Chapter 16
“Everyone get down,” Micah ordered from the driver’s seat of his vehicle. On the ridge up ahead, he spotted a couple SUVs zooming toward them on the highway.
Could be nothing, but just in case it was the Feds… “Actually, just stay down. You guys can’t get caught on any traffic cameras they might be monitoring.”
“I’m pulling a blanket over us,” Ilena said, her voice muffled.
Clover glanced at him, her expression worried as two black SUVs that were a mirror of each other raced past them.
He eyed the rearview, his heart rate kicking up as he waited for the SUV to spin around and pull them over.
But they kept going, heading in the direction of the campsite.
He sped up, intent on putting distance between the two SUVs that were very likely owned by the FBI.
To his surprise, Clover started talking as he made his way to one of his safe houses. “Ilena, how did you end up involved in all of this?”
He heard the blanket shift and then Clover turned around, looked down as Ilena spoke. “That guy you saw me with?”
“Troy Mosker?” Clover asked.
“Okay, wow, you really did your research. Yeah. He’s my ex. He’s the worst.”
“He kidnapped me,” Taryn said, her voice muffled.
“Taryn is my sister, by the way, in case that wasn’t clear.” Ilena’s tone was dry. “Anyway, he threatened to go to the cops about my…side hustle for Louis. So I told him to go ahead. He had no proof and Louis is tight with the Feds anyway. I think he’s like an informant or something.”
“How do you know that about Louis?” Clover asked.
“Because I pay attention. And FBI agents always stick out. They stopped by his bar at least once a week.” She snorted softly. “Anyway, when Troy’s blackmail didn’t work, he kidnapped Taryn. Told me if I didn’t help out with his kidnapping scheme, he’d hurt her. And I believed him.”
“I take it this wasn’t Mosker’s first kidnapping?” Micah asked. He’d done enough research on the man and had started to put together a list of various kidnappings along the East Coast he was pretty certain Mosker was involved in.
“No. He works with a crew. It’s actually the reason I ended things with him.”
Taryn cleared her throat. Loudly.
“It’s one of the reasons. He’s…”
“He sucks,” her sister snarled.
“He does indeed suck.”
“Do you have any proof of his other jobs?” Micah asked.
Next to him, Clover nodded. “Yeah, that could help you later.”
“Ah, I mean I’ve got information. Detailed information about some of the places he kept his victims at.
And I probably should have gone to the Feds before but I don’t have the best track record.
And more than that, I was scared he’d kill me.
I was just hoping that if I moved away and started over… he’d forget about me.”
The guy sounded like an abusive asshole and Micah knew that men like that didn’t let go so easily. They tended to think of women as objects and couldn’t deal with the thought of their wives or girlfriends having the audacity to leave.
“So he kidnapped your sister and brought you into this job. What was your role in the kidnapping?”
“The actual kidnapping…nothing. He wanted me taking care of Maeve. Feeding her, keeping her calm, stuff like that. He also had me picking up all the food for everyone. Since I don’t have an actual record, he needed someone clean doing anything around town. He’s always worried about cameras.”
“He’s right to be,” Micah murmured. “The Feds likely got a partial of his face at that gas station diner you guys got food from.” And by this point they would have an image of Clover talking to Ilena, something he was worried about.
“Maybe,” Ilena said. “He was pretty careful about not going inside and keeping his head down. And I always wore a hat to cover my face.”
Micah didn’t respond as he turned into the neighborhood where he owned a house under an LLC.
He’d crashed here before when he’d been worried someone was looking for him, and he occasionally worked with a woman who ran a local women’s shelter.
She used his safe houses—yes, plural—as off-the-books crash pads for women in serious trouble before they moved on to the next phase of their life, far away from their abusers.
“We’re here,” he said as he pulled into a garage of a three-bedroom ranch house. The house was in a quiet neighborhood and the backyard had a privacy fence. On top of that, he’d added bamboo as another natural barrier to any prying eyes. Luckily that had never been a problem.
He’d stopped by here in his truck enough times that people knew what his vehicle looked like, but he’d rarely interacted with the neighbors.
When he’d first bought it, he’d told two of the older residents that he was a handyman and did work for the out-of-town owners who used it as a vacation rental.
He figured as long as he was quiet and the people who stayed here were quiet, they didn’t care.
“You can all sit up, but wait until the garage closes before anyone gets out.”
Everyone waited, the energy in the truck tense. They were all silent as he led them into the house. The garage went straight to a mudroom, then a kitchen, which was spacious and attached to the open-concept living room.
“There’s a couple meals in the freezer if you want to pop one in for them,” he murmured to Clover. “I’m going to check the house out, do a quick once-over.”
She nodded and headed straight for the freezer.
“Everyone sit tight in the living room. Don’t open any of the curtains,” he ordered as he headed off to the bedrooms. He had a security system here that he’d already disarmed on his phone, but he still wanted eyes on everything.
He hadn’t been to the house in two weeks so it had that stale, dusty scent, but nothing bad. When he returned to the kitchen he found the women had already pulled down plates and cups and Ilena was starting a pot of coffee even though it was almost sunset.
Taryn was in the pantry, inspecting the food, and Maeve had pulled out a candle and was lighting it on the island top.
So none of them had listened to him, which for some reason, made him smile.
“I put in one marked lasagna. Instructions say it’ll take over an hour. We can grab them some fresh fruit and drinks though,” Clover said.
“Agreed. We can grab some stuff in a bit, but first…” He turned to Maeve. “I need to hear your story now if we’re going to come up with a solid plan.”
The redhead looked exhausted, the circles under her eyes carrying their own baggage, but she nodded. “You want to know how I was kidnapped?”
“If it’s important, yes. But mostly I want to know about your conservatorship and why you don’t want to return home. I’ve seen your parents on the news. They’re—”
She gave a derisive snort. “Sincere? I know. They’re incredible actors.
” Disgust tinged her voice. “My grandparents left everything to me in a trust. They knew what my dad was like, I guess. Or maybe they didn’t fully know because I like to think they’d have protected me from…
everything if they had.” She sighed, sat at the island top.
Ilena poured her a mug of coffee, added sugar, then set it in front of her before gently patting Maeve’s shoulders.
In that moment he knew she was no hardened criminal—and he was absolutely going to keep helping these women. But he needed all the details first.
“How did you end up in a conservatorship?”
She wrapped her hands around her mug, shivered slightly. Taryn moved into action, grabbing one of the blankets they’d brought in and wrapped it around her shoulders.
“They drugged her,” Taryn snapped, looking ready to take on an army for the woman. “Right before her twenty-first birthday. When she would have had access to her trust.”
Clearly all three of them had bonded.
Maeve nodded, her expression grim. “I still don’t know what they gave me, but I acted crazy.
And it’s all on video. Me smashing cake, screaming at them…
They used it as a way to get me put under a conservatorship and to gain complete access to my trust. It’s taken years, but I have proof of what they did. Them on video admitting everything.”
Micah glanced at Clover, then back at Maeve. “Where?”
“At their—technically my—estate. I don’t want any of their money or properties though. I just want to leave, to live my life like a normal person.” The despair in her tone slid into his blood.
Clover must have heard it too because she set her fingers on his forearm, squeezed once. “We’re going to help you.”
“They have a lot of money,” Maeve whispered. “And they paid off the judge to get it done. They have powerful friends.”
“Micah is the smartest person I know.” There was an absolute certainty in Clover’s voice as she squeezed his arm. “He can hack anything and he’s got a lot of powerful friends himself. If you have proof, we just have to get it. I know a lawyer who would love to help you. And she’s a shark.”
For the first time since he’d met the women—been held at gunpoint by one of them—all three of them looked hopeful.
They had a lot to hash out, but first… “Why don’t you make a grocery list and we’ll grab everything you need? You all need to rest and reset and we can start planning tomorrow how to free you.”
To his surprise, and a little horror, Taryn started crying. Then tears spilled over Ilena’s cheeks as she silently cried, and then all three of the women were hugging.
Finally Ilena looked at them as she wiped away her tears. “Thank you. Both of you. I feel like we’ve been living in this state of terror and…we’re scared to hope. This is a lot to handle.”
“Of course it is.” Clover’s voice was soothing as she stepped toward the women.
Ilena stepped forward too and before he could blink, they were hugging. Ilena held Clover tightly. “I still can’t believe you’re here. Thank you so much,” she rasped out.
“Yeah, thank you. Sorry I was such a psycho,” Taryn murmured, her voice still watery.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Clover said, still hugging Ilena as she met his gaze over her shoulder.
Watching her now, seeing just how fierce she was, he understood that after living in fear of her abusive father, of course she wanted to help someone in an abusive situation.
And he was all in. Whatever it took, they were going to help Maeve Morrow and somehow get Ilena and her sister out of trouble with the Feds.