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Chapter 10
Everything fucking hurt.
A hard jostle tossed me to the side, and I groaned, knocking my forehead against something hard. I blinked several times, groaning as the ringing in my ears reached a fever pitch. My head was pounding, and it took a while for me to realize that I was still hooded. It felt like I’d swallowed a mass of cotton balls. My shoulders were stiff and sore, and the back of my head hurt more than anything.
Fuck. Me. Where the fuck was I?
I tried to move my wrists, but the scratching of rope against my skin kept me from doing much of anything. I felt the same thing on my ankles. I wasn’t flexible enough to slide my bound wrists under my butt, so I just worked on gradually sliding them back and forth behind me. After a fair amount of effort, they felt a bit looser.
I focused on that rather than the panic brewing deep inside me. Now was not the time to fully lose my shit.
An angry clang and the roaring sound of a motor surrounded me. As I jostled back and forth again, I hesitantly guessed I was in the trunk of some kind of sedan. The engine sputtered and a hard bump made me fly upward, knocking my head on the metal part of the trunk. I yelped as a fiery jolt of pain throbbed across my skull. Desperately, I fiddled with my wrist bonds a bit more. Whoever tied me hadn’t done a particularly good job, because in a few more minutes I was able to get one of my wrists to slide out without it hurting too much. It pinched and I was sure I’d given myself a rope burn but getting my hands free was more than worth it. I stretched my fingers as a wave of numbness poured down my wrists, but then I quickly ripped the mask off my head and the cloth gag out of my mouth. Once my face was uncovered and I could draw in a full breath, my pounding heart started to calm just the slightest bit. I looked around me, trying to figure out my next move.
I’d been right. I was in someone’s trunk. I couldn’t figure out much about the model from the inside though. There was a bit of light that bled through the rear taillights, and I could see enough to tell it was some older sedan, but that was about it. I pushed against one of them with my hand, but I couldn’t get enough leverage against it. I remember reading somewhere in some crazy internet news story that a kidnap victim stuck in a tru
nk could kick out a taillight and signal to people outside the car for rescue. It seemed like my best bet, but I was going to have to free my ankles to do it.
I went to work on the rope around my feet next. That knot was tighter, and I had to curl up and use both hands to try to untie it. Unable to really get a good look at it, I had to use a lot of guesswork to even begin to loosen it. After a while though, I found what felt like the right piece of rope and pulled it. I sighed in relief when the tie gave way. I fluttered my feet and kicked off the rough piece of rope.
If my shoulders weren’t sore and I wasn’t stuck in the trunk of some lunatic’s car, I would have patted myself on the back.
Without any further delay, I rearranged myself so that I could press the heel of my foot against the taillight. I used just a little bit of force against it at first, but it didn’t budge. I kicked it a little harder and grunted in disappointment when it still didn’t move.
Just when I was winding up to kick out the light with everything in me though, the car rolled to a stop and the motor cut off.
Fuck me sideways. This wasn’t good.
Quickly, I grabbed the rope and slid my hands behind my back. I worked it back over my wrists before the trunk opened and I was blinded by the bright blue of the sky overhead. I blinked several times and tried to get my eyes used to the sudden change as quickly as I could. Shapes started to form in front of me. Three of them.
I kept blinking, but by the time I realized that they were three large men they had already reached out to grab me and yank me out of the trunk. The man closest to me squeezed my arm tight enough that I knew it would bruise. When I struggled to take a step, they didn’t pause or even try to help steady me. They just let me stumble and fall, laughing as I jarred my shoulder pretty hard into the dirt. I cried out as the sharp edge of a rock dug into my shoulder. One of them finally pulled me up by my upper arm and led me down a dirt path.
It looked like they’d taken me somewhere deeper into the jungle. I had no idea how far away from port we were. I’d been knocked out for part of the journey, and I wasn’t sure how long that had been for. We could be more than a hundred miles from port for all I knew.
I turned my head and got a good look at the side profile of the big man dragging me through the brush. He was definitely Mexican, but there wasn’t a single thing about him that seemed friendly. There was a fierce-looking scar on the side of his face that cut through his thick sideburns, and a permanent scowl on his face. He was at least twice my size and the two men who followed were just as big.
When I stumbled over a tree root, the man’s scowl only deepened, and he jerked me hard. I flew forward and only just caught myself with a massive step, but it jolted my knee hard in the process.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Wasn’t she gagged?” the man growled, and the raspy current of his voice chilled me to the core.
“I don’t know. Maybe Jose did a shit job of tying it over her head,” one of the others answered.
“Her shoulder is bleeding,” the one to my back left observed.
“Fuck. The boss wanted her unharmed,” the big one jerking me along mumbled.
“She’s alive. Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Let me go. I’ll give you whatever you want,” I offered, trying the path of least resistance first.
“Ha! Nemesio would cut off my left nut if I took what I want,” Scar answered.
“Probably the right one too,” Righty added with a dangerous chuckle. Righty had a pretty trim goatee. I kind of wanted to punch it right off.
Nemesio…
The man my father had arranged for me to marry.
