“How close are we to moving them out?”he asked her.
“Chuck popped the hull about ten minutes ago,” she said.“I’ve got a quiet evacuation going, but I need to get back.You were right—we need you to get their passports, because they need some guidance on this end.You know where to go?”
He bent to the feet of the guy he’d just kicked and took in his clothes.Liam was wearing thieves’ clothes—black sweats, black turtleneck, black balaclava.The guy at his feet had a green balaclava but pale, freckled features.Liam tucked his own hat in his pocket and grabbed the green hat, relieved when it seemed clean and not greasy.
“Think I’ll pass?”he asked Molly, tucking the hat on his head.
“Definitely,” she said.“These guys don’t know each other’s names.I hung out in the galley for a bit and listened in—those Russian lessons are really paying off, by the way.”
Liam laughed softly to himself and wondered how many languages the Salingers knew between all of them.Maybe their next caper should involve the Middle and Far East so they could pick up different traditions and different tongues.
“Good,” he said.“I speak a few words.And I definitely know ‘The captain needs something from his quarters.’You keep the victims heading down the airlock.I’ll get their passports.You ready?”
She paused, sober.“Any news from the other end?”
Liam gave her a warm smile.“Just heard from Josh—apparently his mother looked straight at Kadjic and he didn’t recognize her.He said it was epic,” he told her, using Josh’s word.“So far so good, although they’re hoping the painting switch will be discovered before the end of the night.”
“Epic,” she said, offering a fist bump.He gave her one in return, and she slipped off toward the engine room, where, he presumed, the three henchmen with head injuries had come from.
It was his turn now.
He’d been in on a few raids of human trafficking boats, although none as big as this one.
Still, the MO of keeping the captives’ passports in the captain’s safe was not new.Those were gold.Those were the things the captors would use to get the women what appeared to be legitimate employment when they reached their destination, and the things that would be held in reserve so the women would never try to escape.While the US was known for its draconian and inhumane measures toward illegal immigrants, they weren’t the only ones, and human chattel had a value all its own.Being caught without a passport could be absolutely deadly.
Liam made his way up out of the steerage compartment, past the common area, and up another steep series of steps toward the captain’s quarters.He passed one or two crew members, but not closely.They’d all been heading toward the chow line, and he was grateful.While he did speak his own limited amount of Russian, lying was harder in another language, and incapacitating an opponent took time.
It’s one of the reasons he loved Danny and Josh’s crew.It was worth it to him to plan an elaborate operation that would save lives and trauma.
“Liam, you there?”Stirling said into his ear.
“Da,” Liam murmured, spotting the captain’s quarters near the front of the main deck.He pulled out his own lockpicks and—thanks to Danny’s tutelage during those long-ago visits to the rehab center—made quick work of the lock.
He paused to glance around, grateful the room was empty.
“Just entered.The safe is back behind the bar.Getting there.How’s things on your end?”
“We have… uhm, disturbing news from the gala,” Stirling told him.“And we have reason to believe Kadjic might be on his way with Grace in the car with him.”
Liam almost dropped his lockpicking kit.“I beg your pardon?”
“And, well, they don’t know it, but Carl said Josh was in the trunk.”
Liam’s vision went black.That fast.He felt himself going down, probably about to nail his head on the small, sharp-angled counters to be found even in the captain’s quarters of this stingy, utilitarian yacht, and he caught himself, barely, with a hand on the back of a chair.
“Josh is what?”he asked, trying to breathe.
“Carl said it went bad fast,” Stirling told him.“They’re all in the van now, heading this way.Josh was about to tag the town car with trackers, so those, at least, are working, but Kadjic suspects, and we’ve got to get a move on.”
“Fuck.Does Molly know?”
“She’s got the girls coming out as fast as she can,” Stirling said.“When you’re done there, if you could… you know?”
“I’ve got her back,” Liam said.The siblings would never look alike, but they’d never be apart, Liam knew.He wondered if his brother, Robert, knew what he was in for, harboring a crush on Molly Christopher.She was nobody to be trifled with—but she also deserved every bit of happiness her brother had found with the quiet, surprising Tienne.
That thought, of all things, grounded him.God, he wanted to go swooping into the night to rescue Josh, who had—what?Smuggled himself aboard the vehicle that Grace was about to get thrown into?But Josh had people swooping to his rescue.It was Liam’s job to protect the people on this yacht, to help the captives, to have Molly Christopher’s back.
Josh—whether physically weak or jumping out of buildings—was pretty adept at taking care of himself.
