AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They studied it in silence for a moment. “One thing’s clear—this place is bigger than we’re being allowed to see.” Eric pointed at the screen. “It looks like there’s a large area off from there, near where we were in the house, probably down a hallway we didn’t get to see.”
“Idid.” Rhianne’s face blazed triumphantly. “Isaw it. They tried to hide it behind a potted plant, but I slipped back there when Arturo sent me to get the drinks. There’s a corridor leading off from the main hall, situated at about two o’clock from the main door, going this way…” She indicated where it was on the screen. “It ends in a locked door, and there’s guards behind it. You don’t have a lock and guards unless you want to keep something out.”
“Or in.” Eric knew where she was going with this.
“I just know the girls are being kept somewhere beyond that door.” Rhianne’s face was set. The warmth and passion from moments before was completely gone.
Eric studied the satellite picture again. “I agree,” he replied at last. “It’s the most likely place. So— Whoa! Where are you going?” He caught her wrist.
“To change.” Rhianne gave an impatient tug at her gown. “I can’t sneak back in like this. Because that’s what we’re going to do, right? Get in while everyone’s asleep and bust the girls out?”
“No, we’re not.” Eric stood. “We’re going to wait. The auction’s tomorrow night, so if we wait, we’ll get a visual confirmation of Robyn before we bring the cartel down on our heads. Rhianne!” He raised his voice over her scoffing noise. “We have no idea what we’ll find behind that door. We have no idea how many guards we’ll face, how accessible the girls will be. For all we know, they could be in individual cells—breaking them all out could take hours, and who’s to say we’ll have that kind of time before we trip an alarm? Not to mention, how are we going to get away with all of them? Our car can’t hold them all.”
Rhianne’s beautiful face twisted with frustration and she took in a breath, no doubt to argue with him, but she seemed to realize that she didn’t actually have any answers for the problems he’d brought up. He stared her out until she exhaled.
Seeing that some of the fight had gone out of her, Eric softened his tone. “It’s better to go through with the auction, get Robyn in our vicinity. Charlie and Ian are set to alert the Mexican police so that there can be a raid—they want to get the other girls out safely too. It’s our best chance for all of them.”
She sighed hard and her head dropped. When she looked up again, her face was set. “Fine,” she said. “Fine. I agree.” She pressed her lips together, holding herself in, then turned and paced a few steps, making it clear she’d rather be on the move.
Her desire to rush to the rescue was obvious.
And it was something that made Eric very nervous.
12
“Fuck, hasn’t this place heard of alarm clocks?” Eric muttered when a knock on the door woke him the next morning. But if nothing else, being a SEAL had taught him to go from asleep to alert in no time flat. He slid out of bed and went to answer, stretching to crack his back as he walked. He was careful to only open the door a little so that whoever was outside wouldn’t be able to get a glimpse of Rhianne in bed.
“Good morning!” the staff member greeted him. The size of the smile on her face seemed at odds with the hour of the morning, not to mention how Eric was feeling. “Departure in an hour, please, sir.”
“Departure?” Eric managed not to look over at Rhianne. Were they being kicked out? But that would mean their cover was blown, and he couldn’t imagine Arturo shrugging and simply having them escorted off his property. “The auction’s off?” he asked.
“Auction?” He’d confused the young woman, but her expression soon cleared. “Oh no, sir, the auction is still on for this evening, exactly as scheduled. But first, there’s another activity arranged,” she clarified. “All of the men are invited for a day of competitive shooting.”
Comprehension dawned as Eric remembered people mentioning that last night. “Just for the men? Not the little ladies?” he asked, groping for his “Eli” persona.
The assistant trickled out a polite laugh. “The women are going to be pampered at the spa to get ready for the auction.”
“Hear that, honey? Sound good?” Eric threw over his shoulder.
“I guarantee she’ll enjoy it,” the girl assured him. “As good as any in Tijuana! So, both of you, please be ready to begin your activities in an hour?”
“You betcha!” Eric gave her a two-fingered salute. “Thanks.”
With a final wide smile, the staff member left.
“Yes, I did hear that.” Rhianne sat up when Eric had closed the door. She was hollow-eyed from lack of sleep. Eric knew how little sleep she’d gotten—he’d been there through it. “And I’m not happy about it.”
He hadn’t supposed she would be.
“Because this is all a waste of time!” Rhianne swung her feet to the floor with a thump. “We need to rescue my sister, not waste time playing around with pistol shooting and getting facials with human traffickers.Jeez, Eric!”
“Hey.” Eric stood in front of her before she could start pacing. “Look, I know you’re impatient. And I know you’re worried. But we can’t blow this now. There’s more than just your sister at stake here. You saw that busload of women arrive. Robyn wasn’t on it—so how many other busloads are there? How many other young women are trapped and facing the unthinkable?” Charlie didn’t know exact numbers, but correlating the reports he’d found of missing teenagers with the amount of people here for the auction put the total atoh shit.
“Even if we could break in to where they’re being kept, and even if we could find Robyn and get her out—and both of those are very big ifs—there’s no way we could save all of them on our own. If we want to get everyone out, we need to wait for the raid and the backup. We can’t just leave the others to their fate.”
Rhianne wouldn’t want to. Her expression said as much.
“I’ll do absolutely everything in my power to rescue Robyn. I gave you my word, remember?” He reached out for her upper arms, his fingers curling around her soft skin. “Remember?”
