“I hope not,” he said.
Instantly she felt the fear growing within her. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
He looked down at her reassuringly and said, “It’s fine.”
She took a long slow deep breath. “Then don’t scare me like that, please.”
He laughed. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. “I’m just trying to keep an eye on what’s happening.”
She watched, and very quickly they were docked. Officials came on board, and Jerricho basically explained what had happened. They already knew, and the women were immediately separated off, and the help that they needed was provided. Only nobody came for Brenna. She looked up at him. “What about me, Annie and Jessie?” Jessie was with a group of women off to the side. Brenna called out to Jessie, who turned and lifted a hand in a motion, as she headed to one of the vehicles. Annie was in a different one. “What’s going on?” Brenna asked.
“Do you want to go with her?” Jerricho asked, looking at her.
“Yes,” she said in surprise. “Do I have a choice?”
“No, really you don’t,” he said, laughing, and walked her to the group. The men had a conversation, but she was too busy checking in with Jessie. And it seemed they were being driven to the nearest town, which was only a few miles away, and they would be put up in hotels, while everybody got their paperwork in order. Brenna turned and smiled at Jerricho. “Are you coming?”
“Maybe,” he said. “We certainly need time to rest and for a shower and some food.”
She nodded. “You can come with us,” she said. “There’s lots of room.”
The men piled in the vehicle, along with her and Jessie, and very quickly they were on their way into the town. Brenna cried out, “I can’t believe that a shower is right around the corner.”
“I know,” Jessie said, “a shower and real food.”
“Hey, that bread this morning tasted pretty damn fine.”
Jessie shook her head. “I couldn’t do it,” she said. “My stomach was too upset.”
She looked at her. “How is the baby?”
Jessie glanced at the two men with a shuttered look, and Brenna said, quickly apologizing, “Sorry. I already told them.”
Jessie shrugged and said, “I think that’s why I couldn’t eat, just a little too nauseated this morning.”
“Which makes sense,” she said. “At the same time, we should be safe now.”
“I hope so,” Jessie said fervently. She looked at Brenna. “I don’t think I’ll go back to my job.”
Brenna stared at her friend and then slowly nodded. “You were talking about changing jobs anyway, once you found out you were pregnant.”
“Yes,” she said, “that’s a good way to look at it. And now I just don’t have the stomach for it.”
“Any idea what you want to do?”
“Change to photography,” she said, “maybe do something closer to home.”
“You do what you need to do,” Brenna said impulsively.
Jessie looked at her friend and smiled and said, “I will. It’s just a little odd right now. So I’m scared of making the wrong decision.”
“So maybe,” Brenna said, “don’t make any decisions right now. Wait until you’ve recovered.”
“Maybe. I’ll see.” At that, she sat back and looked as the town came upon them. “Almost there,” she murmured.
Brenna looked around the town and said, “Is this the closest place to where we were?”
Jerricho leaned forward. “Yes,” he said.
“Is it safe?”
“That’s one of the questions that we’ll have to look at,” he said. “We have to figure out if you’re safe here or not.”
She looked at him in shock.
He shrugged. “It’d be nice to consider that it is that way, but we won’t know for sure, will we?”
“So you’ll stay close for a while.”
“Until we get you home to the US,” he confirmed.
She immediately relaxed. “I would really not like to have anything else go wrong at this stage,” she said.
“No,” he said, “neither would we.”
And, with that, he sat back, until they pulled into the hotel.
Jerricho hadn’t wanted to scare her, but, at the same time, just so many unknowns remained in this case. A lot of women had been rescued, and they didn’t know if there would be any retaliation for that or if people would be totally okay and just happy that they didn’t get caught. As for their pirate prisoner, he’d been handed to the authorities, and, from the treatment he’d received on the way, the local men in charge of him were only too happy to have him in their clutches. But then a lot of women had been involved in the kidnappings, and people forgot that, although women were vulnerable victims, many times they had fathers, sons, and brothers who cared. At least Jerricho hoped they did.
As they walked into the hotel, they were assigned rooms, with him and Killian together. As soon as they got to their room, pointing to bags on the bed, Killian said, “Clothes and a few hygiene items. As much as I’d like a shower, I’ll crash first.”
“You do that. I’ll have a shower,” he said. “That saltwater is something else.”
“Especially here,” he said. “It’s really salty.”
Jerricho walked into the shower, quickly divested himself of his clothes, and stood under the hot water, moaning in pure joy as it ran down his back and head. Almost immediately he felt better. As soon as he had a shower, he dressed in the only other set of clothing he had, dirty too, and stepped back out into the room. He sat down with this laptop and contacted Diesel. Operation successful, he typed. We’re at the hotel.
Diesel immediately replied and typed Good job.
Anything new on your end?
Diesel responded, No, all quiet. We’re still gathering intel and looking into exactly who is involved.
Don’t forget about the prisoner we brought back, he typed. Even though he’s not likely willing to share any more, he will have names, dates, and people within the network on his phone, laptop, banking records. Jerricho went on to explain to Diesel about how the auction system worked, what Jerricho had learned from the pirate leader.
Interesting, Diesel typed. So they didn’t do it very often, probably changed locations within a few hundred miles to keep the location secret.
Most likely, yes. But I think he has an awful lot more information that he’s not willing to give. And I’m worried about anybody local being involved.
Not even so much that a local might be involved, Diesel added, as much as it’s possible that any of the buyers may have come here or any of the agents could be in town. They may have found where everybody disembarked.
I guess buying that information is not that hard to do in today’s age, is it?
Nope, they’ll have eyes and ears everywhere, and the arrival of almost forty women in one small town will create quite a buzz.
Right, he typed, so we’re not out of danger.
I wouldn’t think so, Diesel replied.
Okay, I’ll go meet up with the two women, he texted, and make sure they’re okay.