Aegis 01 - First Exposure (16 page)

Mario’s brow wrinkled. “The one who looks like the actress, right?”

Cade frowned. Yeah, they’d done a bang-up job disguising her. “I guess. Have you seen her this morning? We were on the beach, and she said she was going to the gift shop to get a few things. I was supposed to meet her near the pool but can’t find her.”

He sounded like a frantic husband. And dammit, he was frantic, but not for the reason Mario would assume.

The boy bit his lip. “I think I saw her going into the nightclub. She was alone but—”

The nightclub? Shit. Why the hell would she go there?

Cade slapped him on the shoulder and took off at a jog before the boy could say anything else. “Thanks.”

His heart pounded as he pulled the nightclub’s door open. Silence met his ears. The place was dark and empty. “Ava?”

No answer. He turned the corner and looked over the bar. A glass with melting ice sat on the shiny surface. Rounding the counter, he looked through the open door into the empty kitchen.

A tingle started at the back of his neck and slowly slid down his spine. The same one he always got when there was trouble.

The necklace. He needed to call Aegis and have them track it. He didn’t want to think something bad had happened to Avery, but his instincts screamed that her disappearing right now was more than her just needing a moment to think.

He pulled out his phone and dialed. Marley answered on the first ring. “I’m glad you called, Blackwell. Please tell me you and Avery Scott are out for a Sunday drive.”

“Son of a bitch. Her tracking device is already off property, isn’t it?”

Marley sighed. “I hate it when I’m right. I’ve got her heading east toward Savannah-La-Mar. She’s got to be in a car.”

Cade sprinted out of the nightclub, along the path, and up the curved marble steps toward the open-air lobby, not caring who he bumped into along the way. “How far out is she?”

“They just passed Little London. Savannah-La-Mar’s got a small shipping port. Jake talked to the DEA and it sounds like that’s where Luis was running drugs in and out of Jamaica.”

Shit.
Shit
… He crossed the lobby and waved at a valet about to climb into an open Jeep two guests had just exited. “I’m taking that.”

“Sir, you can’t—”

He pushed the man out of the way, shoved the Jeep into gear, and pulled out of the circular drive. Voices echoed and yelled behind him, but he ignored them. Into the phone, he said, “Where is Luis?”

“Still on property, according to the feds. I’ve got Miller on the other line with them now.”

His mind ran back to the empty glass he’d seen at the nightclub bar, to Avery’s blackout last night, and the conversation he’d heard between the two men outside the employee residences the night before. A sinking feeling settled in his gut.

“Get on the horn and get the local authorities to send a chopper to follow Avery’s GPS signal. I need to know if they try to put her on a boat. There’s something else going on at that resort, Marley. Whoever took Avery had nothing to do with the Luis sting.”

“Are you thinking human trafficking?”

The Jeep bounced over a rut in the road. “You’re not even here and you already jumped to that conclusion?”

“After the intel I looked at this morning, it’s not hard to make the leap. I was about to call you with it when I noticed Avery’s device was on the move. Six other women besides Melody Carmichael have gone missing in the last year from that part of the island. Two were staying at Indulgence. Both reportedly had arguments with their significant others and left the resort. The authorities ruled all seven disappearances runaways, no foul play involved.”

“Shit.”

“Cade, if that’s what this is and Avery got caught up in it—”

Cade’s stomach and heart both squeezed as if caught in a vise. “I know.”

“Just hurry before it’s too late.”

V
oices brought Avery around. They were muffled. Scared. A shiver ran down her back.

“Shh, don’t try to move too much.” Something cold touched her forehead. “Just let it wear off.”

She knew that voice. It was soft, feminine…familiar.

She fought to pry her eyes open. A fuzzy face hovered above. She strained to see through watery vision. “Where…?”

“It’s okay. You’re okay.” The voice hitched. “Oh, Avery. I’m so sorry. I had no idea you’d get dragged into this.”

Melody. That was Melody’s voice. Avery struggled against her friend’s hands and sat up. The room spun, and she pushed her palm against her forehead as she fought against the sickness churning in her belly. “Where…where are we?”

“I don’t know,” Melody whispered, easing back to sit on her heels. “We’re already at sea. I don’t know where they’re taking us.”

Avery finally focused on her friend’s face. Melody’s dark hair was stringy and matted, her face dirty and void of makeup. She’d lost weight in the weeks since Avery had seen her—her cheeks hollow and sunken, her eyes round and huge in her face. The tank and shorts she wore hung off her thin frame.

Avery lurched toward her friend and pulled her in for a tight hug. “Oh my God, Melody.”

Melody’s fingers gripped Avery’s shoulder blades and dug in. “I didn’t think anyone would find me. I didn’t even think that postcard made it out.” A sob rose up from her chest. “I’m so sorry. I—”

“Shh…” This time it was Avery’s turn to comfort. Whatever Melody had been through in the last three weeks had been bad. The usually confident woman was a shaking mess in Avery’s arms. She smoothed a hand down Melody’s hair. “It’s okay. I’m just so glad you’re okay.” She pushed back and swiped the tears from Melody’s cheeks. “I need you to focus. Tell me how many men there are and how long ago we left Jamaica.”

Melody shuddered. “F…four. Two at the resort who brought me here, two who guard all of us, and a…a woman.”

All of us
… Avery glanced past Melody and realized they weren’t alone. Four other women were huddled on the floor in the corner of the dingy metal room. All were as dirty as Melody, and all just as thin.

“You were all at Indulgence?” Avery asked.

The women stared at her, and for a moment, Avery wondered if they could understand English, then the one on the right—the one who could be a blonde if her hair wasn’t so filthy—said, “No. Paula and I were at a singles resort in Negril. We met these two guys. We thought we were just getting a drink in town. We were taken…” She looked to the woman at her side with an empty gaze. “How long has it been?”

Paula’s empty stare didn’t meet Avery’s eyes. “Five weeks, three days, and twenty-one hours.”

The haunted sound of both their voices told Avery they’d been through something horrendous. Something she didn’t even want to imagine. Swallowing hard, she glanced back at her friend, who looked just as hollow and broken as they did. Her heart twisted beneath her ribs. “Melody, what happened to Dominic? No one’s been able to find him.”

Melody’s eyes slid closed, and she crumbled in on herself. “I…I don’t know. He tried to come after me. There was a fight, then they pulled me away. I haven’t seen him since. I…”

She covered her face with her hands, unable to go on, and Avery’s heart broke for her friend.

She gripped Melody’s shoulders. “Listen to me. People know I’m here. They’ll know I went missing. I went to Indulgence with a security expert to find you, Melody. I went with Cade. You remember what I told you about Cade, right? He’ll come after me. He’ll find us.”

Slowly, Melody’s empty gaze lifted to hers. “No one’s coming after us. We’re on a boat. Don’t you get it? No one will be able to find us now that we’re out at sea.”

She pulled out of Avery’s grip and went to sit back against the wall, wrapping her arms around her updrawn knees, a shell of her former self. Whatever emotions she’d shown when Avery woke were long gone, hidden behind a wall she’d obviously erected to keep herself sane these last few weeks.

Think. Think, dammit.

Avery glanced around the empty room. The sound of water against steel told her they were in the hold of some kind of ship. An arched door formed a cutout to her right.

She pushed to her feet, wobbled but caught herself. Her palm closed around the angled handle. Just as she was about to turn, the door pushed open, knocking her back a step.

A tall, slim brunette dressed in tailored slacks and a white sleeveless blouse stepped into the room. She pinned Avery with a hard look. “Going somewhere, Mrs. Black? Or should I call you
Ms. Scott
?”

Avery’s mind searched for the connection. She recognized the face but couldn’t figure out from where.

“You’ve caused quite a bit of trouble for me,” the woman went on. “We had to move the shipment up a day thanks to your nosiness. But we’ll fetch a pretty penny for your look-alike face when we reach Curacao.” She stepped forward, wrapped her hand around Avery’s chin, and squeezed. “Don’t worry, you’ll make it up to me.”

“You won’t get away with this. People will notice I’m missing.”

“Perhaps,” the woman answered with a smug smile. A smile Avery suddenly recognized. Patrice. The woman who’d checked them in when they’d arrived at Indulgence. The one who’d been salivating over Cade. “I can already see the headlines tomorrow.
Actress Avery Scott Goes Missing at Swingers Club
.” She snapped the fingers of her free hand. “Oh, wait. Your studio would never let that go to print, now would they? After all, you
are
America’s sweetheart. There’s an image to uphold. Now that I think about it, there’ll probably be a messy cover-up. They’ll say you disappeared while swimming off your fancy yacht, or your private jet went down somewhere in the Caribbean and no one can find you. No, I’m sure no one will link you and me, because that would cause all kinds of trouble for all sorts of people, wouldn’t it?”

The confident way she spoke told Avery there were more people involved in this than she or Melody thought. They had to have someone on the inside, at the local police department, probably, fudging info about missing persons. If that was the case… Her heart sank—and any hope she had about Cade finding her took a major nosedive.

Patrice jerked her hand away from Avery, snapping Avery’s chin to the side. Pain shot across Avery’s jaw. To the two burly men at Avery’s back, Patrice said, “Bring her. I think she needs a little lesson as to who’s in charge on this ship.”

The big man on the right with a machine gun slung over his shoulder—Ramon…it was Ramon, the bartender from the club—stepped in and grasped Avery by the bicep. Fear and adrenaline raced through Avery’s body, followed by another burst of pain from his tight grip. He pulled her toward the door. “Come on, don’t do something stupid here.”

Something stupid? Like dropping her guard and giving everything away? Her stomach rolled, and whimpers echoed from the corner of the room, but Avery didn’t have time to turn and look. They pulled her into the hall and slammed the door at her back with a deafening clap.

She was dragged along a small hallway and up a flight of stairs. Her stomach lurched into her throat when Patrice stopped outside another arched door and gestured for her to move inside.

“This will be your new room for a few days,” she said. “Oh, it’s not as nice as Indulgence’s accommodations, I know, but it’ll get the job done. Trust me. Our clients like their women well trained.”

Ramon shoved her into the room. Avery caught her footing before she went down, then turned and looked past him toward the woman in the doorway.

“I would tell you to relax,” Patrice said, “let your stress go, and indulge in every one of your fantasies, but…I just realized this is probably more like a nightmare.” She grinned a sickeningly sweet smile. “You will go for top dollar. A Hollywood look-alike. We just got lucky.”

Ramon dropped his weapon outside the door and stepped into the room. His face was no longer friendly but menacing and disturbingly…aroused. His words in the bar—when he’d been arguing with the other guy—ran back through her mind. “
I just wanted to have a little fun with her.”

He’d spiked her drink last night. When she’d been sitting at the bar waiting for Cade. Probably hoping for a little fun then too when her man was distracted somewhere else. Her sudden blackout and memory loss made total sense. How many other women had he done this to?

Avery’s stomach twisted and turned. Instinctively, she moved back a step, but there was nowhere to go. The small room held a tiny table, two chairs, and a bed. There wasn’t even a window to try to escape through. No weapon to use to defend herself. She swallowed hard.

“I’m sure Ramon here will at least have fun,” Patrice said. “I’ll see you both later.”

She pulled the door closed. The clank echoed through the small room with a deafening boom. Ramon inched closer.

Avery held up a hand and stumbled back another step, until the backs of her legs hit the dingy mattress. “Hold on, Ramon. Just—”

“Don’t fight it,” he said in a low voice. “Just let it happen. Be easier that way.”

Fuck that
. Every muscle in her body shook. She held up her hands to keep him back.

No, no, no. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t—