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“A sniper?” Rhianne perked up. “Wow. What was that like? It must have—”
“I’d rather not discuss it, if you don’t mind.”
Eric still faced front, but the little she could see of his face was as tight as his voice had been. It took her by surprise. This was not the jokester she was used to, saying things to annoy or tease her. This was a different Eric.Stonywas the adjective she came up with. As much as she wanted to learn more about his past, it was very clear that she shouldn’t push.
“Hey, it must be your turn,” she said instead.
“Huh?”
“To ask a question. I asked the last one and found out that you were an arsonist, so…?”
That put a smile on his face and made the tautness to his jaw relax. “Anaccidentalarsonist. But in all fairness, how many kids that age know how bottle rockets work? Or that you shouldn’t deploy more than one at a time? We can’t all be Ms. Perfect.”
“Hey, I got detention in middle school!” she protested.
“Yeah? What for?”
“Punching a bully.” Rhianne’s hand formed into a fist as she relived the incident. “And I’m still not sorry I did it.”
“Okay, so we’ve covered first crushes and crimes…what’s left that’s not too shocking?” Eric mused. “I know. What’s the longest relationship you’ve ever had?”
“That…that’s off the table,” Rhianne got out through tight lips. She didn’t want to think about her last and longest relationship—the most serious one she’d ever had—with a fellow Coast Guard lieutenant.
The relationship itself had been fine, and Rhianne had been priding herself on how she’d learned her lesson from earlier relationships and had invested herself in what was growing between her and Jeff, not just cutting and running whenever they fought.It won’t be like that this time, she’d repeated to herself daily. Her past trauma over people leaving her had left her with the knee-jerk response to leavefirst,but she’d been determined not to let that ruin things for her again. She’d been so hopeful. So naïve.
People were never who they said they were. Especially not Jeff, as the bottle-blonde he was hooking up with while on leave showed. Rhianne had dumped him on the spot, angry at herself for her credulity and with her emotional walls higher than ever.
Of course she couldn’t mention any of this to Eric. Frankly, she was relieved he hadn’t seemed to have heard about it already. Jeff had made sure to “win” the breakup by getting his story out on social media, making himself out to be the victim, some blameless guy Rhianne had jettisoned as being beneath her when she’d gotten promoted. It had meant additional pain and humiliation on top of the hurt she was already feeling when several friends ended up taking Jeff’s side.
Sitting with her head turned away, she didn’t see Eric move or reach over to her, but she did feel him pat her arm. It made her jump.
“We’re going to have to work on the PDA thing,” he mused.
Rhianne felt her stomach drop but didn’t reply. She returned to staring straight ahead, keeping the compound under a watchful eye.
“Hell-o,” Eric said in a low voice, sitting up straighter. “We’ve got movement.”
“I see it.” Rhianne re-focused her binoculars.
A bus had turned off the road, passed through the gates with their twin guard houses, and was pulling up to the compound. The gates that had opened to let it in closed quickly behind it. As she watched, the doors of the vehicle opened…and a group of girls was ushered out. “Eric,” she gasped.
“On it,” came his grim reply, accompanied by the clicking of his camera shutter.
This was the proof that all their suspicions were true. This was a human trafficking ring, and it was happening in front of her. Rhianne willed her hands not to shake as she clutched the binoculars, holding her breath as she waited to see if there would be a familiar face in the group. While she desperately wanted proof that Robyn was still alive, she honestly didn’t know if she could hold her position and not give them away if she spotted her sister in the group.
She didn’t get the chance to find out. Maybe Robyn was already there or was scheduled to come later—but she wasn’t part of this group.
The girls, all young, seemed confused as they exited the vehicle, looking around like they had no idea what was going on. All except one, a girl with long light brown hair—she came out screaming. Rhianne sat forward, right against the windshield, but while that didn’t help her hear the girl, the way the brunette gesticulated and whirled around said without a doubt that she didn’t want to be there.
“Oh God—” Rhianne clapped a hand over her mouth when the girl took off in a run, back toward the closed gate, but before she reached it, the bus’s driver caught her. Within seconds, a taller, thinner man had jumped from the vehicle too and helped the first drag, then carry the brunette, struggling and twisting between them, inside a building, where someone closed the door behind them.
Rhianne pulled her hand from her mouth, suddenly desperate for air, but she couldn’t take in a breath. She’d taken an accidental punch to the stomach once in training, and this felt like she had then, only worse. She saw Eric’s arm move, and the thump told her he’d set the camera down on the dashboard.
The next second, he was pulling her into his arms, then against his chest. His arms held her tightly to him and his hands rubbed small circles into her back.
“Hey.” His voice came softly from above her head. “We’ll get them out.”
“Robyn—” Rhianne choked, tears sliding from her eyes. The mere thought of her in this hell…
