Page 90 of Solid as Steele
Mackenzie arrived beside him and rested a hand on Owen’s shoulder. He reluctantly gave up his spot. She stared for a long moment, then gave Owen a quizzical look.
Owen took another look through the fence. Tovar lifted the cellar door and started down.
“Back away from the door or no food for you tonight,” Tovar called out. “I mean it, ladies. If you want to eat, be quiet and do as I say.”
What in the world?
Owen shared a questioning look with Mackenzie whose shocked expression said it all.
Tovar was holding women in the cellar.
A door hinge groaned and cries of distress rose up. Female, high voices begging in Spanish.
Owen knew rudimentary Spanish. At least enough to understand their pleas. Tovar was holding these women captive, and they begged for him to let them go.
And it didn’t take any language skills, foreign or otherwise, to understand the crying.
“I said be quiet!” Tovar’s raised voice carried up the stairs. “This is all the food until breakfast, so share it.”
How much food could that basket hold? Probably not enough for all the voices. He turned back to Mackenzie. Her face was tight with anger, her fists clenched.
Owen looked back at the fence in time to see Tovar drag a woman out of the cellar. He had a shackle on her wrist and a rope tied to it. He tied the other end of the rope to his belt loop and bent to close the cellar.
The woman struggled to get free.
“Now don’t do that, sweetheart.” Tovar’s soft and soothing tone made Owen want to hurl. “We’re going to have a lavish meal. Nothing like the others have. I’ve planned six courses and a scrumptious dessert. Don’t you like that word? Scrumptious. It meansdelicioso.”
She said something Owen couldn’t make out.
“Don’t be afraid. After our meal, you can take a long soak in the tub to wash off the grime from the trip.” He stroked her hair from her face and she cringed. “And I have the most wonderful outfit for you to wear. You will be spoiled beyond what you have ever known, and then we will have a good time together. Yes, a very good time.”
He removed his hand and started toward his house. The woman dug in her heels. Tovar jerked on the rope and looked back at her. “Fight me and we go straight to the good time. Cooperate and you will have the meal, bath, and fine clothing.”
She let out a long sigh and started walking. He led her across the lot and into the house then closed the door with a solid thump.
Owen swallowed his anger along with his need to go after the guy and pummel him. Owen pointed at his truck for Mackenzie. He stormed away from the property and turned to check the distance with his scope. He’d gone the required seven hundred feet, but added even more distance to keep from slowing them down by having to stop and check the spacing often.
At his truck, he turned to Mackenzie. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
She grimaced. “Tovar is into human trafficking, and he’s abusing the women before he sells them.”
Owen clenched his hands. “I hate thinking about how many women are in that cellar, but makes sense that as a truck driver he could move people and imprison them out here without being detected.”
Mackenzie frowned. “The question right now is, what do we do about it?”
“Exactly.” He clenched his hands around the steering wheel. “Because we sure aren’t going to leave those poor women in there.”
19
Owen had fixed his binoculars on the house for going on thirty minutes, making sure Tovar didn’t leave as they waited for Sheriff Wheeler and his SWAT team to arrive with a warrant to raid Tovar’s compound. It took every bit of Owen’s self-control not to bust through the fence, cuff the man, and free the woman Tovar had ruthlessly hauled to the house. But they had to handle this raid by the book. No way Owen would let Tovar escape prosecution. Hopefully, the six-course dinner and bath took a long time.
“I wonder how many women he’s trafficked here.” Mackenzie stared out the window.
Owen lowered his binoculars. “A part of me wants to know, the other part doesn’t. It could’ve been going on for years, and I can’t get the image of Cassie having been in that cellar out of my head.”
Mackenzie met his gaze. “Do you really think he kidnapped her and brought her here?”
“I think it’s highly likely, but maybe he never put her in the cellar with the others.” Owen clenched his teeth. “She would be a real prize to a guy like him, and he likely dragged her straight to his house like he did with the woman we saw.”
