Chapter 5
When her kidnapper reached over and cut her connection to Drake in the middle of a sentence, Alaska wanted to scream.
Wanted to cry. She did neither. She had to stay in control until Drake could get her out of this.
He’d said she had nothing to apologize for, but he was wrong.
She should’ve listened to him. He’d tried to warn her, but she’d been so sure of her safety, confident since she’d been traveling around Europe by herself for years.
“Now what?” she asked when the man didn’t say or do anything.
“Now?” he said with a smirk. “Now we get you packaged up for your trip to China.” He nodded at the men holding her.
Alaska struggled to get away, but they held her too tightly. “What? No! Drake’s sending the money!”
“I certainly hope he does. Three million sounds a lot better than one,” the man retorted.
Alaska fought like a wild thing as she was dragged out of the office and back into the warehouse. But no matter how much she kicked and writhed, she couldn’t get herself out of the men’s grasp.
“No! He’s sending the money!” she shouted at the asshole still sitting in the office.
He merely called out, “I don’t care!” as she was hauled away.
This time she didn’t hold back as the men dragged her through the warehouse. She screamed at the top of her lungs. No one so much as looked at her. It was as if she really was invisible.
She opened her mouth to scream again, but one of the goons put his hand over her mouth…and her nose. It took a moment for her to realize that she couldn’t breathe.
Panic set in. She viciously clawed at the guy’s hand but he didn’t let go.
The last thing she saw was the sick smile on his face as blackness overtook her.
When Alaska woke up, she was lying over someone’s shoulder as if she were a sack of potatoes. She picked her head up slightly and looked around, realizing they were weaving through a massive amount of wooden boxes.
The man holding her, noting she was awake, dropped his shoulder, and she fell to the ground. She let out a grunt as she landed but immediately tried to spring to her feet.
The man was ready for her escape attempt.
He grabbed her arm, in the same spot as before, and squeezed hard.
He dragged her, once more kicking and fighting as hard as she could, toward the back end of a huge storage container.
The same metal ones she’d seen in the yard through the window of the van.
Two men inside the container reached out and pulled her inside.
They dragged her toward the back wall before throwing her to the metal floor.
Alaska had a split second to look around, long enough to spot a bucket in one corner and a bottle of water attached to the wall above it, with a long tube coming out of the bottom—before everything suddenly went dark.
Startled, she turned back toward where the men had been only a second ago. Reaching out, her hands immediately made contact with a hard surface maybe a foot in front of her. Confused, she pushed on what felt like…a wall? The metal was cold against her palms, and she shivered.
For a moment, she was improbably relieved that there was somehow a wall between herself and her kidnappers.
Until reality set in, and her heart began to thump in her chest once again. She might be safe from assault by her kidnappers…but she was now locked inside a Conex container.
That wasn’t good. It was really fucking bad.
She recalled the guy in charge saying she’d be put on a train headed to China—and that was when she full-on freaked out, screaming at the top of her lungs, kicking and punching the metal in the darkness. “Let me out!” she sobbed, hearing nothing but the sound of her own voice echoing around her.
How long she pounded on the metal wall, screaming for help, Alaska had no idea.
But when she finally slid to her butt, wrapping her arms around her knees, she was exhausted and even more terrified.
Tears ran down her face, her hands hurt from beating on the metal, and her ears were ringing from the sounds of her own panicked cries.
Now that she wasn’t screaming, she could hear sounds on the other side of the metal wall.
The voices were muffled and indistinguishable, but she could feel vibrations under her feet.
Thumps, as if items were being dropped onto a floor.
She remembered all the wooden boxes she’d seen before she’d been thrown in here.
Despair filled her. She’d obviously been put into a hidden section of the container, way at the back.
And now the warehouse workers were packing the Conex with those boxes.
She had no idea what was in them, but she figured it was something legal.
Who would search a container full of perfectly legal goods?
No one.
She thought about the bucket she’d seen in her prison…was that where they expected her to use the bathroom? Bile rose up her throat yet again. Yes, they’d given her water, but how long would the air in her prison last? Were they going to starve her?
Alaska lay her head on her knees and cried. She was as good as dead.
Her captor had conned them. He was going to take Drake’s money—and the money of the man who’d bought her—and she would disappear into thin air…probably like so many other women before her.
Brick’s jaw hurt from clenching his teeth so hard.
Everything was happening as fast as possible, but it was still too slow.
A clearance issue saw the team leaving Colorado much later than scheduled, chipping away at Brick’s sanity.
He didn’t even want to imagine what Alaska was going through right now.
It took time to fly across the world, time he didn’t think she had.
The men Tex had conscripted for the mission were currently planning their every step after they arrived in St. Petersburg. Tex had tracked the phone call to a manufacturing plant and rail yard not too far outside the city. They were heading straight there when they landed.
But would Alaska still be there? Would she be all right?
Brick had no idea. He doubted whoever had taken her planned to wait for the two million to be deposited into his account. He was probably counting on getting both the ransom money, as well as whatever price the buyer had paid.
Buyer.
Fucking hell.
Someone had fucking bought Alaska. It was unconscionable.
His expertise was with terrorists. Not men who were deviant enough to buy and sell human beings.
The group of men he was with, however, were well versed in that world.
They were experts in tracking down and retrieving women and children from the sex trade.
Tiny had talked to them quite a bit earlier, and had learned the leader of the group had successfully rescued his own wife ten years after she’d been taken.
While Brick was pleased for the man and his wife, the only thing that mattered to him was Alaska.
He felt sick inside. She was there for him when he’d needed someone most, during his darkest moment.
He couldn’t stomach the thought of what the woman who’d slept by his side for days, in an uncomfortable hospital cot, might be going through right that second.
Tex had worked a miracle and gotten them approval to land on Russian soil.
Brick had no idea how he’d done it or what markers he’d had to call in, he was just relieved they didn’t need to do a HALO jump from the plane.
Not only that, but a team of spetsnaz, Russian special forces, would be joining them on their mission.
Brick knew Tex had connections, but even he’d been surprised by Russia’s agreement to cooperate on this level.
No one stopped them as they exited the plane onto the tarmac. They headed for a van parked nearby. The driver nodded as they approached and everyone filed in, not speaking as they began the journey, likely going over the plan in their heads.
Once at the warehouse where the call had originated, they’d enter fast and hard, and with a huge show of force. Brick just prayed she’d be there…alive.
He and Tiny would bring up the rear and have the other men’s six.
As much as Brick wanted to be at the front of the strike team, it had been years since he’d been on a mission.
The last thing he wanted was to be a weak link and possibly get Alaska hurt or killed.
So he’d stay in the background and let the mercenaries do what they did best.
As they approached the area under the cover of darkness, Brick was relieved to see almost no one milling about.
There were no trucks moving storage containers from the storage yard to the trains.
The cars on the rails were silent, waiting to be loaded with cargo.
The few people he did see took one look at the caravan of trucks headed toward the main building and wisely slunk into the darkness.
When they pulled up near the warehouse—things moved with lightning speed.
Within seconds of the van pulling up near the building, swarms of camouflaged men surrounded the warehouse. Brick watched from a short distance as doors and windows were busted in and everyone—Russian soldiers and American mercenaries—swarmed inside.
All he could think of was Alaska. Hoping they’d find her and get her the hell out of there.
But when one minute turned to two, then to five, Brick’s stomach twisted violently.
She wasn’t here. He’d known it was a possibility, it had taken too long to get to her…but it still was a blow.
Reading his mind, Tiny said, “Easy, Brick. Don’t jump to conclusions.”
How could he not? If she was there, the Russian spec ops would’ve found her by now. Or the mercenaries would’ve brought her to him. With every tick of the clock, his hopes sank lower and lower.
He was too late. It didn’t matter that he’d left as soon as he could. He didn’t get to her in time.
Just then, several shots rang out inside the warehouse.