Lori Foster - When You Dare

M IDNIGHT CAME AND went with only the quiet buzz of meager traffic along the beach. An occasional horn blew or tires squealed. Two people exited a bar nearby, laughing too loud before piling into an SUV and steering drunkenly onto the road.

In the shadows of a weed-ridden parking lot at the back of the rundown motel, no one noticed them. Avoiding the glow of the full yellow moon, they stood behind the south wall beneath a broken security lamp.

A lamp Dare Macintosh had broken.

Ocean breezes stirred the air and heightened his senses. While scanning the area and repeatedly peering at the black van hed rented when first arriving in San Diego, Dare waited. His friend, Trace Rivers, embraced his younger sister with choking emotion.

It had been a long two days filled with frantic preparation, little sleep, less food and loads of pumping adrenaline: the conditions in which Dare operated best.

With the job done, and then some, he desperately wanted something to eat and a place to sleep. Even more than that, he wanted to check on the skinny, abused woman still out cold in the backseat of the van.

Tell me, Trace said, not to Alani, whom he kept crushed close, but to Dare.

After again glancing at the van, Dare nodded. Hed found Alani and returned her to Trace as hed sworn to, but neither man knew yet what she had suffered.

She was in Tijuana, as you said. Locked in a trailer with some other women in an isolated area.

Heavily guarded?

Yes.

Trace drew a strained breath, and uttered what they both had known: Human traffickers.

Dare nodded. Not much in the way of food or drinks. Dirty, airless with the windows screwed shut. They had the women He hesitated, knowing how Trace would take it, but he needed to know. They were leashed, chained to grommets in the floor, with just enough chain to reach a toilet. No sink.

Fuckers. Overcome with rage, Trace knotted his hand in his sisters hair and squeezed her tighter, protectively.

She didnt complain.

Trace never used coarse language in front of his sister, which meant he was on the ragged edge, barely aware of what he said or did. Dare looked away from them, understanding the lack of control.

He focused on the rented van. I had to go through several lookouts and a few armed guards to get her out of there.

Quietly. Trace made it a statement, not a question.

There wasnt much fuss. Dare always worked in efficient silence; an alarm would have brought more armed guards, possibly too many for him to combat. As much as he wanted to kill them all, he hadnt.

Only those most responsible.

By the time the empty trailer was discovered, Dare was already heading over the border into San Diegowhere Trace waited. Over the years hed built up alliances everywhere, and sometimes worked with the coyotes who made a living taking people back and forth over the border.

Thanks to those contacts, even with the extra cargo slumped in his backseat, no one had stopped him as he went through the border checkpoint. The van had been given only a cursory inspection, his weapons ignored, and the excuse of the women being tirednever mind that one was beaten and haggard, only half-dressedhad satisfied all questions.

Both men were damn good at what they did. But Trace couldnt go after his sister himself as hed wanted, because the men holding her knew what he looked like. Before hed have even gotten close to Tijuana, Trace would have been spotted by lookouts.

So Dare had goneand come back with more than hed bargained for.

Making a small sound, Alani tucked her face in closer to her brothers shoulder. The siblings shared blond hair and light brown eyes, but thats where the physical similarities ended. Trace was thirty, of an age with Dare, eight years older than his sister. He stood six foot three and weighed over two hundred poundsall of it muscle.

Next to him, Alani looked tiny and fragile and, presently, wounded. Even since Dare had removed her from the trailer, fresh bruises continued to show on her arms and around her narrow wrists. Because the bastards had planned to sell her, they hadnt harmed her face.

Innocence was a huge commodity, and at twenty-two, having led a sheltered life, Alani gave off a definite vibe of innocence. Blond-haired, blue-eyed women brought the most profit, but he had a feeling that Alanis golden-brown eyes, in contrast to her very fair hair, would have fascinated the sick pricks.

Dare prayed they hadnt raped her, knowing a woman ill-used would bring less, but he left that uncomfortable discussion for Trace.

Hearing a noise like a soft moan, Dare zeroed in on the van with his senses on alert. Hed left the rear door open so hed hear her if she moved, if she awoke. But she did no more than readjust.

Three hours had passed since hed carried her out of that trailer. Worry gnawed at him.

Why didnt she awaken?

Dare? His eyes filled with pain, rage and relief, Trace whispered, Thank you.

Alani gave an audible swallow, and then she, too, said, Yes, thank you. So much.

Putting a hand on her shoulder, Dare replied without words. Hed known Alani for years, watched her grow up, and felt like a pseudo big brother in many ways. Hed attended her graduation, both from high school and college. Hed been there with Alani and Trace when they buried their parents.

They had become part of his hodgepodge family.

Two days ago human traffickers had snatched Alani outside her hotel while she vacationed near the beach. Tomorrow she would have been sold, and finding her after that might have become impossible.

Right now, what the siblings needed was time alone, and Dare needed to sort things out with his remaining passenger. I should get going.

Trace followed Dares attention toward the van, saw the slim, dirty foot that appeared out of the open rear-passenger door, and lifted one eyebrow in an expression of disbelief. You have a passenger?

A small complication, thats all.

Youre serious?

Dare shrugged. There were six women in that small trailer, Trace. Four of them were local and scattered as soon as I got them free. He nodded his head toward the van. That one was drugged, near starved, grimy. And in many ways, even in the cramped confines of the rusty trailer, shed been separated from the others, kept alone.

For certain, she wasnt the typical woman kidnapped for the growing sex trade.

Trace grew curious in that quiet way of his. An Americancomplication?

I think so. From what hed seen of her grubby face, she didnt look foreign. She hasnt come to yet, so I havent been able to talk to her.

Alani turned in her brothers arms, and she, too, looked toward the van. She fought them whenever she came to. She called them names and almostegged them on. Alani shivered in remembered fear. It was so horrible. The men slapped her around for being mouthy, but she didnt stop. She just cursed them more.

Dare frowned. The little idiot might have been killed. Foolhardy.

I think she was reallyangry. As if she couldnt fathom such boldness, Alani took a breath. Even when they held her down to force more drugs on her, she didnt cry. Sheraged.

Did she speak English?

Nodding, Alani said, She sounded American to me. I mean, no accent or anything.

Considering all that, Dare said aloud, She wasnt there for the same purpose as the rest of you.

Probably not. Sometimes four or five of them would come in the trailer, but theyd stand around her and I couldnt see what they did. As far as I could tell, they never really leered at her like She bit her lip, shivered again. Like they did the rest of us. They never seemed to be sizing her up for anything. They just picked on her.