unsure that had stopped them from staring. She wanted her father to hold her and tell her she was safe, but with each passing day she thought that might never happen. She’d never see her father again.
“What are they doing…over there?” Andre whispered. All of them turned to see what he was looking at.
One of the armed men came to the leader, and they both headed to a pitched tent on the opposite side of their camp. They spoke again in words she didn’t understand, but the man in charge was not pleased. He waved his hand and looked like he gave an order. Joselyne was certain she wouldn’t like it.
Especially when the armed man came for her.
“No…please…NO!” she cried. Joselyne dug in her heels and made the man drag her in the dirt and through the mud puddles. The other children clutched at her legs, but none of them were strong enough to help her. She dropped her bowl of food and almost threw up. Everything slipped away, and the memory of her father faded into nothing.
In her moment of desperation, she found herself praying.
New York City
Sentinels Headquarters
“Jessie, wake up. Jessie?”
A voice edged her sleep and forced her to open her eyes. Jess squinted into the overhead light and raised a hand to block the glare, not registering what was happening at first. Seth knelt next to the bed and pulled a strand of hair off her face. His dark eyes came into focus, her first waking moment and a sight she could get used to.
“You with me?” he asked with a smile on his handsome face.
They were in a dormitory room at the Sentinels headquarters, with the smell of stale coffee and the remnants of cold pizza lingering in the air. Seth had worked through what had been left of the night. She looked down and realized he’d covered her with a blanket. And whatever tunes he had cranked while he was working earlier, a tinny hint of music came from the earplugs lying on the desk. He’d resorted to using them after she’d fallen asleep.
“Yeah, I think so.” She propped herself up on his pillows and ran a hand through her hair. “What time is it?”
“I have no idea. In Harperworld, time is only a concept. We gotta talk, Jessie. I think I found it.” Eagerness brightened his eyes, and his face glowed. No way he’d spent the whole night working. Harper definitely came from good genes.
“Found what?” She yawned. “I need to brush my teeth…get coffee.”
“No, you need to listen this time.” He grinned and pulled her chin toward him until her gaze locked on him. “I found a signal, Jessie. A high-density bandwidth in Cuba. It has to be them.”
“You found the…” When his words finally sunk in, her eyes widened, and her voice raised an octave. “You did?” Before he answered, she leapt off the bed and hugged him. “Of course you did, Harper. Talk to me, tell me what’s going on. Have you told Garrett and Tanya?”
“No, not yet. I thought you should have the honor.” He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “But we gotta tell them now.”
“Now? I thought once you isolated the signal in Haiti, you still had to triangulate their position and track them from there.”
“Yeah, I did that. It took longer than I expected, and I had to wait for them to transmit again. That’s why I woke you. They’re transmitting now. A fresh signal. If we can cross-reference the location of the signal with Alexa’s tracking beacon, we can provide their coordinates and give her an idea how close they are.”
“You’re right. We gotta call Garrett and Tanya.”
She grinned at him and cupped his face in her hands. Giving in to the moment, Jessie kissed him without thinking. A switch flipped in her brain, and she did what came naturally. She savored his lips and the warmth of his arms. His hands touched her body, and although she wanted more, it wasn’t the time.
Southeast Cuba
Sierra Maestra Mountain Range
The armed man hauled Joselyne by the wrist and dragged her away from the other children to the far end of the camp. He yelled before he reached down to yank her hair. And when he tossed her under the tented tarp, he shoved her to the ground. Her knees were scraped, and they stung. And her eyes had to adjust to the darkness.
It was dusk, and nightfall would soon come. Only a glimmer of light shone through where the tent met the ground. It took her a moment to see. When she did, Joselyne cried. She crawled across the makeshift tent toward the body under the blanket.
She barely recognized the nun’s face. She’d been beaten. Joselyne reached toward the body with trembling fingers. Despite the heat, she touched lifeless skin that felt cool. The body reminded her of the day her mother was buried. But when the bloodied swollen face twitched, and a low moan came from the sister’s throat, Joselyne jerked her hand back and cowered in the shadows.
Sister Kate opened her eyes and stared into the darkness. Her blank empty expression scared Joselyne. The life had gone from her eyes.
“Sister?” she whispered. “Are you…alive?”
Kate heard Joselyne’s voice, and the sound brought her out of a stupor. The girl crawled to her in the dark, and she felt a timid touch on her cheek. When the child finally came into focus, Sister Kate felt the warmth of tears on her face. She opened her mouth to speak and choked. Her throat was parched. Joselyne vanished into the shadows and came back, holding something in her hands.
“Here…drink this.” The girl held a cup to her lips and raised her head so she could drink.
“I’ve been worried…about you.” Kate struggled to speak. She stared at the small girl edged in shadow, unsure if Joselyne were real or imagined. She raised a hand to the Haitian girl’s face. Kate never thought she’d see her again.
“Me? You were worried about me?” The child’s sweet voice did more to lift her spirits than anything she could imagine. When the girl sobbed, all Kate wanted to do was hold her, but she couldn’t sit up. She wasn’t strong enough.
“We thought you were dead, Sister. We never saw you after the night they took you away. And when we moved camp, you weren’t with us. What happened?”
“I don’t remember much. I was carried to a village by two of his men. I have no idea why he didn’t…”
Kate stopped before she blurted out her true thoughts. She didn’t know why he hadn’t killed her. Memories of that night flashed through her mind, a blur of painful attacks. Her face ached in throbbing waves. And she could barely open one eye. Her lip was split and hurt when she moved her mouth. The girl dipped a hand into the water bucket and washed her face with small fingers, careful not to hurt her. Her tenderness broke Kate’s heart. Joselyne made the rest of her pain fade.
“How are the other children?”
“They’re scared…but okay.”
“How is George…the wounded man? Is someone taking care of him?”
“He’s gone, Sister.” Joselyne shook her head. “I never saw them take him, but I think they…” The child struggled to tell her. “I heard them talking…after.”
Kate ached down to her soul for George and his family. To endure two tragic deaths from violence was too much to bear for those back home. And she hated that Joselyne had seen such horror. No one, much less a child, should have to witness such cruelty.
“Tell me what you heard, Joselyne. Please.” She reached for the child and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I must know what happened to George, for the sake of his family.”
