Chapter 21
Hattie
The men around her were speaking Portuguese. She recognized it after her time on the Azores Islands, but she didn’t actually know what they were saying. It was close to Spanish, but she had only taken that language in high school, she didn’t actually speak it beyond a few, random words.
Not that it mattered. Some things were universal.
A bag over her head, zip ties on her wrists, and the distinct clicking of guns needed no translation.
It was hard to bring herself to care though.
Not when she had seen Tuvo gunned down like a wild animal.
The memory was burned onto the back of her eyelids. The darkness under the bag only made it stand out more. The way his eyes had widened as blood exploded out of his back. How he had reached for her even as he collapsed.
How he hadn’t moved, and she could swear he was dead.
But then, when those guys tried to grab him, how he snarled and swiped out with his claws, without even opening his eyes. A reflex. One that had nearly lost one guy his arm. They hadn’t been willing to get close to him after that.
Hattie didn’t know what happened to him. If he was still alive. If they had just shot him from a distance and killed him right there when he was prone and helpless.
Because by then, the two guys that had grabbed her had forced her hands behind her back and zip tied them and she was being dragged away.
They had walked with her for what had to be miles. The pace had been relentless. Her feet hurt, her mouth was dry, her lips were chapped, and her head was throbbing. They hadn’t offered her any water or even a chance to rest.
Just when she had been about to collapse, they had suddenly come upon a road.
Well, not really a ‘road’ road. It was two, parallel lines in the dirt made from the passage of cars, but it was still technically a road. And sitting on it, clearly waiting for them, were two jeeps.
That was the point the bag had been put over her head.
She had been shoved up into a seat, the others called out to each other in Portuguese, and they were off.
Driving through the jungle on a road that was bumpy and uneven.
She hadn’t been offered a seatbelt and the jeeps had no doors, but she wasn’t worried about falling out thanks to the two, big men seated on either side of her.
Where were they taking her? What was going to happen to her?
Was Tuvo okay?
Questions that had no answers swam around inside her head as they drove for what felt like over an hour. It was dark now, the inside of the sack completely black. She could actually hear the difference when the engines suddenly stopped echoing off of the surrounding trees.
Something metallic clanged – like the opening of a gate. Then, after they passed, it did it again, only this time it was from behind them.
They had been locked in. Wherever this was.
The two men on either side of her disappeared and she was grabbed on her left arm, hard enough to bruise, before being unceremoniously yanked out and tossed to her knees. She flinched as the bag was suddenly yanked off her head.
Grimacing, she tilted her head up.
It was dark, but she could see the sky overhead. The twinkling lights, the moon. The shadowy silhouettes of the men surrounding her. Speaking in rapid Portuguese, arguing about something. Like she was completely inconsequential.
Something was decided and she was jerked back up to her feet and this time pulled through the door of a big, boxy, concrete building. In the middle of the . Surrounded on all sides by a big, stone wall with barbed wire and search towers. Search towers!
These definitely weren’t good guys.
Hattie was taken inside and guided through a series of short hallways until they came upon a door that one of the guys beat against, yelling something, while another unlocked it. The door opened inward, and Hattie was shoved inside without warning.
She fell again, this time onto her side, trying to hunch in on herself to protect her head without her hands. Her shoulder and hip ached from the fall. She groaned, rolling over just in time to see the door slammed shut behind her.
The slide of the lock seemed like a seal on her fate.
Sucking in a stuttered breath, trying not to cry, she tried to sit up. And failed. It was a difficult task with her arms tied behind her back.
Until a soft, gentle pair of hands suddenly took her shoulders and helped her.
She turned, eyes wide, to find herself looking at another woman.
The room had a very dull light buzzing overhead – yellow and flickering. Offering her just enough illumination to make out the hardened, stern features of a pretty girl, probably a bit younger than herself, with long, smooth black hair, and dirty clothes.
She said something and Hattie shook her head.
“I’m sorry. I don’t speak Portuguese.”
The girl cocked her head curiously and said, in heavily accented English. “American? What are you doing here?”
“Wasn’t exactly a choice,” Hattie sniffed, tears forming. Just from seeing a semi-friendly face. “The, er, plane I was in crashed. I got stranded in the forest.”
The girl grunted, moving behind her. “I say you were lucky, but maybe fate just wants you to suffer. You crashed here and got caught by these putas.”
“Where am I? Who are these guys?”
Hattie couldn’t see what the woman was doing but, after some tugging, the zip ties around her wrists suddenly broke and she could bring them around to her front again.
She winced at the pain there and in her shoulders as she turned just in time to see the woman hiding something in the hem of her jeans. A knife?
She remained crouched beside Hattie, giving her a searching look. “They call themselves Tres Argolas. Three Rings. They’re, how you say… flesh sellers.”
It took a second for that to translate and Hattie felt her heart lurch. “Traffickers? They’re human traffickers?”
“Yeah. That’s the one. You in their clutches now. No getting away.”
“But… Then you?”
“Yeah.” She sneered, turning her head and spitting. “One of them wanted me. I said no. He didn’t take it for an answer. So, he gonna sell me. Make me pay. I’m waiting. He comes to gloat, and I know he will, I kill him first. Then myself.”
“Woah! And yourself?” Hattie shook her head. “That’s wrong! You can’t-”
“I won’t live like this!” She snapped, getting to her feet. “I’ll end my own body before I give them the pleasure of having it. If you smart, you do the same.”
Hattie hesitated but stood up after her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was judging you. I just…”
The woman seemed to relax a bit and she nodded. “I get it. Takes a second to sink in, yeah? Better get used to it. Pick out one you want to take with you and try to do some damage on your way out. What my mam?e always taught me.”
“Er, what’s your name?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and said, with no small amount of pride. “Belmira. I make sure they remember it before I go. What’s your name?”
“Hattie.”
She inclined her head in greeting. “Sorry you’re here, Hattie. But at least we won’t die alone, yeah?”
Hattie shook her head, a strange but warm certainty settling in her gut. “We aren’t going to die. Tuvo will come for us. For me. I know he will.”
If he was still alive.