Let’s Play a Game
LET’S PLAY A GAME
Glennon
“Guillermo’s guys?” he whispered, his lips barely moving.
“Can’t tell. Might be independents, but I doubt it. It’s like they knew we were coming,” she replied.
No words were spoken, but the raised guns spoke a language all their own. Rough hands ripped the backpacks from their shoulders, and hands groped her, as well as her pockets, as they searched for weapons. Everything they had on them was confiscated.
Satisfied they had nothing on them capable of hurting their captors, the men roughly turned them around and marched back to the village.
Upon arrival, the two women stood in the same spot as before, their looks still hostile, yet satisfied they’d been captured.
The children didn’t stop whatever game they were playing, but the dog once again let its displeasure at their presence be known.
The muzzle of a rifle prodded her between the shoulder blades, directing her into one of the dwellings in the center, if you could call it that, of the village.
The choice was purposeful. It had no windows, the floor was dirt, and it was stiflingly hot.
Positioned where it was, there would be no easy way to break down the door and flee, and she doubted they could tunnel out under the wall and slip into the jungle during the night. It would take too long.
Once they were both inside, the door shut, and they heard the distinct sound of a padlock being engaged.
“They were watching for us.”
“Yep.” She leaned against the wall perpendicular to the door and slid to the ground. This way, when it opened, she’d be behind it. Any second of invisibility might matter.
He sat next to her on the outside, as if he might be one more barricade between her and whatever came through the door.
When he spoke, it was so quiet she barely heard him.
“Do you think we should activate one of my trackers? I know we still have another day of life on yours, but do you think activating it might signal we’re in trouble? ”
“Not yet. Demon and Steel are hopefully close behind. Two trackers running while we’re together won’t make them arrive any faster.” She closed her eyes. “Might as well rest while we can.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
She shrugged. “These guys aren’t going to do anything to us.
If they were going to, they would have shot us on the trail.
Or shot you and brought me back here for whatever party plan they had.
We weren’t harmed in any way, so that tells me they’re being paid to hold onto us until someone else arrives. ”
Her words were calm, but inside, she was a mess. All she wanted to do was vomit. She just might, considering how her stomach was rolling around inside her belly. This was bad. So very, very bad. And likely the end of the line for both of them if Steel and Demon didn’t get there soon.
She should warn Triumph, but she hesitated. Would knowing their fate looked bleak finally be the thing that broke the collected individual he’d been? There was no way of knowing, and if it was the end, she desperately didn’t want him panicking before then.
Despite the heat, she felt herself break into a cold sweat.
At least as humid as it was in this enclosed space, he’d think it was normal sweat.
Unless he touched her. When she wiped her hand across her forehead, her skin was clammy.
If he didn’t mistake it for an infection symptom, he’d know she was lying.
She hung her head. Lying to him sucked. Lying by omission wasn’t much better. He’d be pissed, and rightly so. However, by the time he learned she’d lied, they’d be in their final moments, and the panic wouldn’t last long.
“You think it will be Guillermo?” His guess cut through her worries.
“Maybe. More likely, it will be Cesar, his second, who will collect us and take us to Guillermo. Coming here might get his designer suits dirty.”
She stopped herself from saying any more. She’d prefer it to be Guillermo over Cesar. If the latter showed up, they were definitely dead. Triumph might be lucky and go quickly. But her? She knew her end would not be quick, and it would hurt. A lot.
The afternoon wore on and drifted into evening. The sounds of village life were muted behind the doors and walls. No one brought food or water, or came to let them relieve themselves, so they dozed in and out.
In the middle of the night, they both woke to the sound of the key in the padlock and the creaking of the board for a door as it swung in on its hinges. With no lights in the hut and no real light from outside, all they could see was the flashlight on the ground until it swung into their eyes.
She jerked her arm up to block her eyes from the painful light, but Triumph merely turned his head out of the beam.
A deep voice came from the darkness behind the light. “Your situation has not improved.”
Fuck. It was Cesar. Behind him were four shadowy silhouettes.
Physically, she didn’t know how to react. Her heart rose into her throat; she broke out in another cold sweat and went lightheaded. Not floaty. Like everything that formed as substance inside her was vanishing into nothingness, and then all she’d be was a husk.
Her brain, apparently, decided to make her mouth say things she never would have before.
“Apparently, these were blackout dates, so you take what accommodations you can get when you’re desperate,” she snarked.
He made a tsking sound. “You shouldn’t have run, Gigi.
Or should I call you Glennon?” The man stepped closer to where she sat.
Fingers grabbed her chin and gripped her so hard, she knew there would be bruises tomorrow.
“Now it will be so much worse for you. Take her.” He threw the two-word command over his shoulder.
Two men appeared out of the blackness and reached for her arms.
Even she’d been fooled by Triumph’s passive demeanor.
As soon as the one closest to him began to reach for her, he leaped into action and managed to drag the man down to the ground.
They wrestled. Triumph briefly had the upper hand due to surprise, then the other man after a punch to the kidneys, and then it looked like Triumph was once again on top.
However, a quick blow to his temple by Cesar with the butt of his gun took care of his ability to help.
“Leave him for now,” Cesar ordered. “I have business with Gigi, here.”
Yeah. This wasn’t going to end well. And of all the things she could imagine happening next, it was going to be worse.
Glennon fought her captors and used the twisting and turning as cover to see what had happened to Triumph.
She didn’t want the men to know she had any attachment to him.
If Cesar figured that out, he’d use it against her, and right now, her top priority was to distract the man from her rescuer as much as she could.
What happened to her was not his fault, and technically, he shouldn’t even be here, let alone suffering for her choices.
Keeping him safe would be tricky. Cesar was a true sadist. Whenever Guillermo had someone who needed extra punishment, this was the man who not only volunteered for the job but reveled in it.
So even a glimmer of attention in Triumph’s direction would ping his beacon.
Triumph trying to protect her was bad enough.
Maybe it would pass as some sort of white-knight gesture, but it was better if she tried to direct Cesar’s attention away from him.
She was moved from one building to another.
This one was also empty of people, but it had the crudities of a dwelling.
A table with chairs. A camp stove. A bed with a thin mattress but no linens.
It didn’t appear anyone had lived here for some time, but that wasn’t what she was here for, and she knew it.
While he was Guillermo’s second, that just meant that when Guillermo didn’t need him as a bodyguard and henchman, he did whatever he was told to do.
Since she’d entered cartel life, it had not gone unnoticed by her that Cesar watched her.
He never touched her sexually, but he wanted her.
Guillermo knew it too. She’d seen his aroused reaction to the man’s hot, oily stares at her, and he enjoyed how it tortured Cesar to want her but not be able to touch her.
He might dole her out to others, but allowing his right-hand man to partake was the one line he hadn’t crossed.
Punishment? Perhaps. She wasn’t aware of Cesar ever having angered Guillermo, but the cartel jefe didn’t tell her everything. Maybe there was something that went back farther than her arrival that kept the assassin on a short leash.
That didn’t mean Guillermo hadn’t used it as a threat to her from time to time—do what he wanted, or he’d give her to Cesar.
She’d pushed buttons sometimes, but never that one.
She’d even heard him string the man along, hinting that maybe he’d get a chance to sample her, but Guillermo had never followed through.
Time had just run out on that.
Once inside the hut, the two men held her in the middle of the space.
Out of her peripherals, she scanned as best she could, looking for anything she could potentially use as a weapon.
About the only thing would be the camp stove—to pick it up and throw it—or one of the two rickety chairs at the small table. Otherwise, the room was stripped clean.
Cesar closed the door of the hut. He struck a match and lit a kerosene lantern he had brought in from outside. Once lit, he pulled one of the chairs away from the table, setting it on the seat. Then he pulled the second chair into the middle of the space, directly in front of her.
He sat, sprawling his large frame in the chair, and lit a cigar with a second match. The chair creaked with his movements, and a little gremlin inside her head snickered, praying it broke under his weight. Hopefully, she kept the daydream off her face. No sense poking the demon.