Page 12 of Hammer’s Fall

“I think so. I’m not used to a big wardrobe. I’m fine with just a few days’ worth of clothes.”

“If you say so. But if you find you need something, anything, just let me know. We’ll make sure you get it.”

She lay quietly, her mind spinning.

“Why?” she asked a while later, not really knowing how much time had passed.

“Why what?” Hammer’s voice had gone husky and his words slow.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were asleep already. Never mind.”

“No,” he shifted, rolling to face her, though she couldn’t see more than just his silhouette. “I’m awake now, tell me why what?”

She watched his outline for a moment, trying to decide how to put this. How to say what she wanted to know without causing offense.

“Why did you take me? If it wasn’t to get some kind of revenge on Papá, I don’t understand. And what are you going to do with me now that I’m here?”

Hammer sighed. He rolled onto his back and covered his eyes with one arm.

“A couple of months ago we, meaning the club, stumbled across a man who was a piece of—,” he cut himself off, hesitated a moment, then continued, “shall we say, less than a stellar human. He had a habit of kidnapping girls, beating and abusing them until he had them docile enough to suit him, then he sold them. He’s no longer a problem, but I’ve been trying to find the women he sold.”

Camila was quiet for a moment, letting his words process.

“And you think Papá purchased her.” It was a statement, not a question. And even as she said it she considered the idea. Was Papá capable of buying and selling people as if they were cattle? She had the answer almost as soon as her brain had formed the question. Of course he would. She only had to look at how he’d treated her and Maria, and using Maria to keep Camila in line. Yeah, she could see her father involved in human trafficking. Wasn’t he basically looking to sell her off in some way that benefited him? What was the difference in getting money now or favors for years? It was still selling her.

“I know he did. I knew it was a long shot that she was still there. The purchase went through months ago. But I had to try.” He was silent for a moment and she wondered if he was looking for the words to continue or if he was thinking about the girl he had been looking for.

“Did you know her well?” she asked. The missing girl must have been a girlfriend, or maybe his sister, for him to be that sure and still looking for her after so long.

Hammer shook his head. “Never met her. Didn’t know she’d even disappeared until months after the fact.”

She went quiet as she tried to figure out why he was hunting for this woman so hard. Was she special to him in some other way?

“I don’t get it,” she said eventually.

“I’m not sure I can explain it. I just had this drive. To find her. To get her free if I could.”

“What is her name? I don’t meet a lot of people, and I don’t recall Papá bringing anyone around but maybe I’ll remember if you tell me?”

“Her name is Brittney,” he described her, or at least what she’d looked like when she’d disappeared, then he told her what kind of shape Miranda had been in when they’d found her.

Neither had really helped. Camila didn’t remember anyone her age around the compound in over a year. Not that they couldn’t have been there. It was a large building and an even larger property. It’s entirely possible Brittney was there, and Camila had never seen her.

“What now?” she asked.

Hammer sighed. “I don’t know. I had already tried to find a trail where he might have moved her or sold her to someone else, and hadn’t found any. I knew it was a long shot that she would still be in Nogales, or at least at your dad’s place in Nogales, but I had to go. I had to try.”

“And are you going to keep looking? Are you still trying to find her?”

“I’m not going to quit looking, but I’m bumping it down in my priorities.” He lifted his head and looked at her. “Chances are high she’s not even alive anymore. I know that, but I can’t just stop looking. I can’t just give up on her. Everyone else already has. I can’t be another who forgets about her. But the trail is cold. I don’t know how much more I can find.” He shrugged and continued to stare up at the ceiling. She watched him for long minutes, wondering what came next. She wanted to ask again but didn’t want to come across as uncaring. He’d just opened up and shared a lot with her. She didn’t want to repay that by being more focused on herself than anyone else but the imaginary band around her chest that kept her from breathing too deeply, that kept her from relaxing entirely, seemed to be getting tighter and tighter the longer she hung in limbo.

“I made you come with us because I thought it would hurt him. or that’s what it started out as, mostly.”

“Started out? Mostly?” Camila wasn’t sure she wanted to know what he meant, but she couldn’t keep herself from asking. He turned his head to look in her direction, though since she was closer to the wall, in the shadows, she wasn’t sure how much he could see.

“You were too eager to get out of there. It was like you’d just been waiting for a rescue. Or maybe just a chance to get away without getting Maria hurt. That, along with the bruises, told me you might have had different chains, but you were just as much a prisoner there as we thought Brittney was.” He fell silent, seeming to watch her for a full minute before he spoke again. This time his voice had gone soft, as if he didn’t want to put the words he was about to say out there, but he had to ask anyway. “Do you want to go back?”

“What? No.” she took a deep breath and turned to look up at the ceiling herself. “You’re right. I wanted out. I’ve wanted out for as long as I could remember but I refused to be responsible for him hurting Maria.”