by Ashlee Price
“Well hi there, Mariah. Are you ready to come and play?”
I pushed the man that had touched me away. “I can see that you’re not. Give her some more of that drink. I don’t want her fighting me until we get to the hotel.”
Travis moved closer to me and smiled in my face like a Cheshire cat. “I’d save all of that energy for later, Mariah. You’re going to need it, because I’ve got some big plans for you.”
I wanted to spit in his face, but I wasn’t that stupid. Travis was evil, and even though I had always liked pain, Travis wanted to make marks that would be there for life. He liked the marking more than anything else, and there was going to be no one there to stop him this time. I had already seen what he did to Sasha, and I let myself worry about me for a moment.
When the first guy came towards me with something in his hands, I had every intention of fighting. I was going to scratch his eyes out if he got close to me. No, I wasn’t going to let him get close to me. I just couldn’t. I didn’t want any more of that drug, because I knew that if I had any more I wasn’t going to be able to fight back. And I knew that I was going to have to fight back. Even though Travis liked it, he would leave me no choice.
As the man with the bottle of drugs in his hand got closer, I steeled myself for the fight that would ensue. I was stuck on a plane with them, though. There was literally nowhere for me to go. I had to get out of here, but at the moment all I could think about was staying away from the drink in his hand. At the very least, I wanted my wits about me.
“Don’t come near me with that. Travis! This isn’t necessary.”
I couldn’t see the man, but I heard a voice telling his employee to do it anyway.
“She’s just saying that. Drug her up so I don’t have to tie her up. There will be too much attention given to us if that happens.”
“Sure, boss.”
I was so worried about the man in front of me that I didn’t see the one coming up behind me. I felt his hands move around my neck. He wasn’t even trying to be gentle with me. He just hauled me up where my feet couldn’t touch the ground and pulled me back against his chest. I couldn’t move, and that was the point.
My mouth was snapped shut, but that didn’t last long. When the first man got closer, he just grabbed my jaws and forced my mouth open. I was able to spit out the first bit of vile liquid that went into my mouth, but I wasn’t so lucky the next time. I’d pissed him off and he was even rougher than before. I could feel his fingers biting into my cheeks as I tried to fight him. This time I swallowed. I didn’t have a choice.
Everyone around me was out of breath. I could barely breathe, and I fell to the ground when the guy behind me stopped holding me up. Gasping for breath and clutching my throat, I stared up at him with an evil eye. He just laughed and told me that he was going to have fun with me when the boss was done.
I shivered at his comment, because the reality was a lot closer than I would have liked. I didn’t want to think about that being a possibility, but the fact of the matter was that it was. I had no reason to think that Travis was anything short of a cold-blooded sadist. Why wouldn’t he give me away when he was done? I didn’t even know if I was going to be taken home. I’d heard about Lisa, whoever that was, and I could only imagine what kind of a fate she’d suffered. I don’t even think her dead body would have been safe from monsters like them.
The drug was doing what it was supposed to do. I was starting to feel groggy, and when I tried to get up off the floor, I fell back down with the soft sway of the plane. I didn’t have to know where I was to know that we were a long ways from landing. Travis was taking me somewhere far away. No one was ever going to find me.
Tiredness segued to paranoia, and by the time I closed my eyes for the last time, I was overcome with a sense of doom. I didn’t know where I was going to be when I woke up, and I realized that I didn’t want to. Wherever it was, I wasn’t going to be where I wanted to be. Scott and my place back in New Orleans were the very last things that I thought of before I passed out. I kept thinking about how I was never going to see either of them again.
Chapter 34 – Scott
The plane ride was one of the longest in my life. All I could think about was all of the horrible things that I was sure were going on. I knew Travis too well, and the man had a reputation. It was one that he deserved and worked hard for. It was bad enough to have to deal with him for business, but the very idea that he was with Mariah, my Mariah, was enough to twist my stomach into knots. If something happened to her…
I couldn’t even think that way. If I did, there was no telling what was going to happen to my state of mind. I couldn’t make the plane go any faster, so all of the worry was for nothing.
Instead of driving myself even crazier than I already felt, I decided that the best thing would be to call ahead and see if I could find out where he was. The city was big, and even though there weren’t a lot of Americans there, they were not rare enough that Travis would really stand out. With a man like that, I knew that time was not on my side. There was no telling what he was going to do with her.
It didn’t take long to get in contact with someone who was willing to find out what I needed. I knew that Travis was going to stay at one of the best hotels. The only problem was that Dubai was full of money and there were literally dozens of five-star places. There was not one hotel that stood out among all of the rest. He could be at any of a number of them. That fact didn’t help, so Yousef was going to do some work for me. I promised an amount that was more than enough to give him the proper incentive. I wanted to find her, and the sooner the better. No amount of money would be too much if it meant I could get her out of the clutches of a man like Travis.
We touched down and I went about trying to confirm that Travis was in town. I looked around for his plane and called Yousef to see if he’d done any better while I was in the air.
“I’ve found a couple of places that he could be. Two hotels that have an American by that name registered. It looks like maybe he had rooms booked in two hotels. I don’t know what he’s doing with two.”
I could think of many nefarious things that he could be doing with two rooms. I had a feeling that one of them was to keep Mariah in and the other one was to conduct his real business. I just had to figure out which one Mariah was in and how I was going to get her out of it. Travis wasn’t going to be traveling alone. He’d be surrounded by people who were going to try to keep me from doing what I needed to do.
I told Yousef that I was going to check one out and see if she was there. I didn’t know how I was going to sneak in and find her, but if she wasn’t in one place, she was going to be in the other. It felt like a race against time, and my mind was coming up with a million scenarios that all ended badly. Why couldn’t I think of one where I got there in time?
The car I rented was waiting for me. In fact, everything was just going too smoothly. I’d found her too quickly. I knew that if I wasn’t having trouble now, then there would be problems to come later. That didn’t sit well with me, and it sat even less well that the driver was constantly on the phone and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I kept telling myself that I was just paranoid. Maybe I was, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t right about who the man worked for. Could he work for Travis? Was this all a set-up?
When we got to the first hotel, my heart was pounding out of my chest. Telling the driver to wait, I got out and looked up at the tall building. Everything here was so modern and luxurious. If I wasn’t here to find Mariah, I would have been able to take the time to see all of the beauty around me. Now, it was just an impressive roadblock in my way. That was all I could see it as.
I went to the front desk first, asking around. I told the clerk that I was there to meet one of my business partners. When I gave her Travis’s name, she shook her head and told me that she wouldn’t be able to give me any information. “We only give information to our guests.”
I took that as an opening and booked
a room. Then she gave me the information I needed, and after a little bit of money changed hands she gave me a copy of the key. It was all just too easy. In less than fifteen minutes I was on my way up to the penthouse in search of the woman I loved. If she wasn’t with such a monster I might have felt better, but I couldn’t knowing that Travis was lurking around somewhere.
The elevator dinged and I pushed all of those horrible thoughts from my head. It wasn’t time to wonder. It was a time to find out. I was ready to get her back and get her home safe. She belonged with me. It was just that simple.
I stopped at room P-2. The white door was large, much bigger than the other doors I’d passed on the way to the elevator. I should have known that he would go all the way to the top. I couldn’t imagine him dragging a half-drugged Mariah through the fancy lobby, though. This couldn’t be the place, unless Elie had been telling the truth and she was here of her own volition. I didn’t want to think that was possible, but she did do that for a living.
I was torn at what to do next. Doubt was driving me for a moment, and I had to consider what would happen if she was behind this door and willing to be there. What if I wasn’t saving her at all? Maybe I was just getting in the way and she didn’t need me for anything. That was just as possible as anything else.
Finally I got up the balls to just find out which scenario I was in. I couldn’t stop what was going to happen, but I was here and I was going to find out one way or another. It only occurred to me as I slid the key in the door that I wasn’t as prepared as I should be.
All of the build-up and there was no one on the other side of the door. Even though the room was big, it didn’t take but a moment to see that I was the only one in there. There were a few things on the bed, but that was it. Wherever he had Mariah, it wasn’t here.
Leaving the hotel, I cursed anything and everything that I could think of. Me picking the wrong hotel just gave Mariah more time with Travis. I had to hope and believe that he was at a meeting and that he actually had some work to do as opposed to just bringing her here because it was a country where women’s rights weren’t exactly a big issue.
***
I had Yousef watching the other hotel for me. He had pictures that I’d sent him of Travis and of Mariah. The one of Mariah showed a little too much skin, but I didn’t have a choice. It was the only one I had, save for the one on the website. He was supposed to make sure neither one of them was seen going in or out. If he did see anything like that, he was supposed to give me a call. I called him before I got to the other place to make sure there hadn’t been any movement.
“No, I haven’t seen anyone come or go. I’m watching the front, and it’s the only place to get out of there. Either he’s not there or he hasn’t left.”
“What about the girl? Have you seen the girl?”
Yousef said that he hadn’t seen her and my heart fell a little. I was still holding onto the idea that he was off working somewhere, away from Mariah.
“Thanks, Yousef.”
“Do you want me to come in with you in case you need backup?”
He was a foreigner, but he seemed more than willing to help. He knew the place and all of the police. I might need that, but I didn’t want to draw any more attention. I had already drawn enough calling around about him. I hoped Travis didn’t know I was here, but I wasn’t sure that was the case.
“No, I think I’m going to do this alone. I don’t want to get anyone else involved.”
“You’re not in your part of the world anymore. I know of this man. He does a lot of work here. I’ve seen him before, heard of the things he does. You need some help.”
I should have heeded the man’s warning. I knew that I was out of my element here. I felt that every single moment that I was in Dubai. This wasn’t my town. Here, I didn’t know anyone. It would have been better to take him, but I didn’t know how far I was going to have to go. I might not want a local man there if things went south. Just being associated with me could be bad news for him.
When I told Yousef that I would call him if I had anything else for him, he asked me again if I would like his help. I told him no and waited for a few minutes and a little more advice. The man was almost too helpful. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was paying him so well or if there was another reason he was being this way. Somehow I didn’t think he genuinely wanted to help me, but I was suspicious of everyone right about now.
I worried that I’d picked the wrong man to figure things out for me, but no matter what his reasons were, he was efficient if nothing else. If I found out that he wasn’t trying to screw me over in one way or another, I was going to make sure that he got a bonus. I wouldn’t know until I went in there if it was a set-up or not.
My hesitation was only momentary. It didn’t matter if it was a set-up. It didn’t matter if Elie had warned him that I was coming and Yousef was working with him. All that mattered was that Mariah was somewhere in this hotel and I was going to find her. It already felt like the type of place that Travis would take her. It felt creepy, just like the man, and I had to wonder who else was there with him.
The hotel was not nearly as big as the first one. I’d come to the conclusion that the first place was his showroom for whatever business he had. It was the type of place that a man of his standing would stay. This place in front of me was more like the club. It didn’t look sleazy from the outside, but there was a feeling that something just wasn’t right. It could have been me, of course, but the boarded-up window on the third floor and the general feeling that it needed some upkeep supported my impression. I was willing to bet that Mariah could have been tied up and carted in and no one would have batted an eye. It seemed that everywhere in the world had seedy places like this, and of course a man like Travis would be drawn to them all.
As I walked through the lobby, a clerk buttonholed me and asked where I was going.
“I’m here to see a friend.”
“Who?”
I gave him Travis’s name and the room number he was supposed to be in. That information had been given over the phone, so to be stopped now in the lobby didn’t seem to add up.
“I’ll call his room for you, sir.”
“No, it’s okay. I would like to surprise him. He doesn’t know that I’m in the city, and I want to see his face when he opens the door.”
I made out like we were good friends who hadn’t seen each other for a while. I embellished where I had to, and it wasn’t long until he was willing to help me with my game. He felt included, and I felt closer to finding Mariah.
Once again, Travis had sprung for the best place in the hotel, although the rooms were closer together and no doubt not nearly as luxurious as in the last place. With the line that I’d given the man behind the desk, it was going to be hard to get into the room. I didn’t have a key this time, but I hoped that the doors were old enough that a credit card would do the trick. It had been a while since I’d had to open a door that wasn’t open to me. It had been even longer since a door wasn’t opened to me.
I was out of my element. I wasn’t a spy. I made money. That’s what I did. The club had been an outlet. Now it was the one thing standing between me and the woman of my dreams. I didn’t care what she did for a living. It really didn’t matter to me. What mattered to me was that I found her safe.
The door stood in front of me. I thought about knocking, but the lock did look old enough to slide a card through. It didn’t take long to pop the lock and for the door to open up. The room was dark and there wasn’t any noise except for the sound of soft conversation. It took only a minute to realize that it was not people talking but the television inside of the room making the noise.
As I walked in, there was a half wall blocking out the soft glow from the set. The light illuminated the girl on the bed. I waited a heartbeat before I moved towards her. I was waiting for someone to come out with a gun or jump from the bathroom, whose door was slightly ajar. But no one came. For a girl that he would have paid highly
for, it seemed strange to just leave her like this. Unless she wanted to stay and he wasn’t worried about her leaving. Why was that somehow worse to me than her being dragged all the way across the world against her will?
I called her name softly and waited another few seconds before I walked closer to the bed. Every hair on the back of my neck was standing up. I was braced for whatever was going to come. When nothing happened it was kind of a let-down.
When I got closer, relief washed over me. She was untouched as far as her face. There wasn’t a mark on her, and if there was a chance that she hadn’t had to be with him yet, this was all worth it. Even if he had touched her, it didn’t matter. She was okay and right in front of me.
“Mariah?”
I was talking a little louder, but still not using my full voice. It didn’t matter, though. She wasn’t waking up. Finally I moved to touch her and shake her. Mariah wasn’t coming to. A panic went through me. I think for a moment I thought she was gone, but she made a little noise that calmed me down.
“Are you okay, Mariah?”
Her face was turned towards me, but I could tell that she wasn’t with it. It reminded me of how she’d been when I’d gotten her at the auction. She’d been drugged again, and the symptoms were too much like before to be coincidence. This was Elie, I knew it. Had he given a week’s supply to Travis to keep her quiet and complacent? The idea made me angry, but I knew that it might have saved her. All I had to do was get her out of here without being stopped. I didn’t know how I was going to explain it. It was one thing to let the media get wind of me at the auction. It was another thing altogether to get caught with a drugged-up girl.
The hotel was not the nicest, but I didn’t really have a choice. I got a room on the same floor, and instead of running away with her, I just took her down the hallway. I didn’t think she was ready to move, and I had something else that I had to take care of. I needed to make sure that Travis didn’t come for Mariah again. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I knew that I was going to have to show that man a thing or two. Men like him never stopped until they were stopped. It wasn’t something that he was going to change on his own.
