Hatch Read online

  Finally she sagged against the strong arms in defeat. Only then she heard his voice.

  “It’s okay. Hey, take it easy, Millie. You need to calm down. We’re here to rescue you. Easy, Millie. You’re safe now. It’s Hatch. Easy now.”

  Held against his chest, she looked up, but, in the darkness, she could barely see, but the name? … “You’re here to rescue me?” she whispered. “Do I know you?”

  He nodded. “Yes,” he replied, as if understanding that she couldn’t see much in the night. “Where’s your father?”

  “He’s dead,” she said, sobbing. “They killed him.”

  With his arms tightening around her, Hatch quickly led her somewhere nearby, but she couldn’t even tell where that was, except for the light that suddenly flashed in her face. Caught off guard and still stunned, she finally realized that a flashlight shone into her face, and she stopped wincing against the bright light.

  “We’re just checking you over,” the man explained. “Do you need medical attention?”

  She slowly shook her head and gasped hoarsely, “Water.” A bottle of water was placed in her hands, and she tilted it up and drank thirstily.

  When he tried to take it away from her, she glared at him. He just smiled. “It’s yours. Don’t worry. You get to keep it, but remember. Too much, too fast won’t be good either.”

  Reluctantly she slowed down on the chugging and nodded. “I know, but you don’t understand how desperate you can be when you don’t have water.”

  He still held her in his arms, and she realized that she hadn’t been put down. “I can walk, you know,” she stated.

  He slowly lowered her until her boots touched the sand, but almost immediately she collapsed.

  She looked up at him again. “Well, I will walk. Just give me a moment.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not necessary.” Picking her up again, he asked, “Do you think you can ride on my bike?”

  She looked at him and nodded. “I think so.”

  “Can you hold on to me?” he asked. “That’s all you have to do.”

  She realized that he wanted to find out if she was strong enough to do that. “I can hang on,” she replied, and he immediately parked her on the back of his bike. It was just a small dirt bike, and it would be a hard ride on this desert. But, as he sat down in front of her and had barely taken any of the seat, she wrapped her arms around his waist and clung to him.

  If nothing else, she would hang on long enough to get out of here, hopefully back to civilization. If she was lucky, maybe she’d even get out of this nightmare. She whispered against his ear, “I don’t know where my kidnappers are.”

  He nodded. “Hang on. Let’s get the hell out of here first.”

  Hatch rode as fast as he dared, with her holding on to him, and Corbin following behind them. They were still a good twenty minutes from town. They had gone farther away from town than he had expected, while chasing after their visitor on the bike. By then they had first heard her screams. Hatch still couldn’t believe it was her, but there was no doubt now. He’d seen her face and had heard her words himself.

  But she wasn’t in great shape. As a matter of fact, he would prefer to take her in for medical attention. She didn’t seem to think that she needed it, but then he couldn’t really trust that either. Realizing that her grip was struggling, he came to a slow stop. Almost like a comical scene, she slid off the bike to the ground, unconscious. He immediately parked the bike, bent to pick her up, and placed her in front of him on the bike this time. He looked over at Corbin. “She’s weak, not in great shape.”

  “It’s no wonder,” he replied. “She’s been through a lot. Can you ride like that?”

  “I should be able to. We don’t have too much farther to go.”

  And, with that, at a much slower pace, since he had to hold on to both her and the handlebars, Hatch drove carefully the rest of the way to the city, driving straight to their rooms. With the building in view, he parked nearby on the sidewalk, then scooped her up and headed up the rear stairs. As soon as he got her inside, he laid her on the nearest bed and lightly patted her cheeks to awaken her.

  She opened her eyes and stared up at him. “What?” she whispered.

  “You’re in our rooms now,” he explained, “but I’m a little worried about the shape you’re in.” It was hard to recognize the woman from a series of lectures he’d attended.

  “It’s just exhaustion,” she murmured. “I don’t even know how long I’d been walking.”

  He nodded. “I get that, and the fact that you’re even talking is good, but—”

  She shrugged. “I’ll be okay. I’m just really worn out.”

  “That’s fine, as long as I know you’ll wake up,” he stated. “I don’t want to take a chance on you not waking up.”

  She stared at him for a moment and then nodded. “Got it. No need to worry. Just let me rest a bit.”

  “How about a shower and some food first?”

  She perked up at the idea of food. “I would like both. I’m just not sure I’m strong enough.” She struggled to sit up.

  Hatch immediately bent down to help her. “Come on. Let’s get you some food. I hate to see you crash without eating a bit first.”

  She looked at him. “I haven’t had a whole lot of food.”

  “No, I get that,” he murmured. “I’ll be right back.” He quickly made her some unbuttered toast and brewed a cup of hot tea with honey, plus a banana. When he set it before her, she stared at it for a moment, then ate in a way that showed how long she had been without proper food.

  As soon as she relaxed ever-so-slightly, he said, “And here’s some coffee, if you think your stomach can handle it.”

  She stared at him in wonder. “Coffee?”

  Such reverence was in her voice that he smiled. “You can have a nap in a few minutes, but I don’t want you to crash without being topped up a bit first. I’m not seeing any injuries, but are you okay?”

  She nodded. “I will be. They didn’t really hurt me. They beat the shit out of my father.”

  “Is that how he died?”

  She nodded. “I think so. I have no way to know.”

  “Did you see him?”

  “He had been badly beaten. We spoke a bit. Then he went to sleep, unconscious really. After that, he went down so fast it seemed, although being in the dark makes it hard to keep track of time. The guard came in, woke me up to let me out to use the bathroom. I checked my father before leaving the room. He was breathing but barely. I went outside for a moment, and, when the guard returned me to our room, my father was dead.”

  He nodded slowly. “I’m so sorry.”

  She nodded. “Don’t get me started, otherwise I’ll do nothing but cry.”

  “Do you know where your father’s body is?”

  She shook her head. “Those assholes took him. I suspect he’ll end up buried in a tomb somewhere.” She paused. “They even joked about leaving us for a good three thousand years for the next archaeology team to find.”

  He nodded slowly. “Do you know who took you?” He reached out a hand and checked her forehead.

  She pulled back. “I don’t know him. And I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

  “They didn’t hurt you?”

  “No, and I don’t know who did this.” He was looking at her so intently that she hesitated before asking, “Who are you exactly?”

  “You and I met years ago in England, where you were giving a series of lectures on Egypt.” He smiled and pulled out his phone. “Corbin and I work for a special department of the US government.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t remember meeting you.” She added, “I don’t suppose you have any ID to that effect, do you?”

  He held up his phone with his picture ID on it.

  She looked at it and nodded. “So you guys are really legit? What happened to the other guy?” Then she stopped, frowned, and asked, “Or did I not see another man?”

  “He’s taking care o
f the bikes,” Hatch replied calmly. “We don’t want anybody following us here.”

  “Oh, they would have traced me already.” She shook her head. “So many eyes and ears in this town that it’s unbelievable.”

  “Yeah, we’ve met a few,” he murmured. “Not necessarily the nicest of people either.”

  “No,” she murmured. “I don’t know who this guy was, but he was after”—she took a deep breath—“he was after some information about another site.”

  “Another dig site?” he asked. “An excavation?”

  She nodded. “Not one I knew anything about, so, of course, I couldn’t help him. And my father? … I don’t know whether he helped him or not, but they beat some things out of him—or tried to. Whatever answers he had are gone with him now, and it was that beating that ultimately killed him.”

  Hatch nodded slowly. “Even if it wasn’t directly responsible, he wasn’t in the best of shape to be out there fighting for his life.”

  “No,” she whispered. “The one guy said a lot of awful things, and I don’t know whether they were true or not.” She shook her head. “I don’t even want to say it out loud because, if it’s true, then my faith in my father was sorely misplaced,” she stated bluntly. “At the moment, I can’t really even live with any of it.”

  “You’ll have to live with all of it,” he replied smoothly, “but first you need some rest. I get that you don’t want to relive those experiences, but we really do need to know the full story.”

  She stared at him, and he watched as tears quickly pooled in her eyes. “The first thing the boss, the guy in the panama hat, told me was corroborated by my father—that my mother was murdered on a dig over a decade ago.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, and, with those words, she started to cry.

  He reached over, snatched her up, and held her close, as she crumpled against his chest. “I’m sorry, not only for the kidnapping ordeal you’ve been through but for the loss of your father. And, with news like that, there is never a good way to find it out. I presume you didn’t know about your mother?” he asked cautiously.

  She shook her head, then tried to dry her tears with her hands, when he handed her a box of tissues off the bedside table. She blew her nose and settled back, not even really aware that she was still on his lap. “No, I was told that she had malaria, and, due to lack of medical facilities near the dig, she didn’t survive. Nobody ever told me that she had been murdered, and that includes my father,” she snapped, with bitterness. “I just don’t understand. … I don’t know how he could have done that.”

  “To protect you,” Hatch replied instantly.

  She pulled her head back and looked up at him. “Then you don’t understand my father. He wasn’t about protecting me. He was a hard man in many ways.”

  “But he was still your father, and undoubtedly he loved you, just like you loved him.”

  “I did.” She paused. “And now I wonder if that love was completely misplaced.”

  “Let’s not worry about that now,” he suggested. “What else did they say?”

  She slumped back against Hatch. “Some things that I tried to ask my father about, which he didn’t confirm or deny, which makes it really hard.”

  “So your father was conscious at one point?”

  She nodded. “Let me go back to the beginning.”

  “Let me tape this”—he shifted her onto the bed beside him—“so we don’t have to go back over it too many times.” He brought his phone from his pocket and pressed Record. “Now start at the beginning.

  Millie took a deep breath. “Okay. … Just a few days ago—or so it seems—we had been detained by the local authorities, questioned, then released, and were back in our hotel suite. We were already pretty upset about the accusations made by the Egyptian government and the charges they were threatening to levy. I know my father had sent out some strongly worded messages for help to the US government,” she murmured, looking at him.

  He nodded. “Continue.”

  “We were there in our rooms but decided to go get food. We were both pretty shocked, stressed, and not necessarily thinking straight,” she explained. “We were trying to agree on something to eat, but we didn’t get very far. The next thing I know, I was being picked up and dumped into the back of a vehicle. I did feel a jab somewhere along the line.” She pointed at her arm. “But I don’t know exactly when that was. Whether it was before I got into the vehicle or at the same time, it’s just all a big blur.”

  She was lost in thought, and he had to nudge her back. “What then?”

  “I did end up with quite a sore arm, and again I’m not sure whether that was from the jab or from something else, like dropping me or whatever,” she muttered.

  He reached out and gently stroked her arm, and then, on one of the strokes, he pulled up her shirt sleeve and studied that spot. “The injection spot could be here,” he noted. “It’s not obvious.”

  She nodded. “I didn’t wake up until I was in the … cell or whatever you want to call it. It was a cave actually,” she added. “Yet with a door, a modern-looking door, and a tunneled-out space was behind it, where they kept us.” She shook her head. “When I woke up, my father was there, and a bottle of water was between us. We heard nothing for a very long time after that.” She shuddered, just thinking about it. “I think that was the worst part, not knowing if anybody would even come back. The bottle of water made me feel like maybe they would, but I couldn’t be sure.”

  “And when they did come back?”

  “They snatched my father a while later and practically dragged him out, without saying anything. Somebody did come back a little later and gave me a little food, just bread and cheese.” Suddenly her voice started to peter out. With a deep heavy sigh, she basically collapsed in his arms.

  Shutting off the recorder, he immediately checked for a pulse, but she was hanging in there. It appeared that everything had finally caught up with her, and she’d crashed. He frowned at the thought and felt her forehead, just as the front door opened.

  Corbin came inside, took one look at Millie, and asked, “How is she doing?”

  “She just passed out.” Hatch held her against his chest, happy to feel her heartbeats. “I think it’s probably from exhaustion, dehydration, and stress.”

  “Well, she certainly has been through plenty of that,” Corbin agreed quietly.

  Hatch turned to put her on the bed and sat beside her for a moment. “She’s pretty exhausted.”

  “Look what she’s just been through though. How much could she tell you?”

  “Quite a bit.” He quickly filled in Corbin on the details.

  “Wow. So her father is dead. That’s not good.”

  “I know,” Hatch murmured, “and the info sounds confusing. According to the guys who kidnapped her, her father may have known about or may have been funneling artifacts to a black market.”

  “Yet that doesn’t fit with what we know about Marcus.”

  “No, but she also said that he changed ten years ago after her mother died. And that’s another whole story.” He then told Corbin about Millie finding out her mother had been murdered.

  At that, Corbin just stared at her. “Seriously?”

  Hatch nodded. “I didn’t see anything in his files saying that any investigation was done.”

  “No, it doesn’t sound like there was,” Corbin replied. “Maybe I’ll dig a little deeper into that.” And he disappeared.

  Hatch stared down at the woman sleeping soundly on the bed. “You’re safe now,” he murmured. He wished he had more to tell her, something that would make her feel better, but, when she woke up later, she would be stuck in this same reality. One where her father was gone and where she was potentially still in danger. Not an easy thing to tell a woman who had spent her life devoted to this work.

  Then again, maybe she’d had enough. Maybe, when she woke up, she’d want to go home and would never get near another dig for the rest of her life. He doubted it thoug
h. She was one strong woman. She’d gotten away from her kidnappers on her own; whether that was by design of her kidnappers or by their sloppiness, Hatch didn’t know.

  But, at the moment, he was just damn grateful they had something to report and that she was here safe and sound. The trouble was, they had to make sure that she stayed that way, and that could get a whole lot more difficult going forward.

  Chapter 7

  Millie woke suddenly, bolting from the bed and turning around in a circle, confused and disoriented. Almost immediately a man stepped forward, placed his hand on her shoulders. “Calm down. You’re fine. You’re safe.”

  She shrank away and stared up at him, blinking owlishly. “You.” She frowned and then wavered on her feet. “Hatch?”

  He immediately snatched her up and laid her back down on the bed. “Yes, me, Hatch. Before you ask, just listen. We found you wandering in the desert. We brought you back here. You’ve had a little bit of food, a little bit of water,” he explained, “and then you collapsed again.”

  She stared at him. “I’m free?” she asked, shock in her voice.

  “You’re free.”

  With that came the other realization. In her mind she was free, but her father was not. Tears immediately filled her eyes. “My father is dead.”

  Hatch nodded and opened his arms. She threw herself in them, not sure she knew who this stranger was, but he offered something she desperately needed right now—security and comfort.

  When her tears finally dried up, he settled her back on the bed. “Now take a few moments to collect yourself, and, when you’re ready, food and coffee are out there.”

  She looked around. “Am I in a hotel?”

  He nodded. “You are safe here with us. Remember. We’re the good guys, so don’t go tearing off, trying to escape or anything. You’re not a prisoner, but we need a game plan to make sure whoever kidnapped you isn’t coming after you again.”