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“He asked me to meet him on Route 11 in Shickshinny. I guess that should’ve been a red flag, but the road runs along the river, so it made sense to me.”
“The creeps made you come to them?”
“I guess they did. I saw the kayaks on a truck in the lot for the fitness center where he said he’d be. I pulled in and parked, the next thing I knew, I was being shoved in the trunk of a car.”
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
Emmaline’s hands fisted at her sides, and fear filled her eyes. “My sister.”
“What about her, sweetie?”
“Mason said they drugged her. She was at a party, and they were going to take advantage of her.”
By the time they returned, there were nineteen ladies seated on the lawn of the manor house. They’d come from all over the united states from Maine to California. All from well-educated, wealthy families. It wasn’t that she’d necessarily believed human trafficking was a problem that only affected poor inner-city folks and immigrants, but she’d never imagined it touching families like the Garrisons and Swishers. Emmaline was ushered away to receive medical care.
Samantha leaned against the tailgate of Billy’s state park SUV. Gavin and Grayson both hovered over their sister, and their father stood beside them. Sam smiled at the sight. Cate was blessed to have family who loved her so much. Gavin caught her staring and joined her.
“Didn’t you say you had a bodyguard protecting Judge Swisher’s other daughter?” she asked.
“That was Grace.”
“So, nobody’s with the girl?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Emmaline says Mason ordered some guys to drug her little sister.”
“We have two of our men watching Victoria Mae, but I’ll call them.”
He returned a few minutes later after using a landline in the house. “Victoria Mae has not eluded her security detail. She’s safely ensconced in a rental house with her father only a few minutes from here.”
She dropped to her knees. “Praise the Lord.” It wasn’t until that moment that she realized how scared she’d been for the girl.
Gavin helped her back to her feet. “Want to let Emmaline know the good news?”
Gavinclosedhiseyes.The FBI had descended upon them and taken the women to safety. The moment he received the call about Emmaline, they issued an arrest warrant prepared for the man he’d grown up calling Uncle Uncle Philip. The man had taken a flight to Switzerland two days earlier. Supposedly, it was his vacation, but it seemed clear to Gavin that he’d anticipated the coming trouble and fled the country.
Grayson convinced the agents to let Cate remain with them. Samantha didn’t leave with them either, but he wasn’t sure why she’d remained behind, but he was glad she had.
He walked across the yard to the wide front porch where she stood alone. When he reached her, he brushed his lips across her in a whisper of a kiss, then pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Did you think anymore about what I said down there?”
“What do you think?” Her husky voice tested his self-control. “Your words are in my head on repeat.”
“I think your heart wants to take a chance on us, but your head is shouting all the reasons why it’s a bad idea.”
“It’s a terrible idea. It’ll be a miracle if I escape unscathed.”
“Why would you want to escape? I’m looking for a forever kind of commitment, Sam.” He frowned. “Marry me.”
“You don’t want to marry me. It’s the stress of the evening. Too much raw emotion.”
“Don’t tell me what I do or don’t want. I knew I wanted to marry you before I went to your house and found you missing. Then that letter your uncle wrote fell from that journal and after I read it, for a split second, I wondered if you’d run. If you would be too afraid to get married after reading those words. But I knew you were too strong to leave like that. That’s when I realized Mason must’ve taken you. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
“What letter?”
“The one where your uncle explains about your parents and how they got married.”
“You mean how they met at Bible college, and it was love at first sight?”
