Sharkbait Down Under

Thank Luna for private jets because we got a few hours of sleep in the big reclining seats on our way west.

I groaned as I heard the pilot give the weather in Red Wing. It was clear, zero degrees, and winds out of the northwest at twenty miles an hour. That put the wind chill somewhere around minus 22 Fahrenheit. I looked down at my clothing and let out a sigh. “I should just shift. It would be warmer,” I complained.

“You walk off the plane and into the car,” Leo said. “Don’t tell me you’ve turned into one of those whiny fashion model types.”

I stared at him before I realized what he was doing. I hated anything that implied I was weak. “I’m not,” I said. “I can tough it out. It’s only a visit.”

Dad picked us up from the airport in the big Ford SUV. It wasn’t a long drive to Leo’s big home, and it was great to be back, even at four in the morning. Leo gave us a basement guest room, so I got to say hello to the sharks and fish in the basement tank as we went past.

Mom woke me up at ten. “Brunch in an hour, then the memorial service is at one.” The Miesville warrior, Jake Johnson, was twenty years old. He was a year ahead of me in school and went straight to work as a framer in Leo’s construction company. He hadn’t found his mate yet, thank Luna.

We dressed and walked out of our room into a full house. There were hugs and tears everywhere, and it took me ten minutes to make it up to the kitchen. I saw his mother, Debbie, sitting in the living room surrounded by a dozen women of the Pack. Never mated, Debbie had been drugged and raped at a party after a football game her senior year. When she found out she was pregnant and refused to get rid of it, her parents and Pack cast her out.

Debbie moved to Minnesota and enrolled at a public school in Mankato, working nights and weekends as a waitress. She got her degree in education at night while living as a rogue and a single mother for a dozen years. Leo scented her in the stands at a swim meet; they talked for an hour, and he offered her a spot in his Pack. They had both flourished in Miesville. “Excuse me,” I said as I let Nicholas’s hand go and walked into the room. I moved in front of Debbie, kneeling in front of the chair. “I’m so sorry,” I said as I looked at the distraught woman.

Debbie pulled me into her arms, and we cried for a few moments together. “None of this was your fault, Vicki. Jake wanted to go; he begged Leo to take him. You and Amy were his friends, and he was going to get you back.”

I sat back, drying my eyes. “I still can’t believe it. Jake was a good wolf.”

“He was, and life will go on. Bring that man of yours over here and introduce him.”

I linked Nicholas, and he came over as I stood up. “Nicholas, this is Debbie Johnson, Jake’s mother.”

“It is my honor,” Nicholas said. “May Luna hold him close tonight.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Take care of our Vicki. She’s special, and we’ll miss her.”

“I promise I will,” he said. We greeted the other ladies in the room, then went to fill our plates. The mood was somber, and Leo’s memorial service had us all in tears. We loaded into cars after it ended and drove north to Stillwater for the next funeral. Ivan’s memorial service for his fallen warrior was just as emotional. Since it got dark at four-thirty in the afternoon, we all shifted and ran on his Pack lands to where his parents scattered the ashes over a cliff.

“Unky Leo? It’s Tuesday,” I said as we piled back into the cars for the trip home.

“We’re going,” he said.

I smiled, and Nicholas looked at us, trying to figure out what was going on. “What’s on Tuesday?”

“Prime rib night at Wiederholt’s. It’s a tradition,” Mom said with a smile. “Fourth generation running it now. I worked there before I found my Brent.”

We got a big table, and I got a chance to show Nicholas my favorite foods. “This is damn good, but you’d never expect it by looking at the outside of this place,” he said. He had a plate-sized, two-inch-thick slab-o-beef with a baked potato on the side. I had the same, and we polished it off with a slice of their turtle cheesecake.

When the check came, I snatched it before Leo could pick it up. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to be able to pick up this tab,” I said. I had more money than I’d ever dreamed of, but I’d never forgotten my roots. Leo’s gift of his wife’s car to a struggling waitress here was the start of a new life for us. I paid it forward, leaving the young waitress a huge tip.

I was sleepy and content with my little food baby in my belly, and we slept deeply that night. At first light, we were back at the Red Wing Airport. Leo, Adrienne, Mom, Dad, and our families filled up the 12-seater jet as we flew west to Oregon.

After our rescue, there was a flurry of communications between Linda Cartwright, Amy, my publicist, and the Discovery Channel. They wanted to capitalize on the publicity as our series would be coming out soon. I didn’t want to do it without the other girls, so the solution was to tape the interview before tonight’s funeral.

As soon as we arrived at the Pack House, I got mobbed by Amy and the twins, plus three SEALs on Christmas leave. The three Navy men congratulated Nicholas and I on our engagement, but they weren’t happy Nicholas was taking me to Australia.

Then it was time to show off rings to the families. I had my engagement ring on, and Amy had her wedding rings; both of us were happy that we’d taken them off for the dive. The police had recovered them with our other gear.

We weren’t the only ones. Noelani showed me the engagement ring Manuel gave her yesterday, while Makani displayed Ricardo’s ring. “They’re the same,” I said as I hugged them.

“Only the inscription is different,” Makani said.

“They proposed to us in the airport, in uniform, with hundreds of people watching,” Noelani said. “It was so romantic.”

“And Linda got it all on video,” Kai said with a smile as he looked over at her. “Ka-ching!”

“You and a hundred people who already posted it to YouTube,” I teased. “Congratulations!” I gave Manuel and Ricardo a big hug, then Kai. “And I’m so proud of you for making it through BUD/S training!”

“The fun is just starting,” Kai said with a smile. “I missed you all. I wish we could have been down there, but we didn’t go on leave until Christmas Eve, and Alpha Steven told us to stay home.”

I got a few minutes alone with Linda, who was the unsung hero of our group. “If it hadn’t been for you, Adrienne wouldn’t know about the trackers, and no one would have found the first hideout,” I said. “Vespucci would have kept me in that prison for the rest of my life.”

“I can’t have that,” she said as she wiped her eyes. “We signed a contract, and I need my people out there diving!” We hugged again, happy to be reunited.

The Dateline NBC crew set up in the Steele’s living room, with one of the dormant volcanoes filling the picture window behind us. The four of us took care of makeup and hair in the twins’ bedroom, then put on our Bodyglove-line dresses and some understated jewelry. Our families stayed in another room, watching on a monitor as the sound guy got us wired up. Linda was recording everything they did and more.

The interview went on for over two hours, despite the omissions required to protect the supernaturals involved. We spent some time talking about our modeling and dive tour, then the events around our abduction. “The other two women captured were your security detail, correct?”

“Yes, they declined to participate in this interview as they are not public personalities,” I said.

“Do you blame them for allowing the kidnapping?”

I rolled my eyes at the question. “No. I blame myself, and I take full responsibility for what happened.”

“Why?”

“To save money, I decided to cross-train my security people as extra divers and camera operators. It seemed like a good idea then; I figured we’d be at sea, away from threats, so I wouldn’t need them watching me. When we left the tourist area of Cancun, which does have good security, I hired four off-duty police officers as security instead. That didn’t work.”

“The police officers were gone when we came up from the dive,” Amy said. “We don’t know if they were scared off or paid off, but they weren’t protecting us. We were on private land, diving a cenote that wasn’t open to other divers." She shook her head at me. "Six kidnappers rolled in with automatic weapons; even the police we hired wouldn’t have stopped them. That’s not Vicki’s fault; the Cartels control the countryside, and we should have known better. We ALL assumed too much risk.” She reached her hand over to hold mine. “It was scary, and we know how few people get rescued. The Mexican Federal Police did a great job storming the mansion and freeing us. They deserve to be recognized.”

“Human trafficking is not getting better,” Makani said. “There are more people in slavery in the world today than there were before the Civil War.”

Noelani continued. “The slaveholders just hide it better. Sex workers, maids, factory workers, farm labor; around the world, there are millions of slaves, mostly women, with no future and no hope. They are nothing but commodities to buy and sell to the evil people who exploit them. They prey on runaways, immigrants, the poor, and the vulnerable.”

“I’ve talked to the FBI about what might have happened to us,” Amy continued. “Sold at auction, hooked on drugs, raped repeatedly, and used up before ending in a shallow grave somewhere. I’m lucky I avoided that fate and made it home with my husband and family.”

“What do you think can be done to stop this,” the reporter asked.

“We have to change in here,” I said as I pointed to my heart. “It’s not all right, and it’s happening all around us. That man paying for a prostitute is creating the market for sex trafficking. The cartels and organized crime traffic women for a simple reason; there is a profit in it. How difficult is it to understand that one human should not own another?”

“Are you going to become an advocate for these women,” she asked.

“I already am,” I answered evenly. “And you can be an advocate as well. Keep your eyes open and report suspicious behaviors. It only took one person called in the tip to the police that led to our freedom. Perhaps one of you can do that for a girl who has given up hope of things ever getting better.”

“Can one person do that much?”

“We’re going to find out. The four of us are putting up a million dollars for the fight against child sex trafficking. Bodyglove Sportswear is matching our donation, and we’re seeking other partners. This money will kick-start a reward fund to go after these predators. The National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888, that's 1-888-GET-HELP, will be taking anonymous tips. (Author's Note: This is a REAL NUMBER.) If your information leads to the arrest and conviction of a child sex trafficker, you’ll get a ten thousand dollar reward.”

“That’s very generous of you.”

“Any person who wants to add their money to the fight can do that,” I said after giving out the website. I also mentioned two charities who helped sex trafficking victims who got free. I knew the phone number and site would be on the screen and on the Dateline website later on. “Wouldn’t it be great if instead of the victims, it was the TRAFFICKERS who had sleepless nights, wondering if they would ever be free again?”

“That would be a change,” she said.

“We can make it happen if we decide it is important enough.”

The rest of the interview was much lighter, talking about our new show on the Discovery Channel, stories from the tour, and our personal lives. “You girls are all engaged or married, aren’t you?” We all smiled and showed our rings to the camera. “Do you think people will watch a reality show about teenagers who aren’t having sex all the time, taking drugs, and partying?”

“I'm married and having sex all the time, at least when he's home,” Amy said with a big smile. “I think people want to see something smarter and more wholesome than what reality shows typically are. We’ve put a lot of time into this project.”

I smiled. “It’s a reality show about our lives, and our lives are exciting. I can’t wait for everyone to see the places we’ve gone to and the things we’ve done.”

“And you can watch us with your parents and not be embarrassed,” Makani said.

“Mostly,” Noelani said with a giggle.

“What are you girls doing next?”

Amy rolled her eyes. “We have to spend thirty hours in an airplane to see Vicki get married,” she said. “Really? You couldn’t have found a man in San Diego like the rest of us?”

I laughed at them. “Look at the bright side, it’s summer down under, and you can finally wear a swimsuit!”