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He held out his palms face up. “Sorry. It just seems like a lot to take on for anybody, that’s all.”

“It’s a really easy job, and it means the rent is hardly anything.”

“CiCi, you’ve only been out of the hospital for a couple of months,” he protested.

“I’ve been out of the hospital for over a year,” she sighed. “You sound just like Dad. If I don’t get accepted, I still want to move out. It’s time. The Vickers said they would hold the place for me, and in the meantime, I would continue to build up my endurance. The jogging and weight training have been really helping, and I’m going to continue that.”

He looked down at the fierce little warrior in front of him. How had she turned out to be such a fighter when she’d been so sick and abandoned? She was more than a miracle.

“What can I do to help?” he asked.

“Be here when I break the news to Dad.”

“You’ve got it.”

3

Jenny didn’t know how long it had taken her to roll to the side of the truck and prop herself up so that she wasn’t wallowing in sticky blood.

Too long.

She’d spit so much, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to pee again. Maybe, possibly, she wouldn’t end up with the world’s worst disease. Just thinking about it made her try to spit some more, but it was no use. She’d already tried to grab hold of her shirt collar with her mouth, but her hands were tied too tightly behind her back to allow her to reach forward.

“I’m fucked.”

“I’m so fucked.”

Thankfully, she’d found one of the wheel wells to brace herself against, but damn near every time the truck ran over another boulder she cracked her head against the side of the truck. At least she wouldn’t fall over.

Now she was going to suffer from a brain bleed along with some heretofore unheard of infectious, parasitic disease. She’d be written up in medical journals around the world.

Yeah, if they ever find my corpse.

“Snap out of it! You’ve faced worse challenges than this! Okay, maybe a backhand or punch from dear old Dad wasn’t worse than this but still. You survived.”

She shivered. Really?

“How in the hell can I be shivering in Bangladesh during the hot and sticky monsoon season?”

Bang.

Her head crashed against metal again and Jenny saw stars. She thought she might have actually passed out for a moment. She took a deep breath.

Dammit!

She’d breathed through her nose.

Gah! I’m going to throw-up. The stench.

For a moment she wanted to cry as she forced herself to take three steady breaths through her mouth.

No crying. She could breathe. She was alive.

Ahmed. How could she have forgotten Ahmed? They’d shot him.

But she’d only heard the one shot before they’d gotten in the truck. That meant that Sabina and Sonia were safe. They would be going for help. They’d tell people what had happened. Or would they?

How could they possibly go to the police and say they saw men in police uniforms shoot their brother and kidnap their co-worker? Who would possibly believe them? What’s more, if they ended up talking to police who were being bribed by the Awami League, wouldn’t they be targeted? They hadn’t heard the men say that they were actually kidnappers, only Ahmed had heard that.