by Elle James
Now, he understood why the ambassador wanted him to follow his daughter around. Did the ambassador even know that his daughter was sneaking around at night? He might have had some inclination to know that he needed to assign a Delta Force soldier to keep up with her. She obviously knew her way around the embassy as well as around the town. She moved quickly and with the assurance of somebody who knew where she was going.
Bull didn’t have time to notify his team. Even if he did, he didn’t know exactly where he was. Thankfully, he still had his cellphone on him and his fake passport. If he needed to, he could get back to the embassy on his own and get inside. If he couldn’t open the hidden gate, he’d have a challenge explaining how he’d gotten out without passing through the guards’ post.
However, his first goal was to catch up with Layla.
Chapter 4
Layla hurried through the streets, hoping she wasn’t too late. She had received the call from Miriam Rogers saying that the transfer had been moved up an hour instead of taking place at midnight. While Miriam was working to find a safehouse and transportation out of the country, someone needed to get their subject out of her current situation before it was too late. With all of her contacts tied up in other efforts, Miriam had called Layla as a last resort.
Layla had known about the operation but had expected somebody else to handle it. She was supposed to have assisted at the safehouse where she was least likely to be exposed or captured.
She hadn’t gone looking to get involved in this whole underground operation. It had more or less fallen in her lap when she’d moved to Turkey with her father. Had she not run into Miriam at a coffee shop, she would’ve gone through her father’s entire assignment blissfully ignorant of what was going on in the city. But now that she knew, she couldn’t just stand back and let it happen. Women were not cattle. They were not meant to be bought, sold and traded like animals. She had entered the scheme thinking that, if she could save only one woman, that was one woman who wouldn’t have to go through the horror of being sold into the sex trade or sold into a marriage she had no desire to be in.
Not only had she helped save one woman, but she’d also helped to save more than a dozen. The women were spirited out of the country and found homes elsewhere in the world, where they could live out their lives as they pleased and not as somebody else forced them.
The coordinator of the effort was Miriam Rogers, who had a network of women spread throughout the city and beyond. She had friends in multiple countries who helped relocate the women when they got them out of Turkey. Her network within the city passed on information about potential human sales or auctions. Miriam sent her people in to recover these people before they were sent to auction or sold. If she were too late for a preemptive move, they mounted surprise attacks as the women were loaded into transport vehicles.
Turkish law did not condone the sale of humans or forcing them into marriages. However, the current administration had a tendency to overlook the rampant trade of female flesh within the country, doing little to stop it or curtail the flow. Miriam and her band of warriors did the best they could to fill in where the government failed.
Layla had huge admiration for Miriam and her cause. Her conversation with Hasan Saka had struck far too close to home. It made her feel like he might know something. That worried her. Why had he come to the US Embassy with the Minister of Justice that night? And why would he pin her down with questions about marriage and arranged marriages? Once she liberated her subject tonight, she’d find time to meet with Miriam and pass on the information about Hasan Saka. Right now, she just wanted to get to the woman being compromised, get her out, and get back to the embassy before she was missed.
Frankly, she was surprised that her current bodyguard hadn’t noticed when she’d left her room. Her other two bodyguards would be on standby at the front entrance of the embassy, which was the only entrance open at this time of night. They’d fall asleep soon, but the front entrance was the only entrance. Layla had discovered the secret passage one day when she’d been in the library searching for a book. She’d been intrigued by the sconce on the wall. When she’d touched it and the bookshelf had moved, her imagination and curiosity had gotten the better of her. She’d followed the passageways all the way to the end in both directions. One led to the rooftop, presumably where a helicopter could lift the ambassador to safety, should the embassy be overrun. The lower route offered a more clandestine escape route, should they need one.
Layla had needed it and used it on many occasions, which frustrated her father to no end. He didn’t know how she was getting out, or how she was getting past her bodyguards.
Following the GPS coordinates she’d been given, she slipped through the streets, clinging to shadows. The fewer people who saw her, the better. Not that they’d recognize her in the hoodie. She’d scrubbed her face free of makeup, in case she was caught. Thanks to her mother’s genetics, Layla looked like any other Turkish woman, and she could speak the language. Her mother had seen to that. If anyone stopped her, she would just say, I’m on my way to see my grandmother who is sick.
She had been stopped one day by a police officer. She’d given that excuse, and he’d bought it, allowing her to pass with a warning that it wasn’t safe for women to travel alone at night. She’d thanked him and moved on.
Now, she was thinking the officer had been right. Several times, she looked back, having the feeling that she was being followed. Occasionally, she heard footsteps, but when she turned, nobody was there. It was an unsettling feeling. If she was being followed and she was attacked, she had in her pocket a small can of mace. It wasn’t much, but it might buy her time to escape if she sprayed it in his eyes. On the other hand, if he was following to see where she was going, that could cause problems in her attempt to liberate the woman targeted to be sold.
She ducked down an alley and zigzagged between buildings, trying to shake her tail, or at least shake that feeling that she was being tailed. She didn’t have much time to get where she was going. Miriam had explained to her that it was a walled-in compound, but that it had a back gate. Unfortunately, it was kept locked.
Earlier that day Miriam’s team had had a truck dump several pallets behind the wall to be used to scale the wall and drop onto the other side. The pallets could be turned sideways and used as a ladder to get over the wall. All she had to do was scale the wall and find the window with the peace sign drawn in the bottom right-hand corner of the glass. The subject would be watching for her. Layla carried a very small flashlight with a red lens. She’d blink that red flashlight three times in a row. The woman was to crawl out her window and follow the flashlight. Layla would help her over the fence, and they’d escape with nobody knowing the better. Until they came to find that the woman had gone.
That was all assuming that she’d reach the house before the men came who were negotiating the sale of the woman with her father. It all sounded pretty easy to her. Timing would be the key.
Layla picked up her pace. When she could hide in the shadows, she ran. Otherwise, she walked fast to keep from drawing unwanted attention from anyone who might be out that late at night. As she neared her location, she studied her surroundings, searching for any vehicles hanging around, any people standing on the streets, or any lights shining from within the house.
Near the front of the house, a light shone through a window from what Layla could see without scaling the wall. She assumed it would be in the front living area where the father waited for the people who would come to claim their purchase.
Layla checked the time on her watch. She had thirty minutes to get this done. She prayed the men who were coming to claim this woman wouldn’t show up any sooner.
The woman’s name was Yara. When she’d been approached by one of the people in Miriam’s network, Yara had had no clue that she was being sold. She couldn’t believe her father would do such a thing. When her father told her he’d arranged a marriage for her, she’d become a believer and had
gotten word to Miriam that she needed out of the country before midnight.
Layla circled to the back of the building, and as expected, she found the pile of pallets. Again, she studied the area before she moved in and quietly layered the pallets, one at a time, making a taller stack so that she could stand on it and look over the edge of the wall. It was dark on the backside of the house. She laid over the top of the wall on her belly, reached down, and grabbed one of the pallets from the stack and pulled it over, easing it down on the other side. Leaning it against the wall would provide just enough of a ladder to get them high enough to where they could pull themselves up over the wall. Sliding over the top, she placed her foot on the top of the pallet and lowered herself down the ladder.
Once inside the wall, she inched around the building, looking for the window with the peace sign. Her heart pounded and her hands grew clammy. Every noise made her jump.
When she found the peace sign, she stood back in the shadows, turned on her flashlight, pointed the red beam at the window and flashed it three times. Then she waited, her heart pounding, her muscles bunched, ready to take flight.
Headlights flashed in the streets in front of the house, and an engine rumbled to a stop. Men’s voices carried to where Layla stood in the yard. Her heart cartwheeled against her ribs. The woman’s transport had arrived. They only had seconds to get Yara out. The window in front of her opened. A young girl’s face appeared, her eyes round and frightened.
“Yara?” Layla whispered.
She nodded.
Layla waved for her to come through the window. The girl looked over her shoulder one last time. Then she stuck one foot out the window, followed by the other, and dropped to the ground. She wore dark pants, a dark shirt, and an equally dark beanie hat on her head. She didn’t look any more than twelve years old.
Anger burned in Layla’s gut. This girl’s father was selling her, a child, and probably didn’t even care where she was going. She could be slated to become some old man’s wife to be used and abused or sold into a sex trade to be treated even worse.
Yara carried a backpack on her back and ran towards Layla.
Layla guided her toward the pallet ladder and urged her to climb up and over the fence. When the girl got to the top of the pallet, she was a too short to reach the top of the fence.
Layla climbed up behind her and gave her a shove, sending her to the top of the wall. The girl slipped over the side and dropped down onto the stack of pallets.
Layla pulled herself up onto the wall and was about to drop down when she heard a shout through the open window of the girl’s bedroom. Lights glared from the window. Men rushed to look out. Before she could slip over the top of the wall, she heard shouts in Turkish.
“Stop him!” they said.
Layla dropped to the ground, grabbed the girl’s hand and ran back the direction she’d come. She rushed for the shadows and ran square into a hard wall of muscle.
Hands grabbed her arms. She struggled to free herself.
“Let me go!” she whispered furiously.
“Not until you tell me what’s going on,” a familiar voice said.
She looked up into the face of her fiancé.
“And who’s this girl?” he demanded.
She shook her head. “No time to explain. We have to get out of here. Now.”
More shouts sounded behind her.
Still, Bull stood stock still. “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”
“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” she whispered. “Those men coming over the wall are going to kill us if we don’t get out of here now.”
His gaze went to the wall. A couple of men had started over the top.
“Okay, come with me.” He took her hand.
With her other hand, Layla held onto the girl, and they ran, ducking between buildings, putting distance between them and the men who gave chase.
When it didn’t appear they’d escape being caught, Bull led them down an alley between two buildings where he found a door. He jiggled the handle. It was locked. He cocked his leg and kicked the door until it opened. Once inside, he shut it. They found themselves in an old warehouse filled with crates and boxes.
“Help me move that crate,” he said. Between him and Layla, they pushed a crate in place, blocking the door.
Bull straightened and spun on his heel. “Now, let’s find our way out the other side.”
They crossed the building, weaving between more crates and boxes, passing a forklift until they reached the other side of the large warehouse. There wasn’t another door on that side, and if they tried to go around the front then they might be seen on the street. The door they had blocked was being rattled at that point, and soon they could hear people banging against it, shoving the crate they’d used to block it out of the way.
“We’re going up,” Bull said, and led them up a metal staircase to the next level of the warehouse in the back. When they reached the top, he entered an office.
All Layla could think was that they were trapped.
Bull crossed the office and shoved a desk out of the way at the back, revealing a window. He opened it and looked out.
“We’re in luck,” he said. “There’s a fire escape out of this window. Let’s go.” He helped the girl through it, and then Layla, and then climbed out on the platform with them. The escape ladder had been pulled up and secured. He found the latch, released it, and pushed the ladder down. Bull went down first, the girl next and Layla last.
Once on the street, they ran again. They continued to run until Layla was positive that they’d lost the men who’d been following them. She slowed to a stop, breathing heavily, the girl beside her bending over to catch her breath.
“Now, maybe you can tell me what’s going on?” Bull demanded.
She shook her head, got out her phone, checked for GPS coordinates of the transfer point and said, “We have to get to this location within the next thirty minutes.”
He shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”
“Fine, then stay here. I’ve got to get the girl to this location in the next thirty minutes.” Layla started out on her own.
Bull caught up and grabbed her arm. “Who’s this girl? What are you doing with her?”
“I’m saving her from a really crappy life,” she said. “Now, you can either help me or get out of my way.”
Bull stepped in front of her. “For all I know you could be kidnapping her. And her father might be calling the police right now to say that his daughter has been stolen from his home.”
“Then perhaps he can explain why he was selling her to the highest bidder, and that bidder was coming tonight. In fact, that’s who’s been chasing us—the men who bought her from her father.”
Bull turned to the girl. “Yara, do you speak English?”
Yara nodded. “I do.” She faced Bull. “Everything she said is true. My father was selling me to those men. He told me it was an arranged marriage.” She snorted. “I heard him talking on the phone. He sold me. It wasn’t an arranged marriage. They were there to pick me up. I didn’t want to go, but my father needed the money to support himself and my little brother. I just couldn’t do it.” Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.
Bull looked from the girl back to Layla and sighed. “My gut tells me that what you’re doing is illegal. And my gut tells me that what her father was doing was even more so. But he could always claim that he wasn’t doing that.”
“But he was,” Yara insisted. “The men came two days ago. They made me strip.” Her voice caught on a sob. “I was ashamed. I could not go with them. I would rather leave my family, leave my country and start over somewhere new, than go with those men.”
“How old are you, Yara?” Bull asked.
She lifted her chin. “I’m eighteen. I look young for my age.”
“Do you have a passport?” he asked.
She shook her hea
d. “My father wouldn’t let me get one.”
Bull looked at Layla. “How do you plan on getting her out of the country without a passport?”
Layla’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t have to worry about that. In fact, you don’t have to worry about us anymore. Go back to the embassy. I’ll return shortly.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. You’re now my responsibility.”
She frowned. “And I can’t take you where I’m going.”
“I guess we have a problem then, don’t we? You won’t go with me, and I won’t let you go without me.”
“And I only have thirty minutes to get this done,” she reminded him.
His jaw firmed. “Then you’re going to have to trust me to go with you.”
“It’s not whether or not I trust you.” Layla stood toe to toe with Bull. “The people who are going to help Yara aren’t going to trust you. They might disappear, and this operation will fall apart. Yara will end up back in her father’s hands and be transferred over to these men who will sell her into some sleazy brothel. I can’t let that happen.”
“I won’t go back,” Yara said. “I’ll find my own way out of the country.” She turned and started to walk away.
“It’s too dangerous to go on your own,” Layla said. “Everything is arranged. We just have to get you to the right place at the right time.” She sighed. “Fine. You can come with us, but when we get close, you’ll have to hang back. I don’t want the people that are taking Yara to get skittish.”
“Lead the way,” he said.
Layla followed the GPS directions, weaving through the streets until she came to the meeting location. She stopped short of the street where she would make the handoff to Miriam’s team. Her people would take Yara to a safehouse, until she could be transported out of the country. Yes, it was illegal as hell, but it saved the women from a life worse than death.
“Is this it? Is this where they’re going to pick her up?” Bull asked. “And who is they?”
