She walked to the door, then stepped inside the bedroom, her pulse quickening. Her eyes fell on Maggie’s bed, then Blake’s. Her heart stopped beating.
Both beds were empty.
“B-Blake? Maggie?”
Her eyes shot across the room, scanning the corners for her children, wondering for a desperate second if they might be playing somewhere else. Then her eyes landed on the sliding doors leading to the small porch outside. The light green curtains were fluttering in the wind.
The sliding doors are open. Why are the doors open?
Gasping for breath, she rushed to the doors and went out onto the small balcony outside. Their suite was on the second floor with views of the pool area below.
“Blake? Maggie?”
Barely able to breathe, Mary turned around and stormed across the suite, running for the door, almost tripping over her own feet. She slammed the door shut behind her, then ran to the elevator and pressed the button repeatedly. The elevator came, and she pressed the button to go to the lobby. As it dinged open, she stormed out and ran in her high heels, lifting her dress to be better able to run fast into the restaurant where she spotted Peter. He lifted his glance when he saw her and smiled, but as he saw the terror on her face, his smile froze. He rose to his feet.
“Mary?”
She hurried toward him, barely able to keep from screaming.
“What’s wrong, Mary? What’s going on?”
She spoke, but the words sort of fell out of her mouth in a strange jumble that made her hard to understand.
“The children…the kids…Peter…they…Peter the chil…Oh, Peter…”
A frown grew between his brows, and he rose to his feet.
“What are you trying to say, Mary?”
“They’re not in their beds, Peter.”
“What do you mean they’re not in their beds? I was just there.”
“They’re not there.”
“But that makes no sense,” Peter said.
Mary stared at him, then shouted loudly, almost screamed into his face: “They’re gone, Peter. Someone has taken the children!”
TEN YEARS LATER
Cocoa Beach, Florida
Chapter 1
“Where are all the yellow ones? Did you eat the yellow M&M’s? You know I love those!”
I gave my sister Sydney a look, and she blushed. She was sitting next to me in my minivan, in the passenger’s seat, the bag of peanut M&M’s between us along with several other empty bags of candy and fast-food.
“What if I did? I like them too,” she said. “Plus, I never get to eat junk like this.”
“You want me to feel sorry for you? You chose to become a Hollywood actress,” I said. “And gave all that up in the process. No one forced you.”
“Maybe not, but now I want to eat stuff like that too. Especially since I’m not doing any new movies soon.”
“Wait, here comes another one,” I said as I lifted my binoculars and looked at the man as he entered through the back door. “That’s fifteen today.”
Sydney took a deep breath. “The poor girl.”
I ate an orange M&M, but it simply wasn’t the same as the yellow ones. “Gotta meet that quota.”
“That’s just awful. I can’t stand it, Eva Rae. Sitting here watching all these men go in and out, knowing she’s in there…it makes me so mad.”
“Good,” I said. “It should make you angry. We can use that.”
“Can’t we just take her back to the shelter with us now? It’s driving me crazy that we know this is happening, and we’re not doing anything about it.”
I shook my head. “Gotta wait till the right moment.”
Sydney groaned. She was wearing a wig, giving her black hair and a bob cut. It looked cute on her, but then again, everything looked adorable on my sister, the famous Hollywood actress. She had just finished a movie, and all the profits from it had gone into our mutual project, House of Freedom. We had literally bought a house for the project, a house to shelter trafficked girls. It was in South Cocoa Beach, by Thirty-fifth Street, directly on the beach, and had become the perfect shelter for the young girls. Supported by trained staff, we nurtured them back to life outside of captivity.
My sister Sydney and I had gotten the idea after rescuing my daughter and a bunch of other girls from traffickers in Miami. We wanted to provide a safe haven for girls like them, a place to stay where they could get all the help they needed. Since Sydney had been kidnapped as a child herself by our biological father and we had ended up growing up apart from one another, rescuing young girls from their kidnappers was a big dream for both of us. Doing this project together, starting the House of Freedom, was a way of healing for both of us as well.
We had recently heard about this RV in a parking lot on the mainland by Rockledge, where a girl was held captive. We had kept an eye on it for three days now and seen more than enough.
I lowered the binoculars and looked at my sister again. We waited half an hour till the guy left, then took a series of photos of him walking out, just for security.
It was getting darker out now as the sun set behind the trees in the parking lot. The darkness would be our friend.
“All right,” I said and grabbed my Glock 17 9MM handgun. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter 2
We walked up to the RV, then knocked on the door. It was opened, and a guy I could only assume was this girl’s pimp was standing there. His eyes landed on Sydney and me as a frown grew between them. He stepped outside, smirking from ear to ear, the door to the RV slamming shut behind him.
“Who are you?”
I pointed my gun at him and placed it right in front of his face to make sure he understood the seriousness of the situation.
“We’re here to get the girl. And make it quick.”
Of course, he had to make a big deal about it.
“What girl? What are you talking about?”
“Do we really have to go there?” I asked, annoyed. “I really don’t want to have to hurt you.”
That made him laugh. He was every bit as nasty as you’d imagine a guy exploiting a young girl like her would be. His teeth were destroyed, probably from meth, and his big stomach bulged over the top of his pants. He had sweat patches under his armpits, and his skin was glistening. Don’t even let me get started on how he smelled.
“You? Hurt me? I’d like to see you try.”
He looked at us like he could eat us, especially my sister. It made me even angrier. I cocked the gun. The sound wiped the smirk from his face.
“I don’t think anyone would miss you, do you? I know the girl in there certainly won’t.”
“Listen,” he said. “I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing here, but you have no right to…”
I lowered the gun and fired a shot between his legs. The guy screamed and danced.
“What the…are you crazy, lady?”
It was my turn to smirk. I pointed the gun at him again.
“The girl. Now.”
But, of course, the guy wouldn’t give away his source of income that easily. He reached out his hand and grabbed mine, which was holding the gun, then twisted it, probably trying to grab the gun from me. I knew he probably had a couple of guys in there and that they most likely were armed. The shot would lure them out. It was only a matter of seconds.