Chapter 14
Kimo curled her fingers around the disks and looked up into Rex’s eyes. The tears she’d been holding back, thinking the camera and her trade for Alana were gone, fell silently down her cheeks.
Rex gathered her into his arms.
She pressed her cheek to his chest and let the rest of the tears go. When they’d played out, she wiped her cheeks and looked up again. “How did you know to switch them?”
“Instinct? Luck?” He wiped her cheek with his thumb. “Either way, we have the right disk. Even better, the detective won’t know he has the wrong one for a while because I had my little camera recording during our dive today.”
Angel clapped a hand on Rex’s back. “Well played.”
Dev and Teller both grinned and nodded.
“So, we have the right disks,” Leilani said. “The kidnappers specifically wanted the camera and the information on it. How do they want you to deliver them?”
Kimo shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Rex’s cell phone chirped. He hurried to grab it from where he’d left it on the bench. “It’s Swede,” he said as he answered. “Hey, Swede, let me put you on speaker.” He hit the button.
Swede’s voice sounded, “Did you find it?”
Rex looked to Kimo.
“Yes,” Kimo said.
“Good deal,” Swede said. “Hawk’s on the line with us. I’ll make this as quick as I can. I know you want to get moving on the trade to get your friend back, but you need to know what you’re up against.”
Kimo’s fist tightened around the disk in her hand as she looked around the group assembled. “We’re listening.”
“I bounced around on the dark web looking for anything I could find on Marcus Holte and Lucien Vaughan. I found info on both men. Holte appeared in a number of photos of him with business partners and associates in the shipping trade, as well as attending parties hosted by guess who?”
“Lucien Vaughan,” Rex said.
“Right.” Swede continued. “The more I looked into Vaughan, the more photos I found with him and a number of very wealthy and influential people, which I’d mentioned before.
I also found that he has a network of people in each of his prime locations that run interference for him to keep him out of trouble with law enforcement and other federal agencies. ”
“Like the Coast Guard?” Rex asked.
“Exactly,” Swede responded. “As well as local police departments, state officials and more. Some of the sources say he drives it from top down.”
Kimo blew out a sharp breath. “Meaning he has people in high positions clearing the way for him to commit crime with impunity.”
“Did any of the sources on the dark web mention human trafficking?” Rex asked.
“Yes. Vaughan is known for staffing his yacht and his home in the States and Paris with young women from all over the world. His records show they’re all over eighteen.”
Rex frowned. “They’re not. I spoke with a Romanian girl on his yacht. She told me she was only fourteen years old.”
Kimo shook her head. “Children.”
“That’s right,” Swede said. “The friends he invites to his parties don’t just turn a blind eye.
They participate in his activities and the cover-up.
Vaughan’s yacht and some of his various residences had been involved in several FBI sting operations and the authorities had come up with nothing.
They’d suspected he’d gotten adequate warning before the inspections took place.
Enough to hide his crimes diver propulsion vehicles. ”
“They had a mole inside,” Kimo said.
“My father called it,” Rex said. “Vaughan and his cronies are untouchable. They can get away with murder.”
“And they have, several times, according to the dark web. Whenever someone thinks they have evidence that can stick, they disappear, or their bodies are found before they can testify in court.”
“Jesus,” Kimo whispered. “Which could mean that the bodies in that shipping container could’ve been young girls, lost because someone warned them about a surprise inspection.” Acid roiled in her belly.
“Which means we need to catch Vaughan in the act,” Rex said.
Hawk’s voice came on. “He wouldn’t get his hands dirty. He’d send in his henchmen.”
“How do we smoke him out?” Angel asked.
“Call his bluff,” Kimo said.
Rex frowned down at her. “What do you mean?”
“Whoever is holding Alana must have a link or contact with Vaughan,” Kimo reasoned. “Vaughan doesn’t want the evidence to get out, no matter how many people he has under his thumb. We go directly to Vaughan and call his bluff.” She met Rex’s gaze. “Make him collect the evidence himself.”
“If I don’t see him with Alana alive, when I go to make the trade,” she said, “I leave and turn the evidence over to someone who isn’t on his payroll.”
“You don’t get it,” Angel said. “He’s not going to let you or Alana get out of this alive. You’re witnesses. If you go alone to trade the disk for Alana’s life, Vaughan gets the disk and kills both of you.”
Her heart sank. “Then how do I get Alana back without either one of us being killed?”
“I don’t know,” Rex said. “All I know is that you can’t turn the disk over to Vaughan. If he has that, he has no reason to keep you and Alana alive.
Kimo held out her hand. “Then maybe you should hold onto this.” She dropped the disk into Rex’s hand. “Though we still have no way of getting Alana out of Vaughan’s clutches.”
“I’m thinking about it,” Rex said. “Even if we manage to free Alana, the two of you are witnesses who’ve seen the bodies in the submerged storage box. Vaughan won’t want loose ends. He won’t trust the two of you to keep quiet about what you saw. You’ll never be safe.”
“They won’t keep Alana alive forever,” Kimo said.
Rex nodded. “Whatever we decide, we have to do it quickly. By now, he’ll have figured out you found the camera. Even if he thinks he has the evidence, he won’t want you running around telling everyone he’s a murderer.”
“Then maybe I should go ahead and offer to make the trade, but demand I do it with Vaughan, not his thugs.”
Rex shook his head. “You’ll have the same end result.”
“Then what can I do?”
“Rooster, Bennett, Logan and Ingram are inbound from Oahu,” Hawk said. “They should be arriving at the airport around now. I’ll land within the next ten minutes. I suggest we—”
A loud boom shook the boat.
Rex shoved Kimo down onto the deck and covered her body with his.
Screams sounded as the smoke cleared.
The Brotherhood Protectors leaped to their feet. Rex helped Kimo up while Angel gave Leilani a hand.
“What the hell was that?” Leilani cried.
Flame rose from a shop halfway down the pier.
A woman raced out of a burning building, her clothes tattered, her face smudged. “Help! Please help me,” she cried. “My husband is trapped inside.”
Angel, Devlin and Teller leaped onto the dock and ran toward the woman as she turned and ran back into the burning building.
Rex leaped out onto the dock, took two steps and stopped, his gaze following his teammates. Then he glanced back at the two women on the tour boat. He hesitated.
Kimo waved at him. “Go! You have to help.”
Rex’s attention shifted back to his teammates as they reached the building and dove inside. Flames rose from the roof, smoke billowing into the sky.
The front of the building collapsed.
Kimo and Leilani gasped.
A weird feeling washed over Rex as he ran toward the burning building. How many explosions happened around this marina. As he stepped into the building to save his friends he almost turned around to go back out. Was this all a set up?
“Oh, my God. Angel!” Leilani cried and leaped out onto the dock. “We have to help him.” She ran after Rex.
Kimo hurried to follow but stumbled over her flip-flops. A gentleman in a Hawaiian shirt, ball cap and sunglasses, rushed over to help steady her by gripping her elbow.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’m okay now, you can let go.”
“Sorry, lady. I can’t do that.” He released her arm, clamped a hand over her mouth and jabbed a needle in her neck.
Kimo jerked away, staggered and would have fallen, except the man who’d helped her scooped her up in his arms and carried her away from the fire, Rex and the others.
As he stepped down into a small boat and laid her on the back seat, she knew she should fight, but none of her muscles responded. When she opened her mouth to scream, her vision faded to black.
Rex leaped over the fallen awning and ran into the burning building. Smoke assaulted his lungs and burned his eyes.
Devlin led the woman who’d screamed past Rex, ducking low to avoid the smoke.
Angel appeared, holding a man up on one side with Teller on the other.
“Anyone else inside?” Rex asked.
“No,” Angel said. “We need to get out. The roof’s about to give.”
Leilani rushed in behind Rex. “Angel!”
“Get Leilani out of here,” Angel said, his voice raspy.
Rex gripped Leilani’s arm. “Come on. We need to clear a path.” He helped her over the fallen awning and out into the open air.
Angel and Teller followed with the injured man. No sooner had they stepped away from the building than the roof collapsed inward, sending up a firestorm of flames and ash, whipped higher in the air by a blustery wind.
Angel and Teller helped the man away from the fire and eased him to the ground.
Leilani flung herself into Angel’s arms. “You could’ve been in there when the roof gave.”
“I wasn’t.”
Rex glanced around. “Where’s Kimo?”
Leilani’s head spun toward the tour boat. “She was right behind me.”
Rex ran back to the tour boat and jumped on board, his gut telling him what he already knew.
She wasn’t there.
His team and Leilani spent the next five minutes searching the marina, the boats and the vehicles parked nearby.
Kimo was gone.
Shoving his hand through his hair, Rex fought the urge to roar his frustration. He’d taken his focus off her for a minute. Maybe two. Now, she was gone.
He reached into his pocket for his cell phone and found the SD disk instead.
If Vaughan had her, he’d kill her—unless he thought he could use her as he’d used Alana.
As leverage.
The others gathered around Rex.