Forgiving Paris: A Novel(34)

Sirens sounded in the distance, and Eliza shuddered. Her father had people all over Belize. Some of his men were bound to be in pursuit.

Eliza entered the plane last. Inside were leather sofas and chairs, more like a living room than what she would’ve expected. She sat next to a window and looked out. She had never flown before. Not on a helicopter, not in an airplane. But the girls had told her that the men who came to see them sometimes talked about Placencia and Seine Bight and Maya Beach, here on this peninsula. Belize’s beautiful beaches. They told her about the great Belize Barrier Reef and the sixteen miles of sugar white sand that stretched north to south here.

“We’ll both go there one day,” Rosa had told her a month ago.

“Yes. That would be lovely.” Eliza had wanted to hug the girl. She had no idea. “One day.”

And it would’ve been lovely if she could’ve come here with Rosa. Or by herself… with the money her father had promised her. Often, when she was on the small beach in front of the Palace, she wondered what Seine Bight was like. How it would feel to walk for miles and miles in the silky white sand, to look out at the ocean without a gun trained on her back.

One of the youngest girls sat beside her, and ten minutes into the flight to Texas, she started to cry again. Not out loud. Just big tears making their way down her face. Her name was Maggie Mae, and she had soft dark curls and a freckled face. The girl was one of the ones Eliza had helped lure to the Palace.

“Maggie. It’s okay.” Eliza turned in her seat. “We’ll be safe tonight.”

“I… I was safe at the Palace.” The child’s tears came harder. “I want to go back.”

Eliza gritted her teeth. Of all the diabolical ways her father and his men had treated the girls, brainwashing was one of the worst. She could hear the things he said to the girls before their fourteenth birthdays. You’ll be safe as long as you’re here. No one will take care of you like I will. Don’t ever leave, little ones. The world outside our gates is very, very dangerous.

“Maggie.” Eliza looked into the child’s eyes. “Honey, you don’t want to go back.”

Behind her she heard the voice of one of the soldiers. “We need to get you to a hospital once we land.”

Eliza looked to the rear of the plane. Luke’s arm was propped up on a pillow now, his eyes closed.

“You’ll probably need some blood, Jack. The wrap’s slowing it, but you’re still bleeding.”

“Jack?” Eliza whispered. She blinked a few times. Jack! So he had lied to her about his name. Again. Her anger toward him built once more. Of course he hadn’t been completely honest with her. He was a man, and all men lied. They lied and they used girls.

Even Jack.

Eliza turned her attention back to Maggie. “Everything’s going to be okay, sweetie.” But how could she know that? Men weren’t the only ones who lied. How many lies had she told these girls? I want it to be true, she thought. Please let it be true Let everything be okay. She pulled the girl close. “No one will ever hurt you again, Maggie.”

“Eliza… do you really think so?” Maggie sniffed a few times and lifted her blue eyes. “No one’s going to hurt us?”

“No one.” Eliza nodded. Then she closed her eyes. They had to be okay. Because these children needed a real life once they landed in Texas.

And suddenly Eliza felt a new and strange idea rise within her. Not an idea but an emotion. It felt like anger, but it was more than that. A desire for revenge and justice. She was the reason most of these girls had been at the Palace. Now she was going to do something to make things right. She would work to help these sixteen girls find new lives and she would somehow find her own, too.

Never mind what Jack believed. Eliza wasn’t a child. She was old enough to make a difference, old enough to help these girls and others trapped in sex trafficking. Because there had to be others, and if she had been wily enough to help lure girls toward slavery, then she would be wise enough to draw them away.

The idea grew and took shape and as they landed in San Antonio, it became a fierce determination. She would become a police officer or… what was it Jack did? FBI work? Yes, that’s what she would do. She would go undercover and she would spend her life putting people like her father behind bars forever. Rescuing girls like Maggie Mae and Rosa.

Making up for the past with every waking hour.

As long as she lived.





CHAPTER TWELVE


“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

—Jeremiah 29:11



Jack spent two days in the hospital. A surgeon removed Anders’s bullet from his shoulder and put him on IV antibiotics for the infection that had started. The bullet had missed his major muscles and tendons, so he would have full use of his shoulder.

Which was the only way he could continue working as a special agent. Aiming a gun required the use of both arms.

Now he checked the wound in the bathroom mirror. The incision was smaller than he’d expected, just a red and pink indentation to show that he’d ever been back to Belize, ever encountered Anders McMillan.

Nothing compared to the price he’d paid last time he visited the country.

Today was his first day back at the office, and Jack could think of just one person. Eliza Lawrence. The vic tim recovery plan for the sixteen minor girls was going better than expected. Oliver had given Jack the update. After they spent a few nights in a safe home, social services had taken over. Four of the girls had already been reunited with their families. Mothers and fathers who had still been hoping their little girls would be found.