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There’s no light, hands grip my legs as I thrash and kick but it’s no use. The nozzle is pulled from my grip. My legs are strapped together, something cuts into the flesh of my wrists as the engine on the boat groans and revs. I’m gagged, blindfolded and handed from one set of hands to the other, then laid on what I assume is one of the benches on the boat as I buck and twist. The engine roars as the spray of water chills my hot skin.
The engine and the wind make it impossible to hear what they are saying. There’s low grunts, but I can’t make out any detail. I’m not afraid, I’m waiting. And furious. Paying attention as I bounce on the seat cushion where I’m now strapped.
I calm my heartbeat, steady my breathing. If they want to scare me, they’re going to be fucking disappointed. My mother taught me when I was young, the world is going to be harder on me because I was a girl and she made sure, in her own way, I was prepared. I can’t say we had the softest, most loving relationship. She was from Cuba and her own history was mostly a mystery, but I do know, she came to this country on a boat. Barely alive. She always told me, I will never know what determination is until I’m called to rise. Then, being prepared is part of what will carry you through, the other part is sheer will.
She did her best to prepare me. She was hard on me, but it turned me into who I am, and one thing her tough lessons taught me, is never be afraid.
The motor cuts out and my ears ring. I’m cursing around the gag as I’m lifted and carried, then dropped into what feels like the back seat of a car. I twist my head against the back of the seat, over and over dislodging my blindfold as the back door of what looks like an orc-sized Bentley closes with the two Henley-wearing orcs standing on the outside.
I gnash my teeth and rub the side of my face on the leather until my gag dislodges. The scent of leather and an obnoxious orc cologne that smells like burned meat and rotting apples turns my stomach.
“Who the fuck are you?” I buck against the seat, raising my feet delivering a hard kick to the back of the driver’s headrest.
“I’m your new Daddy.” The one in the passenger seat growls, leaning around to look at me. His hair is short, not in the traditional long sort of Mohawk ponytail. He’s wearing a hand-stitched suit, black with a leather tie. His forehead is thick with scars as he snaps his tongue over his tusks.
“Fuck you are.” I spit and deliver another double kick with a grunt. “Not sure what your plan is here, dipshit, but I know one thing, you didn’t plan onme.”
Two more kicks and the driver growls, turning and baring his teeth at me.
“I’m not fucking scared, so if that’s what turns you on, sorry, it’s going to be limp dicks from here on out.”
“She’s loud,” passenger orc says, sarcasm tipping his words. “This will be more fun this way.”
The driver only grunts as fancy-suit orc turns back toward the front of the car.
“This female better be worth it.” The one with the suit says. “We will burn every boat there, then the docks, then the house if they do not comply. Of course, we will use her up first. Humans are weak for their females, they will give us what we want.”
“So that’s what this is about? The marina?” I laugh without humor. “We will not give you what you want, assholes. I’ll grill your spleen over an open fire before you take anything from us.”
There’s no progress being made like this, so I decide to shut up and listen. We drive for what I guess is a half hour, they don’t talk much, something about a father, some Judicial Enforcement connection, but nothing I can put together to use to my advantage.
Not yet at least.
Any time the suit-wearing orc glances at me I lock eyes with him. Then we pull up over soft ground outside a large building. Some sort of old pole barn, but whatever it used to be it’s clear it’s seen better days. There were windows once, but now there are just weather-worn boards and climbing plants that have decided this place is theirs.
“This is your five star hotel, human. Things get much worse once we take you from here.”
“Fuck you,” I spit back, but I’m conserving my energy. Right now, that’s my goal as he laughs and climbs out.
The door is opened, and a second later pain shoots through my head as he grabs me by the hair and jerks me from the car. He doesn’t even look my way as he drags me inside through a doorway that’s covered by a tarp. No guards, no locks. Then I’m unceremoniously shoved forward down a narrow corridor, and into a large open space.
There’s one other orc here facing away from us is more massive than any I’ve seen before. His back is covered in scars from old wounds and bruises from fresh ones. He doesn’t turn our way as the bindings at my wrists and ankles are tugged free. I could fight, but I consider my odds and conserve my energy.
Fight smarter not harder as my mother always said.
“Where are we?” I ask, knowing I need as much information as possible. Maybe they’re stupid enough to answer.
“Nothing you need to know, little female sweetheart,” Suit says. He’s trying hard to sound more human than orc and it’s strange and awkward. “Welcome to your new home.”
My skin crawls as he laughs with that odd choking sound then grabs my shoulders spinning me around, and it’s then that I see it as I’m shoved from behind.
The massive pit has been dug into the floor of the building like a crater in some meteor-hits-Earth disaster movie. The floor is dirt, rough and uneven, but the walls are lined with slick metal sheets. The bare ground is thankfully soft as I’m delivered downward, yelping as I half-roll in a ball into the pit. There are footprints here, evidence of others who have shared my fate. There’s a lumpy mattress that’s about as filthy as I’d expect for these accommodations. I wonder for a second what happened to the others, then shake my head and push the thought away. It does me no good right now to think of maybes and what-ifs.
Instead, I push to my feet, turn and watch the three orcs standing eight feet above me.
“Feisty little human, I give her that,” Suit says to the massive orc towering at least a foot taller than the others. His thicker, harder muscles twitching under his sage-green skin. He’s not looked at me, but I see enough of him to know that he’s ugly, even for an orc. His face doesn’t look quite right, twisted and scarred on one side, and it’s clear that his tusks have been broken and had to grow back from the calcification near the base. But it’s the sadness in his nearly black eyes that makes me fall silent when I want to answer back, that twists at my heart. “She gives you some shit, feel free to make her regret it.”
The big orc grunts. “What about injuries?”
