Chapter Seventy
Bree
We ran down the narrow hallway. I expected one of the many doors to the warehouse to fly open and armed men to block our way. When I looked back there was no one, just the slumped forms of the men Nathan had ‘taken care of.’
Icy fear flowed over me as Nathan came to a sudden stop. He held up a hand, and I caught my breath. Now that I had seen exactly what he could do with his bare hands, my nerves rattled at his every gesture.
At least the three men on the floor were still breathing. I wasn’t sure what would happen if anyone got in our way now.
Nathan held the gun up and motioned for me to be silent. I followed close behind him, too scared to clutch the back of his shirt. His shoulders were tense, the muscles like rock, as he listened for a hint of where the children were.
“Whispers,” I said and pointed.
He nodded and swept over to the door. Pressing an ear hard against it, Nathan listened and then nodded again. Without a word, he gestured for me to step back.
“Wait. We have the keys,” I said before he could kick down the door.
So far, we hadn’t raised an alarm, and I prayed he found the right key before anyone walked into the narrow hallway. There were still lights on in the main warehouse and the occasional sound of voices. We were not the only ones awake in the night.
The children were, too, about a dozen pale faces staring at us as Nathan swung the door open. They scurried back, ducking behind a larger boy, as Nathan stepped in brandishing the gun.
“Stop! You’re scaring them,” I said.
I slipped around Nathan and knelt on the ground. The young boy stood fiercely with both arms outstretched to shield the kids behind him. He was no more than eleven years old.
I held out my hand. “My name is Bree, and his name is Nathan. We’ve come to take you home but we don’t have a lot of time.”
“It’s a rescue?” a little voice asked from the back.
The boy in front scowled. “Are you police? Why should we go with you?”
Nathan grumbled with impatience and dug deep into his boot. He dangled his dog tags in front of the little boy’s face. “I’m a Navy SEAL, and I can get you home. Unless you would rather stay here.”
I shooed Nathan back. “You’re protecting your friends, and that’s very brave. I know this is a tough decision, but if you come with us now we can get you to the police.”
“The American police?” the little boy asked.
“Yes.” I nodded.
“They told us not to run. Bad things will happen to our families,” the little boy said.
Somewhere in the back, the younger children began to sniffle. My heart clutched in my chest but I took a deep breath and kept my voice calm.
“They lied. It was a trick to keep you here,” I said.
“Bree, speed this up,” Nathan warned.
“If we run fast enough, we’ll be able to get to the police before the bad guys can do anything,” I said.
The little boy shook his head but the children behind him stirred. A few pushed past him. One little girl marched right up to Nathan and looked him up and down.
“My daddy’s in the Army,” she said.
Nathan showed her his dog tags. “I’d like to meet your dad. Should we go see him now?”
She nodded and held up her arms. Nathan scooped her up and headed for the door. The children streamed around their young, forgotten leader and followed Nathan out into the narrow hallway.
“Are you coming?” I asked the little boy. “We need your help.”
He followed me into the hallway and sprinted ahead to join the rest. Nathan led them at a fast pace down the narrow hallway to the doorway he estimated was closest to our RV.
Nathan coaxed the door open and pressed an eye to it. The warehouse was empty for the moment, so he swung the door wide and gestured for the children to follow. I was last out the door, watching the small, jostling crowd across the warehouse floor to where our RV was parked.
A sudden fear gripped me, and I couldn’t leave. Why hadn’t we counted the children before we left? I had to see if anyone was left behind.
I waved to Nathan who couldn’t yell at me from across the warehouse. He gestured furiously but I ducked back into the narrow hallway and ran back to the children’s room. The idea of leaving anyone alone was too much to bear.
I skidded into the room and found it empty. A wave of relief swept over me but it soon turned to ice as I heard shouts down the other end of the hallway.
The three unconscious guards had been found and an alarm was raised. Suddenly the sound of crackling walkie-talkies was everywhere.
I took a deep breath and sprinted out the door, down the narrow hallway. I could hear the men yelling behind me but I didn’t look back. I flew through the door to the warehouse and ran to the RV. Nathan hauled me in the door and shut it behind me.
The children were all huddled on the floor in the back, sniffling in the dark. Nathan told them to keep down while he crawled to the driver’s seat. He grabbed the keys off the dashboard.
Then he paused, watching out the windshield as men scattered across the warehouse looking for me.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “I just didn’t want to leave anyone behind.”
“No, it’s good. They’re in a panic but they don’t know the children are gone yet.”
I turned to the huddled group and gave them reassuring pats and caresses. “It’s okay, we’re only hiding so we can get a head start. We’ll be on the road before you know it.”
“Just think of it as hide-and-seek,” Nathan said.
I smiled. “Nah, it’s more like kick-the-can. We’ll wait until the men are away from the door and then we’ll run, run, run, and win!”
One little boy nodded eagerly. “Except we have a truck, and they’ve just got legs.”
“This isn’t a truck, it’s an RV. My grandpa has one like this,” a little girl said.
The children whispered back and forth. Nathan motioned for me to quiet them down but I shook my head. The hushed conversation was keeping them calm.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to remember all the faces I had seen in the darkened room. I did a mental count of my memory and then opened my eyes. I saw the little girl whose father was in the Army, and a few other faces I recognized.
“Wait. Is someone missing?” I asked the children.
They froze and looked around. It got very, very quiet.
“Where’s the little boy who was in front?” Nathan asked.
“Trevor,” a little girl said.
“Trevor? Are you here?” I called softly.
No one answered and the bottom of my stomach dropped out. Trevor was gone. I crawled to the front of the RV and peeked out the windshield.
“He was afraid that if he ran, they would hurt his family,” I whispered to Nathan.
“And he’d do anything to protect them,” Nathan said.
His shoulders tensed, and I followed his eye-line to the corner of the warehouse. A group of men appeared. They were not running like the rest of the scattered guards. Instead, they walked very deliberately straight toward our RV.
“Oh, Trevor, what have you done?” I whispered.
The little boy trailed behind the group of men, his face pinched and anxious. He must have run out the door with the rest of the children and then hidden behind one of the many other vehicles in the warehouse. After the children were all in the RV, Trevor had run to the warehouse office and alerted the guards.
He believed he was protecting his family by following the cartel’s rules, but his little face was tear-streaked and afraid. He’d ratted out his friends and was now alone with the bad men. It was no wonder his feet dragged across the warehouse floor.
“Time to go,” I said.
“Find something to hang on to and don’t let go,” Nathan warned the children.
I crawled back to them and helped them all find a safe place to cling. The RV roared to life.
“Good thing they have it tuned up for a border crossing,” Nathan said.
He checked on us once and grabbed the steering wheel. He slammed on the gas and the RV squealed across the smooth floor of the warehouse. Nathan took a sharp turn, and I could hear men shouting outside the RV’s thin walls.
“Please don’t shoot, please don’t shoot,” I prayed as we barreled across the warehouse.
Nathan changed gears and the RV picked up speed. A few of the children sniffled and whimpered but there were others who hung on with wide, excited eyes. They smiled with hope as the RV sped up more.
A sharp turn had all of us clinging tight. I stopped a little girl from tumbling across the floor and pulled her into my lap. Nathan muttered a string of swear words under his breath and yanked the steering wheel again.
Outside, men were shouting but their voices dropped away as we straightened out and sped away.