by Dale Mayer
She nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
“It could get pretty hairy,” he said.
“Got it,” she said. “But I still don’t understand how you plan on tracking down the twins.”
“We’re still figuring that out,” he said. “The problem is, they can be anywhere. We need to locate the vehicle that we suspect took them out of here.”
“But they stopped the videos at the same time, like you guys did?”
“Absolutely. But the city cameras are a different story. I doubt they shut all those down.”
Her mouth formed an O as she stared at him in surprise; then she nodded. “Of course. A city like this, cameras are all over the place.”
“Exactly,” he said.
She went back to select more food, while he quickly devoured his.
“What’s likely to be the twins’ reaction when they wake up from something like this?”
“Panic,” she said. “Crying, wailing, potentially sitting and rocking in place. Depends on how bad the circumstances are.”
“So what’s the easiest way to deal with them?”
She winced. “Honestly? Probably drugging them.”
“That makes sense.” He frowned, nodded, and asked, “Do they handle drugs well?”
She shrugged and said, “They have been on and off medications for years without any noticeable effects. But, if the kidnappers have a doctor with the twins, it’ll probably be okay.”
“Good,” he said.
“So it’ll take all three of us then to wrangle the twins?” Ryker asked. “Size and weight?” He looked at Mickie.
“The twins are five-eleven and 125 pounds. Very willowy and obviously very beautiful.”
“Were there ever any security issues before?”
“Once,” she said. “Somebody thought the twins shouldn’t be modeling but should grace his house instead.”
“And, of course, the twins didn’t think much of that, did they?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know the details. You should ask Chandra about that.”
Immediately he picked up the phone and made the call. But Chandra was asleep, and the man who answered wouldn’t wake her.
In a hard voice Asher said, “That’s fine, but I want the details of a scenario that Mickie just mentioned. And I want answers in five minutes.” Not believing that he’d get them, he quickly put Beau on it as well in the chat box again. That was the good thing about the chat window. Beau had men on the other end, so one person could be working on one request, and another could be working on the other. Beau came back fast.
They were escorted from a modeling shoot and taken to his house, where the Spanish-speaking owner wanted them to stay as his guests, Beau typed.
Kidnapped then?
Persuaded, Beau added. No charges were ever pressed. He apologized profusely to Chandra and said that he was just bowled over by the twins’ beauty.
And yet, given their vulnerable state and position in society, Asher typed, then persuasion is not exactly the right word.
No. Chandra did let law enforcement in Spain know at the time, but this man was a wealthy patron, so it was all brushed under the carpet.
“I wonder if there’s any chance that he’s popped his head back up again?” Asher muttered. Check out where he’s at and what he’s up to, please, he typed in.
We have, and he’s clear, safe at home and more interested in other guests.
At that, Asher refilled his bowl with noodles and quickly plowed through them. He loved Asian food at the best of times, but, when actually in China and getting the real thing, it was hard to not just sit here and take time to enjoy it. But it was time they didn’t have.
Asher wanted a possible location to check out tonight, and he wanted it fast. Beau came back a few moments later and typed, We picked up the white van heading toward one of the northern suburbs.
Did you run down the license plate?
Yes, it’s a rental. We got a facial match and have the two men’s names.
The names didn’t mean anything to Asher or Ryker or Mickie.
I’ll pass it on to Chandra and ask if she knows them.
He quickly made that phone call. The guy who answered on the other end snapped, “She’s still not awake. I still don’t have the answer for you.”
“Do you know these two men?” Asher rattled off their names.
“No,” the guard said. “Who are they?”
“Potentially the driver and the passenger of the vehicle that carried away the twins.”
The guard’s breath sucked back tight against his throat.
Asher nodded on the other end. “Exactly. Now’s the time to wake her.” And he hung up.
Chapter 6
Mickie sat in the corner; watching the men work was astonishing. They made phone calls, placed orders, mapped out routes, and basically tracked anything and everything they wanted in life. “Do you have unlimited permission to do this?”
Asher shot her a hard look. “You’d be grateful for this if you were the kidnappee.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “You’re right. I never really expected to see this behind-the-scenes work. I’ve never seen you in action before.”
He quirked his lips at her but stayed quiet.
Of course, she had seen him in action. Just a different kind of action. And he was just as good at that as he was here right now with this. Disturbed by the memory, she got up, walked around, noting two beds here and a connecting door. She walked to the connecting door and saw two more beds on the other side and asked, “Which bed is mine?”
“Take one on either side,” Asher said. “We’ll wake you if it’s important.”
She hesitated and asked, “But will you wake me if you leave?”
“I’ll wake you if we both leave,” he said as a half-measure. “Will that work?”
She frowned and then nodded. “I guess I don’t need to go with you on every field trip of yours, provided you don’t think the twins will be at the end destination.”
“We won’t know that,” he said.
“Then I need to come with you all the time,” she said. “If the twins are drugged, it won’t be too bad, but if they aren’t … If you need things to happen quietly, then I better come with you.”
“Do they care about you that much?”
“I don’t know about that. But I’ll be that balance, that rock that they need to latch on to,” she said firmly. “And, as a nurse, I can also regulate their health coming out of a medicated state. I have some medications for them as well, not to mention insulin.”
“We’ll consider it,” he said, and he dropped his gaze to the laptop again.
She hated that about him. He’d always had such an ability to detach from her and to focus on what was going on around him. Of course, it was ideal for the work he did. He was here to save the twins, and that’s what she wanted first and foremost. She had no business complaining.
She just couldn’t believe any of this crap about forcing Chandra to plan some woman’s wedding. None of that part made any sense. And yet, who knew? She didn’t like most people to begin with, and she certainly understood that some brides-to-be were absolute nightmares. But this? It sounded more like revenge, manipulation-control. As if this wasn’t as much about the ransom money but more about getting a service. Like, a one-million-dollar rushed wedding for free and a five-million-dollar fine.
That just didn’t sit right, but it was also just believable enough that they couldn’t dismiss it. As she lay on the bed atop the covers and crossed her fingers over her belly, she wondered how Chandra was coping. Did her son know what was going on? Mickie had met him, but it hadn’t been pleasant. Plus, she had been privy to a few moments watching him with the staff and even his relations.
He was the epitome of the rich condescending self-entitled male, feeling his patriarchal duty to ignore women, even megawealthy ones. Did he have anything to do with the twins? Did he care, or would he just close the door o
n this whole scenario? She half suspected that’s what would happen. When her phone rang a few minutes later, she wasn’t at all surprised to see it was Chandra.
“Have they found anything?”
“The vehicle that the twins may have been taken in,” Mickie stressed. “Asher is tracking it online throughout Shanghai to a northern suburb.”
“Why aren’t they on the road after it already?” Chandra cried out.
“First off,” Mickie said, “I’m not part of their inner workings. They will tell me when they have a plan, but, until then, they’re still pulling all the pieces together. Second, they just arrived, Chandra. Give them some time.”
“I don’t think I like them,” Chandra said, her voice tremulous.
“You don’t have to like them,” Mickie said gently. “You just must let them do their job.”
“It’s been almost two full days,” Chandra snapped.
“I know,” Mickie said. “I was there too. Remember?”
“I’m so sorry,” Chandra said. “I never meant to put you in any danger. I didn’t think something like this would happen. It’s been so long since anything bad had happened. Who would have thought this?”
“Well, you need to give the men the details about what happened before, when that man in Spain kidnapped the twins,” Mickie said. “These men can’t operate if they don’t have all the information necessary.”
“It was so long ago,” she said sadly. “I hate to dredge it all up again.”
“And what if it’s the same guy? What if he’s just waited for another opportunity to grab them again?”
“I doubt it,” Chandra said. Then she groaned. “Fine. Put Asher on the phone, please?”
Mickie got up off the bed, walked into the other room, and held her phone out to Asher. “It’s Chandra. She wants to talk to you.”
At that point in time, she collapsed beside Ryker, who was busy working on his laptop. “You guys heading out tonight?” Mickie asked in a low voice.
“As soon as we can pinpoint a possible location of the twins, yes,” he said. “Did you get any sleep?”
“No,” she said. “My mind is too overwhelmed.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but you need to be aware and awake before we head out.”
“How much longer do we have before we leave?”
“Well, we’re hoping to be on the road no later than one a.m., to make the best use of the nighttime hours.”
She groaned. “Fine. I’ll head back and try to sleep.”
Just then Asher finished the call and held up her phone. “You’ve got three hours, and then we’re leaving.”
And, with that, he went back to his laptop.
Asher was ready at a quarter to nine. With the checks all done, and everything packed up and ready to go, he walked to the door between the two hotel rooms and studied her sleeping form. He wanted to leave her where she was, where she was safe, but he also knew that, if there was a problem with the twins, Mickie could be instrumental in keeping them quiet as he and Ryker got them safely away.
Seeing Mickie like this … brought back so many memories. She always slept curled up in a tight ball. He used to wrap himself around her and hold her protectively at night.
Just then her sleepy voice whispered, “Is it time?”
And it was like an arrow to his groin. That same sleepy voice awash with dreams, and yet, soaked with sex appeal. He shook his head, trying to send everything out of his mind again. “Yes, it is,” he said. “Time to go. Get dressed. We’re leaving in five.”
She threw back the bedcovers while he watched; then she got up and bolted into the bathroom. She wore just a T-shirt over her underclothes, and he knew that she’d be ready to go within a few minutes. He hated to even take her. He’d much rather leave her where she would be safe, and he wouldn’t worry about watching out for her. He was hyperaware of her every movement. Something he hadn’t expected.
But, if she would be of any help with the twins, then he would use her. The twins themselves could be in tough shape and might need medical attention. Maybe Mickie was right. If the twins saw her, they might calm down. It’d be easier to get them moved about. He didn’t know what kind of reaction they would have in a dangerous situation. Some women couldn’t stop freaking out and crying, and he’d been forced to knock them out in order to get them to safety. And others went along, silent and frozen, following orders like automatons—and not just the women. Men were the same.
While Asher waited at the connecting doorway, she came out of the bathroom and quickly dressed, throwing her jeans on this time. She now had socks and sneakers on too. “Am I bringing my bags?” He hesitated. She nodded, picked up her purse that doubled as her medic bag, with all the valuables she had in it, and said, “If we come back, fine. Otherwise, there’s nothing in my other bags I need. I’ll keep this bag with me. I’ve already packed up enough for a few days.”
He smiled at her, appreciating her understanding. “I don’t know how fast we’ll be moving.”
“Understood,” she said. She put the big tote purse over her shoulder and said, “Let’s go.”
He led the way out, and, instead of the elevator, they used the stairs and slipped all the way down to the ground floor. There, as they walked out toward the entrance, Ryker drove up beside them once again. She got in the back. “You guys move so quietly,” she said as she stared out at the night. “It’s like you live in some sort of shadowland.”
“We do,” Ryker said quietly. “Most of the work we do is in the dark.”
She nodded.
They exited the hotel underground parking lot, moving at speeds she wouldn’t normally be traveling, staring at the streetlights all around her.
Asher watched her face for a while, looking for some reaction, but she just seemed to be taking it all in. Finally he faced Ryker and asked, “Any update?”
“No,” Ryker said. “We have what we have right now.”
“Good,” he said. “Let’s go.” They raced across town, but even Shanghai was busy at night. Not as bad as during the day, but plenty of people moved even now. Driving as fast as they could, they headed toward the GPS location Asher had on his laptop screen.
When the vehicle rolled to a stop, their destination was a small run-down house. Asher got out of the car, leaving Ryker and Mickie behind, and approached from the left. He walked all around the outside, doing a full check, and saw nothing except a single light on downstairs. The rest of the house was dark.
He returned to the car, quietly opened her car door, and murmured to Mickie, “Do the twins need to sleep with the lights on?”
“Yes,” she said. She peered at the house beside them and said, “They always need one light left on.”
“That’s good to know,” Ryker said.
“I’ll check it out. You keep her here.” Asher quietly closed the car door and disappeared down the block. He circled back around from the far side and then came up between the two houses. It was a country area with not too much in motion. A few dogs could be heard in the distance. The house in question was dark on the side, and a window was partially open; a car was in the driveway. He opened it, front and back, but it was empty. The house was next. He swooped around to the back and slipped inside the open window.
As he walked across the bare floor, he heard crying on the other side of a wall. And then a man saying, “Just shut up.” Instead the sobbing continued. Asher frowned. A woman crying didn’t mean it was one of the two he was looking for. And, if it was one of the twins, where was the other one?
He hadn’t considered that the kidnappers would split them up. Surely that would make the twins harder to control. He quietly turned the knob and pulled the door open toward him. But the noises were deeper inside the house. He walked closer, knowing that he was trespassing on what could be a completely innocent husband-and-wife argument.
Asher heard the sound of a door slamming, and a man swearing and cussing in a language Asher didn’t recognize. He quickly
stepped into and around a corner and waited for the man to rush past him. As soon as he was upstairs, Asher swept through to the door and found it locked. He quickly unlocked it and pushed it open enough to stick his head around the corner. He found one woman, but not the one he expected. He bent down at her side. “Are you all right?”
She stared up at him and frowned. “Who are you?”
“I’m looking for the twins,” he said.
She clapped a hand over her mouth and stared at him, her eyes wide.
He nodded. “Do you know where they are?” Her gaze went to the door, and he realized that she was likely terrified the other man would come back. “Are they here?”
She hesitated and then shook her head.
“Do you know where they are?”
She gave a tiny shrug of her shoulders.
He settled back and asked, “Are you a prisoner here?”
She nodded, and he asked, “Do you want your freedom?”
Instantly her head bobbed up and down.
He helped her to her feet and out the bedroom door, and then he lifted her up so she could escape through the window. He followed her outside. As soon as they were free and clear, several houses away, he asked, “Do you know anything about the twins?”
“That’s why he’s angry at me,” she whispered. “I’m a nurse’s aide, and one of them was having a bad attack, but I didn’t know what was wrong.”
“Did they take the twins away from here?”
She nodded. “To a private hospital. But I don’t know if they’re still there now.”
“Are the twins okay?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I think one, maybe both, had a diabetic low.”
“Do you know where the private hospital is?” he asked. “I’m here on their mother’s request.”
Her jaw dropped in an instant. “Really?” She looked back at the house. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“They were kidnapped, and the mother is being blackmailed,” he snapped. “I need details.” He ushered her across the road to the car. He quickly pushed her into the back seat beside Mickie. When he got in, he turned and said, “She was looking after the twins until one had a bad attack.”
