Her Daring SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 5) (12 page)

“But ma’am, Mr. Klein said we’d be moving them again tomorrow.”

“Well Mr. Klein isn’t in charge anymore, is he?” she said sarcastically.  She took another hasty drink of her water as bile rose in her throat.

“I think the women should bury Klein,” Howard started.

“Huan, there’s a gun down in the cellar, would you please go get it?” Rylie asked the man.  She watched as he went down to get the weapon.  When he reappeared, he handed her the gun, and she turned to Howard.

“Why must we always have a pissing match about my orders?  I said you and Huan were going to do the burying.  I can’t have these girls with calluses on their hands.”

She turned to the girls, who were finishing their food.  She saw two squirming and knew they needed the facilities.  Damn, a couple of them didn’t even have shoes. 
What in the hell had gone wrong in the last few days?  How could she have let Ursula die? Calm down, Rylie, maybe she’s still alive,
she told herself.

“I’ll make sure everything is taken care of Ms. Hessman,” Huan told her before she left. 

“Follow me,” she motioned to the girls. 

The two girls who needed the bathroom practically ran to the house.  The others took a little longer, carrying the garbage from their meal.

The farmhouse was large, and she asked the women to congregate in the living room.  Finally, everyone was settled.

“I need you to listen to me.  Who can translate?”  She knew only about half of them spoke English, the rest spoke Ukrainian or Russian.  Two hands popped up, one being Ophelia.  “Fine.”

“First.  You’ll be staying here at the house for the next six days.”  She waited until the words were translated.  She saw looks of relief pass over their faces.

“Next, I have clothes, food and mattresses being brought.  Is there anything else you need?  Medicine?  Anything else?”

Ophelia asked for aspirin and hygiene products.  Rylie kicked herself she should have thought of that.  “Can you make a list in English?”

“Yes,” Ophelia answered.

“I’m going to see about having Huan stay with you.”

“Can’t you stay,” Ekaterina asked with a thick accent.

“No, I can’t.”  Rylie kept her voice firm and business-like.  She saw a couple of the girls shut-down. 
So be it.

“You killed Klein.  You killed him for us,” Ekaterina said.

“No, he was going to kill her, you dumb cow,” the older woman said.

“Stop!  Do not question me.  Klein needed to die.  I am in charge.  You all belong to me and Albert Liu.  You are our property.  If you want to be treated well, you better remember that.”  There was dead silence.

“Translate what I just said,” Rylie commanded.

She watched as her words were translated, and all hope left the faces of the females in the room. 

“I will stay until tomorrow morning, to make sure you have everything you need, and we have the people here to make sure you don’t escape.  If you try to escape, you will be punished.  Remember, you will not like it if you make me angry.”  She took the time to look into the face of each and every woman and girl in the room.  “Now, Ophelia, tell me everything that happened the day Ursula disappeared.  Don’t leave out a single detail.”

It had occurred to Rylie that Howard should be used to digging graves, all things considered.  The fact he wasn’t meant maybe Ursula was still alive.

***

D
arius put on his jeans and hiking boots, and meandered around the property.  About fifty yards from the house, he was pretty sure he found the last of the motion detectors.  The last video camera had been twenty-five meters from the house.  He checked his watch.  He had three hours before he needed to be at dinner.  If he ran at a pretty good clip, he would be able to get to the north side of the island and back.  He’d stay in the woods, out of sight because he was sure as shit sure there were fucking buildings and something going on over there.  He’d prefer to do it during the daylight hours first, then take a more leisurely perusal tonight of whatever they were hiding.

Darius jogged slowly for another hundred meters past the last motion detector, then he started at a training speed.  Even though he had a goal in mind, he couldn’t get over the beauty of the forest.  There was something positively primeval about the place.  And all that green, with the sun filtering through the trees made everything surreal.  He saw glints of white, purple and pink flowers on the forest floor interspersed by ferns the size of boulders.  Darius easily hurdled tree trunks that had to have been there for a hundred years.  It was eerie.  It was beautiful.

After an hour, he was breathing hard, and he saw bright sunlight ahead.  He slowed down, knowing he was coming up to a clearing.  He considered all of his options and grinned.  He creeped forward, and finally saw what he was looking for.  He started climbing the perfect tree.  When he got high enough, he was able to scope out the three buildings below.  He’d packed mini-binoculars and saw that two of the buildings looked like cabins.  Both had bars on the windows. 
Real welcoming.

The third building wasn’t a cabin.  It looked a lot more modern.  Looked like some kind of office building.  He’d have to get a closer look.  He sat there in the tree for almost an hour, scoping out the security measures.  Except for the bars on the windows and the locks on the cabin doors, he couldn’t see any.  It was like they expected no one to come to this side of the island.  Still, he would be cautious going in tonight, he found that usually paid off.  He looked at his watch.  He wanted to get back to the room in time to get another report from Clint before he joined Albert and Brandon for dinner.

***

“W
hat the fuck do you mean there was a dead man being buried?” Darius said in a harsh whisper.

“Calm down, Dare.”

“You tell me Rylie was limping and looks like she’d been in a fight, and there is somebody dead, and you want me to calm down?”  It was a fight for Darius to keep his voice down.

“Obviously, she took care of herself.  We knew she could,” Lydia said in a soothing voice.

“Don’t try to handle me, Lydia,” Darius said through gritted teeth.  “Where the fuck were Drake and Finn?”

“This is an undercover operation.  They couldn’t very well waltz on in, now could they?” Clint asked reasonably.  But Darius was past the point of reason.  If somebody ended up dead, that meant that it could just as easily have been Rylie.

“I want you to have Drake and Finn get her and take her home to Oklahoma right now.  I’ll handle it from here on out.” 

“You’re talking out your ass,” Clint insisted.

“Do it.”

“No,” Lydia’s voice could cut steel.

“Fine, I’m calling them,” Darius threatened.

“You won’t do it.  You feel just as strongly as she does that Albert Liu and those fucking buyers need to be put away or just put down.  You won’t endanger this operation.” Lydia argued.

“If it means saving her life, I will.”

“It was a one off,” Clint pointed out.  “Lydia’s right, she took care of it, and according to Drake, she has the girls in a better spot.  Remember the barn I told you about?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Finn went and checked it out.  They’d been forced to live in the root cellar, it was no more than twenty by twenty feet, and he said there were sixteen girls.  He said it stank to high heaven.  They had two buckets to do their business.  It was worse than anything he’d ever seen before, and we’ve seen the worst.”

Darius stopped himself from saying anything else, contemplating what his friend had told him.

“Think about it, Dare,” Lydia went on.  “Rylie saved them from that.  She got them out, and now they are staying at the farmhouse.  They are warm and in a house.  She did that for them.  She’s going to save them from that kind of horror going forward.  She’s going to stop the monsters who did that to them.”

“She almost died,” Darius breathed out.

“But she didn’t,” Clint said.

“Drake and Finn had better stay closer.”

“They promise they will.  As a matter of fact, Finn had an idea.  Don’t ask me how in the fuck he has managed it, but he is now one of the guys who is guarding the girls.”

“What?”

“Yeah, apparently Rylie demanded they find and hire guys to guard the girls now they moved them to the farmhouse.  When one of the guys was driving to the property, Finn and Drake intercepted him.  They gently questioned him.”  Darius snorted.

“Anyway, he was truly hired help who nobody knew face-to-face, so Finn took his place.  He’s now a guard.”

“Un-fucking-believable.  I love Finn.”

“I thought you loved Clint?” Lydia teased.

“Today my crush is on Finn.”

***

R
ylie couldn’t believe her eyes.  One of the guys who was here to guard the girls looked exactly like Finn Crandall, except he had cold dead eyes.  He looked much scarier than Klein had looked.  Even Howard had stepped back when he’d first arrived.

Howard’s brother Mike stepped up to introduce him to everyone.

“Howard, this is Tibbs.  He’s a good man.  My old boss recommended him, said we could totally rely on him for any kind of work that came up.  Like the stuff you told me today.”  Howard held out his hand, and Tibbs just looked at it.  Finally, Howard pulled it back.

“Look, Tibbs, you better understand Huan here is the boss for the next six days,” he jerked his thumb towards Huan.  “But we all take orders from this woman, Ms. Hessman.”  Rylie walked up to Tibbs and held out her hand.  Tibbs shook it and fingered her bracelet.

Fuck, it was Finn!

“I expect the girls to be protected and treated well.  Is that understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Rylie couldn’t believe the level of relief she felt.  Knowing the girls would be watched over by Finn almost brought tears to her eyes.  She turned to Howard. 

“I’ve met your cousin, now introduce me to the others.”

He introduced her to four other men.  She was satisfied none of the girls would be able to escape. 

“Look, it’s past midnight, work out your guard schedules.”

“Keep watch, ma’am,” Finn corrected.  “We call it keeping watch.”

Rylie lifted an eyebrow.  “Whatever,” she called over her shoulder as she walked back in to the farmhouse.  Ophelia was waiting for her in the kitchen.

“Is Ursula alive?” Ophelia asked baldly.

“I don’t know.”

“Can you know?”

“I will try to find out Ophelia.  In the meantime, I need you to take care of the girls.  Don’t let them do anything stupid.  If the men try to hurt them, talk to Huan or talk to one of the men called Tibbs.”

“Are you bad?”

“Yes, I’m a very bad person.”  Rylie looked the young woman dead in the eye.  “Never think I’m good.  I’m going to sell you.”  Ophelia walked up to her and hugged her.

Fuck!

***

D
inner took so long, Darius thought his legs would go numb, his mind certainly had.  Brandon was stoned out of his mind.  Albert had allowed the man to blather on about a band he had played in when he had been in college.  It had been excruciating to listen to.  A country cover band.  Darius liked Pink Floyd.  At one point, Albert had suggested Brandon play some songs on the baby grand piano.  Darius had no idea what songs he played, only that they were about trucks, and dogs, and girls, and trucks.  The cherry on top was Brandon couldn’t carry a tune.  Darius had kept checking to see if his ears were bleeding.

He got to his room, made sure it was secure and checked in.

“You don’t sound so good, last time we talked you were giddy and in love with Finn,” Lydia said.

“I had to listen to country music,” Darius groused.

“You are fucked up man.  If I have to hear Wish You Were Here one more time when I’m driving with you, I will stick a fork in my eye,” Clint complained.  “Seriously man, you need to get with the times and listen to Blake, Luke, and Carrie.”

“Over my dead body.”

“Rylie’s from Oklahoma,” Lydia chimed in.  “This will probably be a deal breaker.” 

“Ah fuck me.” Darius hadn’t even considered that.  He hadn’t considered he’d be stuck listening to country music.  Still, she kissed like a dream.

“So what do you have to report?” Clint asked.  “Have you done more reconnaissance?

“No, I wanted a report.”

“Rylie and Finn have met.  Rylie recognized him,” Clint explained.

“What about Drake, what’s he doing?”

“He’s still keeping watch.  Rylie’s in the farmhouse with the girls.”

“Okay, that’s good.” Darius was relieved.  “I’m going to give it a couple of hours, then go for another hike.”

“Let us know what you find out.”

“Speaking of which, what have you found out about Rylie’s sister? Do you have the intel for me yet?”

“It’s coming together,” Lydia answered.  “We’ll have everything for you tomorrow.  We’ve also been tracking Liu’s uncle, he should there in two days.  Be careful tonight.”

“I will, Lydia.” Darius hung up and settled in for a couple hours of shut-eye.  Unfortunately, all he managed was the light soldier sleep because he kept imagining what could have happened to Rylie in the barn.  He hated she went to Victoria without him.  He tried to persevere with his rest, knowing his body needed it before another run through the forest.  Finally, his phone beeped, and he got up and put on dark clothes and boots. 

He’d checked out the best way to leave earlier.  It was over the balcony, then descending to the shadowed corner of the lower balcony, and jumping to the patio from there.  As soon as he got to the yard, he rubbed dirt on his face and hands, so his skin wouldn’t be seen in the dark.  He made his way carefully past the house perimeter, avoiding all detectors he had made note of earlier. It took him a half hour to get to the forest, secure in the knowledge he hadn’t been seen.

The forest was dark, but his night vision was pretty good.  Still, Darius longed for night vision goggles.  He couldn’t move nearly as fast tonight.  It reminded him of the five-day hike through the jungle when they rescued Lydia and her family from the Mexican drug cartel.

“Well at least it isn’t raining,” he said to the trees.