Chapter 1
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LUCIANA Rodriguez followed her captors down a narrow, well-worn stone pathway between several old buildings lining the road.
The air was still, both hot and humid, and strands of her long hair clung to the back of her neck as she shuffled dutifully along, her heart racing.
She felt the threat of the men’s holstered weapons almost as much as if they’d been holding a knife directly to her throat.
One wrong move, and she’d probably be begging for them to kill her.
In the grim reality she now lived in, Luciana knew there were fates even worse than death.
She swallowed as they moved past another building, her fear nearly overtaking her. Her breathing was shallow, and she tried to steady her breath, to calm her overloaded nervous system and focus on the present moment. Memorize her surroundings. Get oxygen flowing through her bloodstream.
Luciana sucked in a big gulp of air as her heart thudded. Was she having a panic attack? She’d never had them in the past, but she’d also never been held hostage before.
Nothing in her reality was in her control any longer.
Not the food she ate. Not the clothes she wore.
Not the times of day when she was allowed to bathe or relieve herself.
And she certainly didn’t have the freedom to venture outside the home she’d been held captive in or even to open a damn window and take a breath of fresh air.
Every moment of her day was controlled by her kidnappers, and she was ashamed to admit that she was too scared to do anything but listen and follow their orders.
One day had bled into another, never-ending and relentless. Until now.
Her eyes adjusted to the dimness of twilight, and she wondered why they were here in this alley. After nearly a month of being held prisoner, Luciana had been shocked that she’d been taken outside of the home at all.
What had changed?
It had been a risk to bring her into the outskirts of Panama City yesterday, and no doubt an even greater risk to do so two days in a row. Someone could’ve spotted her. Alerted her employer. Called the authorities. And yet, despite the hazard, her kidnappers had brought her along with them.
Uneasiness churned through her stomach. Was anyone even looking for her anymore?
She might be presumed dead or believed to be tucked away so secretly, she’d never be found.
The thought that no one might be searching for her was agonizing.
The knowledge that life had simply continued on without her was painfully humbling.
And yet she knew it to be true. The world hadn’t stopped just because her own existence had been forever altered.
Luciana’s work as a nurse with Doctors without Borders felt like a lifetime ago.
The last thing she remembered was going into the storage room with her roommate and fellow nurse, Avery Nielsen, at their work site in Bajo Chiquito, near the Darien Gap.
The American doctor who they’d suspected of smuggling drugs had been hiding in wait.
As she and Avery went to search for boxes they believed he’d hidden in the storage area, the door had slammed shut behind them.
Luciana had screamed in fright as Dr. Walters had jumped out.
Before she could so much as run or otherwise defend herself, she was struck from behind. Knocked out cold.
She’d woken up hours later, drugged and bleeding from a head wound.
No doubt concussed. While she thought at one point that Avery had been with her in the back of a moving vehicle, they’d eventually been separated.
When Luciana was lucid enough to realize what had happened and become somewhat aware of her surroundings, she’d been alone.
The twisted, evil doctor had been nowhere in sight, and her worst fears had come true. She’d been kidnapped and sold off like property, left at the hands of a ruthless cartel to do with her as they pleased.
She had no idea what had happened to Avery—what she’d endured or if she was even alive after all this time.
Luciana clenched her jaw, trying to fight back tears.
She could handle whatever fate was dealt her, but her friend was an American, practically from another world.
She wasn’t used to the grim realities that Luciana had faced in her lifetime.
If Avery was being held, Luciana feared she’d never survive it.
Luciana’s captors had kept her stable after she’d been taken to a remote home, and that had been that.
She’d been kept in a drugged state as she healed from her head wound, and while Luciana heard the screams of the other women imprisoned there, she hadn’t been assaulted—yet.
She’d recovered but had been drugged and restrained.
Her dreams made little sense, but as she’d become more aware of her surroundings, slowly weaned off whatever illicit drugs they’d been giving her, words like “buyer” and “price” stuck out in the conversations she overheard.
Aside from the cries of the other women in the home, interspersed with harsh male demands, she felt the fear in the air.
Smelt the stench of unwashed bodies and sex in the air.
They were trafficking women, moving them in and out of the home where she was held, and Luciana had no idea if she’d be next.
Shuddering, Luciana nearly stumbled in the work boots she wore as they trudged along.
While she’d been kept in a threadbare nightgown, locked in a bedroom, they’d held on to the clothing she’d been wearing at the time of her kidnapping.
When they’d taken her out of the home for the first time yesterday, she’d been allowed to dress in her own clothes and boots.
To blend in?
Luciana wasn’t sure.
Simply being outside the confines of her bedroom prison had been overwhelming.
She was too scared to scream but hoped against hope that someone spotted her.
Luciana had no doubt that if she so much as cried for help, she’d be dead within moments.
The grim reality was, if she wanted to escape, she’d most likely have to do so on her own.
She’d have to bide her time. Plan carefully.
This was only her second time outside the home she’d been imprisoned in, and if she behaved and followed their orders, perhaps they’d bring her out in public with them more frequently.
Perhaps someday, she’d be brave enough to flee. To cry out for help. To fight for her life.
The men holding her hostage were most likely part of the Clan de Gulfo, one of the many notorious cartels currently engaged in a turf battle and the most prominent in the region.
While it was well-known that they moved large volumes of drugs, Luciana had come to learn firsthand that they also were involved in the trafficking and sale of women.
She looked around, memorizing details of the area as they walked between another set of old buildings, and Luciana nearly ran into the man in front of her as he came to an abrupt stop.
He cursed in Spanish, shooting her a scathing look before rattling off instructions to the second guy.
She studied the first man for a beat, taking in the dirty bandana tied around his neck and the jagged scar on his cheek.
He was missing a tooth and had a somewhat pudgy face, was short but stocky, and it was clear that he was the ringleader of the men she was with.
He wasn’t the head honcho though. His voice wasn’t the same as that of the man she often heard yelling orders in the large home—the voice of her nightmares. He’d come to her when she was drugged and practically incoherent, watching the women of the home tend to her wound.
Now that she was healed?
Luciana shuddered. Nothing was stopping him or any of the men from assaulting her, and she feared it was only a matter of time.
The second man began speaking rapidly in Spanish, eagerly scanning the street ahead. “Si. Let’s look for the girls. They come along this path alone in the evenings on their return home. It will be the same two we’ve watched before. No one is here to protect them.”
Her stomach churned.
The other man replied, laughing as he made lewd comments about the teenage girls they were waiting for. Realization dawned. Yesterday had been a scouting mission. They were here today to...what? Kidnap more victims? Assault the teenagers?
Luciana hadn’t seen the girls yesterday, but she’d been mostly kept out of sight. The men had brought her here tonight for a reason, and none of the possibilities were good.
They continued talking quietly, one of the men drawing Luciana to his side as they moved closer to the road. She stilled as his grubby hand wrapped around her waist, squeezing. “You will help us fetch the pretty teenagers.”
She swallowed, and he laughed gleefully.
The first man glared at her. “You will speak to the girls. Bring them to us while we wait in the alley.”
“What? No, I can’t possibly—”
Luciana gasped in surprise as the second man suddenly pushed her against the rough stone building, his hand sliding around her neck as the stone scraped her face.
The first man chuckled as the second rubbed his erection against her ass.
“You rather we use you instead? Too old for our buyer, but not too old for me,” he chuckled, sliding his other hand down to her crotch.
Luciana choked out a cry, tears streaming down her cheeks.
After all this time, was he going to rape her right here?
She shook as the man fumbled with the zipper of her pants. “No, no,” she whimpered, trying to push him off of her.
He laughed, grinding himself against her ass, still tugging on her zipper.
“Quiet!” the scarred man ordered sharply. “They are coming.”
The man pinning her to the wall cursed but released her, and Luciana shook as she turned toward the street ahead, her heart racing. If she’d been wearing something other than pants and boots, she wondered if he would’ve already assaulted her right there in the alley.
Her eyes stung and hands trembled as she took in the scene before her, listening to the sound of two teenagers talking rapidly in Spanish. A giggle burst forth between them, and by their approaching footsteps, she knew they were close.
“You will go speak with them,” the scarred man ordered.
Luciana’s lip quivered, and she swiped the tears from her eyes. She was still rattled, in shock at what had nearly happened.
“Now!” he snapped, his voice harsh.
When she didn’t move fast enough, the second man shoved her out of the alley and into the street.
As Luciana cried out, she briefly locked eyes with an elderly woman who quickly disappeared into the doorway of a building.
Luciana hit the ground, and the two teenagers rushed toward her, not realizing the danger lurking just steps away.
“No,” Luciana said, her voice weak. Her hands were scraped, bleeding from the fall, and she tried to push herself up so she could stand.
“Are you okay?” one girl asked.
“Leave!” Luciana whispered.
“You’re bleeding,” one of the teenagers said.
They crouched down to help her, and Luciana let out a strangled cry as the two men from the alley suddenly pounced.
The teenagers were incapacitated within moments, drugged with whatever the hell Dr. Walters had been providing to the cartels.
Luciana felt sick as she saw an empty vial fall to the ground, one of the men palming it to leave no trace of their presence.
The girls were limp, helpless, and as the men roughly lifted them up, chuckling at their newest prizes, the man with the scarred face glared at her.
“Get up, bitch. You cause any problems on the journey back, and I’ll make you watch as we fuck them both. Maybe we’ll give you a go, too,” he sneered. His eyes grew harder. “If you run, we’ll kill them right now.”
Luciana bit back her retort, shakily rising to her feet.
She glanced briefly at her scraped hands, now covered in dirt and tiny pieces of gravel.
The street was empty and silent, the evening growing darker, and as she followed her captors back into the alley, it almost felt like she was entering her tomb.