Forsaken (The Found Book 2) (11 page)

“Don’t you use that cop tone on Kali, Cyrus. Why aren’t we sending someone else to try to be a buyer? Or one of your cop friends, or one of Seth’s DEA co-workers? Why aren’t we doing something?”

“We can’t contact the DEA. Seth is convinced there is a leak within multiple teams at his level. If I contact someone from the Atlanta PD, they would immediately see the drug connection and call in the DEA, and we are back at square one. We can’t send anyone here, because we’re finally making some headway with Rixitron. Hell, we’re using every civilian in this room to help,” Cyrus sounded almost disgusted and Sarah hauled off and hit him in the shoulder.

“Hey what was that for?”

“For being an asshole.”

“Thank you,” Niko Evanoff said, with a slight Russian accent.

“You’re using civilians to assist on the Rixitron project?” Annie asked smoothly.

“They’re not suggesting something nearly as dangerous as what you’re suggesting.” She had never been subject the penetrating gaze of Noah Kukailimoku, and it made her squirm in her seat. She could see how he made the Lieutenant Commander in the Navy at such a young age.

“What do you mean dangerous?” Riley demanded, as he leaned forward in his chair.

“If I’m not mistaken, Annie is going to volunteer to be one of the kidnapped girls.”

Riley looked at her and saw the truth of Noah’s words. He slowly stood from his chair and walked around the table to her.

“We need to go out in hall and talk,” he said in a voice laced with steel. A voice she never heard before. After all they had been through, she owed him this. She stood, and he gave a grim nod and turned toward the door. She followed.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Riley turned to her, his arm above her, caging her between him and wall.

“I want to forbid you to follow through with this plan. I want to guilt you by telling you how bad of a mother you are to Nell for even considering this. I want kiss you and tell you that I can’t live without you.”

Annie reached out and brushed her hand against his chest. Unsure if she wanted to beat him or comfort him. He must have seen her conflict because he gave out a harsh laugh.

“That’s the problem, isn’t it, you don’t know what to do with me. Well, here, I’ll help. I can’t forbid it, because it’s not my place. Of course you’ve considered Nell, and weighed the consequences. Your little girl means the world to you and you would never do something like volunteer for such a plan if you didn’t sincerely believe you could help and survive. As for my feelings, well they really don’t matter. I’ve
always
known your heart belongs to Seth. I’ve been talking to the team in Florida, he’s a good man caught in an unimaginably bad situation.”

As soon as he started talking about Nell, the pain in her heart started building and when he mentioned Seth it exploded outward and she found herself in his arms sobbing.

“I have to do this Riley,” she spoke into his T-shirt.

“I can’t understand you. Can you calm down?” He lifted his shirt and wiped her eyes, and stroked her back.

She took a deep breath. “I have to help.”

“We can find another way. Someone else can do this.”

“There is no one else. Look at me, I look like I’m nineteen. I keep imagining this happening to Nell. We can’t let this go on for even one more day. I have to do this. Are you really in love with me?”

“Almost. I love you. You and your daughter will always hold a piece of my heart, but maybe because I knew you essentially belonged to another man, I protected myself. I never completely fell off the ledge, but I sure as hell could have. If Seth turns out to be a bastard, I’m coming after you, Annie Newman.” He dipped his head down and gave her a gentle kiss.

“Riley…”

“You don’t have to say it.” He smiled at her. “Let’s go back in.”

Once Riley was on board with her plan, she found it easier to convince the rest of the men.

“Sierra explained they’re using a modeling agency as a front to lure the young women. They sign a phony contract thinking they are going overseas to become fashion models for six months to a year, and then they’re immediately locked up and put up for sale,” Noah explained.

“Who thinks up something like this?” Sarah asked.

“This happens in my country,” Niko said. “We have many of our young women lured away and never seen again with this kind of trap. I never thought American women would fall for it. Our girls want better lives for themselves and want to be able send money to their families.”

“Sometimes it’s for the same type of reasons, Niko. There are plenty of families in America who are really struggling,” Cyrus defended.

“But you have to admit, a lot of these girls go into this with stars in their eyes. They want to become famous models or actresses,” Kali said. Cyrus nodded in agreement.

“Sarah, you asked who thinks to have girls sign up to be models and then sell them into slavery. Well it would be Labado’s right hand woman, Leslie Gordon,” Noah answered. “She has been working with him for over twenty years. She must have seen what was happening as his profits were taking a nose dive with the DEA busts, and wanted to help him shore up his business. This is her brainchild.”

“A woman is behind this?” Kali asked, aghast.

Noah put an arm around his petite wife. “Yes, she is.”

Kota spoke up. “I don’t like the idea of Annie doing this. But I didn’t like the idea of Kali going into the field last year either. I’ve had to learn to put my gut reaction to protect these civilian women to the side. Annie, if you feel like you can help put a stop to this horror, I’ll back you.”

“Well I won’t, she has no place in the field. She has no training, and she doesn’t have the team she needs to back her up, because everybody in Florida is spread too thin. The very idea is crazy. It’d be like letting Sarah go.” The room went deadly quiet.

“What did you just say, Cyrus?”

“I’m not taking it back Sarah. There is no way I would ever allow you to do something like this. I’m not ever going to mom and dad and tell them their baby girl is dead. It’s not happening.”

“It’s not your call to make. I will decide what chances I will, and will not, take.”

“Yes it is. I will decide what risks you’ll take, Sarah. What’s more, I’m not allowing Annie to make such a foolhardy decision either, and Noah will back me up on this. There is no way he will allow the mother of an infant to infiltrate a group making a bunch of women into sex slaves. He’s just not going to do it.”

Annie could easily see how Cyrus could lead task forces in Atlanta, but he sure didn’t know how to interact with his sister.

“Enough. Cyrus, you’re wrong. I’m going to listen to Annie. I’ll determine the best decision for the good of the team, and the innocents involved. Right now, we’re faced with a lot of shitty options. You’re right, I hate the idea of sending Annie into danger. But you want to know the truth? I think this is something, with a hell of a lot of planning, has a damn good chance of bringing down the whole operation.”

“Fuck, you can’t be serious.” Cyrus looked at Noah, and then around the table.

“He is serious, and if you could take your foot out of your mouth, and pull your head out of your ass, you could be a help instead of a hindrance,” Sarah said, as she nudged her brother with her shoulder.

“I’ve worked a lot of prostitution ring cases in Atlanta, and those can get really violent and abusive. I can only imagine this will be worse. Won’t you reconsider?” Annie looked into Cyrus’s worried brown eyes, and tried to give him a reassuring smile.

“I’ve made up my mind. You have to understand. I have a daughter of my own. I can’t imagine the hell the mothers of these girls are going through. I have to do this.”

“If I thought I looked young enough to entice them, I’d certainly be doing this, and you wouldn’t be able to stop me,” Sarah said.

“And if I looked less pregnant, I’d do it,” Kali chimed in.

“And I would stand by her, no matter how much it would drive me insane,” Noah said to the large man who looked so forlorn sitting beside his sister.

Finally Cyrus nodded at Annie. “Okay, let’s start working on a plan so we can get you back here with Nell as quickly as possible.”

Chapter Ten

Seth felt like he was juggling flaming knives, and with every passing night he cared less and less if he missed catching one and it stabbed him in the heart. First there were all of the double booked ships he had mostly straightened out, at the cost of a half a million dollars. Then there was Tomas and the money he had stolen from Labado. And then Tomas trying to set up a deal with Vargas so he could pay back Labado. There was Labado bringing Soto into the picture so he could fight with Vargas, not realizing both Vargas and Soto would flatten his organization in a blink of an eye. All of this was going on and he hadn’t had a chance to do anything about Leslie Gordon and her foul sex trafficking operation.

Maybe, just maybe, he could have coped if in the last six days he could have contacted Annie, but she blocked him. Every single time he tried to reach out to her in meditation it was like the door was closed.

Thank God for Nell. He could reach out and connect with her. She had been his lifeline through all this madness, her pure spirit a balm to his soul. But the last two days worried him. It was clear Annie was gone. Nell was anxious and upset. She missed her mother terribly.

He saw his Grandmother Shilah in Nell’s mind. Obviously she was taking care of his daughter, and when he tried to reach out to her, he was met with a mist. Despite their connection in the physical plane, apparently they didn’t have one on the dream plane. So he tried to piece together what was going on through the mind of a one-year-old. It was just one more thing driving him mad. He absolutely adored his daughter, and he was coming to realize she was so much smarter than a normal child her age, but she was still a baby, and they were only communicating in a dream.

“There’s my good girl.”

“DaDa.” Bright colors swirled over his head, cherry red, cobalt blue, Kelly green and lemon yellow. Faster, they swirled, so pretty, until finally they slowed, and he could see they were birds on a wind-up mobile hanging over Nell’s crib.

He was in the rocking chair beside her crib and she was standing up peering over the rail, delighted to see him. Then as if they were one, they looked towards the door of the nursery for Annie and then looked back at one another in disappointment. Where moments before Nell had been smiling, tears now dripped down her face. He went over and swept her into his arms.

“Where’s your mama, baby girl? Do you know?”

She shook her head, and he looked at her in amazement.

“Did you just understand my question?”

This time Nell nodded her head, but Seth saw the tears coming faster. She wasn’t behaving like a normal baby even when she was upset. No wailing for his daughter, just the heartbreaking tears. It reminded him so much of Annie when she was in pain. He pulled the hot little body close to his chest, and tucked her tiny head under his chin. Then he began to sway and hum. Finally she pushed from his chest, and her little tear-stained face almost broke his heart.

“I’ve got you, Nell.”

“Mama.”

“No I’m your Dad, honey.”

She gave him an exasperated look, it was so identical to Annie’s he chuckled, which took her from exasperated to frustrated which if he wasn’t careful she would soon be all out pissed. Again, just like her mom. Seth schooled his features, so he wasn’t smiling, it was tough. He couldn’t wait for the day he was holding his daughter for real.

Where the hell was Annie?

“
Mama.” She pointed at him with an almost accusing look.

“Honey, I know, I want to find your mama too. I’m sorry I don’t know where she is. I promise I’ll find her.”

She shook her head, her straight silky black hair fell over her ears. When he looked at her hair, nose, the shape of her face, it was all him. Except for the emerald green eyes filled with recrimination, those were Annie’s eyes. “Mama.” She pressed her finger against his chest.

Shit, she was saying Annie was with him. How was it possible?

“Are you sure? Annie is coming to see me?” This time her hair fell over her eyes as she nodded. He brushed it back, marveling at the softness. Her little lip quivered and the tears started again. He couldn’t blame her. He’d be crying too, if Annie had left him.

What the fuck was Annie doing coming to him?

His stomach clenched in fear, but his heart leapt with joy. He was going to see Annie after all this time, he would see Annie, be able to hold her, touch her, smell her, and wrap himself in her warmth.

Think Natani! And not with your dick. She’s coming for a reason, and it’s going to be fuck-all bad. It’s going to be the worst thing you can imagine. It’s so bad, you can’t even imagine it.

****

Seth sat straight up in bed, bathed in sweat, the sheet tangled at his feet. He stumbled to the bathroom and threw water on his face, when he looked in the mirror he saw one terrified motherfucker.

Forcing himself to take deep breaths he took a shower, and he didn’t get out until he knew he could get dressed without trembling. He grabbed his cell phone and made the most important call of his life.

Fuck, he got voicemail.

“Evelyn, there is a problem, I need you to meet me at my office immediately.”

He put on a blue pinstripe suit and made his way to the office in record time. It was four am, Tuesday morning.

When he arrived, Sierra was sitting on his desk, wearing a blue pinstripe suit, holding out a cup of coffee for him. Apparently she was tapped into the cameras in his bedroom. Great, just great.

“Were you going to tell me Annie was in Florida?”

Sierra set the coffee on his desk, and picked one with a lipstick stain and took a sip, looking over the brim, gauging his mood.