The Hunter (12 page)

Together, she and Lily had beaten the crap out of the men. Amber still smiled at that particularly satisfying memory. That had been the beginning of their getting to know each other.

“Let’s see, wasn’t it fighting over some man?” Amber laughed at Lily’s frown.

“Bitch. That’s why we get along so well. Always joking. I guess it’s time to tell you a bit about me.”

Through the years, Amber had discovered that Lily didn’t seem to have anyone. Nor did she want to talk about her own past. It still intrigued Amber how her friend could possibly end up being an expert in the highly secretive world of illegal art. Who trained her about art? And how did she get started? And how did one go about bidding for black market art? Lily was mum about the methods, but obviously her cut was high, since she gave Amber a lot of the cash to pay for information and hideout places.

“I lost a sister this way.” Lily tapped one of the boxes with a foot. “She was kidnapped. My parents didn’t really care, since we didn’t have enough money to support six kids anyway. No one cared, and I was really angry at them. So one day I ran away with a gunrunner who became my boyfriend. He taught me how to use weapons and take care of myself. In fact, he taught me about networking with different groups. I was his…asset, if you know what I mean.”

Amber kept her expression bland. She knew Lily was revealing a lot more between the lines.

“Then I met a businessman who dealt in art, who told me I could be his asset. And he had better clothes, so I left my boyfriend for him.” Lily shrugged. “On to bigger, better crimes. End of story. Sorry you asked?”

“No. Glad. I see now why you get so passionate about the girls.”

“Yes. I hate those bastards that lure and kidnap them,” Lily said fiercely. “And I’ll save as many girls as I can, however long I can.”

“I’m sorry about your sister,” Amber said softly.

“We were very close. I couldn’t save her, but I’ll save the others,” Lily said, then picked up a box. “Ready to load these babies in? We really should get going.”

“Okay. Hey…”

“What?” Lily paused at the back door.

“Brad would understand, you know.”

There was a flash of emotion in Lily’s eyes before her face shuttered. “Would he? And what kind of asset would I be to a career bureaucrat?” she asked before walking out the door.

Amber sighed. Good point. In terms of assets anyway. She picked up a couple of containers and headed after her friend.

They had three safe houses, two in town and one just outside. The girls were moved to the last one just before their long ride out of Macedonia. They were good hiding places. Dilaver would never guess that his missing girls were actually driven into Velesta, the very place to which they were headed.

Now there were a different group of girls—those who had been taken from the raids. They were in worse condition than the ones Lily and her mercenaries had saved while being transported, sometimes needing extreme medical attention.

“When will Tatiana and Alia be able to go?” Lily asked as she started up the car.

“I don’t think they’ll be well enough to make it this trip, Lily. Tatiana really needs to rest. That girl is mentally and physically exhausted.” Tatiana had also not spoken a word since the rescue. The girls who had been with her said she hadn’t for a long time, even when “Papa” hit her many times to make her plead. Amber’s heart broke every time she saw the scars on the girl’s body. “Maybe next trip.”

Amber and Lily had been very careful to transport the girls by different routes so they were harder to trace. Those flying out had to be taught how to use their passports and what exactly to say at different embassies, if they were caught. Those who preferred to return to their homes were accompanied to the farthest train stations possible.

“I hope she makes it, Amber,” Lily said quietly. “She…reminds me of my sister. I would love to get her out of here as quickly as possible, to somewhere safe.”

Amber’s responsibility was to get the girls ready, or as ready as possible; Lily was in charge of transportation. Amber had gone on several of these trips, after shutting the café down for vacation, to learn the different routes and meet the networks involved, and was always amazed at Lily’s many connections.

Veza
—who one knew to ease away problems—was the most valuable asset besides cash, and in the world of moving people without papers across borders, one needed to know many people at different levels of government
and
crime. Sometimes, watching how Lily nimbly navigated her way through them, Amber wondered whether there was any line between the two. Four years of doing this had certainly made her even more cynical.

She touched Lily’s arm comfortingly. She had never lost a sister the way Lily had and could imagine how painful it had to be to see these girls and know her sister had suffered the same fate. “I’ll do my best to get her ready,” she said. Privately, she was worried. The girl wouldn’t talk. How was she going to function among strangers?

By the time they reached the last safe house with the deliveries, it was very late in the afternoon. At every stop, Amber checked on the injured girls while Lily talked to those who were ready to leave with her on the next trip. They restocked the place. Amber gave cash to the caretakers, two nurses who had lost their jobs and families in the Balkan wars.

“You must take more away soon,” one of them told her. “Too many girls.”

Amber nodded. The more they took in, the more dangerous the situation. With Brad’s raids, their numbers had almost tripled, and she couldn’t afford to get anyone else involved in the caretaking. Too many people equaled more risk of being discovered. As it was, three safe houses was pushing it. Brad had offered to bring in international medics, but then that would mean reports would filter out. Their operation wouldn’t be a secret anymore.

“Very soon,” Amber agreed.

Lily burst into the room suddenly. “Amber,” she said, her calm voice contrasting her expressive eyes. “Can we talk?”

Amber nodded to the nurse, who went off with a few of the containers. “What is it?”

“I just got a cell call. Dilaver’s men are attacking one of the gangs that have been seizing his trailers.”

“That means—”

“If Dilaver captures them alive, they’ll tell him about selling the girls to me. They’re mercenaries, without much allegiance.”

“But you’ve been careful. Dilaver wouldn’t be able to trace you.”

“Yes, but it’d interest him to know that it’s a woman who’s setting a price on his trailers,” Lily said. Her movements were very measured as she picked up her jacket from the back of the chair. “I have the location and I need to go there.”

“Why?” Amber frowned. “They’re in the middle of firefight and this guy calls you? Isn’t that a bit odd? And what are you going to do in a battle?”

“I said the mercenaries have some allegiance, didn’t I? The man owed me, so he’s doing me the favor of telling me to run before Dilaver comes after me.” Lily shrugged. “I’m not running. I’m going there to take the mercenaries out myself. That way there’s no chance for Dilaver to interrogate them.”

Amber stepped in front of Lily. “Wait a minute. You’re going there alone to…what…take out a whole gang of mercenaries? Lily, you aren’t the Terminator, you know. You’ll get killed.”

“I can’t let this destroy what we’re doing, Amber. It’s an hour’s drive from here. I can take a chance that they’ll still be at it when I get there. All I need is a few grenades.”

“Lily!” Amber shook her head in disbelief. The image of Lily tossing grenades in her short top and heels was stretching her imagination. But she’d had a gunrunner boyfriend…. “No, no, that’s too damn dangerous. We’ll take the chance that Dilaver—”

“No, not with this many girls in our care!” Lily’s expression turned grim. “They’re my responsibility and transporting them will be dangerous if Dilaver sends the word out to look for a woman. Do you have any other ideas?”

There was no way she was going to let her friend drive out into a gang war. Amber racked her brain for an answer. “Cell phone. Cell phone!” She yelled out, snapping her fingers.

“What about my cell phone?” Lily was already buttoning her jacket.

“Let me try getting hold of Hawk. He told me last night his would be on if I needed to call him.”

“He tells you to call while he’s going into a firefight? Come on!”

“Well, he didn’t know he was going to be in one. He told me Dilaver was taking him out to show him the weapon depots and routes. We were joking when I asked about contacting him in case I needed to instant message something…important.”
Something sexy
was what she had said, actually. Amber went to the counter to get her handbag. “Let me give it a try.”

“I can’t believe it. You’re going to call the guy while he’s running around with a weapon in his hand.”

“Your mercenary called you,” Amber pointed out. “I read in the papers that the Americans did it in Somalia. Called in on the embassy for help. Collect call, too.”

“That’s true,” Lily admitted. “Shit. Men are crazy. I wouldn’t have time to call anyone while I’m in a middle of a war. Oh, go ahead, give it a try. The man’s crazy enough to break into the café and carry you upstairs, he’s probably crazy enough to answer a buzzing cell phone.”

Despite the gravity of the situation, Amber grinned. “Maybe I’ll phone in a take-out order,” she said as she dialed.

The descent down the hill was quick enough, with rounds impacting all around Hawk and his men. The sound of the firepower was tremendous as they moved closer. Hawk motioned the two others that they were going to the flank.

The other side was using clumps of trees for cover. Their vehicles were parked together near a clearing behind the kill zone. To get closer, Hawk and his men would have to get nearer to the enemy’s camp and line of fire. Hawk sent the two men to opposite points. “Wait till dark,” he ordered. “I’ll move in and get closer. If we synchronize our explosives, they’ll think there are actually more of us. With Dilaver uphill, they’ll give up a lot sooner.”

“What about those who try to escape in their trucks?”

“Pick off as many as you can. Dilaver wants to capture them, so I’d go for the tires.” He didn’t know how good they were with weapon precision skills, and frankly, he would prefer to exterminate as many of these bastards as he could. He didn’t care whether they were of any value to Dilaver or not. “Darkness is good cover for us, so they won’t be able to see us while we can see their headlights.”

“Okay. We’ll wait for your first charge and then we’ll toss in ours.”

“Remember to get out of the way, American,” one of the men said in a joking tone. “We tend to just throw in all the explosives we’ve got and watch the fireworks. We don’t worry about who’s on whose side at that point.”

“Right.” Hawk got the point. Dilaver might be thinking about business, but this was “fun” for the men. They were in this for the sheer adrenaline of bloodletting.

The opposing side had retreated under tree and bush cover, leaving some of their trucks in the clearing. They had evidently been caught with their pants down by Dilaver’s sudden attack. Hawk wondered again why they were here in the first place. Dilaver had mentioned that he believed this gang was responsible for some of his missing trailers, so were they here to capture another? Yet the country road was so out of the way from the usual routes the gangs traversed.

He decided that as soon as it became dark enough, he would sneak up to the trucks. It would have been easier if he had a grenade launcher, then he could just take them out from a distance, but where was the fun in that? Hawk bellied up under a clump of bushes and waited, listening to the sounds of gunshots and explosions around him.

Stringing up explosives, as Jazz would say, was like making music; the more expert one became, the better the result. And a very well-done explosion could devastate the enemy’s psyche. If his team were here, they wouldn’t be hurling grenades at each other like these idiots were doing, making more noise than actually targeting the enemy. Hawk felt strange, removed from it all.

The buzzing in the back of his pants made him frown. He had ignored it several times now, but whoever it was kept calling. He didn’t think it was McNeil calling, unless there was an emergency. What the hell? He was alone and he still had a few minutes before dark. He pulled out his cell phone.

It wasn’t a number he recognized. There was a text message, too. He clicked on it.
Pick up hotstuff. Now.
Hawk stared at the message, then looked up into the darkening sky. He wasn’t going to—Ah, hell. He would just have to use the earphone so his hands would be free.

Amber picked up on the first ring. “About time.” Her voice came in clearly through the earpiece. “I almost gave up.”

“This had better be good, Ambrosia,” Hawk said, as he looked around him. “This isn’t a good time to have our usual phone sex.”

Even her snort came in loud and clear. “I know you’re currently using your gun for other sports, Hot Stuff. That’s why I called. I can hear explosives, by the way.”

She knew. Hawk studied the figure darting in and out of the shadows toward him, slowly sneaking up. He briefly wondered whether he should find out whether it was “his” side or the other who was trying to surprise him. It didn’t really matter. He was on neither. “Let me guess. You’re concerned for my safety and are calling me to tell me you want me badly.” Hawk took aim at the figure, his eye steady as the shadow popped up and down like a dummy target. “You do know that most people don’t answer cell calls in the middle of a firefight?”

“The soldiers did in Somalia, so why can’t you? You’re probably just hiding behind a big tree while waiting for Dilaver to finish his war games,” she answered sardonically. “It isn’t as if you’re special ops or something and have any special skills in warfare to be any help.”

Hawk’s lips curved reluctantly. It didn’t matter how grave the situation was, but that woman always managed to put a smile on his face.

“No special skills…I’ll have to remedy that,” he said, then fired his weapon. The figure fell over. And stayed that way.