Her Daring SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 5) (11 page)

“Do you have a flashlight?” she demanded.

“They have a couple down there with them.”  He crouched down beside the hole.  “One of you bitches, turn on a flashlight!” he yelled.  Nothing happened.  Rylie stood up, and loomed over him, she grabbed the man by his hair and turned his head so he was facing her.

“I asked
you
if
you
had a flashlight.  Don’t you speak English?”  He fell backwards, and crab walked away from her.

“I’m sorry, let me get you one, ma’am.”  Rylie watched as he ran towards a table underneath the barn window, and picked up an industrial flashlight.

“Here you go.”  He handed it to her.  “I’m sorry, I should have got this for you straight away.”  Rylie turned it on and shone it down into the hole.  There was a ladder, and she didn’t see any of the women.

“How large is the space down there?”

“Not that big.  They must be squished down towards the end.  They do that sometimes when I throw down the food.”  Rylie closed her eyes and mentally counted to five. 

“When was the last time you fed them?”

“I was going to do that right before you got here.”

“You better think real hard about the food you were going to bring.  You also better know that they’ll be coming upstairs, so don’t think you’re going to be tossing down scraps to these women like they’re animals.”

“Wait, they can’t come upstairs.  Mr. Klein won’t like that at all.”

“Who the fuck is Mr. Klein?” Rylie growled.

“Don’t you know him?  He’s in charge.”

“I’m in charge unless Albert Liu is here, are we clear...Howard?”  She waited for the man to nod.  “Huan go with him to get the food.  I want to make sure they get something decent.  I’m going down to see what in the hell you’ve done,” she said eyeing Howard.

She put the straps of her purse and laptop bag across her body, so they rested at the small of her back, and started down the ladder.  She listened intently and was ready for the first attacker. 

Rylie went easy on the woman, she used the flesh of her upper arm to hit the girl in her face, instead of her elbow, but still it knocked her on her ass.  She jumped off the ladder and landed in a crouch and swung around, brandishing the lit flashlight as a weapon.  Someone came up to her side, and tried to land a kick, Rylie pulled the girl’s foot up higher, causing her to fall backwards. 

“Stop! 
Nyet
!  One more move and I’ll actually hurt the next person who makes a move.  Understood?”  Rylie’s voice boomed through the small area.  She shone her light across the dingy cellar, making note of the mattresses and blankets on the floor.  She saw they had put a mattress up against a corner, probably to give a semblance of privacy for the toilet area.  It was like something out of a concentration camp.

She saw the majority of the women huddled against the far wall, but there were two who were still lying on the floor at her feet, and two standing cautiously in front of her.

“Is good you hurt us.  We prefer to die fighting,” the woman closest to her said. 

“What?”  It took Rylie a moment to remember her last words.  She was appalled that she had actually threatened these women when they were just trying to survive.  Then she realized she recognized the voice.

“Ophelia, it’s me, Sylvia.”

“You left us behind, and they kill Ursula,” Ophelia accused her.

Some of the women against the wall started to cry.

“We need to go upstairs.  I want you to have a good meal, and use a real bathroom.”

“Really?  We can leave?”  Rylie didn’t recognize the voice, she flashed the light over the young girl with the others.  She remembered her, her name was Ekaterina. 

“Yes you can go upstairs, but no you can’t leave.  You’re still prisoners.”

“We should stay here then.  We not trust you,” the older woman next to her said.

“I agree.  You shouldn’t trust me.  But you need good food, and you need to get out of this hell hole.  So I’m the best hope you have.  So move your asses up the ladder.”  Rylie was past the point of playing nice.  It stank, it was cold, and some of the girls were shivering.  She needed to get them food, blankets, and care.  They must have been down here for the last seventy-two hours, ever since she’d seen them in Vancouver.

The sullen women began climbing up the ladder.  The last one to climb up was Ophelia.  Before she started, she turned to Rylie.

“What is point, we all die anyway.”

“You won’t.  You’ll be sold.”  God, she so wanted to tell her the truth, but it was imperative the girls believe they were going to be sold and acted accordingly.

“They kill Ursula.  Mr. Klein take her in the middle of the night, and yesterday tell us she dead,” Ophelia said in a defeated voice.

“I will get to the bottom of this, I promise.”

“Mrs. Hess, we all die.  You bad too.”  Rylie couldn’t disagree.

“I’m the best thing you’ve got right now.  I’m going to keep you alive and make sure you have the best care possible so I can make as much money as possible.  I want you looking pretty, Ophelia.  Does that sound like I want you to die?”  Rylie watched as the girl considered her words.

“No,” she eventually said.

“Right.  I want you alive, happy, and making the buyers happy.  You keep those men smiling, and you will live a very long life.”

“Why do they buy women?  I not understand.”

“They’re too ugly to get women on their own.  They can only buy them.  They will want to keep you happy,” Rylie lied.  She knew many of these men, and some women were absolute monsters.  She wanted those people to be caught and prosecuted as much as she wanted Albert Liu to go behind bars.

“Mr. Klein is a bad man.”

“I will take care of Mr. Klein.  He is not the boss. 
I
am the boss.”  Rylie pointed the flashlight up the ladder.  “Now up you go.”  Rylie watched as Huan pulled Ophelia through the barn floor.  Then she took one long last look around the hovel where the girls had been staying. 
They would not be back, not on her watch.

Rylie listened carefully and found it odd there was only silence above her.  Something was wrong.  So be it.  She shifted her laptop bag around, and quietly disconnected the straps.  The extra gaudy jeweled clasp on the top of the bag she’d had specially designed.  Quickly she unscrewed the decorative bolt on the right side of the clasp, and that bolt proved to be the bottom of a lethally sharp stiletto that she slid out of a secret compartment
.  It never hurt for a girl to have a little back up. 

She dropped the flashlight to the ground, put her laptop case and purse back around to her back, and slipped her knife into her boot.  She climbed up the ladder, and a man was squatting at the top, waiting for her.  All of the women were once again huddled against a far wall in fear. All of their courage gone. 

He was amazingly handsome, and he smiled genially as he held a gun in front of his face as she climbed the rest of the way out of the cellar.

“Ms. Hessman, I presume?”

“Can I assume you’re Mr. Klein?” Rylie asked.

“I wasn’t told you would be coming,” the man said.

“I just found out three hours ago.  Imagine my surprise that this hell hole exists.  Liu wants his product in the best condition possible for the auction,” Rylie’s voice scathing.  The man walked up to her, and before she could even blink in reaction, backhanded her across her face. 
Fuck, he was fast. 

Rylie wiped her lip with the back of her hand, her hip hurting as bad as her face.  She’d landed on her purse.  Thank God her laptop was well padded.  He stood over her, the gun pointed at her face.

“You will speak to me with respect.”

“I give respect where respect is due.  You’re a piece of shit.”  Rylie kicked outwards into his ankle and felt a satisfying crunch.  Thank God, she also heard the gun hitting the floor as it fell into the hole.  He dropped to one knee as she scrambled to get up.  He grabbed her purse strap and jerked her backwards.

“Respect has to be earned, and I’ve just earned it,” he whispered into her ear.  She struggled to get her hand down to her boot.

“Liu will not be happy.” Rylie tried to reason with the psychopath.

“But I will.  I like keeping myself entertained.”  He twisted the purse strap once, then twice then a third time, so it was now strangling her.  “You are so much more fun to play with than these girls.”  He twisted the strap one more time.  Rylie tried to stick the fingers of one hand between the leather strap and her neck to relieve the pressure.  With her other hand, she was finally able to feel the ball tip of her knife, she slid it out of her boot.

He twisted the strap even tighter, she thrust the knife backwards, Klein grunted, as the oxygen flow was completely cut off, and things started to fade to black. 

“I brought the food,” Howard said.  It was the last thing Rylie heard.

––––––––

A
t least Darius didn’t have to deal with Brandon at dinner.  Liu was a slave trader, and very likely a murderer, but Brandon was a slimy asshole who just grated on Darius’ last nerve.  Having to spend time pretending to make conversation with him was just cruel and unusual punishment, with Liu it was different.  Talking to Albert was like playing chess.  He was always trying to acquire more information about Sylvia.  Darius enjoyed the mind games.  It felt like he was doing a sort of mental training.

Finally, after all the questions about Sylvia’s background, he started asking things that were easier for Darius to answer.

“So tell me more about the night you and Sylvia met, was it love at first sight?”

Darius thought back to the night in Houston, when Clint, Lydia, and Drake had met up with the lovely Rylie Jones at a posh hotel bar.  Rylie had been pretending to be Sylvia, she had been wearing the fuck-me heels and coming onto Drake.

“I was definitely infatuated.  She is hell on wheels, or should I say heels.” 

Albert laughed.  “I have found that many short women like wearing tall shoes.  Sylvia has alpha traits, but then, so do you.  How did that work out between the two of you?”

“My associate loved that aspect of her personality.” 
Not!
  He remembered Drake acting like a scared virgin because of her advances.  She had certainly been playing full-on man-eater that night.

“I found that when you treat her a certain way, the tiger purrs like a kitten.”  All it took was a foot rub, Darius remembered fondly.

“You seem to be well matched.  What are your plans for the future?”

“We’re taking it day by day.”  Now it was getting creepy, he needed to shut this shit down.  He didn’t want to be talking about Rylie anymore.  Talking to this asshole about Sylvia was acceptable.

“Tell me about Brandon,” Darius asked, turning the tables.  “Was it love at first sight?”

“I think we’re done for the afternoon.  I will see you at dinner.”  Albert stubbed out his cigarette. 
Ah, so sad.
  Darius had to work hard not to grin. 

“I thought I might go out and explore the island a little bit.  Go on a hike.  Is there any place, in particular, you suggest I see?” Darius asked.

“I’ll let the security people know you will be outside.  We have motion detectors, so you will likely trip them, and I don’t want you mistaken for an intruder.”

“How many security people do you have?”

“I really don’t like to disclose that kind of information,” Albert said as he got up from the table.  “Rest assured, you’ll be well cared for, and nobody will accost you.”

Darius hadn’t thought it would be that easy, but he had to try asking.  He went back to his room and made sure the audio jammer was still working.  He also took the time to once again search the room to make sure no bugs had been planted since he had left for lunch.  When he was satisfied he couldn’t be overheard, he took out his phone.

“We have eyes on her location,” were the first words out of Clint’s mouth.

“Where is she?” Darius asked.

“She’s in a barn in an isolated location, about an hour outside of Victoria.  She went in there thirty minutes ago.”

“Is she okay?”

“The whole property has the foliage cut way back so you can see anyone who approaches.  When the barn door opens, they can see a bunch of the girls standing and sitting together.  They’re working on a way to get in for a closer look.”

“Good.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going for a hike.  Liu has a security team and motion detectors.  I want to see what’s on the other side of the island.”

“Be careful.”

“Tell Drake and Finn to take care of my girl.”

“Roger that.”

***

R
ylie only threw up twice, a small miracle in her opinion.  The smell of frozen pizza and blood would forever be imprinted in her mind as the worst odor in the world.  She looked down at the dead man and managed not to tremble. 

“Howard, get this cleaned up,” her voice was hoarse.  Huan handed her a bottle of water that she gratefully accepted.

“What should I do with him, ma’am?”  Rylie sidled away from the corpse and looked down at her hands.  Hands that had now actually killed someone.  She bent over and slid the knife from Klein’s body.  Huan took it from her hands, and she watched as he rinsed it off with his bottle of water, and then dried it off with a napkin, and handed it back to her.

“You and Huan will bury him on the property.”

“And then what?”

Damn good question.

“Howard, I’ve got to assume you have some friends who could use some cash.  Is that true?  A couple you would actually trust?”  The man looked down at the sawdust covered floor and then looked up at her and frowned.

“No, ma’am.  Not enough.  I can get my cousin Mike. I trust him, but that’s about it.”  He ran his hand through his hair.  “I can probably make some calls and get some friends of friends to come if the money’s right.”

“Offer what you need to.  I need men here immediately.  Have them bring building supplies.  I want the farmhouse windows nailed shut, I want the entrances shut, and I want guards around the perimeter.  Have your buddies bring plenty of food, blankets and mattresses.  I also want some clothes for these women.”