18. Emerson
Emerson
I wasn’t sure if I was getting seasick, even though we were technically on a river and not on the ocean, or if it was my nerves.
Either way, my stomach was queasy and if I didn’t get off the boat soon I was going to be sick.
And frankly, I’d had enough puking in front of these people to last a lifetime.
It felt like we’d been floating out there for hours, and try as I might, I couldn’t get Thad’s plea out of my head.
I also couldn’t forget the way he’d looked at me like he actually cared about me.
Once again, he’d been dressed in head-to-toe black, but he hadn’t pulled his mask over his face yet, so I could see every line of concern.
I didn’t know what to do with that .
I didn’t know why while I was sitting on the Kaituma that instead of watching out for whatever creature was surely in the water waiting for me to be its next snack, or worried about the insane amount of bug bites that now covered any flesh that was exposed, I was worried about Thad.
I didn’t know what to do with the ever-growing knot in my stomach nagging me to talk to him. Explain what I’d been doing and why .
“They're ready for us,” Brooks said, and started back to the dock.
“Did they say anything?” I asked.
“No.”
“Oh.” I tried to hide my disappointment, but obviously failed when Tatiana looked my way.
“That means everything went to plan,” Tatiana told me. “If everything wasn’t good, they wouldn’t be calling us to come in.”
“Right.”
God, I sounded pathetic.
“Babe, jump off and tie us up, yeah?”
Tatiana did what her husband asked, and when we were secured and off the boat, I was starting to get nervous, which was ridiculous because I’d been in worse situations than this. Maybe it was all the warnings I’d received that was making conditions seem more dangerous than they were.
“Don’t leave my side, Emerson. No matter what you see.”
“I’ve seen how the girls are kept, Brooks,” I bristled.
He stopped, which meant Tatiana stopped, and he faced me. “No matter what.”
“Fine, fine, I get it. No matter what. Can we please hurry? The giant-sized flying bugs are biting my neck.”
Tatiana and Brooks shared a silent moment before we started walking again.
My boots were sinking in the mud and I was hoping there weren’t snakes hiding in the muck.
We trudged through the thick vegetation in silence and I was impressed by how easily Brooks was navigating.
I had the worst directional skills, proven by the last time I’d been traipsing through the jungle by myself, I’d ended where I’d started after hours of walking.
Suddenly, out of nowhere four men appeared, scaring the ever-living hell out of me.
Before I could stop myself, I stumbled back and slipped in the mud, landing on my ass.
I scrambled to get up, only making the whole situation worse, and ended up twisting and turning in sludge.
By the time a hand reached down to grab me, I looked like a pig who’d been frolicking all day in shit.
“Whoa, Emmy. Just get your feet under you,” Thad whispered.
I froze.
Completely still.
When we’d been together Thad mostly had called me, agápi mou.
Sometimes Moro mou, meaning my baby. But when he’d thought I’d done something sweet or was being funny he’d call me Emmy.
I preferred agápi mou. Hearing him call me ‘my love’ never failed to make my heart swoon.
Now, hearing any of the old nicknames hurt. Like, bad, really fucking bad.
“I’m fine,” I told him even though I really wasn’t.
Something felt off. Or should I say, more off than it had.
“What’s wrong?” Brooks asked me.
“Does something feel weird?” I asked instead of answering.
“Weird, how?” Declan’s gaze swung my way.
“I don’t know. I just feel it. It's probably nothing, you guys have all freaked me out with this stay close no matter what stuff.”
The men all exchanged looks, expressions I couldn’t read, but wished I could.
“You hit only four at the kennels?” Declan inquired.
“Yeah,” Max answered.
“We had three in the house. Seven guards. None roaming,” he stated. “Brooks, you’re hanging back until we breech the buildings where the women are kept.”
“You haven’t checked the women yet? ”
“No, I wanted you three off the boat as quickly as possible,” Declan answered.
Max’s steely blue eyes pinned me in place and he asked, “You get these feelings a lot? Like something's wrong?”
“No. Never happened before.”
“Fuck,” he clipped.
Declan gave Max and Kyle a nod and the two of them slipped back into the shrubbery and disappeared. Then to Thad he asked, “Ready?”
Thad’s gaze came to mine before he looked at Declan and answered, “Yeah.”
The two men started forward, but Brooks didn’t move. So neither did I.
I watched Thad as he walked into the unknown and I did this with a knot in my stomach. I wanted to call out to him and make him stop.
“Something’s wrong,” I whispered. “Really wrong.”
“Why do you think that?” Tatiana asked.
“I don’t know. There should be more people here or something. I can’t explain it but I feel it, like everything inside of me wants to run. I want all of us to run.”
“Christ,” Brooks grumbled. His already-taunt frame grew even stiffer as he scanned the area around us.
“Babe, go ahead and draw, safety off.”
Luckily, Tatiana knew what Brooks was saying, because I certainly didn’t. Not until she moved her shirt aside and pulled a handgun out of the holster on her hip.
“Do I get one?” I asked.
Brooks glanced in my direction and asked, “You know how to use one?”
“No.”
“Then no.”
I probably should’ve lied. And if I was going to lie, I should’ve kept the wobble out of my voice, but I didn’t do that, either.
“Whatever you’re feelin’, you’re gonna have to use it to stay alert. If you feel something's wrong, then there’s something wrong. Trust it. Use it, Emerson. But do not allow it to cripple you with fear.”
“I don’t know how to do that, Brooks. I’m not used to any of this.”
“Sure you are. You’re just used to going at it alone.
I read your file, I know what you’ve done.
This is no different. The team is going to clear the buildings.
After that we’re goin’ inside. If there are women in there, you and Tatiana are going to talk to them, reassure them we’re the good guys and we’re gonna get them help.
If there’s no one there, we go on our way. ”
Brooks was so wrong. There was a huge difference between me nosing around and following someone to gain information so I could move on to the next man. I’d never gone on the offensive and actively tried to take out security.
“Jefferson’s dead,” I announced.
“Aware of that, Emerson.”
“Maybe I’m overreacting. It would make sense there aren’t a bunch of guards here. I mean, he’s gone. Maybe Paul already moved the women. He wouldn’t care about the dogs, he never did, he’d leave them here. Barebones staff would make sense.”
“Don’t do that. Trust your gut. And make no mistake, we’re taking it seriously.” Brooks stopped for a moment before he declared, “The first building was empty. The second one has ten women and has been secured. They’re ready for us.”
Thank God, I’d been wrong. Everything was fine. I’d overreacted. Later I’d apologize to everyone, though I wouldn’t explain I figured my emotions being all out of whack was due to being close to Thad again.
No, I’d keep that to myself.
We slowly made our way to the chain-link gated area with two block buildings.
They looked like two mid-sized houses, only there were no windows at would-be eye level.
There were only cutouts that ran along the top.
Every fifth cinderblock one was missing allowing hot, humid air and bugs to enter the building.
It never failed to make me sick how these men treated the women they kept in captivity. It would be hot as shit in those buildings and there were no screens on the windows meaning bugs could get in.
Dicks.
Vile, disgusting, pieces of shit.
Every time my conscience started to get the best of me, and guilt started to creep in, all I had to do was remember something like this, the way these poor innocent girls were treated, and it quenched the contrition.
Every man I’d killed deserved it. They’d bought their tickets to hell and part of me felt good about sending them.
Brooks entered the building first, Tatiana behind me, boxing me in. I wanted to ask her why she got a gun and how she knew how to use one well enough that Brooks trusted her to watch his back, but I refrained.
Mainly because huddled on the floor were ten filthy women all holding on to each other. Just like in the shack in Venezuela, they all looked beaten and broken.
I started to step around Brooks and Thad came to my side. He didn’t say anything as I approached the women. He just stood next to me.
“We’re here to take you home.” I crouched in front of them. “You’re all safe now.”
Nothing. Not even a flicker .
“Is anyone else here?”
Still nothing.
“We’re gonna get you out of here.”
One of the girl’s eyes widened and cold fear flashed over her features.
I turned and looked over my shoulder to see what had scared her.
Just as my gaze landed on Declan, his body jerked and an arm came around his neck and a long blade was pressed against his throat.
Before anyone could react, the man behind Declan stumbled, taking Declan with him.
The edge of the man’s knife drew blood at Declan’s throat before his arm went slack.
I was on my feet, Thad shoving me behind him, and Brooks yanked Declan with such force the big beast of a man was tossed to the side and to safety.
But I couldn’t concentrate on any of that. Not how Thad had tried to protect me. How close Declan had come to dying. Not even how Brooks had some super power and was able to get to Declan in a flash and throw him across the room.
Not when there was a man with a knife sticking out of his neck gargling his last breaths and my sister was standing over him.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said.
“What?” I stepped out from behind Thad, but he grabbed my arm, preventing me from running to Autumn.
“Goddamn it, Emerson. You shouldn’t be here.”
“What?” I repeated in a whisper, my eyes filling with tears.
This wasn’t how I’d pictured our reunion. This was so far from how I’d imagined it, it wasn’t funny. I thought we’d run into each other’s arms and the relief of me finding her would bring us to our knees. We’d go on the run and make our way back home where I could finally face my parents again .
I’d bring Autumn back, and everything would finally be okay again.
“Go home, Emerson. You’ve stirred up too much shit. You’re on radar now, a prize to be found. You should’ve never started this shit. You were supposed to go back to living your life. Not… not… do this.”
I yanked my arm from Thad and moved toward Autumn. She took a step back and in the light filtering in from the open door next to her, I saw it.
Nothing.
Vacant.
Broken.
“Autumn,” I cried.
“You have two minutes to get gone. Three trucks are inbound,” she told the room, no longer looking at me. “And take my sister with you. Paul’s offered up a million-dollar price tag. Lock her ass down.” Then her dead eyes came back to mine. “I’m dead to you, Emerson.”
“You’re not. Please come with us.”
“I got nothing left, sister. Nothing you want anyway. Now you got one minute. Go home and forget my name.”
Autumn turned, and with her blonde hair whipping behind her, she took off in a dead run.
“Stop her!” I yelled.
No one moved.
I took off after my sister, but before I could get more than a few steps, I was grabbed from behind, twisted around, and tossed over Thad’s shoulder. Once he had me where he wanted, he took off in a full sprint.
In the wrong direction.
“Please, Thaddeus. Go get her.”
“Quiet, agápi mou. ”
My belly was pressed against the hardness of his vest and it was digging in to the point of pain .
I welcomed the agony.
I’m dead to you.
Forget my name.
I used to think my worst fear was that my sister had been murdered and left in an unmarked grave, never to be seen again.
I’d been wrong.