Freedom Earned Page 16

  Figuring it was best to get it over with, I blurted out, “She raped me.”

  “How?”

  “I mean, without too many details, she was playing around, but totally tied me up and just did it. It’s stupid, I know—I’m a man, a Marine and—”

  “It’s not stupid.” She scooted closer to me, hand on my leg. “And I’m sorry that happened to you.”

  With a gulp, I looked into her eyes, expecting to see playfulness or laughter, but instead, all I saw staring back at me was affection. She was there for me, not making me feel insecure for having shared at all. I put my hand on hers, and we continued on.

  “Favorite food?” I asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “I thought I made that clear. Chocolate-covered pretzels.”

  “Good point.”

  By the time we were moving in on Ko Wua Talap, the conversation had moved on to her recounting her time spent swimming in dirty rivers at her cousins’ house.

  “My uncle… he told us over and over again not to swim there, but we didn’t listen.” She laughed, shaking her head. “We never did listen. Until one day, there was a damn finger floating by that nearly touched me. I screamed and jumped out of there as fast as I could.”

  “A finger?”

  “There was a mill upstream. And yeah, apparently there’d been an accident. At least, that’s what they told us.”

  “Damn. True or not, that’s nasty.”

  “My uncle,” she continued, “he was the type that years later made me wonder. Might have been involved with some shady business around that mill. Bad enough to later make me question that finger. I mean, I don’t know if it was like that, but…”

  “That bad?”

  She shrugged. “Who knows? He was the type of uncle who introduced me to the Terminator movies when I was like seven or so. But he had my back, too. He found me asleep on his couch once when my parents were fighting—he lived next door—and it turned out that I’d had my first period. White couch… He took care of it, no questions asked and it never came up again.”

  “Yowsers.” I chuckled. “I suppose that’s what any good uncle would do, though.”

  “Your uncle?”

  I frowned, shaking my head. “Not many memories from back then. For me, it’s basically like my whole life is post boot camp.”

  “I can’t imagine what it would be like to live on base.”

  “It has its ups and downs, but I wanted to be in Okinawa to experience it, you know? And I go out all the time with my Okinawan friends, sometimes staying out too late for sushi and beers. I’ll stagger back to base, sometimes at sunrise… the guards don’t like it.”

  “Jealous, I guess.” She winked. “Having to be at the gate all night while you’re having fun. And then you’d work the next day?”

  “Way too often,” I replied. “That’s the way it is. And I look forward to seeing my local friends, as painful as going to work the next day always is.”

  “Watch out for your health.”

  I laughed, gesturing at the islands behind us. “A fair warning, considering…”

  Eyeing the island ahead, though, she repeated the phrase, “Watch out for your health,” and added, “and mine.” Then she dropped my hand, going for the rifle instead while I steered, and we closed in on the main island.

  24

  Pulling up to the beaches of Ko Wua Talap, I was struck by the lights ahead. In the last two days I had grown so accustomed to islands completely taken over by nature, the idea that people lived here threw me off. A couple of speedboats were floating together off the shore, one moving in the distance.

  What really caught my attention, though, was the yacht at a pier. It could have been any other yacht, but I had a gut-clenching sense that it was the one we were trying to avoid.

  “They’re here,” I muttered.

  Prenie had her eyes on the yacht too, jaw clenched in determination.

  “Whoa,” I said, noting that her finger had gone to the trigger.

  “Don’t worry,” she replied, pulling her finger from the trigger. “I’m not going to go all Rambo on you.”

  “Good. Remember—we’re the good guys. We need to find out what’s going on, first. See who’s on which side and all that.”

  “Agreed.” She eyed me, then pointed to our right. “Over that way there was a small beach I walked along yesterday morning. It seemed secluded enough. Think we could secure the dinghy there and sneak in to see what’s going on?”

  Taking her guidance, I steered the dinghy over there without, I hoped, attracting any unwanted attention. Using rope to secure it to a tree, I covered the gear we’d brought with us for now. We made it up to the beach and passed a man sitting on a makeshift swing while his wife, presumably, stood nearby and stared out at the water. Locals, by my guess, and quite possibly keeping a lookout.

  We kept our rifles close to our bodies, hoping people wouldn’t notice them as long as they didn’t show in our silhouettes. Out here, street lights weren’t exactly a thing. That was a help as well as a hindrance since I nearly tripped more than once along the way. Prenie led me to an area that opened up to the bungalows and tents. Two of the bungalows had lights on, but what most drew my attention were the three trucks and various people milling about with rifles. One of them was shouting at a local, while two people who looked like they might be Caucasian lay on the ground, hands behind their heads.

  “Is this all about me?” I said.

  “Don’t you dare.”

  “What?”

  Prenie turned to me, her expression barely readable in the darkness of our hiding spot. “Don’t for one second think that turning yourself in will help anyone, here. You saw the papers. You know they have plans for you. My guess is those plans would end up hurting a lot of people, so you’re sticking to our plan, not theirs. Got it?”

  Hot damn, I liked it when she took control. I nodded, conflict raging inside me. If not for my guilt over this and what had happened to Alex, I might have kissed her right there. As it was, she suddenly yanked me over and met my lips with hers. It was a brief, passionate kiss with a hint of tongue, then it was over.

  “There,” she said.

  I blinked, confused. “There?”

  “Now you can’t run off on me, because you’d be an asshole if you did. And you can’t die, because you owe me those beers and want to find out what happens next. After the kiss.”

  Not a statement I could argue with. She had me there.

  “Well, then.” I eyed the way forward, very much aware of the slightly damp area around my bottom lip from her kiss. “Blow up their ship?”

  “Excuse me?”

  I was about to repeat myself when I noticed someone being pushed from one of the trucks. She appeared to be another Thai woman, maybe a villager, I thought. Except that then the moon caught her features and an intense familiarity struck me. She took two steps, then looked almost right at us. At the realization, I muttered her name, “Kosum.”

  How could she do this to me? My mind raced back to the meeting with her, dancing, wondering if she had meant to betray me all along. It didn’t compute, though. So much of what she had done simply didn’t connect with the idea of her being one of them.

  As I watched, the pieces started to fall into place. For one, a man in robes kicked her to the ground. Judging by the way she fell, I could tell her hands were tied behind her back. She was no traitor—she was a captive.

  “Ko-what?”

  “Kosum,” I repeated, then pointed. “That woman there—I know her.”

  “Oh?”

  “She was at the club on Koh Samui, when they attacked. I don’t…” I scratched my chin, mind racing. “I don’t get why they’d have her here.”

  “Unless they thought you were together. Using her to get to you.”

  That had to be it.

  “Oh, damn,” Prenie said. “We’re going after her, aren’t we?”

  “We are.”

  “So that kiss we shared, that w
as…”

  I turned to her, cocking my head. “That’s what you’re worried about at a time like this?”

  “No. Not at all. Curious, maybe, but not worried.”

  “Don’t be either.” I leaned forward and kissed her. More passion, more tongue this time. When I pulled away, she was grinning.

  “Let’s get some answers, then.”

  Together, we moved through the trees, careful to stay back where the light wouldn’t reach. Although I kept checking on Prenie, there really was no need. She wasn’t a Marine, but she had good instincts. Then again, she still hadn’t told me what she did back home, so for all I knew, she could be better trained than me.

  As more shouting sounded from the main group, I was able to make out the woman who’d been in the house where I’d been held captive. She had two tall guys with her and a gaggle of Thai men and one or two women following, all armed. The other group only had a couple of weapons with them, from what I could see. We crouched at the back of the bungalows, trying to hear what they were saying—but none of it was in English.

  “Don’t suppose you understand?” I whispered.

  Prenie shook her head. “Only Spanish, and this ain’t that.”

  Nodding, we continued on, but froze at Kosum’s shout. One of the guys had her up, another going with him into one of the bungalows. I frowned, shared a worried look with Prenie, and started moving again, fast this time. Whatever they had planned for her, it wasn’t about to stop if we simply stood around doing nothing.

  As we reached the point where we would have no choice but to run out into the open to reach her, I stopped and turned to Prenie. “This could go any number of ways.”

  “If they’re going to hurt that lady, I’m sure as hell not sitting back and letting it happen.”

  I frowned, although I appreciated the energy. “You might get hurt. Stay here, I’ll—”

  “Not a chance.” She held the rifle ready.

  “Fine, fine…” I glanced back and drew a breath. “No shooting unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “Understood.”

  We moved forward as one, cautious at first. That is, until the first scream tore through the night—and without a doubt, it came from that bungalow where they had taken Kosum. I sprinted then, Prenie too, and we reached the rear of the building, rifles at the ready.

  She grabbed my arm and I almost threw her off, my adrenaline was pumping so hard. Pointing at a window, she nodded, then moved toward it. Smart thinking—check out the situation first. No lights were behind us, so we shouldn’t risk casting a shadow or letting our silhouettes be seen, I hoped.

  Moving slowly, I crept up and peered around the corner. Nothing there, but I found a window and peeked in. It was dark, but the lights were on in the other side and the door open, so that meant we could see their silhouettes. The two men had Kosum in a chair. Nothing as sinister as the things my mind had conjured up, but as one grumbled a question at her and she refused to answer, the other hit her with a solid punch across the face. All of this was for me, and by God, I wasn’t about to stand for it.

  There were all those people with guns, though, which sent my mind spinning in confusion over what the best move would be.

  “Wanna see what this does?” Prenie hissed at my side. She was holding out a small, cylindrical device that had a ring like a grenade.

  I gulped. “Where…” There was no need to finish the question. She had snagged it from the stash, and for that I could kiss her again. Instead, I simply nodded in acceptance. With a short breath of a prayer, I pulled the pin and lobbed it at the other group.

  As luck would have it, and to my great surprise and relief, it hit a tree and bounced back at the tail end of the group. I’d simply been aiming for the other side. They turned, assuming that the missile had come from that direction. As it went off, puffing out plumes of smoke that sent a couple of them to their knees as they choked, others moved past. They shouted, charging into the far tree line, and we made our move. By the time we were at the door to the bungalow, only one man was left, staring after the rest. I caught him with a good butt-end of the rifle to the back of his head, then pulled him into the bungalow as Prenie followed with her rifle ready.

  “Don’t fucking move,” I mumbled, and the guy who was holding Kosum for another punch looked at us in confusion. He lunged, but Prenie plowed into him and slammed him into the wall. As he opened his mouth to sound the alarm, she thrust her rifle inside—teeth crunched, screeching on the metal and plastic while I turned to close the door, checking the area first to ensure nobody had heard. We were clear.

  Meanwhile, Prenie had kneed the guy in the nuts, then slammed the rifle again so that the poor guy was in bad shape. But, she didn’t see the blade in his hand coming up at her. I tried to intervene, but no way was I going to make it in time. It was a good thing that Kosum was conscious and had it out for this guy. As she threw her chair backward and brought up a leg to kick his arm back, the knife flew and landed at her side.

  I knelt as I spun back into the room, retrieved it, and cringed as I jammed the blade into the man’s throat—right in the pit of it. We shoved him back and to the side before retrieving the knife. With disgust, I wiped it on his side, tried to ignore the blood coming out of his neck, and turned to cut Kosum free.

  “How?” Kosum asked in a hiss, eyes darting from me to Prenie.

  “Too much to explain,” I whispered as I cut her bonds. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”

  “You didn’t,” she replied matter-of-factly. Pulling up her now-free hands and massaging her wrists, she faced us. “I’ve been involved for a while, now. See, I’m Agent Kosum Apichart, with what’s basically the Thai government’s FBI. These groups have been giving us trouble, but we got intel that they were planning something. Then someone forwarded your passport photo, which those guys out there had scanned when putting everything in place.”

  “Wait…” I held up my free hand, meaning to ask more, but my head was spinning. Instead, I stared at her, shaking my head. An agent with the Thai government all this time? Meaning, she had placed herself in that club. Been there to meet me, and… that dancing? Oh, shit, she had seen my dick in an extremely awkward way, when the other lady had pulled it out. For some reason, her being a government agent made that way worse. I felt like such a jackass.

  “And you are?” Kosum asked.

  “Sorry, this is—”

  “Agent Six,” Prenie said, grinning. “Double-O Six.”

  I frowned. “No, you’re not.”

  Prenie shrugged. “Nope. Just Prenie, here for the booze.”

  Kosum eyed her with confusion, then me. “Your friend?”

  I nodded. “Seeing where things take us.”

  Prenie chuckled at that and Kosum nodded, heading back in the direction we’d come with a quick wave of her hand.

  “We need to figure out exactly what they’re up to, but first, let’s get out of here.”

  “Already one step ahead of you,” Prenie said, following her out.

  Behind the bungalow, we all moved to the edge and checked that we were clear, then took off in crouched runs for the trees. Once we were clear, Kosum turned back to us.

  “What do you mean, one step?” she asked.

  “She means, we know what they’re doing,” I explained. “Prenie?”

  Prenie opened her fanny pack and indicated the papers she had brought from the yacht, although it was too dark to see them properly. “These show when the attack was supposed to come, and how. They meant for our boy Tyler here to do it, but… clearly, that’s not going to happen.”

  “They’ll find someone else, I’m sure,” Kosum said, frowning at the papers. “You have a way out of here?”

  “A dinghy, not far off,” I said.

  “And where’d you get the papers?”

  “From a yacht back there a way, but… it’s beached.”

  Prenie added, “It’s where we got the papers and the explosives. But yeah, it hit
the sand.”

  “Explosives?” Kosum was starting to look hopeful.

  “Explosives, weapons, and dive suits,” I answered. “We stashed a lot of it, but… yeah.”

  “When you say it’s beached… was that during the day or night?” Kosum’s eyes darted between us, narrowing with a plan.

  “Day,” I said, then blinked. “Oh!”

  “Oh, exactly. If it was during the day, the tide might have come in and given it enough water to float. Not sure it would be in the same spot if it wasn’t anchored, but we can go and intercept their plan, and hopefully… how do you say it? Throw a wrench at it?”

  “A wrench in it, but yeah.” I turned to Prenie, who was smiling wider now. Apparently, she was on board.

  “You sure you don’t want to back out now?” I asked. “Just double-checking.”

  “I’m one hundred percent positive.”

  “Good,” Kosum interjected. “It’s settled—because we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

  25

  “How do you pronounce it?” Kosum asked as we darted back toward the dinghy. “Your name?”

  “Just call me Pren,” Prenie said.

  Kosum nodded. “Pren. And… how did you get involved?”

  “Coincidence.”

  “Maybe this isn’t the time,” I said, as shouting sounded from the rear. “They’re going to be on the warpath when they find out you’re gone.”

  “I imagine that won’t take lo—” she started, but a bullet zinging through the air nearby cut her off. Then gunshots sounded from the rear. “Long,” she finished.

  We diverted from our direct path, moving through the trees and going in a slight U shape to reach the dinghy. To our relief, it worked, but put two of their soldiers in our path as we approached—both of them with rifles aimed but looking the wrong way. I hadn’t realized Kosum had taken the knife from the bungalow until she leaped and took one down with it. The second started to turn her way, but I let loose with two shots to the head. Saving her might have given away our position, but other shots were still going off, so maybe not.