Chapter 14
Scott knew that it was a huge overreaction to get on a plane and fly to Florida, but he’d been looking for any excuse. He missed Marissa so badly it was like a toothache that wouldn’t go away, and he’d hardly slept since she’d been gone, it felt like a piece of him was missing. Marissa was probably ready to go home, but maybe they could stay a night someplace romantic, a little cottage by the ocean would be perfect. He stuffed a few things in a bag and headed out the door, happy with the knowledge that by morning he’d be with Marissa.
Marissa and the shelter director were sitting in the office, a cup of herbal tea their treat after a long day. The Christmas party had been a big success, the children exhausted after their visit with Santa had all been put to bed. Lights out would be called in a half an hour, but Marissa was ready for bed right then. The last of the girls had just come in from work with Angel so she could finally relax. With a big sigh, she took off her shoes and rubbed her feet.
“I think that was the best party we ever had,” she said, tucking her feet under her.
“Oh, definitely, it’s going to be hard to top that on the actual day,” the director said, knowing that the holiday was always hardest for the women who were alone.
Marissa opened her mouth to reply, but the back door banging open with a huge thud had her on her feet and out the office door before she even thought about what she was doing. She stopped in the doorway and looked at the door then at the man standing there, a huge gun in his hands. When she opened her mouth to yell out a warning, he stepped up to her and smashed the gun into her head.
She dropped to the floor, the world spinning, her vision going foggy even as she tried to focus. The man stepped over her and grabbed the director by the hair and began dragging her down the hall. Several more men came thought the door, armed just as their leader was, stepping over Marissa who was lying on the floor trying to clear her head.
Hearing screams from inside the shelter, she tried to get to her feet but was immediately so dizzy that the world went black as she fell back to the floor. When Marissa opened her eyes the next time, it was to find herself in the back of a van. She tried to sit up but realized that her hands were tied behind her back and her feet were bound together. Her head was pounding, but she blocked the pain, trying to figure out what had happened.
As her head began to clear, she heard quiet sobbing. Picking up her head, she looked around to find the van full of other women bound just as she was. Her heart sank when she realized what must have happened, they’d been raided. Something she’d heard of happening in other parts of the world but never in America. Then she realized that they were headed toward the docks, she could smell the salt in the air and feel the humidity rising.
Trying not to panic, she looked around her hoping there would be something she could use to get herself loose, but there was nothing in the back of the van, it had been stripped clean. Heart thudding, she tried to form a plan. Maybe if they worked together, they could untie each other. One thing she knew for certain, once they were on the boat, it would almost impossible for anyone to find them.
Just as she was about to try to talk to the woman lying next to her, the van stopped and she heard the doors slam. Horrified, she watched the back doors open and the leader’s head popped into her vision. Suddenly more scared then she’d ever been in her life, she closed her eyes hoping they’d think she was still passed out. One by one, they pulled the women out of the back of the van and took them on board a ship, leaving Marissa for last.
The leader picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “Too bad we need every one of these girls to fulfill the contract, I’m tempted to keep this one for myself,” he said, his hand roaming over her body.
It took everything in her not to react to the vile man’s touch, but she stayed still until he’d dumped her in the hold of the ship. Once the hatch door had closed with a loud bang, Marissa lifted her head trying to see in the darkness, then wished she’d kept her eyes closed. There had to be over a hundred other women in the room, some were bound like she was but some were free. As she watched, the unbound women crept over and began to untie the others.
No one spoke, and when Marissa opened her mouth to ask a question, a hand was put over her mouth and she was shushed. The hold of the ship smelled terrible, like sweat, fear, and human waste. Marissa tried to breathe through her mouth, but it still gagged her. A woman came by and gave her a drink of warm water. It hit her stomach and gurgled there, threatening to come up, but she concentrated on not vomiting and eventually her stomach settled.
She must have slept then because the next time she opened her eyes, the boat was moving and there was a shaft of sunlight coming though one of the few portholes. Her heart sank, if they made it to the open sea no one would ever be able to find them, not even the police. She hadn’t seen Angel before she’d passed out and couldn’t remember hearing his voice. Hopefully, he’d survived and would get word to Scott and the police.
She knew that it was the only hope that she had so she concentrated on Angel and Scott, repeating over and over again, “He’ll find me. He’ll find me,” until she fell asleep again.
Scott was pacing on the pier, a list of all the boats that were scheduled to leave on the high tide that morning. The sun was just coming up on the horizon when a big black SUV pulled into the parking lot and parked. As he watched, six men got out of the vehicle, all dressed in boots, jeans, and tee-shirts. They fell in step together, the four dark heads behind two blonde ones. The sun was behind them, making it difficult to see their faces, but Scott had no doubt who it was. However, he was amazed they’d been able to get here as fast as they had.
When Angel had called him in a panic, the first thing he’d done when he understood the situation was to call Colorado and his cousins. As it turned out, his brothers had been there as well to celebrate the holiday, and they’d all sprang into action. Donovan had called his contacts in the FBI and Garrett had them on a helicopter almost immediately.
He crossed the parking lot to meet them, overwhelmed with relief to have his brothers and his cousins here. Garrett didn’t even give him a chance to say thank you, instead demanding, “What have you got?”
Scott squared his shoulders, new hope springing to life. “I have a list of all the boats that are scheduled to leave this morning. No one gets in or out with going through customs, so it has to be one of them, but the harbor master’s obviously been bribed to keep his silence. It’s the only way they would have been able to get the women on board the ship,” he said as they walked back to the pier.
Garrett considered this for a second. “The FBI will be here shortly, but I think maybe we should have a little talk with that harbor master before they get here.” Garrett said glancing at his brothers, who nodded their heads.
Scott was happy to let his cousins take over, so he fell in step next to his brother Marc. “I’m sorry for everything,” he said, not knowing what else to say.
“We can talk about it when your wife is safe,” Marc said. “Never thought I’d say hear myself say that.”
“I love her more than anything in the world. We have to find her,” Scott said, unable to hold his anguish in any longer.
Marc looked at Scott shocked to hear the raw pain in his voice. He’d heard that his brother had changed, but he’d not really believed it. Now he was seeing a man he didn’t even recognize. He put his hand on Scott’s back and gave him a couple of slaps. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her, Garrett and Donovan are really good at this kind of thing. I’ve heard the stories, just follow their lead and everything will be fine.”
“I hope you’re right,” Scott said, following the men inside the harbor master’s small office.
The harbor master practically jumped out of his chair when the Terrell men crowded into his office. “What do you want?” he asked, nervously.
Garrett turned to Scott. “I want to know which one of these boats has those women on it. If you’re afraid of what those men are going to do to you, that’s nothing compared to what we’re going to do to you if you don’t tell us,” Scott said, advancing on the little man.
“I don’t know anything,” the man whined.
“Maybe this will help. There’s enough here for you to start over somewhere else,” Donovan said, throwing a roll of bills onto the desk.
The man looked at the money and licked his lips like it was a piece of chocolate cake sitting in front of him. He started to reach for the money, but Donovan slammed his hand down on the bills. “Information first, then you get the money, and if I were you I’d hurry, the FBI is on their way.”
“Now,” Scott barked in the man’s face.
“Okay, okay. There’re on the Oceans Bounty, headed for Singapore, but you’ll never catch them,” the man said, then snatched the money when Donovan removed his hand.
“Let’s go,” Garrett said. “But we need a plan. How many men were on that boat?” he asked the harbor master.
“I don’t know, three or four. There weren’t that many of them on the ship, you can operate one of those things with a skeleton crew,” the man said, shoving papers into a bag, clearly planning on escaping as soon as he could.
“We can handle that many,” Garrett said. “Donovan, I don’t care how you do it or what it costs, we need at least three boats. We’ll use one as a distraction while the other two sneak up on the other side of the boat.”
Within a half an hour, they were speeding out of the harbor in pursuit of the Oceans Bounty. Scott was in one of the boats with Garrett and Donovan, determined to be the first one on the boat. Garrett had tried to talk him out of it, but had given in when Scott had said simply, “I love her and I can’t lose her.”
Marissa was awoken by someone pulling her roughly to her feet. Squinting in the dim light of the hold, she recognized one of the men who’d moved them from the van. He shoved her up the stairs, mumbling to himself under his breath, and poking her with his gun when she didn’t move fast enough.
“You wouldn’t have been my choice,” he said, grabbing her butt. “But the boss wants you, so I don’t have much choice. If you’re lucky, he’ll decide to keep you for a while.”
Marissa’s heart was hammering in her chest. This couldn’t be happening. She was so sure that Scott would find her, but now she was about to be raped by the men who’d taken them. She tried to calm herself knowing it was her only choice. If she was going to escape, she had to keep her mind focused. The man shoved her into a little cabin right next to the wheel house. She tripped over the door jamb and landed in a heap on the floor.
“That’s not a very nice way to treat our guest,” the man who’d hit her said, helping her off the floor. “Please have a seat.”
Marissa sat where he’d pointed, trying to keep her trembling limbs still, but unable to do so. The man crossed the room and tipped her chin up. “There’s no reason to be afraid. As long as you cooperate, nothing bad is going to happen to you. Normally, I share my prize with the others, but I think you might just be too good to share,” he said, running his open palm over her breast.
She tried not to react to his touch, but flinched involuntarily, cursing herself. “It’s rather simple, cooperate and you’ll be fine, fight me and well, I can’t make any promises. I don’t mind a good fight occasionally, and I have a feeling you have a lot of fight in you,” he said, ripping her shirt open.
Before she knew what was happening, he was on top of her, scrambling to get her pants off. She fought him until he slapped her across the face, leaving her momentarily stunned. He reached up to slap her again, but the sound of a gunshot stopped him, and he jumped off her. Opening the door, he saw his men all down on the deck of the ship.
“What the hell?” he said, slamming the door. “Looks like you’re going to be my ticket out of here.”
Marissa could hear someone shouting her name on the deck. Scott had come to rescue her and just in time. All she had to do was get away from her attacker and she’d be safe. She opened her mouth to scream, but the man was across the room in three strides, his hand clamped over her mouth. But she was ready for him, while he’d been looking out the door, she’d grabbed the first thing she’d laid her hands on. It was a small statue of Poseidon; best of all, his trident had three sharp points, which she buried in the man’s neck.
Shocked at the attack, he let go of her and grabbed his neck, the blood flowing freely when he pulled the statue out of his neck. He cursed her, but she opened the door and flew out, screaming Scott’s name at the top of her lungs. Scott was flying up the stairs from below deck, having been told by one of the women that she’d been taken up to the captain’s cabin a few minutes earlier. At the top of the stairs, he started yelling Marissa’s name as he ran across the deck, almost knocking her down as she came shooting out of the cabin.
He took one look at the bruises on her face and saw red, his blood boiling at the thought that she’d been hurt. Steadying her with one hand, he focused on the man coming out of the cabin, raising his gun and aiming at his chest prepared to kill him. But instead of shooting the man in the chest, he lowered the gun and shot him in the leg, backing off with Marissa in his arms when Garrett and Michael came running up.
He crushed her to him. “Are you hurt?”
Marissa couldn’t breathe for a second, her relief so great it made her light headed. “I think I need to sit down,” she said, sinking to the deck, but before she collapsed, Scott scooped her up and held her.
She wrapped her arms around him, sobbing into his chest, her whole body wracked with tremors. Marc quietly approached them and put a blanket over Marissa and pushed Scott down into a chair he’d brought with him, then left them alone. Scott let Marissa sob her fear out, rubbing her back and mumming reassurance in her ear.
When she’d finally calmed down, she managed to say, “You came for me.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t? You’re my whole life, Marissa. Without you I’m nothing,” he said, his eyes locked on hers. “When I heard you were gone, I nearly died.”
“I thought I was never going to see you again. I’m sorry, this is all my fault,” she said, the sobs beginning again.
“Stop, it wasn’t your fault. You’re safe now, that’s all that matters. But I have to warn you, I’m not letting you out of my sight for a long time,” he said, pulling her closer.
They’d been sitting in silence for a long time, but soon they could hear the sound of helicopter blades in the distance. Garrett, a cup of tea in each hand, approached them. He silently handed them the cups, then waited until they’d finished every drop. It was hot and very sweet and made Marissa feel better almost immediately.
When he saw them both perk up, he said, “Good, now I can tell Sabrina that I’ve been listening to her. She always says a good strong cup of tea always makes you feel better. We’re about to be swarmed with every kind of law enforcement branch you can think of. They may try to separate you two, but I’ll try not to let that happen. Just tell them what happened and everything will be fine. Donovan and I will be working in the background.”
“I don’t know how to thank you, Garrett,” Marissa said, realizing what a close call it had really been. “If you hadn’t shown up...”
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re family, no matter how screwed up your husband is. We take care of our own in this family, and since the idiot seems to love you so much, it seemed like the only thing to do,” he said, smiling for the first time ever at Marissa, who was shocked to see how much different he looked when he smiled.
The next few days were a blur of doctors, police men, and FBI agents, but finally she was released and allowed to go home. As it turned out, the captain and his men were wanted all over the world for human trafficking. No one had been able to prove anything before, but thanks to the Terrells, they’d been caught red handed. Marissa had been given a clean bill of health, although she would need some counseling to combat the mild case of PTSD she’d developed.
When they pulled into the front yard of the farm house, she’d never been so happy to see her home. No, their home, she corrected herself as she got out of the car. Scott took her hand as they walked up the path to the front door, there was no need for words between them. Each knew that they’d been lucky to find each other and even luckier to be home together that day. They’d survived so much together and come out loving each other all the more for it.