Dangerous in Training (Aegis Group, #2) (21 page)

“I’m sorry for what happened to your cousin, but I can’t think like that.” Hannah turned her attention back to the blade. She couldn’t accept that was her fate. If she did, then Cruz had already won, and she wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.

“Can—can I make one of those?” The thin, almost frail-looking girl clutched her arms around herself. She wouldn’t be able to sharpen the blade, but maybe what she needed was hope.

“Sure, you can. Bring me that chair I took apart earlier and I’ll show you what to do.”

The girl and another grabbed the chair from the far corner and carried it to Hannah.

Two were motivated.

It was two more than before.

“Okay, we’re going to make a shiv. It won’t be pretty, it’ll likely be bulky and hard to use, but we can cover that later.”

There were a lot more than two girls listening to Hannah now.

Maybe, just maybe, they had some hope. If Mason didn’t find her in time, perhaps they could save themselves.

Mason ended the call and stared out at the moon glinting off the water. Could Hannah see the water? Was she asleep? Had they fed her?

“What’d he say?” Zain asked.

“Abraham is interested, but not convinced it’s worth the trouble to help us.”

“Did you tell him there was money?”

Mason turned, folding his arms over his chest, considering the man in question. “I’m not sure money is a motivating factor in this. Cruz took people from him. I think Abraham is more interested in revenge.” It was a sentiment Mason understood. But as much as he wanted to gut Cruz, getting Hannah out of there was his only concern. He slid his phone into his pocket.

“We‘ll get her out.” Zain hadn’t budged on that stance since he’d arrived. Mason was grateful, especially in those moments when his hope faltered.

“Any luck getting us a plane on stand-by?”

“There are a few prospects, but they aren’t awake yet.”

“Travis and Luke still out?”

“Yup. We’ll trade off with them in a bit.”

Mason’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen and frowned at the number.

“Who is it?” Zain asked.

“Abraham.” Mason flicked the Answer button. “I’m starting to think you like me, Abraham.”

“I have reason to believe that a family member of one of the girls who worked for me is currently in Cruz’s hands.” Abraham’s words were clipped, shorter than their previous conversation moments before.

“That’s a shame.” Mason added a bit of lazy drawl to his voice. Two could play the disinterested game.

“You say you want more support. I want the girl, and I want Cruz.”

“What are you offering?” An electric tingle zipped through Mason’s body. They needed men, guns, vehicles, or a boat.

“A boat large enough to hold fifty people, a crew to sail it, and men to protect those on board. Whatever guns or explosives you need.”

“You know of some more guys?”

“Not without leaving the boat unprotected.”

“What would happen to the people on the boat?”

“Held there, safely, until I dispose of Cruz and the threat to them.”

Mason couldn’t afford to get hung up on wanting revenge. Hannah’s life was more important. It didn’t mean the desire wasn’t there.

Mason stared at Zain. His cousin made these kinds of deals all the time. It was probably Aegis’ one dirty secret. Most of their rescues didn’t happen completely within the bounds of the law, and in order to get some jobs done, they had to be willing to make a deal with the devil. There was always a price to pay.

“You’ve got a deal, Abraham. I’ll be in touch with details. Get the boat ready.”

“One other thing.”

“What?”

“Cruz is the kind of man who keeps records. He knows where the women I once employed have gone. I’d like that information. You work with Zain Lloyd. It was he who told you where to find me. Is he there?”

Mason licked his lips.

Shit.

“He is unavailable right now.” Mason held his breath.

“If he does this for me, tell him the slate will be clean.”

The line went dead and Mason finally inhaled.

“What?” Zain practically vibrated with the need to know. It wasn’t like Zain to not be in the loop. It had to be killing him.

Mason quickly filled Zain in on the details.

“He wants the ledger,” Zain said after Mason had finished. “The same people who buy girls from Cruz would buy weapons from Abraham. I could see him wanting to get those girls back, but he probably wants to grow his client list, too. Cut out the middle man Cruz used to be.”

“He only said he wanted to know where those women were.”

“Yeah, but Abraham never loses an opportunity to make a buck, either.”

“Are you going to do it?” It was entirely frustrating that here was something Mason could not help with, no matter that he wanted to.

“Pass up the chance to fuck over some of the worst scum on the planet? No way. In the scope of things, I’d rather help Abraham—who has a sort of code of honor—over helping anyone else.” Zain strode to the makeshift station he’d set up with a laptop and some other gear. “I should be able to hack into their system pretty easily. The question is, does Cruz keep the information on a computer, or is he old school?”

Mason hovered behind his cousin, glaring at the screen.

Hannah dozed sitting upright, the double bladed shiv hidden between the wall and her mattress. She was so tired. And thirsty. The thirst was by far the worst. According to the other women, water and food were delivered at random times with no warning or regularity. Some of the girls admitted to using toilet water when the thirst got bad enough. Hannah hadn’t gone that far, yet, but soon she’d have to.

A sudden murmur swept through the room. It started on the far side of the basement and moved toward her.

“Do you smell that?” a girl said from somewhere to Hannah’s right.

“Eggs?” another said.

Hannah pried her gummy eyes open and inhaled, drawing in the scent of breakfast. Eggs made sense. Easy to make. Cheap. Filling. It hit several points on the nutritional scale.

The elevator hummed, the sound growing louder.

She held her breath and watched the open archway, counting the seconds, trying to calculate where the food was coming from. There was a set of stairs that led upward as well. If they got out, she’d send the elevator up and take the stairs to fake out anyone watching.

The electrical hum stopped and a whoosh heralded the arrival of someone. The smell intensified, so much that the thought of food nearly made her sick with hunger. She swallowed, the need to eat redoubling. Focusing on the shiv had at least kept her busy and her mind occupied. Now, the only thoughts in her head were biological.

Three men wheeled two carts in. Big metal bins, like what might sit on a food line at a cafeteria, perched precariously on the cart. The second cart had large thermoses and cups.

The girls rushed to the chain link, pushing against it to get closer to the food. Girls who would normally turn their noses up at anything not low-fat, gluten-free, and organic now fought one another to get closer to the mystery bins of food.

Scrape. Creak. Groan.

Hannah peered up at the ceiling. The metal posts shifted with all the girls pushing on them. The metal fastenings holding the fencing to the posts bowed as well. Hannah quickly forgot her hunger and focused in on the weak points of the fence, an idea springing to mind. If they could get enough force on one area, could they pop the fence and slide out under it? It wasn’t like the fence was anchored into the ground, just to the metal poles sunk into concrete footings.

She pushed up and angled for what appeared to be the weakest section and shouldered in, giving the fence a good shove.

The girls weren’t a strong bunch, but maybe...maybe this was something they could do. All of them pushing together. The combined weight might be enough.

“Hi, Hannah.”

Her attention snapped to the men on the other side.

“Dylan.” She snatched her hands back from the chain link.

“You!” The thin, almost frail girl from last night launched herself at the fence, screaming profanity at Dylan.

He laughed, hands shoved in his pockets and rocked back on his heels.

“I figured you’d be more like this one.” He pointed at the girl clinging to the fence, practically spitting at him.

“If I thought I could reach through that fence and punch you, I would be.” She held his gaze, glaring back. She would not give him the pleasure of seeing just how angry she was. No, she’d save that for when she got free.

“Just came to check on the merchandise.” One side of his mouth hiked up.

Her stomach rolled. There was no way she could eat now.

What kind of a person was he?

“You really caused us a lot of work, Hannah.”

“Can’t say I’m sorry.” She ignored Dylan in favor of watching the rest of the men. They were more important than Dylan. At least until she had the chance to deck him—or better yet, serve him up to the cops.

The other two men armed themselves with cattle prods and began pushing the food into the holding cells while savagely zapping anyone who came too close while the gate was open.

Seriously? That was all the protection they used?

A little electric shock wasn’t a big thing. If Hannah had known this was how they fed the women, she could have maybe organized something. There were at least a dozen women in each cell. They could overpower two men. It was a plan—one she was woefully unprepared for.

Dylan didn’t count as one of the men. He was too pretty to fight back.

“Make sure to smile for the buyers tomorrow night.”

“Fuck you, Dylan.”

“Oh no, babe, that’s the whole point.” He grinned.

The v-card.

She clutched her hands into fists to hide their trembling. The only thing protecting her was the idea that she was pure. If they knew the truth... She bit the inside of her mouth to keep from shuddering. She wasn’t blind. She’d seen the way the men looked at her.

“Answer me this.” Hannah stalked Dylan along the fence line all the way to the end where it was just the two of them.

“What?”

“How was it supposed to go?”

“You were supposed to get on that plane with me. I’d drug you during the flight, and you’d wake up here.”

And no one would ever know.

But Mason
did
know. And so did Zain. The rest of Aegis would too, once they realized she was missing. She just had to hold out. Keep her strength up.

“Eat up.” He inclined his head to where the rest of the women were clustered around the food bins, stuffing their faces with their hands in lieu of flatware or plates. Was this some kind of conditioning process? Debasing them until they were animals?

“I hope you die,” Hannah said.

“We all die, the question is, when?” Dylan’s smile grew.

She’d never wanted someone to die before. But Dylan, Cruz, and these people, she hoped they did. It would be a quick thing in comparison to the horrific fate of the women who’d been here before Hannah. But it would be a kind of justice. Mason couldn’t kill them all. He wasn’t Rambo. It wouldn’t be his goal. But she wished he could. That these people would die, and the girls would go free.

“I found them.”

Mason’s eyes snapped open. His sleep-disoriented body was a moment behind his brain, but he knew those words were important.

“Where?” He scrubbed his face and blinked across the room at Zain.

Luke and Travis stood behind his cousin, peering at the screen. Going off their expressions, whatever Zain was excited about didn’t translate to the others, but that was normal. Sometimes it seemed that Zain had his own language the rest of them would never speak.

“Cruz keeps
very
detailed records.” Zain’s fingers flew over the keys while his prosthetic manned the mouse. “We’re going to be able to turn this over to the government and maybe bring a lot of these girls home. Abraham’s staff though, they’re here. In the city, as best I can tell. They were sold to a guy who runs a hotel on the other side of town.”

“What now?” Mason straightened, his brain gaining traction. “We tell Abraham where they are and we’re good?”

“When we shut Cruz down, can we be sure these people won’t get rid of the evidence? The girls?” Travis frowned, as if he didn’t like proposing the idea. They all knew what could happen, the lives that could be lost.

“We can’t run around, rescuing everyone on this list before tomorrow.” Zain scrolled. And scrolled. And scrolled.

“What if we get those girls? As a...favor?” Mason rubbed the sleep from his eyes. The cat nap went a long way in recharging his batteries, but man it was hard to wake up after such a short period. But what about Hannah? Had she slept? Could she? Was she asleep now? Or was she up, thinking about him?

“We know nothing about the buyer, the location...” Zain shook his head.

“I’ll go scout it out.” Travis grabbed his baseball cap off the table.

“You don’t speak much Spanish.” Mason pushed to his feet. The floor pallet hadn’t offered the most comfortable place to pass out, but being horizontal twice in one night had helped.

“While he’s doing that I can see about food, now that the sun’s up,” Luke said.

“I can hold the fort down, dig up something on this guy.” Zain turned to face them. “I think you two should be able to make it there and back in an hour, plus half an hour to scout the place.”

“Sounds good.” Mason was ready to do something. Sitting around, waiting for a lead or an opening was driving him nuts.

Travis and Mason gathered their firearms and what little gear they could carry without setting off suspicion and exited the building by the far entrance. Every time they stuck their heads out the door was an opportunity to get caught, to tip Cruz’s people off. But the street was mostly empty, and they were able to hoof it a couple blocks away to a residential stretch of street lined with cars where they could pick up a ride.

Hannah’s assertion stuck in the back of his mind. Even hunted and hiding, she’d been concerned about others. Now, he couldn’t shake that same concern. He discarded two vehicles that would have been easy to boost based solely on the fact there were toys on the floors.