Page 91 of Protecting Addison
Perfect. He’d put enough of a traumatic image in her head to make her forget about anything but worry for her mom.
He drove to the elementary school, and this time Ellory came into the building with him. He went through the same process to get Yana, and having Ellory with him helped tremendously, especially with her red eyes and fresh tears.
Ellory explained to Yana what was happening, and soon Brady hadtwohysterical girls on his hands. Any other time, he’d be highly annoyed, but since their tears served his purpose and got them out of the school, he was thrilled.
The girls got into his truck, and he started toward the industrial docks where the huge container ships were loaded for transport.
Ellory’s attention was on her sister, trying to assure her everything would be okay. Telling her that their mom was strong and she’d be fine…that Ricky was also hurt but she was sure he’d be all right too.
Everything worked exactly according to Brady’s plan. He had Ellory’s cell phone—which he’d turned off before shoving into his pocket—the girls weren’t paying any attention to where they were going, and he was right on time. For once.
It wasn’t until he’d stopped his truck that Ellory finally clued into the fact that they weren’t at a hospital.
“Where are we? I thought we were going to the hospital to see Mom and Ricky.”
“I just needed to make one short stop first. Don’t worry, we’ll leave here in a moment,” Brady reassured her. “Stay here with Yana.”
He got out and approached his contact, waiting nearby. The man was totally nondescript. He had brown hair, brown eyes, was average height, and he wore the same coveralls as everyone else who worked on the docks. Brady would be hard-pressed to describe him to the authorities. He didn’t have any distinguishing features.
“I’ve got the merchandise for you. Safe and sound. Brought you a bonus too.”
The man looked over at the truck, then back at Brady. “I’m not paying you more.”
“Didn’t expect you to,” he told him, loving the look of surprise on the man’s face. “Call it a present. A ‘thank you’ for doing business with me. One that’ll bring you a good chunk of change. A live donor who’s under five years old? Someone will also pay top dollar for her heart, I’m sure.”
“She’s healthy?”
“Yes.” Brady didn’t have access to the little girl’s medical history, but she looked healthy enough to him.
“All right. The container’s ready. You get them in and I’ll do the rest. There’s just a small space in the middle of other merchandise, so they can’t bang on the walls of the Conex. The possibility that someone will hear them is low, but I didn’t want to take any chances. The buyer for the teen is anxious to get her to Asia as soon as possible. His daughter’s dying and he needs her organs. Pronto.”
“Sounds good. My money?”
The man stepped to the right and leaned over to grab something behind a stack of boxes. He handed a gym bag to Brady. “I assume you aren’t going to be so crass as to count it right here and now. We don’t have time for that. It’s all there.”
Brady totally wanted to count it. But the last thing he needed was for Ellory to get any more suspicious than she already was. Time to get her and the brat put away in the box and be done with it. “I trust you,” he told the man. It was a lie. He didn’t trust the guy at all, but he had no choice at the moment.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you. Hopefully we can do something similar soon.”
Brady nodded, then headed back to his truck. This next part would be tricky. He needed to get Ellory to go with him, but he wasn’t sure how well that was going to go down. She wasn’t stupid, she already had to be thinking something wasn’t right.
Sure enough, when he opened the door, she asked, “What’s going on? Who was that man? Why are we here?”
Brady secured the gym bag full of money behind his seat, then said, “Come here, Yana.”
She’d been sitting in the middle, between him and Ellory. But now the little girl drew back and leaned against her sister.
Wanting to be done with this, Brady reached out and grabbed Yana’s arm. He yanked her across the seat and out the driver’s-side door. She wiggled and squirmed, trying to get away from him, but he held her tightly.
“Come here,” he said, this time to Ellory, crooking his finger.
She quickly glanced from him to the passenger door.
“If you don’t, I’ll hurt her,” Brady threatened.
If looks could kill, he’d be a dead man. Ellory went from sobbing her heart out to shooting daggers from her eyes. “My mom’s not hurt, is she?”
“I said,come here,” Brady demanded, lowering his voice and sounding as mean as he could. To give his daughter incentive, he squeezed Yana’s arm until she squealed in pain.
