Secrets of the Dead (32 page)

“I will think of something by the time you get here.” He heard the resignation in her words. “Call again when you are thirty miles out. Now let me talk to my mother. I have to explain to her why she will send my daughter with you.”

_______

Eve waited for
her turn at the restroom. Royce had been returned to the cage. Kim flicked her a glance and went to the TV. Turned it on and settled into a chair to watch.

She turned to Royce and whispered,
“¿Hablas español?”

Surprised, he rolled to look at her.
“Un poco.”

Eve smiled, relief filling her. Even if Kim heard them talking, she would be unlikely to understand. Continuing in Spanish, she said, “If you have the chance, run.”

He frowned and she raised her feet a ways in the air. Wiggled them to mime running. He nodded. “Don’t wait for me. Understand? Just go.”

“Bí zui!”
Kim scowled over at them. Obediently Eve went quiet until the woman returned to the TV.

“Did you really want to ransom me to my dad?” Royce’s words were in English, and so low they were barely audible.

“No. I am working for him.” The impassive look the boy gave her was heartbreaking. He’d likely heard plenty of lies in the course of the past few days. “There are others here. Declan and Kellan and Finn. All looking for us.”

“You promise?”

She nodded. A part of her was happy to see the hope in the boy’s expression. But there was a darker side that worried about putting it there. She had no doubt that Declan and the others would have found the location device by now. But none of them spoke Chinese, and the old woman hadn’t seemed to speak English. She wouldn’t have been able to tell them where Malsovic had taken his prisoners.

It was over an hour before Kim got up and came to let Eve out of the cage. It wasn’t totally an act when, after being pulled to her feet, she had to lean heavily on the woman. Her legs felt numb. She could only shuffle across the room.

Afterwards, as she walked back toward the kennel, she pretended to stumble. Kim moved closer and Eve rammed her elbow into the woman’s chest with all her strength. Once. Twice. Then lowered her shoulder and drove it into her, knocking Kim hard against the doorjamb. She had a moment’s satisfaction when the woman’s head rapped hard against the jamb.

If she could knock her out, maybe she could get the key to the padlock. Maybe… Eve threw her weight against the woman again, but this time Kim was ready for her. She gave Eve a huge shove, her foot swiping in front of hers. With no way to catch herself, she landed flat on the floor with enough force to drive the breath from her lungs.

Fighting for air, she was dimly aware of the woman’s voice. “She is a trouble maker, that one. I should get more pay to watch her.”

A pair of dark men’s shoes straddled either side of Eve’s face. She closed her eyes in defeat as she heard a familiar voice say, “Fill the bathtub.”

Chapter 15

She’d worn the
abaya and niqab on the private ballroom elevator. Kim pushed the luggage cart on which Royce’s kennel had been loaded. Malsovic had brought him a suit with shiny black shoes and a white shirt. Kim had been charged with showering and dressing the boy, a fact Royce had been vocally dissatisfied about.

It was the woman’s turn to be unhappy when she had to tend Eve. She’d taken far more pleasure in the torture Malsovic had engaged in first. He forced Kim to make up Eve’s face to minimize the cuts sustained earlier and to work on her hair. She’d then been dressed in the clothes Malsovic had chosen for her to wear beneath the robe.

The elevator pinged. The doors opened with a quiet swoosh. They moved into the hall, a silent quartet, before he stopped them. “Remove the robe and veil.”

A flush of embarrassment heated her skin, but slowly she did as she was told. Dropped them to the floor. The fishnet body suit left nothing to the imagination, with the scrap of black panties and bra beneath. Red stilettos and a matching collar and leash completed the outfit he’d brought for her. Looping his hand through the handle of the leash, he pulled her after him.

“She looks like a whore,” Kim told him.

“All women are whores.” His flat obsidian gaze flicked over her, and the woman drew back. “After today, she will never forget it.”

Armed guards dotted the hallway. Huan met them at the only open door into the room, her gaze cool and professional. Consulting the electronic tablet she carried she said, “Items one hundred sixty-two and one hundred sixty-three. Let me show you to your spots.” She’d changed clothes since this morning, Eve noted. She wore a suit in coral, the skirt hitting her mid-thigh, and her hair was twisted into a chignon at her nape.

The area they crossed was vast. The ballroom and surrounding hallways took up the entire top floor. Windows lined one wall, showing a breathtaking view of the city. The room was already full of people. Paintings. Sculptures. Some of the glass cases they passed displayed jewels. Coins. Stamps. One man was setting up a video that showed a magnificent stallion. Eve saw a few other women in the room, scantily clad. None made eye contact. There was a full size cell with three small Asian girls in it, all wearing fluffy white dresses. The sight of them had Eve’s stomach twisting in nausea. My God, what was this place?

“This will be your exhibition area.” Huan waved a hand. The item numbers she’d mentioned hung on the wall behind her. “The table you asked for.” It was set squarely in the center of the spaced reserved for them, with another electronic tablet on a stand. “Silent bidding is allowed prior to the auction.” She indicated the tablet. “If you have a bid, it will appear before you, and it is your choice whether to accept it or wait for the auction. Please finish unloading. I will need photos for the video that will start soon. Customers who don’t wish to browse will rely on the digital viewing prior to the auction.” She waited impatiently for Kim and Malsovic to unload the boy and then took several pictures of Eve and Royce with her phone.

Nodding toward another woman making her way toward them, she said, “Cheng will be handing out catalogs. You will see I included your items.”

Another woman gestured to her from across the room, and Huan hurried away. Kim and Malsovic lifted Royce’s cage and set it on one side of the table. Eve had to follow closely, or risk having the collar yanked tight on her throat when Malsovic moved beyond the length of the leash.

He dismissed the other woman, and she rolled the cart away and out of the room. Digging into a bag he carried with him, he withdrew several documents and spread them across the table. Then he turned his dark flat gaze on Eve. “You already have an admirer.”

A portly man with slicked back thinning hair was approaching them. His brown gaze painted Eve with a long lecherous look. In Italian he said, “That hair. Like a blond princess. I would use you well. Perhaps give you to my friends to enjoy, also.”

“If you buy me my husband will hunt you down and cut out your heart,” she responded in the same language. And had a brief moment of satisfaction when the man’s expression went shocked, before hardening. Turning on his heel, he marched away. There was a forceful yank on the leash that had her staggering back a few steps.

“What did you say to him,” demanded Malsovic in a furious voice. She felt a surprising lack of fear when she looked at him. He could do nothing to her now. There was no bathtub in sight.

“I told him he should make a bid quickly. Before more men came.”

“Liar.” He leaned closer, breathed into her ear. “You need to be in one piece to fetch the best price. The boy does not.” The fear that had been absent earlier was back, a jagged blade of it. “Each time you disobey…each time you send someone away, the boy loses part of a finger. Do you understand?”

Swallowing, she nodded, a wave of desolation sweeping over her. Eve understood completely. She understood their situation here had passed desperate and was looking increasingly hopeless.

And she understood that she’d failed Royce Raiker.

_______

“Does anyone else
have the feeling that Huan is about to screw us over big time?” Kellan muttered.

There were back at their hotel, taking turns watching the girl in one room, which involved showing her how to work the television. In the other they changed into the suits Huan insisted they buy. The auction, the woman had insisted, had a dress code.

They’d used most of the trip back to Johor Bahru consulting with Stillions by email. His team’s flight should be landing in JB soon. But the bureau, the State Department or both were tagging the proper officials in Malaysia about the auction. While the FBI consulted on international kidnappings, they had no arrest power in foreign countries, necessitating a coordinated effort. Despite the Malaysian government’s efforts at improvement, corruption remained in both their law enforcement and politics, which was hardly comforting.

They’d developed an alternate plan and it depended on the three of them going to the auction. Paulie had transferred the money out of Malsovic’s account to the one the first half of Shuang’s payment had been diverted to. Plenty of money to bid, if that was what it took to rescue Eve and Royce. The strategy wouldn’t be necessary if Stillions was coordinating a raid with local law enforcement, but the fed had been out of contact for hours. And time was running out.

“Auction starts in an hour,” Finn said quietly from the girl’s side. An and Finn had developed an easy relationship on the trip back to Johor Bahru. He’d shown her how to work the camera on his phone, and they’d taken turns taking silly pictures of each other, much to the child’s delight. Now she was surrounded with soft drinks, candy and snacks in preparation for the time when they’d have to leave her alone.

But for the men in the room, that time wasn’t coming fast enough. “We have to get in the ballroom soon.” Despite Stillions’ strict orders to wait to hear from him, Declan could feel each passing minute like a physical wound. Elmont Trettin was a high profile international criminal, who no doubt had friends in very high places. Had to have, in order to have remained free all these years despite his sheet of crimes. Malaysian officials had insisted on photo evidence that Eve and Royce were in the Corus Hotel. Huan had promised to deliver it to the FBI agent’s cell number. But the silence from the feds involved made him wonder if she ever had.

He was beginning to think Kell’s fear was prophetic.

“Stillions told us to stay here until we heard from him.” Finn looked at Declan and Kell. “Who thinks we should follow his orders?”

Relief flickered in him when the three men looked at each other. Simultaneously they uttered, “Hell, no.”

Fifteen minutes later the taxi dropped them off at the Corus. “I’ll go to the counter,” Kell volunteered. “You guys stay out here until we make sure we aren’t being set up.”

The other two nodded. Declan was the only one Malsovic would recognize. Knowing that, he wasn’t clean-shaven as the other two were, and had bought a fedora that he wore low on his forehead. It wouldn’t be enough to prevent him from being identified. But by the time they drew close enough for Malsovic to do so, it would be too late.

They loitered in front of the hotel while Kell went inside. It wasn’t raining today—not yet—but the dark ugly clouds scudding across the sky indicated that more precipitation was imminent. Declan felt his insides coiled so tightly it was all he could do to remain still. Huan had explained the way the auction worked. They had no way of being sure Malsovic wouldn’t accept early bids, and skip the auction all together. They couldn’t be certain that Royce and Eve were still inside the ballroom of the hotel.

He didn’t want to consider the possibility. Couldn’t. When Kell came to the front doors, waved them inside, he and Finn joined the man silently. All Declan could do at this point was hope like hell the two were inside. And that the rescue plan they’d concocted would succeed.

_______

“Congratulations.” One of
the hostesses smiled prettily at Malsovic as she poured him water from a crystal pitcher. “Your items are bringing much interest, even the one that didn’t get placed in the catalog. You must be pleased.”

“Very pleased.”

She moved away, and he looked at Eve. “Soon now,” he said in English. “I hope you are ready for your new life.”

“And what of the boy?” she asked in Serbian. Saw the shock on his expression, quickly followed by rage. “What will become of him?”

“You are full of secrets.” He wound the leash around his hand, tightening it until her head was pulled back painfully. “The boy does not matter once he is sold.” He shrugged. “His father had his chance, but his people betrayed me. So someone else will buy him. One of his enemies, likely. Perhaps they will send proof of his parentage before sending pieces of him to the man. For ransom or revenge. He will be the lucky one. He will probably die.” His smile was ugly. “You will spend your life wishing you were dead.”

Eve was silent. She wondered if he knew that the prospect of the fates he described for them served to remove fear, rather than instill it. There was nothing more dangerous than a person with nothing to lose.

Scanning the crowded ballroom, she knew there was no chance she would get away with what she would do next. But it wasn’t her that she was worried about.

The key to the padlock on Royce’s kennel was on the table. She eyed it now.

She waited long minutes, until the leash loosened as he was busy trying to communicate with a crowd of five prospective buyers who had come up to ask questions. She moved one hand slowly up to the collar she wore. The hook that the leash attached to was at the back of it. She unsnapped it. Held her breath. But Malsovic didn’t appear to notice.

He would, she knew, within seconds.

“Royce.” The boy looked up at her. She continued in Spanish. “Get ready to run.”

She dove for the key on the table and then to his cage, half falling to her knees. Fumbled to fit the key in the padlock and yank open the door. “Bitch!” A hand fisted in her hair. Pulled her backwards. Malsovic’s slap snapped her head to the side. She saw stars. He half dragged her with him as he began shouldering his way through the crowd. It was several more moments before Eve realized that the boy had been swallowed up in the human wall of people.

_______

Declan raised his
arms for the guard to pass the metal detecting wand over him, before following up with a frisk. “What’s all the commotion inside?”

The man blinked uncomprehendingly, shrugged. “No English.”

The three of them had split up. Finn and Kell were being searched by different guards at another doorway that led into the room. Huan had left papers for them at the registration desk that allowed them access to the ballroom elevator and had passed perusal by the guards. But the place inside was a madhouse, with people jostling forward in a crushing rush. He wondered if the auction was beginning.

He checked the time on his cell. It was still fifteen minutes before it was due to start.

“What is happening?” he asked the men closest to him. All shrugged, but an older gentleman on his other side answered in a British accent. “One of the items got loose. The woman who let him out got quite a beating from her owner. Shame, that. Pretty little blonde. Fancied her for myself, but she’s too wild for my taste.” He winked. “I like them inventive, but obedient.”

Everything stilled inside him. A blonde. There couldn’t be more than one here, could there?
An
item?
Fury surged inside him, dark and lethal. Like a possession. A thing. And everyone in this room was here to buy and sell, with no regard for human life.

“I don’t mind a bit of a wild streak.” It took effort to keep the rage from his voice. “Where can I get a look?”

“Front of the room, toward the left corner.” The man began to drift away. “Or the digital display is playing on the wall behind you. One hundred sixty-three. Lots of interest in that one. Maybe less now after that outburst.”

Declan turned. There were no fewer than three digital displays playing on large screens mounted on the wall. Each item bore a number. His gaze focused on the middle screen, depicting image one hundred fifty-five. He waited for what seemed an interminable time for the images to change. There was a wide array of offerings. Antiquities. Art work. Historic documents. And people. He caught his breath when one hundred sixty-two came on. Royce. And the next image showed Eve, in what could only be termed a porn fantasy outfit.

He thought about taking pictures of the images, sending them to Stillions for the proof he was required to show the Malaysian authorities. But it was too late for that now. With the auction ready to begin, they were out of time. He took out his cell and texted Kell and Finn Royce and Eve’s location in the room. The British man had indicated there had been an escape, and the blonde had instigated it. If he’d been talking about Eve, did that mean she’d successfully released Royce?