Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
We were quiet for a few minutes, just holding each other. Finally, I said quietly, “Grace, there’s more, and this part concerns you.”
She brought her head up and frowned. “Okay,” she said, worry lacing her voice.
I paused. “Listen, when I tell you what I’m about to tell you, I understand if you need to take some time to think about it. I pray to God that you don’t get back in Dylan’s SUV and drive back to Vegas, but if you want to do that, I’ll understand.”
“Carson, you’re scaring me.”
I took a deep breath. “That day in Afghanistan, the initial plan was to kill the target and get in and out of there, but because of the unexpected situation we found, we were later making our way to the rendezvous point. It gave men who worked for the high-value target time to ambush us. You already knew I was injured along with Leland, but not the circumstances.”
She nodded, expression wary. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Anyway, after that, we were shipped back while we healed. Leland got medically discharged and I was given a choice to stay or go. When Leland offered me a job, I decided to take the discharge too.”
“Yes, you told me all this.”
“I know. But I didn’t tell you what my real job is.”
Her brows lowered. “You’re not the head of security at Trilogy?”
“Well, yes and no. That’s my full-time job. The rest of the time, I plan and execute operations with my friends to rescue women being sexually trafficked. We use the forty-fifth floor of Trilogy to house them while we locate their families and obtain the necessary paperwork to fly them home.”
“What?” she breathed, her face losing color.
I turned more fully toward her. “After what happened with Ara, with what we saw in that warehouse, we were all pretty messed up over it. We talked about it and decided we needed to do something that mattered, something that made a difference, using the skills we had, not in foreign countries, but right here in the US. Leland had the means and the location to offer us all jobs as cover for the operation we’d agreed to put into effect. As SEALs we’re able to gather intel and break into locations where victims are being held. In Vegas, most of the women come from Latin American countries. So far, we’ve located and rescued six groups of women since we’ve been in Vegas. The last rescue was the night before Josh got arrested.”
“Oh my God, I don’t even… I don’t even know what to say. Wait, what does this have to do with Josh’s arrest?”
“Josh was framed, Grace. There’s a man in Vegas who makes it his business to sell people. The women we rescued were his merchandise. What happened to Josh was his way of letting us know he didn’t appreciate what we had taken from him.”
CHAPTER 30
Grace
I believed him without a doubt. I trusted him implicitly. The story about Ara broke my heart and my mind was reeling with everything he’d told me about the undercover operations. My God. How had my whole world turned upside down, yet again, in the space of half an hour? Carson seemed to have a special knack for throwing me for a loop rather quickly. I sat on the couch with my hand on my forehead, trying to collect myself enough to ask more necessary questions. But only one came to mind. “How should we handle this?” I asked.
I looked at Carson and he paused for a couple beats before he smiled. I stared, then frowned. “Why are you smiling?” This didn’t seem like the time to smile.
“You said, ‘we,’” he said, still smiling.
“Yeah,” I confirmed, “I said we.”
“Just like that?” he asked, his smile fading, but hope remaining in his eyes.
I pursed my lips, studying him for a minute. “I understand why you wouldn’t tell me this before now…before I told you I wanted to be with you. Before there was an… us. But did you think I wouldn’t believe you when you did tell me?”
He scratched his chin. “No, I guess I didn’t think you’d doubt my story. I just wondered if you’d want to have any part of it.”
I breathed out a humorless laugh. “I don’t know if I do, exactly.” I paused, thinking about this tangled web. “But here’s the thing: it comes with you. It’s what you do. And, Carson, I don’t know if anyone’s told you this lately, but you’re a hero.”
“Oh, no, buttercup. I’m no hero.”
“Yes, Carson, you are. I’ve worked cases that involve women who’ve been sexually victimized in some form or another. I’ve been witness to the haunted look in their eyes. I’ve seen the devastation. Yes, you’re a hero. So again, how should we handle this?”
His eyes softened. “Dylan’s working on it. He’s trying to pinpoint a location for the guy we’re tracking, the one we’re all but positive is responsible for the setup. His name is Gabriel Bakos. The problem is, he moves around so damn much, it’s hard to track him. If we can just pin him down, we can go in and we can make him talk.”