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“Nonsense, I feel their eyes, but this could be a good thing. They think we are easy prey. I don’t know about you, but nothing about me is easy. You are both fighters. We’ve got this,” I told them.
The last thing I needed them to do was get scared and blow our cover. Normal tourists wouldn’t be scared; they wouldn’t know anything about all the disappearances or the few that had happened right in this market.
“You’re right, let’s just get what we came here for, chat with a few locals to solidify that we aren’t scaredy cats, and then get back to the resort before anything bad can happen,” Jasmine said. Her change of heart would have been funny if the situation were different. Bob shared that Jasmine was brave when facing Robbie. She even took a round in her vest to save her friend. Right now I wasn’t seeing that same brave woman, but maybe that scenario gave her a healthy sense of fear. That was good, because without it, most people were cocky and made stupid mistakes.
We paid for the two large bags of souvenirs that Christine picked out, and I sent Adam a quick text.
Me: Get a drone up in the air and in our location. We are being watched, and I think it may be by scouts.
I pocketed my phone. That would be enough to alert them. I needed to keep my attention on my surroundings and on Jasmine and Christine. I promised I’d protect them, and I meant it. I’d face off against anyone to make sure that they got back to their men.Yuck, I sound like a man…their men.
We exited the store and began walking back through the market when I heard the whispers: “She saved Jeremiah.”
“They can’t have her. She saved an innocent.”
The whispers continued, and I was on red alert. I did my best to remain cool on the outside and to stick with my training, which hadn’t failed me yet. However, that didn’t stop the chills from climbing up my spine.
They are talking about me.I recognized some of the people who watched from the edges of the path as those from last night. The ones who had gathered around while I kept that man from bleeding out. These people had a lot more knowledge than they let on when we tried to interview them. Clearly they knew that I was being watched by traffickers, and they were whispering about it. Their whispers reassured me slightly; at least they were on our side and wanted to help me somehow. I could have cried. It was my job to protect them, not the other way around.
Motion out of my peripheral vision drew my attention, along with the goosebumps that instantly broke out on my arm.Shit was about to get real.Three men approached us from the left side, near the entry to an alley. The one in the front held out a knife and called out to us. “You three, come here.” He wasn’t very large and didn’t look any older than thirty. The knife he held shook in his hand, as if he was nervous. I could smell the liquor on him from here; it was as if he bathed in a bottle of whiskey. His clothing was dirty, and his skin didn’t look much better.
Behind him were two very large and angry-looking henchmen. They wore matching black wife-beaters and black cargo pants. They had black ski-masks over their faces, keeping me from seeing their identities. They must have been henchmen for the traffickers. But what about the drunk guy? What was he if he wasn’t covering his face?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jasmine lift her right foot. She didn’t stand a chance against one of them. Three-on-three chances weren’t great for us, not when two of them dwarfed our size. “Don’t even think about it,” I told her. She had no business trying to be the hero.
I took a step closer to the man in front and pushed Jasmine and Christine behind me. The man lowered his knife, because it looked like I was complying with his demand. His henchmen remained in place with their arms crossed, just watching. The closer I got, the more apparent it was that the front man was drunk and had a violent past. He had scars all over his arms and one along his face that went from temple to the corner of his lips. He stank, and even the smell of alcohol couldn’t cover it. I spent seconds just trying to figure out the best way to take on all three of the men myself and give my friends a way to escape. If I could even the odds down to two on one, then I could make it out of the market okay.
“The drone,” I heard Christine whisper behind me.
If they saw the drone, then that was good. It meant the guys were on their way. They would come rushing in, which would be good for me but bad for our mission. The last thing we wanted to do was make a scene and have the traffickers identify us all. It would make it impossible to hunt down the trafficking ring if they were watching us.
“Run toward the resort. They’ll find you on their way here,” I mumbled to the girls.
“No, we won’t leave you,” Jasmine said.
“If you want to help me, you’ll make it so I don’t have to worry about protecting you. You’ll let me distract them so I can make my own escape. Got it?” I demanded.
I felt them squeeze my arms.
“Go now,” I whispered harshly. I could see that all three men were losing their patience with us. Their body weight had shifted, and one of the men clothed in black cracked his knuckles anxiously.
The girls took off running down the path, back toward the resort. I prayed they’d find the guys quickly and no one would try to grab them on their way.
“Hey, come back, now!” the man with the knife called. He took a step onto the path like he was going to chase them. The two mountain-sized men behind him also took steps toward the girls. I couldn’t let them go after them.
“No, you don’t, big guy,” I taunted and kicked the first half-giant in the balls. He keeled over and I slipped behind him, barely avoiding the hands of the second mammoth-sized henchman. I wrapped my arm around the neck of the guy bent over holding his goods. I squeezed with as much pressure as I could manage and then jerked his head hard to the right. I felt his body go instantly slack; the timing was phenomenal, because now henchman two had his hands on my waist, trying to lift me over his shoulder. His left had captured both of mine, and he slammed me up against a wall, hard. My head bounced off the stucco surface, and I saw stars. I managed a deep breath and tried wrenching my hands free. I gained a small bit of leverage. I could feel his fingers slip some, so I tried over and over to escape. His right hand left my waist and joined his other hand at my wrist. That left me in total control of my lower body, his mistake. I jumped up off the ground, trusting that his hands were going to support my weight. I kicked out with both feet, placing one in his chest and one in his balls. He lurched forward, and his hands released me out of reflex. I swung out and punched him hard in the temple, which knocked him out cold. He fell to the ground in a large heap of muscle.
I turned to the last guy, the only one who had been armed. If he had been smart, he would have attacked me while his friend had my hands pinned, but it was obvious he wasn’t smart. I wasn’t sure if his IQ was naturally that low or if it was the whiskey. He had positioned himself between me and the exit to the market. I took a running leap and kicked the knife out of his hand. It stuck into the wall of the building beside him. His nose flared, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.That’s right, I’m not going down without a fight.
“Oh, you’ve cost me a pretty penny. You’ll pay for that little devil, even if you did me a small favor by getting rid of my babysitters,” he taunted. His teeth were crooked, and one was turning black as he gave a nasty, predator-like grin.
“That’s right. I am the devil, and you’re about to see my horns,” I taunted with a sadistic smile. This might be my favorite part of being law enforcement, aside from locking sick fucks up—beating the shit out of them. It brought me my fair share of joy, even when the justice system sometimes failed its job. Some of the men I arrested would see the outside of a prison eventually, but they’d never forget getting their ass handed to them by a woman they wanted to screw. That knowledge brought me much gratification, just like this fight was about to.
I kicked him square in the chest. He saw it coming and grabbed my ankle before I could use any force. I pushed against his chest with that foot as hard as I could and swung my other leg off the ground and kicked him square in the head. He fell backward, and his head snapped hard against the pavement. A pool of blood formed on the pavement from his skull cracking open. His eyes were empty as he stared up into the sky.
“Rot in hell,” I said to the dead man.
“Go, child, go before his boss sees this. It’s not safe for you to come back here. I’ll hide the body. Thank you for saving Jeremiah,” the woman from last night said. I recognized her as his employer.
