Caribbean Rescue (Coastal Fury Book 16), Matt Lincoln [best book recommendations .txt] 📗

it seemed a little out of place in the otherwise scenic and peaceful town. It looked more like a club than a typical bar, with a large dance floor in the center surrounded by several sitting areas.

Women in tight, short dresses moved languidly around the floor, trays of expensive drinks in their hands. My eyes were drawn to them first, but it didn’t seem like they were in distress. Unlike Jenny, who had stood stock still and kept her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the ground, these women were wearing forced, plastic smiles as they flirted with the patrons around the bar, coaxing them into spending more money. It didn’t look sincere, but it didn’t look like they were in danger, either.

Crowley strode confidently through the bar and toward the first bartender he spotted. I still felt displeased about this plan. It would completely kill any element of surprise we had, and nothing was stopping the traffickers from fleeing the moment they realized we were in here poking around. I didn’t want to go against Morris’s wishes, though. He’d been extremely helpful to us so far, and clashing with local law enforcement was never a good idea in any case if we could help it.

“Hello,” Crowley greeted the man behind the bar.

“Good evening,” the man replied warily. His eyes immediately flitted down to Crowley’s police uniform, and I could tell that his guard was up. “How can I help you gentlemen?”

“We need to speak to the owner of this establishment,” Crowley declared.

“I’m sorry,” the bartender replied slowly, “he’s not here tonight.”

“Well, call him,” Crowley retorted angrily. “We need to speak with him right now.”

“I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible,” the man replied.

I was about to chime in when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A woman was standing on the other side of the bar, but she was staring directly at us. She was standing just behind a circle of couches where several other women were sitting. The first thing that jumped out to me about them was how similar they all seemed to Jenny. All of them were done up with makeup and were wearing short, revealing dresses, but unlike the servers, they were all sitting unnaturally still, their eyes downcast.

I turned to look at the standing woman, and the moment our eyes met, something akin to fear flashed across her face. I watched as she leaned down to whisper something to one of the women sitting in front of her. The woman snapped her head around to look at me, her eyes wide with shock. She turned back around just as quickly.

“Hey.” I nudged Holm in the side with my elbow. “Something’s weird over there.”

I gestured in their direction with a short nod. The first woman I’d noticed kept tossing surreptitious glances in our direction while the rest of the girls slowly started to get up from the couches.

I turned back to Crowley. He and the bartender were still arguing, and both seemed entirely focused on their own conversation.

“Come on,” I hissed at Holm before quickly taking off toward where the girls were now standing. Something was definitely up, and this might be a good chance to get some info while Crowley inadvertently distracted the bartender.

Holm and I set off quickly toward the group of women.

The woman standing above the group flinched as she caught our rapid approach, and I watched as she leaned forward to say something to the girls. We were far enough away that I couldn’t catch what she said over the noise of the crowd. Whatever she said lit a fire beneath them because all of a sudden, they were all scrambling away from the sitting area.

One of them, in her haste, accidentally moved directly into our path before realizing her error. She looked up at me with large, terrified eyes before suddenly spinning on her heel and attempting to walk in the other direction.

“Wait,” I called as I walked briskly forward and took hold of her arm.

“Don’t touch her,” the first woman snapped at me as she shoved my arm away from the girl.

“We don’t mean any harm,” Holm tried to reassure her.

“Linda, go,” the woman said to the younger girl curtly.

The girl nodded and scampered off, and the woman turned back to me.

“You should leave,” she sneered. Now that I was standing closer to her, I was able to get a better look at her features. She looked like she was in her early to mid-forties. She had deeply tanned skin, and her dark hair was flecked with streaks of gray. Her hazel eyes were fixed into a steely, unyielding glare.

“We only want to help,” I replied. “We know about what’s going on here.”

“Get out, now,” she growled at me through gritted teeth. “Or I’ll start screaming. I can have ten armed men on you in an instant.”

“Please don’t do that,” Holm replied as he looked around, ready to react the moment the threat materialized.

“Then get out of here,” she countered before looking past us. “And take that cop friend of yours with you. Before he does something that gets us all in trouble.”

I could hear Crowley’s raised voice from here, and I knew that he must be causing a scene.

“Please, just listen,” I pleaded as the woman began to walk away. “We’re federal agents. We’re here to investigate the death of Allison Newark—I mean, Cat. You probably knew her as Cat.”

She immediately froze at the name and turned around slowly to look at us, her eyebrows furrowed in suspicion.

“What did you say?” she rasped.

“We spoke with Jenny,” I explained. “We have her. She’s safe right now with another agent. She’s the one who gave us that name.”

She blinked several times as she processed the information I’d just given her. Then she suddenly looked around quickly before beckoning us to come toward her with a flick of her hand.

“This way,” she whispered before turning and walking off.

Holm and I both did as we were asked. She led