Caribbean Rescue (Coastal Fury Book 16) - Matt Lincoln (reading tree .TXT) 📗

opposite this one. This time, Holm was the one to open the door, only for us to be met with the same result.

“Everything good up here?” Crowley asked as he and the other officers came running up the stairs.

“So far,” I replied. “It’s looking like the place is totally empty.”

“They might have fled when they realized we were coming,” Crowley replied as the other officers went on to search the rest of the rooms on the second floor. “Dammit. What do we do now?”

“There’s someone in here!” Hank suddenly yelled.

I spun around at the sound of his voice. One of the doors at the very end of the hall was open, and I rushed toward it, Holm, Crowley, and the other officers right behind me.

Hanks was leaning over one of the beds as I burst into the room, and I realized the ‘someone’ he had found wasn’t one of the traffickers but rather one of the victims.

The woman lying on the bed looked deathly pale. The thin tank top she was wearing was damp with sweat, and her eyes were half-lidded, as though she wasn’t completely conscious.

“She’s in rough shape,” Hanks muttered as I came to stand beside him. “Looks like she might be on something. Or coming down from something.”

It looked to me like he was right. The girl was shaking so much that her teeth were chattering, and her skin was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Her eyes were unfocused, and her breathing was shallow and labored, as well. She was either extremely sick or going through some kind of withdrawal.

“The rest of the house is empty,” one of the local officers noted as he came to stand beside me. “I can’t believe they just left her here alone like this.”

“You can’t?” I scoffed. “They don’t exactly seem like upstanding people. They view these women as property rather than human beings. They probably cleared out as quickly as they could and decided to just ditch her here rather than deal with the dead weight.”

“They must have left before we got here,” the officer replied. “We’ve been stationed right outside ever since we got the call from Captain Morris. No one entered or left this house in that time.”

“There’s no telling how far they might have gotten by now, then,” I replied angrily before turning to Crowley. “We need eyes on the water. The women mentioned that they were always transported from Cockburn to Western Caicos on a private boat. Unless they’re hiding somewhere on the island, it’s possible they fled that way.”

“Alright,” Crowley replied. “I’ll get on it as soon as we secure medical attention for this woman.”

“Good,” I replied before turning to Holm and the other officers. “We need to head straight to the address we have for Samuel’s place now. That’s where they’re most likely to be.”

I waited impatiently as Crowley called for an ambulance. I knew that making sure the woman got medical attention was important, but I was starting to get anxious now that we’d discovered that the men weren’t here. Every second that passed was another that Samuel and the traffickers might be using to get that much further away.

I was jarred out of my thoughts by the sound of my phone ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and frowned at the name on the screen.

“What’s up?” Holm asked.

“It’s Raymond,” I muttered back before answering and putting the phone to my ear. The moment I did, I jumped as the bang of a gunshot rang through the line.

“What the hell is happening?” I yelled into my phone’s speaker.

“Agent Marston,” Raymond’s pained voice groaned. “I have a bit of a problem.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” I snapped back as I heard more gunshots. “What did you do?”

“I found the men,” he rasped. His voice sounded airy, as though he were struggling to draw breath. “I came to the house. I overheard you talking about it when you were discussing your plans on the way over. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t just wait around while the people that killed my baby brother walked free.”

“Dammit, Raymond!” I yelled.

“What’s going on?” Holm stared at me in confusion. Crowley and the other officers were also staring at me with similar looks of horror and bewilderment.

“Hold on,” I said as I pulled the phone away from my ear and put it on speaker so they could hear the chaos as well. “Raymond, where are you now?”

“Right outside the house,” he coughed. “I caught them as they were getting ready to leave. I managed to shoot a few of them, but there were too many. They’re getting on the boat now.”

“The address we had for Samuel’s house was right on the beach!” Holm exclaimed. “You were right, Ethan. They’re trying to flee by water.”

“You go,” one of the local officers suddenly spoke up as he tossed Crowley the keys to the police van. “We’ll stay here with the girl until the ambulance arrives.”

“Okay, let’s go,” I said to Holm and Crowley before turning on my heel and quickly leaving the room. It wasn’t ideal to split up like this, but we didn’t have time to spare right now.

“Raymond!” I yelled through the phone. “How many men are still there? I can hear the gunshots.”

“Ah… two, I think,” he gasped. His voice was getting more strained every time he spoke. “I’m inside the house now, taking cover. I’m not too sure.”

“Okay, just hold tight,” I called as I raced down the stairs and through the front door of the house, Holm and Crowley hot on my trail. “We’re coming to you now.”

“I’ll try not to die before then,” he laughed brokenly before hanging up.

“How long until we get to the address?” I asked Crowley as we piled into the police van.

“About four minutes by car,” he replied as he turned the ignition.

“I hope Raymond can hold out for that long,” I muttered bitterly in response as the car took off. Outside, the sky was beginning to darken with foreboding