“Fuck!” Julian said, glancing at the cell phone.
He couldn’t call back.
Had he heard the name correctly? The one Mena had said after he asked to speak to the person with her.
Had she said … Hakeem?
Chapter Forty-Three
Hakeem’s heavy hand slammed like a shackle onto her wrist as he snatched the cell phone from her hand.
Heart pounding, Mena looked at Hakeem. The fading sunlight wasn’t enough to mask the anger and annoyance clouding his eyes as he frowned at her.
“Who did you call?” Hakeem demanded, his thumbs flying across the screen of the phone.
“I’m sorry—” Mena stumbled backward on the jagged rocks submerged in the rust-colored sand. The stars popped out in the sky, as the moon emerged, casting an eerie glow.
“Bullshit! You just put your lifeand minein danger. Don’t you know Tubeec Hirad has been waiting for a chance to track this cell phone? And you handed him the opportunity he wanted. Who the fuck was so important for you to call?” Hakeem asked, glaring at her.
Twisting against the vice grip on her wrist, Mena felt a sharp pain shooting up her arm. Hakeem yanked her back toward him.
“The cell phone had a few signal bars, so I called Julian. I just needed to hear his voice,” Mena tried to explain, the words tumbling from her mouth as she fought panic. “I didn’t think you would mind. You made a few calls to TIDES today.”
“I encrypted the phone before I made every call. I told you we needed to lay low and keep communications to a minimum for our own safety. Damn it! Wasn’t good enough for you that I finally found a way to get us back to Nairobi without tipping Tubeec off. You had to ruin shit by trying to call your boyfriend? Unbelievable,” Hakeem said.
Hakeem’s outburst stunned her into silence. She’d been careless. Mena had thought the worst was over. Knowing Julian had survived the ambush by Tubeec’s men had been the only thing keeping her going.
For the past two days, she’d hidden out with Hakeem riding on the back of a rusted motorbike, avoiding the main roads and zigzagging across northeastern Kenya trying to avoid capture by the band of rebels who’d been offered top dollar to return her to Tubeec Hirad. As they passed through tribal villages, the warnings had been the same each time. Tubeec wanted her found and brought back to him. Some of the villages had already been threatened and pillaged by militants or members of al-Harakat, trying to see if they were hiding Mena. Others refused to shelter them, fearing they would bring death and mayhem to their settlements.
They’d finally arrived at the safe house, but Hakeem had warned her they couldn’t stay long. He needed to get a message back to TIDES headquarters, which hadn’t been possible with the spotty cell service in the rural areas. It wasn’t until this morning that he’d made contact and secured a plan to get them back to Nairobi in a new vehicle under the cloak of night.
Mena held up her hands. “Hakeem, I’m sorry. I messed up and it won’t happen again. I’m beyond grateful that you risked your own life to save me. It’s a miracle that you were able to overtake the rebels and I can’t thank you enough.”
The surprise attack at the small blue house had wrecked Mena. Two men had jumped Julian, knocking him out. Mena was dragged away and shoved into an old, ragged SUV. The ignition roared to life and the vehicle took off down the road, leaving Mena staring through the back window, convinced Julian’s life had ended right then and there.
Hours later, when the driver stopped to refuel, she found out the truth. Hakeem Underwood, one of the security guards and rescue agents with Tactical and Intelligence Defense Executive Services, emerged from the store, catching the gunmen off guard. Gun pointed at the men’s heads, while their weapons lay on the front seats of the SUV, Hakeem had forced one of the men to tie the other up, then knocked him out and tied him up next to the other.
Mena watched it happen through the side window, but she could do nothing to free herself and run away, which made it all the better when Hakeem slid into the front seat and introduced himself. He was here to rescue her and yes, Julian was alive and being transported back to Nairobi by the rest of the TIDES team.
“I don’t need your gratitude or your apologies. What I need is for you to follow my instructions and not do anything that could jeopardize us getting back to Nairobi tomorrow. Think you can do that?” Hakeem asked, slamming the cell phone onto the ground. Lifting his leg, he stomped his army boot on top of the small device, leaving it splintered in the sand.
Mena nodded. “I’m confused because Julian didn’t seem to know that I was with you.”
“That’s because I haven’t been talking to Julian. He’s in the hospital recovering from the injuries from the attack. I don’t know if the rest of the team told him what was going on. Last I heard he was still in and out of consciousness,” Hakeem said. “I thought since I saved your life, that would give me a little bit of trust, but I guess I was wrong.”
“I’m sorry. I do trust you.” Mena covered her face in her hands, trying to ward off the panic building within her. The look on Hakeem’s face said everything she hadn’t realized. They were still in extreme danger.
Hakeem said, “Let me explain something to you. I made two calls to TIDES today. Each time, I initiated an encryption coding to prevent the cell phone from being traced and I monitored the length of time of each call to prevent an override of the encryption. Ask me why I did that.”
Mena looked up at him, but said nothing. She knew she’d screwed up and now, she was about to find out the awful truths Hakeem had been shielding her from.
“Because Tubeec Hirad has top-notch hackers working for him, scouring the calls coming into TIDES in hopes of tracking us and finding us before we can get back to Nairobi. Your call to Julian gave him the opening he’s been waiting for, all because you couldn’t wait a few more hours to hear Julian’s fucking voice? I’m one hundred percent sure that Tubeec is locking in on our location as we speak and dispersing a team of killers to this safe house to recapture you. Guess what he’s going to do if he finds you. Come on, now. Guess!”
Trembling, Mena refused to let the tears fall. She hadn’t considered that Tubeec could still find her before she and Hakeem made their way back to Nairobi.
“I’ll tell you what he’s going to do. The same thing he did to my sister. He’s going to force you to be his fucking sex slave for daring to try to escape from him. You’ll be dragged all across Africa as he kidnaps and kills for money and sometimes just for the sport of it. All your fancy education and art credentials will mean nothing. You’ll be reduced to the pussy he fucks when the whim strikes him. If he likes you, he’ll keep the others away from you. If he doesn’t, he’ll let any of the guys on his team fuck you too when they get horny enough. Is that what you want? Is it?” Hakeem screamed at her.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know … ” Mena stammered, fear gripping her heart at the disgusting scenes playing out in her mind. She’d heard the stories of human and sex trafficking, the horrible acts women were subjected to until they were deemed no longer useful and then killed.
