Ransom (Benson Security 4)

“You know who I am. We’ve known each other for years,” she said in that cool, clipped voice of hers.

“Yes. Tell me why I should trust a businesswoman and ‘trust fund baby’ with my daughter’s rescue?” The words were vicious, but Rachel didn’t even flinch.

She folded her arms over her suit jacket. “You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t even trust me to know who the best people are to rescue Belinda. I’m biased. I own a quarter of this company and I am not a security expert.”

“Exactly!” Stephen Collins looked a little confused that she agreed with him.

“You do believe I’d tell you the truth, though, do we agree on that?” Rachel said.

He nodded slowly, as though he suspected she was leading him into a trap—proving that he did indeed know Rachel.

“Wonderful.” Rachel nodded. “Then listen carefully, because I’m going to give you the brutal truth. I’ve been working as the team’s liaison with local law enforcement, and you absolutely cannot trust them. We captured two of the kidnappers when we raided their camp yesterday. The local chief of police insisted on taking them into custody and taking over the rescue—before we could interrogate the men. Since then, there has been no information obtained from those men. In fact, by the time the men arrived at the police station, their lawyers were already waiting for them.” She took a step towards them. “Think about that for a second. The criminals didn’t have time to call their representation. Which raises the question—who did? Not only that, but who knew which lawyers to call? Because these weren’t any old lawyers, appointed by the court or picked out of the yellow pages—these were the lawyers kept on retainer by the Martinez cartel.”

The blood drained from Stephen’s face.

“On top of that, while Benson Security were out today scouring the jungle for Belinda and Beast, I sat in the local police chief’s office and listened to him explain why the official rescue would take another couple of days to organise.”

Noah and Callum moved a couple of chairs behind Belinda’s parents who sat down, shaking as they did so.

“It’s up to you how you go forward with Belinda’s rescue,” Rachel said. “You should know that Beast, as silly as his name is, is one of ours, and we will still search for him and bring him home, regardless of what you choose to do about Belinda’s rescue. We will do this even though the police have told us not to, and we won’t stop until we have the result we want. Now, what do you want to do?”

“I’m in love,” Harvard muttered, drawing Ryan’s attention. The American was looking at Rachel as though she was the second coming.

“Dude, you need help,” Ryan whispered to him. “I’m sure we can get you some medication that will sort you right out.”

Elle elbowed Ryan in the side as Harvard ignored him and continued to drool over Rachel.

“What about calling our embassies?” Stephen’s bluster had gone, and he simply looked devastated. “Surely we should do that much, at least.”

“If we call the embassies,” Rachel said, “this will turn into a diplomatic nightmare. The British, American, and Peruvian governments will waste time trying to figure out how to work together. Time that we can’t afford to waste.”

The couple looked at each other, their eyes red. “Okay,” Stephen said. “We do it your way.”

“Sir.” Dimitri stood and walked over to the couple. “I know what you’re going through.” He held up a hand when Stephen started to protest. “My sister was kidnapped and held for a year. I quit the Army to find her, and exhausted all of my resources doing it. When I crossed paths with Lake and his team, they should have sent me packing, but instead they offered to help.” He folded his arms tight, and Megan stepped up behind him. She

wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her forehead between his shoulder blades. Dimitri cleared his throat. “A few weeks later, we found her. We brought her home and now she’s building a new life. If it wasn’t for this team, she would have been lost to me forever.” He looked around. “In this room, you have an Army ranger, a marine, two SAS specialists, a decorated army soldier, a CIA operative, police officers from two countries, one of the best computer hackers in the world, an expert on the Peruvian jungle and the cartels, and whatever the hell Rachel is.”

Rachel arched an eyebrow. “You’d better hope you never find out, Dimitri.”

Dimitri flashed her a smile before turning back to Belinda’s parents. “Do you really think the local police would be better equipped to bring Belinda home?”

Stephen looked older by the minute. “What do you need us to do?”

“I need you to do the hardest job of all,” Lake said. “I need you to wait.”

Stephen nodded, wrapped an arm tightly around his wife and stood, pulling her up with him. “We’ll be in our room.”

Everyone silently watched as they left the ballroom.

“I hate seeing them like that,” Elle said.

“The best thing we can do for them is our job,” Lake said. “And do it well.”

Ryan took a deep breath. “On that note, I need to tell you that I’ve screwed up.”

All eyes swung to him.

“Explain,” Lake said. He was back to being the predator everyone in the room knew him to be.