Saving Brigit (13 page)

No problem there. Thia was too scared to think.

With one hand still covering her mouth, the man used his other to scoop under her arms and drag her to the door. Before the time her legs were free of the truck, her senses returned. His arms were both full, so there could be no knife or gun.

As soon as she was clear of the truck door, she kicked with all her might. A grunt of pain showed she hit her mark at least once. She smiled to herself in satisfaction and was about to twist and even inflict a backward headbutt, if necessary, when she heard a deadly quiet voice.

“Let go of her, and I might let you live.”

Rashid!

At once, the man released her. She fell to the ground, but was up and whirled around in a flash.

“You dirty son of a—” She stopped, staring into Derek’s deep blue eyes regarding her in anger. He was dressed in camouflage, his blond hair covered with a dark green San Francisco Giants baseball cap. Blond whiskers covered his chin, and a thick moustache topped his lips.

“Oh my God!” Her hands flew to her lips, and tears filled her eyes. She’d wished for him, yearned for him, since the horror of Brigit’s situation became more real. And now, like a genie from a bottle, here he was. Only Rashid’s knife poised at Derek’s neck kept her from jumping into his arms.

Derek’s mouth formed a grim line. He held his arms out to the side, his hands open, showing he had no weapons.

“Who are you?” Rashid asked in the same casual, quiet tone. His voice held more danger now than if he’d screamed.

“This is Derek Hawkins,” Thia said with excitement and pride. “And I think you’d better let him go.”

Rashid continued holding the knife to Derek’s throat. “Michael’s friend?”

“More like Michael’s boss,” she answered.

Rashid gave what sounded like a disgusted grunt, but he lowered the blade. “You could have been killed sneaking into my camp like that.”

“If Thia hadn’t spoken up, you would have been disarmed before you so much as nicked my skin.”

Rashid took a menacing step forward. “Shall we find out who has the truth here?”

“That suits me, you son of a bi—“

“Stop it,” Thia said quietly, placing her hand on Derek’s chest.

Derek turned his narrowed gaze on her. “What the hell are you doing here? Don’t you know what this part of the world can be like for Americans, and especially for women?”

“Rashid is helping me—“

Derek swung around to face Rashid again. “I don’t know who the hell you are, you bastard, but what are you thinking, bringing a woman up here?”

Rashid flicked a glance at Thia. “Ask her.”

“I’m asking you. And what was that about Michael? Michael Jackson?”

“I worked with him a few years ago. And for the record, I’m no happier about being here with her than you are.” He looked at Thia. “I will leave you to explain to this…” He sneered at Derek, then turned and stalked off to where his friend sat.

With a grim expression, Derek stared at Thia and then gripped her elbow and marched her to the edge of the light provided by the campfire around which Rashid and the other two men sat.

Out of hearing distance, he stopped, crossed his arms, and waited. “Well?” he finally asked.

“What are you doing here, Derek? Michael said you were in the field, but
here
?”

“Thia.” His voice had dropped to just above a whisper. “What
I
am doing here is nothing compared to what
you
are doing here. It’s nearly the end of the Goddamned world.” He flung out his arm indicating the whole of the rugged mountains, hulking like black shadows beyond their camp.

“You haven’t talked to Michael, then?”

Derek’s mouth formed into a thin line. “If Michael Jackson has anything to do with putting you here, he’s served his last day in my employ.”

Thia drew in a sharp breath. “No! Derek, please. I told him I would come alone if he wouldn’t help, and so he put me in touch with Rashid. Michael was watching out for me, and so far, everything has been just fine.” She touched his sleeve and smiled into his eyes. “I don’t know how this happened, but I’m very glad you’re here. I’ve missed you.”

“Don’t try to change the subject. You could be in a great deal of danger. What ever possessed you to come over here?” A look of incredulousness crossed his features. “You didn’t come looking for me, did you?”

“No, good heavens no. First of all, I didn’t know where you were. Michael just said you were on a job. And second, knowing that, I wouldn’t interrupt. I came to help Brigit. You remember my assistant, July? Well, her niece is in trouble.” Succinctly, she laid out the facts. When she finished, he nodded once and then stood in thought for a moment. Turning, he jerked his head, signaling Rashid to them.

With a look of amusement, Rashid strolled to where Derek and Thia stood. “So?” he asked. “Are you taking her off my hands?”

Derek glared at Omar, sitting at a distance, but still showing interest in them. Then he switched his ire back to Rashid. “If anything had happened to her, I would have killed you, you know.”

“You would have tried.”

Derek went on as though Rashid hadn’t spoken. “Even with her safe—at the moment—this plan the two of you cooked up will never work.”

“Oh?” Rashid jammed his fists on his hips, irritation beginning to show. “I’ll admit, we don’t know quite enough about the interior to have worked out a full escape plan yet.” He nodded to Thia. “But once she gets in and I make contact as a client, we’ll have what we need. The prick told us that when the customers are with the women, they have privacy and can even walk around outdoors, within the confines of the compound. I have men I can call on to help get her and the girl out.”

“Like the man on guard?”

Rashid cast a glance over his shoulder. “Yes. His sister disappeared from their home in Chirtal months ago. When he heard about the brothel and what I had planned, he volunteered to help. He’s good. We’ve worked together before.”

Derek reached under Thia’s hair to cup her nape. Almost purring at his touch, she edged closer. It had been weeks since they’d been together, yet his large hands on her neck, softly massaging her tense muscles, made it seem as though it had been yesterday. She wished they were back in San Francisco, in his studio or her apartment, wrapped in each other’s arms and lost in the sensations their bodies produced. A gust of chilly wind struck, reminding her of where they really were, and why.

“I won’t allow her to do this,” Derek was saying when she tuned back into the conversation.

“What?” She looked up in surprise.

Derek met her gaze. “As I was just telling your friend here,” he said, frowning at the word
friend
, “you have no idea what the place is like. And your informant lied. The clients have no privacy with the women. All of the action takes place in rooms, some quite small, with a guard and attendants always present.”

“Still, I could find a way to tell Rashid—”

“You aren’t listening to me!” His frustration showed by the tightening of his fingers on the back of her neck. “You have no idea what it’s like, what these people are like. The clients, as you call them, aren’t nice, suburban businessmen out for a quickie and a thrill in the San Francisco Tenderloin, Thia. They’re men engaged in killing. For them, the brothel is a high-priced place to work off their bloodlust without shooting someone. They’re there to fuck, and they can do it within those walls any way they want. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

She gulped, fear skittering down her back. “But then, that’s what Brigit is facing every day. How can I go home and tell July her niece is stuck in a place like that?” An idea struck. “Can’t the government get her out? She’s an American citizen being held against her will.”

“Maybe, but they aren’t going to jeopardize the mission we have now in order to free her. I’ll try to find her before we clear out, when the mission is over.”

Thia couldn’t stifle her gasp.

“If it helps any, I think I saw her recently in one of their pleasure rooms, as they call them.” At Thia’s narrowed stare, he smiled for the first time. “I didn’t sample her charms, but if she’s the one you’re looking for—blonde hair, shapely, with an attitude?—I have to say, she didn’t look as though she needed saving. She seemed to enjoy what she was doing.”

“Well, she’d have to, wouldn’t she, to stay alive?” Thia worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “If you don’t think our plan will work, what do you suggest? We only came up with that idea because Omar said I was too—” She stopped and looked away. “Too
old
to be interesting to them.”

“Thia, I told you, I’m not letting you—”

“I told July I’d bring back her niece, Derek. I have to do it.” She stepped out of his grasp and moved toward Rashid. The flash in Derek’s eyes showed he recognized she’d made up her mind to continue with his help or without, and he wasn’t happy about it.

Omar laughed, somehow knowing the fight they were having. The man sitting near reached over and delivered a punch to his groin, then kicked his kidneys when Omar doubled over and rolled onto his side in pain.

“Well, you’re not old, but maybe he had a point. They’ll be looking only for young women.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Don’t get in a huff. Thank your lucky stars you’re not what they want. Brigit is, and look where she ended up.” Derek thought for a moment. “Don’t go in posing as something you’re not. If they think you have experience, they’ll throw you in with the worst cases right away.” He paced within the boundaries of the light, then came back to stand with them. He heaved a deep sigh and shook his head. “I wish you’d let me figure out a way to stage a rescue?” he asked Thia.

“Not if it will take weeks. How can I do that, knowing what she’s going through?”

“Okay then, go in as her friend or relative. How about posing as her aunt? Say you came over looking for her.”

“But we’ve already put out the story we developed,” Rashid said. “Omar told his contact that Thia was a prostitute.”

“So he lied, thinking the Claw would pay a higher price.”

“How do you know about the Claw?” Thia asked.

Rashid frowned. “What is he like? The rumors have built him into a man who will do anything to gain what he wants.”

“You’ve heard right. It’s no accident he chose a claw as his symbol. The better to slash and kill.” Derek’s expression turned grim. “There’s much more going on in that fortress than sex. The Claw is a main source of drugs and black market weapons,” he informed them. “I’m posing as an arms—”

Rashid’s quick laugh and glance toward Omar cut him off. “Should you be telling us this?”

“She trusts you.” He jerked his head in Thia’s direction. “So does Michael. If you’re barging into the lion’s den, you’d better know everything you can.”

The two men stared at each other until finally Rashid nodded, and Derek went on. “I’m there presumably to buy weapons, but really to discover the cache of stolen American missiles we believe is hidden in the compound. The Claw has to know that I’m a pretty high-ticket client, but I still haven’t met him. He guards himself and the whole place very well.” He looked at Thia. “If he even sniffs at something out of the ordinary, he’ll kill you.” He seemed to shiver. “Or worse. I don’t want you to do this.”

“I don’t want me to either, but I have to.”

He closed his eyes briefly. When they opened, Thia recognized the look of determination in them. She’d seen him at work before, and though she preferred seeing his heavy-lidded expression of sexual excitement, she felt safe with this side of him, the warrior side. She knew now he’d do everything in his power to see his job through but still protect her.

“You’ll go in as planned, but let them know right away that you’re there for your niece. Speak in English, speak loudly, like you would to someone you think doesn’t understand you. Say Brigit’s name over and over until someone higher up the food chain than the guards pay attention. Tell them you don’t know why or what this Omar guy told them, but you only came over here looking for your niece, and Omar said he could take you to her. Say you came totally on your own, and that friends in the States don’t know where you are.” He gave a moment’s look at the man still curled into the fetal position a few feet away. “Believe me, if the Claw thinks your guy is playing him, he’ll take care of Omar.”

“He will die a slow, painful death if my friend over there has his way.” Rashid pointed toward Omar and the man guarding him.

Derek shrugged. “Either way.” He focused on Thia again. “My information is that they put new girls in isolation for about a week. It takes that long to ensure they’ll do what the clients demand. Then they do some kind of training, such as it is. None of their clients want to have sex with a woman who can’t stop crying out of fear of what’s happening to her. I’ll have to do some fast talking with my bosses, but I think we can work out a move in that timeframe. If all goes well, I should be able to extract you before you have to…deal with any of the men.”

Thia smiled and moved closer. “Thank you, Derek.”

He frowned. “Don’t thank me. If I had my way, you’d be home.”

“What about the girl?” Rashid asked. “If Thia doesn’t get in, really in, how will we know where she is?”

Derek slid his hand under Thia’s hair again and began caressing her neck. “We have thermal imaging of most of the place. As deep as our instruments let us see, anyway. The place is an old, seventh-century fortress that he’s extended into the side of the mountain.” He shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to let everyone out instead of performing a surgical insertion and rescue.”

Thia knitted her brows. “Why can’t you do that now?”

“Because,” Derek said, his voice tense, “
now
a woman I care very much for isn’t inside. There’s no reason to change our plans and take a chance on losing the target, which is the Claw and our missiles.” He looked away from her. “Believe me, my superiors won’t think your being there is a good reason either. I’ll have to do some fast talking.”

Her stomach dropped. For the first time, Thia understood just what Derek was risking for her. No one believed in his nation and government more than Derek. For him to consider proposing a change in carefully worked out plans—plans he’d been working on for weeks in great danger and far from home—meant much more than what he was putting into words. She kissed his cheek. The softness in his eyes belied the hard line of his clenched jaw.