Page 82 of Whispered Surrender

“Roger that,” the team says, almost in unison.

It’s quiet for a few moments, and then all hell breaks loose. “Steady guys, let’s make sure we’ve got the person responsible for moving these people.”

There’s shuffling in my headset and then nothing but utter chaos.

23

MARENAH

When I hear that voice,I cringe, knowing for sure. I always suspected Scottie. His name was on every single file and always assigned in the same area the trafficking occurred, but somehow every question that arose he always seemed to have an answer for.

Matt keeps me pressed against him, trying to keep us warm, but suddenly the sound of boots stomping down the hall begin, and the sound of Scottie’s voice gets closer and closer. Matt puts his finger back on my lip, gesturing me to keep quiet as he pulls my body even tighter against his own and into the recessed little alcove we’re hiding in behind the cabin as a group of men barrel past us.

As soon as the men get into the main quarters, we hear the captain’s loud and aggravated voice. “We’ve got heat this trip. Get rid of them in the next ten minutes or the trailer’s going up in flames and we’re heading out,” he says.

My heart sinks at the thought of all those people being wiped out in one explosion, and I know even if it weren’t my job, I can’t allow it. I’ve evaluated the sounds of boots, and by my best guess, Scottie’s got two men with him, plus the captain. I don’t know how close Matt’s surveillance team is, but it doesn’t even matter, because they’ve been made and if they get any closer to these people, they will be dust in moments. The men in the cabin are not about to get caught. They would rather blow a truckload of innocent people up and turn them and the truck into ashes.

I evaluate my weapons and our options. It’s clear the captain is the one calling the shots to the man at the helm, and the only way we’re going to stop this is to take him out, and it’s not going to be easy with Scottie and whoever else he has with him running sidekick.

I gesture to Matt with my finger, letting him know that we need to go in. He shakes his head no and my heart sinks. His team has been made and he knows it, the captain is getting ready to blow the fucking truck and send these innocent people to an early grave and he tells me no. I don’t fucking think so. I do a mental play-by-play of my weapons one more time, checking through all my escape routes, and then grasp Matt’s hand, which is still on my nape, and bring it to my lips.

I draw his finger back into my mouth, sucking on it and watch in the dim light as his eyes grow hazy and his hand moves from my nape, hitting his headset with one hand so he can listen to an incoming call. “Roger that,” he says as his other hand makes its way down my body, caressing my waist. It is at the perfect height and I grasp his wrist, turn it and bend it, intending to get free and get to the men in the cabin before they can hit the button that will send tons of people to an early death, but he’s somehow faster than me and won’t allow it.

He grasps my wrists and pins them behind my back, but suddenly another team of boots start clomping down the stairs, and it’s now or never if we are going to save them. I swivel, turning and pivoting, so I’m no longer captive, pulling my Glock from my waistband as I march forward and take the entire captain’s cabin by surprise.

Scottie’s look of surprise is priceless along with the other two fuckers from Interpol. Those sons of bitches are not about to take these innocent people to an early grave. I will not allow it, and I hope to hell he knows that as I plow into him using his surprise to push my gun into the side of his temple. “Call off the execution order. If you don’t, you die.”

Matt walks into the room, his own Glock pulled, walking toward us and then aims it directly at me. “Drop it Marenah, or you will die,” he says, and if I thought he was talking to Scottie he clarifies for me exactly whose side he’s on. “You’re testing my patience tonight. Drop that fucking weapon or the whole trailer goes up in smoke.” My breath catches and heart pounds. I knew his equipment was standard issue, the same that all the Interpol ops have. I knew they were involved, and that this was a very real possibility, yet I let my heart and emotions take over and I let him in. How fucking stupid, and now every one of those people will suffer at the hands of these men.

The chambering of a round in Matt’s Glock brings me back to the present, and I know that he has at least seventeen after that, and even if he didn’t, the men in the room would overtake me, so when he tells me to drop my weapon again, I do exactly that. I swallow back my tears as Scottie pins my hands in front of me and locks the handcuffs around them. “Get her out of here and get those people moving. We’ve got the tails covered and taken out. We’re down to minutes to get this boat loaded, Lad,” Scottie says to Matt.

“Roger that,” Matt says, grasping the cuffs and pulling me none too gently out of the cabin and down the hallway, but we don’t go down the stairs we came up. When we reach the bottom of the ramp, he continues half-dragging me to the cover of the trees.

The truck has been backed up to the dock, and a group of men jump out of an SUV, open the trailer, and a ramp is thrown down over the existing ramp.

“Move, move, we have minutes,” someone yells as a huge crate is pulled forward on a sort of skid, and then the crane picks it up, hoisting it in the air and loading it onto the boat.

The teams won’t stop now, and the bleakness of the situation sets in as I lift my hands in a show of covering my heart, settling over the little button and pushing, an action intended to bring a reign of hell and fury down onto those that are a danger to our society.

There is nothing else that I can do but watch helplessly as they are loaded onto a boat that will take them to a fate, that for some, will be worse than death. I can’t control the stream of tears that flood down my face as the helplessness of their situation settles in, but my training will not allow me to let it rest.

If I don’t do something, I’ll be no help at all to those people. They will ship out and be lost to anyone that loves them and everyone that is looking for them. Matt lifts a hand to touch his Bluetooth and gives me the only opportunity that I may get, and I’ll be damned if I don’t take it. One of his hands leaves my cuffs and accepts the call and I use all my strength to knee him in the groin. When his hands go to his privates my cuffed arms go around his neck, spinning to pull him back tight against me.

The thought that this is the last time I will ever feel his body against mine crosses my mind, but I have a job to do, and saving these people is it. I walk backward, pulling him with me toward the cover of the woods, but he gets a finger and then a hand under the cuffs, even though my training and hold technique shouldn’t have allowed it. His agile body swivels, easily overtaking me, and his steely grey eyes flash as he frog-walks me backward into the privacy of the overgrowth, his eyes never wavering, holding mine captured with the intensity of his own.

As soon as we reach the safety of the treed canopies, the distinct point of a gun is placed to the small of my back and someone whispers in my ear. “Don’t move or draw attention to yourself. Watch and you will learn, Marenah,” Scottie says.

“Dereck and Nate have the ground crew covered,” Matt says, and my heart sinks with the reality that all along, not only Matt, but his entire crew has been involved. “The men are getting anxious, how much longer?” Matt says to Scottie, but he doesn’t reply and just gestures ahead to the shoreline where the ramp has been closed, and the boat begins to move slowly and then quickly, leaving the port.

“We’ve got ‘em boys, take the bloody arseholes out,” Scottie says from behind me and I watch from our secluded spot as a fleet of Interpol helicopters swarm down, encircling the boat, shining their spotlights on the massive boat. The captain doesn’t slow the boat’s speed at first, and a fleet of men lower onto the ship to ensure that he will, and ten long, excruciating minutes later the boat comes to a complete halt and begins the progression of turning course and heading in our direction.

This time, when the ramp is in place, Nate and Derick lead at least a hundred people down it as sirens fill the night and police cars begin swarming the dock area.

“We’ve got the bloody arseholes,” Scottie says into his headset. “She’s safe, she’s with us, just getting some loose ends tidied up,” Scottie says as he begins to uncuff me and gives me a wide grin.

I grab Scottie by the shirt. “You need to tell me what the fuck is going on. I thought you were the leak, the one on our team helping these sons of bitches get past the checkpoints. All this time, you kept showing up, time after time in the same ports these people kept disappearing from,” I say, looking up into his intense eyes.

“Then we did our job and you did yours, Lass. You were supposed to think it was me. They were being too careful, and we needed them to let their guard down. Once Interpol assigned you to the mission and leaked the information, they got more confident and thought I had a trafficking deal on the side, which helped open the lines of communication.”

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