by Kylie Brant
“Get the boy.” Malsovic grabbed a handful of Eve’s robe and was pulling her toward the door. Opening it. He’d put her in the trunk again. And she wouldn’t have another chance at escape until they reached their next destination.
She purposefully tripped, falling into him. Her hands went to his shirt. To the weapon he’d shoved in the waistband beneath it. She actually got a hand on it. Started to pull it. His mighty shove sent her sprawling. The gun landed in the mud with a light thud. Eve dove for it. His shoe came down on the back of her neck, exerting enough pressure that she feared he’d break it.
“So much trouble.” His voice was low and ugly. “I do not wish to bruise you before the auction. But maybe you need more water before you learn.” Just the thought of the near drowning experience had her catching her breath. “Get used to your position. You will be at the mercy of men the rest of your life. Many many men.” His foot lifted. He pulled her up with a hand in the folds of her abaya, gathering the weapon as he rose.
Huan had joined them with the boy, supporting him as he hopped toward the car. “Put him in the back seat and bring me the duct tape from the bag in the front.” The woman did as she was bid, rejoining them with a roll in her hand. “Bind her,” he ordered. “And gag her. It will do her good to start learning how to be silent.”
_______
“They’re on the move again.”
“What?” Kell’s head swiveled toward Declan. “After stopping for nearly fifteen minutes? What direction?”
“North.” Declan and Finn’s voices answered simultaneously. Kell’s mouth flattened. “Then we go north. At least if he’s moving no one is being hurt.”
He’d meant the words as comfort, but Declan knew that the time Malsovic had stopped had been long enough to inflict a great deal of suffering.
Another thought niggled at the back of his skull. One he couldn’t quite dislodge no matter how hard it tried.
The GPS worked whether the body it was on was alive or not.
And because thinking that way was the surest way to insanity, he’d shove the thought away. Bury it. And concentrate on everything they could do to find Eve and the boy.
“Stillions is enroute,” Finn said quietly. “He and another fed, and two from DOS.”
Declan nodded. The FBI agent had coordinated contacting the State Department and the US Embassy when the search for Royce had gone international. But they hadn’t left the US until the passports had shown up, undeniable evidence that the boy was in the country, in Malsovic’s custody.
His mouth tightened. It didn’t escape him that they had no evidence right now that the man had Eve. But nothing else made sense.
The vehicle moved steadily on the expressway toward Kuala Lumpur, which was just over three hours to the north. Because of the lateness of the hour, the traffic was light, allowing them to make good time. The vehicle they were following was making good time, as well. Malsovic had stopped for fifteen minutes, but they’d gotten turned around a few times on the country roads before the GPS locator had shown the other car was on the move again.
The distance on the device indicated that they were now only ten minutes away from the other car. Ten minutes. His fist clenched around the phone in his hand. They’d been too late last night to stop the shooting. Too late to catch Malsovic before he’d taken Eve. At some point they had to quit being a step behind the man. “As close as we are to the vehicle, the next time he stops we’ll have him.” Declan said the words and tried to believe them.
“Damn straight,” Kell replied. “And when we do, you can have first crack at the guy.”
He didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Because if the man had hurt Eve…or the boy…only God could save him.
They were heading west of Kuala Lumpur when the GPS locator stopped moving. Declan stared at the screen of his phone, willing the green dot to stay motionless. He’d gotten his hopes up before when it had halted briefly—likely for a traffic light—before moving forward again. It did start to progress again, but slowly. As if the car remained still. But the person wearing it was still moving.
“We might have a destination.” Hope, a sudden spear of it, stabbed through him.
“How far away?”
Declan turned on a reading light in the car to check the coordinates on the map. “Seven miles, thereabouts.”
As he flipped off the light again, Finn said, “Close enough for us to begin strategizing about how we’re going to take him out.” They spent the rest of the trip doing exactly that, as Kell drove more slowly, moving in the outskirts of the capital city. The homes here were nearly identical boxes set down close to each other, with brightly colored trim and roofs to individualize them. Dawn was smudging the sky beneath angry splinters of clouds when they drove to the location indicated by the coordinates. “Right there,” he murmured. “Red roof and door.”
Kell kept driving. Turned at the nearest corner and coasted to mid-way down the block. Finn passed out the weapons again before the men got out of the vehicle, falling into a synchronized step. At that moment they looked more alike than not, Declan thought grimly as they made their way silently between the houses to the one they sought. All of them had mud crusted on their shoes, knee high on their pants. Unshaven. All with a single deadly purpose.
When they came to the house, they split up to predetermined posts. They’d each try an entry into the house, and whoever found a way inside first would summon the others. Kell had a special magic with locks and alarms, so he went to work on back door lock. Finn would take a window on one side. Declan detoured to the front. At the corner of the house, he dropped to his belly and crawled to the car. Empty of course, he saw when he risked a glance in. But the hood was warm to the touch.
Staying low, he went to the other side of the house and used his knife to pry off the old aluminum combination window. It was a type that had been popular in the States decades earlier. Access could be made here, but it would be slow.
His cell signaled an incoming text. Kell. Declan moved toward the back, keeping his weapon ready.
There was a narrow overgrown walk leading from the back door. Ignoring it, Finn and Declan fanned out on either side of the other man. Kell held up one finger. Two. On three he eased open the door and they rushed inside. Spread out, weapons ready.
And froze as a girl in the kitchen area stared at them, sleepy eyes wide in the act of pouring a glass of milk. The carton dropped from her hand, and she turned her head to give an earsplitting scream.
Giving them a perfect view of the clip in her dark hair with an oval bearing an ornately worked ‘G’ in the center of it.
_______
“I need to go to my own work now.” When Malsovic looked ready to object, Huan waved to another girl who had followed her in. “This is Kim. She will watch your possessions if you need to go out for a while. Take them on regular bathroom breaks. Water them. They will be safe.”
Royce and Eve were housed in large wire dog kennels, with padlocks on the doors. Both of them were still bound.
The space looked like a regular hotel room. She hadn’t had a chance to see the front of the building. Hadn’t realized that one of their stops was to buy the kennels. They’d stopped again for a long time before the trunk had opened. It had still been dark. She’d been dragged out and folded into the cage before being lifted onto a luggage cart. Malsovic had spread a blanket over her. And then she’d been in the dark again.
Her other senses had filled in the voids. The sense of the cart moving. The ding of an elevator. Its rise. And then her arrival here. The blanket had been removed before Malsovic had gone to the door with Huan. And apparently repeated the process with Royce.
“How do I know this place is secure?” The man sounded more than a little paranoid. And he was as antsy as Eve had ever seen him. Going to the window to peek behind the aluminum blinds. Pacing the floor.
<
br /> “This floor is only for sellers,” Huan replied in a tone that said she was repeating herself. “Buyers staying at the hotel are on another floor and do not have the papers to access this level. Armed guards are posted up and down the hall. Just as they will be on the ballroom level. There is very valuable merchandise being held in these rooms. Trettin does not maintain the integrity of his auctions by taking security lightly.”
“All right then, go.”
But the woman didn’t turn to leave. “You owe me more money.”
His expression turned ugly. “I paid you yesterday. And more tonight, at your house.”
“The money yesterday not for me. That was for getting your first item listed in the final auction catalog. And for sending out an alert of the addition to our top customers. The woman…” Huan shrugged. “You will have to take your chances on her. Surely a blonde will get noticed. You paid for me getting you in early. For helping you this morning. But you owe for the cost of the room.” She named a price, and Malsovic looked like he wanted to argue. Instead he pulled out his wallet and walked over to shove some bills at her.
As she folded the bills and walked out of the room, he switched his attention to Kim. “Remove the tape from their mouths. I do not want marks visible at the auction. If you have problems with them, gag them another way. And get the boy to the bathroom first.” He pushed by her and left the room.
Eve looked at Royce, but he skirted her gaze. Kim went to his cage and worked the key into the padlock. Swinging the door open, he crawled out of the enclosure before she helped him to his feet and half dragged him to the bathroom.
A suffocating sense of desolation was spreading over her, through her, and the feeling was a trap. She couldn’t allow herself to sink into depression, any more than she could bank on false hopes. Declan would have found the GPS device at the farmhouse long ago. The men would have known there was no way to track them to their new location.
Which meant that Eve had to figure something out herself, and quickly. Before they were taken to the ballroom for the auction.
_______
“Nuer is daughter,” Finn said. It had been slow going. The older woman would release a spate of Chinese and Finn would try to pick out words to look up on his smart phone. “I think she’s saying the girl belongs to her daughter. Just like the house she left hours ago belonged to her daughter.”
Declan surged to his feet. The thought of how much time they’d spent had his patience shredding. His frustration mounting. And the pace of this interrogation was excruciating. They didn’t have time to waste. He pointed at the girl again, seated on the couch next to her grandmother. “Mama,” he tried. “Where is your mama?”
The girl appeared to be nine or ten. She looked uncertainly at her grandmother. “Mama. Work.”
The three men stared at the child, then at each other, each mirroring an expression of shock. Slowly Declan went to his knees before the girl. He pointed to the clip she had in her hair. “Where did you get that? Pretty.” The child pointed to her grandmother. No help there. Pulling his phone from his pocket, Declan held it up. “Does your mama have a cell?”
Enthusiastically the girl nodded. He turned on the camera and aimed it at her. Shot a picture. Finding it in the gallery, he showed it to the child and she smiled.
“Mama’s number?”
When she frowned Finn brought up the keypad on his phone and showed it to her. “Numbers.”
The girl’s face brightened. She pointed out a number sequence on his cell and Declan tapped them into the screen for the recipient. Then he add added a text to the photo. “I have something of yours. You have something of mine. Call.” He pressed send and got off the floor. Glanced at Kell.
The man looked as frayed as Declan felt. Both paced, nearly bumping into each other in the small area. He’d give the mother ten minutes for a response, Declan thought. Before he’d follow it up with a phone call and voice message.
It took eight minutes for his cell to ring. Seeing the number, he nodded at Kell, and answered it. “We have a problem.”
There was a moment of silence. Then a woman’s voice exploded. “You have a problem if you have hurt An! I called the police! They are on their way to my mother’s house.”
“Good,” he said tightly. “Then you can explain to them why your daughter is wearing my wife’s hair clip.”
There was a hesitation. Then, “Just take it. Take it and go away.”
“I’ll be glad to. As soon as you tell me where I can find my wife.”
“Ah…a man took her. They went to Singapore.”
“We will take An with us while we look. When we find my wife, you get your daughter back.” The girl was staring at him from the couch and he wondered how much English she understood. She was as much a victim in this mess as Royce was. Although they’d make sure no harm came to her, he wasn’t exactly proud of his tactics. He could only imagine what FBI agent Stillions would have to say about them.
But the girl was leverage. And Royce and Eve’s situations were desperate.
“He will kill me.” The woman’s voice was low.
“Who?” Declan searched his memory for the name on Malsovic’s most recent passport. “Simic?”
“Not him. He has brought them to auction.” Her voice was so hushed he had to strain to hear it.
“Tell me where.”
“I told my mother to leave my home immediately with my daughter with the money I’d made today. To keep it safe in case Simic returned there.” The woman’s voice went sly. “There is enough to pay you for my daughter. Name your price.”
Urgency was sprinting up his spine. “Don’t waste my time. My price is my wife. Is your daughter worth it?”
“The Corus Hotel in JB.” The woman sounded defeated. It took him a moment to realize she was talking about Johor Bahru. His stomach plummeted. Three and a half hours back. More if the traffic was bad. “The auction takes place on the ballroom floor. There is high security. Special papers needed. I work for Trettin, but I don’t know how to get you on the list of customers. It is too late.”
“You better hope that’s not true,” Declan replied looking at Kell and Finn. “Because that will mean it’s too late for your daughter, as well.” He was hoping like hell that the woman wouldn’t call his bluff. They held no real advantage when they had no intention of hurting the old woman or girl.
“I will think of something by the time you get here.” He heard the resignation in her words. “Call again when you are thirty miles out. Now let me talk to my mother. I have to explain to her why she will send my daughter with you.”
_______
Eve waited for her turn at the restroom. Royce had been returned to the cage. Kim flicked her a glance and went to the TV. Turned it on and settled into a chair to watch.
She turned to Royce and whispered, “¿Hablas español?”
Surprised, he rolled to look at her. “Un poco.”
Eve smiled, relief filling her. Even if Kim heard them talking, she would be unlikely to understand. Continuing in Spanish, she said, “If you have the chance, run.”
He frowned and she raised her feet a ways in the air. Wiggled them to mime running. He nodded. “Don’t wait for me. Understand? Just go.”
“Bí zui!” Kim scowled over at them. Obediently Eve went quiet until the woman returned to the TV.
“Did you really want to ransom me to my dad?” Royce’s words were in English, and so low they were barely audible.
“No. I am working for him.” The impassive look the boy gave her was heartbreaking. He’d likely heard plenty of lies in the course of the past few days. “There are others here. Declan and Kellan and Finn. All looking for us.”
“You promise?”
She nodded. A part of her was happy to see the hope in the boy’s expres
sion. But there was a darker side that worried about putting it there. She had no doubt that Declan and the others would have found the location device by now. But none of them spoke Chinese, and the old woman hadn’t seemed to speak English. She wouldn’t have been able to tell them where Malsovic had taken his prisoners.
It was over an hour before Kim got up and came to let Eve out of the cage. It wasn’t totally an act when, after being pulled to her feet, she had to lean heavily on the woman. Her legs felt numb. She could only shuffle across the room.
Afterwards, as she walked back toward the kennel, she pretended to stumble. Kim moved closer and Eve rammed her elbow into the woman’s chest with all her strength. Once. Twice. Then lowered her shoulder and drove it into her, knocking Kim hard against the doorjamb. She had a moment’s satisfaction when the woman’s head rapped hard against the jamb.
If she could knock her out, maybe she could get the key to the padlock. Maybe… Eve threw her weight against the woman again, but this time Kim was ready for her. She gave Eve a huge shove, her foot swiping in front of hers. With no way to catch herself, she landed flat on the floor with enough force to drive the breath from her lungs.
Fighting for air, she was dimly aware of the woman’s voice. “She is a trouble maker, that one. I should get more pay to watch her.”
A pair of dark men’s shoes straddled either side of Eve’s face. She closed her eyes in defeat as she heard a familiar voice say, “Fill the bathtub.”
Chapter 15
She’d worn the abaya and niqab on the private ballroom elevator. Kim pushed the luggage cart on which Royce’s kennel had been loaded. Malsovic had brought him a suit with shiny black shoes and a white shirt. Kim had been charged with showering and dressing the boy, a fact Royce had been vocally dissatisfied about.
It was the woman’s turn to be unhappy when she had to tend Eve. She’d taken far more pleasure in the torture Malsovic had engaged in first. He forced Kim to make up Eve’s face to minimize the cuts sustained earlier and to work on her hair. She’d then been dressed in the clothes Malsovic had chosen for her to wear beneath the robe.
