“Olivia, I—”
“It’s okay. I understand a lot of the stuff your company does is classified. And, to be honest, I don’t find it all that interesting anyway. But this… I had no idea. When Mischa told me a few of their stories, my heart physically hurt, Alex. These women had no one. They were scared to go home. They were scared to stay in the shelter. No matter where they went, they would always have to look over their shoulder to make sure no one was coming after them, always wondering if everything would come crashing back down again. Some of these women were pregnant, for crying out loud! And the person who should be keeping them safe, their husband or their father, was the one who wanted to harm them!”
Alexander’s expression remained fixed, absorbing her story.
“So I agreed to help them with the financial part of it.”
“All those girls who we believed were abducted from the shelter around the time of the explosion…” He looked at her, questioning.
“Landon and Mischa relocated them. There were too many to move all at once, of course. From what I was able to glean, it appears they moved one girl at a time, waiting several days between transports. I don’t know where they hid them, but Mischa was finally able to get all the girls out and resettle them here.”
“So you were just the money behind it? You weren’t involved in any other way?”
“I—” she began, then the door opened.
“I apologize, sir,” Martin said, stepping into the office and heading toward where they sat on the couch. “Agent Moretti is here and has requested to speak with Mrs. Burnham regarding what was said on the FaceTime call earlier.” He raised his eyebrows.
Olivia looked at Alexander. “What FaceTime call?”
He sighed. “When we were at the house, one of Maleek’s computers started ringing with a video call.” He took a deep breath, placing his hand on her leg. “It was Melanie.”
“What?” she cried, tears filling her eyes. “Was she…?”
“She’s okay. She’s alive. After seeing that room in the basement, I feared…” He swallowed hard. “But she’s okay, just really scared. Before I could get her to tell me where she was, the camera shifted and I spoke to whomever is behind all this. His face was obstructed and he spoke into a voice modulator, which leads me to believe I know him somehow.”
“What did he say?” She leaned closer, hanging on to every word.
“That I’d get Melanie back when I returned what he was after.” He narrowed his eyes at Olivia. He didn’t have to spell it out for her. She knew what this guy wanted.
Closing her eyes, she let out a slow breath. Her stomach churned at the thought of willingly handing over a dozen lives to a man she assumed wanted to return them to their families so they could carry out these barbaric traditions. She didn’t know if she could live with that knowledge on her conscience, knowing she could have done something to prevent it, but sent them to their graves instead. There was no guarantee this guy would keep his promise to return Melanie. How could she be certain he would be true to his word? He’d already killed. What was stopping him from doing it again after he got what he wanted? Olivia wasn’t an expert in these types of situations, but she was smart enough to know he was using Melanie as leverage. She had a purpose. But once he had what he wanted and she no longer served that purpose, Olivia didn’t want to think about what he would do to her. She was certain it didn’t involve returning her.
“He made it sound like you know where they are, but it appears he was wrong,” Alexander said, breaking through her thoughts.
She opened her eyes, remaining stoic, her back straight.
“Or was he?” He raised his brow. “Olivia, talk to me. Was it more than just giving them money?”
“No,” she exhaled, avoiding his eyes. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to meet his determined gaze. “Well, yes. At first, it was just money, but Mischa knew getting them here wasn’t enough. They needed to be a completely new person on paper.” She gave him a knowing look.
With wide eyes, he turned from Olivia and stared at Martin, who remained impassive, then met her gaze once more.
“I knew I couldn’t go to you with it, not when you had already turned Landon down, so I guess I went to the next best thing.” She shrugged and glanced at Martin, smiling slightly at their odd arrangement.
She didn’t know what had compelled her to trust Martin with everything. All she knew was something had to be done and he was the first person she thought of. He’d always been fiercely loyal to Alexander and her. He knew how to get things done discreetly. When she’d approached him with her plan, she had expected some hesitation on his part, but was instead met with enthusiasm. He was a man willing to do everything within his power to keep those women safe.
“Without Martin, these girls wouldn’t have been able to work, to better themselves. Some of them have started taking college courses. One of them is even in nursing school! And none of this would have been possible—”
“I know. I know,” Alexander interrupted, his face turning red.
“I apologize, sir,” Martin said in an even tone. “I shouldn’t have gone behind your back, but these were special circumstances.” He lowered his voice. “If one of these women were my daughter, I’d hope someone would stick their neck out for her.”
“When I asked you to look into whether any of these girls were smuggled out of the country?”
“I withheld the truth from you, sir. Again, I believed these to be extraordinary circumstances.”
“Where are they now?” Alexander sighed.
“In a temporary safe house.”
“Together?”
“Yes, sir. It’s not ideal, but when Mrs. Burnham raised her concerns regarding Mischa’s death, we thought it best to get all the girls into a safe house until we could figure out what was going on.”
“Where?”
Martin and Olivia shared a look. She had a feeling Alexander wasn’t going to like this. She didn’t like it much, either, but it was the best she could do on such short notice.
“Kiera and Mo’s guest house,” she replied sheepishly.
“Are you out of your mind?!” Alexander roared, standing from the couch and pacing the room. “They have kids! And another one on the way! Did you not think—”
“Of course I did,” she shot back. “We needed someplace safe and fast while we looked into other options. Kiera and Mo were more than willing to help.”
“We used every precaution to ensure we didn’t raise any suspicion,” Martin assured Alexander.
“They’re in the guest house. Their boys have no idea the girls are even there,” she added, although it didn’t ease his worry.
“Why didn’t you just use one of the company’s safe houses?” he asked. “That’s what they’re there for and are set up for this kind of thing!”
“The thought crossed my mind, but I didn’t want any of this coming back to the company,” Martin replied.
“It’s a little too late for that now, isn’t it?”