Unfinished Business (19 page)

Right now, she had a story to go after.

Alex woke upon hearing the phone. He immediately glanced over to the clock that sat on his nightstand. It was nearly noon. It had been close to six that morning before the three agents had left and he’d finally been able to go to bed to try to get some sleep.

He snatched up the phone on the third ring. “Yes?”

“This is Baker. You need to keep up with your fiancée. I just got word that she boarded a plane for Vanuatu.”

Any traces of sleep left Alex and he quickly sat up in bed. “What!”

“I said Christina Madaris has boarded a plane for Vanuatu.”

Alex was out of the bed in a flash. He placed the call on the speakerphone. “Is she traveling alone?”

“Yes.”

Damn. Double damn
. He found himself losing it at the thought of where Christy was headed. Vanuatu had come up last night in his discussion with the agents. It seemed that was the country where the kidnapped girls were being taken before being shipped to other parts of the world, and it was the last place Christy needed to go snooping around.

Alex pulled his luggage from the closet. The thought of anything happening to Christy was unbearable, and he felt his control starting to shatter as anger consumed him. Vanuatu was a place that wasn’t tourist-friendly. There had been documented reports of several serious attacks on foreigners when the victims had been alone. It was a place a woman should avoid traveling, and especially by herself. Hell, the United States didn’t have an embassy over there anymore, which meant all Americans traveling in that country were on their own.

“So what do you plan to do?” Baker inquired in an agitated voice.

Alex drew in a deep angry breath. “Go after her.”

“And I hope you find her before she causes problems. We just received word from one of our informants that the Kantar Cartel is having a major summit in Vanuatu in a few days. This is just what we’ve been waiting for and might be the break we need to close them down permanently. I can’t risk Ms. Madaris screwing up things with this investigation, Maxwell, especially now.”

Without giving Alex a chance to respond, Baker disconnected the call. Alex fumed as he continued to throw things into his luggage. He had to find Christy, and when he did, she would regret the day she had made him come this damn close to losing control.

 
After embarking off the plane, Christy glanced around the small airport and sighed. She was glad she had finally reached her destination. After leaving Cincinnati she had caught four connecting flights and hoped whatever information she got from this trip was well worth the entire day she’d lost in the air.

She couldn’t help but feel tired, but then at the same time another part of her was excited that she was following up on another lead in Bonita Patterson’s disappearance. The first thing Christy intended to do was go to the hotel and freshen up. Afterward, she would visit the docks and see what information she could find out there. She hoped she wouldn’t be in Vanuatu but a couple of days at the most and planned to make good use of her time.

By now Alex would know she had left town, but what he wouldn’t know was where she had gone. And she had made Shemell promise not to tell him anything on the off chance that he sought her out.

Christy turned and looked for the exit, since she didn’t have any baggage to claim. She’d figured that with four connecting flights the chance of her luggage getting lost would increase, so she had decided to carry everything on the plane with her. Taking a firm grip of her carry-on as well as her briefcase, she began walking toward the airport’s exit.

The airport was crowded with both arriving and departing passengers and wasn’t as empty as she’d assumed it would be. She hadn’t heard of Vanuatu until Mariah had mentioned it, and now she wished she’d made time to stay longer to visit its beaches.

The first thing she noticed walking out of the airport was that traffic was driving on the right. She intended to rent a car so she could have her own transportation around the island. She’d never been in a place where they drove on what she considered the wrong side of the road and knew it would be something she would have to get used to.

She glanced at her watch. It was almost six in the morning and there were a few cars on the road. The island was still asleep and there wasn’t much activity going on. Her travel agent had promised that a rental car would be waiting at the airport for her and that the hotel was a few miles away. Everything was in the main hub of the city and nothing was in any isolated areas, which her travel agent had cautioned her to avoid.

She saw a movement out of the corner of her eye and in a split second she turned to stare into the unshaven face of a huge man with dark, mean-looking eyes. When he reached out and grabbed her arm she immediately thought of screaming, but he quickly reached out and placed a large hand over her mouth.

She’d been taught by her brothers how to fight, and she put everything she knew into action, grateful for the freedom of her jeans. He gasped in pain when she kicked him in the midsection, and when her carry-on gave him a hard whack to the shoulder, making him stagger, he released his grip on her somewhat. However, it wasn’t enough for her to get away.

She frantically glanced around. People were passing by watching the commotion, but instead of anyone coming to her rescue it was as if they were deliberately trying to avoid getting involved. Where was a Good Samaritan when she needed one?

She tried getting away and figured a loud scream would scare him off if nothing else. But she never got the chance. The man, now angrier than ever, snatched her to him. She went for his face, determined to scratch his eyes out, when she felt it, a sharp sting to her thigh. It only took seconds for her to realize she’d been given a shot of something with a hypodermic needle.

She fought frantically, but the fight was useless. She felt her head begin to spin, and the legs holding her up suddenly felt weak. She glanced into the man’s face and saw the look of triumph, and the last word she remembered speaking was the name of the one person she would give anything to see right now: “Alex.”

Ennis, Texas

“Lorren? Justina said you wanted to see me.”

Lorren Madaris turned to meet her husband’s gaze. She caught her breath, thinking that she found Justin just as handsome today as she had when they first met nearly eight years ago. She would never forget the night she’d been at a party and had an eerie feeling of being watched, only to turn and find him doing exactly what he was doing now—casually leaning against a wall and watching her with the most beautiful pair of eyes she’d ever seen. And just like then, her pulse increased and her breathing was becoming erratic.

“Lorren?”

She blinked at him and remembered she had sent their daughter for him. “Hi,” she said in a breathless greeting. “Do you have a few minutes?”

As he was the only doctor in the rural area where they lived, she knew that he had been busy with patients all day. But a phone call she had received from her sister-in-law and best friend, Syneda, made this conversation necessary. Evidently the brothers had set a date next week to drop in unexpectedly on Christy. Lorren and Syneda agreed that Christy and Alex needed uninterrupted time together to work out their problems.

“I’ll give you all the minutes you want, sweetheart,” Justin said huskily, crossing the room to her, with long, purposeful strides. “What’s up?”

For a moment while looking into the chocolate chip coloring of his eyes, she almost forgot her plan. But feeling the deep emotion of her love for him, she was reminded that Christy and Alex deserved a chance to share that same kind of love, and they wouldn’t get it with the brothers’ interference.

“I was thinking that it’s been a while since the two of us have gotten away alone and was wondering if you’re interested,” she said, smiling up at him. “Your parents have offered to watch the kids and I thought next week would be a wonderful time to for us to go somewhere.”

He lifted his brow. “Where do you have in mind?”

Her smile widened seductively. “Any place would be nice as long as I’m with you, Justin.”

She could tell her words pleased him, and although she was setting him up, she meant every word she was saying. She wanted the two of them to spend time together, so she was effectively killing two birds with one stone.

“And you want to go somewhere next week?”

“Yes.” She knew that he would have to make a choice between going away with his brothers to unexpectedly drop in on Christy and going somewhere and engaging in all kinds of irresistible passion with her.

He pulled her into his arms. “Dex, Clayton, and I had planned on flying to Cincinnati to see Christy next week, but I’m sure they’ll understand if I bail out.”

Lorren reached out and placed her arms around his neck, gazing lovingly into the handsomeness of his chestnut-colored face. He still had an aura of masculinity that could turn her on like nobody’s business. “Yes, I’m sure they will,” she whispered moments before pulling his mouth down to hers for a deep, lingering kiss.

Taking heed of the blinking sign, Alex snapped his seat belt in place. The next time the plane landed, he would be in Vanuatu. He had been cooped up in airports all day and was exhausted and irritable. He would no longer waste his time being Mister Nice Guy. This was it for Christy. His insides felt shredded at the thought of the danger she had placed her life in. If anything were to happen to her, there was no way he could go on.

He covered his eyes with his hands when the intensity of his emotions hit him solidly in the face. For years he had believed that the pain of his father’s desertion had kept him from taking a chance on love, when in fact he had been in love.

With Christy Madaris.

Alex’s gut clenched, and his thoughts suddenly swirled back in time to all the memories they’d ever shared, and there had been many. Memories of her as a kid as he taught her to ride her first bike; memories of her as an eleven-year-old declaring he wasn’t just Alexander, but he was her
Alexander the Great
after studying about the fierce Macedonian king in one of her classes; memories of her as a teenager in high school when he’d tried not to notice the beautiful young woman she was becoming; and memories of her in college when he couldn’t help but notice the stunning beauty she had grown into.

But the memory that he held closer to his heart than any other was the night of that charity auction when they had kissed for the first time. Amidst all the hurt and anger that shrouded them that night, he had been left shaken by a wisp of a girl who had somehow thawed out a section of his heart, and it had been slowly melting ever since.

Removing his hand from his face, he drew in a long, deep shuddering breath. His desire for her was one thing, but the love he felt, what he could finally acknowledge and accept, was another. It was elemental, highly potent, and substantially significant.

Christy was more than just his woman. She was his life, his very reason for living, and no matter what it took, he was determined that she would love him just as much as he loved her.

He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes, determined to get things settled with her once and for all when he saw her.

 
Still feeling somewhat groggy, Christy opened her eyes and slowly glanced around the room at the same exact moment she heard the sound of the door opening and several footsteps entering the room.

She braced herself, not knowing what to expect if one of them was the huge, mean-looking man who had abducted her. Her stomach clenched as she tried not to be frightened. She had gotten herself into this mess, and no matter what she had to do, she would get herself out. After all, she was a Madaris, and nobody pushed a Madaris around.

She wondered if she should pretend to be asleep, then thought that was the coward’s way out. She wanted to look directly into the faces of the people responsible for snatching her off the streets of Vanuatu in broad daylight. She pulled herself up in the bed and met four pair of eyes.

Christy took a deep breath. Two of the men were Americans, and one she immediately recognized from the research she had done on the Internet before coming to Vanuatu. He was Pennsylvania Senator John Harris. The second American she didn’t know, and the third man appeared to be a Frenchman. The fourth . . .

She swallowed, suddenly hit with a whammy as she studied his features. He had to be the most handsome man she had ever seen—or at least, he came in second to Alex. He was tall, extremely good-looking with piercing dark eyes, skin the same color as hers, and straight black hair that flowed loosely around his shoulders. It was obvious he was someone from the Middle East, and dressed in his native garb, he looked the epitome of a dashing Arab prince.

“So, Miss Madaris, it seems you’ve been busy.”

Her attention was drawn back to Senator Harris. He was a heavy-set, balding man who she knew to be in his early sixties. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, meeting his gaze.

Senator Harris stared at her with heated anger in his eyes. “Don’t play games with me. I received a call that you’ve been asking questions, and we can’t have that. And then to think you had the nerve to travel all the way here by yourself. Just what did you expect to accomplish doing that?”

Neither the sound of her heart pounding like a jackhammer nor the way her stomach was tightening in fear stopped Christy’s anger from rising. “To expose you and your group for being the sick persons that you are,” she snapped.

She watched a slow smile spread on the senator’s face. “Too bad you won’t be accomplishing your goal. However, my friends and I appreciate your visit.” She then saw the glint of lust appear in his eyes when he added, “We’re going to make sure it’s rather useful.”

Christy backed up on the bed. “You can’t hold me here against my will. I am an American citizen.”

“One who unfortunately is in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know who you are, Miss Madaris. After I got a call from Hank Adams, I did a little checking, and I know all about your family. You are Jake Madaris’s niece, aren’t you? How charming. The bad news for you is that I never have liked your uncle because of his friendship with a fellow lawmaker of mine, a person who I detest by the name of Senator Nedwyn Lansing. Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried to destroy Lansing’s political career, but because he has friends in such high places, like Jake Madaris, I’ve been deterred each time.”

Senator Harris leaned back against the wall, laced his fingers together, and smiled triumphantly as he continued, “As far as I’m concerned, it’s time for me to get even since there’s no way you can return to your former life. This cartel has too much to lose if you were to disclose our activities. So now it seems that your fate has been sealed. At some point in time, my dear, you will be killed.”

Christy swallowed the lump in her throat. How could this man who was highly respected in her country speak so callously of ending her life? But then, she had to remember he was the one behind Mark Tyler’s death as well as the exploitation of young girls and boys, teenagers who were young enough to be his grandkids. She also couldn’t forget what Morganna Patterson had described as Bonita’s fate. That thought made Christy rub her neck. A beheading wasn’t the way she’d figured her life would end one day.

There was a silence in the room, and then another voice began speaking. It belonged to the second American, who appeared to be in his late forties.

“Hank Adams was right, John. She’s a beauty and I want her,” he said, actually licking his lips. The gesture made Christy’s stomach turn. His words also sent chills up her spine. Senator Harris’s laugh made it worse. “Let’s not be greedy, Congressman Blair. There’s enough of her to go around. I have no problem in sharing,” the senator said, amused.

“I have a problem with it.”

All eyes, including Christy’s, shifted to the Middle-Easterner. He met the other men’s gazes. The look he gave them was dark and penetrating. “I don’t share.”

Congressman Blair didn’t seem at all happy with the man’s statement and said, “Now, look here, Sheik Valdemon, you can’t make any demands here. We share and share alike.”

The sheik’s eyes suddenly became darker. “No, I want her.”

The congressman’s face set into a hard, deep frown. “I said I wanted her first.”

Senator Harris felt the need to step in. “Gentlemen, let’s not lose our friendship over this woman. Remember, we’re gathered together in this place for a more important reason, which is to discuss the cartel’s expansion. Let’s not let our lust come between us.”

The sheik’s eyes darkened, and anger lined his brow. “Do you deny me the chance to negotiate for her?”

At the mention of what he knew to be money, Senator Harris’s smile widened. “And just what are you offering, Your Highness?”

The sheik turned and gazed at her, and Christy felt her fear shudder all the way through her bones. She saw ruthlessness in his gaze, and she shrank back even more in the bed under the scrutiny of his direct, unwavering stare. He then turned his attention back to the other men, including the Frenchman who hadn’t uttered a single word through the entire thing.

“A million dollars.”

Christy sagged back against the wall next to the bed for support. This man was willing to pay a million dollars for a night with her before she lost her head, literally?

Senator Harris seemed rather shocked, yet pleased as he stuttered, “A-a million d-dollars? Umm, I think that amount will be sufficient to satisfy the three of us since another ship filled with young tasty delights will be arriving at port tonight.” The senator’s expression then turned serious. “Just remember after your night with her, she goes to the gallows.”

“No,” the sheik said vehemently. “For a million dollars, she becomes my possession to do what I please with for whatever length of time I want. You have no say in the matter.”

Senator Harris stared hard at the sheik. “That’s impossible. We can’t risk her escaping and—”

“She won’t,” Sheik Valdemon cut in. “Once she becomes part of my harem, there is no escape. Nothing changes in the plans you had for her except that her life will be spared. She will never return to her country, and if anyone ever tries to find her, she will be tucked way too deep to ever be found.”

Oh, God
, Christy thought, as she heard the sheik’s words. He meant every word he said.

Senator Harris thought so as well. He laughed and looked over at her. “I can imagine how your family will suffer not knowing if you are alive or dead. Tsk, tsk, what a shame.” He then met the sheik’s gaze. “All right, Sheik Valdemon, she’s all yours.”

He then turned to the other gentlemen and chuckled. “Come on, let’s leave them alone to get better acquainted.”

Before the men walked out the door, Sheik Valdemon said, “I’m taking her away from here, to my own villa.”

Before opening the door, Senator Harris said over his shoulder, “Suit yourself and enjoy her.”

Sheik Rasheed Valdemon gazed across the room at the beautiful young woman whom he had just purchased for a million dollars. “I am Sheik Rasheed Valdemon, and I suggest we leave here as soon as possible. My manservant will be coming for you soon.”

Before Christy could open her mouth to utter a single word, the man turned and walked out of the room.

A couple of hours later back at his villa, Sheik Rasheed Valdemon turned to his top adviser and trusted friend, Terek Ahmadi, who was standing across the room looking at him. “How is she, Your Highness?” Terek asked.

Rasheed’s lips lifted into a smile. “Christy Madaris seems to be in better shape than Ishaq,” he said, thinking of the scratches on the face of his trusted servant. “She assumed he meant to harm her and she put up a good fight.”

Rasheed walked over to the window and looked out. His good friend Jake Madaris would certainly owe him for this. What on earth could the woman have been thinking to come to Vanuatu alone, and of all things to take on the Kantar Cartel?

The organization’s ruthlessness knew no bounds, and Rasheed had gladly accepted the United States’ top law enforcement agency’s offer to be a part of the sting operation that would finally put an end to the cartel.

Because of his wealth and strong influence, he had easily been accepted as a member of the cartel, and he passed on whatever information he could to tighten the net around the men who thought they were above the law and who further thought it was their God-given right to establish a business that exploited young women for their pleasure.

“Is the Madaris woman beautiful, Your Highness?”

Rasheed sighed deeply. He turned and said, “Yes, she is definitely beautiful, but her timing is lousy. Her unexpected appearance could destroy two years of carefully laid-out plans to bring the members of the Kantar Cartel to justice.”

“Are you going to tell her that she’s safe here with you and has nothing to fear?”

“Not at the moment. The less she knows, the better.” Back in Mowaiti, he had a harem full of women—and all of them were there of their own free will, since he didn’t believe in forced enslavement. At the age of thirty-seven, he was very experienced when it came to women.

He sighed deeply and glanced back out of the window. Since Vanuatu was the stronghold of the cartel’s operation, he and several other businessmen, all connected in some way to the Kantar Cartel, had purchased luxurious private villas along the beach. Because of the entourage that usually traveled with him, Rasheed’s villa was large and isolated, which was a good thing. If he had to hold a woman hostage for a while, it was best that his neighbors knew nothing about what was happening under his roof.

He had arrived on the island a few days ago to take part in an important meeting of the cartel. He looked forward to gathering whatever information he could pass on. He knew the price he would pay if the cartel ever found out he was a traitor. But then, placing his life at risk was a small way he could repay the American government for allowing the joint venture between the government of Mowaiti and a private corporation, Remington Oil.

It had been the first type of agreement ever made between an American-owned oil company and a foreign nation. And it had been a union that had been successful when an oil basin had been found in Mowaiti two years ago, saving his people from living impoverished lives. And for that reason he felt a special kinship to his Texan friends who had helped to make such a union possible; especially Corinthians Avery Grant, the geologist whose tireless efforts had resulted in not only the basin but the location of several oil reserves in his country as well.

And because of his association with Corinthians and her husband, Trevor, Rasheed had become well acquainted with the members of the Madaris family and their close friends. In fact, he and Jake Madaris stayed in constant contact, and Jake and his beautiful wife, Diamond, had visited Mowaiti on several occasions. Likewise, Rasheed had been a guest at Whispering Pines, Jake’s sprawling ranch in Texas, a few times.

“I’m surprised Senator Harris doesn’t recall your association with the Texas oil company,” Terek was saying.

Rasheed couldn’t help but smile. “He’s too busy trying to decide how he’s going to spend his share of my million dollars.”

“Do you remember her? Christy Madaris?”

Rasheed shook his head. Christy Madaris was not a woman a man could easily forget meeting. “No, but then, I do remember the Madaris brothers mentioning they had a sister who was away at college. Given the young woman’s age, it must have been her.”

Terek sighed deeply. “I’m surprised they would let her travel alone, especially to a country like Vanuatu.”

Rasheed understood what Terek meant. Vanuatu was one of those countries still stuck in a time warp where men ruled and women were meant to be ruled. It wasn’t safe for a female to travel alone. That was the reason no one had stopped to help when she had been abducted in broad daylight. In this country, women literally had no rights and any unmarried woman who was not in the care, custody, and control of a husband was fair game.

“Knowing what I do about those brothers, it’s my guess that they don’t know about it,” Rasheed said. After finding out the woman was Jake’s niece, Rasheed had been committed to do whatever was within his power to assure her safety. Once he was sure it was safe to do so, he would notify his contacts at the FBI to let them know what had happened and that Christy Madaris was safe and now in his possession.

“When will it all end, Rasheed? The exploitation of innocent young women’s lives?”

Rasheed turned and met the gaze of his childhood friend. “Very soon, Terek. It’s only a matter of time before they are brought to justice.”