Page 28 of Harry

She pulled her knees in close and closed her eyes. That was a mistake. She opened her eyes, but it wasn’t much better. Darkness surrounded her. She blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust so she could figure out what was going on. Was she in a boat? Metal groaned, and an engine hummed. She tried to quiet her breathing. She swore she heard something sloshing. They’d put her on a boat.

Holy shit. Where were they taking her?

She passed out or drifted off at some point and woke when she heard metal screeching against metal. She was on a ship, which was probably big based on how far away that door sounded.

At first, she saw nothing, but then a faint light appeared. Fear tingled along her spine. She drew her legs in, hugging them to her chest. She’d moved around a little and figured out she was in a cage that wasn’t tall enough for her to stand or long enough to stretch out fully. With the light approaching, she could make out more of her cage, but she couldn’t see much beyond that.

“Eat,” the man said, placing food and a water bottle into the cage.

She reached for the water and pulled it to her. Without food, she would live, most likely. Water was a different thing. She wouldn’t survive long if they didn’t supply her with water.

“Where are we?” Her voice shook with fear. She hated that she sounded so weak. She wanted to tell this man to go to hell, but what could she do?

The man snorted and walked away. She had no power, no threats she could lob at him. She was powerless here in this cage. Whoever had captured her was making sure she knew she was at their mercy.

She wished she would have stayed at Harry’s place. If she ever made it back to California, she would tell him how she felt. Maybe he wouldn’t want her. There were few reasons women were abducted and put on boats to be shipped overseas. Her life would be hell wherever they sent her.

She’d gotten ahead of herself. She’d bought a burner cell, but she hadn’t thought about how to protect herself against being abducted. The reality of investigating a human trafficking ring versus actually having to deal with the eventualities of taking down a human trafficking ring didn’t sink in far enough for her to figure out she was in real danger.

The two drives she’d mailed out had no information. There was nothing tying back to her, so the newscasters and the FBI wouldn’t come looking for her. The only hope she had was Harry finding the envelope she’d stuffed between his couch cushions.

Even if he found the envelope, they would only know who to blame, not where she was. No question, she’d messed up terribly. There was no trace of where she’d gone. She would never be found. This was her life now.

Chapter 22

Harry headed to Bear’s place that night, and the rest of the guys eventually showed up. They were searching for any information on Rory. There was nothing. No crumbs of information, no details about any woman being taken.

It was close to midnight, and the rest of the team was preparing to leave. None of them knew how to find Rory without something to go on. The police hadn’t made any progress that they knew of, and there was no new information. Whoever had taken Rory had covered it up.

That didn’t bode well for Rory. If they weren’t bragging about taking Rory captive and hadn’t posted anything on the message boards where the most depraved hid, that meant she probably hadn’t survived the initial attack.

“Sleep on the couch,” Bear said as he squeezed Harry’s shoulder.

“Thanks, man.” He didn’t want to think too hard about how she could be dead.

“We’ll find her,” Bear said.

Harry shook his head. “What if there is nothing to find?”

“Do you really think she’s dead?”

“There’s a vast ocean out there. People get lost in it all the time. The water washes away evidence. It would be easy to get rid of her, and we would never know.”

Bear pulled him into a hug. “We don’t know what happened. Keep the faith, man. We might find her yet.”

Harry closed his eyes and struggled with his thoughts. He didn’t want to lash out at Bear, but the words triggered something inside. Did he have any faith to keep? He had faith that the men in his unit would do what they could to make sure all of them came home. He believed in his ability to take down enemies and get out of bad situations. But did he have faith that Rory would come home?

Sleep didn’t come easy. He lay staring at the ceiling for a long time. He’d failed Rory. What could he have done differently? They were in that early period of their relationship where he knew he liked her, could easily fall in love, and could see her by his side for years to come, but he didn’t know everything. They’d purposely kept their interactions light, well, until they’d had sex.

He thought about how good it had felt to be in her arms. She had taken what he thought he knew about lovemaking and twisted it up, making it so much more. She had made everything more. The colors, the feelings, the touch of her skin all of it had been so much more when they’d been together.

Harry turned over, facing the window. They needed to find her, but he wasn’t sure how they would get her back. A deep pit of despair hit as thoughts of her being dead floated through his mind. If that were the case, he would make sure whoever took her down suffered mightily. He knew a thousand ways to kill someone, and he would carry through with the actions. Rory would be avenged, no matter how long it took.

Chapter 23

Time passed as a monolithic black hole. She went from being sleepy to hungry to thirsty to angry and then sad without anything delineating any one period. One day on the water, or six, she didn’t know. She suspected she would never see freedom again. This was her life now.

At some point, she woke and realized the ship wasn’t moving. Fear whipped through her. Where had they taken her? How long would she last in this prison?

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