The wisps of mist hovered low over the sea, shrouding the sleepy fishing village in eerie foreboding. Knots inside Dario’s guts twisted tighter. Inside the port, he cut off the engine and steered the boat toward the wharf. Irena stood on the prow, holding the thick rope and ready to pounce out as soon as the distance between the glider and quay decreased.
Irena leaped off the prow and silently landed on the stone waterfront, tying the boat’s line in haste. He cast the anchor into the sea, then wound the rope around the cleat until the line stood rigid, not allowing the boat to drift on the water.
He jumped onto the land and kicked his legs into the run to catch up with Irena. After the fourth unanswered call to his brother, Dario had given up on dialing Ante’s number and turned his efforts to reach the house they resided on the island of Sylba.
She halted, panting in front of the two-story stone house. Its stillness and the closed door didn’t instill confidence. He squeezed her shoulder to gain her attention. “You wait here. I’ll go in first, make sure it’s safe.”
“Like hell I’ll wait.” She broke into a run again and reached the front door, her hand wrapped around the knob. Her shoulders rose and fell with each long breath, and she pushed the door open.
A strange chemical odor filled the hallway. Ante lay on the tiled floor, in nothing but his boxers, which he put on backward. He moaned and swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. At the foot of the stairs, wearing her blush negligee, Martina stirred and winced, then rolled onto her side and cradled her head in her arms.
Dario rushed to his brother and tapped his hand on Ante’s cheek. “Wake up. Are you okay? What happened?”
Ante rubbed his eyes, sighed and coughed. His grogginess suggested he’d been poisoned by some kind of sleep chemical. “We were just getting down to business when I heard a loud thud and then a second one I threw on my underwear, in case I ran into Martina’s mom or dad.” A new fit of hacking broke his words. When he could speak again he continued, “I was afraid old folks tumbled down the stairs. Martina followed me, despite my insisting she stayed put. Then I saw gas was coming from a canister and the last thing I remember…ah…passing out here.”
Irena checked on Martina. Martina nodded to some quiet question and slowly sat up, propped by the banister. Irena ran up the stairs leading to the second- floor bedrooms. Dario dialed the island’s emergency, then his childhood friend, Joe.
“Dario!” Irena called from the top of the stairs. “Martina’s parents are in their bed, in deep sleep. I opened the window in their bedroom.” She fixed him with a grievous stare knots formed in the pits of his guts. “Can you please come here?”
“Sure.” Dario’s heart sank to his stomach. The tremble in Irena’s voice gave him a bad feeling.
She entered the girls’ room. He followed her. Two empty beds greeted him. Twisted sheets and covers suggested the struggle. A white rag tossed on each pillow. He picked one up to smell, but before he put it to his nose, the pungent lemony scent like too much wood polish stung his nostrils. Anesthesia gas—he’d remember the smell ever since Ante’s sixth-grade trip to the ER to have his broken arm set in a cast. Oh dear god, please let the girls be hiding someplace. “We’ll find them. They couldn’t have gone far.”
“Doubtful.” Irena gripped Ella’s nun-chucks in her shaky hand. “Ella wouldn’t leave this behind unless she wasn’t given the chance to grab them. How are we going to break the news to your brother and Martina? She’d freak out and this is not the time to lose one’s cool.” Irena chewed on her bottom lip. By her knitted brow, a plan was formulating in her head. But where to start?
“Let me deal with that.” He rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “Why would they take Jasmin? She’s barely four years old.”
“The younger they are more money they fetch on the sex slave market. Plus, no doubt Fred will threaten to hurt Jasmin if Ella doesn’t comply.”
His already tight chest, clenched harder, squeezing the air out of his lungs. His dinner threatened to hurl up. “No way, Fred wouldn’t—”
“He would.” Irena nodded, her chin and hand trembled. How did she manage to keep her voice steady? “We need to find them before they are taken out of the country.”
He raced after her to the hallway. He had to hand it to her for not allowing panic to take over her. If she lost
her head, he wouldn’t know what to do. Martina climbed the stairs, a bag of ice pressed to the back of her neck. His guts twisted a new. Maybe he should break the news to Ante first. He grabbed her elbow as they met on the middle step. “Where’s Ante?”
“He’s in the bathroom, retching. Why?”
“Do you know if the kids may be hiding in some of their secret places? They fancied sitting under the stairs. It was their clubhouse as they called it.” Despite his struggle to hide fear, it must’ve shown on his face.
Martina’s eyes widened and she snapped her gaze from him to the wide opened bedroom door. “Did you see Jasmin’s stuffed toy? She never goes anywhere without it.”
“Her bed is empty. No toys in there.” By now Irena’s voice trembled and so did her hands.
Martina’s jaw dropped, fear flashed in her eyes, she’d freak out any moment. Instead, she ran down the stairs to the laptop on the coffee table in the den. “I’ll locate her in a few minutes.” Keys and charms jingled on her chain. She selected a small, black box. “Let’s hope she still has her toy with her.”
“Get Jasmin’s location.” Standing by the den’s door, Ante pointed at the device in her hand. His jaw set hard. “They took my baby and they will pay.”
Martina nodded, not taking her gaze from the computer screen. “Come on, load up you stupid page.” She banged the mouse on the table. “Here.” The clicking sounded and the map filled up the screen. She turned to Ante. “So you knew about GPS stuffed inside the toy. My brother suggested I should be checking up on you when you had Jasmin.” Martina turned her head toward the three of them crowding her around the
coffee table. “Speaking of my brother, where is Kris? Has anyone seen him?”
Dario crossed his arms over his chest and studied his brother’s sharp face. Martina’s admission was the truth behind Kris’ sudden casement of shadowing Ante. “Now we can pin down on her location. I’ll go check on Kris.” Ante scurried toward the door of the room at the end of the hallway. In a few seconds, he re- emerged. “Your brother’s gone. His gun’s not inside the
display case either.”
Ante’s discovery twisted Dario’s stomach tighter. If Kris took his gun, he must be hot on a trail of Fred’s men. On the other hand, her brother would raise a bunch of his buddies to join him, and the hot-headed armed young guys meant more trouble than Dario wanted.
Martina’s jaw clenched as she punched the combination of numbers and letters from the GPS into the Google maps. The position zoomed in on the screen. She turned the laptop toward Dario. “The stuffed toy is here, and if we’re lucky our children are too. What is this place?”
Dario crouched in front of the screen and studied the map. By the name of the roads, he figured the location. “These are the abandoned military barracks on the army airport. How on Earth did they get there so fast? What time was it when you heard the thumps?”
“Around midnight.” Ante’s raw expression clenched Dario’s chest. His gaze directed at the screen held snarky disdain. “We may be in luck here. Tom, Ana’s…ex, was awarded one of the buildings there in lieu of monetary compensation for his war efforts and injury. He runs his kennels there—”
Loud knocking on the front door made them all jump. Dario stepped to the entrance and pulled them open, admitting the emergency workers inside. The police chief in his plain clothes stepped through and fixed him with a deadly serious glare. His sheer size filled up the narrow hallway making it appear smaller. “Dario?”
“Joe, appreciate you coming here at this early hour.” Dario shook hands with the cop, but tension stiffened his arm.
The deputy scanned the scene. “What happened here?”
Dario glanced at Irena, her face pale and eyes wide. To hell with her instance not to involve the cops, the cop was here whether she liked it or not. “You told me to stay low and not do a thing with Fred. Now our kids have been kidnaped.”
Irena’s jaw dropped and she stared at Dario, then jerked her head toward Joe. “I told you no cops. He’s most likely on Fred’s payroll.”
Joe put his hand up and took a step toward her. “No, I’m not. I can help you.”
Her steely gaze stayed on Dario, coiled his insides. “Fine, let’s go.”
“You have a location on the kids?” Joe’s eyebrows arched.
“The GPS inside the stuffed animal is telling us the girls might be at the old military airport.” Dario hoped the girls were still there, not just abandoned toy emitting the signal.
The deputy nodded fast, his lips pressed into a thin line as if calculating the distance from their island to their destination. “Okay, we’ll take the police power
boat. It’s faster.”
The emergency people proceeded to check the vitals on Ante. Martina’s father shuffled his feet in slippers across the floor. “Your mother is taking all of this pretty hard.”
Martina stepped up to him and hugged him, but Dario caught the tremble in her voice. “I know, Dad. We’ll get the girls back. I’ll come see Mom in a few minutes. Stay with her and reassure her everything will be fine.”
“He’s good to go.” The EMS tapped Ante’s shoulder.
Ante got to his feet, grabbed Martina in a hug. Her chin trembled and her eyes brimmed with tears. “Go get our cricket back. Bring her home.”
Irena heaved, sucking her lips between her teeth. “This is all my fault. If I never came here this wouldn’t happen.”
Exhaling loudly failed to loosen Dario’s chest. He embraced Irena. “It’s too late for ifs, too late for recourses. All we can do now is save our kids.”
Ante released Martina from the bear hug. Irena slid next to her and touched her arm. “We’ll get her back, you have my word.”
Martina’s stern expression mellowed and tears freely flowed down her face. “I know you’re in the same situation. At least Jasmin has Ella. I know your daughter will protect her little cousin. Go now, bring them home.”
“Stay strong and have faith.” Irena embraced Martina then stepped away from her and gave her a single nod. God almighty, anyone else would fall apart, have a massive emotional meltdown, but not her. The
worst fears have become the reality and now the years of training were kicking in and her toughness and determination held her intact.
During the brisk walk through the narrow and empty streets of the village, Dario speed-dialed Tom’s number, but voicemail picked up on the fourth ring. He left him a message. If luck was with them tonight, the man would wait for them at his kennels, perps apprehended and girls safe and sound. That may be too much to hope for.
The police power boat bobbed on gentle swells in the snug harbor. The lines tied the starboard at the bow and stern to the wharf, stretching and creaking with a movement of the boat.
Dario swallowed against his dry throat. In less than an hour, they would discover the fate of the girls. They could be in hands of sexual deviants. What could they be living through right now?
Joe untied the lines and set the boat flush to the pier. With his foot planted on the starboard, he held the boat steady, then tweaked his head at the small party to start boarding.
Irena jumped in first. Dario followed her onto the small deck, Ante was right behind him. Joe turned the engine, the sea under the stern foamed. He retrieved the anchor and the boat inched away from the pier.
Irena settled on the seat at the stern, her jaw tight. The fine salt bullets assaulted the boat as soon as they cleared the bay and picked up speed. Ante hunkered low and found the shelter from the gusty wind on the starboard, flattening his back against the side. Dario wrapped his arms around Irena, sheltering her from the cold.
“Got a minute, Dario?” Joe called over his shoulder.
Irena gave Dario a nod and shifted toward the railing, pulling the hood of her jacket over her head.
Dario grasped for handholds, stepped to Joe who stared at the three beams of lights mounted on the rack above their heads, chasing the darkness from the boat.
“I saw you sparring with her and a younger girl at Kris’ gym. They have some stealthy moves I couldn’t pinpoint the type of martial arts, looks like some kind of hybrid fighting technique.”
“Mother and daughter fight as a team.” Dario glanced over his shoulder. Irena’s face wasn’t visible under her hood, her head resting on her bent arm. Perhaps she was gathering her wits and strength for what was coming. A warrior’s tactic. He turned to Joe and continued, “I have a feeling you know more about Fred than you are willing to share. Why? Are you protecting someone?”
“Soon, you’ll find out.” Joe’s face remained hard, his gaze set dead ahead.
“Irena thinks the police might be corrupted by this man.”
Joe screwed his face. “Wouldn’t be the first time the police chief’s pockets got lined.”
“She wants the ordeal to be handled discreetly and not to involve city cops unless necessary.”
“I’m already ahead of you.”
“Thank you, Joe. I knew I could count on you.” By Joe’s vague tone, Dario concluded, the cop was hiding something, but at least one knot loosened in Dario’s guts.
“I alerted my bud, an ambulance attendant. Just in
case, they’ll park on the road.”
Dario couldn’t decide whether Joe’s words eased or upset him more. Could they need emergency medical help? Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt.
“Good to know—” A long, shrill chirping of his cell phone had him reaching into his jacket pocket. The unknown number flashed on the screen. Should he take the call? It could be important. He tapped accept call button and pressed the mobile to his ear. “Hello?”
Loud breathing came through the line.
“Who is this?” Dario snapped. The last thing he needed right now was some prank call.
More loud breathing.
“I’m hanging up now, perv.”
“No! Dario! Don’t.” The voice came broken up by heavy puffing.
“Who’s this?”
“Andy.”
“Andy?” Why did that name sound familiar?
“The receptionist from the Bastion hotel. Ella gave me your number. In case…you know…of an emergency.” The loud swallow came from Andy’s end.
Dario’s mind blanked for a split second, he couldn’t come up with right words. “Where are you?”
“At the abandoned military airport. My buddy and I just returned from fishing when this big speedboat comes into the harbor, set all the boats into the wild bob with the huge wake it raised. Then I saw a couple of guys toss Ella and another girl into a car trunk and drove off. We hopped on our scooters and followed them.”
“Andy, those men are dangerous. You and your friend need to get away from there. We’re on our way,
will be there shortly.”
“My bud’s staying with scooters by the road.” Andy chuckled. “He chickened out. I can get the girls out in no time if I can pick the lock.”
“The lock?”
“Yeah, they are locked inside a dog’s crate. I see them through the broken window. They’re asleep.”
A dog’s crate? Rage boiled inside Dario. Once he got his hands on Fred, he’d stuff him in into a crate size meant for a Chihuahua pup. “Andy, no. This is not a joke. Listen to me—”
“I know these barracks. Hang out here with some bad crowd.” A huff sounded from Andy’s end, then he blurted, “In the past.”
“Andy, get away from there before someone sees you.” Panic swelled in Dario’s chest. He stuck his finger into the free ear to hear Andy over the roar of the engines and high winds.
“No one saw us. We were careful. Hey! Oh shit.” Muffled voices and shouts filled Dario’s ear.
“Andy! What’s going on?”
“Kid’s curfew bell just rung,” a man’s voice blasted through the line before it went dead.
“Shit!” Dario punched the console, then shook his hand as pain shot through his arm. “They got another kid, or possibly two. Can this boat go any faster?”
“We’re already pushing at a top speed.” Joe shoved his arm toward the dark surface in front of them. “At least the sea is calm tonight. And look!” He pointed straight ahead.
Dario forced air into his lungs and peered into the night. In the distance, islands loomed over the dark sea like silent sentiments. A thin, hazy line of city lights
beaconed over the expanse. For the next twenty minutes, he kept glancing at his wristwatch. Only the drone of the engine cut through the heavy silence. The mass of land they headed toward grew bigger. Still, it seemed the boat moved at the snail’s pace and he cursed each minute it took to bring them closer.