Even in the Darkness

Five days. Maybe she wasn’t too late. She settled back into the seat, caught the driver eyeing her in the rearview mirror and lowered her head so that her hair fell forward. How bad were the bruises? She didn’t dare try to get a look, could only imagine what the driver had seen. Would he talk to friends and family? Mention the bruised foreigner who had paid him double the fare to take her to the bus station? And if he did, how long would it be before the men who’d kidnapped her found her again?

Bone-deep cold, scared in a way she hadn’t been in years, Tori tugged her sweater tight around aching ribs and tried desperately to come up with a plan. Her mind raced with images of Melody, beaten and tortured, her eyes filled with fear and pain. Tori had to get to Mae Hong Son before the box was delivered, had to make sure that the men who’d abducted her didn’t get their hands on Melody.

She leaned her head back against the seat, trying to clear her mind, but it was too filled with terror and worry to focus. One minute she’d been packing, getting ready to return home. The next, she’d been chained to a wall, questions screamed into her face. Why?

She didn’t have an answer. All she knew was that her longed-for trip to Thailand had turned into a nightmare, and because of that, Melody and her parents were in danger.

Please, God, keep them safe. Help me get there in time.

The prayer echoed through Tori’s mind, a desperate plea. One she doubted would be answered. She’d lived life on her own terms for too long to expect help from God now. Tears clogged her throat and swam behind her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Like praying, crying did no good. Clear thinking, determination—those were the things that would get her out of the mess she was in.

Up ahead, buses lined the road. A swarm of people hovered on the sidewalk waiting to board. Soon Tori would be waiting with them, ready to travel back to Mae Hong Son and the box that shouldn’t have been a threat, but was.

“Bus terminal.” The driver pulled up in front of the entrance.

Tori handed him payment and pushed open the door.

Despite the warmth of the day, she felt cold, fear shivering along her spine. She wouldn’t let it stop her. With a deep, calming breath, she stepped out into the crowd.

“You have her?”

“Yeah.” Noah Stone spoke into the cell phone as he followed his quarry inside the bus terminal.

“Guess your informant gave you good information.”

“It pays to have contacts.” Even if they were slimy as eels and twice as nasty.

“You at the airport?”

“’Fraid not.”

“So she decided not to take the easy route home.” Jack McKenzie’s voice was calm, easy. As always.

“It’s what we were banking on.”

“You don’t sound too happy about it.”

“Using civilians doesn’t sit well with me.”

“Not a civilian. A courier, paid to pass information for the Wa.”

“We don’t know that for sure.”

“And we don’t know anything different. Her record might be clean, but there are plenty of others just like her who’ve gone bad.”

“Can’t argue with that.” And he wouldn’t try. Not when he’d known so many people who were clean on the surface and dirty deep down where it counted.

“One way or another, she’s got the box. Once we’ve secured it, we’ll give her a chance to tell her story.”

“You’re assuming we’ll be able to secure it.”

“With you here, it’s a safe assumption.”

“Guess that depends on whether Ms. Riley goes along with our plan.” He watched as Tori stepped to a wall of pay phones and made a call.

“She will. The information on the box is worth millions. She won’t leave the country without it.”

“She’s on the move. I’ll keep in touch.” He slipped the phone into his pocket and stepped into line at a ticket counter, his gaze tracking Tori as she stepped into a line half the building away. She stood with her head high, her shoulders straight. Only someone looking closely would notice the bluish welts on her face, or the way her hand shook as she paid for a ticket and shoved it into her pocket.

She might be in deep with Lao, perhaps deep enough to double-cross him and grab the box, but Noah doubted it. There’d been something in her eyes when he’d freed her—a softness that seemed too genuine to fake. That, and a quiet desperation that surpassed greed or fear for herself. She was terrified, but heading back into the fray. Why?

Her daughter. It was the obvious answer, one Noah couldn’t discount. If Tori was what she appeared to be—a small-town veterinarian who’d come to Thailand to visit the daughter she’d given up in an open adoption thirteen years before—then her first instinct would be to ensure the safety of the girl.

If she was what she seemed.

The DEA had good reason to suspect otherwise. Noah would reserve judgment. He’d follow Tori, find out what had sent her running from safety. Then he’d know more about her motivation and her guilt.

A white bus rattled to a stop in front of the terminal and Tori hurried outside. Noah followed, holding back as she purchased a straw hat from a vendor. Then he followed her onto the bus. One quick glance found Tori squeezed into a backseat between two Thai women. From her position she’d have a good view out the back window. Maybe she thought she’d catch a glimpse of any pursuers. If so, she had no idea the caliber of men who’d soon be scouring the countryside. Noah did. The ache in his left shoulder and back were a grim reminder of just how deadly men like Lao could be.

The bus lurched forward as Noah slid into a front seat. Several people still stood in the aisle, clinging to handholds and swaying with the motion. In other circumstances Noah would offer a seat to an elderly passenger as a sign of respect and honor. Not today. His black hair and tan skin might blend with the Thai passengers, but his height and large build gave him away as a foreigner. At this point, he couldn’t afford to call attention to himself.

He settled back into the seat, listening to chatter and laughter, catching phrases and words—English and Thai, as well as several other languages he wasn’t as familiar with. It didn’t take long to determine the bus’s destination. Mae Hong Son. A seven-hour drive. Longer if the bus made tourist stops. The knowledge should have eased some of Noah’s tension, but adrenaline pulsed through him, warning him that time was running out.

He glanced back, eyeing the cars and trucks that followed behind the bus. He’d been hoping for a few hours’ lead time. Had thought the men he’d left bound and gagged in the building where he’d found Tori would need longer than that to free themselves.

He’d been wrong.

He didn’t question the knowledge. It was part of who he was. Part of what made him a survivor in an industry where death lurked around every corner. The other part was faith—a deep understanding that all that happened was choreographed by God—who was much more powerful than any government, agency or enemy.

It was that, more than anything, that had drawn Noah out of an early retirement and back into a game he no longer wanted to play; it was a deep knowing that he had to take the assignment. That something vital depended on it. Something beyond securing the box and stopping the distribution of millions of dollars’ worth of heroin.

Maybe once Tori led him to their destination he’d get some answers. Noah wasn’t counting on it.

Chapter Two

“We share?” The young Thai woman who sat beside Tori held out a bottle of Coke, her face wreathed in a smile.

“No. Thank you.” Tori’s own smile felt more like a grimace, her voice gritty from fatigue and dehydration. Despite her parched throat and empty stomach, she hadn’t dared get off the bus at the last tourist stop. Not when a dark sedan and white pickup truck had been following the bus since its first stop earlier in the day.

“You come visit me in Mae Hong Son, yes?”

“If I can. I’ll only be there for a short time.”

“You come. We will be there soon. Ten minutes. Your family will meet you, yes?”

“No. I’m meeting a friend.” Tori shifted in her seat, turning away from the other woman, hoping, as she had been hoping for the past seven hours, to discourage conversation. So far she hadn’t been successful. Which meant eventually other people would know she’d been on this bus.

Sweat trickled down her temple, and she used the sleeve of her sweater to brush it away, ignoring the palsied trembling of her hand. Just a few more minutes and she’d be in Mae Hong Son. Then what? She glanced out the back window of the bus, saw the sedan a few cars back. The pickup was nowhere in sight, though Tori had a feeling it still followed. How much time did she have? Could she make it off the bus, make it to Chet’s jewelry shop before they caught her?