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CHAPTER12
A day or two after their capture, the men had shot Annie. After she’d regained consciousness, she wouldn’t stop screaming, and one of them had pulled out a gun and put a bullet in her head. Katie had watched it like a movie reel unwinding in front of her. She’d been unable to look away. The man had smirked at her as he’d dragged Annie’s body out of the cage, hauling her off somewhere.
After that, they’d all stopped screaming.
Katie had been on some sort of drug since she’d gotten here. She wasn’t high because that implied some sort of pleasurable experience.
This was not fun. She’d lost all sense of reality.
Katie’s head was humming. There was a low vibration that was like a background noise inside her, and she hated it. The noise kept her from making sense of her surroundings, like an annoying baby scream, only deep and reverberating through her head, interrupting thoughts.
She could see outside of her cage but had no idea how long she’d been here. Time meant nothing to her anymore. She could barely remember her life, honestly. Her veins throbbed with whatever drugs they fed her, these men with guns who wore all black, stalking around the cages and standing on the perimeter of the room they were in.
The room was huge, with a dirt floor. It was like being inside, but outside at the same time. And it was hot. And gross. Anytime one of the girls threw up or urinated, the men stalking around would simply kick dirt over the mess and move on. It smelled, but that was truly the least of their worries.
There were more girls here than just the three of them. Cassandra had been taken away almost immediately, and Veronica didn’t look good. But they’d moved her cage away from Katie’s so she couldn’t talk to her.
Not that she could talk much at all.
After the airplane, she’d woken up here and made a plan. She couldn’t remember the plan, but she knew she had to do one thing first, and that’s all she could remember.
A man in black who seemed to be in charge came by her cage, and she said the words she’d been saying for days.
Weeks?
“My parents can pay. Ransom.” That’s why she was here, right? Money? They were selling them? Surely they would be interested in money from her parents.
Katie didn’t remember much about her life before this. She only knew that to try to remember really hurt so she didn’t. Because when she tried to go back there in her mind to escape this place, she felt so much pain for things lost, she immediately came back here, to the present. She really missed her mom and dad. They weren’t close, but they were family, and the fact she’d never see them again cut deep.
Words in thick Spanish met her ears, a rapid staccato beat that didn’t help the thrumming undertone already in her head. Her vision swam into focus, letting her know things had been vague up until now, and she saw a stunning pair of heels on the ground in front of her.
They were so shiny, she could see the individual dust motes as they landed on her shoes against the black patent leather.
The woman looked at her as she spoke, her voice holding a terrifying chill. The man who seemed to be in charge deferred to her, but shook his head at her words. The woman didn’t seem happy, pulling her shoulders back and standing at her full height.
She towered over Katie, who wasn’t a tall woman, but curled up in this cage, she was even tinier.
The woman gesticulated, and a few words came through to Katie from the man’s answer.
Lobo Gris
Those words meant something to her, but she couldn’t remember. Her head spun as she tried to place them in a memory that made sense. She knew who Lobo Gris was, but he was someone who made her happy, and this was not a place to think about happiness. But had he made her happy? A bone-deep sorrow filled her that made tears fill her eyes.
Whatever emotion she was feeling had no place here, with the cages full of women and dirt floors and drugged water.
Wherever here was.
Her head pounded as the two people stood over her, arguing. The woman looked livid, and the man looked triumphant.
She’d been thirsty since she’d been here, They’d given her water, but she was pretty sure it had something in it. Nevertheless, she was thirsty. It was hot and dusty and dry, and she was in a state of constant thirst.
She repeated her words, the only thing she could remember speaking since she’d gotten here.
“My parents can pay a ransom.” Her voice was a hoarse croak; she was so thirsty.
The woman laughed at her before squatting to look in her cage. She really was beautiful, and Katie was fascinated with the way her ruby-red lips moved as she spoke.
“Pobrecita… Your parents can’t save you now.” The words spoken with a heavily accented voice were a beautiful melody to her, the first English words spoken to Katie since she’d entered this hell.
The meaning sank in as the woman walked away with a cackle, shoving the man aside as she strode away on her impossibly high heels. She didn’t understand pobrecita, but the sarcasm had been clear. Her parents wouldn’t know where she was. Probably ever. She would die here and they would never know.
