The Rescue(42)

“Then why are we headed toward LAX on one of the busiest roads in the city? I assume they know that you should know the airport isn’t a viable option.”

“I want them to second-guess themselves,” said Harlow. “Maybe think I’ve come up with a workaround.”

“Listen. What’s the plan?” said Decker. “Whatever you’ve cooked up has to be one hundred percent. We only get one shot at this.”

The light ahead of them turned green, and southbound traffic starting moving again—slowly picking up speed. Just as they passed under the yellow light at the Superba Avenue intersection, a cascade of brake lights started to appear in the distance. The next traffic light, several hundred feet away, had turned red. She eased the car forward until traffic came to a complete halt.

“Dumping me on the street isn’t going to work,” Decker said without even looking at her.

“Do you trust me?”

“I just don’t see how you’re going to pull off a vanishing act.”

“Do you trust me?”

Decker nodded. “Yes. I trust you.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about.”

“You’re really not going to let me in on your plan?”

She shook her head, smirking. “There’s really not much to it. Don’t worry. I’ll say goodbye before you go.”

“Wait. You’re not coming?”

“Like you said, it’s going to take a miracle to escape them,” said Harlow. “And I can only miracle one of us out of here right now.”

“I don’t want this to come down on you,” said Decker. “You’ve done enough for me already.”

“I’ll be fine. Once they figure out you’re gone, they’ll haul me in for a talk and that’ll be it. If Reeves had anything tangible on either of us, we wouldn’t be having this chat,” she said. “Plus, I have a full network of support available to me here. I can research and feed you information from a distance. It’ll make it that much harder for anyone to track you.”

“Can I assume it goes without saying that you need to pull a disappearing act as soon as possible? The same people will be looking for you.”

“Already working on that,” she said. “I’m shuffling everyone around. New SCIF locations. New everything. Nothing connected to anything I’ve done before.”

“First sign of trouble and you bail out of this. Understand?” he said. “I’m serious. Hide out and let this all blow over.”

She pursed her lips and stared into the traffic snaking south on Lincoln Boulevard. “I’m not that kid you rescued from the streets anymore,” she muttered.

Decker cocked his head to the side and squinted at her.

“I gathered that much over the past few days. You can take care of yourself,” he said. “But I really need you to listen and take my words seriously. I’d give the same advice to anyone under these circumstances. Gunther Ross isn’t someone you cross lightly, especially with the full weight of Aegis Global behind him. And you know the Russians will be tearing the city apart trying to figure out what happened. Not to mention the little FBI problem we have. Sorry if I came across as patronizing. I just don’t want to add another ruined life to my scorecard.”

She shook her head slowly. It was impossible to fully wrap her head around the full scope of the nightmare he’d endured, and she had no intention of trying. Harlow wanted to help him find his way again. To rekindle the vision and purpose that had driven him to save all the lives he’d saved.

His scorecard could never be muddied as far as she was concerned. She’d read the court transcripts and scoured the articles. Ryan Decker had been crucified for delaying Meghan Steele’s rescue in order to save fifteen kids from short, brutal lives in the sex-slave industry, or possibly worse. Some kids were sold right away for body parts, a fate worse than death. Tragically, the raid ended unforeseeably in the deaths of not only the kids but also the eleven members of his hostage-rescue team.

He went from savior to destroyer in a single high-explosive blast. While sizzling fragments of wood and body parts rained down on the burning wreckage of the house, an even more insidious nightmare was in progress around the country. The systematic rape and butchering of World Recovery Group’s primary stakeholders’ families. A brutal and unforgiving message sent by the Solntsevskaya Bratva to any organization or group standing in their way.

“You’re not looking at the entire scorecard,” she said.

“I’m looking at the part that matters the most to me.” She started to reply, but he cut her off. “We can talk about this later. You asked if I had any last-minute requests?”

The traffic light several hundred feet away, at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Lincoln, turned green. She knew from experience that this light was short, due to the volume of traffic on Venice Boulevard, a bustling three-lane road. This would be as good a chance as any they’d get tonight.

“Hurry up,” she said.

“My daughter. Riley? I have no idea where to find her, but we need to warn her somehow. Get her into hiding until I get to the bottom of this. All I know is that she’s with—”

“Your sister-in-law. I know where to find her. I’ll take care of it,” said Harlow. “Same with your parents. You don’t have to worry about any of them.”