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“Water.” It was the first raspy sound she’d made since he’d pried her out of those god-awful restraints and battled to reach her through the fog of war she was waging to survive. He’d seen men on the battlefield die with less of a fight in them than she’d displayed. If he were still a soldier he would fight next to her anyday.
His intel supervisor returned with a glass of water and he held it to her bleeding lips. The water turned pink as rivulets of blood drained from the corners of her mouth and into the cup. She didn’t seem to care. She gulped the water down in a handful of swallows before her head fell against his chest, that small effort depleting herenergy.
“Did you look at the pictures,sir?”
He sat the cup on the floor and picked up the stack of pictures. “What am I looking at?Jesus!”
“Yes, sir. I’d say he’s the only person who will be able to save Collins now,sir.”
Dax flipped through the stack of what he could only call child pornography. Photo after photo of small boys. Some naked, some barely clothed. All of them undernourished with obvious signs of physical abuse. His stomach soured when he flipped to the last one and saw a small, naked, red haired child chained to a rusty dog crate. “These were taken at the Senator’s condo inD.C?”
“At his estate in Maryland, sir. We’ve recovered five children from a hidden room in his basement. The D.C. Police and Federal Marshals are combing through his residence there as wespeak.”
How did this happen? How had an insect like Collins existed,thrivingin the political spotlight, right under their noses all this time? If it wasn’t for this Lieutenant character, they never would have known. When he was first contacted, he thought this guy was off his rocker. It had only taken one call to confirm him as a legitimate source. He still didn’t have a clue as to who this guy was but, whoever he was, he had some damn influential friends and mighty powerfulenemies.
At the Lieutenant’s request, once he’d confirmed the intel on the thumb drive was legit, he copied the contents and had it hand delivered to Collins with a note from the Lieutenant. The note detailed what the drive contained, which was nothing less than an itemized diary of every shipment of slaves Issa had trafficked for Jauhar and Don Lalia over the past fifteen years. They had never suspected Don Lalia of anything but local racketeering. If the Lieutenant’s suspicions were correct, as it turned out they were, the Senator would waste no time in contacting Jauhar with the news. He, in fact, had booked a flight to Mumbai the very nextday.
He didn’t know how this Lieutenant knew the things he did. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. It didn’t matter until he was called to appear in front of the investigation review board and give his statement. He would figure out a way to honor this guy’s only request, to be kept as a confidential source. No way in hell was he going to blow that deal. Not after seeing these photographs.If he’s even stillalive.
He hated leaving the guy out to dry, but it was impossible to scramble a second team to the Mumbai location in the short amount of time his friend Diver had requested. He sure as hell wasn’t sending Rebecca and a couple of techies in there blind. Not that his orders to stand down had done him a shitload ofgood.
It shouldn’t matter, but he couldn’t tell her what they were expecting to go down. He’d been sent with the strictest of orders to keep the Senator’s possible involvement confidential until they had confirmed it. That meant only essential SCI clearance personnel. In truth, it wasn’t her lack of clearance. She would be subjected to the mother of all investigations. He knew it would make her a walking target, like he and his team now were. These things rarely, if ever, stopped at one individual. Once they got down to the dirty details, they would find others who either knew about or participated in this sick way of life that Collins lived. These were powerful people with dangerous connections. When you combine that with desperation, some of them could turn deadly. He didn’t want her anywhere near that. He’d gotten his wish, but at whatcost?
Twenty-Seven
Blood soakedGrant’s shirt and pants. The sticky fabric clung to his skin, the copper stench matching the taste in his mouth. Daniel had given him his shirt to staunch the tide of blood gushing from his head wound, but the cuts to his chest and arms wouldn’t be helped by anything less thanstitches.
He ran balls to the wall the second Diver had said the word bomb. He’d manage to make it out of the second story room and down to the end of the hall before the blast catapulted him through the window at the end. He wasn’t sure how he survived the blast, flying through the glass and crashing to the ground in a pile of concrete and steel, but he wasn’t going to look into too deeply. He was alive. He only hoped the same fate was watching overThalia.
It was strange how being that close to death could bring such clarity to life. He’d been a fool to leave her. He’d been a fool about a lot of things. He should have known better than to trust his own instincts when he knew he couldn’t count of them. He was too emotionally involved to thinkstraight.
If Senator Collins had tipped off Jauhar, then he obviously believed he’d already secured the data on that thumb drive. All that was left was killing the messenger. He should have known from the start it was all a set-up. Collins would know he had access to the resources to trace that call. He also knew the tradecraft protocol and that Grant would have no choice but to investigate the source. He only hoped he didn’t know about the tracer Rebecca had planted in Thalia’s clothes. It was the one ace they hadleft.
He bit back a groan as the gash on his side was pulled taught by the hard left turn Daniel made. He didn’t dare ask him to slow down. If anything he wanted him to speed up. None of them had a cellphone to call Keller. Rebecca’s was probably melted to the inside of the charred surveillance van, and the one he’d lifted from Jauhar’s man was blown to pieces. He’d give anything for one damn phone call, but no one was voting to stop at a pay phone. The sooner they got to Navi the sooner he would know Thalia’s fate.Hang on, fossa. I’mcoming.
Twenty-five agonizing minutes later, an army of suits surrounded the car when Daniel nosed through the roadblock that had been set up not far from the men’s club in Navi. Agents shouted orders, but Daniel ignored them until he reached the front of the building. They spilled out of the car, gun to gun with the other men until Rebecca pushed her way through the crowd of agents and local police to the other side of the car and flashed her bureauidentification.
“I don’t care who you are, ma’am. You’re not cleared to goin.”
“Please notify Deputy Director Keller that Rebecca Danes is waitingoutside.”
“Rebecca!” Grant watched as a rather large man wearing the standard bureau get-up raced through the front entrance and tackled the redhead with a lip-locking embrace.How nice.If it had been any other time and place he still wouldn’t have given a fuck. He needed to see Thalianow.
“Thalia!” His head felt a little light as he followed Daniel, pushing and shoving their way into the club. Someone snagged his arm and he turned to see lover boy barreling down onhim.
“Lieutenant?”
“Keller?” Jesus, he didn’t have time for this. “Where’sThalia?”
“You know her?” Grant nearly growled at the man. He was still losing blood. He didn’t think he had the strength to fight a piss-ant, but in the next three seconds he was going to start throwing punches if he didn’t get to Thalia. Luckily lover boy took the hint and showed him through the crowd in the main lobby. “Right thisway.”
The crowd thinned the deeper inside the club they went until finally they emerged inside a dimly lit room crawling with tactical agents. The first person he saw was Jauhar, sitting comfortably on a plush lounge as if he owned the world. What blood he had left in his body screamed through his veins. He took three giant strides toward the cocksucker, hell bent on complete destruction when he froze, the sound of Thalia’s gasp stopping him in histracks.
“Thalia? Oh, thank Christ! You’re alive.” He rushed to her side and enfolded her broken body in his arms.Oh my God.His heart beat like a drum inside his chest, his entire body responding to her touch as if she were the very thing that gave him life. “I’m so sorry, fossa.” He rocked her in his arms, trying desperately not to crush her. “So, so sorry.” He couldn’t get close enough. His body, his soul, ached to feel her and now that she was finally where she belonged he would never let her go. “I’m so damn sorry. I love you so much. I should have never leftyou.”
She let out a whimper, her body trembling violently against his. Immediately his body recoiled and he loosened his hold. “Oh God. I’m such an idiot. You need a doctor and I’m bleeding all overyou.”
Her forehead fell against his bare chest, her fingernails digging into his arms like talons as a heart-stopping wail of pain and rage spewed from her lungs. “Getawayfromme!”
