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thought a few days in Paris would help.”
“You’re an actress?”
“Yes…well, that and a college student.”
Liam’s heart hurt for her. She was young and naïve…an innocent. Even if she survived and returned home, that innocence would be gone.
“You have any family that would pay your ransom?”
“You think that’s why they took me? To ransom me?”
That would be a best-case scenario for her. And the one that made the most sense. Didn’t mean they wouldn’t abuse her while they had her, but if someone was willing to pay for her release, there was a chance she could survive.
Ransom wasn’t the reason for his and Xavier’s abductions. Even if it had been, they were SOL. No one was going to pay a ransom for them. Being on a black ops mission didn’t always mean you were on your own, but in this case it most definitely did. Five people had known about their op. The question of which one of those five had betrayed them would have to be answered after they got out of here. For now, he had enough on his plate.
Their captors apparently had prisoners here for a variety of reasons. What was this place? Some kind of eclectic prison clearinghouse?
“Are you still there?”
Liam shook his head to clear it. “Yeah…sorry. What questions have they asked you?”
“None, really. And they haven’t answered any of mine. My parents aren’t wealthy…I’m not wealthy. I don’t know why they would think I am.” She paused and then added, “Do you…are you here for ransom, too?”
For the first time, it occurred to him that she could be a plant. The delay in wondering about such a thing showed just how screwed up his head was. She could be a sister or wife to one of these assholes. Soften him up, charm him, and make him spill his secrets.
That wouldn’t happen. He knew how to keep secrets. But if she was legit, then he needed to figure out a way to help her.
“Do you think that’s why the other women are here, too? They’re going to ransom them?”
His heart sank. “Other women?”
“Yes. I was thrown in with them for a while, but when I couldn’t stop coughing, I think they decided I might be contagious. That’s when they put me in here by myself.”
It was clearer and much more dire than he’d feared. If they had other women here, ransoming her was not the likely reason she’d been taken. Things had just gotten a lot more serious and complicated. Human trafficking was rampant everywhere.
“Did you talk with any of the other women?”
“No. Not really. I was kind of out of it, but I saw them…heard them.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a half dozen or so.”
This changed things. He was going to have to scrap the escape plan he’d come up with before. No way in hell was he leaving this woman, or any of the others, behind.
She coughed again, the sound torturous. She wasn’t going to last long without medical care.
In a raspy voice, she asked tentatively, “Do you…can you tell me your name?”
He delayed in answering and her next words told him she understood immediately. “I’m sorry…you don’t know me. I could be an enemy for all you know. I’m not, but you don’t know that.”
If she was a plant, she was a good one because Liam suddenly wanted to tell her everything. If that wasn’t a dangerous thought, he didn’t know what was.
Before he could say anything, she hurriedly added, “Could you just talk to me? Even if it’s not the truth, it would help so much to know that I’m not alone.”
That he could do. His mother often said that Liam had started talking at three months old and hadn’t stopped since.
“My name is Lion.”