had to satisfy the hammering in his skull. She couldn’t be dead. He wouldn’t believe it.
It was difficult to see much of anything in the darkness, but if there were another body—not Eve’s, it couldn’t be Eve’s—it would be near where they’d found the gunmen.
Tires screeched out front. Two police cars, their strobes washing the street in a kaleidoscope of light. Finn jogged to his side. “She’s gone. We have to get away too, man before we’re locked up. Then she’d be on her own.”
He didn’t need any more urging. It didn’t take any imagination to consider how the scene would look to the Johor Bahru police; three foreigners on a site littered with bodies. They’d be tied up for days, or longer getting the situation sorted out, and Eve didn’t have days. Neither did Royce Raiker.
So they ran. Fleet-footed through the night, slipping through the slick grass and mud as they traveled a roundabout path to where they’d left the vehicle a block away. Kell had the car running. They barely got in before he took off, heading in the opposite direction of the house they’d just left.
The sick cloud of dread spreading through him could fog his mind until only the urgency remained. Declan fought to batten it down, shove it aside. The thing Eve needed most from them right now was clear thinking.
It was the only thing that would save her.
He pulled out his smartphone and turned on the app they’d all downloaded. “She’s wearing her GPS device, right?” Finn hung over the front seat with his phone in his hand. “We can track her. We can’t be that far behind them.”
“Twenty-five minutes, I figure.”
“No more than twenty,” Declan disputed Kell’s estimate without looking up from his phone. “Here she is.” The fist clutching his heart loosened a fraction. He and Eve had worn the devices since the second day at the Latifma. The other two men had added them before leaving on this assignment. Each showed up on the map in a different color. Eve’s was a green dot that was moving steadily. “Heading northwest. About…twenty-two miles from here.” Motion was good. He told himself that. Tried to believe it. If Malsovic was driving—and Declan could figure no other way the man had gotten Eve off that property so quickly—then he couldn’t be hurting her.
“Take the expressway north and we’ll jog west from there,” Finn advised. “I’m bringing up the route to get you to the expressway, Kell.”
“The fastest way possible.” Burke slid a glance toward Declan. “Don’t worry, buddy. We’re on his trail, and he thinks he’s safe. We’re gonna show him otherwise.”
“Yeah.” Gripping the phone so hard it hurt, Declan found himself praying that green dot on the screen stayed in motion. Because it was when it stopped that Eve would be in real danger.
_______
Malsovic bent and hauled Eve up by one arm. “You. Why are you here? Who came with you?”
“I followed you. I came alone.”
He shoved her violently to the floor again as the two women came into the small home with a struggling Royce Raiker.
Eve gave the boy a quick once over. Bound hand and foot, he looked tired and wan, with dark circles beneath his eyes. His hair still bore the effects of the dye they’d use to lighten it for the passport picture. She’d told him her name while they were in the trunk. Assured him his mother was alive. She hadn’t dared to tell him more. Not then.
She tried to catch his eye now, give him a reassuring smile. Bu
t he was bucking and fighting, trying to twist away from the two women.
“This one is a problem,” the older of the two said in Chinese. She let go of the boy and signaled for the younger woman to do the same. “A good beating would make him behave.”
“He is not the one to worry about now,” Malsovic said in English. He approached Eve, and she got to her feet, warily keeping an eye on the two women who came to circle her. “You lie. You are not alone. There were others there inside the house.”
“Men I paid to follow you.”
“It is not possible.” He looked at the younger woman. “You have a bath tub?”
“We have large tub. We fill and bathe in it.”
“Fill it.” He never took this gaze off Eve. “You are here with your husband. You both lied to Shuang. I know this already.” He waved a hand at Royce. “He was not taken from Raiker’s property. So you lie now, too, I think. You and your husband came to find the boy.”
There was a clatter and then a scrape as the younger woman rolled in a large metal washing tub. She placed it in the kitchen, turned on the faucet and began filling a pitcher.
“Is my mom really okay?”
Eve’s gaze went to Royce, who had stilled and was watching her. It was unsurprising that Malsovic had figured out her and Declan’s charade. He must also suspect that Declan’s whole scheme with Shuang was a trap. “She really is.” He looked like he was afraid to believe her. She hoped she was telling the boy the truth. Jaid was still alive, as far as she knew. And that was the most any of them could hope for.
Staying alive until Declan and the others got there was uppermost in her mind. Stalling was the best strategy. The GPS pin was still clipped under her hair at her nape. How long had the car ride been? It was difficult to tell since she’d been unconscious for part of it. She just needed to keep Malsovic talking long enough for Declan and the other men to follow them here.
“Help me search her.” He motioned to the graying older woman. “She had a knife earlier. Strip her.” Eve waited for the two to converge on her before aiming a vicious kick at Malsovic. It didn’t hit him where she most wanted to injure him, but he muttered a curse when it connected with his thigh with enough force to have the contact eddying up her leg.
The woman’s slap was hard enough to have her seeing stars. Both she and Malsovic grabbed Eve and wrestled her to the floor.
She’d worn the long skirt Declan had bought that day, the cotton shirt and hijab. She struggled violently against them, striking out with fists and nails. The female pinched her and yanked her hair as she wrested her clothes from her.
“No bruises!” Malsovic barked as the skirt was pulled down her legs. The two battled to unbutton her blouse.
The woman in the kitchen chided the other one in Chinese. “He will sell her, too, Mama. She must be in good condition.” Translating the words had Eve fighting harder for her freedom. They were to be sold? She could understand bin Osman’s interest in the boy. But his only interest in Eve would be if he were still involved in human trafficking.
Declan. She winged the plea on a mental prayer. Come soon.
The older woman was panting now, Eve’s outer garments in a pile on the floor.
“Bath ready.”
She was dragged, struggling and kicking to the metal tub. Eve doubted very much that a bath was what Malsovic had in mind. He forced her to kneel by the container, grasped a handful of her hair, and yanked her head back painfully. “Gallagher is with you?”
Tears stung her eyes at his painful grip. “Yes.” The man suspected that much already, so she’d save her lies for something more important.
“How many other men?”
“None.”
He shoved her head forward, over the rim of the tub, submerging her in the water. Her body exploded into a frantic battle for freedom. Water was in her mouth, her nose. She choked. Gagged. More water rushed in. A moment later he pulled her head up.
She gasped and coughed. His voice seemed to come from a distance. “How many others?”
“Just…my…husband.”
This time she managed to fill her lungs before he pushed her head under water again. There was yelling in the background, but she couldn’t hear it for the roaring in her ears. Her chest was full and tight, razor blades burning in her lungs. She stopped fighting. Saved every bit of effort for holding her breath.
When he raised her head, she was panting. Desperate for oxygen, she tried to haul in great gulps of air, found she couldn’t fill her lungs enough. “How many men?”
“He…hired two.” Her mind was fogged. It was difficult to think. “We came…for…the boy. Found…Zupan.”
“Someone else found Zupan, too.” There was no regret in his voice. “Your husband…he still works for Raiker?”
Something told her that to admit it would seal Declan’s death sentence if the two came face to face. “No.” She braced herself as the pressure on the back of her head increased. Her forehead actually touched the water. “He was fired. He just…wanted money. Now…he wants…to sell him back to Raiker.”
Something inside her wept for the boy who surely was hearing all this. He’d feel confused. Even more alone. But she’d worry about that later. And she was done talking. Because it occurred to her that the more time Malsovic spent torturing her, the more time the men had to follow them to the small farm where they’d been brought.
But her words had satisfied him for the moment. He looked at the woman in the kitchen. “I need to go now. You get me in early.”
“I can’t do that! You must wait. The auction starts at two. Buyers come to browse at noon. Sellers at ten AM. I told you this!”
“Then I will stay here.” Eve forgotten for the moment, he straightened and took a gun from his waistband. His smile was slow and ugly. “You will hide me today.”
The woman slid a look at her mother, whose eyes were wide and frightened.
“Towel!” Malsovic barked, gesturing to Eve’s hair. The older woman hurried to obey.
“Maybe I can help,” the younger one said. “For more money.”
His mouth twisted. “Of course, Huan. Always more money. I need someone to watch these two. I have much to do.”
Now that she’d agreed, Huan seemed in a hurry to move them out of the house. “We go now.” Her mother had returned with a thin cotton towel. She began to roughly dry her dripping head. When Eve raised her hands to take over the task, they were slapped away.
Malsovic and Huan were arguing over payment. Eve went back on her haunches, grabbing the towel from the other woman, who began combing her fingers through her wet hair, pulling at the snarls. “What is this?” she murmured in Chinese.
A cold bolt of fear twisted through Eve when she felt the woman’s fingers on the GPS clip. Ducking away, she shoved her aside. Saw the woman’s hand rear back but didn’t dodge quickly enough to avoid the slap.
“Bitch,” the older woman hissed in her native tongue as she undid the clip and examined it. A pleased expression crossed her face when she looked at the ornately worked ‘G’ in the center of it. “You will not have need of jewelry where you are going.”
Eve leaped at her, desperation fueling the move. As long as they remained here, Declan would find them. She had no doubts about that. But the conversation between Huan and Malsovic made it clear they would soon be on the move again.
She couldn’t leave without that pin. Tackling the woman, she took her down to the floor. Rolled. Eve pressed a thumb in her eye. Her free hand went to the woman’s neck. When she screeched, Eve grabbed for the hand still clutched around the pin. Was prying her fingers open when a force yanked her back, throwing her across the room.
“Mama, are you all right?” Huan’s voice was shocked.
“She has something of mine!”
Malsovic reached down and grabbed Eve throat. Hauled her
upright. “You have nothing.” He spoke in English. “You are nothing. Soon you will learn that.” His smile had a quick shudder working down her spine. “I would give a great deal to teach you myself. But it will give me pleasure knowing someone else is showing you a woman’s place in this world.” He looked over to where Huan had gone to comfort her mother. “What does she have? Bring it to me.”
With a slight push from her daughter the older woman shuffled forward. Showed him the pin. Malsovic picked it up, looked at it closely.
“It was a gift from my husband,” Eve said in English. “Please.” The word nearly choked her. “Let me keep something to remember him by.”
“He will soon be dead. And you will have a new life.” Malsovic looked at Huan. “She may keep it.” The younger woman repeated the words in Chinese. With a crow of delight, the older woman fixed it in her hair, turning to show it off to her daughter.
“I will be gone all day and most of the night,” Huan told her mother, her voice heavy with meaning. “You know what to do.”
Nodding, the older woman sent a triumphant look in Eve’s direction. “Yes, I will. I keep her clothes, too?”
“Not the hijab.” Malsovic looked at Huan. “Bring her something that covers her completely.” The woman disappeared into a door leading off the room.
Eve spared a glance at Royce. He wouldn’t look at her. There was a set to his jaw that for a moment reminded her of the boy’s stepfather. Just hold on a while longer, she told him mentally. The agents had to be close.
Huan returned with a black abaya, a loose-fitting robe-like dress and a niqab, a veil to cover the face. She produced them with a flourish, and Malsovic looked impressed. “Yes, good. You may have them back after she goes on auction.” He turned to Eve. “Put them on. Unless you want me to do it for you.”
She crossed slowly to take the garments from Huan. It wasn’t a pretense to linger over donning them. Eve had only worn similar garments twice, both times when she’d traveled on a job for the State Department. But despite her slowness, the other woman had them on her in minutes.
