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Light from the afternoon sun faded into dusk as he listened to her breathing, now slow and even against his chest. Eternity wouldn’t have been long enough for Grant to get used the feel of their naked and sated bodies tangled together on the sweat soaked sheets. When he knew she’d fallen fast asleep, he carefully untangled himself from her long limbs and quietly padded to the control room down the hall, grabbing his jeans from the floor along theway.
He’d never been one to count on fate to determine his next move, but he was no longer sure about his determination to investigate his suspicions about Thalia’s missing past. She was perfect the way she was. If he was right, he didn’t want her to relive something so vile. If he kept digging and found something, he was no longer sure he’d be able to tell her anyway. If Daniel hadn’t sent those files by the time he logged in, he would send him a message to hold off…for now. They had plenty of other problems to focuson.
Fifteen
Grant staredat the single digit hovering above his inbox icon, unable to make his fingers click the button to open it. He didn’t need to open it to know the message was from Daniel. He should have known better than to trust fate with anything. She could be such a fuckingbitch.
He shoved the mouse away and slouched against the back of his chair. What were the odds he would find anything related to the branding mark he’d found on Thalia? Did he want to spend the next few hours combing through countless vile pictures of helpless victims that probably had absolutely nothing to do with his suspicions, instead of holding the warm, incredibly naked woman in his bed?No. What right did he have to go picking through her personal life, digging up things best left buried? If she didn’t remember or care about it, why should he be the one to strip that away fromher?
None of the answers he gave himself numbed the nagging pull in his gut that eventually made him reach up and click on the box, opening the file Daniel had sent him. Different from the agency layout, it took him a few moments to navigate the files and find the victim profiles he’d been denied access to before. After opening the folder, what seemed like an infinite scroll of files popped up, each one labeled with an alphanumeric code.Christ, there must behundreds.
There was no way to tell which file contained the photos he was searching for, or if they contained any photos at all. He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled his chair in closer as he prepared to dig in. It looked as if the next few hours were going to be spent looking through these victims’ own personal hell on earth while his idea of heaven was lying asleep a few feetaway.
His eyes drifted off the screen to the clock hanging on the wall above the bank of computers.Three fucking hours.Rubbing his eyes, he ignored the faint rumble in his stomach and opened yet another anonymous file.Three hours I’ve wasted combing through this filth. He’d seen and read about more carnage than any one human should be forced toendure.
He’d been right about the press blowing smoke out of their collective asses. There wasn’t one picture or mention of branding in any of the files. That didn’t mean it hadn’t happened, just that they hadn’t yet found a victim with one. Of course, it could be Hector hadn’t been into that kind of thing. Judging by some of the other shit he’d seen in the files, he was actually a bit surprised the sick bastard had stopped short of it. They would never know. Now that he was behind bars and Lucien was dead, the investigation was officially over and no one cared about finding the hundreds of kids that had fallen through the cracks. Caseclosed.
He blindly clicked open the next file, scrubbing his hands over his face as he leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. Why was he torturing himself with this? Thalia didn’t seem haunted by the things he imagined had been done to her...much.Dammit!His hands slapped the desk, knocking over a pile of file folders which had been stacked half-assed next to one of the computer towers. He reached to straighten the mess, the folders slipping from his fingers as his eyes locked onto the image displayed on the screen in front ofhim.
What the—The hair on the back of his neck stood on end and a chill raced along his arms as he reached out and touched the little freckle he knew so well. The dark, brown beauty mark rested a little lower on her cheek now, but there was no mistaking the bright, innocent, ice-blue eyes that stared back at him. Frantically clicking, Grant moved through the handful of pictures and clicked on the victim summary report…then froze. An eerie numbness slipped into his face and hands as he read the first line ofinformation.
Victim name: Natalie Janine Gregory.His heartbeat pounded against every pulse point in his body as his eyes devoured the rest of the missing person report. In all the time he’d spent with Daniel Gregory, he’d never once seen a picture of his missing daughter. He’d never even asked, and Daniel had never offered. The only time he’d ever given her a thought was when he repaid a favor by helping him protect the daughter of the man who had takenhis.
This isn’t happening.How was it possible that the woman asleep not ten feet from where he stood, the woman he’d just made love to, the one woman in the world to wash up on his otherwise deserted island would be Daniel’s missing daughter?Holyfuck.
His hands shook almost violently as he clicked through her profile and printed out each page. If this was true, and as he watched the paper feed from the printer he knew without a doubt it was, then he was right.Son of a bitch!He couldn’t process the vile images that flashed through his thoughts of what she must have endured to have suppressed the memories of being taken and sold and…and…sonofabitch..
He had to get her out of there. How was he going to tell Daniel?Jesus Christ!He was a complete virgin to the kind of panic that ran like ice through his veins.How am I going to tellher?She was so hell bent and determined to get revenge for Issa… He froze as another wicked thought landed in front of all the others.Did Issa buyher?
Every detail she’d ever shared about herunclereplayed on fast forward as he paced the tiny room, desperate for some sort of life preserver to grab ahold of in order to keep from drowning in the sea of shit he suddenly found himself in. Everything she’d told him about the man seemed straight-up as far as him caring about her.Why would he tell her such an elaborate lie about her family?It didn’t make sense. Was it possible she’d made it all up?Christ! Anything is possible at this point.But he didn’t think so. He was damn good at reading people, and she practically projected her every emotion and thought for the entire world to see. If she was knowingly lying about something like that he would knowit.
What a fucking mess.He gathered the printed file and rolled the papers into a tube, stuffing then into the waistband of his jeans. Too worked up to sit, he hovered over the desk as he downloaded the entire Morganti file onto another flash drive then wiped any traces from the computer before he shut itdown.
Dammit.He didn’t know which direction to go first. Did he try to sit Thalia down and…wait…Thalia…Nathalia…Natalie. I’m such an idiot.He raised his hand, pulling his punch before he slammed his fist through the control room door. The last thing he wanted to do was wake her before he had a plan in place. He wasn’t actually running on all ten cylinders at the moment, and he knew he had to be in command of every molecule in his body if he was going to keep her from bolting. This wasn’t going to be easy for her to swallow. Fuck, he was practically gagging on it, and other than the fact he was pretty sure he was in love with her, it had nothing to do withhim.
Jauhar.It all came down to Jauhar. The odds were very much in favor of him being involved in her kidnapping, or at the very least the people who ran his trafficking organization. He had to get her as far away from that evil son of a bitch as possible.I’ll send her to Daniel’s.How much farther away could you get than Montana? Regardless of him being her father, he trusted Daniel. He and his spook friend Cade would protect her. With her safe and out of the way, he could deal with that scumbag himself without worrying about her. He shook his head and paced to the other side of the room. Getting her past customs would be easy enough with a private plane, but how the hell was he supposed to get her onto a plane to Montana without telling her what the hell was goingon?
Should he tell her, or should he tell Daniel first and let him tell her? They were strangers to each other. Maybe she would remember him once she saw him. He could pull up an old photo ID of Daniel and test her memory. He shook his head. That was a bad idea. He was probably the least equipped person on the planet to deal with the mental meltdown she could have if she did suddenly remembersomething.
He could stay there all night and torture himself trying to figure out the right way to do this, but no matter which way he decided to go it was going to suck all the way around. He might as well wake her up. The sooner he got her the hell out of there, the sooner he could put an end to this. They had the rest of their lives to figure out what camenext.
He opened the door and was headed to the bedroom when he saw the light from the kitchen shining into the other end of the hall. Had she gotten hungry and gone in search of dinner without him? He passed the bedroom door and crept toward the kitchen, an uneasy feeling churning in his gut. When he reached the end of the hall he peered around the corner. His shoulders fell as he took in the empty space.Where the hell isshe?
“Thalia?” He turned and paced back to the bedroom, finding both it and the bathroom empty. “Thalia? Where are you?” He ran back toward the other end of the house, that unfamiliar feeling of panic thrashing through his system. “Fossa, you’re scaring me. Where the…?” He stopped and turned back toward the small table where his laptop sat open.No!He punched a button and the screen blipped on.Sonofabitch.The backpack was gone, along with his sat phone. He turned to see that her boots weren’t next to the back door where she’d taken them offearlier.
No, fossa.Christ, they were in the middle of safari land. She wouldn’t survive until dawn out there on her own.Shit!He sprinted back toward the bedroom and threw open a set of metal locker doors before he reached for the landline phone. He punched the speaker button and hit redial. Grabbing another backpack, he turned back to the lockers and began tossing in the things he knew he wouldneed.
“You know, calling me from the samenumber…”
“Fuck it, D. I need you to run a GPS trace on my sat phone and link the coordinates to this receiver.” He grabbed another sat phone from the bank of chargers inside the locker and flipped it on. Rattling off the number, he tossed it in the pack. “Cancel the data search on the woman, but I still need everything you can get me on thetango.”
“I take it you found another way into those files?” A series of beeps sounded over the line and he knew the trace had gone through. God help her if she’d made that call toJauhar.
“I got what I needed.” He spun the lock on his trunk and grabbed a case from the bottom. He’d have to leave the rest of his shit there and come back for it after he got her stashed away. The only way he was going to get her on that plane, outside of drugging her, was to spill everything and make her understand she didn’t have any other options. “I need you to book a private flight from Billings to Chennai, India, and email the itinerary details to thisaddress.”
After rattling off Daniel’s email address, he punched the speaker button and disconnected the call, not bothering to wait for Diver’s reply. His finger paused above the call button and he looked up at the clock. This was going to be one hell of a wake-up call. He hit the speaker button again and dialed his friend. As it rang through a series of sub-secure connections he laid the case on the desk and opened it up, pulling out his sniperrifle.
“Gregory.” His friend’s raspy voice filled the room and Grant’s greeting froze on his tongue. This was it. There was no taking this back once it was outthere.
