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“They said…” I straighten my shoulders. As much as I hate it, I need to behave. I need to do what it takes to stay alive. “They said you’re the boss.”
He turns back to face me, and I take in his features. They’re softer, somehow, than I expected. He has windswept brown hair and a rigid jaw. His nose looks as if it’s been broken before and healed crooked.
When he smiles at me, I notice a scar just under his bottom lip.
“Now then, there you are.”
I study him, trying to decide why he sounds so familiar when I’ve definitely never met him. “Have you…been on this boat the whole time?” Perhaps he’s one of the men I’ve heard outside my door over the past few days. Has it been days? My perception of time is so muddled now.
“No. I just arrived.”
I nod. “So, are you? The boss, I mean?”
“I am,” he confirms. “Why do you ask?”
“Just curious. Where are we headed?”
He looks down, folding his hands behind his back. When he speaks, he displays a slight accent that wasn’t there before. “Isla de los Robados.”
“Where is that?”
“Not far.”
“What will…happen there?”
Again, his chin touches his chest. “I’m going to let you go.”
I take a sharp breath, sure I must’ve heard him incorrectly. “You’re…what?”
“You didn’t mishear, Mae. Once we get on the island, I’m putting you on a boat. My crew will take you anywhere in the world you’d like to go. We’ll get you set up with a new identity. You’ll be free.”
I stare at him in utter disbelief. “What are you talking about?No.I want to go home. To my family.”
“Your family…” He scoffs.
“Yes,” I say adamantly. “My family. My husband. My parents. My friends. They will be missing me. I can’t just go live a new life. Why would I want to, even if I could? I have no money, no idea where to even start—”
“We can help with that.”
“Then why can’t you just let me go? Why can’t you take me back to Florida? I swear I won’t ever tell anyone what happened to me. I won’t! You can trust me.”
“Take you back? To your family, right?” he asks as if he’s egging me on at this point.
“Why do you say it like that? Yes, to my family.”
“Because your family doesn’t care about you, Mae. Don’t you get that? You can’t go back to them.”
“What are you talking about? Of course they—”
“They’re the reason you’re here,” he blurts out over me.
I open my mouth to respond but find myself lacking in words. “W-what? That’s crazy. Why would you say that?”
“Crazy, maybe. But true.”
“No. You can’t believe that—”
“I don’t just believe it. I know it.”
