Kayla hesitated as Levi disappeared up the staircase ahead of her toward the attic. Maybe she’d made the wrong call insisting they didn’t alert the authorities, because they clearly needed all the help they could get. Her father’s life depended on it. But on the other hand, they had legitimate reasons for following the orders of her father’s abductors. She knew enough about the men who had trafficked Mercy to know they weren’t people to cross and they weren’t afraid to follow through with threats. She’d seen firsthand what people like them did to their victims.
And now she was seeing their destructive lifestyle affect her own family all over again.
God, please... I can’t let them hurt my father.
She drew in a sharp breath and squeezed her eyes shut for a second, willing the dark memories to disappear. Authorities had found her sister in a filthy room, draped across the bed. Fifteen years old and her life had ended by those who’d forced her into the sex trade.
And now, if they didn’t stop them this time, Mercy could end up being yet another victim. She wasn’t going to let this happen.
Someone shouted from the attic above. Glass shattered. Shoving aside her fears, she drew in a deep breath and took the stairs two at a time, trying to calm the terror racing through her.
Seconds later, she stepped onto the cluttered attic floor. The intruder stood ten steps in front of her, swinging at Levi with a knife. She watched the blade slice down Levi’s arm. A trail of red followed. She fought to catch her breath. They had no weapons. No easy way to stop this man. But she had to do something.
“Levi?”
“Kayla...get out of here. Now.”
She heard his words but kept searching for a weapon. Ducking under one of the wooden beams running the length of the room, she grabbed a broken chair, picked it up, then ran forward and slammed it into the man’s side. Pushing away the chair, he lunged at her with the knife. But the distraction had been enough. Levi moved closer to the man, disarming him in one fluid motion.
The man wasn’t finished. He swung around in the small space. Kayla turned to avoid him, but she wasn’t fast enough as he ran into her, knocking her into one of the low ceiling beams. She heard Levi shout as stars exploded into the darkness around her.
“Kayla?”
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. She forced her eyes open. She needed to get up. She could hear someone tearing down the stairs. They needed to go after him and find out who he was. Find out why he was in the girls’ apartment.
“Levi?”
“Kayla...Kayla, I’m right here. Can you open your eyes?”
She groaned softly as her eyes blinked open. Levi hovered over her, fear clear in his eyes. He should be running after the man.
“He’s getting away.”
“It doesn’t matter. Are you okay?”
She mentally went through her body—arms, legs, torso... The only thing that seemed to hurt was her head. “You always said I owed you for saving my life that day when we encountered that bull. Now I guess I owe you again, but in the meantime, he got away. I’m sorry.”
“Forget it. I just need to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. Really.” She reached up and touched the back of her head, then slowly turned over on her side. “I think I’ll just have a goose egg.”
He was studying her eyes. She squirmed, far too close to those mesmerizing blue eyes of his.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking to see how much damage he did.”
“I said I was fine.”
“I’ll be the judge of that. Your pupils seem normal along with your eye movement, and your speech seems normal as well.”
“Thank you, Dr. Cummings.”
“Funny, but I’m serious. How’s your vision? Anything blurry?”
“No, because really, Levi, I’m okay.”
She breathed in his spicy cologne. Fought the urge to reach up and touch a strand of his blond hair. He was hovering way too close.
“I need to take you to a doctor—”
“No,” she said. “I just need a minute or two for my head to clear. Then I’ll stand up.”
He complied while she looked around the room. The knife lay on the floor a couple feet from where she’d fallen. And that wasn’t all that was there. “What do you think he was doing here?”
Nothing was making sense anymore.
He picked up a metal box and opened it. “Looks like spy gear. Audio recorders... And it’s not cheap. Looks like he was planning to do a bit of surveillance if we didn’t come and interrupt things.”
“Why now?” she asked.
“Maybe they’re not convinced we can find Mercy ourselves. Maybe they saw this as a backup plan to finding Mercy, by listening to the girls’ conversations.”
She waited for her head to stop spinning before she let him help her up, once again trying to ignore his nearness. Maybe she just needed some fresh air.
“I need to find another place for the girls to stay until all of this is over.”
“What about the knife?” he asked. “It might have fingerprints on it that could lead to whoever’s behind this.”
“I suggest we report the break-in to the police, but leave out the abduction. At least for now. With my father’s life at stake I don’t want to risk it.”
He glanced toward the door. “Do you think you can make it back downstairs?”
She nodded, knowing he was still worried. Knowing he wanted to protect her. But she wasn’t sure he could put an end to what was happening to her this time.
“You’re hurt as well,” she said once they reached the bottom of the stairs. She reached up and touched his shirt where blood had stained the sleeve.
“It’s nothing. I’ll clean it up later.”
She knew he wanted to shrug it off like it really was nothing. She knew he was already trying to figure out their next move. It was how he worked. How he’d served his country. He gathered information and came up with the most logical plan. But this time her father’s life was on the line, and it terrified her.
And then there was Mercy. Kayla’s entire world was focused on saving these girls.
He moved to the sink, wet a couple of paper towels and tried to clean up his arm.
“Stop,” she said, crossing the floor. “You’re just making a bigger mess.”
She studied the three-inch-long cut, thankful it wasn’t deep enough to need stitches, then ripped off the already torn sleeve to make it easier to clean. “Sorry, but this is going to sting.”
“You know this is—was—my favorite shirt.”
“I don’t remember you being so vain.”
He let out a chuckle, but all she could think about was that at least they were both alive. And that they had to figure out a way to make sure her father and Mercy stayed alive as well.
“Thankfully the knife barely nicked you. You would have needed stitches if he’d done any more damage, but as it is, I think you’ll be okay as long as I can drum up some antibiotic cream and some sort of bandage.”
“How’s your head now?”
“I think I’m feeling clearheaded again.” She glanced at the clock above the kitchen sink. It was already after seven. And they still had no idea where Mercy was.
She dug around in one of the cabinets. “I remember a first-aid kit... Here it is.”
She pulled out a strip of gauze, a bandage with some tape and a tube of medicine.
“What is that?” he asked, pointing to the gel in her hand.
“The closest Dutch version of Neosporin I’ve found. No antibiotic, but it will help it heal.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
A minute later, she was finished. “So now that you’re patched up, what’s next?”
“We have to figure out where Mercy would go. Who else does she trust? Where would she run if she was afraid for her life?”
The handle of the front door rattled. If they were back...
* * *
Levi grabbed the knife out of a wooden block on the kitchen counter, then headed for the front door, wishing he were better armed.
Seconds later a young woman, tall with dark hair and green eyes, appeared in the doorway with a backpack slung across her shoulder.
“Levi, wait...” Kayla quickly stepped between him and the girl. “This is Ana. She’s one of the girls who lives here.”
“Kayla...” Ana glanced around the living room then back to the two of them. “My key got stuck in the door. What...what’s going on?”
“There was a break-in,” Kayla said.
Levi followed the girl’s gaze to his scraped-up arm before she spoke. “A break-in? What did they steal?”
“We don’t think they stole anything. We think they were looking for someone.”
“What do you mean?”
Kayla glanced at Levi before answering the question. “Mercy’s missing and someone’s trying to find her.”
“Missing?” Ana’s face paled as she sank onto the couch, dumping her backpack on the floor. “He’s still looking for her, isn’t he?”
Levi took a step forward. “Who?”
Ana shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know that Mercy’s been scared. For a couple weeks now, she’s been screening her calls, leaving at different times every morning to go to work and making sure no one follows her.”
Kayla sat down beside her. “Why didn’t she tell me? That’s why we’re here. To help. To make sure something like this doesn’t happen.”
Ana rubbed her palms against the worn couch. “I know, but she was scared and didn’t know what to do. She trusted you, but she was afraid she was imagining things.”
“And if she was right? If someone was following her?” Kayla asked.
“She was afraid you would get the police involved.”
“Why is she afraid of the police?” Levi asked.
Ana hesitated at the question.
“It’s okay. He’s here to help,” Kayla said.
“Where she comes from—where most of us come from—the police are often a part of what’s happening. Everyone takes the money and looks the other way. They are not on your side. That might not be true here, but sometimes...sometimes it’s just easier to run.”
“And the men who originally took Mercy were experts on feeding that fear,” Kayla said.
Levi sat down on a small ottoman across from Kayla and Ana. Some of the pieces of the puzzle from what Kayla had told him earlier were coming together. While it might not have been smart to ignore their emergency plan, a part of him could understand why Mercy had run.
“When’s the last time you saw Mercy?” Kayla asked.
“This morning.” Ana stared straight ahead. The fear in her eyes signaled the fact that she knew it could have been any of them living in this apartment whose lives could be in danger. “She was getting ready for work.”
“Did she seem upset?”
“Not upset. Distracted, maybe.”
“Why?”
“She didn’t talk about it much, but she was terrified her former pimp was going to track her down. I tried to assure her that she was safe now, but I don’t think she believed me. I guess we all have a hard time believing that this new life is for real. That we won’t just wake up and find that it’s all been a dream.”
“Do you have a name for the pimp?”
“Nicu, I think. He has a brother who works with him, but I don’t remember his name.”
“The name sounds familiar. I brought her file with me.” Kayla dug in her backpack, pulled out Mercy’s file and handed it to Levi. “I’d like you to go through it. It’s mainly background information and interviews. See if there’s something we can use that might help us find her.”
“Isn’t this information confidential?” he asked, catching her gaze.
“Normally yes, but let’s say I’m hiring you as a consultant. I don’t think I could do much better than a decorated army intelligence officer.”
“Then I accept.” He caught the relief in her eyes as he flipped open the file. “So Nicu—assuming that’s who took her—was never arrested?”
“No.” Kayla’s brow furrowed at the question before she turned back to Ana. “Is there anything else you can think of that might help us find her?”
“She was receiving text messages from him. He wanted to see her. It was like he was...obsessed with her.”
“Did you see any of the messages?”
“A couple of them. But she never wanted to talk about it. I don’t think she wanted any of us to know what was really going on.”
“Do you know what was going on?”
“From the text I saw, he was angry that she left. Wanted her back.”
Enough to target the one person he believed could find Mercy.
Ana glanced at the door. “What if they come back?”
“I intend to make sure you all are safe, Ana.” Kayla’s voice sounded calm. Soothing. “Why don’t you quickly grab any personal items you might need for the next day or two for you and the other girls. I’ll call a friend of mine who drives a taxi to take you to the center. I’ll have Evi and Abel meet you there and ensure you and the other girls are safe tonight. Just as a precaution,” she added.
Kayla picked up her phone as Ana left the room and quickly dialed the taxi.
“There are a couple bedrooms with bunk beds set up at our offices that we use as a transition space. They’ll be safe there until this is over,” she said once she’d hung up. She started straightening up the mess the intruder had left behind. “I’ll also have Evi talk with each of the girls in person. See if Mercy said something to one of them that might help answer some of the questions we have.”
Levi nodded. While he knew today had shaken Kayla, dealing with a crisis clearly came automatically to her.
“I think we need to let the police know about the break-in,” Levi said, flipping open the file she’d given him.
“I can have Evi file a report, but I still don’t think we can get the authorities involved with everything that’s going on.”
“I agree.”
She picked a pile of books up off the floor and turned to him. “When’s the last time you ate?”
Levi glanced at his watch, surprised at how late it was. “Let’s see... Airplane food about five this morning.”
“I’d rather not stay here. I know of a restaurant that’s not far where we can grab soup and a sandwich. I’ll call Evi and give her an update, and then we can go through Mercy’s file and see if we can come up with something.”
Fifteen minutes later Ana was on her way across town in a taxi, and they were sitting in the back of a little café offering homemade soups, sandwiches and cakes. They’d walked the long way, weaving between shops and up and down side streets to ensure they weren’t followed, stopping only once to buy Levi a new shirt. But in the dark he couldn’t guarantee that Nicu—or whoever was behind this—wasn’t still out there. And as calm as Kayla had been with Ana, it was clear she was shaken up.
As soon as the waitress had taken their orders—spicy jalapeño-chicken sandwiches and fries served with mayonnaise, curry ketchup and some kind of peanut sauce—he continued reading through Mercy’s file.
“Her story is pretty much like most of the girls we work with, though they come from different countries with equally horrifying stories. Mercy was working selling pineapple on the road when she met her maman.”
“Her maman?” Levi glanced up from the file. “I might need a few blanks filled in before I read any more. Tell me what typically happens before the girls get to you.”
“It’s the word for madams in Nigeria. They usually work through local pimps—like Nicu—or sometimes the Mafia. Mercy thought she was doing something that would help her family back home. Her maman promised a job working in a European shop.”
“And instead she ended up trapped in a world with no way out.”
“Exactly.”
The waitress set down their plates of food, then asked if they needed anything else before she left. Levi dunked a fry into the traditional Dutch peanut sauce Kayla had recommended.
“It’s not bad, is it?”
“I’m hungry enough that it just might grow on me.”
Kayla let out a soft laugh. Her smile made him wish he could see her in a different setting under different circumstances. A chance to take her out and get to know her again without the stress of the situation.
“Everything these people do is well planned out,” Kayla continued, ignoring her food for the moment. “In Africa, the traffickers usually go to remote villages where there are no options for these girls. No work. No education. In turn the girls believe they have nothing to lose. When they find out the truth about what job is really waiting for them, they don’t see a way out.”
“No identity papers would reinforce their fear of local authorities.”
“Exactly.” Kayla picked up a fry, dabbed it in her sauce, then set it back down on the plate without eating it. “Typically a maman holds over the girls the debt for the plane ticket, food costs and rent. And in return, they are forced to earn their keep by selling their bodies.”
“Until you—and others like you—come along.”
“Yes, but what frustrates me is that for every Mercy we try to save, there are dozens more out there still trapped. It’s a lucrative business that won’t be stopped simply by targeting the traffickers, or even by saving the girls. The only way to put an end to it is by stopping those who demand their services.
“I can’t stop thinking about Lilly.” Kayla took a sip of her water, her food still untouched as she continued talking. “Her story isn’t that different from Mercy’s. She wanted something different. Something more. She met this woman who told her she was a model scout and worked as an agent for dozens of girls. Lilly came home ecstatic.”
“And your parents?”
“They did some research. The woman had a professional website and connections to other people in the industry. On the surface everything checked out. Then the woman convinced Lilly that if she moved to Paris, she’d have more opportunities to model, but my parents told her no. Told her that she was too young and needed to finish school. They pulled her out of the agency, but Lilly...she could be stubborn. She hated living in such a small town and was convinced that she was going to miss her one big opportunity if she walked away.”
“Which she believed would happen if she stayed in Potterville.”
Kayla nodded as the raw memories swirled around her.
“There was a huge blowup between her and my parents. The next day, Lilly went missing, and my family was suddenly sitting in the living room talking with the FBI about a possible abduction. They were able to trace her to Houston, but she’d disappeared along with five other girls. That’s when we found out the terrifying truth that it’s far more common than we might imagine for men—and sometimes women—to pose as modeling agents in order to traffic women. And if they are able to get them out of the country, American women typically can be sold for more.”
“Did they make it out of the country?”
“Three of them did. A fourth girl was flagged and picked up at the airport in Atlanta by the local authorities. To this day we’re not sure why they kept Lilly in the States, then killed her. They found her during a huge sting by the authorities. There were over fifty arrests, and twice that many young girls rescued that day. It was a huge bust. And then they found Lilly. But it was too late. The autopsy said she died of a drug overdose, more than likely forced on her to keep her in line.”
“I’m so, so sorry, Kayla.”
Her phone rang, and she grabbed it from the table. He listened to the one-sided conversation, trying to figure out whom she was talking to. Her frown deepened. Whoever it was, it wasn’t good news.
“Kayla?”
He watched her drop the phone back onto the table in front of her. Her frown deepened.
“What is it?”
“I have a contact at the police department. He...he’s helped us before with different situations we’ve had to deal with.” She drew in a deep breath before continuing. “A Jane Doe was just brought into the morgue. They want me to come in and see if I can identify her. They found my business card in her pocket.”
Levi caught the tremor in her voice. “And you think it might be Mercy?”
A shadow crossed Kayla’s face. “If Mercy is dead, what happens to my father?”