For now, the last thing she could do was reach out to Jack Ryder, FBI agent.
It was Day Three in the Nassau operation, and Jack and the other operatives were about to make their various moves. Jack played the part of a wealthy college kid, hanging out at the beach. He wasn’t clean shaven like when he was here with Eliza, and he wore a flat white straw hat. So none of the bad guys from before would recognize him.
At first, Oliver had wanted to send someone else on this mission. Just in case Jack was spotted as being the same guy who’d been there with Eliza. But Jack was the only agent on the operation who had seen the men the first time around. He knew their patterns and their cars and their home base. He would recognize the men and the teenage girls they used to recruit the younger girls. No, the mission was Jack’s to finish, and he wasn’t afraid to do so.
He just wanted to come home when it was completed.
The raid was set to begin at three-eleven that afternoon. It was an intentional number. One of the trafficked girls had been murdered recently, and her body had washed up on shore not far from the fish fry strip. Her birthday was March 11.
Jack watched the time on his phone. The men had approached him a few times, testing him, making vague offers. Three days in and Jack had their trust. At three ten he stood and stretched. His go bag was in a vehicle with the agents who would take him to a private airstrip when the raid was over. Fifteen minutes from now, if all went well. Part of the reason the traffickers would trust him was because he didn’t have a backpack or beach bag.
Just a Smith & Wesson in his waistband.
He sauntered to the area near the playground where he’d talked with the traffickers yesterday. This is for you, Eliza. Help me, God. Let’s get these guys off the street. He leaned against a palm tree and waited. But not for long.
After a few seconds a guy walked up. One of the two who had tried to take the little girl when Jack was here with Eliza. “You looking for something?” The man didn’t make eye contact. He kept his gaze on pivot, watching, worried.
“Just a little fun.” That was the code phrase. The men had told him yesterday that they had ways to entertain tourists. If he was interested, he needed only to say the words. And now he had.
The man nodded and lit a cigarette. “Come on.” He nodded for Jack to follow him. There was no further conversation, but a hundred yards down Bay Street Jack saw the yellow car. This goon’s buddy was in the driver’s seat, no doubt.
After a minute the car pulled up. The trafficker slid into the passenger seat and Jack took the backseat. From this point to the house, he was on his own. If they figured out his real identity, they would take him to some remote spot and kill him. No one would ever find his body.
Jack worked to keep his cool. “Hey… you got a smoke?”
“No.” The driver snapped at him. Then he laughed—a sickening laugh. “I got something better.”
Locking these two up was going to be one of the highlights of Jack’s career. He clenched his jaw and stared out the window. The driver seemed to be going a different way than before, and Jack felt his heart skip a beat. Was this it? Would the agents on the ground know where they were taking him?
They drove another ten minutes and pulled up at a dilapidated ranch house surrounded by a chain-link fence and weeds three feet high. This definitely wasn’t the right house. Swagger was critical. “This don’t look like any kind of fun to me.”
“Shut up.” The man in the passenger seat glared at Jack over his shoulder. “We got a pickup.”
The driver looked back, too. “Two hundred dollars. Cash.”
“Forget it.” Jack lowered his head and stared out the window at the house. “Not till I see what I’m buying.”
For the longest moment in Jack’s life the two just looked at him, studied him. Then the driver said something to his buddy, and that guy got out of the car. Jack guessed he was picking up cocaine. All the better. None of their recon had ever proved that the men were dealing drugs, too. But the more charges the better.
So this gang would never again see the light of day.
It felt like an hour, but after a few minutes the passenger seat goon returned and climbed inside. He carried a large grocery bag. It looked heavy. He shot Jack another look. “You ain’t seen nothin’。 Got it?”
Jack held both hands up. “Hey… you’re the one making a sale, buddy. If you’re not selling, take me back to the beach.”
They were the right words. Because both men turned their attention to the road and after another few minutes they pulled up at the white brick house Jack had seen when he was with Eliza. The one that looked like a mansion. At least in this part of Nassau.