Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
S am opened Connor’s pickup truck door and waited for Zeus to jump in, then climbed in after him. As soon as Connor got in, his phone rang.
“Hello?” He turned the speakerphone on.
“This is Nixon. I’ve sent Edwyn to help you and Sam. You’ll need backup, and I don’t have jurisdiction there. I’ve also called the police in Cheyenne to see if they’ve spotted anything on traffic cameras that’s out of the ordinary. Any vehicles in places they don’t belong. They got a hit almost right away, especially when I told them the car may have come from that inn you mentioned.”
Sam wanted to hope. Could this be the break they were hoping for? Would Kelly still be alive? These types didn’t mess around when they’d been cheated. “Okay, where do we go?”
“There’s a warehouse on the west end of town. I’ll text the address. Edwyn will be headed right there. The car they saw going to that abandoned warehouse was a limo. Not the kind of vehicle people usually take and park out in dangerous neighborhoods. ”
“Does Cheyenne have dangerous neighborhoods?” Connor frowned. “Seems pretty quiet to me.”
Nixon snorted. “Every time you mention Cheyenne we either end up at a crime scene or getting shot at, so I can only assume you’re joking.”
“I’m not very good at humor,” Connor deadpanned. “I’ll be waiting for the text. What do we need to know going in?”
“The pictures from the traffic camera only show one male driving, but I would assume there are multiple people in the back. I wouldn’t even take a guess at how many.”
“Thanks for the help.” Connor hung up the phone and bowed his head. Connor didn’t pray out loud, but Sam knew that was exactly what he was doing.
Sam took the moment to do the same and, as he said his mental Amen, Nixon’s text came through. Connor opened it and had his phone pull up driving directions. Within seconds, they had a route.
“Let’s go get this guy. I don’t know if it’s just that people are getting more brazen about trafficking, feeling they’re entitled to take advantage of people, or if we’re just so immune to caring that they aren’t hiding it anymore, but it feels like we can’t just let people heal. We have to actively protect them. It’s all new territory.” He shifted the truck into reverse and backed it out of the spot.
“Shouldn’t there be a great big limo sitting outside if they’re here?” Sam looked at his watch as they pulled into the parking lot. “Did the police get here before us? We couldn’t possibly be too late. Could we?”
Connor shook his head. “I don’t see police tape for a crime scene.” He glanced at his phone. “Maybe he sent us the wrong address. Could there be more than one abandoned warehouse?”
They got out of the truck and closed the doors quietly. Sitting in the vast, cracked parking lot left Sam feeling exposed. If anyone was inside, they would know they weren’t alone. There was no element of surprise. “I don’t feel right about this. She isn’t here. I don’t think she ever was here.”
Zeus sniffed the ground, and reality dawned. “The snow. It’s undisturbed. They couldn’t have been here.” He pointed all around them. There are no tracks in this lot. If they are in this building, then there’s another way to get to it.”
Connor jumped back in the pickup and Sam followed. He quickly turned the truck around and headed further down the road. “It’s hard to see if that’s a different building or the same one.” Connor pointed into the trees surrounding the aging buildings.
“I think it’s the same. Look, there’s someone plowing that lot. Odd, since that warehouse looked completely abandoned. Is that person clearing the lot because they’re paid to cover the tracks of anyone who might be using it?” Sam asked.
“Good question. Let’s check it out. Message Edwyn and tell him there’s a change of plans.”
Sam whipped out his phone and typed up the fastest text of his life as Connor pulled into the lot. A large loader pushed snow in great swaths to a center pile near a tall security light. He seemed oblivious to Connor’s truck and just kept plowing.
“Connor, there’s the car.” He pointed to a car port near the front of the building. This was obviously the side that had, at one time, been the reception area of the business. They both headed for the front door. Sam looked for cameras outside the building, but nothing looked like one.
“It’s going to be locked, isn’t it?” Sam sighed. “Where are the police? They should’ve been here before now. Nixon said he sent over the information.” Sam looked at his watch and wished it wasn’t the two of them against unknown odds.
“If Edwyn just left, he’s at least forty-five minutes from here. We can’t wait. If they’ve had her this long, we don’t know what could’ve happened.” Connor tugged on the door, surprised when it opened.
As soon as they passed the entry, they heard a gong noise pulse through the building, alerting whoever was there that someone had just come through the front door.
“So much for our element of surprise . . .” Connor ducked toward a nearby door.
Zeus followed, and Sam took up the tail end. The sound of rushing feet headed toward their location was a big motivation. Connor pointed the direction he was headed a few steps before he would take the turn, so they didn’t have to speak. Sam kept up, but this didn’t feel right. Where would they keep Kelly in a building like this? It made no sense. What would they want from her? She was a victim, not anyone who knew anything about the way the operation was run.
Unless . . . Sam gripped Connor and pulled him into a room. He closed the door and held his hand to his lips for quiet. Zeus held his position, barely even breathing. No one made a sound. One set of footfalls passed the door on the other side. Sam held his breath when the person on the other side shook the knob but didn’t turn it.
After they’d passed and a few minutes had gone by, Sam risked speaking quietly. “They wouldn’t expend so many resources on Kelly if she didn’t know something. She must have seen someone and not realized who she saw, or she had to know something that she didn’t realize was big. Very big.”
“Viceroy big?” Connor asked.
“I don’t know. You were just saying in the truck how things have changed. So many of our guests aren’t really free even after they escape and come to stay with us. Their traffickers come to find them now. Well, in all those cases, it was because the victim knew something. What could Kelly know?”
Connor turned away, scrubbing his face and letting out a sigh. “You’re right. And Nathan isn’t big enough. We were even able to find him in the criminal justice system. He’s not as big as Evie, whose persona was almost completely made up.”
“Well, she couldn’t have known Evie. I still don’t understand how someone like Nathan who lived and worked an hour away is connected to Wyoming, but he came here to get her and seemed to know his way around pretty well,” Connor said.
“We’ve always wondered how far these webs spread. I think it’s way further than we thought. Maybe they are all a little interconnected. Like one big crime syndicate?” Sam offered.
“No way to know, but I think you’re onto something, which means we’d better be very careful. We’ll be up against people who know how to kill and have no trouble doing it.”
“Police, everyone out!” A loud voice called from somewhere in the building.
“Was that a warning to run or a warning to stand down?” Connor opened the door and looked up and down the hall.
Running footsteps faded away two gunshots echoed around the building. “They’re getting away.” Connor took off at a run, and Zeus quickly caught up and overtook him. Sam chased after, praying they found Kelly left behind.
An officer jumped out from behind a stack of old boxes. “Freeze! Hands up.”
“We were sent by officer Nixon Blake of Piper’s Ridge,” Connor said clearly as he raised his hands.
“Any weapons on you?” He asked.
“Of course. I wouldn’t go into a situation like this unarmed. There’s one on my hip and a knife at my ankle.”
“You?” the officer asked Sam.
“Just my gun on my hip,” he said, staring at the wide-open bay door. “They got away. Didn’t they?”
“Barely. But we’ve got a car in pursuit.” He patted down both of them then asked for their IDs.
Connor and Sam dug them out, and the officer handed them back right away. “Why didn’t you both wait until we got here? They were ready for us because you tipped them off that they were in danger. I could arrest you both for obstruction.”
Sam whipped off his hat and ran his hand through his hair, losing his patience. “We were trying to save Kelly’s life. I hope this doesn’t put her in even more danger.”
Kelly lay on the floor of the limo, her hands tied tightly behind her back and the metal collar digging into her shoulder. The car's driver didn’t seem in a rush, no matter how fast they’d run from the building when the security alarm activated.
Nicolas had seemed surprised that anyone would find them, and it was the first time she’d ever witnessed anything but smug superiority on his face. Now, he spoke in hushed tones with the woman who’d caught Kelly and Nathan. The woman’s name was Ramona Butters, and Kelly was more terrified of her than the men. With men, she knew what to expect. With this woman, she seemed evil to her very core.
Ramona mumbled, “I need to be home and check on my son,” she said. “He’ll need his transfusion soon.”
Viceroy answered, “Your son is weak. I’m not willing to continue this process if there will be no end. Figure out what he needs and be done with it.”
“ Our son needs a heart and a liver. Without both, he’ll die. Soon.”
Kelly heard the worry in her voice. How could a mother agree to do such awful things? It made no sense. A woman who’d birthed a son shouldn’t be capable of agreeing to what Kelly had been through. Kelly squeezed her eyes shut tight against the waves of nausea attacking her gut. She hadn’t eaten since noon the day before and, though she wasn’t sure what time it was, she could tell it was nearing the twenty-four-hour mark. Not that she wanted to eat anything anyone in the car might offer her.
“You’ve had multiple opportunities to find appropriate donors. I even commissioned a doctor willing to do the operation. You stopped it.”
She huffed. “Because the doctor you found didn’t speak any English and I had no way of communicating with him. How could I be sure he knew what he was doing? ”
Viceroy snorted. “Your lack of trust is interesting. Vigo, drop Ramona off here. I have no need of her assistance anymore.”
“What? You’re just going to drop me off?” Ramona clutched the door. “I need to get home. I’m not even near my car or anywhere close to anything. Don’t do this to me. I’ve been loyal to you.”
He hit a button to unlock the doors. “Then be glad I didn’t just shoot you.”
The car pulled to a stop. The driver got out and when Ramona didn’t leave quickly enough, Nicolas put his foot to her rear and shoved her. She tumbled out onto the gravel alongside a highway that seemed remote with snow as far as Kelly could see.
Viceroy laughed. “Woman, you may think you hold something over my head because of our son but I have more children than I will ever know or care about. Be glad I didn’t take your phone, too”
The driver closed the door and they drove off. Kelly slowly moved away from Nathan and Nicolas’s feet by inches. They’d ignored her presence for quite a while, but she couldn’t expect that for long. Now that the woman who’d dominated the conversation was gone, the two left didn’t speak.
After what felt like a long time, the car slowed, then turned. Nathan lifted her from the floor, and she groaned as she saw the apartment complex she’d left months ago in the FREE International trailer.
The arrival of whoever had showed up at the warehouse had saved her life in that moment, but had they condemned her to a life of slavery all over again?