Stranded (24 page)

Convincing Darcy to return to her room and get some rest while there was nothing more to be done wasn't easy, but he'd finally managed to escort her back to her cabin, and now he returned to his. Silence surrounded him, but Darcy's words still churned deep in his soul.

He pulled out the Bible he'd been reading, opened to Romans, and started at the beginning, working his way through and pausing on verse nine of chapter ten.
“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

This is insane.
So long he'd walked away. So long he'd raised his fists in anger.

How is it possible I can feel you reaching out to me after all these years of turning away from you? I know what Darcy said, and I've read it in your Word, but is it true, Lord? Will you forgive me?

“I have loved you with an everlasting love. . . .”

The air left Gage's lungs in a whoosh as God spoke to his heart. He dropped to his knees, a mixture of awe and revelation spiriting through him.
I'm so sorry, God. Please forgive me for my anger. For turning away. For refusing to believe what I knew was true. I want to spend eternity with you, with Tucker.
Please come into my life and be my Savior.

Gage picked Darcy up at her cabin sharply at eight the next morning, as he'd promised. He was eager to share his news but decided to wait for the right time.

“So what's this grand plan of yours?”

“You'll see.”

He led her to the ship's clinic, tugging her to a halt just outside. “Wait for my signal, okay?”

“What?” She glanced in at the nurse, then back at Gage. “What's your plan, to flirt her into giving you access?”

“No, but I like that you acknowledge I possess that magnitude of charm.”

“Please.” She blew the bangs fringing her eyes.

“I'll distract her, get her into the exam room, and you do your thing at the front desk. I can buy you ten minutes max, so focus.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What exactly are you doing to do?”

He winked. “Watch and learn.”

Stepping into the clinic, he greeted the nurse. She was young, midtwenties, with long amber hair.

“Morning,” she said without looking up. She was busy typing some notes into the computer.

“Is the doc in?”

“Not until nine.” A smile curled on her lips as she glanced
up and made eye contact. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Well, I sure hope so.” He leaned on the corner of her desk with a wide smile. “I'm Gage, the new excursion leader.”

“Roxanne.”

“Like the Police song?”

She laughed. “Yeah, but you can call me Roxi. So”—she leaned forward—“what can I do for you?”

“My throat.” He cleared it.

“It hurts?” She pouted.

“Something like that. Do you think you could take a look?”

“I'd be happy to check you out.” She stood and moved around the desk. “Follow me.”

Before following the nurse, he signaled Darcy to enter behind him. She gave him a disgusted “I can't believe you stooped to that cheesy level of flirting” look, but it had worked. They'd get the information they needed.

“Take a seat on the exam table,” Roxi said.

He hopped up, positioning himself so he could keep an eye on the front room and Darcy, effectively putting Roxi's back to the door.

“Are you hot?” she asked.

He grinned. “I like to think so.”

She shook her head as she slipped a sleeve on the digital thermometer. “I meant, do you feel like you have a fever?”

“No.”

“Let's check just to be safe.”

Gage opened his mouth and she slipped the thermometer in. She grabbed a tongue depressor while the numbers rose.

Gage glanced at Darcy, clicking away at the computer station. She didn't look happy.

The thermometer chirped, and Roxi checked it. “Ninety-eight point four. Practically perfect.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“You're really something.” She chuckled.

“You have no idea.” He winked.

She held up the tongue depressor. “Open wide.” She glanced down his throat. “Say
ah
.”

“Ahhh.”

She tossed the depressor in the trash. “Looks fine. You're probably just adjusting to the sea air.”

He'd grown up surrounded by sea air, but no sense bringing that up. He caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye. Had the doctor arrived early? Had he caught Darcy on the computer?

Voices carried into the exam room.

“Take a seat and I'll be with you shortly,” Roxi called without glancing over to the waiting area. “Looks like it's going to be a busy one.”

“Do you get a lot of patients?”

“You'd be surprised.”

“That many people get sick?”

“It's not all sickness.”

“What else? People falling overboard?” He laughed as if making a joke.

“Actually, that happens more often than you'd expect.”

“You're kidding.”

“Afraid not.” She relayed the story of Jessica Matthews that they already knew.

“That's terrible.”

“I know, right? Glad my cabin doesn't have a balcony. If you know what I'm saying.”

“Now that you mention it, I heard something about a
crew member going overboard the night before I boarded in Yancey.”

“Yeah. Such a shame. Rumor was she drank too much and got too close to the rail.”

“I heard she was rescued.”

“Yeah. She was lucky someone saw her go over.”

“Did you treat her when they brought her back on board?”

“Nah. We were close to land, so she was taken to the nearest hospital.”

“Who took her?”

“I don't know. Whoever fished her out of the water, I suppose.”

“Excuse me, nurse.”

Gage turned to find an older gentleman in the doorway.

“My wife's got a terrible migraine. The longer we delay treatment, the worse it will get.”

Roxi nodded. “We're just about finished here, and she'll be next.”

With a squint of frustration and a grumble about a poorly run office, he stepped back into the minuscule waiting area.

“Richies always expect you to drop everything where they're concerned.”

“I'll let you take care of them.” Gage hopped off the table, eager to see what had become of Darcy. “Thanks, Roxi.”

“You can thank me over a drink sometime.”

He waved as he exited the room and glanced up and down the corridor. He spotted Darcy at the south end of the hall.

She gestured for him, and he quickly strode to her side, anxious to know what she'd found. “What happened?”

“I moved toward the door as soon as I heard someone coming and just left as they entered.”

“What if the man says something to Roxi about you being there?”

“So what if he does? For all they know, I was looking for the doc, saw he wasn't in, and decided to come back later.”

“True.”

“Nice flirting back there,” she said with sarcasm that rivaled Kayden's.

“It worked, didn't it?”

“Sadly, yes.” She smirked.

He grinned. “Did you find anything?”

“I discovered there were two rescue crews launched that night.”

“Two?”

“The report says the second crew, which included Ted, launched but that the first rescue crew had already pulled the woman from the water and was in the process of transporting her to Kodiak Hospital, so they turned back.”

“Okay, so if Ted wasn't part of the crew that pulled Abby from the water, who was?”

“The first rescue crew consisted of Jeremy Harnett—”

“The guy who left the
Bering
the day after Abby went overboard?”

She nodded. “And Clint.”

“Whoa. Hold up. Did you just say Clint was part of the rescue crew?”

She nodded. “He lied to me.”

“So he and Jeremy are the ones involved?”

“And probably George, now that Jeremy's gone.”

“What about Ted?”

“He still might have a role in it, or at the very least, he's turning a blind eye.”

“So what's our next step?”

Darcy looked at her watch. “We're supposed to head out for excursion in an hour. Can we get in touch with local police and have Clint and George arrested when they step off the ship?”

“These are the Pribilof Islands. There is no police force. We're talking a population well under one thousand for all four islands—only two of which are inhabited.”

“But from here it is right on to Petropavlovsk, Russia. There's no way we can have them arrested on foreign soil.” Darcy shook her head. “We have to go to Mullins and explain what is going on. Surely, as a woman, she'll empathize. We can have Clint and George detained until the FBI arrives.”

“Why don't we just head to ship security?”

“Because Mullins is the one that can pull the files we need, their employee files . . .”

“We have copies of those.”

“You really want to waltz into Security with copies of files that we got by breaking into Mullins' office?”

“Good point.”

“Besides, Mullins has all the excursion files. All of our reports go directly to her.”

Gage exhaled. “Mullins it is.”

Mullins sat back. “Are you certain?”

“Positive.”

Darcy went back through all the facts, leaving out only the little tidbit of having broken into her office.

“I can hardly believe that any of my employees would be involved in something so heinous as sex trafficking.”

“A member of our excursion team is law enforcement,” Darcy said.

Mullins arched a brow.

“He's about to be my brother-in-law,” Gage explained. “He came along to be with my sister.”

“When the gangplank lowers, we thought we could bring him on to assist your security team until the FBI arrives.”

Mullins looked at the clock. “We've got less than an hour—they are supposed to head off on your excursion. Let me pull the necessary records, and I'll go to Security. In the meantime, I'll need you two to go on the excursion as planned.”

“What? No,” Darcy said. “We need to stay here. To question Clint. He's the only one who knows what happened to Abby.”

“Abby? They took her to Kodiak Hospital. How would anyone on this ship know what happened to her after that?”

“That's just what he told you so no one would go looking for her.”

“What do you think he did with her?”

Darcy bit her bottom lip. “I don't know. That's why I have to talk to Clint.” She needed to get the truth out of him.

“Ms. St. James.” Mullins frowned. “I have a dozen of the
Bering
's elite passengers expecting one last excursion before we dock in Russia the day after tomorrow, and they are going to get it as planned or
your
company”
—
she pinned her gaze on Gage—“will be in breach of contract. I will have Clint and George detained and pull one of our auxiliary activities engineers and another medic to escort you, but this excursion will go on as planned.”

Gage headed down the gangplank knowing he had little time to brief his family and get Landon on board before the excursion set off. Darcy had remained in Mullins' office, anxiously awaiting the woman's return with word that Clint and George had been detained. Getting her to stay put had been a fierce battle, but she'd promised him she wouldn't leave Mullins' office until Clint and George were secure. The thought of Clint or George intercepting her before Security reached them . . . Gage cringed at the thought.

His family waited at the edge of the pier. His heart raced as he approached them, and his protective nature kicked in full force. The thought of someone enslaving his sisters was horrifying. They needed to get the men running the entire organization—not just a few of the players. Otherwise, all
they'd managed to do was interrupt one of the tentacles of the operation.

Landon had said nearly a dozen women had been taken from Alaska over the last year alone—a dozen women subjected to sexual slavery, but sadly that number wasn't even a blip on the screen of women enslaved in the sex trade worldwide. His and Darcy's Internet search had indicated estimates as high as two million worldwide—mostly poor women and children from Asia and Latin America, promised a new life and decent jobs in America or other countries, only to be forced into the sex-slave trade and drugged to be kept in line. It had to be a hellish existence—the mere thought of it made him ill.

“What's changed?” Jake asked the minute he spotted Gage's face.

Darcy paced Mullins' office. How long would it take? Surely Mullins had reached Security and they were detaining Clint and George by now.

Mullins had promised to return the moment they were detained. Darcy had to speak with Clint. She couldn't wait until the FBI arrived. She needed answers, and she needed them now.

The door opened and Mullins stepped through.

Darcy brightened, but then her heart seized as Clint and George followed, rolling in a large cooler. “What's going on?”

She looked past them for a security guard.

“You're going to have to move quickly,” Mullins said, shutting the door behind them.

Clint stalked toward Darcy, a syringe in hand.

“What's going on?”

He grabbed her neck, and she opened her mouth to scream, but George's hand clamped down over it as he held her in a viselike grip.

“Now,” George said.

Clint stabbed her in the neck with the needle. Fire burned through her veins, her vision rapidly deteriorating.

George slackened his hold, and she fell into him as everything went black.

“We went to Mullins,” Gage said.

“Why Mullins?” Jake asked.

“Because she has access,
legal
access to the files we need to prove Clint and Jeremy Harnett, the man George replaced, were the rescue crew that supposedly took Abby to Kodiak Hospital that night.”

“Clint?” Piper blinked. “But I thought Ted . . . ?”

“He might still be involved, but we know he wasn't part of the rescue crew that pulled Abby from the water,” Gage said.

“So what's happening?” Jake asked, concern marring his brow.

“Mullins is pulling the necessary paperwork to prove Clint, Jeremy, and Ted worked the excursion where Mrs. Bowen went missing, and that Clint and Jeremy were the rescue crew that pulled Abby from the water.”

“And George?” Kayden asked.

“I feel confident whoever is in charge of this trafficking ring replaced Jeremy with George when things went south with Abby,” Gage said.

“You don't think Clint's in charge?” Kayden asked.

Jake shook his head before Gage could answer. They were on the same page—whoever was in charge, the network reached far wider than a single ship.

“That's the next step. Right now Mullins is taking the information we asked her to pull to ship security and the captain, requesting they search Clint and Ted's cabin—where we hinted they might find something of worth hidden amongst the ceiling tiles.”

Jake and Landon arched their brows and Gage explained.

“You left the lockbox there?” Jake said, not bothering to hide his shock.

“Darcy made a quick decision. Clint and Ted were returning to the room. I triggered the fire alarm—”

“Where is Darcy?” Piper asked, anxiously surveying the passengers off-loading from the ship.

“Secure in Mullins' office, but as you can see”—he gestured to the excursion passengers grouping up at the designated spot—“we've got a situation. Mullins insists we continue with the excursion.”

“Is she crazy?” Piper said.

“She's thinking of the
Bering
and the group of elite passengers expecting an excursion.”

“The last thing she's going to want to do,” Jake cut in, “is highlight the criminal situation taking place.”

“Right.” While he understood Mullins was committed to protecting her ship, who was protecting the poor women being trafficked? He wanted everything halted until they could be found and the trafficking ring busted up, but sadly he knew it wouldn't work that way. Business would go on as usual, though he doubted Destiny Cruise Line would be able to salvage its reputation after the news broke.

“What's going to happen next?” Kayden asked.

“Mullins said she'd have
Bering
's security call in the authorities.”

“Who knows how long it'll take them to arrive?” Piper said, gazing about their secluded setting. “How are we supposed to just head off on an excursion in the meantime? This is huge. We can't pretend like nothing's happening.”

Gage rubbed the back of his neck. “I don't know. Mullins said we'd be in breach of contract if we refused to continue on as planned, but maybe this is one of those times when it's better to face a breach of contract in order to do what we know is right.”

“The rest of us can go,” Kayden offered. “You and Darcy can stay here.”

“Mullins insists I go, but she's agreed to let Landon come on board.”

“Really?” Landon asked, not bothering to hide his surprise.

“Mullins agreed we could bring you on to confer with ship security until the FBI arrives.”

“That's going to take some time,” Landon said, “as far out in the Aleutians as we are. I know Abby's folks called them after we spoke, but they are focusing their investigation in Kodiak, since that's the last place Abby was seen. I'll give them a call and update them regarding the situation, if ship security hasn't already.”

“At least the
Bering
will be docked overnight,” Jake said. “That may give them time to arrive if they're on Kodiak.”