“The bidding probably will be done online,” Jerricho murmured.
Killian looked at him. “I hadn’t thought of that. If you consider that, the buyers don’t have to be here in person. Although they could have representatives here instead.”
“And that would make sense too,” he said. “Disgusting but makes sense.” Jerricho’s phone went off then. Instructions read 3.5 miles. Just ditch the boat and make sure it’s ready for pickup later. You’ve got a five-mile hike into the middle of nowhere. Satellite feeds coming. Jerricho read the message to Killian.
And Killian watched his laptop and stopped. “You know the only reason that they even looked in this direction is that we’re here,” he said, “but look at this. Granted, there’s a time delay with this feed, so not current.” In the satellite feed showing up on his laptop, they saw a large group of people. Armed gunmen wandering around. No buildings but some fence or containment system.
“Do you think that’s the holding area for the women?” Jerricho asked, as he piloted the boat.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Killian responded.
Jerricho quickly sent back a text. Can you check if women are inside the paddock?
The response came back. Can’t from this distance. Working on it.
He nodded. “They’re working on it.” We need to know how many gunmen are there.
Diesel quickly sent back a text. We’re counting fifteen.
All rifles?
Semiautomatics came back.
“Yeah, it’s just so hard to see on this laptop,” Killian murmured. “We don’t have enough firepower for this.”
At that, Jerricho looked at his partner, nodded, and said, “And now we have an awful lot more victims. We don’t want them hurt in the fight either.”
“And, if we take them, we’ll need a place to put them.”
“We’re not leaving them behind.” He sent a message back to Diesel. We’ll need help.
What do you want?
He thought about it for a moment. Another ship to carry all the women away, and a couple more snipers would be good.
“That’s all you want?” Killian looked at him.
“Yeah,” he said, “if you get too many in this mix, it’ll be a massacre.”
“You don’t want to do just that?”
“I want to kill off all the human traffickers,” he said, “but I’ll be happy with picking them off one by one.”
“So two snipers take out two at a time, and we’ll take out two and then what?”
“Yeah, that’ll be part of that plan that I haven’t got organized yet,” he said, with a big grin.
“Good,” Killian said, “let me know when you do get there.”
And without saying anything else, Jerricho turned back to the maps in front of them. It was a joy to work with somebody like Killian. There was so much trust. Jerricho was more worried about what condition Brenna was in at this time. Although what he didn’t understand was how she ended up in this spot as it was. And, when he got a chance, he would ask her about that.
There had been so much spunk to her. There had been an awful lot of attitude at the same time back then in their history and an awful arrogance that just went along with being young, beautiful, wealthy, and entitled. He hadn’t met anybody who had quite the same self-confidence that she had. He didn’t know if it was a good or a bad thing at this point. Maybe, if they had a chance, he could spend some time with her and see where she was at now. He didn’t feel guilty about where they had left off. At the time of their divorce, he’d been grateful for the new opportunity he’d been given.
He’d bolted, along with the rest of the guys, into the navy, and they’d all told him that he had a lucky escape. And it had taken him years to figure out they were right. Particularly after he realized that she’d gotten married again. And so fast. Maybe it hadn’t even been all that fast. Maybe he’d been the only one who had been blistered by burned love. But he’d grown and learned, and he had gone on to become a better person. Hopefully she had too. He looked at the world around him.
“Hang on, Brenna. I’m coming. I don’t know what mess you got yourself into this time, but I’m here. Or I will be. Give us at least a couple hours. And then we’ll be there.”
And, with that, he continued to trawl up the coast, looking for the best location where they would dock. After that, they were going on foot, and he had to trust that Diesel had additional backup coming. Somebody had to have Jerricho’s back and Killian’s back at this point. And it would always be men he knew. They were bros all the way.
Chapter 4
Brenna was shaken roughly awake. She shifted, opening her mouth. “What?”
A hand was clapped over her mouth, and Jessie’s voice in her ear said, “Quiet. You need to wake up now.”
Brenna’s eyes popped open. “What’s going on?” she asked her friend in a hoarse whisper.
“I’m not sure,” Jessie said, “but something is.”
Brenna shifted, so she could look around her at the corral and beyond. Everybody had collapsed on the ground, trying to sleep the best they could like this, outside. The ground inside and outside of the pen where they were was littered with these curious humps. Buried bodies of women who didn’t make it?
Jessie pointed farther out.
The only thing Brenna saw was one man walking around at the far side of the corral, where a gate was, to make sure nobody got out. If the women needed to go to the bathroom, they were taken up the hill to a little bit of a brush area and allowed to relieve themselves. No toilet paper, no hygiene, and most of the women were doing their best to stay in control. But, right now, even the guard wasn’t moving. He stood, watching something on the shore. “More women?” Brenna whispered.
“I don’t know,” Jessie said, sliding up, so she stood against the fence, peering over the side.
They didn’t dare get any closer to the guard at the gate because he would likely turn and just shoot them. They hadn’t seen that level of violence yet, and they knew that, as women, they were worth a particular amount. They had been well treated so far, under these dire circumstances. It was obvious that the gunmen were trying to keep the women in good shape for the upcoming auction.
As the two of them huddled together, listening, Brenna heard shouts from down below. As it was dark, with no lights out here, she thought she saw a boat drifting toward shore. Several men stood at the water’s edge and yelled, their rifles pointed at the approaching craft. And then, at a specific order from somebody, shots rang out. As soon as the first one rang out, multiples rang out.
“You think this is a rescue?” Jessie asked.
“It’s possible,” she said, “but it would be very unorthodox.”
“I don’t think orthodox will work in this case,” Jessie murmured.
Brenna looked around, and a few of the women were waking and sitting up. Several others were hunched into even more of a ball, too scared to even look. And Brenna couldn’t blame them; nothing nice was out there, from her point of view, but something new had been added into the mix, and she wanted to know more about that. Anything that caused these gunmen a headache was something that Brenna needed to be aware of. Even as she studied the layout, she wondered if it was enough of a distraction to slip out.