Feeling something land against her back a few minutes later, she rubbed it, and her fingers found a rock.
She froze, shuffled ever-so-slightly so that she sat sideways, staring in the opposite direction, down the hill with Jessie at her back, and then Brenna snuck a glance behind her. Something had kicked a rock her way. Had it been thrown? Had it been deliberate? She was desperate for it to have been for any of the good reasons but was terrified if it was for any of the bad. She didn’t see anything in the darkness and slowly relaxed again. The guard walked around, and she ignored him. If she ignored him, maybe he would ignore her.
Finally he went back to his station at the gate and turned to watch the goings-on below them. Even if she asked what was going on, he couldn’t explain to her because he didn’t speak English, or at least he wasn’t letting her know if he spoke any English. And she doubted that she mattered enough for any gunman here to talk to her.
As soon as the guard was gone again, another rock hit her on the shoulder. She immediately turned and studied the area around her. That she couldn’t see anything was the problem. No light was in the sky tonight. The moon was dark and made it so hard to see anything. Just this sticky soupiness in front of her. As she sat here, another rock hit her.
Finally she picked up the rock and threw it backward. If somebody were there, then at least they would know that she had noticed. But if they weren’t there, they could damn well stop throwing rocks at her. Even that logic was so convoluted she wanted to laugh, but she knew any hilarity would come out completely hysterical.
Instead she groaned and dropped her head onto her knees and just rocked in place. Hearing a different movement, she looked over and watched as the guard stepped away a few feet. He spoke to several other men, and they gestured at the water below them. The guard moved toward the mess going on down below.
She watched, trying to figure out just what was happening. And a hand snaked around through the wooden posts and clapped over her mouth. She froze, her eyes pure white in the darkness.
She heard a voice that she recognized, or thought maybe she recognized, as the man whispered in her ear, “Close your eyes. Stay calm. This is a rescue.”
She immediately stiffened and then sagged in place. A rescue? Who? And did she dare believe them? She had seen all kinds of shenanigans going on here and didn’t trust any of the guards or any of the people who had come with any of the women. It seemed like anybody would cheerfully slice the other’s throat to take over their captives.
As she sat here with this hand over her mouth, she wondered about the closed eyes order, when he whispered again in her ear, “Close your eyes. They’ll think you’re sleeping. The whites of your eyes shine in the darkness.”
She gave an ever-so-slight nod and slammed her eyes shut.
His hand eased back, and he asked, “You’ll stay quiet?” She nodded again. “There’s room for you to slide through the fence slats,” he said. “Can you do that?” She shook her head. “Why not?”
In as low a voice as she could, she whispered, “All these women need to go too.”
“They will,” he said, “but it’ll take us a little bit longer.”
She thought she recognized the voice but just something about it was very different. She shook her head. “I can’t leave them.”
“That’s good news,” he said, “but you’re just making it more difficult.”
She shook her head again, but she reached down with her left hand and squeezed Jessie’s shoulder hard. Jessie shifted back and up, looking at her. “What’s the matter?” And she pointed behind her. Jessie turned ever-so-slightly, and her eyes widened, and her mouth opened up. But Brenna slapped her hand over Jessie’s mouth. Brenna just stared at her, their eyes white, staring at each other.
Jessie leaned forward and whispered, “Who is it?”
“US SEALs,” she said.
At that, Jessie’s eyes opened wide in joy.
Brenna shook her head. “We’re not safe. Hang on. It’s … It’ll get ugly.”
With more understanding than she’d expected, Jessie immediately nodded, looked back at whomever was behind Brenna, and asked, “What do you want us to do?”
“I need you to slip through the wood railing here, so that we can pull you up and off to another area, where we can defend you.”
“But all these women are in trouble,” Jessie said.
“And the plan is to rescue everyone, but I need to get some of you out.”
At that, Jessie immediately slipped through the wood without any issue and, at his order, raced up and over the hillside, keeping quiet and low in the shadows.
“Now will you come?” asked the man behind her. She immediately slid through the wood, trying desperately hard not to make any noise. Then the man said, “Stay down on the ground, don’t run, go very quietly.” And, with that, she slipped up in the same direction that Jessie had disappeared to. What she didn’t realize was the man followed her.
As soon as she got over the hill, she saw a whole pile of shadows on the far side. She raced toward them, only to come up against a solid wall. Arms immediately wrapped around her from behind, pulled her to a stop, and she was told to sit.
Not knowing if she was being taken captive yet again by somebody else, she sat, grateful she was no longer down in the auction house corral but not sure that she wouldn’t be ordered to go right back there.
A small flashlight was turned on and shone into her face. “Brenna?”
She gasped. “Yes,” she said. “Who are you?”
The flashlight turned on the man in front of her.
She took one look, burst into tears, and flung her arms around his neck. “Jesus, Jerricho. I was so hoping someone would contact you.” And she hugged him tight.
Jerricho hugged her close. “We have to go back,” he whispered. “We’ve got an ambush happening. I just didn’t want you to get caught in any random bullets. You stay here. We have one man staying with you. I’ll go in, take out a bunch of the perimeter. We’ve already taken down four. They just haven’t noticed it yet.”
“That leaves at least eleven gunmen out there,” she said. “And you can’t leave somebody here to guard us. You need him. There’s only two of you. You need him out there with you.”
Jerricho hesitated.
She shook her head. “Remember? I’m from Texas. I know how to shoot. Give me a weapon.” He immediately handed her a small handgun from his boot. She nodded. “Go. Get the other women. Even if it means getting rid of these assholes,” she said. “I know that that boat has them very confused. I just don’t know what the deal is.”
“We set it adrift to come in this direction,” he said. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Just as he went to withdraw, she flung her arms around his neck once more, squeezed him tight, and said, “Thank you. Oh, my God. Thank you. Thank you.”
“We’re not out of danger yet,” he said, “so stay safe. We’ll be back.” And he disappeared into the darkness.
He raced down the hill, and, with Killian sliding off onto the opposite side, they each took out one of the outer rim guards. And moved in. By the time they had taken down two more, and all four men were moved out of the way, they knew that they had at least seven more. But now Jerricho and Killian were fully weaponized.