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  She reached the fence and grabbed the ball, but when she straightened, she cried out in surprise. A man was watching her from the other side of the fence, half hidden by the nearby trees. He was wiry and looked to be local. His face had a long scar down the left side and his eyes roved over her.

  “Señorita.” He tilted up his head and grinned at her.

  Cassie backed away. There was the tall fence, and security cameras were everywhere. The fence wasn’t electric, as they couldn’t risk one of the children touching it, but surely the man wasn’t just going to vault over it or something. The security company and police would be alerted if he tried, but Cassie had a very bad feeling. José was the head of Brooks’s security department and he wouldn’t be back for hours. Sydnee had said they’d given the rest of their staff the week off and all the men they’d hired but one had disappeared, and that one was sick and asleep. How far away where the police? What if they’d been bought off?

  Calm down, she told herself. It was only one man. Her eyes darted around, and she saw shadows approaching through the woods. Her eyes widened as her stomach plunged with horror. She counted three more men approaching.

  Dropping the ball, she ran back toward the children. If she could get them all inside before the men infiltrated the fence, they could put the house on lockdown and no one would get to these children. “Inside!” she screamed, “Go!”

  Some of them might not have understood, but her tone and her terror were enough to get them moving. The older children shepherded the younger ones toward the back door. Cassie headed for the playset, where several children played, oblivious to the danger they were in.

  She darted a glance back at the men and saw one prop a long ladder against the fence, and then they were scurrying up it.

  “No!” she screamed. She had to get everyone inside. Now! Please, Lord, please help. She ripped a small child off a swing and yelled to two more. “Move! Go!”

  Children were pouring into the house, but the first man was up the ladder and launched himself onto the grass. He landed in a crouch and glanced her way with a wicked smile.

  She set the child in her arms down and yelled, “Run!”

  A little girl, maybe four or five, was perched on the top of the playset, staring at Cassie with fear in her dark eyes.

  “Come, please.” Cassie extended her arms, and Spanish words she’d heard many times came out: “Ven, mija.”

  The little girl hesitated for far too many counts, then finally leapt at her. Cassie caught her with a grunt and a rush of relief. She turned. Most of the children were at the house now, and Camila was ushering them in.

  “Cassie!” she yelled, pointing across the yard.

  Several men were on the ground now. Cassie thought they would come at her, but they sprinted for the house. They’d probably come to steal as many children as they could for trafficking; they didn’t just want Cassie and one girl. They must’ve known that if that door shut, they’d have no way in.

  The last of the children passed through the door, and the men were almost there.

  “Shut it!” Cassie yelled at Camila.

  Camila’s eyes were wide. “No!”

  “Shut it!” Cassie hated to think of sacrificing herself and this beautiful child, but if those men got in that house, they might be able to take all thirty-two children before help arrived.

  Camila slammed the door. Cassie heard the lock click like a death knoll. She knew Camila would quickly arm the system and help would be on the way. As the four men now in the yard spun to her, she knew it wouldn’t be nearly fast enough to save her or this little girl.

  She backed away, and the child whimpered in her arms. “It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay,” Cassie tried to soothe, lying through her teeth. Camila would wake the security guard, and if he physically could, he’d come to her rescue. Yet what could one man, even one trained by Brooks and José, do against four evil-looking dudes?

  Cassie backed toward the side fence. There was nowhere for her to go. The huge backyard was enclosed with this fence, but Brooks had purposely designed the only entrance to be through the back door of the house so no one, like these men, would have access to the children when they were out playing.

  The men were approaching quickly. Three looked furious at their frustrated attempt to secure a large group of children, but the one in the lead had an evil smirk on his face. “Bella Americana,” he greeted her, bowing slightly.

  Cassie wanted to bury her face in the child’s hair. Instead, she set the girl behind her, straightened, and faced them. She’d taken her self-defense training seriously, and she had her favorite pepper spray in her pocket, as she always did. The spray had taken down Jed, who was tougher than these traffickers. She might not be able to fight her way free, but she could at least delay them until Camila got the police here. José was still probably a couple hours away.

  “We need your help getting in the house,” the man said in accented English.

  “I’ll never help you.” She reached into her pocket and put her hand around the canister of pepper spray, inserting her finger into the right spot. The little girl was crying behind her, and Cassie’s heart was pounding so hard she could hear it in her eardrums and feel it in her forehead.

  He pulled out a knife and grinned. “La niña’s screams will open it.”

  Cassie’s stomach revolted at the horror of what he was implying. He’d cut the little girl to get Camila to open the door. Cassie didn’t think Camila would open that door for anyone, but she hated to think if their roles were reversed. How she would react to a child being tortured? She pushed it from her mind. She wouldn’t let it happen. It was time to act.

  The men crept closer as the girl whimpered behind Cassie. Cassie yanked out the pepper spray, held it level, and pressed the button. It hit the first man square in the face, and he was quickly bent over, coughing. Cassie took aim and pushed the lever two more times. She got one more man dead-on, and the others might have been hit by the overspray, or maybe they were just smart enough to know what was coming, as their eyes were squeezed shut and their faces turned away.

  Cassie turned, grabbed the girl with her left arm, and yanked her onto her hip. The child was screaming in terror but thankfully wrapped her arms around Cassie’s neck to hold on. Cassie made a wide arc around the men and kept pumping pepper spray their direction as she shuffled her way steadily toward the back door of the house. Hopefully Camila or the guard would be there to open the door for her.

  One of the men lunged toward her. She screamed and pressed the canister again. Nothing came out. She chucked it at him, then turned and ran for the house, holding the child against her chest with her left arm and pumping her right arm.

  Someone rammed into her ankles, and she flew forward. She tried to cushion the child by twisting to the right. She bounced on her right shoulder, skidding to a stop on the grass. Shoving the child to her feet, she yelled, “Run! Corre!” She thought that was the right word.

  The man had a grip on her right ankle. Cassie kicked him hard with her left, connecting with his jaw. He howled in pain but didn’t release her leg. She sat up and sank her fingernails into his hand, clawing at him. Again, he yelled, but he was hanging on to her tight.

  The other men were still down, coughing and bent over. The little girl was running for the back door, but she was still too far away. Cassie leaned close to the man, released her fingernails from his arm, and punched him as hard as she could in the throat. He gagged and released her.

  She scrambled away from him, jumped up, and ran. Swooping the girl off the ground again, they made it almost to the back porch.

  “Cassie!” a man’s voice yelled.

  She whipped around and stared. Past the fence, coming around the house, were … “Jed? Gav?”

  Cassie’s strength gave out then. Her legs faltered and she tripped, going down in a heap on the grass with the poor little girl tangled up in her arms. The child cried out.

  “Cassie!”

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sp; She heard pounding footsteps and looked up to see Jed and Gavin sprinting for the ladder at the back of the yard. She couldn’t believe they were here. Relief poured over her. Jed and Gavin had come for her. How could they possibly have known that she needed them?

  She cradled the little girl in her arms, stood, and staggered toward the house, whispering, “It’s okay, it’s okay.” This time, she actually meant it.

  Jed scaled the ladder and flipped himself onto the grass, followed shortly by Gavin. They both pounded her direction. She heard the man coming behind her again. Whipping around, she saw that he was gaining on her. One of the other men was straightening and blinking his eyes; he must not have gotten a direct hit either.

  She reached the patio, and thankfully the door sprang open. She shoved the little girl into Camila’s arms.

  “Get in here,” Camila hissed.

  “No.” She pointed at Jed and Gavin approaching and then ran toward both of them.

  Camila groaned but shut the door again.

  Jed caught her in his arms and squeezed her close for a brief second before swinging her behind him. Gavin rushed past and slammed into the man who was behind her. They went down hard, and Gavin started pummeling the man with his fists. Jed released her and sprinted across the grass to the man who was struggling to his feet, blinking furiously, and staggering their direction. Jed knocked him down with one clean punch. The man hit the ground and didn’t even attempt to get up again.

  “Police,” Jed barked. “You’re under arrest.”

  “No!” one of the men moaned between coughs.

  Sirens wailed through the air, and Cassie’s shoulders lowered. The police were here for real. They could haul these scum away, and she could simply let Jed hold her—after she helped comfort thirty-two children. Jed and Gavin had come for her. The children were okay. That was all that mattered, but horror of what could have happened slapped her in the face.

  Doors slammed, and men’s voices and footsteps echoed from out front.

  Gavin stood, leaving the man lying curled into a ball on the ground, and hurried back to Cassie’s side. Jed also eased back toward her. He caught Cassie’s eye, and her heart was going almost as fast as it had been when she’d been fighting the men. Jed was here. The weight of the world was off her shoulders. It was so miraculous that she wanted to weep.

  Gavin wrapped his arm around her and tilted his head toward her. “Hey, sis.”

  “Oh, Gav.” She hugged him tight around the middle. “How’d you know to come?”

  His reply was cut off by the back door flinging open and yells of “Polícia! Polícia!” and a bunch of other words that Cassie could only partially catch. She thought she heard “hands” in the mix. Jed and Gavin both put their hands in the air, so she followed suit. Camila was talking rapidly to the police with a baby on her hip, pointing and explaining.

  When the police grabbed Jed and Gavin, wrenching their hands behind their backs, Cassie yelled, “No, no! Camila, no! This is my brother and my … boyfriend.”

  Camila stared at her. It took a second for it to register; then she started speaking rapidly again.

  “It’s okay,” Jed said soothingly to her, giving her a soft smile. “They have to arrest us. We can sort it out at the station.”

  She noticed neither Jed or Gavin were fighting back, but the thought of the police hauling them off made her want to fall in a heap and bawl. She’d fought those men so instinctively and was proud of herself for protecting the little girl, but now that her support was here, she just wanted Jed to hold her and protect her. She was exhausted, and she was done.

  The police were now cuffing the men on the ground. Some of them were fighting, but they were pretty beat up.

  Camila turned to her. “They have to take them in, but they know they’re not the traffickers. I didn’t dare open the front door when they banged over and over again on it, calling for you. I didn’t know. Your family came for you?”

  “Yes. Please don’t let the police take them in.”

  “They have to. José will be here shortly. They know José and Meester Hoffman well. They will release your brother and boyfriend to him when he comes and sorts the mess out.”

  One of the policemen had Gavin and Jed each by their elbow and was directing them back toward the house. Cassie couldn’t take watching them being hauled away. They’d come for her, and she needed them as much now as she had during the attack. Maybe more.

  She ran at them, flinging herself against Jed and wrapping her arms tight around his waist. “Please, no,” she begged the policeman. “Don’t take them.” She thought hard and said the words, “No los llave, por favor!”

  Jed couldn’t hold her close, but he rested his chin against her hair and murmured, “Sweet Cassie. It’s okay. We’ll be back soon. I promise.”

  “No.” Cassie whimpered and stared up into his bright blue eyes. “Please don’t leave me. I love you,” she said, desperate and needing him so much.

  Jed’s eyes widened. “You … love me?”

  “Cassie.” Gavin’s voice was sharper. She loved her brother, loved that he’d come for her, but she couldn’t pull her gaze from Jed right now. “We won’t be gone long. Focus on the children. They’re going to need you.”

  A policeman tugged at Jed. Camila wrapped her arm around Cassie’s waist and said, “They’ll be back soon.”

  Jed gave her a reassuring smile. “I’ll see you soon.” There was a promise in his voice that gave her strength.

  He was hauled away, and she heard Gavin say, “It’s okay, Cass. Take care of the children.”

  “Thanks, Gav.” She knew he was right, but it didn’t make it any easier.

  Jed and Gavin were tugged through the back door and out of sight. Cassie and Camila stepped back as the policemen took the other men. One of the policemen stayed behind and spoke rapidly to Camila. Cassie caught a few words here and there. Something about staying.

  Camila translated for her. “Two officers will check the house thoroughly, and then stay outside and monitor the perimeter until José comes.”

  Cassie nodded wearily. “Where’s the other guard?” she asked.

  “He definitely caught the sickness Katie has. I couldn’t get him to move no matter how hard I pushed or loud I screamed.”

  They followed the men into the house, down the wide back hallway, and into the great room. They were instantly surrounded by children clamoring for attention. Cassie was more concerned about the children who were hanging back or cowering in a corner. She and Camila got to work, comforting, explaining, and holding. Luckily, only one baby had woken up.

  Cassie checked out the front windows every few seconds, hoping for Jed and Gavin to reappear. She was still in a semi-shocked state, and the children kept her too busy to think too much about the attack. Gavin and Jed had shown up, and then … Had she really told Jed she loved him? She clutched the little girl who’d been stranded outside with her, Izzy. Izzy had been shivering in a corner when Cassie found her, and she hadn’t left Cassie’s lap since.

  A gray sport utility pulled up to the front of the orphanage. Cassie stood with Izzy in her arms, craning to see who got out. Two women and several children got out and headed for the front door. Another woman lifted a baby from a car seat and followed them.

  “Nessie!” Camila called happily as she saw who it was. Cassie gave her a questioning glance. “José’s wife,” she explained.

  If José’s wife was here, that meant he was hopefully getting Jed and Gavin out.

  The policemen met the women on the front porch and cleared them with Camila. The security guard still hadn’t gotten out of bed. Camila promised him they’d get a doctor here as soon as everything calmed down.

  The women came in with hugs and reassurance that more help was coming. Camila told Cassie that Nessie had brought her sisters and their husbands from Mexico City when Sydnee had told them how short-staffed they were. The men were with José. It was a huge relief to let these three smiling women
help out with the children and get dinner going. Cassie basically sat and held little Izzy. How long would it take for José to get Jed and Gavin cleared?

  Time passed achingly slow, and when night fell and the men still weren’t there, Cassie felt like she was having a panic attack. She couldn’t feel her fingers or catch a full breath, and her heart was racing out of control. How had she been strong alone for so long, and now she needed Jed more than she needed food?

  She couldn’t stomach any dinner, but she helped feed the children and stayed close to Izzy. After dinner, Izzy fell asleep in her arms as Cassie read a Christmas Nativity book to the children. Cassie finished the book and carried Izzy down the hallway to the girls’ dormitory. Settling the little girl into bed, she brushed her hair back from her face. She looked so beautiful and peaceful. Cassie hoped the attack wouldn’t leave permanent emotional scars. Izzy was young enough that it might not.

  She leaned against the wall in the dormitory and closed her eyes. Tears leaked out through her closed lids as she replayed the attack in her mind, and then she remembered Jed and Gavin coming for her. She loved Jed, and she loved her brother. She didn’t want to stay here anymore. She wanted to be home, safe in Colorado, hugging Jed next to Mama’s Christmas tree and fireplace, laughing at Austin’s antics.

  What about her life purpose? She’d been so certain this was it. Why was she wearing down and terrified to go on her next trip to Honduras? Was she just getting old and wanting her own home, her own family, or were the repeated attacks too much? She’d always thought she was strong, like her family and her family name, but she felt anything but strong right now.

  “Cassie?” Jed’s voice was a whisper, his breath kissing her skin.

  Her eyes flew open, and there he was. Her heart leapt and the air rushed out of her.

  “Sweet Cassie, are you all right?” He opened his arms, those irresistible, strong arms. She collapsed against his chest, unable to answer with anything but a sniffle as more tears came. “Oh, Cassie.” He stroked his hands down her back. “I’m here. You’re okay.”