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“I’ll manage as long as you can handle it,” he answered, his voice becoming slightly more chilled. Maybe challenging him was the wrong move. I had enjoyed his soft and caring side from before, not the show he was putting on for the others or himself.
“Good, then I’ll start working on that.” I was going to have to find time to do that and then sneak off resort property to start snooping around at the bureau.
“What I’m concerned about, and I don’t quite understand yet, is how these trafficked people are transported off the island. I think that if we can identify points of transport and watch them, we might be able to catch them in the act. We could spend a lot of time tailing individuals and instead find groups,” Yates said.
The point was valid. If we could catch the traffickers at the points of transport, then we’d choke the operation. They wouldn’t be able to leave with those they were trafficking, and eventually they’d slip up while trying to figure out something else. However, we couldn’t just ignore our suspects either. Both strategies had their merits and disadvantages.
“Yes, and we could waste a lot of time doing that. If we do have the right suspects and ignore them, we could miss the clues we need, or they could kidnap someone else right under our noses,” Adam said. My heart skipped a beat; he was defending my idea to his friends.
“Yes, but think about how many transports we could miss while watch individual suspects?” Garcia asked. I knew that they were just talking through all the options, but I felt like my methods were being questioned. It wasn’t something that I was used to. We didn’t have a whole agency worth of resources to utilize. We were going to have to map out a clear course of action, and we couldn’t explore everything. There weren’t enough of us for that, even if we did divide and conquer.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not used to even having to explain my reasons to anyone, so I’m sorry if this comes out wrong. We don’t have all of the resources we’d need to cover all the ports and ways of transit off the island. There are planes, cruises, commercial and residential boats, and who knows what else? There aren’t enough of us to spread out and cover everything, but there are enough of us to keep a constant watch on the suspects we have. If you are telling me that you think that watching the ports and the airports are the way to go, then feel free to take that on. I’m going to question our suspects, and we can meet up later to exchange info.” I did my best not to sound like a raging bitch, but I knew what I was doing. And I couldn’t learn anything about the FBI office if I was watching some old marina.
“We’re not trying to insult you, but our training has taught us that the more we know about entering and exiting a location, the better off we are. Some of us will identify those points and watch them, and a couple can be free to watch the suspects,” Mendez said, trying to find the middle ground.
“Sounds fair.” I couldn’t blame them for relying on their training; I was doing the same. The problem was none of us had all the resources we had at our disposal while we were being trained. We’d just have to make the best of what we had and hope we made the right choices.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
abby
My phone rang. I recognized the vibration pattern against my leg.
“Do you need to get that?” Jasmine asked.
I nodded in response.
“It’s Bob,” I added.
“Go ahead,” she said. Her eyes lit up at the mention of him, and I wondered why exactly that was. There was certainly more to the two of them than either of them let on.
“Hello?” I answered as I accepted the call. I put my finger to my mouth, letting them all know to be quiet. Bob didn’t need to know that they were listening, that I had already blown my cover. He might be concerned about my ability to do my job if he learned that a bunch of bounty hunters figured me out in less than seventy-two hours.
“Brookes, I’ve got some updates that I thought you might want to hear from your NYC case.”He used my last name. This isn’t going to be good news.
“Oh yeah?” I asked. I steeled myself.
“Yeah, unfortunately, it’s not one you are going to like,” he said. His voice tapered off. I mentally braced myself because Bob didn’t get soft on me too often. He liked his rough-and-tough exterior too much for that.
“Out with it, then,” I said with a sigh.
“Some of the girls you were held captive with, their bodies washed up in the bay yesterday morning.”
“Wait…wha…what?” I stuttered. It was hard to concentrate on creating words when my mind was still trying to make sense of his. Dead? Who? My mind flashed to all of the faces ingrained in my memory. I had been determined to track them all down before Bob’s new assignment distracted me.
“I’m so sorry, Abby. One of them was that Lilith girl you mentioned. We matched her DNA this morning…”
I was silent for a long moment before a burning rage began to bubble up inside of me and threatened to blow me open like a violent volcanic eruption. Call me Mt. Saint Helens, because I was about to blow my lid. My vision was red, my hands began to shake, and I struggled to take in a solid, non-gasping breath. I felt the eyes of Adam and his friends, but I couldn’t focus on containing my response, not when the sweetest soul I had ever met was fish food.
“That bastard promised me that he would give her to someone who would keep her safe…alive,” I said. My voice was so low and growly that I didn’t even recognize it. It could have belonged to a lunatic for all I knew. I could hear my own pulse in my head, and my skin was flushed red when I caught my reflection in the window. My hands were still shaky, and I looked like I was about to go off on a murdering spree.
I thought I had influence in the high rise. I had been negotiating deals, trying to get girls sent toclientswho were more civilized, who wouldn’t be brutal on them. I was wrong; instead they were murdered. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was done to teach me a lesson or if it was just a coincidence that the girls went to some cruel bastard.
“You know how they lie and use, only do what’s best for them. We sent the bodies for an autopsy.” I wanted to cry at the thought of how she died. I hoped for her sake it was quick or peaceful and that the dumping of her body only happened after.
“Has her family been notified?” I asked. My voice cracked as I did my best to keep the hot, angry tears of rage and overwhelming grief at bay. I wanted to open my lips and let out a wail but didn’t have the ability.
“Yes, and they are heartbroken,” he said. His words were gentle in a way I had never heard from him before. It made me want to cry even harder. He knew how hard this was for me, and I wondered if he could feel my guilt from the other end of the phone.
